Featherfall’s attacks look random but the attack speed is constant. Some attacks come from behind, the side or even slip between the three passive shields. Surprising both Featherfall and Cle, Rak is seemingly casually blocking every attack.

“I should already be at half my energy reserve.”

Rak’s confidence is dropping like a rock in water, and the deeper the stone sinks the more pressure he feels.

“Damnit!”

Many people are okay with losing, Rak is not one of those people. Feeling that he’s going to lose Rak can only grit his teeth and spend the last of energy to defend against the more devious attacks. At thirty percent energy Rak can only attempt to physically dodge some attacks, eventually being hit by a few. In no way is Rak apt at dodging.

The attacks that manage to hit Rak are mitigated by their positioning and his evasive maneuvers but the pain is already too much for him. If it wasn’t for Featherfall not wanting to cause anything but superficial harm, Rak would already be on the ground or worse.

As much as he wants to persevere his passive shields are already losing their shape and are diminishing at a visible rate. Losing control means losing the battle. If it wasn’t for manipulators innate energy shields he’d be cut open by now.

“That’s enough!”

No matter how much Cle wanted to prove that Rak wasn’t qualified, he has already proven himself to be useful to a one star group. Even in a two star group he could probably hold his own and guard one or two people. On the third floor he’d probably just be fodder but that is expected.

Being stopped when things were getting to the fun part Featherfall could only stomp her feet causing a large wave of wind to burst beneath her feet. Her actions caused Cle to frown, this little sister of hers is talented but too emotional, like a little berserker. Her personality more like a hot blooded man than a delicate young woman.

After the attacks stopped Rak fell to the floor, his breathing erratic almost as if he ran multiple miles without training.

“Damnit!”

Being inexperienced means Rak can’t gauge his own abilities or his enemies and from his perspective he failed miserably. He couldn’t even defend a few attacks for more than a minute. Only about a minute passed since the fight began and he was already on the floor fighting for breath.

“Turns out he’s a little reliable.”

Completely unlike Rak’s thoughts Cle was praising Rak in her heart. She wouldn’t do anything to inflate Rak’s ego but she also wouldn’t try to dissuade him for ‘helping’ in the first two floors. Of course on the third, Rak can only be an observer or at best and most likely having to be guarded.

“It’s already late and tomorrow we need to prepare. In two days we’ll enter the Bazaar tower.”

Just like their clients used their services to engage the merchants, so does the mercenary group. They might not have the connection of their clients but they can still make great profits buying obviously profitable things.

Often when buying things, the members of the mercenary have to consume mysterious items to observe the item’s effects. If the effect is good they buy up the stock and advertise it before selling them. Their real issue is that they don’t have a store and can’t afford to hold onto these items for long, lowering their prices and therefore their profits. A large merchant can afford spending a few hundred gold and hold onto the items for months without sweating, eventually selling for high profits.

Over the months or years the group has very rarely met with familiar product as such most of their casualties have been for consuming poisonous consumable items. The real winners in the Bazaar tower are those that have abilities or relations to certain items. A job related to poison will have an easier time to either identify poison or mitigate a poison’s effects.

The next day Rak still didn’t have any plans, he hadn’t expected the one day delay but he casually spent his time reading up on mysterious things that interested him. From Rak’s perspective and experience from travelling, the world so far was rather unified and similar with slight exceptions. His current favorite book is one of the ‘wisdom’ books which are experiences of famous people.

This mindset of Rak’s isn’t bad. The various cities, small or large are usually very similar. Some cities have their specialties but in reality they can all be boiled down to the same thing. Spending a year exploring humanities cities will result in a very bland experiencing. The culture and the people can however can't be measured in the same way.

“In the end I might as well pick up some variation of a trader or merchant. The real power comes from wealth.”

Rak isn’t exactly interested in power, fame or wealth but that doesn’t make these things not worth pursuing. It can be challenging to achieve one of these things and challenges are worth facing. Every new business is a new challenge, it is the thought ‘will this work?’. Rak ́s first venture is exactly his brewery and that was a challenge to see if he could indeed create a small business.

