‘Ole Merlo wasn’t that hard to find. A brilliant purple banner hung above her market stall, covered in golden symbols just like Suvroc said. Her stall was more of a large, rich purple tent covered in golden threads than the market stalls elsewhere in the cavern. Every bit of her tent was covered in what I could only call occult paraphernalia.
Crystals dangled on golden chains, each pulled into crazy shapes and dimensions. Feathers of birds, some looking even older than me, hung from dream catchers or were fastened into wands. Stacks of crystals of all kinds were everywhere, each more misshapen than the last. Banners hung from the tent’s poles, displaying prominent colors and bright shades.
I cautiously approached, flicking on Aetherial Perception. To my surprise, there were barely any items in the entire shop that glowed with anything of the Aether. The only thing I could see that resonated with the Aether was a stack of books off to the side of a rack.
”Welcome, welcome, young dreamer. I am your oracle, Merlo. Don’t tell me, you want a crystal from my fine collection.” A middle-aged woman approached me, her body bent deeply in a bow. She wore a forest green dress with simplistic frills and baggy sleeves. A witch's hat sat off-centered on her head. A polite smile wormed across her lips, not quite corpy but in the same ballpark.
”Maybe.” I eyed the place. A good eighty or ninety percent of her wares had crystals on them, so it really wasn’t that good of a guess. “I was told you have nice purple crystals?”
”Ah, come, come, child.” The woman waved her arm, the sleeves of her dress hung loosely as she led me to a rack covered in purple crystals. Her expression was pensive, though her muscles were tensed slightly as if the look was forced to hide her actual expression.
I was only knowledgeable enough about crystals to recognize an expensive gemstone when I saw one, so most of the stuff on the rack looked unfamiliar. The majority of it looked lab-grown if I had to guess. I did recognize a few small natural-looking amethysts, however.
I checked each of the crystals, trusting Suvroc didn’t just send me on a wild goose chase. To my surprise, there were actually pieces of rykon in the collection. They looked almost exactly like amethyst, but the core of its structure took on a deeper blue pitch than the rest of the crystals on display. The deep blue almost appeared powdery inside the rest of the material’s structure. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if not for having spent the last couple days looking up information on it.
I carefully picked out all the rykon I could from the shelf. There were five fingernail-sized pieces of the material. The stuff was entirely safe to handle, at least in its base state, so I didn’t have to worry about interacting with it. “How much for these?”
The woman eyed me, then looked over my selection. “Ah, the mighty tazelphine. You have a good eye, child. Each piece is said to grant immense beauty to its user, though its peaceful exterior hides its powerful use in curses. Twenty Rayn each.”
Tazelphine? What the hell was that? I inspected the crystals again. This was definitely rykon. Or at least I was almost a hundred percent sure I knew what the stuff was. Maybe she didn’t know? It would make sense why she just casually had the stuff on display instead of locked up somewhere.
Wait, how did Suvroc know what they were then if Merlo didn't? And he knew immediately what I was talking about without having to look it up or anything. A chill went up my spine. I needed to be more careful around that guy.
It was good for me though. Twenty was way cheaper than the typical prices for the stuff, at least from what I saw on the Net.“ ‘Course. My sister loves stuff made of t-tazelphine.”
”Then I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a discount for the precious crystal if you buy one other item from my shop to help you in your journey.” Her expression slipped minutely, revealing a careless smirk mixed with boredom.
A discount would be nice… And I'd already planned on checking out the books. “I’ll look around, I guess.”
”Nova.” The woman walked back to the front of the tent, calming waiting at the front. “Call for me if you need help identifying any of my mystical wares.”
Nothing else in the shop held my interest. A part of me did want to look through her other ‘crystals’ to see if I couldn’t find something else out of the ordinary. Sadly, I wasn’t well versed in materials and elements enough to pick out stuff outside of what I’ve researched.
I did, however, have an interest in the books off to the side of the room. The ones glowing under Aetherial Perception, mainly. I flicked through the stack, pulling free three books.
The first one was named ‘Outsiders And You’. The entire thing looked like an ancient grimoire, though the ink and slightly chemical scent hinted that maybe it wasn’t all that old. I held it in my hand for a moment, feeling a sickly, disgusting vibe from the thing. It was a repulsive sensation as if I was becoming unclean just by touching it. Even Insight strongly pulsed through me, warning against even looking inside of the book. I promptly set it down and wiped my hands.
The next was ‘Herbalist's Guide: Mystical Agriculture’. I flicked through the pages, finding each one chock-full of information about various plants. The plants weren’t quite normal though. Each one was depicted with magical effects. I wanted it for obvious reasons. Interestingly, there was a crystal structure on the back of the book that faintly reminded me of a camera.
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The last was named ‘McMan’s Travels’. Once again, Insight pulsed, pushing against any ideas to read it. I listened to the instinct, setting the book down.
I grabbed the Herbalist Guide, carrying it with me to the woman. “Can I get this too? My grandfather owned something similar.”
”Of course, child.” A flash of greed flicked through her eyes. “You know, I got this from a man in a rush to get out of the city. As far as I can tell, it's a collector's item. Since you are already offering such great patronage to my shop, I’ll sell you everything for a hundred and fifty Rayn.”
What the heck? What about the discount? Still… a hundred and fifty Rayn was far cheaper than buying the rykon at full price. Maybe I could still get that discount though? I put on an act, wincing slightly as I frowned down at the book. “I don’t know…”
”Ah, of course! Your discount! My apologies, a hundred Rayn for the whole lot.” Merlo magnanimously waved her hand toward the items.
