Sword Shopping

(Wilhelm Dragonsong)

The shop’s appearance isn’t fancy but neither is it shabby it is in a fairly good location between the solider resident’s district and a district full of dojos.

Inside there are many weapons covering the walls, on shelves and even piled up on tables and sticking out of barrels. The cheapest and of lowest quality are the ones closest to the entrance…the closer to the counter and the back room behind it the more expensive the weapon will probably be.

This makes sense from a practical standpoint as thieves tend to prefer to steal things that are close to an exit. A large burly old man is standing behind the counter with a bored look on his face…that immediately changes into a large smile when he sees the Vice Master. I immediately peg him as a semi-retired blacksmith.

“Ah Lady Swordarm, nice to see you, what brings you to my shop on this fine day” he completely ignores me but I don’t really mind…however as I was more paying attention to him and not what I was doing, I almost trip on the edge of a barrel as I walked in.

I did manage to stop myself from stumbling or falling but it was enough of a distraction that my self-restriction slipped and suddenly every, and any magic thing in the room to my eyes glows, and at the same time am nearly overwhelmed by sensing them as well as the presence of others. I quickly regain my control…but find I have missed part of the Vice Masters reply because of the distraction of my situation.

“…so we want a training sword…preferably somewhat light but it must also be very sturdy and high durability I want it to last for at least a few years.” She is leaning against the counter looking at the store guy with some friendly familiarity.

“I see” the guy turns his attention to me. He steps out from behind the counter and circles me several times measuring me with his eyes. Somewhat uncomfortable I nervously shift my feet.

“Hmm he is not that bad is he? But he isn’t that good either….”after sharing a look with the Vice Master he turns back to me. “Young man, if you are not too proud I would recommend that you look at the weapons that I make intended for the taller children and women…they would have the best traits for you. Another advantage is that they are cheaper than some of the others and with my discount” he winks at her “you should be able to easily afford it with 250 gold”.

I shrug at this, (while being slightly amused that I am called young man by someone probably younger than me) I don’t really care about things like that…actually with the way am now physically even most children and the average women (the Vice Master is an exception there are few woman warriors and most are weaker than men) are much stronger than me.

“I will accept whatever weapon you think suits me best…and even if that weapon was meant for a child as long as it works as well or better than as one intended for an adult, it doesn’t matter to me.” The store man grins at my words and the Vice Master nods to herself looking happy as well.

“Then let’s find you that sword” the man grins and gestures for us to follow him into the back room.

Due to many services to various countries and kingdoms as well as some say the world, I have been gifted or paid with quite a lot of money. I have also gone on various unofficial and unsanctioned adventures, and dungeon spelunking and found a quite a bit of items and money through that avenue.

My wealth is many times the amount of an average dragons hoard. (In fact I have killed several dragons and taken their hoards), so you can see how it would be easy for me to buy the most expensive weapon in this shop. In fact, if that old guy would be willing to sell, I could buy the entire shop and its contents with my wealth alone. (If I told him who I was he would probably most likely be willing to just give them to me) If I chose to I could go to the best weapon smiths of this world and commission the greatest of swords.

However what I am most proud of has nothing to do with my wealth. Rather it has to do with my skill. Even though I greatly lack in strength, using my magic I can craft high quality weapons. I had spent years observing various blacksmiths, carvers and weapon-smiths and experimented with using my magic to mimic what they did with their bodies.

Eventually because I was using my magic and not my actual body like them, my skills in creating weapons went beyond theirs. In fact if I enchant the materials used during and after the crafting projects I have discovered that I can even get the quality up to legendary.

What I am saying is that I could easily get or even make a sword worth much more than 250 gold. However I am the type of person to value intentions over actualities, so I knew I would have to use the budget wisely and carefully not only getting the best sword for the least amount possible (in order to save the school some money) but also getting the best sword for the training level and strength I am right now.