Not only did Rak ́s business work, it flourished to the point of allowing him to retire within Chaos theory and spend his days faffing about. This is exactly why Rak just wantonly went on this venture with the Trader Gou. Gou is indeed someone with a profound background but that doesn’t mean it attracted Rak. Currently Rak is like a leaf in the wind, not caring where he floats off to.

“That Cle is not actually bad.”

Rak’s thoughts began wandering. In the eyes of most people Fetherfall would be their pick out of Cle and Featherfall but Rak enjoyed Cle’s way of doing things. This is of course because Rak assumed a lot of things and didn’t know that Cle was looking down on him and attempting to put him in his place. Who knows how his thoughts would be if he knew?

The world is strange sometimes, Rather than Cle, it is Featherfall that has become interested in Rak. Rak carries himself with a certain charm and confidence which is hard to ignore. Perhaps if Rak wasn’t so extravagantly weak, Featherfall might have even pursued Rak romantically. But in the mercenary world, personal strength is king.

As time goes on, people find new interests, Rak didn’t plan on going much further travelling wise but now he felt a bit of interest towards the ‘capital’. There are a few capital cities but the distance between them is so long only a select few know how far it is. With current methods of travel it would take at least a few years to travel one way.

After prying out some information at the cost of a few silver coins Rak decisively abandoned any plans on travelling to the capital. The information he got made his head spin, the image of him travelling for years like some sort of nomad appeared before he shook his head to rid himself of the image.

“It should be as we guessed. Chaos theory doesn’t want us to travel within the human cities but into the Endless mountain range.”

Rak spent most of the day reading and researching and wantonly spending his silver on information when he couldn’t dig it out from the library’s books. It is already late and according to his deal with Cle’s mercery group, the incursion into the Bazaar tower should start tomorrow.

Before going to sleep in the usual hotel room, Rak glanced at his map once again with a more determined mindset. He’d have to bite the bullet and return at some point, even if it takes him two months of travel. Maybe shorter or longer depend on the method of travel. After all the last time he travelled with an experienced caravan. But they were a caravan and that should be slower than a single person with no baggage.

The next day Rak's heart is in a bit of a disarray. Today he’s going into a dangerous environment intentionally. It can be seen from Rak’s hesitation to join any Strange zone that he lacks some courage in physical combat.

“This is the client?”

“Looks can be deceiving.”

At a glance the group, aside from Cle and Featherfall, they judged Rak’s outer appearance. Rak’s clothing isn’t in poor shape but local Kalloway culture would have the wealthy wearing looser clothing and if going into combat, battle robes.

Rak’s form fitting clothing is something he had personally had tailored for him. This is fashion from the real world. Rak would usually wear expensive custom made suites or he’d wear form fitting clothing that didn’t hinder movements. Of course the local battle robe doesn’t hinder movements but it really wasn’t to Rak’s taste.

“Looks like we got another dead stone.”

“When do the clients ever assist? Forget it, even if it is just Mistress Cle or Featherfall, they alone are enough to drag eight people along.”

One of the larger men had just spoken up and his eyes filled with respect and infatuation. Featherfall and Cle are simply to charming, having leadership talents, strength and rather beautiful on top of it all. Only two out of six men in the group weren’t in love with these two beauties.

“I heard he could hold his own against Featherfall.”

The third woman in the group felt these guys were a bit disgusting, not to mention she was always in the shadow of Cle and Featherfall. It isn’t that she was ugly or unattractive, she could in some ways be described as more beautiful. But her flaw is her dainty personality, she acts vulnerable and her strength is nearing the bottom three.

In a normal environment she’d charm me eight of ten times but in a mercenary group she was only third and even overshadowed. She can’t be blamed that the men treat her like floating clouds and openly praise the other two women in the group. But in the end she also respects Cle and Featherfall, only a bit of jealousy can’t be completely removed.

“What? Impossible don’t bullshit.”

“How could that skinny shit compare to Featherfall?”

“Where did you hear this Fallow?”

