The next morning as they made their way into the common room to get some breakfast Alaric gave Bjorn an all knowing grin as he saw Tayla was sitting at a table, she was in the same style of form fitting clothes that she wore last night. The only difference was that she had a hood on. The garment barely covered her shoulders, and had a hood that could be drawn to cover her face. When she saw them enter the common room she stood from her seated position and raised her hand as if to call to them. When she was standing they could see three separate blades attached to her body. There were two shorter knives that were sheathed behind her back with the hilt barely sticking out from her narrow waist on either side, and the third one was a larger, and longer blade in a leather sheath strapped to her thigh.
“Good morning, I don’t think we’ve actually been introduced properly. My name is Tayla May, I am happy to make your acquaintance.” She said as he dropped her head in a bow.
“Meira.” She said curtly.
“Alaric, It’s a pleasure to meet you miss, I assume Bjorn gave you his name last night.”
“That he did, he also asked me to take you to a magic shop, if that is something you all are interested in? Of course if you don’t, I’ll gladly have some personal time with Bjorn.” Tayla said with a wink.
“I thought you couldn’t find spells in town unless it was with the mage guild?” Meira raised her eyebrows, momentarily losing the light scowl she had been wearing since the conversation started.
A mischievous grin slid onto Tayla’s face. “You can find anything in town if you know where to look, and are willing to pay a price.”
Meira grabbed the two men and pulled them aside, and started speaking under her breath. “Alright, do we really want to trust this girl? I mean look at her!” The trio gave Tayla a quick glance, and her different attire. “She is obviously a thief. That hood is good for hiding her identity and easy to lose in case she is getting chased. Her weaponry are small, easily maneuverable weapons, perfect for sneak attacks. Her outfit is tight, and doesn’t restrict her movements at all. Are we really going to trust a thief we just met to not lead us into a den of other thieves? Or stab us in the back? Or lead us to her friends, mug us, and then stab us in the back?” She looked back and forth between Bjorn and Alaric with a look of consternation on her face.
“You make some solid points” Alaric began.
“Thank yo-”
“Her clothes do show off a surprisingly perky set of breasts.” Alaric’s gaze was locked onto Tayla’s outfit and form.
With a sigh she turned towards Bjorn, and saw his gaze lingering a little too. “You too? Fine! But if we get stabbed I will be the first one to say I told you so.”
They made their way back to Tayla who had been standing there with a grin on her face. “Did you make up your mind? Are you really going to trust me?” As she said that the grin turned a little devilish looking. “I assume so seeing how you came back, let’s get some food real quick and then make our way into the city to get you some magic.” As the other three took their seats Meira left to find Pearal to get them some food, not long after she returned with bread leftover from dinner last night and a plate with hot sausages on them. Wrapping the sausage with the stale bread, the grease from the sausage soaked into the bread softened it making a wonderful breakfast.
Making their way out onto the street outside the crowing rooster Tayla started heading into the city running parallel between the two walls, moving in a clockwise direction. The day was still early in the morning and the streets were mostly empty. This early in the morning they didn’t want to be the ones to break the peace that had covered most of the city so they filled the silence with quiet small talk. It was Tayla who did most of the talking, just filling them in on the workings of Vanta.
“Hey Tayla, what’s inside that second wall? I tried to get through the gate and they wouldn’t let me through yesterday.” Called Alaric as quietly as he could and still be heard from the back of the pack.
“I’m not surprised you had issued getting in, I am more surprised you didn’t get a beating for even trying.” This assertion caught all of their attentions, before they were half listening to Tayla’s babblings as she talked. Feeling rather than seeing she had their undivided attention she kept talking. “Inside the second layer of walls is where the truly powerful in Vanta live, it’s where the rich, the strong, and where the city lord and his family live. And surprise surprise they don’t like to mingle with us common folk very often. As a matter of a fact I would be surprised if many of them haven’t left the inner city for many years. The city lord owes fealty to the king of Escar, but with Vanta being closer to the border of the kingdom the royalty of Escar tend to leave us alone here. Because of the lack of supervision the city lord has gotten lazy and lax with upholding the law of Escar. Because of his lack of care he doesn’t fulfill the law requiring him to hear out anyone who wishes to speak to him, at least once a week. So now the guards at the gate keep us common folk out of the upper reaches of the city.”
