The boys exit the building while Cain is debating whether or not to remind Rex that he should be studying. Jared and Jacob turn right, leaving Cain to turn left. They pause as Cain walks the wrong way for a few seconds until he realizes what's going on. The bystanders look at him weirdly; a priest is about to offer guidance before Cain turns around.
Crap… I got lost in my thoughts again. When he rejoins the group, he feels a gaze staring at him as if he were its prey. Weird… the Mana Zone isn't detecting anything, are they outside the range?
—Dms: Cain and Dresil—(35ms)
Cain: Dresil, do you notice anyone watching us?
Dresil: No, Master. Is something wrong?
Cain: Not yet, they don't seem to be making a move…
--------------------------
Cain dismisses his suspicion while passing the adventurer's guild. They quickly rush past, attempting not to drag any attention to themselves.
I really need to get a new set of clothes… But this fabric is probably the best in this country… I'll try changing the look of the fabric while keeping its texture. Cain walks in between Jacob and Jared, using Jacob's large frame to block the view of curious passersby.
Cain's clothes morph into a rural style of leather armor. A blend of green and brown camouflage appear over the armor then quickly retreat into magic circles that slowly fade. The boys try their best not to react to the extreme changes happening to Cain's clothes, knowing if they did, it would draw too much attention.
They continue walking for about a kilometer, stopping at a building embedded in a sturdy wall. The outside wall was nothing like this… Cain judges, feeling the immense amount of mana the wall emits, presumably from protection magic circles. The building exudes the feeling of a spear and shield.
To the inexperienced it looks like a grand building, resembling power and style with its bright colors and sharp design. To Cain, the style of the building resembled the gothic architectural style that was prominent in Medieval Europe and the so-called powerful spear and shield vibe resembled a brittle, gold shield and dull spear.
The boys enter the building, greeted by walls, shelves, even some parts of the floors, being littered with weapons. Upon entering, the atmosphere emulates one of a giant gathering of old men and women with countless experiences discussing their travels.
Despite there only being four guards patrolling the 1st floor and 2 guards positioned at the base of the stairwell to the second floor, located to the right of the receptionist casually waiting behind a desk, Cain hears the conversations of hundreds of "people."
"Do you guys hear that?" Cain asks Jared and Jacob.
They look at the rough guards and reserved receptionist, looking for a source of sound in the quiet room. "Hear what? The sound of that beauty agreeing to go on a date with me?" Jared replies, gazing at the receptionist who responds with a threatening smile.
"Really? You guys can't hear these old folk talking?" Cain replies, trying to cover his ears with magic circles designed to cancel out sound. After some tweaking, they accept only sound from Jared and Jacob's voices.
Despite his desperate efforts, he can still hear the conversations and disperses the magic circles. Cain walks up to the receptionist, clearly aggravated. The receptionist shoots a glance at one of the guards who gets prepared to draw his weapon.
"How may I help you, dear guest?" The receptionist asks wearily.
"Hi, can you hear hundreds of conversations happening right now?" Cain asks, struggling to hold back his frustration. Ugh… they are so annoying! I really don't want to do anything rash… but I can hardly focus enough to ask a question right now...
Can he hear the weapons? That's impossible though… The receptionist ponders, shaking her head towards Cain. The conversations begin to die down, refocusing on Cain.
"Oh? A brat can hear us?"
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"Impossible, it must be something else."
"Even the king who gathered us couldn't hear us. How is the bumpkin supposed to?"
Cain gathers millions of mana towards him, looking up at the receptionist. "I'm sorry in advance for this…" he says, trying his best to maintain a friendly smile. He embeds a million mana in his vocal chords and emits the rest out as a terrifying aura.
"Shut up!" echoes coldly throughout the building, silencing every weapon in the room, making all of them, except for one, quiver in fear. The sound of rattling echoes through the quiet room. Silence creeps upon everything living, the guards dare not move in front of this terrifying man.
"Haaa…. Sorry about that…" Cain sighs, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I originally wanted to purchase a weapon from here, but they wouldn't shut up. As you can imagine, hundreds of voices conversing at once can be quite annoying." Cain covers the shaking receptionist in his mana, soothing her fear, similar to what he did to Maddison.