Fallow let out an indignant huff and pouted her lips. Her habit of stamping her feet in anger has already been removed by her but she still let it slip this time. It really made her look like a little girl.

“What do you know? Who do you think told me? It was Featherfall herself!”

At this point the group got silenced. The only person to socialize with Cle and Featherfall is Fallow. While they weren’t too close they could still be considered decent friends. They all wanted to refute Fallow’s words but in the end they could only stare down Rak with gazes ranging from pensive to outright anger.

Fallow felt the rushing feeling of victory wash over her. She let out a brilliant smile and took a good look at Rak, feeling that he was really cute at the moment. She wanted to go over and give him a little hug and pinch his cheeks, what a good boy, letting her win like this.

“Cle and Featherfall are here.”

Having already met and discussed things Cle just nodded at Rak and then proceeded to register the group. Everyone in the group got the same message.

Cle Velio has invited you to join the Bazaar Tower’s first floor

Accept | Decline

After accepting Rak got no more notifications but his logs showed that the group rose to the ten. In the system settings it is possible to display some of the team’s information more elegantly but currently Rak can only rely on the logs.

When Cle requested to enter the first floor the group immediately vanished from sight. Rak had already seen a few people vanish like this but experiencing it himself was a whole different thing. He felt no disorentiation but it was like blinking and seeing mountains when previously the ocean was in front of you. He hadn’t felt any sense of movement at all.

The logs updated, saying the instance is set to ten people difficulty. The highest the instance goes to is in the hundred thousands. But more people doesn’t mean the fights are easier, and in some ways it can make things more difficult.

“Abstinence, You stay behind Gothe and Vilter. Using your shields try to relieve some stress from the range attacks, they should be able to deal with any close combat targets themselves.”

“Got it.”

Outside of telling Rak what to do, Cle just waved her hands in a unique way. The team immediately began walking towards the enemies. The fight is very straightforward and there is no tension in the group. Only Rak is feeling tense.

Range projectiles began shooting over once about thirty meters away from the enemy. Rak’s eyes squint a bit before his shields begin shooting out. The group acts as if Rak’s defenses aren’t there and prepare to defend themselves from the hail. Only three people began their own counter attack. Featherfall being one of them and her attacks already cutting into the enemies when the first mossy stone projectile arrives.

As the projectiles come in, some slip past Rak ́s shields. Just as expected he couldn’t be depended on. Seeing this causes Rak to burn with embarrassment. Quickly he summons three more shields and employees a new tactic he read up on. His shields become entirely stationary and only shoot forward with regular intervals. With this tactic he can have more shields and they won’t drain his energy reserves as fast.

Rak’s eight shields manage to block the second volley. Maybe due to his three additional shields or the team’s range attacks having already caused some chaos within the enemy camp. The enemies are small humanoid vine creatures. They throw stones and pointed sticks with great accuracy. Their number is at fifty, ten for each member of the team.

Some of the vine creatures have large bark like hands and defend against the ranged attacks but they still receive some damage and sometimes an attack slips by, directly killing or severely injuring a vine humanoid.

These vine’s strong suit is flexibility and recovery. Any injured vine creature slithers to the back and can fully heal in two minutes or less. An inexperienced group of people fighting these vine creatures might make the mistake of not finishing of crippled vines, causing a vicious cycle of recycled vine humanoids.

When the third volley arrives Rak still manages to guard against all the projectiles, making him feel exceptionally accomplished. The mercenary group is surprised but they don’t put down their guard. One or two more volleys and they’ll be in close range. The mid ranged attacker has already began showing his prowess causing even more chaos and injured vines slither in a wave to the back, healing in the meanwhile.

When the last volley comes through, Rak’s tactic shows its weakness, three projectiles get through. Fortunately the team never put their guard down and easily defended themselves. Rak felt confused, there were less projectiles but he still let some through.

Rak’s passive shield strategy has a great weakness in close range, while it can still be used it requires the people being defended to make use of it, rather than the shield user to proactively make judgments and move the shield to defend.

