They knocked on the door of the trader’s house. A young boy answered, staring up with the fascination that rambunctious children often had for the dangerous jobs. “We would like to speak to your father,” Apexus said, slightly lifting the chest he was carrying with Reysha.

“Alright!” the boy answered and hurried inside. There was excited shouting and the reprimanding answer of a stern mother. While she disciplined her overly energetic boy, the father moved to the front door.

“You got it! Come on in, come on in!” Bo eagerly waved them inside. They had to move slowly, the chest too large to fit through the door smoothly. “In here, please,” he guided them further into the workroom that they had previously visited. The chest was placed on the floor near the wall. Bo noted that the lock at the front of the chest had been removed. “Did you check the contents?”

“Yes. We wanted to see if it was dry,” Apexus answered.

“Do you still have the lock?” the trader asked.

“It was rusted beyond the point of function. We broke it and left it,” Apexus answered.

Bo nodded. “To hope for more than this would have been unreasonable,” he said, mostly to himself, and lifted the lid. Inside was a great assembly of things. Ship logs, personal items, novels meant for entertainment, dice and card games, a variety of glass-sealed licenses, and the cassette filled to the brim with coins of all kinds. Bo scanned over all of it with great care, but only took the time to count the money in detail. After he had confirmed none had been removed, he took out the cassette and closed the chest again. “You have been honourable in your conduct.”

“We did as agreed,” Apexus answered.

“I know, but I can still be thankful for it.” Bo moved over to his work desk and cleared some space. He started to count coins again. “Did you manage to save any personal items of my sailors?”

Apexus nodded and began to pull out the various things he had retrieved from the depths of the ship. One after another, he placed them on the table. When he was done, Bo scratched the back of his head. “Not sure that any of these are worth it to them… but it’ll be on me to see everything returned. 150 gold was what I put on the board, yes?”

“Yes,” Apexus confirmed.

The pile of coins Bo had separated from the 500 gold inside the cassette was certainly more than the sum agreed on. Apexus could be certain of it. After all, the pile that the trader kept to himself was smaller. “500 iron, 500 silver, 245 gold and 5 platin – 350 gold in total,” Bo told them the contents of the pile. “I know it is a pain to only run around with big coins.”

That was more than twice their reward. It was clear, from the contents of the chest, that they were not being overpaid though. Combined, the chest and all the items that would not have survived the retrieval were easily worth the extra 200 gold and that was before sentimental value was considered.

Aclysia gathered up the coins and put them into her bag. Their total wealth had shot up from a couple of coppers to a grand total of 515 Copper, 9 Bronze, 5 Iron, 500 Silver, 256 Gold and 33 Platin. The bronze and iron coins were useless in the local economy, but they still had them floating around.

With a heavy coin purse and a smile on their faces, the party left behind the equally pleased trader. They went back to the Guild afterwards, had the finished Quest logged, and were given the paper slip to enter the good part of the trading district in return.

Everything was coming up for Inevitable.

“I still don’t trust this,” Reysha blurted out. “Something is going to happen.”

They continued down the road for a minute.

“Ah… my bag is gone!” Aclysia declared.

Reysha whirled around, to find the bag very much still on the priestess’ hips. “Well played, ‘Clysia,” the tiger girl laughed and the angel patted the bag twice. “Keep it away from the kobold, though, she’s doing grabby hands.”

“Hoard demands sacrifice…” Korith whispered, her golden eyes consumed by a greedy hue. Fingers wiggled with nabbing intent. Had she not been seated on top of Apexus’ shoulders, she may have tried to get to it too.

“Expenses first,” Apexus told her. “Then we see how much we have left.”

“Our list of recommended acquisitions is lengthy.” Aclysia was sorting through it in her head as they spoke. “I believe universal upgrades are in order. Let us begin with your armour. Hoard will get nothing if you perish.”

That argument worked well enough and they went to an armour smith first thing.

“You were using this thing?!” the dwarf asked. He was the image of a dwarven armourer, with arms as thick as his beard and soot all over his hairy chest. “I’ll take 2 gold off the price for the replacement armour. Can only smelt it down.”

“Sure?” Korith answered.

The dwarf kept turning the old, scratched and dented chestplate in his hands. “Ye have a measurement card?” he asked, his accent light.