“So why are you surprised that I didn’t get beat by the city guards?” Asked Alaric.
“Simple, seeing how they don’t let you in to see the king, and seeing how there aren’t many people enforcing the laws, including the guard…” Tayla had stopped moving and was staring at Alaric as she was a mother scolding an unruly child.
“I get it now, most of the guard beat those getting anywhere near the inner city.”
“Spot on!” Exclaimed Tayla as she turned away and kept walking down the street. “Of course the guards still uphold most of the laws, they just have gotten a little lax on some of the ‘less important’ ones” as she said less important she threw up her hands and did the air quotes, that was common back on earth.
“Hey! You guys do that too.” as he pointed at Tayla’s hands. Which caused her to stop in the middle of the motion and dropped her hands to her side in embarrassment.
Clearing her throat she moved on with her unending babble of commentary. The city of Vanta seemed to have one street that was the main street running through the outer ring, with other major roads that intersected with the main one allowing travel further in and then out of town. There were many offshoots and alleyways off of the main street. After half an hour of walking the city had started to fully wake up and people were starting to make their way onto the streets making the road go from pleasant to annoyingly crowded.
“Keep your hands on your purses.” Called Tayla. “There are plenty of street urchins that would gladly rid you of the burden that is carrying your money.”
Following her suggestion they continued onwards, eventually Tayla took a side street stepping away from the bustle of the street and onto a less well traveled section. The road ended up branching twice more and ending with a set of stairs going downwards, and ending with a heavy wooden door with metal banding to reinforce it.
“Oh come now, that is an obvious trap.” Commented Meira.
“Suit yourself.” Replied Tayla in a slightly snarky tone walking down the stairs and then opening the door. Behind the door there was a soft white light emanating from inside the tunnel. Bjorn and Alaric both looked at Meira.
“Fine, we can follow this obvious thief, into this obvious trap.” The group followed Tayla with Alaric in the front, Meira in the middle, and Bjorn bringing up the rear. All the while as they were heading down into the earth Meira muttered under her breath. Occasionally words could be picked out. “Show you. Listen, me. Small breasts. Dumbasses”
They followed Tayla down the stairs into the earth. The stairs opened up to a long tunnel illuminated by the same light as the stairway. The tunnel had a wide walkway on either side and a channel running down the middle which was flowing with a foul smelling brown liquid. Turning left they started down the tunnel. Soon they came to an intersection and followed one of the intersecting paths, and then another, and another. All the while Tayla kept up her inane babble. It didn’t take long for all three of the friends to be hopelessly lost in the tunnels. Just when they were starting to exchange glances and were going to confront Tayla there was a door built into the side of the tunnel that they could have sworn wasn’t there a second ago.
“This is it.” She said as she walked up to the door, and knocked on it. Two rapid knocks, followed by 3 slow ones, and finally 3 rapid knocks. A small window opened up in the door where there hadn’t been one before and a woman’s face popped out of the window, looking up and down the tunnel. She gave the group a long intense look.
“Who are the new faces Tayla?”
“Hi Gene, they are some people I found last night looking at buying some spells.”
The lady whipped her head back to the group, this time her eyes settled on Meira. Giving her an appraising look. “The elf has promise, the dwarf can’t cast with a shit, and that human is less than useless. Very well, if you must you can come in. But make sure they don’t cause any trouble Tayla, if they do you will be held responsible for it.”
“You have my word.” Tayla replied calmly as the sound of locks being thrown sounded, door opened up revealing another short hallway, on the other side of the wall there was a small out cove which held a table and a chair. Once they made their way inside the door the lady closed the door behind them and threw several locks back into place. Tayla ushered them down the narrow short hallway. At the end of the hall it opened up to a large man made cavern. It was a large hole in the ground, it looked like a staging area for the repairs, and building the sewer system. The entire room was three stories tall, with a large open area in the middle. Along the outside of the room there were small stores built into the rock. With bridges built over the center of the large room making it easier to get from one side to the other.
