“Adam, If we're going to be buying more stuff, including armour and weapons that are heavy. Shouldn't we get some kind of transportation. Like that?” Lianna asked pointing to a sizable wooden carriage that was passing them in the street. It was pulled by one of the scaled lion rhino creatures he had seen before.

“That is probably a better idea than I had” he admitted

“Oh? What was your idea?”

“Well… I didn't exactly have one.”

“I thought not.” Lianna smirked

“Roux, Ciru” Lianna got the attention of the two half elves walking ahead of them. “Small change of plans. Do you know where we could get a carriage?”

They both looked thoughtful before changing direction.

“This way.” they said in unison.

They didn't have to go far before arriving to an area with different sized carriages displayed in a line along one side of the road. There wasn't a huge selection. Each of the carriages were completely different in size, design and wood to metal ratio. The first was made of mostly wood with no designs put into it but was for basic function for the cheapest price. The last was noticeably larger, made with sturdier looking wood carved with designs and steel in many areas reinforcing it heavily. The thing must weigh a ridiculous amount.

Across the street was a fenced in area with a selection of creatures that looked capable of pulling the carriages, a few were smaller and probably intended to pull smaller carts.

“Welcome travellers to Andrid’s travelling shop, we have all your traveling needs. What can I help you with on this fine day?” A man approached them from seemingly nowhere.

“Lianna, tell the man what we want.” Adam said stepping behind her and slightly pushing her towards the excitable man.

“Ok… Well I guess we need a decent sized carriage that is moderately sturdy and well made. One made to last preferably and of course it has to be comfortable and able to handle the bumpy roads.” she told the salesman who's excitement continued to grow.

Of course his first suggestion is the last cart and likely the most expensive. Not that Adam cared about the price but didn't want to buy the most expensive one simply out of principle to the salesman. He hated exaggerated salesmen.

“How about this one?” Lianna pointed down the line. It appeared to be made of sturdy wood, with steel used on the wheels, lower frame, and most critical areas. The seat at the front had a long thick leather covered cushion on it.

Shown inside there was a window opposite the door with seating for two on one side and open space on the other. Happy with it they moved on to picking out a beast to pull it.

“Do we have any idea how to control the creature?” Lianna asked.

“umm… no?” Adam said.

“I can help with that.” the salesman spoke up “for a small price I can cast a spell on you and the chosen creature. It will allow you to guide it in the right direction mentally.”

“That would be great, thank you.” Lianna told him.

They decided on the large scaled beast Adam had seen pulling carriages previously, which was called a Scaled Sarvijona apparently. The one they chose had deep forest green scales.

The magic the salesman cast simply involved being in contact with the Sarvijona and Adam at the same time. As far as he could tell, nothing happened during the spell but afterwards could feel a slight mental connection. The Spell was repeated again with Lianna with a warning for only one of them to give commands at a time or conflicting orders could cause the spell to be broken.

The entire thing had cost them twenty five gold and twenty silver. Ten for the carriage, fifteen for the Sarvi and ten silver each for the spell. The salesman had tried charging them twenty eight gold, but Lianna was a decent negotiator apparently.

Back on their way with the four of them sitting on the front seat, which normally would fit three adults. Adam guided the Sarvi as Ceru and Roux told him which direction to go. The large beast was slow, moving at a walking pace similar to their own. Fortunately it took his guidance with ease and pulled them all on the cart with no noticeable effort.

Along the way Adam used up most of his mana to add eight more gold coins to his hidden pouch. Bringing him back up to thirteen. He decided to keep adding gold coins as he had the mana without using up all of it incase of an emergency.

Arriving to their next destination, they parked along the side of the road, telling Basil to remain there. Basil was what Lianna decided they needed to name their Sarvijona. Adam hadn't considered naming it so it was okay with him.

