After talking with elder Gui, Naath made his way to the market area following his instructions. He soon arrived in a massive plaza with various stands, tents, and buildings all for the purpose of selling and trading. There was a shop for nearly everything it seemed like! Restaurants for food, stands for ingredients, cultivation material shops, etc. Naath wandered around for a little bit just browsing all of the shop fronts and looking at various knickknacks. As he was walking he did see something that caught his eye, it was a tailors.
They had many different clothing styles for everyone, making Naath pause for a second. Out of curiosity he went inside of the shop and looked around. This was one of the few dozen buildings that were here rather than the hundreds of tents. Going inside it was cooler than outside giving a nice respite. Near the door was a clerk sitting in wait who asked Naath.
“Ah, you must be new to the sect right young master? Welcome to raging weave, we sell many clothes and styles here for the disciples of the raging river sect what are you looking for?”
Naath was startled for a second, he grew up in the united states when he was on earth and was not used to there being a clerk to pop up and help customers immediately. After a moment though he snapped out of it, this was his first time in a large populated area on this world and his first time really experiencing the customs here. After gathering himself he asked the clerk.
“You guys sell clothes? Does the sect allow things other than the disciple robes handed out upon entering the sect or ranking up? I would have thought there would be strict regulations on this.”
“Ah no young master, the sect allows disciples to wear anything so long as it has the sect logo clearly visible on it. As long as this rule is followed, then color, style, everything is fine. As the rules are written in fact one could go nude if they so chose as long as the raging river logo was tattooed on their body. So young master would you like to just look around or do you have anything custom in mind by chance?”
Naath stopped and thought for a second, while the clerk patiently waited. After thinking for a moment Naath decided that he would like some custom robes if possible.
“Yes actually, some custom clothing would be wonderful. How do I order some?”
“Ah young master just follow me to a room to get your measurements real quick and then describe roughly what you want to me and we can get started immediately. Oh by the way young master what rank insignia should we place on the robes?”
“Uh, I will need two sets of three different style robes then. One set with the insignia of an outer disciple and one set with the insignia for an elders direct disciple.”
Saying this Naath took out elder Gui’s token that he had been forced to take as a sign of being his disciple. Upon seeing the token the clerk seemed to somehow get even more respectful than before? He bowed and said.
“Oh my young master you should have mentioned being an elders disciple beforehand! In that case we can send the fees directly to the sect administration and you wont have to pay a thing. Only official shops with building can do this though, so do keep that in mind. Anyway, onto the sizing area please.”
With that they moved into another room where the clerk took Naaths measurements and scribbled them down. After this he had Naath describe the robes he wanted. He wanted an outfit with a long sleeve shirt that was jet black and tightly fitted, if at all possible to be able to stretch a little and to make it about 7 centimeters longer than necessary. On this black shirt he would have the insignia be placed in white on the left shoulder.
For his pants he wanted black as well on pants that were kind of loose and easy to move around in that would also breathe slightly. He also requested a new pair of shoes as his had become rather worn out now from all of his travels. He just asked for something comfortable that would last a long time. As for color Naath went for a hazy gray with white laces. Finally for the last thing Naath asked for a large cloak that could be worn over the outfit with a hood. The cloak he wanted to be hazy gray all on the outside and on the inside he wanted the hood to be black while the rest inside of it would be pure white. He also requested three blindfolds, one of each color.
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The clerk took all of these instruction and notes perfectly, nodding his head and writing down possible materials as he did so. Once this was done Naath was practically shooed out of the building so the tailor could get to work. He was told to come back in 8 days to pick up his clothes. After that he continued to wander around the shopping area until he came across a weapons shop. Once he saw the weapons shop he immediately stepped inside. In his last life Naath had been a bit of a fanatic about blades of all kinds. He also happened to have the excuse of needing to grab a whetstone to look at the weapons inside.
Upon stepping inside the building Naath paused, looked around and inhaled deeply. There was a satisfying smell of freshly ground metal and newly wound leather and many other things. This put a smile on his face as he continued to look around, like with the last store a clerk came up to him and asked what he was looking for. This time though, Naath just politely told the clerk he was going to wander around and browse everything. Hearing this the clerk smiled and went back to her chair.
Afterwards Naath started to earnestly look around at the various weapons displayed. It seemed like this place had everything. From basic swords to chakram and even varja, what Naath was most interested in though was blades so thats what he focused on the most. On seeing the quality of the blades here Naath smiled again. Compared to the industrially made blades on earth these were works of art. The quality of the metal was far better and the angle of the blades and stability was almost perfect! The more Naath browsed the more impressed he became.
Eventually he came to a sword that made him pause, the more he looked at the blade the more he came to feel that he should get it. It was a sleek, silver, almost white khopesh blade. It was shaped like a crescent on the bend and had a notch coming off of it on the back just at the start of the bend. Naath froze when he saw it because something happened that rarely ever did for him. His right ear began to ring in a specific, high pitched tone and he felt a deep phantom pressure in the pit of his stomach. These were both things Naath had long, long since learned to trust as signs of good things to come!
Without hesitation Naath picked the blade up from its display rack and decide to feel it out. The balance was perfect, it didn’t fit overly nicely in Naaths hand but he would grow into that. Not to mention his dislocatable joints made that a non-issue. The sharpness was beautiful and the metal looked to have been treated perfectly! After swinging it a few times in the air Naath nodded his head. It was slightly awkward to swing right now but again he knew he would grow into it. It was sized for a grown person after all not a child s body like his current one.
Naath looked down at the label on the display rack and wasn’t sure how to react. Somehow this masterpiece of a sword was only rated as a single star bronze sword! Not only that it was incredibly cheap too! It seemed like the shop was desperate to get rid of it for some reason. Smiling at his luck, Naath took the sword over to the counter and went to pay for it. When he put it up on the counter though the clerk looked surprised and she asked.
“Young master, are you sure you want this blade, we have had a hard time selling it due to its… unusual design. If you really want it I wont stop you but there is no great history of blades like this one being revered on the battlefield. As a fellow sect member I feel I should try to tell you so you don’t die fighting an enemy with a sub-par weapon.”
“It seems like whoever made this sword fell on hard times then hmm? But I don’t care about others and their tastes, in my eyes this blade is a work of art. So what if its design isn’t traditional? Great-swords are famous for weight and simplicity, bastard swords for ease of use. Hero swords for simplicity and reliability, do you know why everyone knows these and why they prefer them? Because literally everyone uses them. Hmph, narrow minded people who want to follow an already trodden path. I’ll gladly take this blade. Also if you could tell me where to find its maker in the future so I can do business with them I would appreciate that too, oh and a whetstone.”
The clerk gave Naath an odd look hearing this but took the money and handed him the blade and sheath anyway, along with the sharpening stone. She also handed him a piece of paper with a name and location on it. Naath thanked her for her service and left the building deciding it was probably time to head back down to his home. He looked around the stalls for a map of the sect too so he could just go down the cliff side near where his house was. Eventually he stopped looking and asked a random passerby where he could find a map.
The person said “ah a newbie huh? Just put some of your martial energy into your sect identity token and it will show you a map with everything you have authority to see.”