“Welcome to Vanta’s black market.” Said Tayla. “Years ago they were looking for a place to house the black market, but we couldn’t find anywhere. Someone ended up stumbling upon this place that was empty, and covered with so much dust that it had to have been abandoned for years. This room was actually infested with a nest of stone burrower spiders. And they lost many people to clear it out. But ever since they cleared the spiders out they haven’t had any issues.” Tayla started moving further into the room slowly. The room was by no means packed, but it did have plenty of people milling about.
Making her way towards the stairs she continued. “This place is by invite only, you have to be accompanied by someone who is welcomed here, or get yourself welcomed.”
“How would we do that?” Asked Meira.
“You have to pay to get access, there is a stall down at the ground floor that you have to pay 1 gold to get permanent access to this area.”
That elicited a whistle for Alaric. “1 gold is a hefty sum to pay to get access to the black market.”
“You are right of course, that is quite a bit of money, but it is the only place where you are able to liquidate certain “Questionably acquired goods.”” Tayla said as she used air quotes again. “They don’t pay you the same as what the item is worth, but if you are sitting on something that does you no good, might as well turn it into cash. And in some cases it is your only choice to really fence items.”
They made their way down to the floor level, and there were a good number of stores there. Moving around the area a few stores stood out, but Tayla directed them to one store in particular. It was a small store tucked away in the corner with a single slightly overweight man sitting behind the counter. As they entered his store he perked up and greeted them.
“Ah hello! My name is Chet. And welcome to Chet’s magic book emporium, I promise all of the books here are exactly what they say they are, if not I guarantee you your money back. What can I do for you today?” The interior of the store was small, with Chet and the 4 patrons it was crowded. It was just a narrow outcove in the wall, behind where Chet was standing there were 3 book shelves filled to the brim with spell books. There had to be over 100 to 150 books on the shelves.
Tayla was the one to start speaking first. “Hey Chet, these guys.”
Meira cut her off. “My friend, and I. '' As she indicated towards Bjorn. “Would like to try to learn some of your spell books. I have level 31 in air magic, and I also have level 16 in water magic. I know 7 spells. On the water side I know Create water, Ice shard, and Water Breathing. For air magics I know weak haste, Errant wind, Weak Lightning bolt, and Levitate. What do you have that I could learn?”
“You already have such an impressive list of spells you are capable of casting, I think I have a few other spells that would be of interest to you.” Chet quickly and quite efficiently explained what he had and how the spells worked. He had 9 other spells that Meira had the ability to learn.
“How much do you charge per Book?”
“Ah that is a much more difficult question, I believe the going rate for spells is 1 gold per level for the first 10 levels, after that it goes up from there. I have to acquire these spells at great cost to myself and those involved, so because of that I will charge 1 gold and 50 silver per level of the spell for the first 10 levels. I can see that the price is a little too rich for you, but I assure you there isn’t much I can do for that. Spell books are heavily regulated here in Vanta, the mages guild has a bit of a stranglehold on that market here. You either need to be exceptionally rich, a noble, already well versed in magic, or stupidly lucky and be born to a member of the guild already. They don’t take kindly to people sharing the knowledge that they view as their knowledge. So because of that they put a stop to anyone trying to disperse the knowledge of how to cast spells.”
Meira’s face scrunched up at hearing the price tag to the spell books. Doing some quick mental math she settled on one spell, Weather shield. It was a 5th level spell so it cost her 7 gold and 50 silver in the end.
