"Woah! There are so many rings!" Vee said excitedly as she peered around from her position, sitting on my shoulder. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I couldn't help but smile at her excitement.

We were currently exploring the adventurer's section of one of the market districts, a place that never failed to ignite a sense of wonder. The various equipment on display-weapons, armor, trinkets, tools, and all sorts of enchanted jewelry-were like treasures from a fairy tale, proudly on display for all to see. The tight security only added to the mystique, making this probably one of the most intriguing areas in the entire city.

I had personally looked over a few of the staves and scepters, but none seemed to be made from slime cores, so I immediately dismissed them as worthless.

I wonder if Flintheart bought everything already?

That was an exciting thought and made me eager for our next meeting.

"Some of these look really pricy. Can you really afford them?" Vee questioned.

"No idea! We can keep tapping my guild tag until it runs out!" I said excitedly.

"You really should learn how much money and things are worth..." Vee muttered.

"Nope!" I rejected the idea. "That sounds like far too much of a headache. The guild verifies all the purchases and whatnot, so I don't need to worry about money."

"You pull apart and combine complex magical spell formula... And a little accounting is what scares you off?" Vee asked in disbelief.

"Magic is fun. Money is not. It's that simple," I answered.

"Well... That tracks..." Vee sighed. "I guess I'll prioritize the good ones for when your magic credit card's balance runs out..."

"I can always sell some more obsidianite..." I pointed out.

"Ah yes... The emergency worm fund," Vee giggled.

We continued perusing the diverse wares for anything that potentially tickled Vee's fancy. I had a few dwarves trying to offer me various weapons and trinkets, but it all seemed very pointless. I noted that none of the armor dwarves approached me; I was wearing my freshly renovated salamander armor, and perhaps they could appraise its worth.

When Thern or Darmod finally pull Thessa out of the forge, I must thank her for the work. Or maybe I should pay a visit? The fact that it's scaring off dwarven merchants must be a testament to its quality.

I couldn't find much use for anything besides a new metal to sample or a slime core, so I merely admired the crafts and occasionally tried to examine the enchantments.

Interestingly, many of the highly valuable objects were hidden behind a piece of glass that seemed to obscure most of the enchantment beyond a simple appraisal. Undoubtedly, it was some form of protection against someone seeking to steal an enchantment design.

Although... How many enchanters could copy an entire enchantment from a glance or even a one-time examination? I know there are traits and skills for memory stuff, but even so, Greg would never do an enchantment without thoroughly practicing and understanding it. Maybe that's the point? By hiding it away, they stop someone from even attempting to risk it.

"The variety is mind-blowing!" Vee exclaimed. "I don't know how they came up with so many ideas... Strength, resistances, temperature, it almost seems endless!"

"Most of it is translated from actual magic, or at least components of it," I explained. "I worked on a refrigerator enchantment, which had components from some of my ice spells that I could vaguely recognize."

"They have fridges!?" Vee was flabbergasted.

"Yes...?" I answered. "Someone else invented the design. I just used it."

"Interesting..." Vee mused. "Any suggestions on what rings to get? The two that catch my eye the most are protection and fire resistance."

"Maybe something to help your magic?" I questioned.

"Like what? Are there rings that boost Mana capacity?" Vee asked.

"Oh!" I exclaimed excitedly. "I have another ring for you!"

I pulled out the Mana regeneration ring I had won from that golem and held it toward my shoulder and her.

"What's it do?" Vee asked as she poked it.

"Mana regeneration," I answered promptly before frowning. "Although... I don't think it has a size enchantment on it."

"Could you add one?" Vee asked.

"Shouldn't be too hard; it's one of the relatively simple ones," I answered and looked over the enchantment.

Weirdly enough, there seemed to be a spot specifically left empty to apply the enchantment.

Huh, is that an oversight? Did someone forget to complete it?

Looking closer, I noticed other tiny spots that seemed open, as if awaiting other enchantments to be added to the ring.

Was this ring designed to be upgradable? That seems ingenious...

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Syl?" Vee asked with concern.

"Sorry... Did I blank out again?" I replied sheepishly.

"Yeah, you were staring intently at the ring... Is there something wrong with it?" Vee questioned.

"No..." I answered, shaking my head. "I think this ring is upgradeable, but I'll have to wait until we get back to our room to check it out."

"Neat! Well, we should get some shopping done; it's way past lunchtime!" Vee enthusiastically informed me.

"And I thought I was supposed to be the glutton..." I teased.

"Food is pretty much the only pleasure I have left in life," Vee defended herself. "Although I guess I'm adding shiny enchanted objects to that list after today..."

I giggled at the silly spider, and we continued our perusal. We did end up going with the two rings Vee had pointed out. Weirdly, we couldn't find any rings relating to Mana or even Mana regeneration, which made me wonder if I had taken the rarity of the ring I was gifted for granted.

Eventually, we relented and started asking some of the shopkeepers for advice on what to get. At first, they were dumbfounded that I wanted accessories for my companion rather than myself, but eventually, they relented; money was money, after all.

Many protection items were offered, mostly various forms of poison resistance, but it seemed rather pointless for Vee, who said she had a very high level in [Poison Resistance].

I should give her some of my resistant traits. Sure, I don't need them, but they might save Vee's life.

Ice resistance was added to the ring collection, and finally, a rather surprising ring that enhanced stamina regeneration at the cost of increasing your metabolism. It quite literally turned food into fuel, which made Vee tremendously happy.

"I can eat and turn it into stamina! Which means more webs and everything else!" Vee cheered.