I sighed deeply, as if the price hurt, and nodded along. “Okay.”
I transferred the money and hightailed it out of the shop before Merlo could realize just how badly I was ripping her off. Chances are, she didn’t even know the books in the corner were Aetherially attuned. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have sold one for near as cheap.
Tossing everything in my pack, I headed towards another market stall I found on my way through the place. A sign board, done in fluorescent paint, hung over a rickety synthwood stall. It read ‘Pete’s Paints!’ Another synthwood slat, looking as though it was ripped off a fence, read ‘Specialty paints and more! Just ask, and I’ll have it!’
I approached the man behind the stand. He wore a drama mask, covering up most of his face. A ball cap tightly pressed down on his head, shrouding him in shadows. “What kind of specialty paints do you have?”
”Anything you could want.” He sighed, motioning to racks of paints and ingredients behind him. The guy even had a paint mixer down here. “What are you looking for?”
”Blackout paint.” I shrugged. “Or something similar.”
”Blackout…” The guy tapped his chin slowly. “I have Darkside. It absorbs ninety-nine point eight percent of light.”
Blackout out was ninety-nine point nine… but really, it was just one decimal. It shouldn’t matter all that much outside of very particular circumstances. “Will it stick to metal?”
“Of course. All my paints can be used on almost any surface…” The guy sighed again, tiredly flopping his hand to the back of his shop as if the entire thing was a hassle. “Do you want any supplements mixed in?”
”Oh?” Supplements? Is he going to mix in stuff? “Will it mess with the light-absorbing properties?”
”Hmm… depends.” The guy reached under his stall, pulling out a piece of paper. “Here’s a full list.”
I grabbed the sheet, surprised to find it exactly like a restaurant menu of some sort. There were a substantial amount of additional supplements, like way more than I thought there would be for just paint. Paint was supposed to be pretty simple, and as I read down the list I was becoming intimately aware of how complicated it could get. “What’s self-healing paint?”
“It’s paint that heals naturally…” Damn, dude. Thanks for the useful information. “I recommend getting thermal absorption with it. The self-healing needs energy to work, and the thermal absorption can charge it with a blowtorch or something similar.”
Thermal absorption? That sounded nice… just one thing though. “How much will it cost me?”
”Hmm… self-healing and thermal absorption in Darkside.” The man pulled out a phone, tapping on it several times. “How much?”
Uh, I wanted to paint my armor. Oh, but I should also get extra for future projects. “A gallon.”
”Hmm… eight hundred Rayn.” The guy offered, setting his phone down.
Oh, just eight hundred- what the hell? Eight hundred Rayn?! Even Blackout was only around two fifty for a gallon from what I saw. ‘Course, that wasn’t including the license for it, but still! Okay, okay… calm down, Shiro. It’s not just paint…
My heart ached as I thought of something else. “Okay… can I also get a pint with adjustable chroma added in?” I had a plan to make some togglable highlights to push home any intimidation tactics.
I held my breath as he pulled up his phone again and ran some calculations. “Sure. An additional two hundred Rayn. Oh, and adjustable chroma will lower the paint's light-absorbing properties by point two percent while inactive.”
My heart ached as I nodded my head. “I’ll take it.”
The guy nodded, tapping on his phone once more. “Okay. Return in thirty minutes, and I’ll have it ready.” Then the guy adjusted his ballcap and walked back to the paint mixer.
I sighed as I moved away from his stand. I saved on rykon, which I expected to take almost all my money, only to be wombo comboed by frickin’ paint. That’s just about right.
I wandered around the Night Market, entranced by the goods on sale. I bought a few things from a chemical vendor. I finally got my hands on some liquid nitrogen, which was pretty cheap. Only five Rayn for a liter. If I didn’t need a license to purchase it, just like almost everything else in the world, I’d already have gotten some. I found a secluded spot to dump the thing into my canteen.
I did think about getting some other stuff from the guy, like hydrofluoric acid, but I was apprehensive about handling it. As far as I know, a high concentration of the stuff could cause necrosis in less than a minute. I didn’t necessarily want to have something like that without more knowledge about it. Well, that and it was damn expensive.
I also managed to swing by and buy a box of random chrome from a massive market stall. The guy fashioned his entire setup like a casino with bright and dazzling lights. His whole shtick was basically loot boxes. He sold the cheapest bulk of chrome that I found, so I bought a fairly large mystery box of stuff from him for five hundred Rayn. It made moving around the market a bit more difficult.
There were so many other things out on display as I wandered around, each one calling out to purchase them. If I hadn’t just spent a bit over sixteen hundred Rayn in less than an hour, I would’ve been more than happy to get any number of them. Unfortunately, as things were, I was too broke to get most of the stuff without putting myself in a super tight pinch. I could only stare in frustration.
It was even more depressing when I found a section detached from the rest of the market by a thick stone wall. Beyond it were all sorts of explosive vendors, each hawking the best and brightest. I had to force myself to walk out of there.
Thankfully, the temptations didn’t last much longer as the thirty minutes passed. I returned to Pete’s Paints and paid for my gallon and pint. It hurt to hand over so much money just like that, but I needed the stuff for my plans.
With my arms full of goods, I backtracked out of the Night Market and to my apartment. Overall, I was happy with my purchases. I was just about to start putting together my new armor when I got a call. “Hello?”
”Shquire! I need you in my office. Yeshterday.” The guy hung up before I had time to even say anything back.