Andaris was experiencing a strange mixture of sensations and feelings at the moment. On the one hand he felt incredibly comfortable in his new shirt, pants and boots that he had purchased for himself. Although most people of this world would consider these fairly bog standard clothing, maybe with the exception of the boots, they were however, for Andaris, the absolute pinnacle of luxury and indulgence.

He knew he could not go around in ‘barely holding together’ rags of a slave, it would attract far too much attention and raise way too many questions. Sure delvers were more often than not a scruffy lot, but his previous attire had been way too far gone for even that.

The boots had been somewhere he actually did legitimately splurge a bit. Andaris had wanted something sturdy that he could move around in for his delving.

On the other hand, he also felt incredibly uncomfortable wearing such decent clothing. He was simply not used to being adorned with ‘soft’ materials. Soft being relative as the standard slave attire were either no clothing at all, or rough hemp material rags with optional stitching to get them into something even resembling the shape of clothing.

Andaris turned left on the cobblestone path, one of many that could be found near the center of the town. Benusia. The city that he had elected to journey towards. It had simply been the closest ‘dungeon city’ at the time. There was no other reason behind his choice than this.

He would continue delving. Continue to gain all manner of combat experience and rare loot, while making a living. He would grow.

Andaris eyed the dungeon entrance at the heart of the city as he passed by in the distance, on his way to another destination. The entrance was an enormous stone structure with four separate entrances and supported by many walls, rooms and pillars on the inside. There were even several stairways on the inside, leading down, to the first floor of the dungeon.

All around the entrance was a vibrant and busy market place. People and stands, selling all manner of useful items and gear, or food and supplies. A couple of blacksmiths going about their trade and some bars and other entertainment and meeting places.

In an amazing show of audacity, at least from Andaris’ perspective, the local guild had built their headquarters right on top of the flat stone roof of the huge temple-like structure that was the dungeons entrance. With man made stone stairways leading up to it on either side.

A wealthy and opulent looking, multi-story structure, showcasing the guilds wealth and power, as well as the prosperity of this dungeon city.

Speaking of wealth. Andaris had blown the larger portion of his own, that he had received from the guild for the information he traded. It had been a significant amount of money, and yet he had managed to spend most of it. Not on his clothes, mind you, but rather on the one thing every delver desperately needed, but most could never hope to afford.

A storage glyph. A magic glyph burned onto his body (well actually his anima signature), that could access a space not directly connected to this plane. For most delvers, such an item would be an incredible boon, since they would not have to lug supplies around with them and they could also bring back more loot from a single delve, making the entire affair far more practical and profitable. Nor would they have to worry about theft, as they were the only ones that could use the glyph.

It had been a hard decision to blow the overwhelming majority of his coin on this, one he had deliberated over greatly during his journey here. But at the end, he had decided that he would not likely again gain such a significant financial injection to be able to afford such a glyph and that this was probably his best chance to buy one. So he had. He would struggle initially, but it would pay dividends for itself in the long run.

Even if that meant, he was now close to being broke once more.

Andaris rounded another corner, and finally reached his destination. A large blacksmith, that a number of people he had asked, had assured him to be the best in the city.

He walked into the blacksmith shop. It was hot and stuffy, and Andaris could hear the telltale sound of metal pounding metal somewhere out of sight in the back. The shop was adorned with a wide array of weapons, on shelves all around and bits and pieces of various kinds of armours on stands to show them off.

“What can I do for you?” A stout younger man was manning the ‘counter’ and asked Andaris as soon as he entered the shop.

Andaris regarded the man for a moment, he did not seem like the owner of the shop. “I am here because I heard this is one of the best blacksmiths in Benusia.”

The young man whom had up until a moment ago seemed rather bored, perked up a bit at the compliment, Andaris perhaps peaking his interest a little. “That is certainly the case, esteemed sir.”

Andaris could tell that last part was a sarcastic jab. Despite wearing the most luxurious clothing he had ever worn in his life, he was still pretty much dressed like a commoner and not a particularly wealthy one at that. The clientele that normally frequented this establishment would without a doubt be a lot more distinguished.

Andaris however paid it little mind. He was a slave after all, used to such things.

Correction.

Had been a slave. He would have to change that way of thinking. He distinctly felt like there was still somehow a mental slave collar around his neck.

“I want to know if you can forge me some weapons from this.” Andaris brought out the remaining three talons from his storage.

The young man’s eyes immediately looked surprised when Andaris showed off his storage glyph. It did not fit the rest of his image after all. Of course it was probably just a small storage, which isn’t exactly unheard of, the young man had just not expected this particular individual to possess one. Andaris appeared to him to be a bit ‘scruffy’ after all, even for a commoner.

