The next stop was GEM, the Gift shop of Elemental Magic. She only had 248 gold left. But there was still probably something good to buy.
She entered and instantly got the vibes of a classic, back-home feeling of a game-geek’s pawn shop.
Swords lined the ceiling, magical rings were on display, enchanted daggers stuck out of chopping blocks that belonged in the kitchen. One wall was covered in wands, shoe boxes lined the floor, pieces of armor, shields, and staffs were displayed in full suits or miscellaneous pieces. It was a huge wet dream of magical items.
Here she took the most time she had ever taken looking around a shop. But in the end she learned what she’ll have to do if she wants to be good. Get more money.
Eventually she found a few items she’d have to choose from.
Despite the price range, she began looking at a few spears. One was a mechanical contraption. It was a baton handle just shy of a foot in length. But when you spun it or waved it around, it extended to a four foot staff. The magical part about it was that it was nearly weightless, and it had a massive attack power only due to it’s Mana redirection, causing every hit to use Mana and either push the enemy back with tons of force, or let him feel it in pure damage, if not both.
It was definitely an option, even though she was a Psychic and a spell caster, the melee side of her was coming through in this one. Though, the other side of the tag told her something else. 1980 gold. Though she might be able to get away with another down payment and interest, she didn’t want to get herself into to much debt before knowing how to really rake in some cash.
Another nearby item was something she had run across before. But, a little different. A magical attack shield. This item could be put on one’s body, like a necklace, and used as a permanent “no touchy” shield. The attacker would get instantaneous Ice damage, and if physically held for more than five seconds, a freeze debuff. And it worked only by defense, meaning you couldn’t grab someone and let the necklace do all the work.
Again, the other side of the price tag said it all. 1650 gold.
She kept looking around, trying to loose hope in anything good and settle with anything affordable.
There was magical bowling ball.
Heatseeking Bowling Ball
This ball, once activated will find any nearby target and roll straight for them. If they jump over it, don’t worry it will come back.
She checked out the rings counter, and found a good number of HP regen and spell storage rings, all more or less out of her price range, besides the +.01% HP regen, +3 MP, type of things. Anything really useful was over 500 gold, at least.
She tried the shoes, nothing of interest, even with her Athena Clothing discount for any item she could put a logo on. The cheap sandals and moccasins weren’t any upgrade though.
The next was a box of spell cards. Buy one and learn the spell. They were organized by cost, fortunately, and after a long while of looking through, she decided that again, anything useful was over 500 gold.
Spell of Emotional Damage
When those cocky player come into the battlefield, put them in their place with this spell. They’ll never forget that time when their father walked in while he was wanking it, and walked away, only saying that he was disappointed. Emotionaaaaalll Daaaammuuuuge!!!
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The cheap one were, “Instantly grow a daisy”, “Cut grass without a sword”, “Summon an apple”, “+1 Strength for 10 seconds”… Some might come in handy, if you had time to eat an apple in the middle of a battle, or needed that extra push to open a stiff door. She decided against any, just yet.
Another shelf stood ominously to her right. She hadn’t noticed it before, but mainly because it was a bookshelf full of books, very old and ragged looking books at that.
She moseyed over, looking at the titles. They were Tomes! And the prices weren’t too bad. All of them were one-time-only spells, and while they were powerful, the cost didn’t make her bite her lip. In stead she bit her lip in anticipation.
In Default, Tomes are magical books that could give you almost anything skill related. Whether it was a skill, or a one time use spell, or a few attribute points, they were valuable. It was even said that other players could write their own Tomes, creating some quite heinous, even incredibly brilliant. Bu then you needed to find the right enchantments and spells only found by a well hidden NPC giving a long and hard quest.
Summons Demon was of course 1000 gold. But quite a few were just in her price range. She checked them out. Large Fireball 300 gold. Tome of conjure puddle 50 gold. Tome of Pond Flooding 100 gold. Tome of Instant Weedy Garden 100 gold. Tome of Glass Shards 200 gold. Tome of Taming: Small Pet 200 gold.
They were kind of whatever. But she took the last one, and figured if she could find a small dog, she might as well make it her pet.
She took it to the counter to check it out.
The NPC smiled, “Thank you for visiting GEM. Where you can find some of your most needed magical items below legendary!”
“Thanks. I’d just like to buy this Tome.”
“Alright! That will be 200 gold. But! Since you’re a first timer here. You get a 10% discount, making your total 180 gold. Will that be all?”
“Yes, thanks.”
She stepped out, her new robe flowing in the wind as she walked and carrying a new, ragged looking Tome of Small Pets. She had found out how to put items into her inventory, a little mental work, and the book vanished, appearing in her peripheral items boxes.
She didn’t really have any next stops, so she quickly took a look around to find out how to get out of this village and make it somewhere to do some quests.
She walked down the street and back to the main road.
But before she could leave a small man ran up to her. It was an NPC. “Leaving! Already? When are you coming back?”
“Maybe in a day or so. I’ve got some questing to do,” she said proudly, and hoping to get this guy off her tail.
“Well, before you leave, would you like access to our newsletter, including weekly and monthly events?”
Actually that sounded like a good idea. Spam warning! Of course, but it’s be good to know what’s happening and maybe what items might be on sale. “Sure,” she said.
In her face, up popped a prompt telling her she had just accepted the Newsletter of Elemental Magic. She actually took the time to look through it. There was the schedule of tournaments as the main attraction, besides that there were the sales, discounts, etc., on items and clothing, including potions…
Oh! We forgot to get potions. We’ll just not put ourself in that position won’t we…
So carrying on with the newsletter, it was also available to replay any tournament or battle. And a chat group all about the best items, quests and where to find what you really want. Of course spammed with nonsensical comments and rude conversations, but that was normal.
She was very close to walking out now and hitching a ride to anywhere else.
And she got very close to taking another step when the little NPC man stopped her again. “Where are you going?”
“Anywhere else… I mean, somewhere I can get quests and money, and more levels.”
“That’s great. Would you like to use the Portal? You can be transported all around the map to any village that has a Portal.”
“A Portal?!”
“Yes,” NPC looked afraid, “a Portal.”
“How much does it cost?” She asked with a little too much ferocity.
“It’s free. But if you want to come back you’ll have to pay.”
“Alright, where is it?”
The NPC pointed. It was literally right in front of her. Even as she looked a few players came through, looking beaten, and needing some refurbishing.
KillPrinsX ran over and inspected.
The portal was just a large black slab of… nothing. About the size of a large doorway. The sign on the side gave her instructions.
To use this portal:
1. Select destination
2. Carefully step onto the platform
3. Secure all loose items and pieces of clothing
4. Ensure your destination is selected
5. Walk through portal
Boy, that was helpful.
She skimmed through the destinations. All of them seem interesting. The most obvious things were the locations themselves: mountains, forest, beach, desert and more. And all of them should have fantastic adventures and quests.
She didn’t really pick one, but just selected a random one, not too cold, or too hot, and walked through… carefully, and with items and clothing secured.