The weapon and armor shop they were in was split into two sides, one for weapons, the other for armour. Each side had its own salesman, or saleswoman in case of the weapons. Which is of course where they went first. Adam decided to look at the spears, thinking he would prefer to keep his distance from the opponent, in theory reducing the danger to him as well as minimizing the amount of blood that would get on him. He saw Lianna go to the daggers. Which he thought made sense if she was gonna focus on speed.

Hung on the wall were a variety of spears made of many materials. From basic wooden spears, which were basically a pointy stick he thought, to full metallic spears with scary looking heads. Two caught his attention which were made of entirely metal with pure black spear heads and intricate blue lines running through the entire spear. The second one was increasingly more complex than the first.

“Interested?” the saleswoman asked him calmly

“Maybe.” he looked at her.

She was barely four feet tall and significantly more muscular than him. She had a darker complexion, making her look like she was covered in dirt, but looking closely he could tell she was perfectly clean.

“Have any questions?” she asked him after a short pause.

He already liked her, she wasn't pushy and simply was there to help if he needed it.

“Could you tell me about these two spears?” he said pointing to the two fancy metal spears.

“No problem. The first one here is carefully crafted from high quality steel with a Kovarium head. Making it extremely sharp and strong, with the Kovarium head providing the strength to withstand many battles with not even a nick to the edges. It is also highly heat resistant. The head surrounds a Naquidite sphere increasing its enchant effectiveness by one and a half percent, and increasing the weight of the head and balance of the spear as a whole. The Spear has an increased durability enchantment with Eularium, increasing the strength of the metals by twenty five percent, making it a very durable weapon. The Enchantment requires only one mana per minute to remain active, with an initial five mana cost to activate. A small amount of Manasilver has been included at the end of the shaft to allow for one hundred mana to be stored in the spear itself.” she paused letting Adam take in all the information.

There was so many things he didn't understand but the fact that it was enchanted interested him, and the idea that it could store mana itself was intriguing. Metals which he hadn't heard of as well. So much to learn.

“The second one?” he asked

“It is similar except the shaft is made from manasteel with a second enchantment, a larger amount of manasilver giving it two hundred mana storage and a Naquidite sphere increasing both enchantments by two percent. The first enchantment is the same with a durability increase of thirty eight percent. The second enchantment is one very desired for spears and many weapons. A weight enchantment, which allows for the increase or decrease in the weight by up to fifty percent. The larger the change the more expensive the mana cost.”

“Amazing” he told her honestly. “What do they cost?”

“The first one we’re asking ten mithril, the second sixty mithril” she told him with a neutral expression.

Ouch. He could tell they were impressive but damn, that was a lot of money. He bought a carriage and beast for less than one percent of the cheaper weapon. He looked over to see Lianna inspecting a dagger with Ceru and Roux. He would have to see if he could make mithril coins first, once he gets his hands on one. Deciding his shortsword was fine for now he would see if they could get a decent dagger for Lianna.

“What dagger would you recommend for her for around ten gold?” Adam asked while looking at Lianna.

“Ten gold. I have just the candidate.” she said as they walked over to the daggers.

Picking up a steel dagger with a black tip, a slight curve to the blade and leather wrapped handle, she passed it to Lianna.

“This dagger is made with a small amount of Kovarium at the tip, and the rest high quality steel. I could sell it to you for ten gold.” she told them.

“Its nice, what is Kovarium?” Lianna asked

“Kovarium is the hardest metal known. It is only found in one location. Very few have the skill to work with it as it is extremely heat resistant and requires the assistance of magic to work with. Dwarves only export a small amount of it for a high price. It can withstand an extreme amount of damage but when it is damaged it will completely shatter as if made of glass.” she answered.

“We'll take it.” Lianna said

Adam handed over ten gold and thanked the saleswoman. Assuming armour could probably get just as expensive if not even more, they didn't look at anything extravagant. They each ended up with a set of leather armour for three gold total. It definitely wasn't the strongest of armour but Lianna’s allowed for easy movement while his focused more on protection but still gave him decent mobility.

