Again with the looks? Bones was reminded again that he was an odd sight with how he dressed. It didn't happen often and most ignored him but those few that did, he noticed. Or maybe they were giving him looks because he flipped the table, he couldn't tell.

He was walking in the direction of the mountain chain, his mind working overtime. With such a technological leap, how could they still have issues dealing with monsters? He asked himself. It was hard to believe that despite what he saw, there was still a need for swords and magic.

When he asked around for directions, he was told to enter a transport carriage at the station nearby. The carriage was used to transport people and not goods, if you could believe it? A sign, looking for a sign. Is that it? He was standing in front of the sign with a simple drawn carriage and people in them. Excuse me. Someone just said from behind as they passed him by and stood in a place after the sign. Bones took a few steps and stood next to the man, waiting. A few minutes after, a large carriage stopped next to them, the man entered and Bones followed.

What followed was fifteen minutes of watching buildings and people pass by as he was looking through the window of a carriage. At the end of a stop at the base of a mountain, he stepped off the carriage. He couldn't tell before but the city was oval shaped with the walls at the end connecting to the mountains. Basically, the base of the mountains he was at now, was part of the city.

He could see this area was a stone processing site because of the machines in front of him. They were crushing stones into smaller pieces and shaping them into desired shape. Again, machines did the work of man. The noise was deafening, he imagined and he could feel the vibrations of the machines working on the stone. To his right was a passage and stairs leading up the mountain. He looked up and saw the barely visible roofs of the houses, or buildings?

He turned right and went up the stairs. After a short climb he reached the house with what looked like a forge. Sort of. It had similarities with the old forges he knew of before but more advanced.

“Can I help ye?” Spoke the small burly man with a bushy beard. Bones turned to look at the man and saw the same dwarf that bumped into him the day before.

“Small world.” Said Bones with a chuckle.

“Huh? Wut ye mean? World's da same size as before.”

“Depends on perspective. Are you an armorsmith?”

“Ye, armorsmith and da blacksmith. Wut can I do for ye, o' mysterious stranger?”

“Hm? Ah, the cover up? Well,you see, when I was young…”

“Wooah laddie! I dun really care for yer life story, see? Am sure ye have yer reason! Now, armor or a weapon?”

“Both, maybe? Armor is what I came here for.”

“Arright, spell it out!”

And so the dwarf and Bones went into the fervorous discussion about making him a new set of armor. A commission for armor could be done in two ways. With his own materials plus the smiths work or everything provided by the smith which made the price go up by quite the margin. Bones was happy he could finally find a use of spider silk he looted before. The rest however, would be smiths materials and would increase the price of the final product.

At first, Bones wanted a simple leather armor similar to the one he had as an addition to his new chitin armor but changed his mind once he saw the attire a lot of workers worked in. It piqued his interest so he asked the smith about it.

“Eh? Well, is a normal work combinaison wit da medium self repair enchant, reinforced hard leather boots 'nd da reinforced fire resistant leather coat.”

Bones was surprised to hear about enchantments being medium rank. The gears in his head started turning.

“Say…”

“Sure, it can be done. It gon cost ye a pretty sum of gold though. Speaking of gold…” the dwarf smiled, showing a golden tooth.

“Right, about that.” Bones leaned closer and took out one of the neatly shaped oval mana stones. “Will these do as a payment?” A dwarf narrowed his eyes, thinking it through. After a moment of hesitation, he asked if someone would be looking for them. Bones didn't lie, it wouldn't do him any good to lie to the stubborn dwarf. “Most of them are dead, but perhaps someone could. I'd give you a good ratio of gold to mana stone for them though. What does 40% more mana stone per gold ratio sound like?” Dwarfs eyes widen for a moment before he *coughed* and said he could live with that.

With the commission for his new gear done, there wasn't anything else he really needed done but wait, until the day after tomorrow. Professions! Right, there was that. Bones didn't ride a public transport carriage back to the inn. He learned it wasn't exactly a free ride, workers and adventurers excluded. While he could pass as one, technically, he wasn't an adventurer. It wasn't the reason for him walking back though. He just didn't trust this new technology much. “Rue be the day I became dependent on machines to do my work!”

Back at the inn, he asked around where he could learn a profession. Like he thought, there were plenty of places he could learn professions related to either construction or crafting. Not a single mana engraver or a runesmith though. Enchanters were seclusive and likely wouldn't agree to a mentorship, but he was welcome to try. Seems all roads lead to the capitol. With nothing else to do, he stayed at the inn for the next two days, meditating and avoiding machinery of any kind.

The day after tomorrow, he left the inn and headed for the mountain chain. Today will be the day he gets his new set of armor. After a 30 minute walk, he reached the forge where the dwarf was waiting for him. “Ye 'ere! Come wit me.” The dwarf Hemdus, or Hem for short, led him inside the house and into the back room, where another dwarf was awaiting.

“You haven't been here, waiting for me this whole time?” Asked Bones.

