We've got basically everything for sale. One and two star items, naturally, perfect for everyday use, children, and under performers. Three and four star items, great for self defense, settling grudges with neighbors, and not looking like a child in the eyes of your peers. Five and six star items available for those looking to truly expand their power and be forcibly conscripted into the military.

—Basen Koh on the contents of his new shop, The Immaculate Collection

Basen led Reid several blocks from the market square. They were a little farther away than Reid's apartment in the guild district, but they had gone west instead of north. Basen pointed out a brick building with a large window display. "The Immaculate Collection" was professionally painted onto a sign on the front of the building.

"There we are! You'll notice two businesses on either side of my shop," Basen said, pointing out a bakery and what looked like a cobbler's shop with a large sign shaped like a shoe over the door. "One of my neighbors sells terrible things made from cheap leather, and the other sells reasonable quality shoes."

Basen moved to unlock the door, and Reid studied what he could see of the Immaculate Collection. The front window was dominated by a rather unusual stone sculpture of three figures. There were a pair of display boards and a table, each with two or three random things set out. Beyond that, Reid could see a counter, some display cases, and a series of shelves stretching back into the building. Immaculate, it was not. Stacks of boxes and half unpacked crates littered the floor, making it impossible to see most of what was available or how far back the shop stretched. It was messy and uninviting.

Basen held open the door and beckoned Reid inside.

"Welcome to the Immaculate Collection!"

Basen's shop was small. A fair number of items were unpacked, but there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for their placement. Reid hadn't known what to expect, but Basen had said he'd been open for five months. He'd assumed Basen would have at least unpacked by now.

"Lovely, isn't it?" Basen said, stepping around Reid and pulling off his strange outer robe—the one with the lizards. He tried to hang the robe on a coat rack next to the counter, but the rack dodged out of the way, and a brief exchange followed. Basen shrugged and dropped his robe on the floor. "Don't forget what I told you, Reid! Sentient items are trouble."

Basen walked behind the counter and rested his hands on the stone countertop. Under his robe, he'd been wearing a plain shirt and short pants. He was more filled out than Reid might have expected for a man his age, but Reid supposed Veris said he was a powerful mage and long time adventurer. Basen looked like he was waiting for something and couldn't wait any longer.

"Well? What do you think?"

Reid still wasn't sure what to say. Even though the shelves were relatively barren, the number of crates and items scattered around was overwhelming. He tried to focus on that instead of calling out Basen's disorganization. "There's so much. How long did it take you to get all this...how much did it cost?"

"You and your coins. How long did it take? Hmm... My entire lifetime, I suppose. If you want to ask how long that is, well, we'll have to get to know each other a little better first. Suffice it to say some of these items have been with me for decades. As far as costs go...little in the way of coin. I buy the occasional interesting thing here and there, but most of these things are from decades of delving ancient ruins, clearing monster dens, killing mythical beasts, and theft."

The man was clearly a leaf on the wind sort, but Reid wouldn't have pegged him as a thief. "You stole some of this?"

"Sure. Theft is less morally wrong when the results improve or save lives. There are dangerous things in here. Best they don't fall into the wrong hands."

"Dangerous things."

Basen nodded enthusiastically.

"In here."

"I believe that's what I said, yes."

"And they're for sale?"

"Well, I have a philosophy on collecting. Remember what my father said?"

Reid nodded. He was still next to the door, and the moving coat rack and mention of dangerous items had put a slight damper on his desire to explore the entire space immediately.

"Something about the stories and impacts that items leave behind. But I don't understand how—"

Basen clapped. "Exactly! Now, how many interesting stories do you suppose are collected by items sequestered away in collections, never to reenter public circulation or be seen by the public again?"

"None, I guess."

"None. It's a sad state of affairs. And that's not all. I've met many other collectors through the years. They've thought me a madman for wanting to sell pieces of my collection, while I've thought they're idiots for hoarding theirs. In the end, magic items exist to be used. Magic is a tool that makes the world a better place. I truly believe that. I want these items to live up to the value I can see them capable of, and I want to put them into the hands of people who I think will benefit from them."

That resonated strongly with Reid. He wasn't as interested in fame or fortune, but he did want to help people and learn more about everything the world had to offer.

Basen sighed. "But for my lofty goals, I still need to sell things at a price that lets me stay in business. To my shame, I'm failing at both my goals. I am pushing the limits of what my creditors will tolerate, and I've barely connected anyone with items that might help them."