Even though it has been several hours since we have started looking over swords, strangely neither the Vice Master nor the blacksmith are angry with me. In fact they seem a bit impressed. In the past when I worked as a professor at the magic school I had gone too, I had once accompanied the students on a shopping trip and got caught up in getting the best item I could at a certain store.

All of the students and even the other chaperone had complained excessively that I was taking too much time. Making me wonder if it is really such bad thing to be picky? The two I was consulting didn’t seem to think so. The store owner had started off with a fancy looking metal blade that looked fairly sharp.

“This blade was commissioned by a noble’s son, it is not actually a training sword but a real and actual blade that has been enchanted to do no cutting or piercing damage as well as to remain clean and durable. I was told that it is imprinted with an anti-theft spell that works by binding it to you with blood.

There are also some spells on it that greatly decrease the real weight so I thought it would be a good thing to consider.” Frowning slightly the Vice Master studies the blade then raising a single eyebrow she looks at me. So I get to have input, I think happily then after a short reflection I reply.

“I am just a beginner in the path of the sword, so I am thinking that I would prefer my training sword to be an actual training sword. Also it is absolutely unnecessary for my blade to be enchanted, actually for personal preferences I would like my sword to not have any magic at all, except maybe natural magic as a result if special materials are used.”

What I left out was the fact that my magic was so powerful any enchantment done except my own, on items I used frequently would probably be worn away by it over time. Also I have heard horror stories that sound very believable. Stories in which a dullness spell suddenly wears off and the wielder ends up unintentionally killing someone. Besides the potential unreliability, is the fact that any spell done to the sword, I could probably do better.

Besides, I didn’t want to use magic at all if I could help it, in order to get the full warrior training experience. I looked back at Vice Master and was glad to see her smiling in approval, the store owner however was frowning slightly. I guessed that the sword was one of the more expensive ones and he was slightly disappointed because of that. He quickly got over it and pulled out a slightly glowing blade made out of silver looking wood.

“This blade is an elf sung blade, made out of unicorn willow, it is sung to be almost as hard as steel and it is fairly light as well, but has no active magic properties, it suits you perfectly.” he smiled at me indicating that he had paid attention to what I said. I in fact actually had a lot of knowledge about elf sung weapons, like me elves tend to have less physical strength and vitality then humans which is why most elf made weapons are fairly light.

Actually part of the reason I am such a tall thin person and slightly more than half the reason why I have maintained my youthful appearance when I gained talent in magic, despite the passing years, while at the same time there are many pure human wizards only slightly younger who look like old men despite their lengthened lifespans, is because I have some elf blood in me. I replied easily and respectfully.

“This is indeed a nice sword but I sincerely doubt, good sir, that the price is 250 gold or less.”

The store owner had a guilty look flash across his face which the Vice Master saw and immediately started to chide him about. After that he stopped trying to get more money out of and brought out all the swords whose price were within 250 gold.

The majority of them were made of wood, but there were several metal that were designed to have no sharp edges…I refused the metal ones because I disliked using metal at all, unless I had enchanted it, as metal was basically painting a target on your back for lighting magic users and beasts. I then allowed myself to sense magic, this timed under carefully controlled circumstances and rejected all the swords with enchantments or spells I then turned to the Vice Master and the store owner and said.

“Vice Master, good sir, I have no experience in picking out swords…for my own use at least, what do you recommend I do next?” The Vice Master grinned and said

“Well first its best to hold the sword in your hand see if the hilt is easy to hold and feels good in your hand. Then you should look at the weight, I recommend that you get a sword that is at least five times as heavy as what you are used to using. Finally you should swing it a couple of times to see if the length and balance feels good to you.

Keep in mind that these swords are much different than your old “stick” so some unfamiliarity is expected and is probably a good thing. Most importantly don’t worry about making the wrong choice, practice can overcome almost any minor fault and we can always come back if the sword turns to be truly defective.” On the last sentence she gave a threatening look at the shop owner who nervously cleared his throat before speaking.

