My first sale was to a young male merchant who was interested in throwing impromptu parties and festivals.

Item : Ring of Partay

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 1,200/1,200

Grade : D Grade

Weight : 12st.

Description : A thin black ring with the ability to materialize feast preparations, tables, chairs, food and drinks for fifty people. This ability can be used once every 7 days.

I was paid quite a lot for it, but I only managed to sell one of the three I had created, despite the incredible name I had given to my creation. Or at least incredible according to Kai and myself.

Some items had significant costs in materials used to attach the enchantment, regardless of how many pieces I crafted and this was one of them. Thus, I had enchanted three at once to make the most of the materials I’d paid for.

The second item I managed to sell, to an elderly female merchant.

Item : Pearl of the week

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 550/550

Grade : E Grade

Weight : 28st.

Description : A clam that generates one pearl every 7 days.

The amount of money she paid me was many months-worth of pearls and I would normally have had trouble fetching such a price. However, the fact I’d had dealings with her in the past made it easier for her to trust in what I said the clam was capable of.

The final item I managed to sell was to a middle-aged man who was not local to Yubna, as was clear from the fact that he did not have a monkey companion. While talking to him, he confirmed that he was born and raised in Zakara and usually traveled between Leka An, Yubna and Snjokomu to trade magic items.

As we talked, I realized that this person would have been a great source of information regarding how to reach Snjokomu and the monastery at the End of the World. However, this would also create a story of a young woman with a teenager asking about this specific monastery, which would no doubt spread wide and fast.

Instead, I stuck to selling him the most convenient item I had ever created.

Item : Key to the Loo

Type : Extra-dimensional item

Durability : 1700/1700

Rarity : E Grade

Weight : 4st.

Description : A key that opens the way to a comfortable, ventilated toilet.

Initially, I wanted to give it a different name but on this instance, the name was chosen for me, probably because someone had already created something similar before. It was on-point though.

Once used on any flat vertical surface, the key would open a door to a toilet. The merchant was ecstatic about it, and that sale fetched me a pretty hefty sum.

Once I had enough money to buy provisions for traveling and enough books to last us a few months, I headed to Ebon’s bookstore to spend a few more hours browsing, something which would no doubt make Kai extremely happy.

“Hello again, Brie. Did you forget something?” Mister Ebon asked as we stepped down into his vast underground bookstore. “Oh, and who is this young man with you?”

“Hello, Mister Ebon,” I replied. “I haven’t forgotten anything. I just wanted to bring my little brother to see what books he’d like to buy. His name is—”

“I’m Magaer,” Kai interrupted, before I could finish. He smiled at the elderly bookstore owner. “Very pleased to meet you. Your books are great company for us.”

I instantly turned to look at him and focused on the information Dark Energy provided when someone scanned him.

Name : Magaer Eioen

Race : Human

Class : -

Level : -

Thankfully, he had already thought of that and adjusted the necklace he was wearing to changed the information people could see of him. And what an interesting choice of name he had made.

“I am pleased to meet you too, young Magaer,” Mister Ebon replied. “If you need any help finding something, please do let me know.”

“We will,” I said. “Thank you.”

We spent a good few hours searching through countless bookcases in order to find books we hadn’t yet read and debating over what we should read first while traveling. The eventual tally was fifty-seven books in total, which surprised Mister Ebon of course, but I justified it by saying my brother’s birthday was coming up very soon.

“Did you have any luck locating the books you wanted?” Mister Ebon asked, knowing I had probably already devoured the catalog he’d handed me earlier in the day.

“I have indeed,” I replied. And though I knew the answer would most probably be negative, I thought I might as well try asking the old man. “One of them is located in the monastery at the End of the World. I don’t suppose you can get it?”

“Oh, dear, no,” he replied with a sad expression on his face. “I am sorry, but never have I met anyone who reached that place or even anyone who knew of someone who did.”

“No worries,” I said with a smile, and put on my most innocent face. “I guess I’ll have to go there myself one day.”

“Brie,” the man replied, “that monastery is named like that for a reason.”

“What do you mean, Mister Ebon?” Kai asked now, suddenly more interested in the conversation.

“The monastery is on the southernmost part of our lands,” he replied. “And I don’t mean Leka An. South of Leka An are the nations of Fenira and Guldan and south of those countries is Fjalhun. On the southern edge of Fjalhun is the country’s capital, Snjokomu. Would you like to guess where the monastery is?”

“I know!” Kai shouted. “South of Snjokomu?”

“That’s right, little Magaer,” the old man answered, and smiled widely at Kai.

“Well then, I guess I’ll leave this book at the bottom of my list,” I said nonchalantly, starting to put the books we had bought into my bag.

We both thanked him and, when prompted, Kai promised he would start visiting more often. I was both ashamed and proud of him for being able to lie so effortlessly, but in the end, I knew that lying was necessary to keep our cover.

We climbed back up the stairs and out onto the streets. Rays of sun fell diagonally between the thick jungle trees as it was now getting late in the afternoon and the sun was beginning to set. The road to the south exit of the city would be no more than twenty minutes on foot so we decided to only summon our steeds after we were away from the city.

While walking, I noticed two shamans of the Jungle God walking in the same direction as us but some hundred steps behind us. They were both followed by giant black gorillas, the sight of which immediately gave me the chills. I didn’t pay them too much attention since sightings of them was fairly ordinary in the city housing the Jungle God’s temple.

That was until I noticed two more shamans with equally large gorillas, walking toward us from the opposite direction. They had no reason to stop us, and yet I was hesitant to get too close to them, especially with Kai walking next to me. My hesitation became fear as soon as the gorillas saw us.

They stopped walking and began to make low growling noises while pumping their big black fists on their chests. It could, of course, have been a coincidence that the gorillas were looking our way when they started reacting this way, but I took a turn away from the shamans and their companions at the first chance I got.

We were now walking so fast that we were almost running. I could see a very old looking shaman on top of a small hill to the side of the street we were on. He was dark-skinned and had white long hair, while his gorilla was completely white.

Instead of pumping his fists, this gorilla looked us dead in the eye and raised his left hand, with the index finger extended as if he was showing us the way out of the city. Then, two more shamans climbed down the hill on the other side of the road, their gorillas sprinting toward us.

Their gigantic hands propelled them so fast that my usual level of fear for them was raised to terror. It was more than enough for me to abandon my conviction that we should only summon our steeds outside of Yubna.

Both Kai and I used our magical whistles and jumped on our horses. We galloped out the southern exit of the town and continued at the same pace for more than twenty minutes before we dared to look back.

Nobody had followed us but I couldn’t help but wonder what would make them drive us out of the city in such a manner. I had never had any problems with the shamans or any of the followers of the Jungle God throughout the past year.

On the other hand, I had never been in Yubna with Kai. He rarely came with me, and only to the villages around the city, rather than Yubna itself.

Could it be they sensed the powers of The Divine in him?

If this was the case, I had to be extra careful when traveling close to disciples of other deities.

In any case, the danger seemed to have passed and we had just embarked on a new adventure, perhaps our biggest and last, if all went to plan. I got butterflies in my stomach whenever I thought that we might be on our way to finding a way to separate Kai from the powers locked in him.

This could actually be Elysia’s salvation… if we managed to restore The Divine, that is. The road ahead of us was long, and I would cherish every moment I spent with Kai on our way to the monastery at the End of the World.