Arriving back at the town’s entrance without any problems, Lavie became bright-eyed as we passed through them and she saw Asheton for the first time—standing on the cart and looking at our surroundings. I then felt a sudden vibration on my left wrist and looked down to see that the number on Guild Bracelet turned from a 0 into 1. “What the? Does that mean I finished the Request? I guess I should take it off then, I don't wanna be watched anymore.” Storing the Guild Bracelet in my Inventory.
Mr.Hensley stopped next to a side street not leading to the town square, and said “Eyes, thank you again for taking my Request right away, and thank you Lavie for helping me carry the bodies out of the mine.”
“Don’t mention it, Mr.Hensley.” I said, not needing a thanks.
With Lavie saying right after, “And you’re welcome, Mr.Hensley.”
Mr.Hensley smiled at the both of us, “The families of the deceased will be very thankful to know that their loved ones have been recovered so soon and will be put to rest at the cemetery, so know that they’re the real ones who are thanking you.” He let us know, “And with that said, I can take it from here, my Request is all done.”
“Wait, are you sure you’re gonna be alright, Mr.Hensley?” I asked, staring at the unknown shine still under his shirt.
“Yeah, don’t you need help unloading all these bodies?” Lavie added, hopping off the cart.
Mr.Hensley laughed, “Haha...I’m not that old, you know. I can handle it.” Pulling the reins and making the horse turn onto the side street, “And if you ever want to buy some fruits, make sure you go visit my wife’s stand. Until we meet again!” He shouted, waving us goodbye as he drove down the side street, not giving us a chance to insist on helping him.
“Damn, I took the Request because I thought I would get something good out of it, but I didn’t get a thing.” Waving goodbye back with Lavie, “I knew I should’ve just been forward and asked Mr.Hensley what was under his shirt. Oh well, I can always visit him at the cemetery and ask him about it later.” Turning to Lavie, and asking “So do you know where you wanna go in town?”
“Nope, but I'd love to hear where you're going?” Lavie asked back.
“I need to go to the Adventurer’s Guild to get my reward for the Request, but I can show you to an inn first if you wanna get yourself cleaned up, or maybe the blacksmith shop I said I’d show you.”
“It would be nice to get cleaned up, but can you show me the blacksmith shop first, please?” She asked politely.
“Okay then, this way.” I replied, leading the way to Drune’s. On the way, I swung by Mr.Hensley’s wife’s stand, but found it was empty today. Lavie also asked me to explain the Adventurer’s Guild to her—apparently not knowing exactly what one was—so I gave her a summary of all the important things she should know about it.
Coming up to the shop, I said “Let me buy the armour and weapons you want when we get there, I got a discount as a Reward from a Quest.”
“Nice, I’ll make sure to pay you back right away then.” Nodding to each other in agreement.
Entering the shop, the heat blasted me in the face again, as I could see Drune in the back hammering a long glowing hot metal rod at the anvil, with Mako working on something at the work bench. Then noticing me come in, Drune shouted “Kid, what happened? You only left a few hours ago, and you already came back looking like that!” Pointing his hammer at the slowly healing wound on my chest, and the drying blood on my body and shirt.
“Yeah don’t worry about it, I’m all good, but my friend here,” Pointing to Lavie, “wanted to sell her old equipment and buy new ones!” I shouted back.
Lavie walked to the counter and placed all her weapons on her back, and her Inventory onto the counter. She then instantly changed into white coloured sundress, with a light blue floral print design, and added all her broken armour onto the counter—though she still wore her helmet with the sundress, and it made her look really weird. “How much can I get for all this?” She asked.
Seeing Lavie, Drune’s eyes lit up, and he said “Less than 10 Silver, but I’ll offer you 1 Gold for the stuff if you let me see that helm of yours.” Eagerly leaving his work and walking up to the counter—looking super intrigued by Lavie’s helmet.
“Deal.” Lavie happily accepted, taking off her helmet and passing it to Drune.
