"You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost," Liora commented as she handed Thariel the contract.
"I am yep!" Thiora replied as she held her hand out, she took the contract and grabbed the Skytar feather on the desk. She didn't think she needed to read through this.
They had already agreed that they'll each get a percent of the profits from the potions that got sold- 60-40 on Thariel's favor, - while at the same time, the contract also gave Thariel the luxury of being able to buy raw materials from Liora at a discounted price.
The discount was the most important part of the contract in Thariel's opinion, as it'll give her a profit from her potions even if she sells them at like, 4 gold or something.
In that sense, the 6 gold cut she'll get for every potion sold- each one costs 10 gold, - from the contract wasn't a big deal.
"I just didn't expect the contract to be so good?" Thariel honestly wasn't sure how she could ever put her feelings into words, the contract sounded way too good to be true.
"Finding a good alchemist is hard," Liora shrugs, "and getting a budding talent is a rare opportunity,"
It was? Thariel didn't think alchemists were valuable...
Liora must have seen her face because the merchant further added, "Trust me, any alchemist worth their weight wouldn't accept this kind of contract, they'll demand more," she explains, "if anything, I'm the lucky one here,"
"Thank you?" Thariel couldn't help but feel happy at the compliment, indirect as it was. She scratched her cheek, "so uhm, the contract says I'll get a discount from all your wares, is that true?"
"Yes," Liora nodded, "why? Do you want to buy something? Have anything in mind? I'm sure I have it here,"
"A lot actually-" and with that, the floodgates that was Thariel's required items opened, she asked for a lot of things, mainly the materials she needed to make more potions but also a few other miscellaneous items.
"-I also want a mule and a cart-" because walking back to her house carrying everything she bought would be impossible.
"Don't worry, I'll provide you with one, it's on the house," Liora's offer made Thariel giddy.
"- right, that's great! So in its place I want a new cauldron, preferably one made with folded bronze," as those things are good at reflecting magic, hence why they're so popular as mirrors.
And when they're shaped as a cauldron, all that magic bounces back to their center rather than flying back to the enemy.
Thariel continued listing more things, "uh, let's see what else- oh, and I want a bag of toast wood and ember caps, alive ones this time, not the uh, dead powdered spores I asked for earlier, do you have those?"
There was a recipe for making charcoal that never burnt out, and Thariel was jogging her memory to remember it.
If her memory serves her right, then all she needed to make it was to slather blue moss onto toast wood, the ember caps would then just take root into the wood and when burned, they'd eat the heat and even start repairing the dead toast wood.
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"I can get those," Liora confirmed, "what else?"
"That's it, I think? So uh, how much is that all in total?" Thariel wanted to take a peek at the list that the merchant wrote down but she couldn't, it was too far, "if I overspent then uh, just take off a few pounds of materials?"
"You didn't," Liora reassured, Thariel hid her relief, "with the discount, it only goes up to 83 gold in total, the most expensive thing here is the cauldron which even with a full price, isn't going to make a dent to a hundred and fifty gold budget,"
"Really?" Thariel couldn't believe it but this was the power of having a mid-game level amount of gold and a considerable discount, now she remembers why she liked having Thariel in her party in the first place!
"Yes," Liora snapped her logbook close, "I'll be able to procure these in a few hours, so do your own thing for a while,"
"I'll uh, do that yeah," Thariel nodded, she did wonder what she can do around here to burn so much time but she's sure she'll figure it out.
After buying a few other things- mainly a weapon in the form of a silver-edged dagger and chainmail for armor, - Thariel left the merchant's shop and headed back out to Streamwise where she walked around for a bit.
She soon found herself standing in front of a smithy, which unlike most of the houses here, was completely made of stone and not much else.
At the front of the house, there was an open space with a basin of water, an anvil, and a forge, she wasn't sure what was behind the door on the wall but it was probably just the blacksmith's house or a storage or something.
The blacksmith himself- a man she couldn't recognize, - was working on something when she arrived and he was so focused on his work that he didn't notice Thariel sitting down on the bench bolted to the stone pillar.
"Can I help you?" Someone did approach her thankfully.
Thariel looked at the guy standing by the pool of water, he held a bucket which meant that he must have just come back from the well.
He didn't look like much, just slightly muscular and with a bit of facial hair on his otherwise undeveloped face.
Thariel stood up and smiled, "I'm looking to commission a few items,"
For the past week, she had thought about how she could realistically solve her DPS problem and concluded that the best way to do it was to just... Make a gun.
That's it. Make a gosh darn gun and shoot anyone she sees as an enemy.
The original Thariel used spells or potions for this issue but screw that! Those things were completely unreliable! Guns are so much better!
"Commission?" The kid asked, he scratched his cheek and chuckled, "I- uhhh..."
"It's okay, you don't have to worry about payment," Thariel flashed a gold coin for emphasis, "I have enough money to pay for them,"
"Kid, go back to filling the tub," a gruff voice butted into their conversation, prompting Thariel to look at the blacksmith, who had stopped hammering the anvil at some point, "what do you want?"
"I think it's better if I just show you," Thariel took out her notebook and showed the man her blueprint, it was multi-layered with all the necessary calcs for the size and weight of each component.
The smith took her notebook and looked the blueprint over, he looked at Thariel with a raised eyebrow, "I don't know what these are for but this'll take me a week to make,"
"It's okay, I can always come back," smiled Thariel, "and uhm, how much do you think would this cost?"
"15 gold," the smith answered with a scoff, "I can't enchant them though, so you're gonna have to find someone else to do that for you,"
"Oh don't worry about that, I can solve that issue myself," Thariel replied in confidence, she patted her chest, "just leave the indents for the enchants on the surface of the metal and I'll do the rest,"
"Right, then it's gonna cost you 15 gold still," the smith gave Thariel back her notebook and after pocketing it, she gave the burly man 10 gold as reassurance.
"Come back here in a week," the smith said, "I'll have your items by then,"
"Thank you," Thariel bowed and left.
Hopefully he makes it with tempered iron like she requested. Hm, maybe that was why the price was so high?
Now that she's taken the first steps into making her gun, Thariel thought that she might as well work on the rest of the needed materials to make her gun, next up was the jeweler, which she also didn't recognize.
There was no negotiation for the sapphire and amethysts, just a simple series of requests, showcases, followed by a swift purchase at the end.
These should allow her to enchant her gun appropriately; the sapphire was for the heatsink while the amethyst served as the catalyst for the electricity. Hm, maybe she should buy some onyxes as well?
Thariel went back to the shop and bought the aforementioned gemstones, which would help with strengthening the tempered iron that made up the gun.
Tempered iron alone would be fine under the strain of a rail gun but it was better to be safe.
After buying the gems she needed for enchantment, Thariel went back to Liora's and bought materials to make the bullets and these, unlike regular bullets, will be made using alchemy.
Depending on the mixture that makes up their bodies, the bullets will have different effects such as acid, explosions, or some other thing while their base would be made with iron thistles, this will allow them to be shot out.
"See you Liora," waved Thariel while heading for the door, she paused just as she was about to go out, "wait, by the way, do you know a good place to eat?"
"There's Embercap Inn," answered the merchant without looking up from her logbook, "their beer is pretty spicy but I don't think you'd have a problem with that, since you're a Damphir and all,"
"Ahaha, yeah... I'll go check that place out," Thariel hid her disappointment, she asked Liora this question to begin with because she didn't want to eat at that chili-obsessed place!
Well, whatever, it's not like there's something inherently bad about the Inn just that it was owned by a Dwarf, a race known to have such a high poison tolerance that they add powdered zinc (the mineral, and also the vitamin,) into their meals.