Zortex arrived back to the place he had hidden his food and reserve clothes. On the way there he was followed for a couple of minutes by some guy probably wishing to steal his newly acquired gold, but he was easily able to lose him running in the darkest alleys as if it was afternoon. It would be probably one hour before dawn, so he had to wait a bit before going shopping. In the meantime he sat down and started his training in slimification and spear mastery. Whenever his mana finished he would stand up and repeat the kata of Fire until his mana recovered. Sometime he would also give a little try to improve his Sonar skill with little success. Time went by and light started streaming inside from a slightly open window. He had trained enough for now, so he took a short nap and then he ate a glorious breakfast. Meat, eggs, bread, fruits…he spared nothing. What should have lasted two or three more days was devoured by him in an hour or so. With money in his possession Zortex lost all control about the food he had saved. Only a little bit was left because he had promised himself that he would never again find himself without some food. He left the building and went looking for the magic shop he had chosen the day before. When he made his explorative walk he checked out and compared the prices of more than ten shops. The ones closest to wizard tower had the higher prices, but also the greater assortment of merchandise. The farther he went the lower the prices. He didn’t need anything fancy, so the cheapest one became his target.

Zortex already knew what he was going to buy. The most important was the storage pouch to free himself from cumbersome luggage and weapons. The second thing were some empty magic crystals. From what he understood the crystals are extracted from the corpses of monsters and then can be used to store spells or for other effects. The main form of profit for travellers and adventurers was to hunt down these monsters and collect the crystals. He had not clear the reason why some monsters dropped them and others didn’t. Apparently slimes were of the category which did not, or maybe a monster had to be over a certain level to create a crystal. It is something he would have to discover later. The reason he needed some empty ones was because of a peculiar quality of such items. Not only they could be used to store spells, but also to seal a connection between the person and a certain thing. To bind a weapon to his person he just needed to squeeze some of his blood over the crystal and the weapon holding them against each other. The crystal would dissolve and permeate the weapon. The stronger the crystal the higher the probability that a connection could be formed. Also items of high quality required stronger crystals for binding.

For noob weapons it was not worth it to use a binding, since the cost of the crystals needed would be higher than the cost of the weapon itself. Zortex had kept some nice object with himself, so he wanted to try a binding, even just to get some experience on the method. In case of a successful binding, after a certain amount of time, the weapon could not get too far away from the owner unless if he wills it. Just like a noob could not use a weapon over his level, a thief would not be able to move too far away with the object. Of course there were ways around it, so unbindings were possible, but just as bindings they could be difficult and costly. Another feature for travelers was that in case of death, the item would remain in their possession most of the times. At every death there is risk of losing an item, but at least a person would not find himself stripped of everything at every respawn.

Zortex arrived in front of the store and became a little anxious. He was getting better at being around people, but the idea of actually have social interaction with them scared the shit out of him. He had to think the best way to deal with every situation without speaking to anyone. Ten minutes later he entered by the front door and went directly to the counter showing the storage pouches.

“Good morning costumer. How can I help you?”

The owner looked baffled by his appearance, but he was professional enough to behave like a merchant should do. Either that or he wanted to keep an eye on him, afraid to be dealing with a freak. He was actually dealing with a freak, so he was right. Zortex didn’t answer back or looked into the merchant eyes. He picked up a storage pouch worth 20 silver coins and walked to pay desk. Crystals were not openly displayed. Slipping a few of them in a pocket was too easy for any thief with a bit of talent. Zortex dropped the storage pouch in front of the owner of the shop and pointed at the place he thought it contained the raw crystals. The merchant raised an eyebrow at such behavior, but he perked up seeing that he was selling something. Probably he didn’t get many costumers around this neighborhood, so every copper was welcome. Right away Zortex was looking at the counter where there were dozens of different crystals of various dimensions. The color was all the same for each one, a semi-translucent milky white. Storing a spell in it would change its color, or so he had heard. The crystals in his possession were proof enough for him. Zortex had no idea how to characterize each item, so he casually picked up a few that looked the smallest and dirtiest out of the bunch. He had to experiment with the infusion process, so it was better to start with the cheapest ones for training. He still had a considerable amount of money in his possession, but his mind was already focused on the next step: shopping for food. He pointed to thirty crystals he had picked up and the shopkeeper told him:

