The market we arrived at was one of the smaller ones. It was on the border of Empire and Church territory, and I was hoping we would get better prices because it wasn’t quite so busy. Competing with C and B-rankers in the main hub market would be an exercise in frustration, and something a bit more subdued would be better for finding what we needed.

Still, even the smaller market was pretty bustling, and while I didn’t see many B-rankers, C and D-rankers abounded.

“I don’t even know where to start.” I said, blowing out a breath. “There are a bunch of weapon shops. Should I go for the big ones? The small ones? Flip a coin?” I turned to Gabe. “You’re from a big faction. Can you help me out?”

He shrugged. “I got my weapon from the Bishop in charge of my home planet’s clergy. Won it in a tournament. I couldn’t tell you anything about items.” He turned to Benny. “You’re an inventor right? Can’t you analyze the materials and tell us what we should buy?” He pointed at a random axe lying on a nearby table. “Like that one, what is it made of?”

“What am I, an encyclopedia?” Huffed my best friend. “How the hell should I know. The days of me being able to identify any material on sight ended when I reached Intermediate. Honestly I have a sneaking suspicion my Minor Inventing Skill was customized to our specific environment, because looking down from where I am now there’s no way I was just given all the materials at H-rank from one small wish.”

I nodded, considering my options. “Well, I have this badass crown that boosts my Eye of Revelation. Maybe I should try a little divination.” Staring down at the axe, I focused hard on my Eye and triggered the subskill. My mind was flooded with a series of images, constructs of stats that created effects that would empower the weapon. “I…have no clue what any of this means.” I said after a minute.

Benny snorted and I shrugged. “Sorry, but my skill at making Skills is still pretty early on in its development. I can recognize the stats its made of, but the structure itself isn’t much like anything I’ve seen. Lots of Might and Vitality, and that’s all I’ve got.”

“Well how do we usually tell what things are?” Asked Abel in annoyance. “We have to have some way of identifying items.”

I brightened. “Hey, we do.” I snapped my fingers, a bag appearing in my hands. Passing it to Zeke I stated confidently. “I would like to buy one knowledge please.” I paused. “Wait, no that’s ten E-rank chits. I want to buy a bunch of knowledges. Identify stuff for me.”

He rolled his eyes. “Commissions for identification are usually pretty high. However I can see a bit of wiggle room here. None of my identifications will be of any value to you except the one you actually buy, so technically I’m only identifying a single item for you personally. Ten E-ranked coins will be enough for that. The rest is just idle speculation.”

I grinned, gesturing to the axe. “What about this one? Might and VItality I got, but what does it do?”

He rolled his eyes. “D-rank berserker axe. Fills the user with a burst of physical energy. Makes you stronger and refills your reserves until it runs out. Reminds me a bit of Jessie’s ability, with the added Might boost.”

I nodded in interest. None of us actually used axes though, so we moved on. Staves were kind of sparse, most of the weapon tables and stalls sold bladed weapons and the occasional ranged item.

The few staves we did see at those places were magic staves, which were NOT the same thing at all. Zeke, in his capacity as item guide, explained the difference. “Staves come in two flavors. Weapon and focus. A focus, as its name implies, is built to channel energy and focus it. The big difference between the two though, is that foci don’t NEED to be staves. They can be anything.”

“So why do so many magic users carry a staff?” I asked in annoyance. “It’s just making it harder for good, hardworking warriors like me who just want to hit people with a big stick.” I shot a sarcasm laced glance at Benny when I said that, but I was pretty sure he didn’t notice.

Zeke shrugged. “Partly tradition, partly size. Staves are large items while still being manageable. Larger margin of error for enchanting them. You can use say, a ring as a focus, or a crown. In fact your crown IS a focus, just a very specific one. Most foci are more like that orb you got Mel. Amplifies fire magic.”

Stolen story; please report.

“And since the staff is more of a blank slate to write on than a weapon durability isn’t an important factor.”

He nodded. “Pretty much. Most of these are foci.” We’d stopped at one stall where someone had set up a whole umbrella stand full of staves, some fancy, some old and busted looking, however, my uncle pointed at one specific item in the group. “Though that one has some promise.”

I looked at a particularly beat up length of wood. No caps, no visible carving, just an old withered stick. “I’m gonna be honest.” I said looking at him. “I feel like you’re messing with me.”

He snickered. “That’s Three Moment Ebony. The enchantments are basic, but they take advantage of the natural abilities of the wood. Every time you hit something with that staff it’ll actually take three hits.”

“So?” I said with a shrug. “Triple damage. That doesn’t seem like that big a deal, I have a bunch of skills that already do that.”

Rolling his eyes, my uncle sighed. “I didn’t say triple damage. I said each hit lands three times. It’s a dimensional effect, when you hit someone reality fluctuates and your hit lands in triplicate. This isn’t a power boost, its a base multiplier. For someone like you, it’s invaluable. You use lots of powerful meta abilities to modify hits. Some of them only apply once. Like your Afterburner lets you have ten hits. This would make each of them count three times.”

