Chapter 71: When the days done

Nathan: “So that’s what happened.”

Nathan arrived back at Ramol’s [Medly], to find everyone up and waiting for him. They told him about what happened today and how everything turned out.

Ramol: “I’m really sorry this happened.”

Nathan: “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was because of me that all this stuff happened as it did.”

Ash: “What did you think would happen, if some Therian just showed up out of nowhere with shelves full of high quality produce and weaponry?”

Nathan: “I was thinking that no one would try anything in broad daylight, didn’t think it would be the guards.”

Ash: “Bernard’s one of the imperial Guards assigned to Loegrey. He’s not one for any type of disruptions in this city. With him around, the minute you cause any disruptions, he’ll probably dog the place.”

Ash nodded his head as if confirming his own words.

Ramol: “It didn’t help that I had to step away for a moment, by the time I returned, most of the produce was sold. As soon as I brought the weapons out, everyone mobbed the place. When someone attempted to buy one thing, someone would start a fight with them over said item and soon a fight would break out and then-”

Nathan: “The guards would come and shut you down.”

Ramol: “Eheheheheheh, *sigh*.”

Nathan: “Still, couldn’t you sell one, all thanks to the guards and a bunch of idiots?”

Ramol: “Well……that’s half the reason, heheheh, ugh.”

Ramol clenched his side and groaned in pain.

Kyr: “Brother!?”

Kyr helped Ramol as he tried to stand up.

Nathan: “Ramol, your hurt, what happened?”

Ramol: “Nothing, I’m fine.”

Nathan: “No, no you’re not.”

Nathan disregarded Ramol’s claims and checked his stats. His health was refilling, but a at very slow pace. On his side was a fairly large bruise. Nathan put a hand on Ramol’s side.

Nathan: “Heal.”

A white light wrapped around Ramol and Nathan watch as his health went to full.

Nathan: “There, how do you feel?”

Ramol: “Ah, the pains gone, thank you.”

Nathan: “Good, sheesh man…what did you do to yourself?”

Ramol: “Hahahaha, looks like I’m a bit of a klutz. I wasn’t paying attention and ran into a cart of crates. Sorry about the worry.”

Nathan: “Its fine, just pay more attention, you need to take better care of yourself.”

Ash: “It takes a klutz to not see a cart in front them.”

Nathan sighed out loud, as Ramol just laughed at himself.

Nathan: “Anyway, what do you mean about ‘that was half the problem’ ?”

Ramol: “Right, after today, I realized there’s no way I’ll be able to sell these.”

Nathan: “Why?”

Ash: “There’s no way, anyone besides nobility, would be able to purchase these weapons, at those prices.”

Nathan cocked his head in confusion.

Nathan: “Those prices, how much was he selling them for?”

Ramol: “The lowest price, a bit over nine thousand Rydt.”

Nathan: “WHAT, NINE THOUSAND!?

Nathan’s voice came out a lot louder then he meant to, but he had absolutely no choice. With such a legitimate reason to say that line, how could pass it up saying?

Anais: “*Squeak*(Why the hell are you screaming?)”

Anais jumped up from the bed she made from a pile of torn clothing, she’d found in a bag.

Nathan: “(Those are my old clothes.) Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you, but had absolutely no choice.”

Anais: “*Squeak*(What the hells with that)?”

Anais jumped over to Nathan and landed on his lap in her mouse form.

Anais: *Squeak*(I glad you woke me up, I need to tell you something, bring Iris and meet me later tonight).”

*poof*

Anais returned to her Therian form, since she had said that while still a mouse, in that she didn’t want anyone else to hear. Whatever she needed talk about; she wanted to keep it from Ash, Ena and Ramol for some reason. Nathan noticed that she remained sitting in his lap, even after changing.

Anais: “What’s wrong?”

Nathan: “Hmm, I guess it’s nothing.”

Anais shrugged her shoulders and turned back around. She must not had realized it herself, but it didn’t bother him either way.

Ash: “We’re telling him about today.”

Nathan: “Yeah back to that, why are they so expensive?”

Ash: “Weapons with stats, let alone status effects, are completely unheard of nowadays.”