The mercenary group doesn ́t depend on Manipulator shields and every one of the mercenary members have their own means to dodge, block or parry the projectiles. It can be said they are more offensive oriented rather than defensive.

Since the beginning of the fight until now, no one in the group has said a word. This was never a fight to them, and could barely fit as a warm up. Once the group gets in close range, Rak ́s shields lose their value entirely, seeing this he lets them dissipate. The stones fall to the ground, they still useful but being cheap enough that he doesn’t bother picking them up.

Almost without any suspense the stronger close combat fighters swerve past the larger defense oriented vine humanoids and start a massacre. Rak attempts to attack with his projectiles but even if they hit the vine humanoid is swiftly killed by one of the mercenary team members.

Rak felt incredibly inadequate at this moment, he felt he needed a lot more experience. With these thoughts the group vanished again and were all prompted with an alert, this alert can be ignored and it’ll fade into the logs.

Bazaar tower’s first floor has been cleared.

Grade: 10

“All vendor items unlocked.”

Experience: 150

Reward: 1 silver coins and 50 copper coins

As expected of a three start group they had no issue dragging along a newbie and still receive a perfect grade. The grade is calculated by energy expenditure, time, damage taken, damage deflected, blocked or prevented. Not all floor challenges have the same grading scale, some might only grade by damage taken or purely on time.

When the group appeared they are just outside a large bazaar. This large bazaar can be considered another challenge inside the Bazaar tower but also the reward. With its large size it can be an issue to just inspect the various items for sale. Not to mention the items sold can routinely change even something short like five minutes might cause an item to vanish or another item to be added.

“Here we will split up, we can assign a person to you. Otherwise we’ll meet back here in twenty four hours.”

Within this bazaar are hotels and it is even possible to talk resident vendors to let you stay in their place for the night. It is possible to stay up to three days in the first bazaar level. It is not unusual for experts to directly challenge level two after defeating level one and even challenging the third level challenge after that.

Rak has request a day in the Bazaar. Mainly to familiarize himself with the vendors. Even after reading plenty of information on the bazaar’s, experiencing them yourself is a different thing.

“Got it. I’ll be fine on my own.”

Cle just nodded casually and her team of nine left together with a clear purpose. They have their own tricks to gain small benefits from every level.

“It really does seem like a flea market.”

Rak has already begun walking around the Bazaar, casually glancing at items sometimes reading their descriptions or hearing the vendor’s promises.

The vendors can be honest or dishonest. They can promise that their items can regrow an arm or help you sprout third arm. Most of the time the vendors won’t tell you anything. Knowing this Rak who is only here for almost tourist like reasons only smiles and nods at the various hollering of these bazaar vendors.

“It really is difficult to gauge what is valuable. I doubt Merchants or Traders have a better time without proper research.”

Rak isn’t incorrect, most people arriving in the Bazaar are left to the elements. An experienced Bazaar goer might have advantage but a random Merchant won’t have much to rely one. There are ways to glean some information on items but these methods are all from variants of jobs, some of which are variants of Traders and Merchants.

After waddling about for an hour Rak begins casually buying consumable items and noting down where he bought them and how much they cost. After spending three gold coins he finally finds a small ‘mansion’ and rents it out for the day for next to nothing. With it comes two servants who provide food and other services, even morally questionable activities are included.

“It is expensive but it is possible to test for negative effects of consumable items with these paper puppets.”

One popular product around the Bazaar tower district are small hand sized puppets crafted from a sensitive wood and then further enhanced with an overlay of two formations. The puppets themselves have almost no other use other than detecting malignant elements in low tier products and limited scouting.

These puppets cannot be used on high grade products and are not too reliable when it comes to mid grade consumables. In the case of high grade products, they will provide a false negative as they cannot take the consumable high energy, no matter if they are negative or positive. Mid grade can provide false negative for items that are not harmful but if they give positive results the item can be safely consumed.

