I walked over to Alexa with both Rhea and Jade in tow. Alexa got a communications ring directly linked with everyone, to be the brains of the operation so to speak. I didn’t want to take up too much of her time so I asked if there was anything that I could do to help.

“Everything's coming together. Everyone should be done settling in and able to have dinner by seven. Though we will be placing large orders for takeout until Claire is set up to cook for us. Feel free to do as you wish until dinner, master.” Maybe it was the amount of juggling she was currently undergoing, but the fact that she was okay telling me what to do brought about huge relief. Even if that something was nothing at all, it felt like the walls were finally breaking down.

“Sounds great. It's roughly five hours until dinner, did either of you want to come along for some shopping?” I asked Rhea and Jade to see if they wanted to tag along.

Jade declined to say she wanted to settle in at her new home and get started with sorting through the documents Marcus handed us. Rhea though was delighted to be able to go shopping and instantly agreed.

As we headed towards the shopping district it completely slipped my mind. “Rhea, what kind of magic do you have?” Having halted in the middle of the sidewalk.

“My magic allows me to change my body composition. I’m able to morph into a few different animals for combat and even replicate other people. Just my voice does not change and is something I’m working on.” Rhea looked sad after mentioning how there were still weaknesses with her power.

On the other hand, I thought it was amazing at its current stage and would only become incredible the more she practices. I couldn’t believe the haul of magic abilities we obtained today. First, there was Selka with virtually partial mind control, then Nathan who could weaken and copy magic from others. For the icing on the cake, Rhea could turn into anything she desired.

“That’s so cool!” I can’t wait to see you shapeshift!” My enthusiasm surprised Rhea and that seemed to do the trick on cheering her up.

We ended up near the two stores I promised to stop by first whenever we went looking for items. I didn’t feel obligated to enter on the promises alone but did so anyway. The weaponsmith store didn’t have anything of interest since I was set with the daggers I bought here already. Having said that though it was time to start shopping with the others in mind.

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I thought a sleek and lightweight rapier of some sort as a weapon for Alexa would benefit her light magic the most. The store owner found me a suitable rapier that had compatibility with light magic. Imbuing it with magic created a light beam that emitted from the tip of the blade which varied in strength by the amount of mana poured into it. This was the ideal weapon for Alexa’s speedy combat style.

I found something I thought interesting for Tessa to use later on. They were a set of fist weapons. A black minimalistic gauntlet with a socket that allowed the user to equip magic cores to enhance their firepower. I wondered about the applications of altering them to work with nonattribute beast cores. Regardless once she was trained properly this would allow her to be on the battlefield and I’m sure she would love to not be left out for too long.

As for Eris, I couldn’t really think of anything that could be useful for her. All I constantly thought about was how much she loved wearing her red magic cloak everywhere. It was her most cherished possession, so I bought her another she could swap out with. The shop owner unfortunately didn’t have the same type of dark resistance cloak and I figured my best bet was to try Vera’s store next.

I asked if Rhea found anything useful and her thought process was similar to mine, not able to find what she was searching for. She wanted self-altering clothes to allow for convenient morphing. I went to pay for the two weapons and the total came out to one emerald coin. When compared to Vera’s store, she had much more merchandise all in one area with a wider range of quality. Not only that but I’d be able to get a good discount.

I was in a great mood and couldn’t help picking up pace towards Vera’s store. My anticipation for handing out the gifts was getting to me. Rhea didn’t seem to mind and sped up to keep pace. The Monster Hunters Inc. store sign was within sight and the cool air conditioning billowed out of the automatic sliding doors.

I checked in with a store attendant and sadly Vera wasn’t here. She told me that her employees would know me and would apply a discount on purchase, so I didn’t have to worry about anything. Though it felt like a long time since morning, I was sad to hear she was not in. I missed our silly banter.

I didn’t think about it in the other store but we needed some more communication rings. I wasn’t sure if Alexa had already bulk ordered a bunch of rings for everyone yet or not. To be on the safe side I bought one for Rhea and myself. They automatically resized to a snug fit on our fingers. I wore one ring on each hand.

We connected the two of ours together and established a link. Then spent a good half hour playing a game of hide and seek, using words to trick one another away from our hiding spot.