Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

- Michael Cotorel ~

I had spent the whole afternoon mindlessly walking around town but I still wasn't able to get my mind off of Maria.

The scene of her cold dragon's eyes as she burned the note was etched into my mind.

-It might be too late but Udall and Mollie may still be in the tavern..-

Thinking they might still be out for dinner, I decided to go try and meet up with them.

-Where am I though..- I looked around and couldn't see anything besides empty alleyways. -I guess Ill..-

"Hey, you got anything valuable on you?" A crude looking man rounded the corner behind me. He was covered in scars and had a noticeable tattoo on his shoulder of a skull with a dao blade behind it. (basically a long slightly curved machete)

-Why is a bandit within the city?- "Sorry, I don't." I turned and looked at him with cold eyes.

"Oh, so scary. Y'know I've killed a few A ranks before. You might wanna just.." he looked me up and down, "take off that robe."

My face filled with disgust. "Sorry, I like women."

"Very funny dude. Now hand over your sh*t." He pulled out a well made machete and started walking forward.

"Thanks in advance for the blade."

"Huh? I don't think you underst-"

*Pshhh*

With a wave of my hand I created a tight stream of water that cleanly punctured his head, killing him without allowing for resistance.

*Thud*

His body fell limply onto the ground.

-Maybe I should have asked him for directions..- I walked over and quickly looked around for anything valuable besides his blade. I ended up finding a small pouch with a few silver coins but that was about it.

-How did he even get into the city?- I started asking myself that as I looked back at his tattoo. -That feels.. familiar..-

I took a moment to think before throwing out the thought. -Its probably nothing, if I wait any longer I definitely won't make it in time.-

Picking up my pace, I leapt onto a rooftop and found my way to the tavern.

-I wasn't actually that far away..-

Walking inside, the tavern was filled with chatter. I quickly looked around to find Udall and Mollie sitting at the table in the corner.

"I see that you made it." Udall motioned to a third seat at the table with a drink in front of it.

I quickly sat down and picked up the drink, "Just went on a long stroll. So have you two eaten yet?"

"No, they've been busy and we were waiting on you so we decided not to order yet."

"Ah, so what's to drink?"

"Kölsch, I think it was called."

"Oh, is it new?"

"Yep, it's pretty good too. A little pricey though."

I put the glass up to my mouth and took a sip. -Wow, that is pretty good..- "What's considered pricy?"

"A silver per cup."

My eyes went wide as I nearly spit out my drink. -I can't spit it out.. it's too expensive..- *Gulp* Pushing the drink down with a hard gulp, I looked Udall dead in the eye. "You said what?" Although a silver per drink is nothing we couldn't afford, for a drink it was quite excessive.

"It’s a silver per drink. I think it's a fair price honestly.."

"Here.." -This came in handy quite quickly.- I tossed up a rugged pouch with some silver coins in it. "I'll pay."

"Have you gone senile with old age? We were the ones that ordered the drinks so don't worry about paying, we've got it covered." Mollie pushed the coin bag back towards me.

"It's not my silver in the first place so we might as well use them."

"Whose are they?"

"A bandit's. I ran into him on my way here."

"Where did you find a bandit in the city?"

"Towards the slum district. He was fairly strong, maybe peak A rank."

"What kind of weapon did he use?"

"A pretty nice metal machete." I pulled out the blade and set it on the table. "If you guys want to use it as scrap or resell it, feel free."

Mollie eyed it up and down before checking if I actually knew the worth of the blade. "You could sell that for a gold if you're lucky, that's not something you just casually give away."

"It's not like I'm going to use it, and I'm too lazy to sell it so I might as well give it to you."

"Haah.." Mollie reached up and grabbed the handle to look at the blade. "It's quite well made but it's nothing crazy.. I think it's better to sell instead of scrap, what do you think?" She looked at Udall.

"I agree, don't we have a commission for a dagger like that actually?"

"I don't want to give them some random knife that might break and give us a bad image.."

"True.." Udall looked up at me. "Did the bandit have any tattoos or insignias?"

"Ah, yes. He had a tattoo of a skull with a dao blade behind it."

They both took a moment to think before Udall shook his head. "I dont know of any big groups with that as their insignia."

"Yeah it doesn't really ring a bell... Well that aside, we have a present for you." Mollie looked towards me with a smile.

I raised an eyebrow wondering what she meant. -Is she talking about the alcohol?-

Catching her drift, Udall went 'ah right' and reached into his bag next to his stool.

When he popped back up, he was gently holding a staff a little over a meter long with a pretty big core at the top.

"You guys finished it already?!" I reached over and held it. It was quite heavy since the staff itself was a spiral of wood and mythril.

"The more you use it, the stronger it will be. Since it uses such a huge core, we could just have the strengthening runes draw mana from the core."

It was fairly heavy for a magic user, but it was nothing a little strengthening magic couldn't fix. I held the staff in my hand and grabbed onto the core. -Its..- "Empty?"

"Ah right, with that whole mana suction thing, it was drained almost completely. Luckily I had it next to a bunch of smaller cores I have stored. It ended up draining most of those which kept it from completely emptying and shattering."

-It looks like it can still store mana luckily..- "Talk about luck.."

"Yeah.. I'm not sure where I would have found another core like that."

Setting the staff in my lap, I started to slowly fill the core again. "I would've tried to find another one or buy one. Like hell I’d let you pay for it."

"It's in the contract that any supplied parts that break must be replaced by the smith unless it's during refining."

"Yeah but it was something out of your control so it would have been on me to replace it."

"I'm surprised you know the fine print that deep."

"I’m thorough with everything I do, you know that."

"Haha, right, right. Well how about we order, I'm hungry!"

"I agree!"

We cheered, as we called over the waiter to order.

-Hah.. I must've been overthinking that mental blockage..-