“A good thing to keep in mind when buying a weapon is, what is it made out of? You have already rejected the swords with metal which is good in a way because they contain many exceptions to the rule which is in general for all materials, the harder something is the less durable it is but it gives more damage, at the same time the more durable something is the more heavy it weighs.” He nods at me. I proceed to first test out Vice Masters advice which eliminates over half of the weapons because they don’t feel “good” to wield.

I also decide to take his advice and eliminate all the weapons that are made up as the same type of wood as stick or of wood that is only a little better. A few more choices to narrow things down further, and I am now left with three options.

One of the options is much higher quality then stick but is still a fairy cheap training sword. The other two both on first glance look similar in type and fairly pricy as they are made up of what looks like exotic wood. But upon closer look I realize something interesting, about one of them and I begin to laugh.

I pick it up and wave it a few times to make sure that I feel it could suit me. It is way heavier than my 'stick' but despite my meager strength I am still able to wield it, abet clumsily and I am sure with enough practice I will be able to get used to the weight easily.

“How much is this sword?” I ask. The owner grins in delight seeing what I have chosen and says

”normally I would sell it for 500 gold but for you guys I will sell it for 300 gold.” Hearing the price Vice Master hesitates but looks like she would pay for it, if ask. After slightly shaking my head at her in reply, I turn to the owner and start to haggle.

“That is too expensive a price. Look this sword is made out of ironwood. True not too long ago it would be considered an expensive material but since the end of the war it has become very common as the places were ironwood grows best are old empty battle grounds of which there are now plenty.

Besides many of the armies that used this as their primary weapon material and jacked up the prices no longer exist and most of the soldiers that were in them have retired and no longer need their weapons…thus I will offer a price of 100 gold.” The owner gets somewhat angry and says

“Despite what you say being the truth, iron wood can be used in many ways besides weapons so the value hasn’t gone down that much! 260 gold is my counter offer.” I smirk at him knowing I now have him where I want him.

“The many ways you speak of have many alternatives, metal is more easy to craft then iron wood is” he grits his teeth then thinking of something smiles

“Just as you say iron wood is harder to craft yet look at the swords craftsmanship! Obviously a master wood worker with the strength of a master warrior carved it. I will offer 250 gold because I am so impressed with you.” I study the sword again for a moment in admiration indeed it was defiantly crafted by a master at least however…

“I agree that it was carved by a master, but master warriors with master ability in carving ironwood are more common than you one might think. Whittling was besides knitting, one of the most common hobbies soldiers would use in between battles in order to pass the time.

I bet if we went to other stores we could probably find swords that are almost identical to this one…but as it seems you and Vice Master are friends, as her disciple I will be friendly as well and up my offer by 50 gold. 150 gold take it or we will probably leave!” Vice Master who seems greatly entertained by our bargaining, now openly grins at me in delight while the shop owner pulls at his beard and sighs.

“Maybe kid with that frail body you should consider becoming a merchant rather than a warrior…I admit defeat 150 gold it is” we proceed to shake hands as a laughing Vice Master takes out her magic purse (unlike mine I can tell it is authentic) and counts out 160 gold.

“Ha ha my disciple is even more valuable than I thought father will be so happy to save 100 gold here old man, an extra 10 gold for all your help and because you were so entertaining.” I finding this greatly amusing soon start snickering, the old blacksmith sighs for a moment then grins and joins in our laughter.

***

Vocabulary:

Ironwood: A magical tree that likes to grow in places where blood has been spilt. Is a very tough material and its hardness and durability is on par with most ordinary metals. Actually it is so hard and difficult to carve that it requires a master wood carver who is at least intermeidet warrior or better yet master warrior in strength.

Unicorn Willow: A lovely beautiful delicate looking tree that unmolested in its natural environment is a very frail and weak material that attracts innocence loving light element monsters usually unicorns or Pegasus. However it contains powerful magic and according to rumor if an elf song master sings to it and performs certain steps, and procedures. It will greatly harden and toughen while still maintaining its beauty but it now repels all monsters instead of attracting them.