In front of Rak are tens of these puppets, they all lay lifeless on the ground. The main problem is that Rak has bought over fifty consumable items and their documentation has already reached twenty pages. The paper puppets themselves can be destroyed after consuming one or two consumables even if they are not harmful, making reusability an issue but they are still worth using in case they provide a positive result.

Rak picks up a small puppet, numbers it zero and then slowly takes out a consumable item, a small finger sized misformed ball. The vendor called it finger bone medicine. The effects are supposed to strengthen the tips of a person’s finger, giving them the ability to train in strange fighting methods.

“Alright experiment number zero, finger medicine.”

After infusing the small puppet with his energy it slowly uses its small paper limbs to stand up, with Rak’s thoughts guiding it, it begins walking unstably towards small finger bone medicine. After arriving next to it, it opens its mouth and takes out a bite that is one twentieth of the medicine.

“Even if it eats this bit, the medicine is still intact.”

Most medicine, especially low grade medicine, can still be used even after being shattered into dust. Some of its effects might be lowered but not to an unsatisfying degree.

Before a moment passes the small puppet lets out the smallest of yelps, almost like a small wind blowing through and the edges of its paper limbs explodes in a small puff. Both of its two ‘hands’ exploded but the puppet survived.

“So this medicine can’t be taken casually? Either way I'll mark it as dangerous.”

All consumables can be used to provide a benefit, but those that are considered malignant, volatile or poisonous are ones that require a mediator item to use. In the case of the finger bone medicine, a type of fish organs can be used to take it safely and even boosts the medicine’s effects. A strong person with ability to temporarily enhance their bones can take it without any issues.

As the test went on Rak couldn’t help but frown. Only one consumable was registered as safe so far while twenty two were all considered dangerous. If Rak had a better puppet that can guarantee results with mid grade consumables he’d find that at least one eighth is safe for consumption. As for high grade medicine, that is even more expensive to test.

“It seems too hard to gain any profits from this sort of business. It is more like gambling than anything else.”

Tapping his finger on a table Rak fell into thought. The original plan was to find a few items, after determining they are safe, he would directly consume them and buy them in bulk. He would then resell them for a high price.

One of the issues with Rak’s testing is that he has no idea what grade the consumables are. They can all be considered tier one or below. Within those tiers are low, mid and high grades.

Testing low grade materials is still passable but even that takes some effort. If Rak spends one gold to test fifty materials and only two or three return as safe, then they can be consumed to test their effects. If the effects are passable and the product is cheap, it is possible to buy out the vendor’s supply and resell for profit.

The issue comes from the value of the consumable and it’s supply. Buying a thousand finger bone medicine and selling them with a profit of one silver or less for each piece might not cover the initial testing costs.

Currently Rak efforts are a failure. His expenditure will be next to impossible to recoup at this point. This sort of failure can be prevented by researching various medicines and crafted items, which would be the goal of an organization, not something a single person can do. Such organization will prevent large losses and over time establish a reliable trade.

“It’s easy to understand why this Strange zone isn’t as popular as the others.”

Not only do people have to fight a challenge that is a life and death challenge. Some of this cost is time to recuperate, some of it the cost of removing the death ailment. There is also the morale part of it, the psychological pressure from the pain. It is not something addicting. Lastly there is reputation that can be lost, which often more valuable than coins.

“Three out of fifty. Can it be these consumables are medium grade or high grade? Medium grade paper puppets cost sixty silver each and high tier one and a half gold.”

Rak hadn’t bought any medium grade paper puppets due to their excessive price, he had assumed that low grade were enough to deal with the first level of the Bazaar tower. Reality is often more cruel than expected. They are expensive not due to their lowe supply and high demand but the materials used. Unfortunately the materials used are also used elsewhere and that’s were the supply issue comes from.

“I still found three safe consumables.”

It might seem unlucky but it can only be considered just below average to find three out of fifty using low tier paper puppets as a method to check their viability. Some of the more reckless people will directly consume items after ‘deducing’ that they are safe to eat.

On the first level it can be somewhat viable strategy to randomly consume consumables, there is still a chance that the item might be deadly or render the user a cripple for a duration. The worst case would be to end up in a state where they can’t even seek a doctor for help, forcing them to slowly die of agonizing starvation.

