After Markus gave Johan a bunch of neatly folded supplies, including a whetstone much to Johans happiness, the duo went off to the place they had originally split from the rest of the group. They arrived and found the girls sitting against a wall, just talking. Johan noticed that Anne had a new cloak, Pat had acquired shoulder pauldrons, and Jen had gotten a short thin sword, almost a long dagger, if Johan had to guess it was some sort of rapier or rapier adjacent weapon.

"What have you guys been up to?" Johan asked as he approached.

"We went and did a bit of shopping." Anne replied, getting Johan to look at her, and he realized the cloak had a slight ping on the manaspace.

"Where'd you get the cloak?" Johan asked a bit more seriously now.

"Oh, um... I got it from a guy claiming it had a minor protective enchantment on it." Anne answered

"Hmm... I'm not sure, but it is magical in some way... Good to see that you guys went shopping though. While you 3, well 4 including Adv, did that, we got the supplies we needed. I plan to do a bit of shopping myself before I head back to the place we're staying tonight."

"Feel free to." Markus interjected.

"Alright then. I'll be back at David's in a while then."

"See you later."

Johan left quickly. He was a bit jealous of the girls having gotten some new stuff to play with and was wanting something of his own.

Johan walked down the streets, finding a few stores he was interested in, but couldn't find much of interest in them. That was until he finally found a small smithy hidden in a small alley.

It was only a few dozen feet wide, meaning Johan felt the heat of the furnace himself, and could see everything in the shop. On the walls were a variety of things, from mundane objects to weapons. He saw cups and plates, forks and knives. Spears and swords, as well as daggers. In the corners he saw armor, some on shelves, others on stands.

None of it was really his style, but he did spot something that caught his eyes. It was a long bracer. Normally bracers stopped somewhere on the forearm, but the bracer he was looking at stopped just above the elbow. It had a fan shaped flourish that allowed the elbow to still move. If he were to be honest, it looked almost like the bottom part of a lance when held in the crook of a jousting knights arm. It was quite aesthetically pleasing to Johan.

"Howdy there, lad. What are ya looking for?" A short and stout man asked. The man was only about 4 feet tall, and had a nice bushy mustache and a well groomed and extremely well controlled beard.

"Oh, I am just looking around. I'm traveling and was wanting to look for something that could be helpful. I figured armor of some sort would likely be the most helpful right now, especially with all the bandits around." Johan explained, "But I am also on a *very* tight budget. I was thinking of getting something like that bracer over there."

"Oh? How tight are we talking here? Don't mean to offend, just want to know budget before we do business." The man short man asked.

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"Of course. Let me just show you." Johan pulled out a few bundles of pelts and hides for the man.

"Ah, a barter. Not too bad quality either. You wanted a bracer you said? Something like that one? What kind of weapon do you use?"

Johan pulled out his spear in response, and the man nodded in approval.

"Not a bad weapon. Not a great one, but it ain't bad. I can tell it was made by someone with great experience at least. Seems to me like they were limited on resources though. Alright. Show me your arm kid. Let's see what we can do here."

Johan did as he was told, and the man seemed to take some measurements before jotting some stuff down. "Alright. Come back tomorrow and I should have it just about ready. You're lucky that you just want a bracer, anything aside from that or a heart plate and you'd of been laughed out of here." The man said as he took around 3/4th of what Johan had.

"Honestly I didn't really expect to have enough. As for full armor I plan to go to a leather worker anyhow since I need mobility for my fighting style. Either way, thank you for the help. I'll be back tomorrow." Johan thanked the man and then left.

------

The next place of interest that Johan found was a small shop that sold a decent variety of things, but what had caught Johans eye this time was a thin book that seemed to be quite faded.

When he brought it to the clerk, the clerk seemed a bit surprised, but still went along with it.

"Are you sure you want this sir? We've had this book for a while, nobody is even sure why we have it, it doesn't seem to contain much information, moreover it's written in another language." The clerk said.

"I'm sure. I can read the language, and it's something that is of import to me." Johan replied.

"Alright then. It's not worth too much, so, I'll only take this much." The clerk took around a 3rd of what Johan had left.

With this Johan had gotten a book about summoning. The reason why the book seemed worthless was due to it being magically encrypted. It needed a steady stream of mana, even just the smallest amount would work, to be able to be read. No one who wasn't able to use magic would ever be able to read it.

The next thing Johan found was a small wooden ring. It was cheap only taking a single pelt for him to buy, but he got it for practicing his imbuement, so the quality didn't need to be fantastic.

He planned to put a small spell or two of healing on it in the future so that he would heal slightly faster. It was simply a matter of whether he wanted to use light, or water for it, as he was certain that he wanted one of those 2. After he bought the ring he decided he was done for the day, and returned to David's.

-----

Johan arrived at David's finding the girls talking out front.

"Hey. Why are you all out here?"

"Ah, hey, we are waiting for Markus, We're going to go get some food." Pat replied. "I left Adv in the room by himself."

"Yeah. I'm excited to try something that isn't desert beast." Jen added.

"Alright. Sounds good." Johan replied

"So what did you buy anyways?" Anne asked Johan while they waited.

"Oh, I commissioned a bracer, got a book about summoning magic, and I got this small wooden ring. I got the ring to try out imbuement later once I get healing magic down for light and water, I want to figure out which is better so I can imbue it. Perhaps I can make a fusion spell for even better effects though." Johan explained.

"Oh, a bracer?" Pat questioned curiously.

"Yep. Anne has a shield, but I realized I don't have anyway to actually protect myself. A bracer can be useful for me, after all, my arms tend to get closer to my enemies, so it'll probably be more helpful more often than using a heart plate, or even a helmet. I can't heal well enough to regrow limbs."

"Ohh... That's actually smart." Jen said

At this point, Markus came out, followed by Klein and David, as well as David's wife Maria.

"Oh good. Johan came back. How was shopping?" Markus asked

"Productive. I have to go back somewhere tomorrow."

"Ah, you commissioned something?" Klein asked

"Yep."

"Good, usually better to commission than buy outright for things like armor. Anyway, let's go! It's been a long day, I wanna drink and eat good food!" Klein replied.

Markus laughed a bit, as did Johan and David. Then the entire group headed to the tavern called Ricks.