Anise’s new eyes were far from the only new, useful items in the shop that Felix and Anise had found.
The next item that caught my eye was a kind of elegant looking robe. It looked sort of like something that a wandering swordsman might wear while going on a journey - it was light and easy to move in, but also classy enough that one could comfortably wear it without being out of place in a nicer establishment.
Of course, looks could be deceptive. The description for the item made would have made me very interested in the item, if I didn’t already have my dress.
Item: Robe of the Wandering Swordsman
Effects:
This Robe has two abilities:
First, while practicing swordsmanship and wearing this robe, your training will be much, much easier and faster. This robe can be used up to Expert Grade, and will provide a very slight boost while trying to push a swordsmanship-related skill through to Master Grade (emphasis on slight).
Second, once per lifetime, the person who is bonded with this robe may declare that they are going on a journey. Based on how far they travel and how many things they do during that journey, as well as how diligently they practice their swordsmanship and kill enemies, once they declare that their journey is at an end (usually by returning to the starting point) they will receive a major boost to all physical stats, and all mental stats except intelligence.
This item is also exceptionally durable, contrary to its looks, and also provides some measure of defense against weaker weapons.
Journeys may not exceed three years in length.
This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn’t completely destroyed.
Maintenance cost - 72.3 Achievement per life
After reading the item description, I immediately looked at Sallia. Felix and Anise also did the same.
Sallia grinned. “If you guys don’t mind, I’d be happy to take it. I love it. I’ll probably be losing a bit of defense compared to my armor, but I don’t think it’s that big of a problem. Although we should stress-test it later, if you guys are willing to help me. I would appreciate knowing what I need to dodge and what I can just ignore before we go to the next world.”
Since nobody objected, Sallia immediately swapped out the set of iron armor she had equipped, and after hesitating a moment, she also unequipped the training armor that she had found during our last journey to the Market.
The training armor that could increase all three physical stats by up to 1 grade was given to Anise for now, who simply ditched her previous weapons that she didn’t like. The combat armor that Sallia had been using up until this point was simply dumped on the ground. We didn’t need it for anything, so it could sit here for some other lucky resident of the Market to stumble across in a few decades or centuries.
The next item also looked appealing to me, although unlike the {Robe of the Wandering Swordsman}, it didn’t conflict with items I already had. Despite its name, it was shaped almost exactly like a foldable umbrella - the kind where one could push a button and cause the umbrella to expand into a proper umbrella, or retract it into something that looked more like a fluffy walking stick. The only real notable difference was the wicked, razor-sharp tip of the umbrella, which looked like it would fit a spear more than an umbrella.
Item: Breath of the Storm
Effects:
This Umbrella can expand and retract as desired by the user (mental command)
While the umbrella is expanded, the umbrella becomes exceptionally sturdy and can be used as a shield. It also grants the wearer a very slight amount of control over the air around them. So long as the wearer is strong enough to support themself, they can use this slight amount of air control to use the umbrella as a flying device. (Be warned - this does NOT make your body weight any easier for you to hang on to).
While the umbrella is retracted, it can be used as either a rapier or a walking cane (you may slightly adjust its shape as desired while in a retracted form). The umbrella will also provide some control over water or improve your control over water while in a retracted state, although this is very weak.
For a very high amount of essence input, a lightning bolt may be fired out the tip of this umbrella.
This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn’t completely destroyed.
Maintenance cost - 47.8 Achievement per life
Even though the item was a bit weak, I found the obvious connections to storms and the ocean rather interesting. It was nowhere near the massively powerful build-defining item that my lake-gazer’s dress was (at least, when combined with the rest of my abilities). However, it was a sword, and a shield at the same time, and it let me fly, and shoot lightning bolts, and enhance my water magic a little bit. It wasn’t particularly good at any of those five functions, but I found the versatility to be appealing. And even if it was a rather mediocre sword, shield, and magic item, it was still much better than my current {Two-Purpose Sword}.
I could definitely see why this store was guarded by a much more powerful enemy. Even the more random and weird items like this one were simply filled with useful abilities. It was just a shame that this shop was focused on swords and didn’t have too many other kinds of items - if it hadn’t been for the fact that the shop carried books as well, we would have chosen a different shop as our target. But even the ‘swords’ here were very useful.
Sallia and Felix weren’t interested in the umbrella - after all, Sallia’s swordsmanship style was much more defined than my own, and she didn’t seem to like the idea of swapping to a more piercing focused style of swordsmanship that fit a rapier. Sallia’s swordsmanship seemed to rely heavily on slashes and ways to make use of her superhuman strength, while I was more focused on spellcasting. Meanwhile, Felix just didn’t seem to care much about what weapon he was using, as long as he had some kind of weapon as a backup for emergencies.
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That left Anise and I.
I did want the umbrella, but… I looked at Anise, and then sighed. “Anise, do you want it?” I asked.
“There’s another sword I want more later in the pile,” she said. “I pulled this one aside because I thought it would fit you.”
I smiled, and gave Anise a quick hug before I swapped out my old sword for the {Breath of the Storm}.
After that we kept going through the pile.
Felix grabbed a new sword as well, and the effects for that sword caused me to raise an eyebrow.
Item: Swordbreaker
Effects:
While wielding this sword, the wielder gains a sense for what metals are nearby, as well as any structural weaknesses any nearby metallic objects have.