“Uhm, should have it, yeah…” Korith pulled a simple paper card from her bag and handed it over.

The dwarf’s expression darkened when he saw the card and the signature in its corner. “Ye went to the Armourer’s Guild before?!” he growled. “No wonder yet armour is absolute trash!”

“I thought it was alright…”

“YER WRONG! YER WRONG AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY!” The dwarf ripped apart the measurement card in a fit of rage. “RAAAAAAAAH!”

“What ye makin’ such a fuss about?!” a female dwarf asked, stomping out of the backrooms.

“This gal here been wearing plate from the Armourer’s Guild!”

“How is she still alive?!”

“EXACTLY!” The smith pointed at Korith, who was now blinking rapidly. “Ye need a proper measurement card and a proper armour! Come along, I’ll do this for free!”

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“The armour?” Korith asked, hopefully.

“The measurin’! Go on, follow the wife!”

Korith scratched the back of her head and went over to the woman, who pulled her into one of the backrooms. A few minutes later, all measurements had been taken. After that followed an interview regarding preferred fighting style, dominant hand, leg, and even eye. The final result was a new card with a lot more detailed intel.

The dwarf scratched his chin under the black beard as he went over the newly gathered information. “Leaper, ey? Can’t say I’m surprised. Ye kobold Warriors are built for it. Ye should get a bigger hammer to use the leverage and reach.”

“It’s, uhm, on the list,” Korith assured.

“Making armour for you will be pretty cheap. Less material for your frame. No gauntlets or boots required either. The big guy fights with you in the frontline, right?” A nod. “Then I’d recommend a true silver chest plate, half-arm guards, knee plates, and thigh armour. Enchanted gold would protect ye more, but it’s got way higher maintenance cost. Not usually worth it unless you’re loaded or the only real frontliner.” He kept on scratching his chin. “What thickness grade do you want?”

“Uhm, I was happy with three before?” Korith answered. “Kept me safe, rarely dented, worked really well.”

“Ye, but this is Alarshus, not your average Leaf with planned dungeon dives. True silver is twice as dense as the steel they use for beginner armour. You’ll be marching a lot in it. If you have the legs for it, that works.”

Korith considered the question for a bit. “I’ll… stay with three.”

The dwarf just nodded, it was acceptable either way for him. “Alright, thickness grade three armour, true silver, no boots or gauntlets, Leaper type, with extra chest room.”

“Uhm… yeah,” Korith confirmed. “How much would that be?”

The dwarf glanced over to his wife, who already carried over the chair. Korith gulped when it was placed behind her. “200 gold,” the dwarf said, then laughed when the kobold stumbled back into the chair. “Ye Hoard worshipping lizards! Always stingy!”

“It’s 200 gold!”

“It’s a lot of true silver! Stuff doesn’t grow on trees!” The dwarf kept on laughing. “Ye taking it or not?”

“We will,” Aclysia weighed in. “Do you take payment now?”

The dwarf shook his head. “We take pay on completion. Ye don’t wanna be on the grudge list of the Dwarven Smith Guild.”

“We indeed do not,” Aclysia confirmed. “How long will completion of this commission take you?”

“About a week, just come by then. Now get out of my smithy!”

No money exchanged hands and neither did a receipt. In this part of the market, most things were done by word. It was a much smaller pool of buyers and sellers, therefore it was easier to track down if someone did not pay what was owed.

That initial expense was the worst. They moved on to a weapon smith next. Korith got a new mace made from true silver, a weapon for tight corridors. She insisted on not getting a new warhammer yet. Reysha did not have that inhibition. In addition to the stiletto that they had bought for her before, they got her two daggers, ten throwing knives, a sword, a mace and a warpick. Reysha liked her selection of weapons and they had the finances to get her a nice spread. In totality, that took another 90 gold out of their pockets.

Next down the list was a new staff for Aclysia. The heavy thing she currently had to contend with was replaced with an intricate charm of Hashahin, made from enchanted gold and a sanctified mana stone. It was worn as a necklace. Its size made it a weaker focus than a staff of the same grade, but it was still an improvement for the metal fairy in terms of strength. It cost them another 25 gold.

The last major expenses were a new robe for Aclysia and new leather armour for Reysha. Blessed silk from Radiance Moths had been spun into pure white fabric, which was then dyed and tailored by the Priest’s request. Aclysia had hers dyed the rose red of her father-god and grey, in honour of Pronthin. To pay respect to Sloan, the god of depth and darkness whose robes she had been wearing for a long time, she also had deep blue highlights added.