Ramol: “Correct, such weapon are usually left to royalty and knights of the highest ranks. Until a couple of days ago, I had never seen one. To sell them at anything lower would be a crime.”

Nathan: “Why don’t people just make more?”

Ramol: “Impossible, only a certain race has the ‘ability’ to place stat and special effects on weaponry.”

Nathan: “Huh, isn’t that what weapon skill basically do?”

Ash shook his head back and forth.

Ash: “Weapon skills, are basically spells without the need of an incantation. All the mana comes from the user. Like my ‘flame slash’, the sword itself can’t make the flame, I make the flame and channel it through the blade. It’s difficult for me to outright fire off a spell, but it if use my sword as a conduit, then I can make better use of my mana.”

Nathan: “I see.”

Ash: “However, weapons that have their own attributes don’t need to be infused with mana. The powers they have are permanent and can be used at will without a steady flow of mana. Weapons like that require ‘Imbuing’, which is a skill exclusive to dwarves.”

Nathan: “Dwarves?”

Ash: “Yup a race who were extraordinarily gifted at blacksmithing. Long ago, they made weapons so fierce, they could kill a Regrest with ease; there were those who even said to have slayed dragons. The weapons of today couldn’t even compare to then.”

Anais: “Okay, so why not ask them?”

Ash: “Well…………..”

Nathan: “What’s wrong, don’t tell me they’re extinct?”

Ramol: “No, nothing like that, it’s just...well, what I’ve heard, is around nine-hundred years ago, the dwarves, like the elves, turned their backs on the four main races. It’s really vague, but apparently someone of importance was kidnapped and accusations were thrown at everyone.

Ash: “In the end, the Dwarven King at that time couldn’t trust anyone, so he and his people returned to their country; deep in the mountainous regions of the northern central continent.”

Nathan: “Let me guess, they live near some kind of strong monsters and no one wants to make the effort?”

Ash: “That…and their home is a mass of land floating in the center of a giant bottomless chasm, that saps mana away if you try to cross it.”

Ramol: “Because they are the only ones who know how to imbue weaponry, it is impossible to find any weapons like these. I can’t sell them for any less, my pride as a merchant won’t allow it.”

Nathan scratched his cheek; it did sound like a lot just to get an imbued weapon. However, Anais who had been listening to the conversation, tapped Nathan’s leg to get his attention.

Anais: “Hey, can’t you do this ‘imbuing’ thing?”

Nathan: “Not really, I mean my ‘tweak’ ability is similar, but from what they’re saying, the dwarves didn’t need any source material or have limits. I just take the attributes from one item and place them on another.”

Anais: “So it’s useless without source material?”

Nathan: “For the most part. I can’t do it from nothing like the way the dwarves do it.”

Ash: “Wait, wait, wait, what are you two talking about?”

Anais: “Like I said, Nathan can imbue things.”

Nathan: “And like I said it’s not really imbuing, hear I’ll show you.”

Nathan waved his hand and a breastplate appeared in front of him. He placed a hand to it and for a moment his hand let off a light.

Nathan: “Ash come here for a sec.”

Ash did as he was asked. When he was close enough, Nathan placed his hand on Ash’s clothes in which he was wearing, the dull light vanishing upon touching. Nathan then waved his hand and pulled out a red cloak, repeating the process. The same dull light and then Nathan sighed heavily.

Nathan: “Okay done.”

Ash: “Done what? What did you do to me?”

Nathan: “You’ll see; alright Anais, blast him.”

Anais: “Alright, Flare!”

Much to Ramol and Ash’s surprise, Anais suddenly fired off a spell, right at Ash.

Ash: “Uwaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

*Bwoosh*

The fireball hit him point-blank in the chest, knocking him to the floor. Ramol, not knowing what was going on, jumped back in fright.

Ramol: “Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh!?”

Nathan: “Ramol…calm down and look.”

Ramol did as he was told and was surprised to find Ash was okay. He was coughing a bit , but otherwise, he was okay.”

Ash: “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?, I COULD HAVE DIED!?”

Anais: Oh, shut up you big baby, you’ll be fine. Nathan already imbued the clothes with fire resistance.”

Ramol: “Huh?”

Nathan: “Not imbuing, tweaking, tweak-ing.”

