Soft rays of gold shown through the thin curtains of the small dormitory windows, proving a warm and welcoming light.
As Kya opened her eyes, a rousing yawn and full body stretch following soon thereafter, she sat up and looked around.
This wasn’t the most opulent of places to stay. She knew just over the river there were rooms and apartments that catered to the noble and the wealthy, with gilded rooms and mints on the pillow, the whole thing.
But that wasn’t something that truly interested her. She was, if nothing else, a practical person. She didn’t like to spend energy on activities she didn’t enjoy, or spend money on things she didn’t need. This room, being a large closet, had a bed. Down the hall was a shower she was excitedly looking forward to. These were the things she needed.
The excellent views of the water, or the excellent lighting from the setting suns, these things were merely extras. Appreciated and delightful extras, but extras nonetheless.
With utmost reluctance, Kya slipped off her boots and stood on the soft rug under her bed. It felt terrible. Like sandpaper, like a gravel road, like hell. In reality, the carpet was thin, but still soft and sturdy in its build. Compared to her cloud like boots though? It was horrid.
Shuddering with each step, she left her room, and went down the narrow hallway to an aquamarine door emitting a soft blue light, water echoes coming from within.
The moment she opened the door, warm steam enveloped her, and she was met with a simple but elegant room. Small floor tiles in various pastel colors, soft blue lights gently pulsing from the walls, and white and gold arches adorning the ceiling made for an excellent and luxurious feeling shower room, even if, in reality, it was somewhat small and unimpressive in its facilities. Sinks and mirrors, fogged and useless from the steam, lined the walls directly in front of the door, with two sections leading off to either side, one for calls of nature, and the other held the glorious, and promised showers.
Despite her self-claimed practical nature… Kya loved a good shower with ferocity.
And these did not disappoint. Rather than a simple handle for warm and cold water, there was a small deep blue sphere hovering above the stall, a magic circle etched into the wall at about eye shoulder level. Not sure what else to do, Kya hesitantly reached out and touched the circle, immediately glowing crimson, as a warm waterfall began to spill out of the sphere overhead.
This would do, quite nicely.
- - -
“Wave, how familiar are you with the local vendors?”
“Well, that depends.” He answered in his deep bass, “What are you looking to buy?”
“I have some monster parts and various odds and ends to sell off, plus I need…” She trailed off, tapping the welcome desk with a finger, before continuing “Actually, I need a tailor. Someone who could work with rare materials and not ask too many questions.”
Wave gave her an appraising look, taking his time in answering. “Head south towards the park district. Built against the city walls is a mossy stone building with a dark wood roof. Ask for Smiths. Don’t use my name, they won’t respect you if you rely on someone else. They aren’t the best of craftsman in the city, but their work is respectable and if you want it to be of a more “no questions asked” nature, that’s your best bet. As for selling, you can go to practically any merchant in the city dealing in monster parts, and get a reasonable price. But don’t take the first offer you get. Haggle if you can.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he flipped up what appeared to be a large newspaper, and acted as if they hadn’t been speaking at all.
“Thank you, Wave”
With a simple grunt in return, Kya could tell he had done about as much talking as he was going to do. A straightforward man, if nothing else, but all the better for it in her opinion.
She started making her way towards the southern part of the city in a somewhat roundabout way. She felt like she could trust wade, more or less, but that didn’t mean she was going to be careless.
She was tired of being caught up in one situation after another where she had basically no choice but to go along with the people around her, or to rely on them for help, or to answer her questions, etc etc.
The moment she knew there was a library, and that she could have the freedom to do this herself? She had practically leapt at the chance to rid herself of company.
She appreciated the help that Rory and Maggie had given, and would find some way to repay them in the future, but Kya had grown accustomed to, and prefered, to do things alone.
Stopping in the first store she saw that advertised buying and selling equipment to deal with monsters, she curiously went inside.
Small glass display cases holding fancy looking necklaces labeled as enchanted monster repellent charms and exquisite looking daggers of the finest make wrapped around the entire store. Of course she used her identify skill to get a different story.
- - - - -
- Item: Iron Necklace
- Rarity: 1-Star - Common
- Description: Emits a weak frequency that some creatures will find annoying.
- Enchantments: Basic Air Emission
- Requirements: N/A
- - - - -
It seemed like the exact thing a simple minded person might want to purchase to feel better about going out into a dangerous area, without realizing it won’t do all that much in the first place.
It did make her think, however, about the nature of her identity skill. If anyone was able to simply read and find out the actual effects of an item, how could they advertise things like this and expect to make any business?
She thought back to her extremely brief aura training with Rory, and how he had been so caught off guard by her simply reading about her aura. He had said such abilities existed, but weren’t common. They must indeed be rarities of no one had taken the time to-
“Ah, young miss, looking to purchase some of our fine goods to keep yourself safe? Or perhaps this is for a beloved one, going off on a trip outside our strong and sturdy walls? I can tell you that this item will guarantee a safe return for any who wear it.”
