Gloves tightened as she donned her new items.

Walking down the stairs, ‘Something happened to me for sure.’

‘But there was no evidence exactly on what. Is someone tailing me?’

‘Did I actually have a stalker?’

‘Hmph, I would’ve thought so had it been my past life when I got that new face.’

‘But with old one such as this, I better keep an eye out.’

The white rabbit being fed vegetables by hand.

“Oh my, you look astonishing. Come here, eat. I made breakfast.”

“Thank you, Madam Vanya.”

“What is that you have?”

‘Not from her, huh.’

She laid it on the counter.

“My oh my, a rare cape I see. What, do you not want it? Would you sell this to me?”

“You can have it, Madam. Deduct the cost as payment for my stay.”

“This again, Siola, you—”

“I insist, Madam.”

She smiles, leaving her no option to refuse.

Sighing, “Alright…,” seeing the cape once more, “Thank you.”

“Oh, one more thing. May I ask you to take care of this one while I’m out and about?”

“That shouldn’t go without saying. Of course, I will.”

Siola went about her new day with a reenergized spirit. Patrolling part of town before heading to the barracks. Opening the door to the Oklam’s office.

“You wished to see me, sir?”

“Yes. Have a seat.”

“You see, I was planning to keep you as a guard for a time until you earn your citizenship here in Lorkhan. After all, you didn’t swear an oath like us soldiers and guards.”

She nods.

“Now, what you did yesterday may not be ideal but thanks to that, your time here serving Lorkhan has been greatly reduced.”

“You only need to do one last assignment before we grant you citizenship.”

“Three days from now, some soldiers and a few select guards will go on an expedition. And you will join them.”

“An expedition, sir?”

“May I know the purpose of it?”

“You may not. However, I can tell you that it will be dangerous. You can expect fighting some monsters here and there, and the destination is quite far.”

He pulls his drawer to grab two purses full of coins.

“Here is your reward for handling those criminals, and the other is your budget for the expedition.”

Noticing the new equipment on Siola, “I see that you have gotten yourself on some, but be sure that you will be absolutely ready.”

“You will keep on patrolling until the days before the expedition.”

“Remember, three days from now on, at dawn.”

“Yes sir.”

When she left the door, Oklam rested his back and sighed.

“Someone who can follow orders without barking is sooo nice. Haa… if only we’re not tied down by covenant, I really could’ve used someone like her here in this town.”

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Two purse full of coins. The currency in Ekolia is called Golds, and each coin is engraved with a highly detailed number of 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10.000, 100.000, and 1.000.000.

‘Let’s see…’

‘82.000 and 20.000 Golds. So, a $1020.’

‘Well, looking at the budget alone tells me that the guards are not doing well financially.’

‘It’s good that I can ditch it soon. But the point of me getting in town is so that I can live here safely until I can plan what to do and where to go.’

‘Expeditions, huh.’

As she walks, she notices a particularly darker shadow caused by the sun.

‘Let’s see this shadow step skill.’

Upon focusing on it and willing for it to happening, she teleported to the area only to fumble to the wall as she appears.

“Hnnngh?!”

Her head started spinning as pain stings.

“Oh, hnngh, god…”

‘This is…’

*Pant *Pant

“Shit.”

‘Took way too much MP.’

‘And the fact that it emptied mine while I was full. I have to refrain from using it until I at least reach Rank C, but ideally, Rank B in MP.’

‘Different from Mage class, Level UP benefits are not solely invested to improve MP but is shared with Faith. Even though mine is S rank by default.’

‘I would need to rank up my status before I can see letter beyond S.’

‘Though, there would be other complication by doing that.’

Deep breath, she let it out slowly.

“All right, let’s go shopping for now.”

Although she says that, she makes a stop at the statue of Armalia and pray. Warmth envelops her as she can feel sparkles glistening through her body.

‘How nostalgic.’

‘Back then, everything was bright.’

‘I used to pray day and night eagerly awaiting to see if I will get a blessing on the next one.’

‘Now that I’m at a point where the knowledge of powerful spells and enemies is at the back of my head… I can’t get excited over small blessings even if I wanted to.’