Ash looked at himself and checked his HP. Anais was right, he had almost no damage and his clothes now had ‘flame-resistance’.

Ramol: “Examine”

*ding*

Travelers Clothes+ Tier: Uncommon

Clothes favored by travelers which are both fashionable and also comfortable. Perfect for those long journeys…

Fire-Resistant, +14 Defense.

Ramol: “I don’t believe it.”

Ash: “What, what’s wrong?”

Ramol: “Fire-resistance and plus fourteen defense in everyday cloth.”

Nathan: “I took the properties from the breastplate and the Elven-cloak and put it in his clothes. And the breast plate here-”

*Smash*

Nathan easily punched a hole through the breastplate, smashing it to pieces.

Nathan: “Whatever I take from, if I don’t leave something behind, it becomes like this.”

Anais furthered his explanation, by burning the cloak, which no longer had its fire resistance.

Ramol: “Such an ability…remarkable.”

Nathan: “I thought so also at first, but it has its share of disadvantages. Everything has a certain amount in which I can tweak it. I called them ‘Notches’, like mine and Ash’s clothes , in that they only have two times each in which they can be ‘tweaked’. That means, I can’t change their attributes any more than that and what I’ve placed can’t be taken out. I wish I‘d known that before I used up two slots for defense.”

Ramol: “Incredible, but I think it’s a waste to destroy such great armor.”

Nathan: “What…Ramol…….have you ever worn armor?”

Ramol: “Well, no?”

Nathan: “Then you don’t know.”

Ramol: “What’s that?”

Nathan: “Armor is……………extremely uncomfortable to wear.”

Anais and Ash, nodded in unison, agreeing wholeheartedly with Nathan.

Ramol: “……………..Huh?”

Nathan: “Have you ever tried any?...It’s like the worst… when the sun beats down on you it makes it hot and extremely uncomfortable.”

Anais: “Its heavy so you can’t move exactly like you want.”

Ash: “Also taking it off and not to mention putting the damn thing on in the first place.”

Nathan: “But the worst thing by far…”

Ash & Anais: “The smell.”

Nathan: “Right, the smell…it’s so damn hard to get rid of.”

The three nodded as a matter of fact. Ramol just faced-palmed. These were problems everyone had to deal with, it may be uncomfortable, but it wasn’t made for comfort. It was made for defense. However, for the sake of not breaking into arguments, he kept his mouth shut, while the three voiced their complaints about armor.

Ramol: “Hmm, what’s this, I never heard of such a tier “Uncommon”.”

Nathan: “Tier?”

Ramol: “It a leveling system for items, indicating how valuable they are. By the way…all your weapons are ‘rare’.”

Nathan: “They are?”

Nathan thought back, when he had checked his weapons before, they were all ‘common’ tier. If Ramol believed them be a ‘rare’ tier, either his examine skill is telling him something different or maybe it was because how both of them acquired their ‘examine‘ skills. Ramol’s was given to him, while Nathan got his naturally. Was the ability just basing its categorization off from 5,000 years ago? when the weapons were common place.

If that’s the reason then, how does he fix it? More-over, who categorized such things, the description couldn’t write itself could it?

Before he even realized it, he was lost in his own thoughts, blissfully unaware he was being called over and over.

*Bonk*

Anais smacked Nathan on the head, bringing back from his thoughts.

Nathan: “Ow, Anais!”

Anais: “Welcome back.”

Ash: “You okay? We thought we’d lost you there for a second?”

Nathan: “Just…..just thinking about somethings.”

Ash: “Wanna fill us in…?”

Nathan: “It’s too far off from the topic, right now we need to find a way of selling the weapons without being swarmed. Oh wait, the produce, how did you make out?”

Ramol: “They sold pretty good; they flew off the shelves faster than we can stock them, the Stratos Berries sold the most.”

Nathan: “Oh?”

Ramol: “They use as ingredients for fancy food, but they’re most popularly use in tea. Since they only grow deep in heavy forested areas of dungeons, they are hard to come by.”

Nathan: “Stratos Berry huh…I’ll grow more of them then.”

Ramol: “No, don’t do that. If we sell them in large quantities, people will wonder where we got them all from. If not for the fact that we can immediately harvest everything you grow and the high fences you placed around my garden, I’m not sure how we could keep it all secret.”