After being shown how to equip the armor, they loaded it into the carriage and continued on. Focusing on creating more gold they continued doing some shopping for the rest of the day. They acquired sets of basic clothes, and supplies that they could carry in the carriage, including barrels of clean water, food and cooking supplies with a bunch of preserved meat.

The two siblings did a perfect job guiding them around. With a last stop to a bank, Adam made a few more gems, trying a sapphire, ruby and emerald and exchanged them for gold, receiving silver and copper coins worth a surprising sixty gold. After getting the twins a room at the inn, he gave them five gold worth of silver and copper each, telling them to keep it safe in their room, and not to draw too much attention to themselves. It would be enough to sustain them for a long time. He also got them to promise not to mention anything about himself or Lianna to anyone.

Alone in his room, Adam held Lianna’s new dagger in his hand. Inspecting the black tip, it was matte black with no shine to it like many metals had. Running it along the leather at the bottom of his grieves it easily made a cut mark with little force applied. Pushing the tip it dug into the leather, passing through easily until the Kovarium tip ended and the steel started. He was impressed with how sharp it was. If it retained its sharpness and was as hard as the dwarf made it sound, he wondered how it compared to diamond. He would have to test it at some point.

To start he wanted to see if he could materialize the valuable metal. After using his Absorption skill to get back to sixty mana, he drew fifty out from his right hand. Then he held the tip of the blade between his finger and thumb with his left hand. Fifty of his golden mana swirling around at once definitely was flashy. He felt like people could put on light shows at night. He focused on making a cube, starting at a single point and materializing outwards. The golden mana continued to solidify until the fifty mana was converted, leaving a black cube of Kovarium slightly less than one cubic inch in size. It was a surprisingly light metal, only slightly heavier than aluminum he figured.

The kovarium cube definitely contained much more than the tip of the dagger, which had cost them ten gold. He would have to see what this amount was worth. He was sure it would be worth more than simply making gold coins but what about gemstones?

With the dagger returned to its owner, Adam painstakingly spent a half hour with his absorption skill, trying to increase how much he could absorb at one time. This was much more difficult since he felt like it took great mental effort to draw in a small sliver of a single mana. Then he was trying to push that further and draw in more at a time. It was still extremely small but he felt like he had made some progress. Hitting sixty mana again he continued practicing his mana manipulation, raising the maximum to fifty five before falling asleep.

A few hours after sunrise, their carriage was packed with their stuff and they were ready to continue on. After saying goodbye to Ceru and Roux, they headed to the weapon shop to see if Adam could sell the Kovarium cube, which he made a second identical one that morning. He considered selling it at their next destination but he rather liked the dwarven saleswoman. Entering the shop, it was empty with the saleswoman sitting behind the counter looking ready to fall back to sleep.

“Good morning.” Adam said as he walked up to the counter.

“yes?” was all she said without looking his way

“Not a lover of mornings I take it?”

All he got was an affirmative grunt this time.

“I was here yesterday and bought a kovarium tipped dagger if you remember. After looking at the metal more closely, I realized it looked familiar. I have these two metal cubes and was never sure what they were. Until now at least, I could be wrong but they might be Kovarium?” he asked with the two cubes being placed on the counter.

She looked at the Cubes, then became more alert picking one up.

“Yes, it is.” she said a little confused. “Though I'm not sure why someone would go through the effort of forming such perfect cubes with it.”

“How is it formed for transportation? Into some form of ingot?” he asked her

“No, it is usually left in its natural form since little of it is exported and the difficulty of forging it makes it not worth it.”

“I see, you seem to have a decent variety of weapons containing Kovarium.” he commented looking around.

“Yes, I have a trade agreement getting me a small delivery of it once every season. Though it costs me double what it would inside Kelvar.”

“Kelvar is where it comes from?”

“Yes, It is the largest and most prosperous Dwarven city thanks to it being the only known source of Kovarium. It also has many of the best Smith's in the world, capable of forging highly pure manasilver.”

“Manasilver you mentioned was in the two spears yesterday. What exactly is it?”

