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“Can you fix it?” Tom asked as he finished laying out the damaged bone armor set on Aleph’s table.

Aleph’s gaze shifted from Tom to the artifact set he had laid out on her study table. Gingerly, she reached out for the chest armor, which had received impacts primarily from Aleph’s Rare Artifact in the heat of battle.

Then, she shifted to the bone armor leggings that had sustained far more severe damage as Tom had sliced across Zeth’s left shin through sheer force alone.

He hadn’t managed to draw blood, but he had penetrated deeply into a segment of milky white bone that guarded the shin from frontal attacks and from the looks of it, it was only a slight push away from snapping entirely.

The boots were fine and auto-analyze had confirmed for him that he could wear them as is, but Tom wanted the entire set repaired before he donned them for the set effect.

For the bone armor itself as a set was a rather peculiar one and Tom didn’t doubt that fighting with it equipped would take some getting used to. Its inner layer was some sort of lightweight leather that had been processed into sheets before being folded and sewn into the shape of armor.

The bones had been fitted into folds in the leather armor, their milky white exterior unblemished by dirt or decay. Whatever process had bonded them to the leather armor, it was expertly done, because Tom had first hand seen that armor set being employed by Zeth in battle and it had not been its failing that had caused his demise.

Its unconventional make placed it outside of the ability of average blacksmiths to repair, not to mention how generally unnerving it was. Thankfully, the rib cage that had been slotted over the leather chest piece was too broad and curved at angles that were far too sharp to belong to a person. The same was true for what appeared to be shorter, curving femurs that were slotted to provide protection to the frontal arms and legs, while flatter, almost rectangular bones were arranged for support and protection behind, like an exoskeleton.

So if Aleph couldn’t repair it, Tom would most likely have to forgo his dreams of using this particular uncommon armor set.

“Compared to the Blood Wyrm Armor you had me repair, the damage is far more reasonable. You said it was a set, right?”

Tom nodded in the affirmative.

“Well, that doesn’t seem to change the difficulty or the cost of repairing it, at least as far as I can tell,” Aleph explained.

“How long will it take?” Tom asked.

Aleph’s lips arched up into a mischievous smile before she replied, “I could do it now, you know. You aren’t the only one who leveled up after that fight,” She said, alluding to their close fought battle against the master of the shadow guild.

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Tom blinked before his eyes widened in realization. He had been so preoccupied with his own leveling, the decision to enter the Aerianiculumn and his musings about the Neem Guild and the Nexus Nodes, that he’d forgotten to account for his companion’s increased strength.

He’d known they had grown stronger, but it spoke to the weariness Tom had accumulated over months that he didn’t pursue it.

He couldn’t speak for the other two, but Tom had definitely needed this break.

“What level is your soul card now?” Tom asked, his tone barely above a whisper.

Aleph closed the distance between them with slow, measured steps, before she leaned forward.

Tom’s heart began to beat just a tad faster, but all she did was whisper in his ear before pulling away.

He blinked.

‘Level 12, Jeez,’ Tom thought, realizing that Aleph would probably surpass his own level sooner rather than later. Of course, his was an ephemeral rank soul card while hers was a rare, so it wasn’t exactly a fair comparison, but Tom suspected that leveling wouldn’t be nearly as easy for him going forward.

Aleph’s Total Recall had been a mere level five before they had decided to destroy the Shadow Guild before they got caught up in their encirclement. Seven whole levels on a Rare Soul Card was amazing, but not entirely surprising considering that she had been the one to behead Zeth in the end, even if the experience had been split amongst the three of them.

At level 12, she would have access to 33 SP, 31 after subtracting 2 points for her signature uncommon that let her create and control crystals. Considering that she’d only needed 10 SP to repair the Blood Wyrm Chainmail, Tom could see why both the damaged artifacts he had brought her were repairable.

But that wasn’t all. Level 12 Total Recall would also give her a whopping 55 Free Points to work with, higher than the maximum amount an uncommon could offer.

It was safe to say that the Aleph before him was the strongest she’d even been.

“Can you, er, do it?” Tom sheepishly asked, trying to veer the topic away from his own myopia as of late.

“I can, but it is going to cost me quite a lot of my SP. I have an ask in return,” Aleph stated, her tone more amused than formal.

“What is it?” Tom asked, not deterred at all by the prospect.

“Once I’m done, let’s go shopping,” Aleph declared.

“Shopping?” The word escaped Tom’s lips with more curiosity than it was due, as if he were trying to pry any hidden meaning within it open.

“Yes, shopping,” Aleph replied in a matter of fact tone. “I’ve never been much for finery, but all I’ve known for the past months is mildly uncomfortable armor. I need new clothes, baggy, comfortable ones.”

“Um, yeah. Sure. Let’s go shopping after we’re done here,” Tom replied, feeling like he had been caught off guard. After all they’ve done in the past couple of months, doing something as ordinary as shopping for clothes seemed almost sacrilegious. At the same time though, Tom realized that he was kind of looking forward to it.

After dealing with the extraordinary for so long, it would be nice to just do something laid back and ordinary with… a friend.

Humming in satisfaction, Aleph returned to the table and focused her attention on the chest piece first.

“You know that wearing this is going to draw a lot of attention right,” Aleph said. “I’ve never been one to turn away a source of power, but wearing something this ostentatious is going to cause people looking your way”.

“We’re no strangers to that,” Tom replied with more nonchalance than he felt. “Oh you know, we just kidnapped a princess, altered the course of a civil war and dismantled an entire guild just before stepping into the tower. As far as our reputations go, I bet we can give the local rulers a run for their money.”

Aleph burst out into amused laughter and Tom joined in.