“Why would they waste such rare silk for such a sloppy job, and for the likes of you to boot!? I’ll never understand rich people.”

“What do you mean that you want it completely un-[Enchanted]? Once I start working the leather my [Job] and [Skills] will naturally enhance the product on their own, adding passive effects that I consider essential!”

“No, I will not give it back! This cloak is a travesty for my profession, and I will not allow any more people to witness such cruelty!”

“Rushed job? Who do you think we are!? It will take at least a week or so to have everything ready up to our standards.”

“Price? If the cost was really a problem your sweetheart wouldn’t have brought you here in the first place.”

“Now, get out!” Two cat-eared women, identical except for the color of their hair and fur, shouted at the same time, shooing both Sheeno and me out of their store.

Once they started hurrying us out I still felt a little stunned by their rapid-fire responses, barely cognizant enough to ask for a leather cloak as a temporary replacement, which they just shoved into my chest without another word, before they physically pushed us both out of their door.

“What the hell just happened!?” I asked perplexed, turning to Sheeno, who I noticed was barely holding in her laughter.

“You knew this would happen! You knew I couldn’t afford their services and they would barrel over my protests. Why do you keep finding ways to spend for me!? “ I once more asked, belatedly noticing that those walking around were purposely skirting around us, but that didn’t stop me from repeatedly pointing at her.

“I need to trick you into making you financially rely on me because you’ll otherwise stab yourself in the foot by trying to be self-sufficient while I’m right here! Why are you so stubborn about this!? I thought you had gotten over this thing!” She responded back, any signs of levity gone from her face.

“I accepted that sometimes I couldn’t avoid relying on you, and I’m reticent from doing so more frequently… because!” I answered, slightly flustered to be arguing in the open street.

“Because?” She asked for clarification.

“Because!” I was too stubborn and unsure of myself to provide a more in-depth response than that.

“Your because is ‘because’? Because that makes sense, doesn’t it!?” She stated sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“It’s complicated, okay?” I stated, fully conscious of how absurd I was being.

“Explain then!” Sheeno now sounded tired of my antics.

“… can you, like, put a privacy screen up, or something?” I belatedly asked.

She finally took notice that we were shouting out in the open, and like we should have done since the beginning, she grabbed my hand, brought me into an alley, and pulled out of nowhere her usual [Artifact] for privacy screening.

Once it was up Sheeno was actually the first one to talk, “I want to start by admitting that tricking you like that was indeed not okay, and I’m sorry”.

I was slightly stunned by the ease with which she admitted her error, so I felt that I couldn’t do anything less.

“I was the one that pushed you to do that, so it’s my fault. I’m sorry about being stubborn about this, but at times it feels like this is the only way I can have control over my life, you know? Like, I’m always agreeing to plans others make for my benefit, I listen to bits of advice and instructions alike because I know nothing of this world, and I’m in a state of constantly being bounced around by people way above me in the power scale, regardless of my will. Being somewhat financially self-sufficient was akin to a way for me to wrestle some control over my life...”

“Well, then you chose the wrong place where to take your stand”, Sheeno simply replied, not unkindly.

“W-what!?” I was floored by her response, totally unlike what I had expected.

“If I was bringing anything to this [Team], then that’s money, a lot of money-“, my companion started saying, but it felt too self-deprecating for my liking.

“Don’t sell yourself short like that…ha, sell-“, and I just had to make a dumb joke to ease the tension a bit.

“-anyway, you choosing arbitrarily to be financially autonomous with me around will just result in avoidable problems, like worrying about the price of good equipment”, she kept going once she heard me spout that stupid pun.

“What am I supposed to do then!?”

“Keep progressing your ‘build’ however you like, damned the conventions, and grow so absurdly strong that not even the [Gods] can’t touch you if that’s possible; if not, then make it possible anyway: If anyone was capable of it, it kinda feels like it would be you”, Sheeno calmly explained.