“Manasilver is a special metal capable of holding mana within it. The higher the purity the more mana it can contain. It’s a very difficult to create metal alloy of silver and mithril that requires a specific forging process and extremely precise mana control. It has never been found naturally and only created or acquired in the Avaria Dungeon.”

“How welcoming is it for humans in Kelvar?”

“That can vary honestly. If you're planning to go, your best bet would be to hire a dwarven guide.”

“Alright, Thank you. So would you be willing to buy this Kovarium from me?”

She took both cubes into a back area of the shop and returned a moment later.

“For this amount I'll give you a hundred and fifty gold.” she told him.

“Sounds good.” it had cost him one hundred mana to make the two cubes, being able to sell it for that much gold was definitely a step up.

“Any spear you could substitute for one hundred of the gold?” he asked

Walking over and grabbing a spear off the wall she handed it to him.

“It has a steel head with ten percent Kovarium at the tip and along the edges. The shaft is made from a strong and flexible wood wrapped in soft leather for excellent grip. I'll give it to you for eighty five gold, which is mostly for the Kovarium.”

“Perfect. Thank you.”

It was a little heavy he found but not more than he could handle. Especially if he increased his strength. Accepting the sixty five gold, he left the shop after bidding her farewell.

On the road again, Adam was quite happy with not having to walk this time. He still had to pay attention to keep Basil on course but didn't require too much focus and he could take turns with Lianna.

This was their final stretch to reach their current destination, Karhu City. According to Evond it was a three day travel by foot from here, and even though they weren't walking, Basil moved at a similar speed. They had made sure to get lots of feed for him and water to last them the trip. Adam decided to put his remaining attribute points into his physical strength, bringing it up to eleven. Making him feel noticeably stronger and his spear felt lighter.

An hour of travel away from the city trees started to appear again as they encountered their first monster. This one was noticeably larger than anything they had faced before. It was half their height on four legs, green fur with intense eyes staring at them. Adam's best comparison would be a wolf type creature except it didn't have any form of tail nor did he see any ears.

Both Adam and Lianna got down off the carriage holding their weapons and already wearing their leather armor. It was warmer then they liked with the armor on but they wanted to remain alive.

The forest green wolf tried to remain focused on them both as they circled around to opposite sides of it. It charged at Adam first. It wasn't exceptionally fast but clearly was powerful. Adam tried to thrust his spear into the wolf's head, missing, the spear sunk into the side of its shoulder, cutting straight through with only a little resistance. The cut was deep and clean, a flap of flesh and fur hanging from its shoulder with blood starting to flow. The beast howled out in pain as it backed off, reevaluating its opponents.

Distracted by Adam it wasn't paying attention to Lianna who quickly came up behind it, slashing across it's back legs with the point of her dagger before jumping back out of range again. Blood sprayed on the ground, something important clearly being hit as it struggled to even remain standing. Lianna circled around it staying out of sight. Adam approached again stabbing the spear through its side, hitting ribs before the spear slides in between them and sinks deeper. Lianna jumped in stabbing deep into its neck, causing it to stop its cries of pain and fall to the ground unmoving.

“Wow.” She said pulling the dagger out from its neck and cleaning it off. “I got a hundred and fifty six experience.”

“I wonder if it's from being a larger creature or if it was just a higher level. I didn't get any experience so only the one who makes the kill must get it I guess.” Adam questioned

Out of curiosity, Adam grabbed his shortsword from the carriage and tried using it on the beasts hide. The sword was able to pierce through but he had to put a much larger amount if strength into it, for a lot less of a result. This showed how the Kovarium made a huge difference in piercing the tough hide easily.

After dragging its body to the side of the road they gave some food and water to Basil who was calmly watching them, completely unphased. After cleaning their weapons they continued.

Over the next couple hours Adam used his mana to create small ingots of Kovarium, and worked on improving his absorption skill, having Lianna guide Basils direction. Along the way they encountered three more creatures that tried to attack them. Lianna killed them herself bringing her experience to two hundred five of her three hundred twenty five Maximum.