“Three consumables and I’m already over five gold spent.”

Majority of the cost comes from the paper puppets, they aren’t like small alchemists stones that are mass produced by novice’s. The Paper puppets are still considered ‘easy’ to make but it requires a certain type of wood. This wood needs to be refined into a malleable state before a handicraft profession with dextrous hand abilities forms the paper template.

The paper template is given to formationist of any kind and two simple formations are overlaid on the paper, one to give it rudimentary motor skills and second to filter energy from consumable items. In fact, mid grade paper puppets are just a notch better filter formations. The materials are of course the expensive part.

When the formation is being crafted a low grade puppet has very low chance of failure so its cost is low, a medium grade has some chance to fail and this carves into the product costs, not to mention it waste the formationists time. Lastly high grade has a high chance of failure and that can only be mitigated by using superior materials which in turn increases the cost even further, rather then lowering it.

“These three are all sold by different vendors.”

Almost all materials sold by vendors in the first level are cheap but they still range from low to high grade. This is exactly like the paper puppets. They are still in the same tier but the materials or methods used to create the items vary in quality. A novice potion crafter might craft ten potions and by chance one of them would be medium grade or even high grade, but they themselves might not know.

It is due to these sorts of things that crafters often take time to learn analyzing methods and there is even a job specifically aimed at analyzing both raw materials and crafted items. This sort of job is similar to scholarly pursuits like formationist, it requires a large amount of studying to become proficient. The warrior trains and the scholar reads.

“Depending on how much supply these have I should be able to recoup my losses but my profits will probably be low.”

Rak finally grabs one of the three safe consumable items. This one is called Tone pill and is a small square tablet that resembles a small biscuit. The taste is dry and the texture like a crumbling old piece of paper, it makes Rak frown in displeasure.

“Can’t they at least add some flavour to this?”

Immediately upon swallowing Rak is prompted with an alert, similar to the one he received upon completing the first floor’s challenge.

You have gained rudimentary auditory defence.

Your Hearing increased slightly.

Sound related attacks have less effect on you.

Eating one piece already shows the items effects and Rak dutifully writes them down and proceeds to eating the next consumable item. This item is in a small tube thinner than a pencil and looks rather shady. Similar alert pops up when Rak consumes it. The item is called Minor power and like the Tone pill has no further description.

Your Strength increased slightly.

Rak isn’t surprised by the two items effects as this is in line with what he has read about some low tier consumables. And even if these only provide small benefits there is still a possibility that large or cumulative doses can create greater benefits. Perhaps eating many Tone pills can grant the user a special hearing ability, maybe the Minor power tonic can grant the person a short term strengthening ability, these things aren’t too uncommon.

The last item on the menu is transparent pill with liquid inside of it. Both the liquid and the pill’s shell seem to be completely clear. This pill is called Small water pill. As with the other items it has no other descriptors.

Your Fatigue has been slightly replenished.

Your Clarity has increased slightly.

Your Clarity has been slightly replenished.

This last pill has definite market value. Anything related to fatigue is valued highly by many crafting professions and even some jobs like fishermen, hunters and the like require it to maintain themselves for long periods. As for clarity, it is obviously valuable but underrated.

Even though the Small water pill doesn’t permanently increase a person’s fatigue and only repenishes it, it can be a life saving tonic if used in dire situations. People can be out of energy or lacking clarity but low levels of fatigue are more troublesome to recover. This becomes more relevant the more people delve into Strange zones and into the Endless mountain range.

In some cases people will need to prepare large amount of fatigue replenishing items just to explore an area. Fatigue is already an issue for some people, and delving into wild Strange zones, the fatigue drain can catch people off guard. Without proper fatigue foundations, some places cannot be explored. They might become a person who sleeps twenty hours and be awake for four, making them vulnerable to endless dangerous situations.

“Best I can do is buy up these three potions, I’ll probably still suffer a loss but I can recoup some of the losses.”