Handing Lavie a gold coin, Drune closely looked at the helmet—rotating it all around and thoroughly inspecting every inch of it—all while humming and talking to himself, “Hmmm…I don’t know what these horns are made of...It can’t be another one, can it?” When he looked like he was done, he then said “Identify.” As a blue flash of magic emitted from Drune's hands surrounding the helmet, and quickly dissipated. Drune's eyes immediately widened, and he said “Amazing, I really can’t see anything except for the name, rarity, and who it’s bound to, even with my Identify Skill.” Then turning to me, he asked “Kid, who are you two? And where the hell did you get these?"
“Huh? We’re nobodies, and get what?” I asked, not knowing.
“This helmet and your quiver I mean.” Drune clarified, “I’ve only heard stories of them, I didn’t actually believe they existed, and to think two of them just so happened to come into my shop the last two days.”
“Wait, you’ve heard stories about our items?” Curious about what Drune heard about them.
“No, not your items specifically, I mean items of God-Make, you know something made by the Gods?” Lavie and I both looked clueless of the fact, and Drune shook his head in disbelief, “I can’t believe you two are carrying God-Make items and you didn’t even realize it.” Handing the helmet back to Lavie, “Are there more things you two are carrying that you don’t know about?” Drune asked, looking us over.
“No, we have nothing...” I looked at Lavie who seemed to have the same thought as me, “Well actually, can you take a look at our earrings.” But when I went into the Character Menu to try and unequip the earring, I was shocked to see that it didn’t appear in Earring Slot. “What the hell? Shouldn’t it be there?” Then not seeing in the Menu, I decided to physically remove the earring, but as I did 2 messages popped up.
[The Earring Of Annihilation] cannot be removed or lost from Eyes Thalion.
Would you like to move [The Earring Of Annihilation]:
[Yes] or [No]
“I can’t remove it? Why not?” I thought to myself, with Lavie shaking her head at me because she also couldn’t remove her earring. “I can’t seem to remove it right now, but I still want to know about it, so can you take a look.” Leaning my left ear over the counter towards Drune.
Drune looked at me strangely, but still looked at the earring for me. “Hmmm...Identify.” He said again, with another flash of blue magic coming from my ear. Then letting the earring go a second later, Drune shouted “Wow! This can’t also be of God-Make, can it?”
“I don’t know. You tell me. You are the one who could tell the quiver and helmet were one.” I pointed out.
“That's because I saw the power of your quiver and I'm familiar with helmets, but these..." Then saying, "My Master always told me that items of God-Make were at least Legendary in rarity, but that earring is only Common, and I assume the Miss’s earring is the same.” Pointing to Lavie’s earring, “And it makes me question what I know.”
“That’s strange, my quiver is only a Unique Rarity.” I noted, noticing Mako getting closer and listening more into the conversation.
“Same with mine.” Lavie added, patting her helmet.
“I thought it was strange too, but there’s not a lot known about God-Make items, with most people not even knowing they exist.” Drune stated.
“Well if there’s not a lot to know, can you tell us what you do know then?” I asked, wanting to know.
“Not much really, having never seen one in person until yesterday.” Then telling us, “But my Master did say they were items of immeasurable power and limit that defied common logic, and something that no mortal could ever hope to come close in creating or imitating.” Drune then finally noticed Mako listening closely beside him, and he shouted out in surprise, “Ahhh! When did you get there?”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
"Well I thought I’d take a break and listen in on the interesting conversation, Master. Plus I wanted to say hi to Eyes." Mako said, waving me hello and then staring at Lavie.
“Take a break? You can’t take a break! I still haven't officially accepted you as my apprentice, remember? And if you can’t show me your potential in a week's time, I’ll be kicking you out of my shop.”
“I understand Master Drune, but I don’t need a week, I’ll be your apprentice in 3-4 days.” Mako said confidently, waving me goodbye, and then going to the lit forge—closely looking at something inside.
Smirking a little and shaking his head at Mako, Drune said to Lavie “I believe you were looking for new armour and weapons, right Miss?”
“That’s right, something for a Lv.7 to be specific.” Lavie answered.