“So you think I should buy it?” I asked cautiously. “Because it looks like it needs some repair, and that won’t be cheap.”

He nodded in acknowledgement. “You’re not wrong. Three Moment Wood is rare, and someone who can do these kinds of enchantments without the existing patterns in the wood is rarer, but that means getting it fixed will be a pain. I’d keep it in mind and continue searching. If you don’t find anything else you can always buy it then.”

That had been my thought. If Zeke had said to buy it right away I’d have listened but we were looking through a lot of different pieces here, and grabbing the first thing we found wasn’t necessarily going to get me the best result.

So we pushed on. Benny was on the lookout for a new sword, and we actually talked Abel into trying to find a pair of gloves. There weren’t a lot of them, but I’d seen a few and they all had some pretty interesting abilities. Given his skillset literally any damage on hit effect would be a boost to Abel’s damage output.

Honestly, it was kind of fun. Listening to all the amazing effects some of this gear had. We found a few more staves meant for combat too. One that expanded its size, another similar to an upgraded version of my current one that stored damage like a battery, and a fire element staff that converted everything you funneled into it into flame damage on top of its original type.

Sadly none of them were what I was looking for. The Three Moment staff was closest, but it just didn’t feel right. It was too close to what I could already do. I needed something that would apply to a variety of attacks, but that wasn’t repetitive. Something that took advantage of my strengths.

Benny found a sword he liked (E-rank, he couldn’t afford a D-ranked weapon and Zeke said it would be stupid to get one for learning with anyway), nothing fancy but it was made to be extra sturdy and sharp, which he said was all he really needed.

Abel got a pair of gloves that did lightning damage after you built up charge with momentum, and spent the next ten minutes shuffling his feet and poking us to discharge small bolts of electricity into us all until I threatened to leave him out of every fight we came across for the foreseeable future.

Finally we came to a small shop in the back of the Imperial section, and all of us went inside. It was small and cramped, but it had a certain…atmosphere. The kind that made me think there were real treasures in here. Either that or I’d watched too many movies growing up and the owner just didn’t clean very much.

“Interesting.” Said Zeke slowly as he looked around. “I’ve never seen anything like those before.”

My head jerked up. “Wait, there are unique items in here? Where?”

“Hmm?” He said, looking back at me. “No, I meant the lamps. They’re using a weird filter enchantment for the light to increase ambiance. It’s pretty cool. Most of the actual stuff in here is garbage.”

There was a thump as a girl stalked out from the back of the shop. “Excuse me?” She demanded. “I’ll have you kno…” She trailed off, staring at Zeke in horror. Dropping into a low curtsy she squeaked. “Apologies great one. I didn’t think one such as you would be found in my lowly shop.”

“She can tell what rank you are?” I asked in surprise. “I thought you were hiding it.”

He rolled his eyes. “Craftsman’s lens.” He said simply. “Right eye. It’s like an identification Skill, except it’s more limited. More than up to picking up Impact unless I had a concealment artifact, which since I’m a deterrent I didn’t bother with today.” He scowled at her. “Oh get up. Trust an Imperial to bow and scrape to an A-ranker.”

I didn’t point out that most people were probably pretty impressed by A-rankers given the Church’s reaction to my mom and the devils to my dad. “Ignore my uncle.” I said with a wave of my hand. “He’s kind of a dick lots of the time. I’m looking for a staff. Weapon not focus.”

She nodded hurriedly. “Your august personages won’t want the public goods. My premium stock should have something you’re looking for.” She turned and hurried back out coming out of the room a few minutes later with a pile of sticks. “These may suit your needs? What were you looking for?”

Zeke ignored her. “These four are D-rank.” He pointed to a quartet of staves. “This one is a spatial staff that teleports anything it hits, this one gets heavier, this one makes copies of you, and this one…” He trailed off, reaching out to take the staff in question. “Well that’s interesting.”

The staff was a dark wood, maybe walnut, polished to a shine and shot through with gold. The golden caps on the end were intricate lion heads, four on each cap, facing out. “What does it do?” His voice sounded intrigued in a way I hadn’t heard before. I was betting the staff could do something amazing.

“It’s called a Staff of Sacrifice. Basically it lets you offload damage onto an enemy along with your attack.” He said with interest. “You have to HAVE the injury, but it’s similar to healing in a way, you just swap the damage to the enemy.”

That sounded…amazing. I couldn’t imagine how useful it would be. Given how Impact worked with wounds it wouldn’t work on anyone higher ranked, but since D-rankers were so far removed from me anyway that wasn’t important. I turned to the girl with a wide grin. “How much for that one?” Then I let Benny take the stage, and the haggling began.