I wasn’t looking forward to having to talk to Emeris or to even getting close. Besides, she was pretty clear with her words last time. She didn’t want to help us.

“Well, damn,” I quietly cursed.

“Don’t give up so quickly,” Zearis said with a chuckle. “I’m a regular customer of hers. I’m certain that if I show up with a batch of weapons that need enchanting and yours just so happens to be among them, she won’t even realize it's yours. In fact, she has no idea of your weapon.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Cellestra said from my back.

“Don’t worry about it. Wouldn’t be the first time I get things done for people whom Emeris doesn’t like. Probably won’t be the last time either. Anyway, do you have some kind of enchant in mind you’d like on your weapon?”

“Uhh,” I let out. “I hadn’t thought of anything yet since I don’t know how enchanting works, nor what the options are.”

“In that case, allow me to hand you one of Emeris’s flyers. They have the effects and prices listed on them. If you decide on something and you’re in a hurry, see me tomorrow or the day after before noon as that’s when I have several shipments of weapons that need her attention.”

“That would work. Thank you.”

He nodded, went inside the workshop, and returned momentarily with a scroll, held together by a red ribbon.

“Here,” He said as he handed it over. “Think it through. I suppose I’ll see you soon enough.”

“Thank you so much, Zearis. I’m not sure if we’ll drop by tomorrow as I’d like some time to think things through, but we’ll try to make the day after, assuming Emeris’s pricing is fair.

“Well, you know her. Her prices are what they are, but her work is good.”

“You’re right. We’ve seen her items and they are beyond beautiful. If her enchanting is half as good as the items she creates, we’re golden.”

“In that case, I hope you don’t mind if I go back to the forges.”

“Not at all. Good luck.”

I watched him go back to his apprentice who had started forging a short sword. The master smith held up an arm to halt his work and inspected the blade before giving a thumbs up.

“Well, at least we have something,” I said as I handed the scroll to Cellestra so she could stash it away in her backpack.

“You sound disappointed.”

“Hmm, what can I say? I am slightly disappointed, yes, but on the other hand, not quite. If Zearis tells me that starmetal is just straight up better then I trust him. Regarding the fire, it is as he said, it seems to be made specifically to counter a specific weakness that enemies have and well, I got my own enhancement that makes my weapon’s attacks inflict additional fire damage. Let’s get back to the farm and read what she has available, shall we? How much money do we have, right now?”

“Five gold and five silver coins,” Cellestra replied. “I hope it’s going to be enough.”

“Well, we wanted to go and hunt Firags today anyway. If we don’t have enough, we could try to make up the difference that way.”

“Sounds good to me, but there’s one issue.”

“Which is?” I asked, curious what she meant.

“Well, you’re going to eat the Firags right? That means we turn in the hides only. It’s probably a good idea to turn them in as quickly as possible so that prolonged exposure to the warm temperatures in the dungeon without curing them won’t spoil them.”

“Is it an option for you to keep them cool?”

“Possibly, but I don’t think delaying for too long is a good idea.”

“So move quickly, gather a few, and get back to the surface. Got it. Let’s just hope that the usually unavoidable creatures are in a good mood today.”

“That would help for sure, but we don’t know yet if we need the additional money.”

“We always need the additional money,” I said as I left the town square. “Sure, I have my abilities, but we need to start combining these things anyway.”

“That does sound like the smart option,” She said with a nod, eyes closed.

Once we were out of the city and walking through the outskirts surrounding it, she called my name softly.

“Hm?” I replied.

“Is there a possibility for us to look into that new ice lance soon?”

“Oh, sorry. I’ve been so caught up in this spiderling thing that I completely forgot about that. Hmmm,” I started thinking aloud. “I don’t think it’s an issue to combine that with our plans as well. I mean, I can easily teach you as the others eat. I don’t want to go out hunting for other Firags and leave them open to attack anyway.”

“That’d be great. Thank you.”

She smiled warmly as she said it and then kept that lovely smile until we got to the farm again where my parents were busy weeding the field that they’d previously plowed and seeded. The spiderlings were watching them, except for Shayla. She was trying to mimic them by carefully digging through the soil with her pedipalps.

“Are you teaching them how to get weeds?” I asked curiously. “How are they doing?”

“They already finished the other thing, so I was like, why not?” My father replied, standing up to stretch.

“Other thing?”

“I had them plow a field that needed plowing. It wasn’t our responsibility to do it, but now the landowner won’t have to do it himself, so I doubt he minds. Goes quite fast when you have like forty extra hands helping out.”

“I can imagine. When I helped you earlier it went quite fast already.” I let out a chuckle. “I would have loved to see it for myself, though.”

Elle stopped whatever she was doing to jump toward and hug me.

“Hey, Elle, you ready for something more exciting?”

She was slightly confused by the question. The way I understood it, she didn’t mind doing this at all.

“You’re such a sweet girl. What I meant was, Cellestra and I wanted to go to the dungeon.”

Now she understood, and nodded in response.

“You had no issues communicating?” I asked my father again.

“None with the other field. Here, they had a bit of an issue keeping apart the weeds from the sprouting crops, so I was in the process of making it clear to them.”

“Well, too bad,” I said with a chuckle. “Sorry but I’m afraid I’m taking them with me.”

“That’s fine,” My mother added. “Do take care out there, honey. Stay safe.”

“Always. We’ll see you later in the afternoon.”

With that, we were off to the dungeon, and along the way, Cellestra read the scroll we’d received from Zearis.

I saw her eyes trace the words written on it, and her smile grew, making me turn my torso and look at her with expectant eyes.

“And? How does it look?”

“It looks like we will need some more money,” She said with a sly smile. “But you’ll like what you get for it.”

“Care to share?”

“Nope,” She said before giggling. “I’m gonna keep these a secret for tonight.”

“Alright then,” I said with a grin, but I couldn’t hide the fact I was slightly frustrated. Nevertheless, I’d give her a little bit of fun. “Keep your secrets.”

I tried to forget about the enchantments and focus on the task at hand. This included casting my multi-barrier before entering the dungeon and then navigating through it all the way up to the third floor, where we somehow managed to get past the phasing lizard area without any of them attacking us.

“It seemed you somehow jinxed yourself, but in a good way,” Cellestra commented. “Nothing’s attacked us so far.”

“Doubt it will stay that way for long. I see a Firag in the distance.”

I didn’t immediately charge it, but explained to my spiderlings exactly what dangers the animal before us posed, and the things they’d have to look out for. I knew that the tube-like organ on their head was responsible for shooting balls that would explode and engulf the target in flames. Besides that was the obvious fact that they could charge, just like most of the animals we’d encountered so far.

It was going to be crucial for the others to stay close to me where I could protect them with my fire wall spell. Other than that, I’d try to take it out quickly with my halberd. If I saw an opening, I’d go for it.

I activated my imbue elements skill and slowly approached it while the others followed closely behind me.

“Ready? Let’s go.”