An extremely thin and pale man with wispy strands of hair combed over a mostly bald head had come over to her, and was wringing his hands in front of him like he was trying to wash away the oil dripping from his voice.
As soon as she looked up, and he saw her eyes, however, his posture changed entirely, though the tone remained just as slippery, “Ah, I see, perhaps you are here for some more powerful items than this, or maybe to sell off some items of excess.”
Taking out a single monster token, one of the hundreds she’d received from killing the spiders, she asked “What would you give me for this?”
“Hmmmmm, a monster token is it? We’ll have to check for rarity and affinity before talking about a price, of course, identifying it for you will come at a cost.” He said, implying apology, but absolutely showing the opposite in his toothy grin.
Looking at it again, she called up her identify screen
- - - - -
- Item: Lesser Monster Token
- Rarity: 1-Star Common
- Description: The condensed memory of a life-or-death struggle. Can be exchanged or consumed.
- Enchantments: N/A
- Requirements: Possess at least a primary Class.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
- - - - -
That was all well, and good but what about an affinity.
“Young miss, I assure you the price for a simple identification is nothing for such as yourself, you musn’t be-”
“I’m thinking it over, please be patient for a moment.” Kya said, trying very hard to keep from walking out of the store right then and there.
She was looking at the coin intently and tried to glean anything more out of it, but wasn’t able to for the life of her.
“Alright, let's make a deal.” She said to the shopkeeper, his eyes immediately growing hungrier at the words. “I’ll give this to you, no cost, if you tell me how to identify its affinity.”
“Oh, my lady, I couldn't possibly tell you something like that. It is a trade secret held by my family for generations, it would be to go against everything my dear father had ever taught me, may his soul rest comfortably for-”
“I’ll give you the coin, plus a full agren.” she interrupted, pulling out the silver coin, holding it next to the monster token in her outstretched hand.
He paused for a moment, and licked his lips. She could tell he was tempted. “And I won’t tell everyone about your false merchandising.” She finally finished off.
For the first time since meeting the man, he stopped wringing his hand for just a moment, before resuming at a more rapid pace. “Of course this humble merchant has no idea what you’re talking about.” He said with a forced smile and barking laugh “However, I think my father would have been more than understanding to part with family secrets for a good deal such as this.” He said eagerly, taking the two objects from her hand.
“Without a skill to discern the true nature of items, I’m afraid you’ll be rather out of luck at deciding the rarity. But for the affinity, it is quite simple.” He said, holding up the token. Interestingly, her silver agren had disappeared, and she had absolutely no idea how he’d been able to hide it so quickly when she’d been watching him. “The image of the monster on the face will tell you everything you need to know.” He said simply.
“Now, can I interest you in anything else from my establishment, my lady? Perhaps a spider silk scarf? Fitting for one who carries the spider token, eh?”
However, she had stopped listening and he had trailed off, when she took out a second spider token. She saw on its face the image of a spider burning alive. As she stared longer and longer, it almost seemed that the flames, dull and gray on the token, began to ever so faintly shine with a reddish light, while dancing just barely. Like the fire on the coin was trying its hardest to actually burn the spider above.
“Interesting” Kya mused, before looking up “So what would you give for a common flame attuned token?”
From there, the two began to bargain fiercely for the price of the coin, ultimately settling on the three curens, five ferons. She had started to think of the coins in terms of american money to make sense of them.
By her reckoning, a feren was about as valuable as a single dollar. If her meal yesterday at Sugg’s was worth maybe a full curen, that made her think of them as about ten dollars. Which meant her silver agrens were a hundred a piece. That also meant she had gotten ten thousand dollars as a reward for killing the spider nest, which was insane to think about. Even better though, was that each of these coins was, assuming she got a reasonably good deal from this guy, worth at least three curens, or thirty dollars. And she had hundreds in her inventory.
Each of them smiling happily, thinking they’d gotten the better of the other, Kya walked out of the store, and found another merchant to buy her tokens. This time there was much less haggling and much less character to the man behind the counter, his voice monotonous as he insisted he couldn’t go higher than four curens each for the five tokens she was trying to sell.
This would be a wonderful day for her wallet, Kya thought with a smile.
By the time she had made it to the mossy building wade had told her of, she had sold nearly every spider token in her bag. She had deliberately taken a couple of hours to do it, spreading the tokens out across town and only selling in batches of six to ten so it wouldn’t be too suspicious where she had gotten so many. The lowest she had gotten for a single token was two and a half curens, the highest being four and three ferons. All in all, she’d more than tripled her nest egg of available funds.
She had, however, saved each token that showed something other than the flames. For example the Spider King showed her dagger flying through the air. This one gave off the faint pink light she’d come to associate with spatial magic, and was quite intrigued by the “consume” option in the description.
Regardless, for now she had a different objective in mind. She’d explore the effects of the coins back in the privacy of her room after all, not out here in the middle of town.
Pushing open the heavy wooden door with her shoulder and a grunt of effort, Kya found inside a shockingly well decorated sitting room, with a simple reception desk at the far end, and plush expensive looking couches and tables scattered around.
