By the time Q logged in she found Kukis talking to Clair. Upon seeing this Q nonchalantly picked up Clair and put her in her lap, and began petting her. For a moment Kukis had a blank face, but she quickly regained her smile. “Hi Q. Wendy left a message that she was going back to her master, and if we wanted to find her we just need to go to the Town Hall. Also, Brie logged in for a minute and she said she’s reached her playing time limit. It’ll be a few more days until we can see her again.”
“That’s too bad. I guess she forgot about her time limit.”
“Yeah, so what are your plans now?”
“I want to check out the merchant’s district and see if they have any weapons. My dagger is broken after all.” Q brought out her broken weapon and put it on the table.
“What a coincidence. I wanted to check out the stalls to see if they have any ingredients for making potions.”
“Meow~ That’s not a problem.” The girls directed their attention to Clair. “There are tons of different plants and materials circulating the market. It might be a bit pricey though, because everyone’s fighting to get some new ingredients. As for the weapons, they’re usually wands or staffs, but you might find something else if you’re lucky.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go take a look!” Q stood up and began heading for the door.
“W-wait! Put me down first!” Clair struggled to get out of Q’s arms.
“Oh, sorry…” Q put her down with a reluctant face.
“Haha! Let’s get going then shall we?” Kukis almost dragged Q out of the inn and the two went out to explore the merchant district. Now that Wendy wasn’t accompanying them they got lost a few times, but Q used her advanced hearing to find the loudest area. They followed the noise and found an open circle area filled with people. There were a total of 8 statues in the area; one was in the center and was the largest, and the others made a circle around it. At the base of the statues there were many of the residents clamoring and yelling over each other as they attempted to buy items.
“Wow, that’s quite a crowd.” Q whistled in admiration.
“Yup. Let’s go and check it out!” Kukis headed for the nearest statue and found that the merchants there were selling water-based items. “I guess this is Veilra’s statue then.” She looked up at the statue and then noticed something. It was moving! To be more accurate, there was a ring of water around the statue, and it constantly moved up and down, and sometimes even spun around the statue’s waist.
(A/N: Hula hoop~)
“Man, I am really loving this village.” Q’s smile was as wide as it could be. While the two girls were admiring the scenery, one of the merchants approached them.
“Hello! You fine ladies look like you’re not from around here.” A merchant wearing blue robes began speaking. “Are you two from outside the forest?”
“Yeah.” Q nodded in response.
“Well, could I interest you in my wares? I sell only top-quality magic items, of course, of the water variety.” Before Q could respond, another merchant wearing a red robe came by.
“Hey! Are you trying to get a head start on my customer?”
“Your customer? I talked to them first! I have dibs.”
“No no, they’re obviously going to buy from me.” Another merchant joined in.
Soon the girls were surrounded by merchants with different colored robes, all trying to get them to purchase their wares. Just as they were about to get overwhelmed, a small figure with brown hair intervened. “Hey, give them some space!” The figure began frantically waving its arms in an effort to keep the merchants at bay. “Master Pamerun has personally brought them here, so no taking advantage of them!”
Upon hearing these words the merchants grumbled and all headed back to their stalls. “Thanks for the help…” Q trailed off.
“I’m Lea, one of Pamerun’s apprentices. She asked me to go out and help you around the shopping area.”
“How did you know we were here though?” Q tilted her head.
“It’s a simple matter for wind mages to transmit messages throughout the village. Though sometimes they get mixed up with other messages and you get weird noises… Putting that aside, do you have any currency to purchase items?”
“Sure we do.” Q pulled out a silver coin from her inventory.
“Ah, sorry to burst your bubble but we don’t deal with coins from the outside here. Instead we barter and trade items. Do you have anything like that? Random items are fine, but it’ll depend on the merchant on whether they’ll take it or not.”