‘Still, this is nice.’

Her MP replenished completely.

She went looking around, visiting multiple weapon shop.

An agitated shopkeeper tapping his finger as Siola peruse his items.

She brought a mace, “This, do you have a sharper one? Possibly a more grippy handle too?”

“Tsk, if you’re not gonna buy it, you shouldn’t even touch it in the first place.”

“Huh?”

“But I do, I just want a variant of this that’s—”

“Stop wasting my time, you’re not looking to buy. I’ve seen you going about the stores there and there. And you got nothing to show from them.”

Looking her up and down, paying attention to the outfit and sword she has, he snatches the mace, “Go bother somebody else.”

“…”

‘Hmm, I could show him my purse, but he looks determined not to sell me anything.’

So, she went to the last store. It’s empty and rundown, but the fire from the furnace in the other room heats up the place inside.

“Hm? Customer?”

“What can I do you for?”

Tilting her head, ‘A dwarf?’

“What, you look like you haven’t seen my own kind.”

“Beastkin and Lizards seem to be more common here than your kind.”

“Yeah, mine own don’t do lot of adventuring.”

“So, what can I help you with?”

She takes a look around, although the walls and floors are rundown not because of aesthetic choices, the place is not full of dust.

“I’m looking for a mace. Grippy handle, sharp edges. You know the kind?”

“Not a lot looking for that, but…”

He went to a basket full of different weapons and pull out an iron mace, “Here.”

“Hmm, it’s nice. Could be better.”

“Can sharpen it up a bit for ya.”

“Do it then. I need a bow too, or maybe… a crossbow would do nicely. Something I can use without getting tired and sore.”

“Mm, you lookin’ for either a light bow or a hand crossbow. They don’t got a lot of firepower but they do easy to carry around.”

“No, that’s what my mace is for. I need… well, firepower first foremost.”

“Well, a bow is outta question then. Your shape looks quite light, can’t have you bringing any iron while you have Mace on. But since you don’t got a plate for armor, I might have some.”

He went to get a stool and reach the crossbow in the middle.

“Here. Top notch bolt this one. See how fast the string pulled to the back? It got the firepower, the speed, just a tad heavy with all the iron.”

“Hm, I’d definitely get tired walking with this, but it looks like what I need.”

“How much am I looking at for this, the mace, and the 3 stacks of bolts for that one.”

“22.000 Golds for the lot.”

“Hmm.”

“…” the dwarf nervous.

“I know what you think. This little midget tryna ripped you off when you can buy magic stuff close to the same price.”

“Hm, I wasn’t thinking that but give me the reason why yours are… at such price.”

“Thing you most folks don’t care about it seems, quality. You buy things from other stores, they don’t last you a week, but mine, months.”

“With such quality though, shouldn’t you be getting more customers?”

“When was the last time you even have one?”

“Ye new here.”

“Figures why you’d even come in the first place.”

Shrugging her shoulders, “So?”

“…”

“Used to have a lad comin’ about, was dealing with woods then. He likes stuff I made, then it got fancier and fancier. Fore I knew it, got weapons made and all that.”

“He be handling all the talking and the selling while I make the goods. But when the lad grown, he kinda grew tired of it and went off and be an adventurer.”

“…”

“Why don’t you hire someone else?”

“Did.”

“One didn’t even last a day, another was rowdy making mess of things, and the last boy I got stole three crates full of em weapons and made dealings with thieves.”

“New faces always comin’ about, but none of em can tell… or want good steel and iron when the shop next to it can give em magic.”

“…”

“Hm.”

“All right,” Siola put the money on the counter, “How long’s the sharpen gonna take?”

The dwarf’s eyes lit up.

“Just about an hour— two.”

“Okay, get to it then. I might not be back in two hours, so don’t wait for me.”

Siola left with the crossbow and the iron bolts without seeing the dwarf bowing.

Readjusting the ring inside her gauntlets as she holsters her new weapon.

‘Provisions can be planned later. For now, I should get some magic spell to use. Ideally something that won’t make me faint in one cast.’

She walks back to the road and the previous shopkeeper saw her with the new crossbow and grinds his teeth with a face flush red.