Wielder also gains a moderate ability to manipulate metal, or a moderate improvement on any metal-manipulating abilities they already have.
Sword is exceptionally durable and hard to weaken.
This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn’t completely destroyed.
Maintenance cost - 11.2 Achievement per life
I was pretty sure that it was a sword originally meant to find weak points in the armor and weapons of other people, and then start breaking down their items mid-fight. However, it was also a surprisingly useful sword for crafting, as long as it was equipped.
I had a rather strange mental image of Felix randomly holding a sword in one hand and a smithing hammer in another for a moment, before I snorted softly. The image was certainly amusing.
Next up was the item Anise had chosen for herself.
Item: Sword of the Lost Phoenix's Embers
Effects:
While wielding this sword, it is significantly easier to learn fire-related abilities and Skills up to Advanced Grade.
The Wielder of this sword gains a slight ability to command embers and flames in their surroundings (essence input is required to activate this ability).
Once per lifetime, the wielder of this sword may stab themself in the heart using this sword. If they do so, instead of dying, they will activate ‘last stand of the phoenix,’ which will increase all attributes by 2 grades for 1 hour. All of their fire related abilities will be improved up to Intermediate Grade (including the pseudo-ability to control fire and embers granted by this sword). All wounds in their body will regenerate extremely quickly, and they will be able to survive a much greater level of damage than their biology should allow.
After this effect wears off, the user will fall unconscious for 24 hours. They will also suffer backlash based on the amount of damage they took while super-regeneration was active. Backlash may be lethal. Use with caution.
This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn’t completely destroyed.
Maintenance cost - 81.6 Achievement per life
The sword basically single-handedly gave Anise a magic system, at least for one hour per life. That wasn’t anywhere near an ideal time scale for her to have, but as of right now, Anise was the weakest member of our group because she didn’t have an extra magic system of her own. Even if this was a very weak version of a magic system, from the item’s description it sounded like for 1 hour a lifetime Anise could become utterly terrifying on the battlefield. Which could let her rack up a huge amount of Influence Achievement and Slaughter Achievement if she used it well. It was an excellent item for Anise to use at a critical moment, and would hopefully help her catch up to the rest of the group.
Finally, Felix had set aside a few swords that he felt Sallia might like. Sallia spent a while hmming and hawing over two of the options, as she tried to make up her mind, but eventually, she settled on a longer one-handed sword that looked as if it was made purely of glass.
Item: Mirror’s Edge
Effects:
Wielder gains the ability to ‘hide’ within mirrors and reflections, becoming very difficult to sense for creatures or people without specialized skillsets. While hiding within a mirror, wielder may not change their ‘exit point’ at all - the wielder will always exit the mirror at exactly the same spot they entered the mirror.
They must be touching a mirror or reflection to activate this skill. Destruction of the mirror or object used to make a reflection will result in the wearer being forced back out of the mirror.
This sword may absorb rays of light and darkness, and store them for later. Upon mental command from the user, stored rays of light and darkness may be summoned to harm enemies (these will be equivalent to light or darkness based elemental attacks from a manifestation magic system).
Once per day, this sword may reflect a magic attack, so long as the attack is below a certain threshold of power.
This item will be repaired each time you return to the Market, so long as it isn’t completely destroyed.
Maintenance cost - 76.1 Achievement per life
The ability to hide inside of mirrors wasn’t really that amazing for Sallia - she wasn’t really that focused on hiding, and the ‘hide in a mirror’ ability of the sword was highly restrictive and hard to use.
However, the other two abilities were amazing. Being able to blast enemies with rays of light and darkness magic would give Sallia a quick and easy way to get ranged attacks, giving her more time to buff herself or rain extra spells on enemies through her manifestation magic system. And the ability to reflect magic attacks gave Sallia the ability to deal with powerful magic attacks. We would need to stress-test how big of a magic attack the sword could actually reflect, but the ability to just randomly throw an enemy’s strongest attack back in their face once per battle seemed incredibly powerful. And with Sallia’s ridiculously good sense for combat and timing, she would probably make excellent use of the ability.
Finally, the four of us found a new type of friendship bracelet in the shop. It let us talk to each other over distances, sort of like a phone. It lost the ability to track locations, but the four of us ultimately decided it was a worthwhile tradeoff. We could always just talk to each other and meet up near landmarks in the future - after all, our friendship bracelets still guaranteed that we would reincarnate near each other. The maintenance cost was also notably higher than before, now costing 7 Achievement per life instead of 1.8. But that was still so cheap that none of us would really feel the sting of paying for it in the future, so it wasn’t a big deal. And being able to communicate with each other over a distance was a huge boost to how well we could coordinate with each other and work as a team.
Most of the other items in the shop were also swords, and most of them were simply inferior to what we had already found. We didn’t end up getting any other new items from the store.
At the end of our shopping spree, my item list hadn’t undergone any earth-shattering changes, but it had notably improved.
Items: 5/5
1. Simple Friendship Bracelet with Distance Chatting (7 Maintenance)
2. Sturdy Boots (1.1 Maintenance)
3. Lake-Gazer's Dress (22.8 Maintenance)
4. Breath of the Storm (47.8 Maintenance)
5. Storage Pack (2.3 Maintenance)
Total Maintenance cost (per life): 81
Finally, we were done shopping in this store.
It was time to finish questioning the book and see what final bits of information we could extract from it.