From the exterior, she had thought this place to be rather run down, and had begun to question why Wave would ever send her here, except to get a good laugh. That might actually be all that was happening here, she thought with a grimace.
A soft lilting voice called out from the desk “Good evening, ma’am, do you have an appointment?”
Looking up, a tan young woman with curly red hair and an elegant evening gown sat at the desk, staring up at her with beautiful eyes, a combination of gold and bronze streaking throughout. She was slightly off put by her sudden appearance, as she was almost positive there hadn’t been someone sitting there before.
- - - - -
Merivan Hark
Class - Scholar of Terra - 2-Star
- - - - -
That was… interesting. What the hell was a scholar of terra? Until now, she’d assumed that people had to stick to the twelve classes that she’d seen at her class selection, so what was the deal with this?”
“Ma’am?” the woman repeated, eyes narrowing as Kya remained rooted to the spot.
“Hm? Oh, I’m sorry, no, I don’t have an appointment. But I do need a few things made, and heard this was the place that could do it.”
“No appointment, no service. Come back sometime next week, we might be able to see you then.” said the woman dismissively, as she turned in her chair and made to get up.
“Merivan, wait, I have some rather rare materials I think you’ll want to see.”
Sighing and then turning a pitying look on her, the woman said in a mock tone “Let me guess. Your wealthy uncle was cleaning out the estate and found some uncommon rarity suit with a passive boost to your memory, and it would be a shame to let it go to waste, so you’d like a repair job done asap? Something like that? Or maybe you’re back from a quest and found some interesting beast leather that’s supposed to protect you from all harm, plus it’ll make you smell like sunshine in the morning!” She finished by bashing her eyelashes at Kya.
“I don’t care” She finished, waving her hand dismissively “Come back next week.”
Not saying a word, Kya took out one of the banners from the temple, and laid it on her desk. Then stepped back and folded her arms.
Snorting loudly, the woman picked up the cloth, her eyes flashing for a moment, before her entire expression shifted.
“Where did you get this?” She asked in an awed hiss “I’ll give you a full auren for it, right now.”
“I’m not selling. Besides, maybe I should simply take it and ‘come back later.’” Kya said cooly, not wanting to play with her food too much.
Sighing, and looking at Kya with newfound respect, the woman said “Fine. Who are you, and what would you like to do with this?”
“Well, Merivan, my name is Kya, and I’d like this cloth to be turned into something I can wear.” The woman winced at the sound of her own name, and then drummed her fingers on the table in front of them.
“Firstly, I would like to apologize for how I greeted you when you came into my shop. It’s been a rather long week, and I hope you can understand that.” Kya laughed at this, hearing the understatement of the millennium.
“And secondly, I’d like to be upfront with you. This is a rare material that will be somewhat difficult to work with, let alone the fact that it’s marked with that.” She said, gesturing to the symbol of the three interlocking triangles. “I don’t know where you got this, and I don’t care. I’m also not saying I won’t work with this, just that it will be rather difficult to do so. Which means costs go up.”
She was now eyeing Kya’s hospital gown. It was a plain dress, unadorned and simple, augmented only slightly by the torn and stained t-shirt she had put on underneath it. She had washed the clothes in the magic waterfall shower, so felt fine wearing it out. But it might have given off the impression that she was maybe not the most affluent person in the world.
“What can you make, and how much will it cost?”
“With this much material…” She picked up the banner, and eyed it, judging its weight and thickness, “I could probably make a nice jacket or two, maybe some pants to go with them, maybe. But that’ll be a stretch, and there won’t be much more I can do with them. I could do a large cloak rather easily though, just the one however.”
Merivan choked back a gasp when Kya dropped five more banners on the desk, as well as some of the leftover strips of cloth from when she’d made her own armor with them.
“I’ll take the cloak, and as many outfits as you can make from these. Cost?”
Merivan started laughing, a genuine and heartfelt laugh. “Kya was it? I’ll do the cloak for free, simply because you’ve brought me so much material. For the rest, we’ll decide on the final cost after I can see about time and what all I can produce. How soon do you need them?”
“I would have liked them a week ago.” Kya said with a grunt, and smiled herself.
A sharp nod, and the woman scooped up the pile of cloth, and pushed her way into a back room.
Poking her head back out, she said “Wait there for a moment. I’ll do the cloak now, and you can come back for the rest of it tomorrow. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Sitting, Kya lounged on the couch and relaxed, it was in fact extremely comfortable.
"Wait, Merivan?" She called out sitting suddenly up
"What?" Came the muffled voice from the back room.
"Who is Smiths?"
Raucous laughter filled the room, and Merivan came staggering out, wiping a tear from her eye. "Did Wave send you here? What am I talking about, of course he did. Smiths is my dumbass husband, currently asleep upstairs. Wave thinks the world of him, but I'll tell you a secret."
She leaned in and whispered, "Wave is a dumbass too."
Then laughing, she walked back to continue her work.
Kya couldn't help but to crack a smile. Different world, different species even, but people were people. Funny that.