“Four coppers each, so it would be 21 silvers and 20 coppers for everything. Can I interest you in anything else? There is this bracelet that can enhance the power of your electrical spells by 2 % and as a bonus it increases your MP by 10. It is on sale for only 70 silvers. If you buy it I can make you a discount of 5 silver on the complementary ring which increases the spell resistance on lightning by 3 %”

Zortex was too inexperienced to start looking at such products, so he just said no moving his head, but he also pointed to a few more crystals which looked a bit better. When he left the shop he had spent a total of 23 silvers and now he was in possession of an average quality storage pouch and 50 crystals. The second bunch was of higher quality, valued roughly 10 coppers each. He could easily afford the price and he preferred to have something a bit superior in case of need…always thinking ahead to avoid coming back and interact with the vendor once again. There were also crystals worth gold coins each or more, but those will come when he will be high level.

Zortex left the shop and went to find himself a secluded space to try to bond with his items. The knife was his first choice to experiment. Although he understood that he needed blood and raw crystals, the theory was fine, but the practice was different. No time to procrastinate, Zortex cut the palm of his right hand and held both the knife and a crystals on the left. He let a few drops of blood fall on the items and waited. It took a few seconds, but he could clearly feel the crystal getting warmer and sucking away the blood. The process went on for one more minute until the crystal cracked and became dust.

Is it done? I don’t feel anything different coming from the knife. While spying I heard that guy say that the crystal would melt and be absorbed by the knife, but this one pulverized. Probably it was a failure then.

Zortex tried again. The second and fourth time were failures too. He was starting to wonder if he was making some mistake, but on his fifth try the process happened exactly as he had expected. The crystals melted and entered the knife, as if it was porous, and the weapon became warmer on contact. Zortex couldn’t feel any connection between him and the knife, so he was afraid it had been another failure. A test was necessary. He tried to throw it far from him and see what would happen. He still couldn’t feel anything so he started to walk away. When he was at a distance of about 100 meters he finally got a feeling. It was very small, but he felt as if there was a very light string attached to his fingers. If he tried to pull nothing happened, but he had a clear idea of the direction his item was.

The farther I am from my bonded weapon and the stronger the link become. When inside a city like this I can only feel the direction it is situated, but if someone would try to run far away with it, the resistance would increase until it would be impossible for him to move while holding it. The link works like an elastic, or a spring, but like those there are ways to break a connection. There should be techniques to cut the binding given enough time, or a powerful individual could get so far away that the bond could snap. I wonder if there are also ways to increase the strength of the bond?

Zortex had his first success, so he continued with the rest of his possessions. The next thing was the spear, then his cloak, then a leather armor he had stolen and kept on himself. For last he did the storage pouch. Usually travellers at the first stages could afford only ones worth a couple of silvers, instead he spent directly twenty silver coins on it. The quality was a bit higher than the worst ones, so after failing the binding with the first five cheap raw crystals, he used one of the more expensive. It was still a failure, but at the third attempt he succeeded. Putting an hand in the pouch and the other on his spear he was able to store it inside with just a thought. Finally he got rid of all the weight and he threw in a dampster the old bag which survived the first eight months of his experience.

Shop by shop Zortex visited most of the food vendors in the neighborhood, and he ended up spending 80 silvers just on food. He had stored away in his pouch enough sustenance for one year. He didn’t buy anything too fancy. Quantity before quality was his motto. When you are starving everything feels good, so no need to spend too much money on just a few delicacies.

Finished with his shopping Zortex moved in the direction of the wizard tower. It was about time to learn a few spells. It would feel nice to finally have something standard, like a real noob would have.