Before she finalized the sale Bjorn stepped in. “I have water level 5, earth level 3, and light level 6. What do you have that I can learn?” After relaying his three spells Chet gave Bjorn a few options. Bjorn settled on two spells one was the light bolt spell that he failed to learn from the skill book before, and the second one was a level 2 water spell called: Light rain. The entire price ended up being 16 gold and 50 silver normally, after Bjorn’s discounts from his ring and trading skill that dropped to 13 gold 77 silver and 75 copper. The oddest thing was when purchasing the books Chet didn’t even try to haggle the price one way or the other, as soon as Bjorn asked for the price Chet did some quick mental math and gave that answer. Accepting the offer the lions share of the money came from Bjorn, he paid 8 gold and 40 of the silver, the rest came from Meira.
Giving Bjorn a grateful look they collected their money and passed it over which Chet accepted graciously before a sweep with his hand and the coins disappeared from the counter in front of him. Handing over the three books, Meira quickly opened her book up and watched as the book rapidly started to turn its own pages, a blue light poured out from the spell book and into her eyes. Her hands dropped away from the book as soon as the process started. The book stayed suspended in air as the process happened. When the book finally slammed shut after a third of the book ran through it crumbled into dust and one last larger mote of light was left over from the dust of the book which also went into her eyes.
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“Congratulations on learning the spell.” Chet said to Meira. Looking at her she had a bit of a dazed look in her eyes as she stood there. “I think you are next young master.” He said towards Bjorn.
“I think you are right, but I also think I’ll wait to learn these spells. Thank you for giving us the chance to buy these magic books.” Bjorn said as he gave Chet a small bow with his head.
“Of course sir, you are welcome back here anytime! My stock of spell books is constantly changing so don’t hesitate to come back and see what else I have in stock.” Chet replied with a slight bow in return.
By the time they finished the exchange Meira had snapped out of her daze and was fully cognizant of what was happening around her, so she followed after. Bjorn left his pack back at their rooms in the Crowing Rooster so they started searching for a bag that would hold his spell books. They spent the better part of the day searching through the various black market stalls. Throughout the day the group stopped here and there and picked up small knick knacks and various other useful items. Getting closer to evening they stopped at a leatherworking shop that was also dug into the stone walls surrounding the building. On the inside a surprisingly young woman stood behind her counter. She had all sorts of leather products and tools all over the inside of her shop. Behind the woman the back wall of her shop was covered in shelves, on the shelves there were a bunch of leather pouches and bags. A few of them were open holding different color powders, the most common colored powder though was a fine pale blue powder. Another group of shelves held pale purple and blue Octagonal prisms ranging in sizes from the size of a quarter to the size of an apricot.
Not able to contain his curiosity Bjorn just blurted out. “What are those prisms?” Pointing at one of the small purple objects.
The young lady who was busy punching small holes into a piece of leather stopped what she was doing and looked over at what Bjorn was pointing at. “Those?” After getting a nod from Bjorn in confirmation she continued. “Those are filled soul stones.”
Remembering something about the mana absorption bead he pulled it out of the pouch on his waist and identified it again. And there it was, ‘If you wish to reactivate this gem you must reinsert it into a body and expend a common level soul.’ It was the second time he had heard of these objects, and so it was time to get some answers. “I have never seen one of those before. Do you mind filling me in on how they work?”
The woman kind of scoffed at Bjorn before returning to her work. They stood there in silence for around 20 seconds before the lady stopped what she was doing and looked up at Bjorn quickly before dropping her eyes again. She did a double take. “Is that a mana absorption bead in your hand?”
“Yes it is.”
“Would you be willing to sell it?”
Alaric spoke up, “I don’t know about that lad, this girl has been pretty dismissive and almost rude to you ever since we walked into her shop. I don’t think it’s worth it to give her something so valuable as your mana absorption bead.”
The woman’s face scrunched up into a scowl and then she snapped back. “He asked me an extremely stupid question, any person who has any sense a dog has, knows how they work.”
Bjorn put his hands onto the table keeping a good grip on the bead and leaned in. “Humor me.”
Her eyes darted between the bead, Bjorn, Alaric, Tayla, and then back to the bead before sighing. “Alright fine, I will explain about soul stones. Afterwards would you sell me that bead in your hand?”
“We shall see.”