His eyes did however remain wide, when he noticed the extremely valuable looking talons. Clearly some kind of high level monster drop that he was not familiar with.

“Give me a moment sir.” The young man, suddenly much more professional than he had been just mere moments ago, quickly disappeared into the back of the shop and out of sight.

Andaris noticed that after a moment, the loud clanging from the back of the shop had stopped. A short while thereafter, the young man brought with him a much, much broader and somewhat older man. The giant of a man was shirtless, covered in a sheen of sweat and completely ripped. He was bald with a slightly greying moustache being the only real tell of his age, despite his ‘vigorous’ build.

The two of them looked quite similar, perhaps father and son?

The giant spoke. “Good day sir. My son here, tells me you’ve brought me something interesting to work with.”

Andaris nodded and handed over the talons.

The giant, likely the owner of the blacksmith, inspected the talons with a surprised look on his face. “Sky metal”, was all he said.

He then looked Andaris over with a critical eye. “Where did you get this?” The question sounded half accusatory.

In fact it was half an accusation as much as it was a question. Gunther was very curious how someone that looked barely better off than a slave in his opinion, had gotten his hands on such a valuable monster drop.

The thought had occurred to him that maybe he stole it. But with how strict the guild was and the fact that he caught sight of the guild glyph on the boy, made that seem unlikely. Another possibility was that he had killed someone for it, but honestly, whoever could kill a monster that would drop this, he was unlikely to have beaten. Gunther was at a bit of a loss for what to do here, so he simply awaited the boy's answer.

“I was involved in a low level expedition and unexpectedly an enhanced monster appeared. My entire party was slaughtered in the process of fighting it, but I got lucky finding a weak spot and landing a decisive blow. The result is what you see.” While this was omitting an awful lot of truths, none of it was lies. Except the part about the enhanced. That thing was definitely an elite, but Andaris felt that would have been far too unbelievable.

The giant seemed to accept his answer, although still a bit suspicious. “Sounds like you got really lucky this time around.”

The comment struck a deep wound in Andaris. “My only friends in this world all died in that fight.” He rebutted, struggling to keep his emotions in check.

The giant mostly ignored his little outburst with cold rationality. “The life of a delver is cheap. These drops however are most certainly not. So- lucky.”

Andaris did his best to reign in the tempest in his chest. The blacksmith was not trying to be cruel, only cold. He did not care, he had no reason to.

“So can you make me a weapon out of this?”

“I certainly can.” He regarded Andaris for a second. “No offense, but you don’t look like you can pay me for my services.”

“You would be right. But I had a feeling we could come to an arrangement.”

“I don’t do credit with delvers, life being fleeting and all that.”

“I had assumed as much, but there are three of those talons, so-”

The blacksmith caught on immediately and jumped on the opportunity. “So I will keep one for myself and forge the other two into a weapon for you. That sound about right to you?”

Andaris did not miss how quickly the blacksmith had jumped on that deal and realised he was definitely being short changed here a bit. The talons were clearly even more valuable than he had originally thought. “One condition. I lost all my equipment, barely escaping with my life. I am at the very least going to require a temporary weapon.”

“That’s fine by me lad. I’ll even throw in some basic leather. Wouldn’t want a client dying on me before I even finish a job for him.” The blacksmith laughed out loud distastefully.

Andaris sighed, “I’m sure you’d just end up keeping all the talons for yourself then.”

“Hah! That be the truth lad.” And he carried on bellowing.

“When can I expect it to be done?”

“I’ll put a rush on this, since you’ve brought me something interesting to play with here. You don’t see sky metal every day after all.” The Smith thought for a moment. “Let’s say by midday tomorrow. The name’s Gunther by the way.” He tacked on a formal greeting, almost as an afterthought. The man seemed a bit too easy going for Andaris’ tastes.

“Andaris” He answered in kind.

Gunther gave him a short steel sword and a very simple hard leather cuirass. Both seemed to be second hand, or perhaps even third-hand, but it was certainly better than nothing and the first real equipment Andaris had ever actually used, let alone owned. So he was quite happy with it.

Andaris concluded his dealings with Gunther and then departed the store. He had almost no money left and spent the remainder on purchasing some food, or at least what he considered food. Thankfully, a slaves standards were not particularly high in this department and his sustenance expenses resulted in being quite cost effective.

He also purchased a healing potion and a stamina potion. Both were purchased from a shady and poor looking vendor and looked to be of extremely questionable quality even for their ‘low grade’. They were all he could afford at this point and he hoped he would not have to ‘test them out’.

For now he would delve. The day was still young and despite not having had all that much good rest during the travelling, he was feeling energetic with the path to his goals clearly in front of him.

Andaris made his way over to the dungeon. It was time for his adventure to begin.