Drune then looked at Lavie and all of her previous equipment on the table, and he said “Alright, Lv.7, let me see what I can find for you.” As he hopped off his stool, and went to look for armour in the shop.
Surprised that Lavie was Lv.7, I asked “You’re already Lv.7? Weren’t you just Lv.6 this morning?”
“It kind of just happened.” Lavie shrugged, explaining “I ran into a bunch of groups of goblins all morning long, and they just attacked me, so I defended myself.”
“By bunch do you mean like hundreds?” I asked, slightly concerned.
“No? Just a few dozen groups of goblins with red names.” Lavie answered, raising her right eyebrow curiously, “Why would assume hundreds?”
“It’s probably nothing, but I ‘saw’ a ton of goblins heading to a town that looked a whole lot like Asheton from the outside.” I whispered to her.
Understanding what I meant, Lavie whispered “You did? Should we warn the guards around town then?”
“Nah, they probably wouldn’t believe us anyway, plus some of the guards might not like me right now." Lavie looked at me curiously but I shrugged it off, "And like I said it’s probably nothing.” Adding, “Who knows, it might not even happen, it’s only a potential future, I think...”
Before we could talk more, Drune called Lavie over, “Alright Miss, I recommend any of these 3 armour sets for you.” Showing her 3 armour stands to pick from: one had a full set of heavy iron plate armour, another with half plate that looked similar to the one I bought, and one that your could barely call armour with a leather corset and a white shirt.
Without hesitation, Lavie pointed to the leather corset set, and asked “How much for that one?”
“Are you sure you want to buy that? Aren’t you gonna be fighting in close combat?” I asked.
“I am, but I like the outfit, and it’s cute.” She smiled.
“Well I guess I can’t argue with that logic.” Shrugging at her answer.
Lavie then quickly went over to the other side of the shop, and grabbed a leather masquerade mask she spotted on a different armour stand, and asked “I would also like to buy this if possible.”
“You can actually have it for free if you want, Miss. That’s only an ordinary mask that provides no benefits, except for its looks.” Drune explained, “But as for your choice in armour, it will be 8 Gold with the discount." Saying to me, "I assume you're paying, right Kid?”
“You assumed right.” I said, giving him the 8 Gold from my Inventory.
Lavie smiled at me and pressed her hand on the stand, and in an instant the armour appeared onto her body. She wore an open-collared white shirt, leather pauldrons covering her shoulders, long leather gloves that covered half of her forearms, and a leather corset that she chose to slightly loosen. For the bottoms, Lavie simply wore dark brown pants with a leather belt, and knee-high leather boots. She checked herself out in the nearest standing mirror, and after she did so, she took the masquerade mask and her helmet and pushed them together. With a surprising sudden red glow, I watched as the ram helmet and masquerade mask became one, and turned into a horned leather masquerade mask—the 2 horns being whitish in colour this time, and protruding from the top of the mask and arching towards the back of the head.
“Woah? What was that?” I asked in surprise.
“Oh, I just changed Kinein’s look.” Lavie said, putting the mask on, “I thought a ram helmet with this armour would look weird, but don’t worry, Kinein still uses the Stats for the best helm it absorbs.” As she styled her hair to cover the base of the horns, and made it look like the horns came out of her head. "How do I look?" Lavie asked.
"You look great, like a stylish demon girl." I complimented, thinking “This makes me wonder what other God-Make items are like, and can my Infinity do something like that?”
Smiling from the compliment, Lavie with the help of Drune, looked around the shop for some weapons she wanted to use. And after a few minutes, Lavie settled on five Lv.5 weapons and a Lv.5 shield: an iron buckler shield, a simple rapier with a round guard, a greatsword slightly taller than her, a dagger and spear perfect for throwing, and a long chain whip with a sharp blade at the end. It all cost me 12 Gold with the discount, but Lavie happily paid me back the 20 Gold I had just spent.
“Lavie, why did you pick out so many? and why did you buy different weapons than the ones you were using earlier?” I asked, really curious of her reasoning.