Nathan: “Well, then can you show me which ones I should focus on growing?”

Ramol: “Yes, for the most part.”

Nathan: “Then we can sort through all the produce I can grow and find the most valuable ones. While I’m at it…I can give you some herbs.”

Ramol: “Now, it’s nearly midnight, shouldn’t we wait until morning?”

Nathan: “Of course not, I’ll be super busy all day tomorrow, so many quests to complete so that I can go in the Dungeon at least by the second or third day.”

It had been a long day, even with so many setbacks, both his side and the side of his friends. It wasn’t all bad though, he did get something out of it in the form of magic, but it wasn’t really a good idea to share what he could do right now,

At this rate he’d only have a few days to explore the dungeon before it closed again and fighting all those bandits didn’t get me crap in the end, so I’d have to work twice as hard.

Ash, who’d been barely paying attention, perked up upon hearing what Nathan said.

Ash: “Wait, what bandits?”

Nathan: “(Crap.)”

Nathan had let it slip out by accident, rushing to the back door to leave, but Ash caught on and quickly jumped in front of him.

Ash: “For all that is good, please tell me you didn’t.”

Nathan: “Okay, I didn’t.”

*bonk*

Nathan: “Ow (Why does everybody keep hitting me?).”

Ash: “Don’t lie, you ass. I told you not to go after them.”

Nathan: “I-It was just a spur of the moment thing, I didn’t mean to go after them.”

Ash faced palm, and sigh heavily.

Ash: “Please tell me, you didn’t do anything too drastic?”

Sweat poured down Nathan’s face as he spoke.

Nathan: “Well, there a funny story about that?

Ash: “What, what did you do?”

Nathan: “I kinda accidently got their leader killed.”

Ash: “…………….YOU DID WHAT!?”

Ash screamed bloody murder, he could not believe what he heard.

Ash: “You killed the leader of a group of bandits, which ones?”

Nathan: “The ones from the quest back at the guild.”

Ash: “Just them?...well if it’s only the Therian bandits, it might not be too bad.”

Ash breathed a sigh of relief, it wasn’t fair to say, but if it just Therian, they won’t have the lee-way to seek revenge on them.

Nathan: “Yeah, *mumble*.”

Ash: “………..What?”

Nathan: “Well, there’s an even funnier story about that, it turns out that it wasn’t a group of Therian bandits, but a bunch of people being made to steal.”

_

_

_

Jonathan: “Ughn, what?”

Jonathan opened his eyes, his vision hazy, his head pounding. He eyes darted back in forth, trying to figure out where he was. He was lying on a bed in a candle-lit room, no furnishing except for a lone desk next to the bed. He sat up only to be met with a searing pain. He hand ran over the source of the pain, which was now neatly bandaged up.

Jonathan: “Ah, what the hell is this?”

His inquiry didn’t last long, as memories of what had happened came flooding back. Gideon, the woman he antagonized and the Lycanian who cause everything to go wrong. They had only a few days left before they were going to move everything north of Loegrey to avoid the guard’s inevitable search for them. However, Gideon refuse to leave, until he could acquire that damnable fox. And because of his stupid fetish, the Lycanian showed up and ruined their plans. The more he recalled, the angrier he got eventually slamming his fist down in anger.

*Bam**Crash*

Jonathan turned to the desk he had hit, a cup of water that was placed there was knocked to the floor. Moments later, footsteps could be heard, then the door to his room was thrown open. Into the room a girl walked in, holding a few blankets she looked down at the mess and frowned.

?????: “Jonathan don’t make more work for me.”

Jonathan: “Not now Jenn.”

The woman’s name was Jennifer, with her long black hair rolled into a bun, entered into the room and set the blankets down on a nearby chair. Jonathan glanced at her, her facial expression was as stiff as always, never really changing all that much, except for when she was upset. Reaching into the apron she was wearing, she pulled out a glove and began to pick up the shards of glass, followed by a cloth to wipe up the water.

Jennifer: “Not now, I get angry too, I don’t go around smashing things.”

Jonathan: “Tch!”

