Collecting himself he went to Donny’s room only to find it empty, going to the back of the Inn he saw him already doing the exercises taught to him by Mark, he was sweating all over, and barely breathing, but he pressed on.
Without another word Mark walked up and continued guiding him as always, correcting his mistakes, reminding him of the points to keep in mind during training. In this way, another hour passed when Donny could no longer continue and collapsed on the ground.
“You are still forgetting to breathe properly. Without enough air, you are going to tire much faster, your blood will not flow properly and the exercise will not be as effective as intended. Always remember no matter what you do, controlling the way you breathe is one of the most important things to master. Now stand up and wash yourself. We are going to the Adventurers Association.”
Hearing this Donny quickly pulled himself together, soon they went out into the streets, Donny still fairly winded.
Mark stopped at one of the roadside stalls, the older lady behind the counter was roasting some rabbit meat and roasting what looked like paprika, but the color was a deep purple.
Seeing the two men approach, the lady smiled invitingly, waving them forward while raising her voice a little.
“What would you like gentlemen? Some rabbit, maybe some roasted rikant, only half price, for the Heroes of Pharia, after all, it would be an honor to feed you.”
“Heroes of Pharia?!”
Mark looked at Donny, who quickly turned red at blurting things out, without approval. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal here but Mark had to instill in him to not be speaking out of turn, even in such small incidents like this.
Turning towards the Lady, Mark bowed his head a little.
“Then we will gladly accept, a leg each with a couple of roasted rikants would be wonderful, thank you.”
“Such a cultured gentleman, here you go, that will be only six copper for those”
“Thank you, can I ask a question, what do you mean Heroes of Pharia?”
“Oh everyone in the Town's talking about it, it is said that you, my sir, and your there student have tracked down and helped the Guard get rid of the Bandits, it is also said, that You have defeated the fearsome Bandit Leader Vesthia by your lonesome, while she had the help of a dozen of her henchwomen.”
“Is that so, thank you very much, good woman.”
“Oh, that is no trouble at all, may Qamarya bless your steps”
With that Mark went on his way. It would seem someone wanted to spread the information of the attack, no one but the guards and Maria could know what happened in the caves, but to what purpose he did not know, he wouldn't fight it much, he needed the reputation and he got it, he would find out the particulars at a later date.
On another note, he was fairly sure that the Qamarya the old lady mentioned was some sort of god, that in conjunction with Thoures would make at least this country polytheistic. It was good to know such things, at least to blend in with the locals better.
Finally arriving at the guild, he once again heard cheers the moment they stepped in, all the adventurers crowded in, clapping, slapping them on their backs, and speaking words of encouragement.
“You got their ass good!”
“Haha, I heard that this guy cut through dozens of bandits before finding Vesthia hiding in her bedroom, she even offered herself to him, but he just sliced her throat, he didn’t hesitate at all, he is like a demon in human skin, I don’t know if I wouldn’t hesitate, she is said to be a real beauty that one.”
“Ha, I heard it differently, apparently he sneaked up on her when she was bathing and got her good without her even knowing what got her, haha, is that how you got her boy?!”
All sorts of made-up, exaggerated, or even ridiculous stories floated between the adventurers. Each one, more outrageous than the last. Trying to ignore the rowdy adventurers Mark plowed through the crowd toward the reception, by the time he got there Manager Sebastian was already waiting with a big smile on his face.
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“Haha, I heard everything from Lieutenant Torrento, we are ready to process your reward, there are also rumors that the Mayor would like to hand you a personal reward tomorrow, in front of the whole town, by that time the caravan should also be here. So there should not be any problems whatsoever in hooking up with them as you intended.
To let formalities rest, just swipe your tokens over the counter and we will process the reward for you. Soon an official notice should come from the Mayor’s assistant if you would like to wait, if not I will just send him over to the Dancing Goblin to leave the news there.”
“Just let him leave it at Joe’s Inn, I still have a couple of things to do so I will be around town”
“Very well, I will send him there then, here's your reward, this for killing Vesthia to Sir Mark, and these for the Bandit Kills, I hope to see you in the future, someday.”