“NO! 'course not. We're drinking buddies!” Said Hem, unconvincingly. “Show him da stones! ”

Bones slowly, ungrudgingly, started to unzip his pants to the shock and bewilderment of the two dwarfs. Hem jumped up from the chair and yelled “STOP, stop stop. Wut do ye think yer doin?”

“I'm showing him my stones?” Bones replied with a questioning tone. *clang* the sound of the mug hitting the floor could be heard. Darsumi, the other dwarf, with his mouth agape dropped the mug before bursting into boisterous laughter. It took a whole minute for both dwarves to stop laughing and calm themselves down. Bones in the meantime, tried the mug of ale. In slow sips, he could actually "drink" the ale. Like coffee, with some workaround and empowering done, the liquid would be absorbed when it came in contact with the mana coursing which would be almost the instant he drank it.

“Arright arright, we gon do the business or wut?” Hem asked. Both Darsumi and Bones nodded their heads. Bones took out the agreed amount of mana stones equivalent to 250 gold. Darsumi eyed the stones before picking one up for a closer look. He took up the glasses from his coat, put them on and inspected every aspect of the stone.

“Mmmm mhm right right. Alright, I've identified the stones and they appear to be of decent quality and will be hard to trace.”

Hem released the breath of relief and gave his friend a knowing look. Darsumi nodded and Hem turned to Bones. “Say friend, ye dun happen to 'ave more of em would ye?”

“Oh? I do happen to have more of them. Now, why would you ask me that, friend?”

Hem, realising the threatening undertone quickly answered that it wasn't like "that". What they meant was that they had a way to make the stones "legit". “Ye could try in da capital o' course but look at me friend 'ere. Hes in charge of dealing wit da numbers in da crafters guild 'nd da one ordering raw materials 'nd making sure each 'nd every expenditure is accounted fer accurately. He know a guy who know a guy where we could exchange da stones and get the legit, kingdom stamped ones in return, catch me drift?”

“I see what you mean.” Bones really didn't get what he meant but he understood the implication. “I wouldn't mind doing business with you gents.” They didn't understand what he called them but they understood he agreed to do the business with them. “On another note, what can you do with these?” Bones took out a slate of raw mana stones and presented them on the table for the dwarves to see. Both dwarves grinned widely, golden teeth shining as they talked about future business opportunities.

It was already midnight when Bones left the forge in his new get-up. It still covered him whole but he had to admit, it looked badass. At least in his eyes it did, so to speak. Everything he wore was new, apart from the mask. His new equipment was heavy, he had to admit, but it didn't impede his movements much. Whole set was reinforced, which meant resilient against physical attacks, and with medium self-repair enchantment. There was a possibility of upgrading his equipment with a second enchant if he could find someone capable to do it.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone in Stonefalls that could do the second enchant along with a medium enchant. The only enchanter in the city was specialized in enchants related to crafting and construction with medium self-repair enchant being the most sought after. The fire resistance on his new coat came from the leather of the fire salamander used in making it. It was colored in a dark shade of grey with the hood on. His boots were the same. He didn't go for the combinaison since he already had a perfectly fine chitin armor. He had new pants made. It had extra pockets! He didn't know what he would use the pockets for but he wanted them anyway. Gloves were an additional purchase he requested to be made. They were milky white, in contrast to his dark grey, rest of the set, and had minor boost to mana regeneration. All in all, it cost a lot! He didn't lack the money now but still, in comparison to the items in Westbrook? Expensive!

Returning to the inn, he checked out and left. He left a box of raw mana stones with Darsumi who assured him he would deal with them by the end of the month. He knew a dwarf who knew a dwarf. Bones shrugged and said he didn't care how, just to give him his cut, which was a bit on the downside at 30% of the value. They did all the work so he didn't negotiate the price, just nodded with whatever they suggested. With the whole box of mana stones gone he felt the strain which he didn't even notice, ease up on his soul. Finally he would go back to his journey and leave this accident-waiting-to-happen city behind.

Back in the forge, two dwarves sat at the table, drinking ale. “Wut do ye think Dar?”

“I think, these are Guntar's bloody mana stones. I heard he ran 'way from Westbrook a few days ago. Hid deep underground, he did.”

“Do we care?” Asked Hem.

*scoff* “No Hem, we don't really care where the stones came from.”

“Great, 'cause dat Jones guy is given me a helluva bad vibe.”

“Oh? Worse than Guntar and his assassin lackey?”

“Dar, way worse. *chug chug* haaah* Theres a tinge of death in 'is aura. I dun think he even noticed.”

“Easy on the drinks, Hem. So? Nothing strange for an adventurer or a merc, to be surrounded by death.”

“No, not from killin kind of death 'nd why? It's saturday!”

“You mean, the undead kind of vibe? And Hem…it's friday and you've got work to be done in a few hours. I'm off."

“Aww shite. Could've sworn it was saturday.”