The words felt like exactly what I needed to hear… actually, they were almost too perfect for the situation.

“Have I already ranted about this before?” I asked, already cringing internally.

“Not exactly about this subject, but about a very similar one, yes. At the time, though, it kinda felt like you didn’t mean to, so I knew we would talk about this again, and so I prepared what you needed to hear in advance. Now, that doesn’t make it any less true, just more concise than what I would have blabbered in the heat of the moment”, she easily came clear.

Ignoring the song from Asia that currently playing in my mind, I thought about it and yes, that didn’t devalue her words at all.

If anything, it showed how far she would think things through for my sake, and I found that very sweet actually.

“I’m terribly sorry that I’ve been such an ass. You’re right, I’ll experiment more with my powers, because they are my powers, while allowing others to help me how they see fit, as long as they exaggerate. So, thank you very much for taking care of me, whenever and however I need it, but now I kind of want to go on a shopping spree and buy a couple of materials that will be essential in my next experiments, and subsequent works”, I said after a brief pause (thank you increased brain power), only slightly ashamed in my sudden turn-around.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“No worries about feeling like you’re being pushed around by others again? You’re just going to completely flip your attitude like that and just go ahead with the idea of spending my money?” Sheeno asked, slightly amused, but she was unsuccessful in hiding the real traces of concerns behind her words from the likes of me.

“Hey, if I’m good at something is adapting to the situation… that, and ranting”, I responded, and she didn’t know the truth of how ‘adaptable’ I actually was.

“Ok, fine. I’ll believe you for now. So, where did you want to spend my money now?” My fantastic companion asked.

“I’m glad that you asked…”

You are shameless.

“Just you wait until I make that ‘orbiting eyeballs’ thing into a reality!”

Oh, for the love of all that is good, STOP IT!

“Hehe, not this time, [Buddy]!”

* * *

I was not as shameless as I thought.

Once I saw the prices for what I wanted I only brought what I thought was strictly essential, instead of all the random shinies that I could experiment with.

“I know that I already asked, but are you sure that you needed those nuggets of rare ores, crystal fragments, plant samples, and shards of bone from ancient [Beasts]?” Sheeno asked again.

“Yes, I’m sure. Having the real thing to analyze in depth will improve the quality of what I can create with my magic”, I explained again.

“Ok, but what I’m really asking is: did you really need so many samples, and in so few quantities?” This time she actually asked what has been on her mind during this whole trip.

“The quantity is irrelevant, I just need enough to see how it reacts when I start messing with it and what it ends up becoming once I’m done testing it. As for the number of things I ended up buying: I just didn’t want to miss on something that could end up useful, which I would have regretted later on”, I told her, whilst still moving among the throng of people towards the block with our mansion.

“I understand that, but we went there to get you some armor, and not only did you come out of it with less than before, having swapped your [Rare] cloak for a hardened leather [Common] one, but now my ring is filled with what looks like a bunch of random knick-knacks!” Sheeno didn’t sound pleased.

“ ‘Knik-knack’ is an expression here too? Weird… well, anyway, the armor is your fault, and nothing of what I bought will be wasted. In fact, I already think that I can improve my staff with what I have on hand, and maybe start creating a schematic for a weapon suited only for you”, I stated.

“I summon weapons made of [Ice] that incarnate the concept of [Conflict]. There is no weapon capable of handling that”, my companion stated, as if she had already gone over the subject and had her hopes shattered multiple times.

“Yet. There isn’t a weapon capable of handling you, yet! Trust me, if I manage of fusing the bone of an [Frost Dragon] with an alloy of mithril and divinium, while imbibing them with the right [Enchantments], it will work like a reactive catalyst that will enhance any [ice construct] that you’ll generate through them. I was thinking about something like a knuckle-duster, as far as physical designs go, so they won’t impede you from punching things, if anything they’ll improve your punches, while allowing you to materialize anything with the same ease, from bucklers to axes”, I fully explained my plans for her.