With that Mark parted ways with Manager Sebastian, and left the Guild building. Next Mark went to Barry’s smithy, he wanted someone to appraise the gear he got from Vesthia, the mask, maybe the cloak, but most importantly the daggers.
Approaching the shop, they heard the usual sound of metal clanking against metal, walking in, Mark saw that Barry was in the middle of pounding the metal on an anvil. Barry’s eyes jumped toward the doors and Mark was surprised, instead of continuing his job, Barry chucked the metal into the fire and turned his full attention to them.
“Mark, you came, good. Hmm, thank you, for getting rid of the bandits. They got Sheila’s ‘rents last month, she got strange after. Too uppity you see, sigh. She cried the whole night yesterday, but she looked better, more normal. I owe you one for that, what did you come for, need some steel?”
Mark was surprised at how deeply the Stranglers hurt the local populace, he knew Sheila was not ok, but didn’t know why, and honestly, didn’t care much, he wasn’t that close to her and every human had their load of sorrows to go through. But it would seem, he could get something more from the bandits' quest again.
“I came to ask if you would know something about these items, they look enchanted but I don’t know what they do, could you take a look and see if maybe you can decipher something from this.”
“Hmm, ok, let me see”
Barry took a look at the items, starting with the mask he carefully studied the markings, he even took out a micro hammer and very lightly struck the mask in a couple of places, moving from place to place, he finally went closer to the fire and Mark saw the mask turn momentarily green, and then the golden filigree disappeared, replaced by pure darkness.
“Ha made with an alloy of orichalcum and zircon and this, tis a shadow enchantment, should be just to help blend better with the shadows around you, when ya put Stamina into it, impressive stuff no doubt”
With that he went over to the cloak, leaving the daggers that intrigued him the most for the last. Repeating the actions from before, he slowly, carefully looked over every inch of the cloak, making sure of something, then without any doubt once more poured out of him, this time it looked blue. And he appeared a meter away, he was bent over sweating from all his pores.
“Haa, haa, this one is difficult, takes too much mana, at least fifteen per use, but still a useful piece of cloth, this one.”
Mark was very intrigued, it was the first time he saw someone use Mana since he arrived here, and must have been what Vesthia used in the caves to dodge his attacks, must be also why she was able to use it while under the effects of the poison, under his conjecture the poison locked the Stamina in your body but did nothing to stop you from using mana.
“Finally, these beauties, hmm pure orichalcum, very energy conductive, the enchantment is etched with the Tahayan blood, supposed to be gathering fire spirits, the handle leather is also from the same creature, and here on the hilts this is not a part of enchantment it is Old Gelantian for the Fangs of Tahayan, These are very old, almost indestructible, you got lucky, getting your hands on them boy”
“What is Tahayan, I don’t think I heard this before”
Barry looked up and sighed heavily.
“What do they teach you young lads nowadays, eh Tahayan is also Old Gelantian for a Dragon boy, these were probably made during Usurpancy, when some Humans started hunting Dragons in their greed, nothin good came to them from that, that's for sure, got a couple Dragons down, before they retaliated, the rest of the humans quickly shunned the rebels, and once again made peace with the Dragons.
There was nothing to gather from what remained of those idiots. If I were you, I would be careful showing that around them. They aint coming as often as they used to, but I would at least not show it around too much, were I you”
“Thank you for your advice, can I have another question then?”
“Aye ask away”
“What use is there for the fire spirits in the blade, even if they got the blade hot wouldn’t it just cauterize the wound?”
“Hah, ya normally it would if it were just hot, but tis are fire spirits we are talking about, they are the most active of all spirits if you cut someone with this blade and draw blood, the spirits would shoot out along the bloodstream and burning everything in their way, too close to the heart and they could even burn the heart from the inside, nasty piece of work that one could fell even the toughest of warriors.”
Mark was surprised, normally hot blades weren’t that good of an idea, at most they dealt a little more pain than usual, but this? This was very useful, especially here, where a high enough constitution could even allow you to heal during the fight, making you essentially invincible as long as you had enough Stamina.
Suddenly he was far less daunted by the prospect of offending some Dragons, these daggers were too useful to just hide them away.