“That’s interesting… Cookie, do you-” As soon as Q turned around she found the purple-haired girl already negotiating with a merchant. “I guess I should also start looking around huh?” Q began looking around the stalls (with Lea in tow) and found many strange and interesting items. There were crystal balls, moving plants, and floating stones to name a few. Sometimes there were scrolls which according to Lea, contained a single spell. Using the scroll would allow the spell to be used, but would also destroy the scroll in the process. There were also some skill books lying around but Q wasn’t very interested in them since they only contained melee-based skills (which was strange since this was a village full of magic).
In terms of weapons, Clair was correct as most of the things Q saw were wands or staffs of varying size. Sometimes there was the odd sword or bow, but none of the weapons were something that ‘clicked’ with Q. She made a few rounds around the circle (sometimes spotting Kukis in a heated discussion with the merchants) before setting her sights on the largest statue.
Once Q approached the area, she noticed that things became a bit calmer. “This is the statue of Alrune, the leader of the founding witches.” Lea began explaining. “While each of the founders were powerful when using their main element, Alrune could use all elements with barely a difference in skill. His magic was quite different from the others though, and since he took his secrets to the grave, no one to this day has figured it out. Anyway, the area around Alrune contains the most expensive items in the area, so if you want something here you’ll have to really barter for it.”
Q nodded in understanding and began looking at the items. The ones here were definitely of a higher quality, as she could feel some inexplicable ‘force’ that they each gave off. While she couldn’t appraise the items, Q knew that they were all high-level items, possibly of rare or mythic rarity. Makes me wonder why such items are available to players this early in the game. I’d have thought that most players would still struggle to grab uncommons and rares around this point in time. While Q was ruminating, she came across a shop with the merchant sitting on the ground.
This merchant’s wares weren’t being displayed in a flashy way like the others, but were neatly laid out on the ground. The merchant was wearing a purple robe, and looked up at Q when she approached. “Interested in my wares, little fox?” A small grin accompanied the raspy voice. Q didn’t answer him back though, as her sight was focused on a strangely shaped wand with a large crystal ball on the end of it.
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“Heheh, you’ve got a good eye fox.” The merchant smiled, “This here used to be the Grand Wizard Alrune’s personal ‘wand’!”
Q’s eyes widened as she asked, “Seriously?” The merchant’s smile only widened in response, and Q looked at Lea for any sort of confirmation.
Lea only shrugged as she pointed towards the statue of Alrune. “Alrune is depicted holding a crystal ball, but it’s hard to tell if it was a wand or not. Anyway, even if it’s not Alrune’s actual staff it’s still guaranteed to be a good item. The merchants here only deal with legitimate items, and selling any frauds would be a huge stain on their reputation, right?” Her last sentence was directed to the merchant who nodded.
“Hmm…” Q stared long and hard at the wand. Even though I don’t know if it’s real, or if it’s any good, this is the only item that’s stood out to me so far… and my gut feeling tells me to get it as well. Okay, screw it. She looked up at the merchant and asked, “What are you willing to trade it for?”
The merchant smiled again, as if he expected this answer. “As this is the genuine article, I wouldn’t let it go that easily.” Q grimaced, but the merchant continued. “Although normally I wouldn’t trade it, there have been a few items that have caught my eye lately. There’s the Zapper Newt’s eye, the Scale Frog’s frozen toe, the Greater Screech Bat’s wool, and the Hellhound’s tongue. If you can get me these four items, I’d be willing to trade it with you.”
“Ugh… those all sound like expensive items…” Q dreaded the idea of having to barter for those items as well.
“Yup. They’re on the higher tier of items sold around the shopping area, but you should still be able to find them all. Are you still willing to do this for a strange wand?” Lea seemed apprehensive.
“Yes! If i’ve decided to do something, I’m going to do it with all of my effort!” Q left in high spirits and began looking for the items the merchant requested. With each item she found though, she became increasingly depressed as all the merchants selling those items were also asking for different ones as well. This eventually turned into a grand chain of item trades containing well over 50 different items of different quantities. If it wasn’t for a quill pen and paper that Lea pulled out, Q wouldn’t have been able to keep track of them all.