The robe was a substantial upgrade to the dungeon drop. Priest garb typically offered little in terms of physical protection and the silk was not an exception. That being said, while the fabric did little to diminish the force of an impact, it was at least sturdy enough to prevent stray arrows or similar projectiles from punching straight through. Importantly, it was also highly resistant to magic and other elemental effects and enchanted with resistance to extreme temperatures. It also looked plainly more impressive.

Reysha’s armour upgrade was even more necessary. Her current, cobbled-together look of snake-skin top, regular pants, and red shoes from a dungeon chest were all replaced. Hides from the Lanaan Hives were used to make leather boots, pants, belt, gloves, and top.

What made this kind of leather outstanding was twofold. One was that, with the right technique, it did not need to be stitched. The skin of the Lanaan remained ‘alive’ for a while and could be mended together into the desired shape. It then remained stretchy as long as it was treated with the right oils periodically. It was, in fact, so stretchy that one only needed a suit of the generally correct size. After a few hours of wear, it would expand to form-fit the wearer.

Reysha had always been, and remained, in favour of clothes that functioned like a second skin. The Lanaan Hide armour, or bodysuit as it was more aptly called, fulfilled that optimally. Top and pants clung to her tightly enough to show the peaks and valleys of her definition, even enveloping her breasts individually. The boots and gloves were sleek things. The belt covered up the little gap between the top and bottom, making it seem like everything was one item. From turtleneck to toes, Reysha was covered in dark brown leather. The stretchiness of the material did not reflect in any squeaky noises while moving.

The second aspect of the Lanaan Hide, which made it especially popular with the Sneaking Classes, was that it was scent neutralizing. The monsters from the Lanaan Hives that the leather was stripped from were ambush predators that possessed a strange kind of anti-musk in their sweat glands. Like the stretchiness, this effect was maintained as long as the armour was properly treated, neutralizing all but the most intense scents. It made remaining unnoticed that little bit easier, especially against creatures that had acute noses.

The robe and the bodysuit were both cheap, courtesy of a current glut of materials, putting the group a mere 60 gold further down.

One last ‘necessary’ expense, although not a costly one, was to get Apexus a new robe. It cost a little extra because of his size, but since it was ultimately just semi-resilient travel garb, they got away with only 5 gold invested.

“No, we’re not done yet,” Apexus told Korith.

“But… but… what more do we need?”

“Clothes,” Reysha said and gestured at herself. None of them were terribly dirty, but their wardrobes were in constant circulation and much of it was worn down from the long marches. “Soap. Washcloth.”

“Among a great list of other items,” Aclysia added. “We have well over 200 gold left. Let’s get ourselves dressed nicely with an additional 100?” It was way more than she would have usually suggested, but the guardian angel craved a little bit of comfort. There was also a long list of utility items all of them had wanted for one reason or another.

They all bought new shoes. For most of them that was a new pair of marching boots with an additional pair to spare so they wouldn’t be caught out in a wintery area with a hole in the sole. With the same in mind, they also got themselves additional fur clothing. After that, it was casual clothes. They all got three whole new sets of the kind of clothes that they could wear anywhere (except for that one top Reysha got that had a plunging neckline). They got themselves pants for comfort and for looking good, dresses, sandals, and even a few hats.

After clothes, it was time to buy more in the way of cooking and field utensils. They stocked up on rope, soap, spices, salt, tinder, fishing lures, and whatever else could be stored long-term and may come in handy. They had more money than they knew what to do with.

There were more expenses they could and would have to cover in the future. Except for Aclysia’s robe, none of their new items were enchanted. That was simply outside their price range at the moment. They would also have to buy the various oils that were needed to keep leather flexible and metal from rusting.

At the end of their shopping spree, taking into account what money was spoken for even if they still had it, the group was down to 458 Copper, 9 Bronze, 5 Iron, 312 Silver, 66 Gold and 4 Platin. They were a whole lot less rich than they had been at noon, but they were still richer than they had ever been.

“Alright,” Aclysia finally surrendered to Korith’s pouting. “You will have coin for your god.”

“Yes!” the kobold exclaimed happily.