I rushed forward to catch the old sanitation worker before he hit the floor. I knew the sewer smell was bad but I hadn’t expected it to affect him like that.

I caught him and gently lowered him to the floor. He had fainted. The slime that covered my body dripped to the floor where I knelt next to the man, causing a puddle to form at my feet.

He wasn’t going to be happy when he realised he was the one who’d have to clean it up.

Oh well. At least he didn’t have to fight the Slime Queen. I thought to myself as the man stirred.

I was crouched next to his head where I had caught him before he fell. His eyes opened slowly and I smiled at him. A friendly face would be comforting in this situation.

“Ah! Get that thing away from me!” He yelled hysterically as he shuffled backwards with the speed of a man half his age.

He pushed himself into a corner stared at me in horror.

“Don’t you recognise me?” I asked, bewildered as the man shook. “I’m Kaleb, the adventurer who came to complete your quest… it’s completed now by the way, you shouldn’t have any more slime trouble.”

The man stared back at me for a minute. He blinked a few times as if struggling to comprehend what I’d said.

“You’re that adventurer kid?” He finally replied.

“Yup, that’s me.”

“How? You were in there an entire month. The poison from the smell should have killed you.” He began slowly as the implications of his words dawned on me. “Why are you wearing a sock on your penis?”

“Did you just say I was in there an entire month?” I asked quickly.

“Well yes. I let you in there exactly a month today. I thought you were dead.”

Without reply, I stood up and rushed out of the building. I didn’t want to be rude but I had somewhere I needed to be.

I threw the door open as I ran into the street. The busy people of Havar stopped their business to stare at me but I barely noticed as I set off running towards my destination.

Andy better not have sold that armour. I thought as I sprinted away from the sanitation building. If it’s gone and I’ve just wasted an entire month in the sewer for nothing I don’t know what I’ll do.

I ran so fast that I almost skidded around the corner onto the high street. People cried out, gasped, and muttered to their friends as I ran past. Mostly though, they just held their noses.

“What is that awful stench?” A catonid said.

“What is he running from?” A human said.

“Why is he wearing a dirty sock on his penis?” A lycanid said.

I ignored them all as I raced towards my goal.

My upgraded stats almost seemed designed for running. My legs moved faster than I thought possible and I could turn on a dime. It must have been due to my agility and strength stats.

How fast would I be able to move at the level cap?

The feeling was awesome, but I didn’t have time to appreciate it as I closed in on my destination: Andy’s Armour Emporium.

I burst through the front door to the familiar sound of clanging coming from the back. I looked around but the armour wasn’t on the stand anymore. Was I too late?

“Andy I’m back!” I shouted as loudly as I could as I jogged up to the counter.

The clanging stopped and the broad human in the brown leather apron came out from the back of the shop.

“You actually heard me?” I asked, placing both hands impatiently on the counter and leaning towards him.

“Heard you? No, I smelt something awful and came to investigate. Who are you and what are you doing in my shop dressed like… that?” He asked aggressively as he gestured to my attire.

“It’s me, Kaleb.” I replied, taken aback. Why did no one recognise me? Surely my lack of hair wasn’t enough to make me look that different. “Panda’s summoner.” I quickly added.

“Oh Kaleb, cutting it a little close aren’t you?” He laughed, his demeanour changing instantly. “You smell like a sewer, kid, and why is there a dirty sock on your penis?”

“I took a quest in the sewer and a slime queen burnt off all my clothes and hair. This was all I had to change into in my inventory.” I explained, I felt in less of a hurry now he knew who I was but I still needed to know if he still had the armour I’d worked so hard for.

“Ah I see.” He replied, folding his arms, and stroking his chin and nodding. “You do realise that you look like an eccentric pervert like that right? It would probably be more dignified to just stay commando.”

“I’ll grab some new clothes soon. Do you still have the armour?” I asked hurriedly.

“Of course I do. A deal is a deal. Besides, that set had been on display for three weeks before you came in. The chances of my selling it the same day our deal ran out were always pretty low.” He chuckled. “I’ll fetch it for you, but first do me a favour and take a shower, there’s one in the back.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

He motioned into his smithing room with his thumb and I nodded. My whole body relaxed as he spoke. I could finally get my armour and I would happily take a shower.

Holding his nose, Andy led me through his workshop to a small shower cubicle hidden off to the side.

“I keep this here for when I work up too much of a sweat. Don’t want to scare of the customers, you know?” He chuckled as I walked into the shower room. “I’ll bring you some clothes, so why don’t you go ahead and incinerate what you’re wearing.” He said, as he walked off I did exactly that.

I removed the cloak and the cock sock, both of which were tattered and covered in slime and sewer muck, and I threw them into the fire.

It was a mistake. The smell got worse.

My nose was pretty desensitised though so I ignored it as I entered the shower cubicle and pulled the chord. Glorious water rained down on me. It was the best feeling ever.

Blue gunk, brown dirt and, what was likely human, excrement flowed from me into the drain. It was disgusting. I knew I was dirty but this was a whole other level.

The water at my feet turned black instantly before draining away. I must have been in the shower for like half an hour before the water finally ran clean.

