"What I want?" Jacob asked in exasperation, his eyes kept looking around even as he said that. Then they stopped on a black couch with a hexagonal floral pattern on its pillows as well as on the backrest, it looked good and it genuinely shined under the daylight. He walked closer to it and ran a hand across its surface- a memory of an old couch that his family used to own came back. He met the clerk's eyes, "How much is this?"
"Around 4 gold." He answered in a so-so gesture, "Can't really you know, haggle for it too."
Jacob shook his head, "Oh- no it's fine." His hand went down and took out four gold coins from his pouch, "I'll take it."
The man grinned, "Well you have yourself a deal!" He walked out of the counter and scooted over to Jacob with a grin that split his face, he raised his hand and Jacob took it. "Thing's been here for years now." He explained, then he looked up and narrowed his eyes while his fingers curled up into themselves, "I think... around... 4-ish years?"
"The price probably et any buyer off." Jacob replied and the man laughed.
"Damn right! Passing merchants don't want to buy stuff like these here because there's a large number of them back in the cities and any villager living here would be too poor to really buy the old fella." He patted the black couch longingly, "And because of that, it's been here since the day my brother enchanted it."
"Sorry for your loss." Jacob lowered his head and pushed it back up when the man started laughing.
"Nah- it's fine, he ain't dead. The prodigy left this place to study at the capital- rune stuff." He explained.
Jacob forced a strained and embarrassed smile, "I- I see... So enchants?" He said, hoping that it'll change the subject.
"Uh, yeah! It can clean itself see? It's as pristine as the day it was made." Jacob nodded, "And also, it's pretty tough, capable of withstanding scratches and being fine. Weight, too."
"That's amazing." He complimented.
"Yeah? We'll wait till ya see what my brother's capable of now, heard he's apparently the one who's enchanting the golems that the rich use to mine ores and other laborious stuff. He's a prodigy, I tell ya." The man finished that with a proud and harmless grin, "Really wish I can see him now though."
"I'm sure you'd see him at some point." He consoled. He finally realized why the shop's inside looked so pristine, it was because one of the sons of the family works in a literal industrial level capacity, with how the clerk is talking about his brother as if he's the breadwinner of the family, there's definitely closeness there and that means him sending money is definitely out of the question.
"Heh, maybe." He nodded, a fond smile on his lips. "But is that all you want to buy?"
Jacob shook his head, "No-" he faced the shelves upon shelves of carpets on one of the walls, "Are there any enchanted-" He paused, "Sorry, your brother right?" The clerk nodded, his professional smile never leaving his face. "What kind of carpet or rug would you recommend?"
"Well, what do ya want?" That wasn't really phrased as a question and Jacob resisted the urge to smile at the clerk thinking of him as someone who's gonna empty their store- Somewhat accurate but that last part can use some work.
"A lot of things actually, mostly furniture." Jacob replied.
And that was how I ended up buying 4 rugs (once for each room really, including the two that Jacob isn't gonna bother using.) three beds- all of the same size and tailored for Jacob's height - commissioned a few curtains for the windows, and finally, two couches and 4 seats, the large and made of fabric kind. In the end, all of it totaled up to 15 Gold, which when added to the special couch and his donation: Brings his total money down to 22 Gold and 250 Silver.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
It's still a lot. Which, no surprise there.
"Thank you sir! We'd be sure to deliver it to your house once its finished!" What was a surprise though, was the clerk being more than amendable to him paying only half for now. Actually, he was more than happy to agree that Jacob will give the rest of his gold when he finally takes the furniture.
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The library had the general atmosphere of warmth despite the presence of a few strangers. After fighting bandits, talking to a mayor, buying a house, going to the merchant's guild only to storm out, fighting inside a Dungeon, talking to the mayor again, and then buying furniture for his future home: Jacob had nothing better to do and with free time on his lap and an interest on the world inside his head, Jacob found himself casually walking to the library and strolling in without so much as an afterthought.
With his benefactor around, he expected something like this- actually, he expected this would be Horos' church instead of a school, though good on the God for picking the latter, - and it was safe to say that Jacob was pleasantly surprised to find that a library did in fact exist within this village.
He skooched over to the welcome mat and wiped his shoes, with a nod to the librarian- a vigorous old woman with a head full of gray hair tied to a bun, - who in turn gave him a smile that wouldn't be alien to find on his grandma, Jacob made his way inside the dust free room and almost slipped from the sudden surprise of finding a genuinely slippery floor.
"Whoa, careful!" A girl- with shoulder length blonde hair and a pair of glasses sticking to the bridge of her nose and who also wore genuine wizard's robes, - sitting directly in front of the door called out, "The floor's slippery for newcomers yeah?" Jacob blinked.
Did she say texan words (why did that sound racist to him? Cowboy-ish words? Yeah, Cowboy-ish words sounded better.) with the same high pitched tone as everybody else instead of the smooth baritone of texans?
"You okay there?" She asked, concerned.
"Ah- why do you speak like that?" He asked, voice laced with suspicion.
She laughed, "Ah? That? It's from my book, see?" She raised the book she held between her and waved it for Jacob to see. The pages yellow pages of the dark-orange item flopped about as she waved, on its cover was the silhouette of a cowboy riding a horse underneath the orange rays of the sun. "It's about some man living in a desert and doing city guard things! Though here they're called sheriffs." She said with a self-satisfied grin.
Jacob found himself taking a seat right next to her, "Is the place perhaps called... wild west?" He asked, curious.
The girl happily nodded and she gave her glasses a fix before replying, "Yep!" She replied, popping the 'p', "You're read one of these before?!" She leaned in, maybe a little bit too close for comfort for some, "I kind of like the whole aspect of being in the desert thing!"
Jacob smiled fondly, remembering the days of playing Red Dead Redemption 2 with his brother, "Yeah," he nodded weakly, "I've even heard a few bards sing a few songs with their accents and such." He added, the catchy tune of Big Iron. "There's a few other genres like that that I've read about too, like sea shanty."
"Oh! I actually have one of those on the shelf! I'm gonna wait until I finish this one before I go for 'em though." She said, shrugging, "Can't really say I'm gonna like it, pirates aren't really my thing."
"Even with a crab boss in the village's Dungeon?"
"Yep. Don't like em, they're sort of just... sea adventurers, but instead fight sea monsters instead of actual monsters you know?" Jacob nodded, if she put it that way, then yeah. "It's just Sea Serpent instead of Wyrm, Sea Wraiths instead of regular Wraiths-" That got a chuckle out of Jacob, "-Mermaids instead of Witches and- you get what I mean right?"
Jacob nodded, "Yeah." Though despite his nod, he didn't exactly agree nor disagree. Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean might have the same powers as a lich (with him genuinely having an actual phylactery in the form of a heart,) but that did not mean that he's the same as them, guy's got presence, after all. And the curse? Well, there's probably one in this world but the fiction books on Earth didn't mention anything like that in fantasy.
"I have a feeling you disagree with me..." She pouted, "It's true, though."
"I know." Jacob reached out but stopped, "may I?" she nodded and handed him the wild west book, "Huh, it's... about a Detective sheriff in a Texas world with superpowers?"
His tablemate nodded, "Yes! Pretty cool huh?"
Jacob idly nodded, "I... wow." He chuckled, "That's neat."
He handed the book back but his hand kept itself in the air, "Jacob."
She shook her hand with his, "Stacy."