Setting the work she was holding in her hands aside she fully turned towards the group. “Soul stones are a natural occurring mineral out in the world. They can also be made through magical means. They are stones that have the ability to trap the soul of a creature when it dies inside itself instead of the soul leaving the body and dissipating out into the ether, and doing whatever souls do after death. There are different grades to souls, petty, weak, common, uncommon, strong, unusual, special, great, and grand. I have heard rumors of there being stronger souls but I have never encountered them, nore have I met someone who has.” She paused and saw an expectant look on Bjorn’s face.
“Soul stones are used for enchanting, I know a thing or two about enchanting. On the basic level you can only ever use one soul stone per enchantment. Eventually that can change, each level of soul provides a certain strength to the enchantment. If you don’t know what you are doing you can fail your enchantment and waste the soul and soul stone in the process. You can also overdo the strength of soul that you use for enchanting and that will destroy the item you are trying to enchant. So as an enchanter you have to balance between not strong enough and too strong. It is a fine balancing act and if you aren’t careful you can end up dead.” After she finished that last sentence she stopped and sat there as the silence grew. “Well? Is there anything else you’d like to know?”
Bjorn let the silence grow. “Can you only trap the soul of a common level creature inside a common level soul gem?”
“No, a common level soul can fit inside any soul gem of higher level. That is a waste though, due to the fact that the higher level soul gems have to be made from rare materials and gem stones. It is also important to note that a weaker soul gem can never fit a stronger soul inside of it.”
Alaric cut into her explanation. “How do you capture a soul?”
Annoyance quickly flashed across the youths face before she was able to hide it. “There is a magical spell called soul trap, every single school of magic has access to that spell. It is widely accepted that life and death schools of magic have the strongest variants of the soul trap spell. Now can we get to the price of selling me that bead?”
Bjorn thought he tortured the arrogant little twat enough, and relented. “What do you have to trade for this item? I don’t want to sell it for money, I will only accept something of equal value. This bead is the only way we have to restrain a magic user. So with that all known what do you have?”
The woman started showing off item after item all of which seemed lesser than the bead. Armors, bags, other restraint items, all made out of leather. The defeated look in her eye just kept growing and growing as they turned down item after item. Finally she pulled out a small chest and set it on the counter. Pulling out a key from around her neck and set the key in the lock. She turned it left and then right and then left again, there was a click as the lid to the chest popped up. Setting the key aside she lifted the lid off the chest and reach inside and pulled out a single small leather bag.
With interest at her methods to protect this bag, Bjorn used his identify on it.
Portable Pocket
Rarity: Epic
Weight: 1.1 lbs.
This is a space folding bag. It is the lesser known, and weaker variant of a bag of holding. As you put items into the pocket the bag will not grow in size. It has no weight diminishing properties, and it only has a finite amount of space. This is a soul bound item, meaning it can only be accessed and used by those that this item is soul bound to.
He had to have this item, but he wouldn’t let the trader know that, after all, the only reason he had gotten this far in the trading was her blunder. She let all of the party know that she wanted and even needed the mana bead. So Bjorn made a show of looking the item over and setting it aside. And started to shake his head. “No, this is just a simple leather pouch.”
She immediately got defensive. “This isn’t a simple leather pouch, this is a portable pocket.” There was a small intake of breath behind Bjorn, but he didn’t let himself get distracted. “It just looks like a leather pouch because you aren’t soul bound to the bag. This is a wonderous item that as long as there is still space it can fit any item in it. Pulling up a large wooden cutting board she angled it above the opening of the bag and set the corner in it. The board was able to fit easily inside of the bag. The board was easily 5 or 6 times larger than the entire pocket, passing it over to Bjorn he inspected the interior of the bag and it was empty. Handing it back she put her hand into the bag and retrieved the cutting board easily. “You see what I mean, it isn’t just a simple leather bag, how about it, would you trade the bead for this bag?”
Bjorn made a big show of trying to decide if it was worth the trade. By the time Bjorn spoke the woman had a bead of sweat slowly sliding down her forehead. “I will sell you this bead for that bag, and for 3 gold coins on top of that.”
