...

Aleister lost track on time as the man droned on and on and on. He stopped paying attention forever and half ago. The mans words were nothing more than white noise to him at this point. But the man in front of him either didn't realize that, or he ignored that fact and continued to talk. The latter more likely. After all, he tried to interrupt him several times, asking for a water or a short break so he could take a piss, but the man just wouldn't stop talking. He never missed the time he practiced catching the crystal fish by hand so much.

...

Just when he lost all hope, the man stopped. Aleister jumped up from his crouched sprawl.

"That is, I suppose, a brief summary on the importance of the items I chose to don."

"Very brief indeed, but I'm afraid I must get going."

"Are you sure, I am able to go into much further detail about the significance of each item, rather than a concise summary. Take my bracer for example—"

Aleister spoke up and stopped him from going off on a long-winded tangent. "I appreciate the fact you care about those items, but I need to leave."

The gangly man grumbled. "Very well then, you came in here looking for a bag, correct?"

"That I did." The question caught him off-guard. He didn't expect the man to remember. Would this mean the time he spent here wasn't a complete waste of time? Surely a man with such fondness of trivial treasures would have gained a bag of value at some point?

Within the second, the man collapsed into the floor beneath him and vanished.

Aleister stood there, mouth slightly agape. That wasn't exactly something he saw every day.

Several minutes passed by before the man emerged from the earth. No trace of wood, mud, or dirt covered his body. The man tossed the black leather bag he held. Aleister caught it. "The history of this bag is unknown to me. A shame, but that means this to me this bag is worthless."

Aleister examined the bag. The first thing he noticed was the expert quality of the leatherwork. Even to him, someone with no knowledge of the craft, it was apparent. The leather was tough, yet flexible, and somehow still weighed the same as his current bag. Its price wouldn't be low. But if he learned anything in the time he listened, it was that the man in front of him had an unfathomable amount of wealth compared to him. "What do you want from me?"

The man pinched his nose and in once continuous motion, stroked his chin. "A treasure with a rich and complicated history."

"What constitutes as rich and complicated?"

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"Show it to me and I will tell you," the man said, reaching his hand forward.

"I was just asking, I don't have one with me now." Syn could probably go get one for him if he asked.

"You don't? Pity." The man shook his head. "Luckily for you, I know of one that you can go acquire for my collection." The man pulled out a short scroll from the bracelet he wore. He rolled it open and revealed a map. With a shady grin, he said, "Come back as a Weaver before the new year starts and I will tell you more. If you don't...you don't want to find out what will happen." The man rolled the scroll back up.

Aleister stuttered for a second, collecting his thoughts. "First, didn't you say that you don't like violence?"

"I won't kill you," the man said in confirmation. "Instead, you will just accrue even more debt with me."

"That doesn't sound any better, but ok." Aleister pointed to the man's wrist. "How did you just, do that?"

The man let out a satisfied grunt. "Are you not in a rush?"

"You're right." Aleister turned around and grabbed the door handle. To his surprise, it actually opened. "Thanks for the bag. I'll be back sooner rather than later I suppose."

"Wait, I'll tell you," the man said. He let out a cough. "In short—"

"Two minutes or under short, or tell me at a later time."

"Only two minutes? How am I supposed to convey any information within that small timeframe?"

The man cleared his throat again. "In short, the creator of this bracelet enchanted it with a pocket of extra-dimensional space from the Astral Sea. This allows me to store items and other such things with relative easy in a compact form. However, the amount of space is limited and cannot be expanded without the proper enchantment techniques. A similar enchantment exists on your bag."

"Are you serious?" Aleister let go of the door handle and checked the bag again. He heard vague mentions of such items existing, but they carried exorbitant prices to match their rarity. "Is the treasure listed on that scroll a death mission? Are you trying to get me to die and then with my death, that bag has a story attached to it?"

"You'll just have to wait and see, but rest assured, I am not sending you off to die. That would be a waste of both our times."

Aleister took a deep breath and regained his cool. "I have a few questions about how this extra-dimensional space works."

Without hearing the questions, the gangly man responded. "You cannot store extra-dimensional space items within other extra-dimensional space items. The consequences of such an action are beyond damaging, let along life-threating. You can store living creatures in the space, but the air within is limited and varies from pocket to pocket as the storage space of each one differs as well."

Aleister noted the information. The man answered—and indirectly answered—most of the questions he had. "Then I only have one question left. What happens if, I don't know, let's say, someone stabbed my bag and punctured it? What would happen to all the items inside?"

"The bag I handed you is tough enough to where most weapons will only create scratch marks at most. A small puncture or a few holes won't cause any damage besides a small amount of internal stability issues within the extra-dimensional pocket. An effect that shouldn't affect you. However, should it sustain significant damage, the pocket will burst open, and the Astral Sea will consume all the washed away items."

"I understand." No wonder the bag looked and felt so well-crafted. It had to be to contain the extra-dimensional pocket. He opened the door. "I don't think I caught your name."

"I will tell you my name once you come visit again."

Aleister waved behind him and closed the door. The day had come to an end, but he couldn't help but grin. He only wanted a regular bag and ended up with one far beyond what he imagined. The long, arduous conversation aside, the only hurdle was the treasure the man wanted him to retrieve. Alas, such a treasure couldn't come without a cost.