Walking through the empty student dormitories, Sofia managed to learn from a janitor that her students had left with Tartaros a few hours prior.
I don’t want to bother Leverle again so soon… And I really don’t want to keep training VPPV right now…
Sofia left the Academy. Caleb was busy reading the same book in front of the gate.
“Hey Caneb!”
“Miss Sonia, leaving so soon?”
“I was thinking I could relax a little. Would you happen to know about the best restaurants and shops in the city? You have been here a while after all.”
“Oh of course. What’s your budget?”
“I have more gold than I know what to do with.”
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Azurian’s antiquities. That’s the place.
In a street lined with shops of all kinds, this one looked like any other next to it. But Caleb had been adamant that Sofia would find her happiness there.
Doesn’t look like anything special. Maybe he was having a laugh at my expense. Let’s not judge the book by its cover though. Sofia opened the lacquered wooden door of the small shop.
[Hero - Lv. 358]
Shocked by the unexpected spectacle, Sofia lost herself looking at the shirtless human hero’s rippling muscles as he struggled to finish one push-up with a dainty small horned lady sitting on his back.
[Mage - Lv.400+]
Sofia took a step back outside of the shop and closed the door. That… Is definitely not what I expected to find in an antiquities shop. She wondered what she should do, thinking that maybe it was better to come back at a later time, but the door opened from inside.
It was the small lady who greeted Sofia, “Hi, sorry about that, welcome to Azurian’s, he’s the guy I was helping exercise. Are you looking for anything in particular? Not every day we find more humans around here.”
The human hero was nowhere to be seen in the shop.
“Hey… I’m- No, I don’t know what I want exactly, I just wanted to look around… And you don’t look exactly human.”
“Oh, yeah, because I’m not, I’m a one of ‘em big flying lizards, you know, the kind you scale to make armor out of,” the girl winked, “Everyone in my family ends up looking like humans though. Come in, do look around, we have plenty of ol’ crap for sale or barter.”
I figured.
Sofia followed after the girl, she quickly glanced around the shop. “You wouldn’t happen to be Phillip’s daughter by chance?”
The girl turned back, her arms crossed, she looked up at Sofia, “That’s my old man, yeah. What are you, a Dragon hunter? My scales ain’t for sale, they ain’t even hard yet, just so you know.”
“No, no, I’m just here on a recommendation from Caleb Whitehound of Brighthall, I’m also a teacher there… I just happened to meet Phillip before, he helped me with something in exchange for new lingering magic to study. I never expected to find his daughter here.”
“Really? It ain’t no secret that I’m here often tho, since I’m going out with that guy. Well, I’ll take your word for it, not like you could have stolen that scale on your arm by yourself, you must be worth a pretty something if someone trusted you with that.”
“It got it in a fair trade between me and Erredis,” Sofia casually explained.
“The motherfuckin Moon Lord? You joking?”
Sofia extended her hand, summoned a small loaf of bread from her storage, and quickly showered it with holy light in front of the Dragon’s eyes. The bread was covered with rot and quickly consumed.
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“Well, fuck, I wanna be able to do that too. You got some fine credentials uh, I wasn’t sure considering your level but I guess we might be able to do some good trading here.”
The human hero showed up again, fully clothed this time, coming down from the stairs in the back of the small shop, “Someone you know, Lina?”
The girl turned back, “Nah, but she knows my father as well as the fucken moon lord, can you believe this shit?”
The man blinked several times, he came down and extended a hand to Sofia. The handshake was a bit awkward because of the black powder left from the rot-consumed bread, but it didn't seem to bother him. “Hi. Sorry about Lina’s foul mouth, I have been trying to fix it but well… Anyway, I’m Azurian, welcome to my shop, I sell the random stuff I find in dungeons here.”
“That’s an interesting way to make money, I guess. Some of the items here do look interesting,” Sofia said, looking at a shelf covered in old books and bones.
“This? Lina found that recently, actually, a bunch of stuff tucked away in an old castle, a lich who broke their phylactery, we think. There’s some interesting stuff in the grimoires, we brought the bones there just for show since there wasn't much loot, there’s a locked chest, too, with a few baubles inside, not too sure what. I can sell you the whole thing for 5k.”
“You didn’t open the chest?” Sofia looked at the man suspiciously.
“No, it’s heavily-heavily cursed and we don’t want to bother, honestly.”
Couldn’t a Dragon easily handle that? Sofia thought then told them.
Lina sighed, “I’m a bit bad when it comes to precise stuff like that, I’d probably break what’s inside before I successfully absorb the curses’ mana…”
Azurian placed a hand on Lina’s shoulder and brought her closer to him, “It’s alright, you’ll get there,” he told her, then he addressed Sofia again, “Lina is still getting used to her human form, Dragons live at a different scale, normally.”
I guess so, Erredis was huge…
“I’ll probably buy the chest and the things, then, if you let me have a look first,” Sofia started, “And I’m curious now, how old are you, can I ask that? I thought you would both be quite old at first considering your level but I’m not so sure anymore…”
“Ah, I can get that, it’s fine to ask, I’m, uuh, forty-one years old? If you count both lives. I was summoned here pretty young. Lina just turned twenty-six. Right, you’re a Saintess, summoned anyone from my world? I’m always curious to meet other isekai’d heroes.”
“Isekaied?” Sofia asked, a confused look on her face. Is that a Draconic word or something?
“Oh, right, sorry, just forget about it,” Azurian backed out, uncomfortably putting a hand behind his neck, “I’ll get censored left and right if I try to say too much, not worth the hassle. I’m surprised this even got through the scribes.”
“I see… Well, I did summon someone from the human heroes’ world, yes, but I can already guess she was not from the same time as you.”
“That’s quite alright, I’d love to meet them if I have the occasion. You want the loot from the dead lich, then? You can have a look but don’t break anything, the policy for books is you can only [Identify] them, no reading before buying.”
“Alright, thanks. I’ll tell her about this place, she’ll come if she wants.”
Sofia walked up to the shelf and started identifying everything, almost salivating.
Did Caleb know they had this stuff?!
[Book of the four-HeadDead] : A necromancy grimoire by the hands of Master Lich Tetrapopulos about his research on the grafting of additional heads to zombies.
If this is applicable to skeletons… Also, no item level or grades today?
[On becoming a healthy lich] : Diary of Master Lich Tetrapopulos detailing the process of turning oneself into an undead skeleton without the intermediary step of becoming dead.
I’m not really interested in becoming a skeleton myself but that should be an interesting read nonetheless.
[Curses, the most misunderstood school of magic] : An essay from an unknown author about the nature of curses.
That actually looks interesting.
[Commander’s guide to military formations] : A book that somehow survived through the ages, it recounts the exploits of a human commander guiding his outnumbered troops to victory through clever use of terrain and positioning.
I have been mostly letting the paladin skeletons do whatever they wanted but that is knowledge I could use. Not five thousand gold worth of knowledge though.
[Nameless book] : This book contains 28 unlabelled rituals schematics without any explanation. Try at your own risk.
That’s… Kind of exciting, honestly. I’m sure Zerei would love to have a look at this one too.
That’s it for the books, there’s also two wands, a dilapidated robe, the chest and most importantly, the skeleton!
[Bones of a twice-dead lich] : The remains of Master Lich Tetrapopulos, the old skeleton is mostly intact despite a few of the smaller bones missing.
Must have originally been a dwarf or something like that, that’s a small skeleton.
I’m definitely buying this! Are you hungry, Bookie? We’ve found a skeleton-summoning skeleton to add to your pages!!!
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