The next shop wasn’t for enchanting, but one specializing in tomes. I wanted to make sure I had the gold to buy the most important items first.
Upon entering the shop, I found myself in what used to be an old library. The air was thick with the scent of aged parchment and the faint aroma of ink that had long since dried. Cobwebs clung to the corners. Sunlight filtered through dust-laden windows, casting soft beams of light onto the shelves that lined the walls.
In the center of the room stood a weathered wooden table, strewn with scrolls and manuscripts in various states of disarray. Piles of books teetered precariously on the floor. At the table, the shopkeeper looked up and greeted me with a suspicious glare, watching my every move. He was in the middle of breakfast, of what looked like stale bread and watery gruel.
This shop was on its last legs, and I’d seen stores that were on the brink of going out of business before. Empty shelves, unkempt appearance, and a depressed looking shopkeeper. The eight tomes being sold were stacked on the table next to him. Five were skills, three passives. None of them interested me in the least, and not for the prices being asked.
“Where are the rest? Is this all?” I asked him.
He narrowed his eyes up to me. “You’re with the governor, aren’t you?”
“No, I never met the man. I just arrived from Rosedale yesterday.”
“Is that so?”
“The town doesn’t look very good.” I gestured at the empty shelves. “What happened here?”
“Rosedale, you said?”
I hooked a thumb over my shoulder. “To the east, near the cube, know the place?”
“Course I know, my niece lives there. How are things there?”
I explained our situation of food shortage caused by the Swarm and the Dark Night. His suspicion grew less the more we talked. This town was split about how the governor was handling things. There were those on his side who were taking advantage, and then there was this shopkeeper who was getting screwed.
“I used to buy tomes from a few groups running dungeons in town,” he said in a sorrowful tone, sighing. “But with the prices set so low, they’re not selling to me any more. Then my shop was robbed one night -- they took everything. I know who did this, it was the governor and his Thieves guild,” he said in a low voice, glancing out to the window.
“So you’re saying that the governor has quite a large cache of tomes at his mansion?”
He nodded. “Oh, no doubt. Mhm, quite large. He’s waiting for me to sell him this shop for a pittance too, so he could swoop right in. The man is vile.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, maybe you should move on to somewhere else?”
He threw up his hands in despair. “Where could I go? My life and money is all here.”
“Who owns the armorsmith shop next door?” I asked.
The old man scowled. “Used to be owned by Finley himself, but now he’s dead, and his son had run off. The governor owns the place.”
That explained the prices and full shelves of merchandise there.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What about the enchanter, potions and the wand shops? Are they likewise owned by the governor?”
“The wand shop is barely hanging on, and unfortunately, the enchanter and potions shops have been taken over by him.”
The potions shop must have been Boris’ place before. That got me thinking. I didn’t want to give business to this corrupt governor, but I needed their items and services. Rosedale didn’t have anything of the sort.
Bob had complained that the helmet dimmed his vision, but I ignored him. I had a feeling he knew exactly where the tome was, but was just trying to get me to remove the helmet.
Facing away from the shopkeep, I took off my helmet.
I walked over to the pile, and heard the scraping of the chair as the shopkeeper stood up.
I cleared the books aside and pulled the sack out from under the pile. Inside was a single tome, and it happened to be exactly what I needed. I turned to the shopkeeper and his wide eyes darted between the parasite in my forehead and tome in my hand.
“Is this one for sale?” I asked.
“H-How’d you know to look there?”
“Is this for sale?” I asked again, ignoring his question.
The shopkeeper looked down at his meager breakfast, then walked over to the window to pull the curtains together.
“Sixty gold,” he replied quietly.
“That’s quite pricey.”
However, I had another idea in mind. The rational Kevin was saying ‘no’, but something inside me, something wicked was itching for any excuse to lash out. And in a twist of irony, it won with the help of empathy. A hoard of tomes sounded mighty tempting, and was just what Rosedale villagers and orphans could put to great use. After all, I wouldn’t really be stealing if they were stolen goods in the first place, right?
I grinned. “And how much would it be if I were to … take care of the governor for you?”
“W-What in the world do you mean?”
“No more price restriction, no competition buying up your tomes, and for things to go back to how it used to be.”
“I’d … I would,” he trailed off, lowering his head for a long moment, but when he looked up, his eyes showed anger and resolve.
He didn’t have to say a word, I turned and walked to the door with the tome in my hand, and he didn’t protest it. But just before leaving the shop, I steeled myself for a couple of shots of pain, took out the [t2] Mana Ward and learned it. I knew I was going to need this spell for things to come. After that I also learned the new tome.
* [t3] Arcane Blast [Projectile] [Attack] [Arcane]
* Empowers a projectile
* Requires a wand
* Cost: 70 mana
* Affected by [Strength] and [Will]
The mana cost was double that of [Power Shot.] Did it mean it would deal twice as much damage? I really hoped that was the case. Instead of [Physical] it was an [Arcane] damage type -- whatever that meant. Also, it was affected by Strength and Will, instead of Strength and Agility which didn’t bother me much as my attributes were about equal all across.
Outside, Bob complained as soon as I placed my helmet back on. He really thought I was never going to put it back on again.
I told him.
I sighed.
I thought I had gotten close to Darya and we could have been something more, but now with this blasted parasite everything went to hell. She probably saw me as a freak. I felt accursed, as if some higher power was trying to make me even more monstrous, to make me hideous.