“That sounds… too good to be true. Don’t work yourself into a frenzy trying to make something for me, this shopping spree should have been for your benefit”, Sheeno warned, probably afraid that she had ended up spending her money only to end up buying stuff for herself.

“Don’t worry, this will benefit me greatly! I already have a bunch of things that I want to immediately work on, from improving my old [constructs], to making new ones… and maybe even make a new [familiar] or two”, I admitted, slightly surprising myself with where my thoughts went.

“I guess it was about time to try something credited as impossible again.”

“Wow, that’s big. You always were against the idea of ‘making’ more [familiars], for how absurd that might sound. What made you change your mind?” She queried.

“The wise words of a gorgeous woman”, I cheekily responded.

“Ass-kisser”, Sheeno scoffed.

“I wouldn’t mind if you were okay with it!” I immediately exclaimed, jumping at the occasion.

She blankly looked at me for a moment before slapping me behind the head.

“You’re terrible!” Sheeno exclaimed, barely holding in her laugh but failing to not blush at the same time.

“That’s me!” I proudly said, pointing both my thumbs to my chest, which broke Sheeno who snorted aloud.

A short lull passed during our walk, where we both were probably thinking about very different things. Or at least I thought so, since I couldn’t read minds.

“I don’t know if I should be more concerned over you letting go of the matter of how I want to spend my money for you, or how you now suddenly know how to respond to the dirty jokes that used to make you so flustered until literally yesterday”, Sheeno probed.

“Hehe, ‘probed’.“

You have both the body and the mind of a child!

“Wow, rude!”

“What do you mean by that?” I ask, with my partner, who was unaware of the discussion inside my mind.

“That’s not normal, Darwin”, Sheeno states, evidently concerned for me.

“Are we really talking about ‘nomal’ here? I’m in a completely different world from the one that I was accustomed to, where I was already believed to be strange, and now here, in [Nexus], it’s the same story all over again? I don’t care about ‘normal’, we don’t care about ‘normal’; so, what really has gotten your gears grinding?” And here I go ranting again.

To be fair, Sheeno was the last person to talk about being ‘normal’, especially after the various discussion we had about being true to oneself, regardless of popular belief, and the fact that being both [Anomalous] and [Aberrant] isn’t seen with a kind eye.

“Ok, that came out wrong. What I meant to ask is: How much of this is really you, and how much of it is a mask that you’re putting on to avoid conflict?” Sheeno clarified.

“Oh! Uhh…

That’s uhh…

Can we talk about this later, in the safety of our house?”

That simple question floored me, because that was exactly it: Why was I avoiding conflict until it got to the point where it would eventually blow up in my face?

And that wasn’t a new thing: It happened with Tyron, the [Human] that had decided to become an [Adventurer] like me, but got so annoyed at how the [Guild staff] was treating me differently that he ended up attacking me, a situation that I could have easily avoided if I just fucking spoken to him once during our orientation. And yet I didn’t.

Or how I allowed those that trained me to just send me to the [Wild Area], because it was the place furthest from anyone I could know, and so it should have been the one where I would arrive with the least chance of conflict.

Or like now.

If push came to shove, I recognized that I would allow others to throw me around if that let me do my own thing.

That was not ‘normal’.

My inner monologue lasted just enough to reach our mansion, and once we stepped safely inside Sheeno proceeded to activate every safety and privacy function we had.

“We need to talk”, Sheeno dreadfully stated, but before I could state that was possibly the worst way to start a discussion, something entered within the range of my perception, and [Precognitive Aura], in tandem with [Unavodable Detection], picked up something that made my blood run cold.

3 hostile humanoid entities were detected.

2 sporting trances of unknown Divine energy, while the last showing advanced Stealth capabilities.

“We have a problem!” I exclaimed, and a look at my face was enough to tell Sheeno that something serious was happening.