“Well I’m trying to figure out which weapons feel just right for me, so I thought testing as many as possible would be the best way to find out.” She replied, putting the greatsword and spear on her back, the chain whip and rapier on each side of her waist, the dagger strapped onto her thigh, and the buckler on her right forearm. “What about you, Eyes? Not getting anything?”
“I’m good, I bought stuff earlier, but I’m not high enough Level to use them yet.” I said, waving goodbye to Drune and Mako again, and leaving the shop with Lavie.
“Let’s go to the Adventurer’s Guild next, I might as well join too and get paid for killing monsters.” Lavie said.
“Sounds good.” I said, taking out and putting on my Guild Bracelet again, and leading the way back to the town square.
When we entered the Guild Building, there were a lot less people inside, and I thought “They must all be on Requests.” Then pointing to the counter, I said to Lavie “You can talk to any of them, they’ll help you join.”
“Okay, I’ll talk with you after then.” Lavie replied, going to one of the female Guild Workers.
Then seeing Thaddeus free at the counter, I approached him, and he grabbed a small pouch of coins from underneath the counter, and said “I believe this is your reward.” Handing the pouch to me.
“Thanks.” I said, putting the pouch into my Inventory, and seeing that I got 11 Silver instead of 10 Silver that reward was. “The 1% Title really does affect all sources of currency gain, even if it’s not from a Quest from the System. How useful.” I thought to myself, then saying to Thaddeus “Before I go, I was wondering if there were some some difficult Requests that weren’t posted on noticeboard?” Adding, “I noticed that only Copper Ranks were posted right now.”
Thaddeus narrowed his eyes as he looked me up and down, then gesturing for me to come closer, he whispered “There's no Request for it yet, but there have been recent sightings of giant monster tracks deep inside the western forest, and it’s believed to be slowly heading towards the town.”
“What kind of giant monster?” I whispered back.
“I don’t know, but if you can find the giant monster and confirm what type of monster it is for me, I’ll make sure you’ll get a really good amount of Gold for it, and I might even let it count as a Silver Rank Request.” Trying to entice me.
“Which would mean I could instantly be promoted into a Silver Rank, right?”
“That’s right, so what do you say?” As Thaddeus asked me that, a new Quest appeared in front of me.
Quest
Thaddeus’ Request:
Find the giant monster in the western forest, confirm what type of monster it is, and report it back to Thaddeus.
Reward: Promotion into a Silver Rank Adventurer and Gold.
Will you accept:
[Yes] or [No]
“Yes! Another Quest!” But before I clicked Yes, I had to ask “What do I get if I can kill the giant monster for you?”
Thaddeus was taken back at my question, and chuckled a little in amusement, “Well if you can do that, I may be able to pull some strings and count it as a Gold Rank Request, or maybe even a Platinum Rank, depending on the giant monster of course.”
Quest Updated.
Quest
Thaddeus’ Request:
Find the giant monster in the western forest, confirm what type of monster it is, and report it back to Thaddeus.
Or
Find and slay the giant monster in the western forest.
Reward: ??? Will you accept:
[Yes] or [No]
“Interesting, the Quest is giving me a choice on what I could do, and I can’t see the Reward anymore.” Then asking Thaddeus, “Will I still get promoted if I bring a someone along?”
“If you're just doing the scouting, you won’t be, but I’d think you’d be smart enough to not fight a giant monster alone, considering how you look after a single Copper Rank Request.” Thaddeus pointed out the state of my clothes, “But considering it is a giant monster, way above your Rank, and as long as no one in the Party is a Silver or Gold Rank, which I know there are none in town, then yes you would still be promoted to Gold Rank, along with your Party.
“That’s what I wanted to hear, I’ll see you later then.” Accepting the Quest, and thinking “Ha, with Lavie in my Party, her tanking and taking aggro, and me freely shooting arrows at a safe distance, I’m sure there’s nothing we couldn’t handle. Giant monster or no giant monster.” But as I gave a quick look around the Guild Hall for Lavie, she was nowhere to be seen.