"Which means a bigger food budget..." I mumbled.

"You said you could afford it!" Vee giggled.

I got the feeling most of my core storage would be filled with Vee's snacks at this rate.

I better hope she gets her own dimensional storage trait or spell soon!

There had been other minor recommendations for rings that helped with [Dark Vision] or helped with stealth, but most of them were minor effects that only helped if your traits and skills were low level. It was rather interesting that there was this whole other side of magical items I had completely skipped over.

At the same time, I bought some electrum to melt down for the enchanting. While I would have loved to have used my own slime for the job, it would eventually revert back to my natural state and no doubt damage or break the ring.

When we returned to our room, Vee wasted no time, spending all her stamina weaving a multitude of spider silk before gorging herself on food.

"Are you testing the ring?" I asked curiously.

"Yup!" Vee enthusiastically informed me.

"Maybe I do need to sell some more obsidianite..."

Leaving Vee to spin threads and have fun with her weaving, I sat at the desk and pulled out my enchanting tools.

"Wait... Why am I doing this like I only have hands..." I realized and chuckled.

[Pseudopods] were formed, and soon, I had plenty of tendrils to aid me in my task. [Blaze Slime] in one tendril allowed me to melt down the electrum I had purchased into a liquid state before I scooped it up with the tool and replaced the nib with the tiniest one I had in my collection.

I needed no vice or holding device as I held the ring perfectly still and secure with the power of tentacles! I pulled out one of my books and held it aloft with another tendril, referencing that I wasn't making any mistakes with the enchantment.

Okay, let's do this gang!

With my [Sub-Cores] assisting, top-quality supplies and tools, and more appendages than reasonably required, it took me almost no time to engrave the enchantment. I could only praise the forethought of designing the ring with upgrades in mind, and I watched with glee as the framework happily accepted the new enchantment.

To my surprise, the framework continued to light up rather unexpectedly. At first, I thought that perhaps I'd made a mistake, so I placed it on an enlarged tendril to see if it resized appropriately. The enchantment worked flawlessly, but the act of the ring resizing caused the script to flash unexpectedly.

I had almost expected the ring to explode or something equally absurd, but instead, a small light began to form and project what seemed to be a message. The glowing message had two simple words: Meet me.

"Woah, quite the light show!" Vee spoke up, causing me quite a scare. "Who's your secret admirer?"

"Uh... I can only assume it's that Keld person," I answered. "Considering I got the ring from one of his golems."

"So you solved his puzzle, and he's interested in seeing you?" Vee asked.

"I mean, he was already interested in seeing me," I said as I pulled out the invite I had gotten after completing the golem test.

"So... Road trip?" Vee questioned.

"It's definitely up there on my list of locations to visit..." I admitted. "If nothing else comes up, it can be our next spot."

"Awesome! I hope it's on the surface; I'd love to see the sun and moon again," Vee replied.

"It's on the surface," I confirmed. "But... I heard he forcibly occupied an uninhabitable wasteland nobody else could or wanted."

"So definitely not a scenic trip to the beach then..." Vee joked before giving a startled leap. "What!? Who? Where?"

"What's wrong?" I asked the strangely behaving spider.

"I... Got a strange notification..." Vee said, looking very spooked.

"Oh?" I mumbled curiously.

"I got a quest to visit the beach..." Vee answered. "I didn't even know that was possible. The reward just says 'good things.'"

"Well, we will add it to our list of places to go," I replied. "Considering the vague reward, I assume it's not a quest from Mother."

"No idea..." Vee admitted. "Rather creepy, though... Are they just watching us constantly? Or listening to our thoughts and conversations?"

"That's... A good question, actually..." I whispered with some curiosity and concern.

I knew Gramps had commented about enjoying watching my escapades, but how much did he actually watch?

"Well, we can do nothing right now, so there's no sense worrying about it!" I said as I removed the ring and flicked it to Vee.

Vee caught it with a thread and securely placed it on one of her unoccupied legs.

"Wow, I'm really becoming a fancy spider now with all this jewelry!" Vee giggled excitedly.

"If we want to get really fancy, you should start looking into weaving some armor for yourself and seeing if we can enchant it," I said excitedly.

"It would be more like... Wraps... Or bandages than armor... Can you really enchant that?" Vee asked.

"There are certain enchantments that only grant their effects when appropriately applied," I began answering. "But nothing inherently stops me from putting any enchantment on it. Of course, the end product might be completely useless, but I certainly don't mind throwing some resources towards experiments."

"Neat!" Vee enthusiastically replied. "Well, I'd love some more protective weaves, anything to keep me alive and kicking."

"Which reminds me, I can show you some resistance traits. I'm already immune or unaffected by most of these, but I figured I might as well show them to you in case there's any you want."

"Is there an anti-brain worm resistance?" Vee asked somewhat jokingly.

"[Curse Resistance], I believe," I said, avoiding her bait and displaying the trait.

"Spoilsport..." Vee pretended to whine before giggling.

"And once you've bought those, we can continue your magic lessons!" I informed her with my own mischievous grin.

"Can't we continue our vacation for a bit longer..." Vee mumbled.

"You just got an Emblem that should boost your magical learning," I pointed out. "Let's see if we can't get you your third level in [Dimension Magic] or better allow you to break the aura barrier!"

"Noooo...." Vee whined. "Not more, 'become the rock,' training...."

"Clearly, you aren't rocking hard enough!" I joked, causing Vee to groan.

This damn spider needs to learn to appreciate a good pun!