"You can hear them?" She asks once she regains her nerves.
"Yes, you can't?" Cain asks, gesturing to Jared and Jacob to join them. They are snapped out of their paralysis by Cain's mana and join him at the desk. The receptionist looks at Cain curiously.
"Only people who can use their soul to communicate can hear them…" She replies, signaling the mercenary to stand down.
"Oh. Well I would still like to purchase a weapon, I don't know if they are willing now though…" Cain glances around the room, trying to decide what type of weapon to get.
"What kind of weapon would you like to purchase?" The receptionist pulls out a scaled covered binder, filled with leathered paper. Her hands are still shaking slightly.
"Preferably one that can morph into any weapon I want. If possible, I would like it to be specialized in ranged attacks. Price, quality, and other factors don't matter." The receptionist opens the binder and flips through the pages.
"We have 4 weapons that can shapeshift, only one of them meets the requirements you want though. It's a D-grade bow that can change into any ranged weapon the wielder wishes. It's power is on par with an S rank weapon, but due to how picky it is, it's been classified as a D-grade for sorting and pricing purposes. It costs one copper." The receptionist reads the details off the page in the binder then looks up at Cain.
"One copper? How picky is it?"
"Out of close to 50,000 people who have tried to wield it, the only person who successfully did so was the blacksmith who created it." The receptionist closes the binder and puts it away.
"What can you tell me about its history and the spirit within it?" Cain begins to simulate ways to enlist the services of this weapon. Jared and Jacob wander off at this point to go window shopping, recognizing that if they stayed they would have been caught up in a long story.
The receptionist shuffles through the drawers and pulls out a dusty folder with a small leatherbound book inside. She clears her throat, preparing a glass of water on the side, and begins to read off from the pages of the folder.
"There was a blacksmith who was recognized by the previous king one hundred years ago. His skills in forging were one of the best in the nation. Despite this, he could never forge a weapon with a spirit and decided to go on a journey to learn various new crafts to find an answer to his problem.
"During his travels, he realized no more progress could be made on his techniques to make all sorts of melee weapons. A decade passed of fruitless efforts spent finding methods to make spirit weapons and improving his technique. Giving up on melee weapons, the blacksmith settles down a poor village, helping out with their needs.
"His mind was unable to let go of his failure and he eventually found himself forging a grand weapon, only it wasn't a melee weapon. The blacksmith was attempting to forge a bow using a variety of wood working and smithing techniques picked up from his travels.
"His goal was to make something that could morph into any ranged weapon, allowing him to test new ideas without using too much funds. The blacksmith's plan was to use this spiritless weapon to find the ideal ranged weapon to accomplish his dreams.
"Feeling the once lost passion and motivation from decades ago, he spent 42 days forging the bow, only stopping to eat and sleep. As the blacksmith puts the finishing touches on the bow, a pillar of mana erupts from the weapon, signaling the birth of a new S-ranked spirit weapon.
"The blacksmith celebrates as the spirit begins to take the form of a young girl. He inspects the spirit and the vessel, currently in the form of a bow, and discovers the immense amount of potential for intelligence.
"'The bow was created to morph into many different forms of weapons, doing so requires a high understanding and potential rivaling that of the most accomplished scholars. There's even the chance that this spirit could mature and grow------.'
"The blacksmith notes in his journal. The next few pages are drenched in blood."
The receptionist moves the journal off to the side gently. Everything she read was from the pages within the folder to prevent the constant use of the journal and preserve it. She flips the pages of the folder, coming across official documents.
"According to the Royal Guards who arrived on the scene a day later, the blacksmith was assassinated and the assassins were wiped out by a destructive force similar to a ballista. The bow laid beside the corpse of the blacksmith, drenched in blood.
On the body of the blacksmith, a note was discovered. 'I'll only accept those who can offer new forms for me and give me a name.' Despite the many efforts of the Royal Guards and the adventurers who came into contact with the bow, the spirit has never appeared since." The receptionist puts the journal gently back in the folder and files it away.