Just as she was about to start trading for those items, Kukis appeared. “Hey, I was looking all over for you! What have you found?” Kukis looked incredibly happy, so Q assumed she had found what she was looking for and more. Q explained her problem, and Kukis simply laughed. “Looks like you haven’t bartered before. Come on, I’ll help you out!”
Now with Kukis’ help, Q was able to reduce the amount of items she needed to trade by a good amount. Surprisingly enough, Kukis was quite good at bartering, which prompted Q to ask a question. “Hey Cookie, how did you get so good at trading things?”
“It’s not like I’m particularly good at trading…” She scratched her cheek. “Well the trick is to know what the other person wants, and know what you can provide for them. I’ve done quite a bit of that in real life already so…” Kukis’ voice became a bit lower on the last sentence.
“Mmm.” Noticing the subtle change in atmosphere, Q decided to not comment on it anymore and finished trading her items. After an hour of back and forth talking (and also losing almost all of the extra items in her inventory), Q was finally able to come up with all the items the merchant needed, and went back to his stall. Once she got there, the merchant smiled and reached out his hand.
“So, I take it you’ve gathered all the items?”
“Yes. Let’s trade!” Q presented the items, and the merchant nodded in satisfaction.
“Yes, yes. These are all of good quality. Well little fox, as promised, here is your ‘wand’.” He handed over the wand to Q.
As soon as Q grabbed hold of the wand, she felt some strange force get transferred to her body. Q gasped in surprise but nothing seemed to be different. Just as she was about to talk to the merchant a window appeared in front of her.
[Alrune’s Key (Unique, Indestructible, Soulbound)] - A strangely shaped key belonging to the Grand Wizard Alrune. Perhaps this could be the ‘key’ to unlocking his secrets? +15 Wisdom, +5 Intelligence when carried.
Q’s eyes widened upon reading the description, and her head shot up to ask the merchant something. As soon as she looked up though, the merchant was already gone and there was nothing but an empty space in front of her. “What in the world…” The other two were bewildered as well, as the merchant had seemingly disappeared into thin air.
“So, what’s it’s stats?” Kukis gave up thinking about where the merchant went and instead asked about the item Q had spent so much effort to obtain.
“It’s-”
“Oh, I just got a message from master.” Lea interrupted. “She wants us to meet her at Town Hall. Or at least I assume she meant Town Hall, because the message got weird at the end. Anyway, let’s head over now.”
“Sure.” Q decided to leave the matter of the key for later. I could always ask Pamerun what it’s about anyway. The group was able to get to town hall within a few minutes, and they saw Wendy waiting at the front gate.
“Hi Q, Kukis! ...Lea.”
“Wendy.”
The two witch apprentices glared at each other and sparks began to fly. Q and Kukis were at a loss on what to do, but thankfully Pamerun came outside. “*sigh* What are you two doing?”
““Master!”” The apprentices ran up to their master and began excitedly chatting.
“Haha, sorry about that. Being my personal apprentices, these two get a little competitive every now and then. Anyway, come on in.” Pamerun said as she began leading them through the Town Hall. The hall was made of primarily stone, and stood high at about three stories tall. There were a few of the village residents walking around, but for the most part it was relatively quiet and empty. After climbing some stairs and heading down a hallway, the group made it to a large recreational room.
Indicating for Q and Kukis to sit on a couch, Pamerun sat on a large chair facing them. Q felt that this was a good time to bring up Alrune’s Key, but Pamerun’s next sentence stopped her.
“I’ve heard that you don’t have a class yet.” She smiled.
“Yeah, but where did you hear that?” Q scrunched her eyebrows.
“Second-hand information.” Pamerun looked over at Kukis. “Anyway… how would you like to receive a class?”
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Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Hello~ Anyway, what's up? Nothing? Cool.
Fun-fact: Clefairy was supposed to be Pokemon's original mascot.