In that moment, the man behind the counter revealed himself to Reid. He saw a figure who wore positivity and energy on his sleeves and held dissatisfaction and disappointment in his heart. Basen looked beaten, weathered, and perhaps as old as he actually was. Reid barely knew him, and it broke his heart anyway.

He guessed Basen was the type of person who had been driven to do what he needed to do his whole life. Clearly, he'd been successful in that. When he changed his life so drastically, he didn't know how to apply that drive. Every time it didn't work, it chipped away at Basen's once relentless determination. It was all a guess, and maybe Reid was wrong, but he felt like he had the drive to turn things around. He could push forward in ways that revitalized the great man before him.

"That's why I'm here."

Basen looked up at him. Reid hoped Basen saw determination and confidence in his eyes. The glimmer of surface deep laughter returned to the old mage's eyes, and he slapped the counter with a palm.

"Right you are, Reid! Now, what should we do first?"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Reid laughed. The man had an infectious enthusiasm that Reid desperately wanted to preserve.

"Can we back up a step? Exactly how dangerous are the items in the shop?"

Basen waved a hand as though he'd made up the entire claim. "Oh, it's fine. You have nothing to worry about. There are some powerful five and six star items, but they're beyond binding for most. I don't sell anything truly dangerous to people I don't trust, and nothing is going to blow up if you touch it."

Reid relaxed a little. He was glad he didn't have a coat, at least. He eyed the rack as he passed, and he could swear it watched him in turn.

"Well. It seems like unpacking wouldn't be a bad idea. Your front display is a little empty, and I don't see any labels either. Also, I'm not sure how you're laying out items you have unpacked, but it doesn't make any sense at a glance."

Basen scratched his head in embarrassment. "I forget that not everyone can identify items. I have the items in the shop laid out by a special system of my own design, but no labels."

"What's the system."

"Ah! Well, it's a mix of systems, really."

That was about what Reid expected.

"They're ordered by first order taxonomical function, first and foremost."

"Come again?"

"Where did you go to school? First, the magical item binding thing, now this. I don't mean to be disparaging, but if you tell me what school, I can tailor my explanations to what you probably already understand."

"Uh. We didn't really have a name for it. It was just school. In Glarrus."

"By the Broken Swamp?"

"You know it?"

Basen smiled and swept a hand out. "Surely you know the whole reason your village exists. Many of my own wares came from trips to the Broken Swamp, though I haven't stepped foot in Glarrus in probably forty years. Nevertheless, I will adjust my explanations to 'my primary teacher was a man educated by bog lurkers.'"

"We did often joke that if we swapped him out for a bog lurker, at least we'd learn how to swim."

"Very good. Temperament is nine tenths of learning, I like to say. Now, back to my layout. The store is grouped into five main sections. The first two don't fit the rest."

He pointed at the front window, the display counter he leaned on, and the cabinets behind him.

"First is irregular, valuable, and new items. They're either too big to go elsewhere, potentially valuable enough that I might want to lock them up, or things we've recently brought into the shop. They could probably use a refresh, I'll admit."

Basen pointed toward the back of the store next.

"There is a back room in the shop. I call it the Archives."

Reid looked around the stacks of boxes and spotted the door at the back of the room.

"It's less an archive and more a gigantic mess, though."

"Worse than this?"

"When I collected things, I didn't exactly do so with the intent that I would repack them and move them into a small space. There's a pile. I have an assistant named Kris who is working on sorting through some of it. He mostly works outside the city on some of my other projects, but you might see him from time to time. It's been a slow process.

"But back to the system. The three other sections are the rows before us—two rows, three sections. The left row, including both sides of the aisle, is one section. These are items that have passive functionality as their primary magical focus. Those endurance tokens we were selling fall into that category. Depending on binding, they might be stronger or weaker, but things that you don't have to think too much about are generally there.

"The next row has two sections. The right side of the aisle has items with actionable abilities, like the scribe's stuff rock I gave you. You have to activate the magic to use it, and you don't get anything for free. The left side of the aisle is a mix. It consists of items with both passive traits and active abilities. People like them the most because they think they get the most for their stars with an item like that.

"That is, to an extent, bullshit. Magic is limited by potential, which is translated oh so conveniently into star ratings. Some magic is more underwhelming, but overall, items of the same number of stars in each of these three categories will have the same level of...let's say, magical throughput. Does that make sense?"

Reid had followed everything, and while he had questions about the person named Kris and what Basen was paying him, he could wait until they dived into finances. Today was about the shop and the stuff inside.

"I think so. Are the items sorted beyond just their first order whatever?"