Without hesitation she said. “Deal” before producing three gold coins from somewhere and handing over the bag and reaching out her hand for the bead.
“Na-uh, I am not handing the bead over until you show me how to soul bind the bag to myself.”
Licking her lips she the got the distant look in her eye, the one that was starting to look familiar of someone digging through their own menus. A small stream of pure white liquid poured out of her left arm right above her wrist. The stream started to hover above the bag and a pearl white bead the size of his thumbnail formed from the liquid. After it finished forming it hung in the air suspended. Reaching out the trader took ahold of the pearl and held it out to Bjorn.
Once his fingers touched the pearl he received a prompt.
Would you like to become soul bound to this portable pocket? Yes/No?
Mentally clicking the yes prompt the small orb began to break down into the same white liquid and it sank into his left wrist. Once all of the liquid fully sank into his skin a new icon appeared at the edge of his view in the shape of a bag. Before he had the chance to open it up the trader dove at Bjorn’s hand and snatched the mana absorption bead from his hand. Not resisting, he let her take it.
“Out of pure curiosity, why did you want that bead so strongly?”
The woman had a savage grin on her face. “Oh, I have an ex-boyfriend that I caught cheating on me, as a spell caster it is how he makes his living. So with this bead I can get my revenge on him. I’ll make sure he loses his ability to cast spells.”
Alaric let out a soft chuckle. “My pa always said to avoid spurning a woman, you never know what they will do to get revenge. You are case and point.”
The woman’s smile was starting to make Bjorn a little uncomfortable so they decided to leave. After they were out of the shop Bjorn took his two spell books he had been carrying with him and put them into the sack. When he did so the icon on the edge of his vision grew a little more opaque and a window popped up in his vision, it was a 7 by 20 grid. When the book was inserted into the grid each book took up exactly two slots in the grid system. Seeing the two books disappear into the small bag brought a smile to Bjorn’s lips, he finally had an inventory and no longer had to continue to cart his pack around with him.
“Is there anything else you're looking for down here?” Asked Tayla.
After a few moments of Bjorn, Alaric, and Meira just standing there looking at each other, Meira spoke up. “I guess not, do you mind leading us back up to street level?”
With a bit of pep in her step Tayla took off first. “Of course, I will gladly take you back.” They made their way back up to the top floor and then down the corridor. When she got to the guard post the same lady was there, after opening the doors Tayla took the lead again. After getting out of the door she looked over her shoulder and said. “Thanks Gene.” and started back the way they came. As they passed each of the friends said their thanks as well and followed after Tayla.
Once they had traveled a good 100 yards or so Bjorn looked back the way they came and couldn’t see the door in the hallway behind them. Asking Tayla about it, apparently they put up some illusion magic and then enchant stones that grant immunity to the illusion. If the stone gets close to the spell it briefly dispels the magic for everyone within a 10 foot radius from the stone.
Tayla made her way through the tunnels with an uncanny accuracy and in no time they were back up at street level, making their way back to the Crowing Rooster for the night. The common room was the exact same as it was the night before, filled to the brim with patrons and tons of attractive men all over the place. They had to actually stand for over half an hour before they were able to get a table. During that half an hour Tayla had to fend off several different servers that came over trying to see if she wanted “Anything” at all. Each time they did Tayla’s already red face grew a shade darker. By the time a table had cleared up her cheeks were almost a dark maroon color.
Once they were seated and had food coming, Meira spoke up. “So Pearal wasn’t joking when he said you were a regular here. Quite popular with the men it seems.”
That assertion brought a scowl to Tayla’s face and it grew quiet until their dinner showed up. Spending the rest of the evening in companionable silence, they all drank their beers.
“Thank you for taking us into town and to that place.” Alaric said to Tayla.
“Yeah thank you, it was invaluable to us.” added Bjorn.
The tenseness between Meira and Tayla was so thick it was palpable.
“Hey Meira, what does the magic spell you got today do?”