When I walked out of the shower I found a pair worn brown pants and a tattered shirt wating for me. I slipped them on and walked back out into the main store.

“What happened to the sewer monster?” Andy asked.

“What happened to these pants?” I returned gesturing to the brown monstrosity he’d left for me.

“Touche.” He replied with a chuckle. “So, to business. Are you ready for your armour?”

He had no idea how ready I was. It was all I’d thought about for the last month in the sewer.

“Yup.” Was all I managed to reply with.

“…And, do you have the 48,000 gold we discussed?” He asked.

“I do.” I replied, delving into my inventory to check.

“Perfect, I’ll send you the request.” Andy said.

What request? I thought, and then a notification appeared.

You have received an inventory transfer request from (Andy) for 48,000 gold coins. Would you like to accept?

Y/N

That was weird, I didn’t even know you could request inventory from people. I guess it made sense though. If I ejected 48,000 gold coins onto the floor it would fill the shop.

I mentally asserted yes and another notification appeared.

Please enter your pin code.

Pin code? What the fuck. I didn’t have a pin code. I didn’t even know that inventory transfers existed until a few moments ago.

A number pad appeared on my HUD and I took a breath. Maybe it was just one of those default pins like they did back home sometimes. I focused the number pad and tried entering 1,2,3,4.

You have entered the wrong pin. You have been locked out of inventory transfer for one week. Thank you for using system banking. Have a nice day.

Locked out, after just one attempt? What kind of bureaucratic bullshit was this? Well, I guess I didn’t have a choice. I’d have to flood the store coins after all if I wanted to pay him.

I looked up at the ceiling and growled, “fuck you.” Then I pulled the money from my inventory and it scattered across his countertop, spilling onto the floor, and practically burying Andy in gold. It’s not like looted gold came in neat little bags, so I made it rain all over his shop.

His eyes lit up like a dragon adding to its horde.

“That was a little rude. Have you never heard of manners? Also, how did you get this so fast?” He asked first in a pissed off tone and then in a shocked whisper as he picked up a coin and bit it, like he thought it might have been made of chocolate.

“That’s a trade secret.” I replied with a wink.

In truth I didn’t want to tell him I was blessed by Chrysus. As a merchant he probably wouldn’t be offended by it, but why take the risk?

I didn’t really understand the religion here yet. There seemed to be lots of gods and they all had different reputations and connotations attached to them. Honestly, I didn’t want anything to do with any of them.

“Fair enough.” He replied. “Well, as promised, here’s your armour.” He said, pulling it from his inventory. “It’s all yours kid.”

It was just as awesome as I remembered. Fitted black pants with padding in the knees, an embroidered black torso piece and a cloak as black as the void with a hood that covered the top half of your face with slits for your eyes.

It was badass.

I quickly pulled it into my inventory and a new notification popped up.

You have received multiple new items:

Shadow Armour (epic)

The Shadow Armour set is an epic rarity ensemble of black armour that appeals to emo kids and fans of rich orphans turned vigilante.

Here’s a tip, try speaking in an unnecessary hoarse voice to really add to the effect.

Full set:

Shadow Cloak: a cloak that blends into the shadows increasing stealth. With the hood up you can shield your aura from others.

Shadow Light Armour: +10% vitality.

Shadow Pants: +10% vitality.

Shadow Boots: +15% agility.

Shadow Bracer: +5% strength.

Full Set Bonus: When all pieces of the set are equipped, turn invisible once a day for an amount of time dictated by your intelligence stat.

I equipped the set and immediately felt the surge of power to my stats. There was a lot to unpack here. I bet I looked like a certain orphan turned vigilante in my all black gear.

Firstly, most of the armour gave me stat boosts which were definitely welcome, especially considering they stacked.

Though the boosts themselves weren’t huge, they would be one day. I wondered if there was a cap for what percentage boosts you could have. Theoretically I could just keep adding to them until my stats were insane.

The cloak had an interesting effect. I’d have to experiment with the whole blending into shadows thing.

The hood was pretty self-explanatory. From what I understood from what Panda had told me, people with mana – AKA everyone who wasn’t named Kaleb Akabane – could sense auras.

It was a way for them to distinguish the powerful from their peers. I didn’t have this ability. However, I probably did have an aura of my own. The hood would hide it, probably.

I was a little sad that there weren’t any gloves but at least my agility boost was good. I’d lost both my white glove and my boots of resist environment in the fight with the slime queen. So I was over the moon to see how good the stat boosts were which replaced them. Also, the set bonus was freaking awesome!

I would have to practice with it. Turning invisible was like a superpower. Something like that could really turn the tide of a battle, especially when mixed with the aura hiding hood.

I’d be invisible both to the eyes and the senses.

The only problem was that it worked using my intelligence stat. The lowest stat I had by quite a bit.

From what I understood, intelligence was all about mana, so I had never put anything into it because, well… I didn’t have any mana.

I’d have to change that going forward. I still had five free points from my level up so I threw them all into intelligence.

As I read through the item specs and lost myself in thought, the door to the shop slammed open.

“Andy! Get out here right fucking now.”