"They should be, but there hasn't been much reason to do so yet. I'd like to roughly group them by item type: weapons together, rocks together, books together—you get the idea. Within those, I would group items with similar effects, but I'm open to other ideas."

The organizational system was a little more thought out than Reid had expected. Given the sheer number of possibilities for what kinds of magic Basen might have, it was nice that he'd at least decided on some system. There would be people who would argue that all weapons should be together, and they might have a point, but it was a starting place. If they needed to reorganize later, Reid wanted an in-depth catalog to make that happen as efficiently as possible.

The idea of cataloging reminded Reid of something that might help. Now that Basen had hired him, there was no reason to hide his mark anymore. Given the number of items around, he could satisfy the mark's first growth condition. Maybe his next ability would help them with the shop.

"Say, Basen."

"Basen."

Reid suppressed a powerful eye roll. "I don't know if you remember, but we actually met a few days ago. I was helping out Mr. Foursprout at his stall in the market."

"Ah ha! I knew I'd seen you before."

"Yeah. I didn't think it was important, but I just thought of something. Do you remember the items in his stock that I identified?"

Basen snapped his finger. "Right, your identification was persistent, correct? You could have saved yourself some writing today!"

"Maybe, but I'd rather have people simply able to read a description than have to touch or pick up each item."

"That does make sense. Why do you bring it up then?"

"Well, it's tied to my item," Reid said, pulling the Merchant's Mark from under his shirt. "It gave me the ability to identify."

"Right. The 'Unbreakably Bound' item you mentioned. I can see you're going to share more, but can I take a guess?"

Reid wasn't sure what the man would guess, but he nodded. Basen paced behind the counter.

"Hmm. It's definitely an artifact. Given that you said you grew up in Glarrus...found it in the swamp?"

"In a manner of speaking."

Basen paused. "You're not saying...under the swamp?"

Reid nodded. Basen seemed to know a lot about the world. Reid didn't want to tell anyone about the giant snake, Vessiem, but maybe Basen had already discovered these secrets. Maybe they were small to a man like him.

Basen continued pacing. "Intriguing. Well, it isn't an Orrery or piece of one, as far as I can tell. Wait!"

Basen spun and pointed at Reid. "Growth Artifact!"

Reid nodded again, but it didn't look like Basen was done.

"Oh, that slippery bastard. Still up to his games...Hmm."

"Do you know—"

"Stop!" Basen commanded. There was a weight to the command that was more than just verbal. It was exactly like when Vessiem had controlled him.

"I do apologize for my utter lack of respect for your bodily autonomy, but it is absolutely crucial that you never say that name unless you are speaking to the one to whom it belongs. Rest assured, I know who and what you are referring to, but we must move on to safer topics. Agreed?"

Reid felt the power of command fade from him. "Yes, but I have one question."

Basen nodded.

"I said the name to my friends shortly after...my meeting. Is that a problem?"

"No. His domain is wide and strong, and you were fresh from a meeting. It would not be safe now, however. Just keep that in mind. If you never say anything, then you have nothing to worry about."

"Why shouldn't I say it?"

"Because there are people in this world who would pay dearly to know where he's hidden himself away. The name draws attention. He can handle himself, but you might not be so lucky."

Reid swallowed and nodded.

"That said, I do have one more unfortunate piece of advice. It is good that you met me so soon into your development. I can guide you, not as a merchant, but as a mage. I strongly suggest you never mention your specific item or its abilities to anyone. No details, and never tell anyone you have a growth artifact."

Reid was shaken up by the power he'd felt and the dire warning. It felt at odds with how he perceived Basen, but the man had been an adventurer for a lifetime.

"Why not? I don't plan to do so anymore, but I've revealed my ability to a few people. I haven't mentioned the item it comes from, though. Aside from pointing at it."

"Well, that's easy. Growth artifacts are among the most effective paths to power in our world. When unbound, they release the power they have built and reset to one star. You have undoubtedly noted that your item is 'Unbreakably Bound,' so what do you have to worry about? Well, any binding, no matter how strong, requires a soul to anchor to. If your soul is no longer in this world? No binding."

Reid, quite obviously, did not want to be murdered for his growth artifact. He tucked it back under his shirt.

"Yeah. That's not great. I'll keep it a secret."

"Wonderful. Now that we've finished traipsing around the issue, I assume you brought it up because you think you can satisfy a growth condition and gain something to help you with the shop?"

"Yes, actually, exactly."

"What's the condition?"

"I need to identify fifty items. I'm already at fifteen, so only thirty-five to go!"

Basen looked around dramatically. "I do think we can manage that. Let's get to it!"