Jonathan fought through the pain and sat up in the bed, just as Jennifer finished wiping up the water. She went on about her business, cleaning and changing the linen on other beds in the room.

Gill: “How long have I been out?”

Jennifer: “A few hours, your wound has healed, but only on the surface, it needs time to recover. You lost a lot of blood.”

Jennifer finished her chores and turned to Jonathan.

Jennifer: “So, you’re the only one who came through, so I guess everyone else is dead?”

Jonathan turned to see her scowling, but Jennifer didn’t flinch in the least. She dealt with people like him all day, he was the least intimidating.

Jennifer: “*sigh* You can move, then hurry up and get dressed, Simon wants to talk to you.”

Jonathan, despite the pain, turned away and got up. He didn’t want to, but hearing Simon’s name was a good motivator. He could only guess what he wanted, if the Emergency Transport Scroll was used but the one using it wasn’t Gideon, something must have gone terribly wrong. The spell he used was meant for emergencies only; when there was no other choice. The fact that he was alone when he arrived here, could only mean one of two things. Either everyone was dead except for him or he left everyone one behind to escape. Since Jonathan was never known to be a coward, the latter didn’t seem plausible, at least to Jennifer.

Everything went wrong the moment the Lycanian woman showed up. He put his clothes back on and fetched his glasses from the desk drawer. When he was done, Jennifer ushered him out. He stepped into the dimly lit hallway, waiting for Jennifer to finish her tidying. A minute later, after fixing the bed Jonathan was lying in, Jennifer emerged from the room. She silently shut the door, then turned to him.

Jennifer: “Let’s go.”

Jonathan and Jennifer silently walked down the halls; she noticed Jonathan didn’t seem to be in the mood to speak, so she let him be. To Jonathan’s left, there were windows , but Jonathan know there was nothing but dense forest for miles around and the moon didn’t shine from this side, but the stars were always so clear out there. He never understood why they had these windows installed, nothing but an endless sea of trees could be seen and during the day and at night it was an ocean of stars.

He looked ahead, Jennifer wearing her standard housekeeping set up, a plain grey dress, under a white apron, in which she held a number of cleaning utensils. Ever since they were children, she was one of the only person he would meet in these halls or navigate them. Which made sense, she was never allowed to leave this place and could only watch as Jonathan and Gideon came and went. He thought of starting a conversation, but inevitably decided against it. He just walked behind her in silence, the occasional groan of pain escaping his mouth, as he clutched his side in pain.

Truth be told he always hated coming here, but as the right-hand man of the bandit group, whenever Gideon was summoned to the “Thieves Guild”, he was forced to come as well.

He used the emergency transport scroll to get away from the Lycanian, but at least she was dead, no one could have survived that blast. It was a pity he had to blow up all the valuables, but as soon as he got back, he could collect whatever was still intact. That is, if Simon allowed him to go back after this incident.

Jennifer: “We’re here.”

Jonathan looked up to the double doors that lead to the inner most chambers. When Jennifer open the door, the bright light compared to the hall was blinding. When his eyes adjusted, he saw the unnecessarily extravagant room. A long table stretched out before him; however, he was surprise to see several people sitting at the table. Men and women, infamous thieves and bandit leaders, filled the chairs at the table. They only came together when a discussion of the utmost importance was to be held.

When the two walked in, all eyes fell on Jonathan. He held his hand to keep it from shaking, it was an intimidating sight to say the least. He didn’t understand how Gideon, always strolled through here so care free.

Jennifer: “Master Simon, I brought him.”

Simon sat at the head of the table, resting his chin on his crossed hands. He wore a pleasant smile, but a hidden malice poured out from either side of his lips. The longer one looked at him the more fighting the smile became.

Simon: “Thank you Jennifer, standby in case I need you.”

Jennifer: “Understood.”

Jennifer stepped aside leaving Jonathan as the center of attention.

Simon: “Come now Jonathan, you don’t have to be so nervous, please have a seat.”

Jonathan did as he was told and sat down, trying his best to avoid eye contact with anyone there. The moment he sat down, Simon got to the point.

Simon: “Now, let’s hear your excuse; about that Lycanian and how she utterly humiliated you, destroyed your hideout and how you let her kill your brother.”