Turning towards Bjorn. “It is called water shield, and it is a spell that lasts an hour, the cost isn’t all that high, all things considered. For 10 mana I can cast it on anyone I wish to, and it condenses the water out of the air, creating a small 5 foot shield around the target. The shield protects the target from wind, cold, heat, other water, and small insects.”
“So what you are saying, is now you have a way to stop me from getting a bug bite forever? What is your mana regeneration now?” Alaric asked Meira.
Giving a pointed look at Tayla before answering. “Yeah I now have a way to get bugs to avoid you. It shouldn’t be a problem to cast a few times a day.”
Once the dinner arrived Bjorn ate his as quickly as he could and then excused himself heading up to the room. Upon making it into his room he shut the door and pushed one of the beds in front of the door before pulling out his two spell books. With his lack of luck the last time he tried to learn Light bolt he decided to start there.
This spellbook contains the spell Light Bolt, it is a level 4 light spell. Would you like to attempt to learn this spell Yes/No?
Setting the Light rain spell book aside, Bjorn opened up the Light bolt and mentally clicked yes. The pages began to fly, the book crumbled and he gained access to all of the information necessary for him to cast the spell.
Spell: Light Bolt
Cast time: 3 Seconds
Components: Verbal, Somatic
Range: 300 feet.
Duration: Instantaneous
Mana cost: 24 points
Creates a beam of light that travels the distance to a target instantaneously dealing light based damage.
Easy, straight forward, and pretty self-explanatory. Having another offensive ranged spell is nice. Curious on how exactly it will work, and what light based damage would look like. Instead of letting his curiosity get the better of him Bjorn opened his second spell book and started reading.
This spellbook contains the spell Light Rain, it is a level 2 water spell. Would you like to attempt to learn this spell Yes/No?
Once again mentally clicking on yes the same routine happened again. And once again Bjorn got a great window.
Spell: Light Rain
Cast time: 3 minutes
Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material
Range: 50 foot radius
Duration: 30 minutes
Mana cost: 62 points
When this spell is cast the perfect amount of water needed for a plant to grow is provided for it to thrive. Providing a 5% boost to the yield of the end product. This effect can stack up to 20 times providing up to a 100% boost to the yield of the crops or herbs.
Useful, but not really useful yet. Still the way he figured it, any way he could train his magic skill levels was good practice. More magic, more versatility, more better. Chuckling to himself thinking how stupid he is. Something Slammed into the door to the room. Bjorn dropped into an defensive stance and reached for the sword on his hip.
Cursing could be heard on the other side of the door. “Bjorn, I need you to open this door. Whatever you did sure worked but I need you in the taproom NOW!”
It was Alaric, the seriousness in his voice could be easily heard from the otherside of the door. Rushing over he grabbed the bed by the bedframe and drawing his sword threw open the door. Running headlong into a surprised Alaric.
“Now now, calm down. We need you down there, but I don’t think there is a need for that.” As Alaric pointed towards Bjorn’s sword. Sheathing his sword Bjorn followed Alaric down the stairs taking two at a time. Entering the taproom it was surprisingly silent, the entire room was either looking or pointedly not looking at the table the friends occupied previously. Following the gazes Bjorn saw a young boy sitting at the table with Tayla and Meira. Bjorn recognized him immediately.
“James, what are you doing here?” Called Bjorn as he made his way over to the table. James looked exhausted and worn. He had a panicked look in his eyes, upon seeing Bjorn the panic lessened, but it was still there.
The boy blurted out. “Bandits attacked Leif’s crossing.”
(You may skip to the next chapter if you don’t care about skill gains.)
You have advanced your skill level in trade, reaching skill level 4 and 5. Items you buy and sell prices will be 2.5% more in your favor, this also includes bartering.
You have found an item someone needed even when they themselves didn’t know that they needed it at first. You have gained extra progress in your trading skill.
You have traded something where the value of the items weren’t close to equal, and you were on the better end of the trade deal, because of that you have gained further increased progress in the trading skill.
You have advanced your skill level in trade, reaching skill level 9. Items you buy and sell prices will be 4.5% more in your favor, this also includes bartering.