The manager, clearly overwhelmed, took a slow, calming breath. “If you truly wish to purchase 20 condominium units... Maybe we can find some flexibility with our price points. I will have to speak with our head office. May I get back to you on that?”

Eric flashed his best smile. “Absolutely! In the mean time, if you could point us to the shops, we have a few friends who would love to see if the life of a mage is in their future.”

Which the manager did, and in very short order Eric had found himself holding a still sleepy Ria, with a plush jacket over his armor that he never had to worry about overheating or freezing because his aketon was infused with the essence of room temperature comfort. And in truth, he found that he quite enjoyed holding the quiet little girl who seemed quite taken with him, always flashing the sweetest smile with hair that smelled somehow strangely delightful and soothing in the way that only the heads of babies and small children could.

Of course Rica’s hawk-like gaze was always on him, and Eric was pleased to see her happily smiling with approval at his attempts to be a good carrier of the precious cargo, even as Rica and Nelly continued to gush and coo over the prizes they had found.

“Rica, check out these wands!” said a positively gleeful Nelly, springing on her tiptoes in her excitement. For all that she was dressed in sturdy rawhide armaments with pilum and shield at the ready, she still seemed every inch the excited tourist, Morgan grimacing almost apologetically at the proprietress, an elegant, ageless looking elf with the flawless features, gently pointed ears, and ice-blue skin that seemed common amongst most who called Blue Corp their patron employer.

Rica gave her friend a supportive nod as Nelly positively gushed over the selection of Adept quality Basic Wands, as they were categorized, capable of launching streams of superheated plasma, spears of ice, or arcs of lightning. Each exquisitely crafted wand was truly a work of art, Eric thought, far better carved and constructed with an attention to detail beyond any movie prop, all of them in their own felt-line boxes.

Yet save for a few moments spent admiring the displays, Eric kept hawk-like gaze focused primarily on the environment outside. Because as much as he savored the peaceful day, with almost no crowd at all, compared to the busy pace of the Goblinoid areas of Freetown. Yet what adventurers there were all radiated serious potency, though most of them weren’t paying Eric and his friends any mind, either enjoying a relaxing meal at one of the sparsely filled high-end restaurants, or browsing items much like Rica and Nelly were.

Of course any number of wide-eyed lower level adventurers, many still Conscripts, and mortals did too, but they seemed content just to ogle for a few minutes or hours before shaking their head and wandering back to the parts of the city they could afford.

And Eric wanted to cry inside at opportunities lost, and already knew who to blame.

The wand store was just one example. Even before the irate gnome had kicked them out, Eric had inferred with a glance that his wands went in price from 15 to 50 Silver, the few he had seen on display.

Whereas the proprietress's wands here were never less than 3 gold.

Sleek, deadly-looking tools that even his Novice Arcane Perception could sense a harmonious resonance from. He had no doubt that these were exceptional, high end wands.

High end wands that cast what even the proprieteress admitted were the most basic spells, marked up between 6 and 20 times what that gnome had charged.

No wonder the shop was empty, save for them.

Eric caught the proprietress's gaze, deciding to be direct. “The wands are lovely. Even I can sense that.”

She beamed. “Thank you, sir!”

“But they are, in some cases, almost 20 times what the gnomes in Freetown charge. Can you tell me what makes your wands better?” He said the last in a gentle tone, sensing her tension and frustration with a truth she probably knew all too well.

To her credit, she answered with a smile. “An excellent question sir! It all boils down to quality and stability. Sometimes one can find interesting treasures from the pair of gnomes who exotic wands and regalia at their shops… prizes recovered from delves and rifts. The issue comes from the nature of those exotic prizes, all of them possessing magic constructed on arcane principles that do not entirely mesh with our own. They might, or might not, be stable long term in this reality, assuming an adventurer even chooses to bond with the artifact before a season passes. This is one reason why those exotic finds are sometimes cheap. They need an owner willing to link a bit of their potency, or perhaps you would call it experience points, to secure those purchases. And they need those new owners quickly. Only then will they properly resonate and work in this world for the lifetime of the adventurer who soul-bonds with them, as opposed to, say, fading away like a dream or exploding catastrophically, after further dips into closely adjoining pocket dimensions. Even so, it is still a risk to waste your coin and potency on such a purchase, as the more exotic and powerful artifacts are unlikely to work in any delve, save the one in which it was claimed. In fact, they might not even work on the surface of this world, usable only in the rift in which they were discovered, making some of Linus’s most prized wands very specialized instrument indeed.”

She nodded at her own wands. “Whereas the wands in this exclusive shop rely only on proscribed magical theory and have none of those issues. Of course, to be fair, Linus does sell any number of low end basic wands made by certified Apprentices that don’t need to be bound to an individual owner to assure they’ll remain stable in this reality, or any of the adjoining realities the local rifts connect to. Their construction is simplistic, however, covering only the most basic enchantments, and the failure for those wands is still around 5%. Admittedly, this may not seem like much… until your life is on the line.”

She then pattered her own sleek and deadly-looking wand of cobalt blue, ebony, and jade secured to a wand holster at her hip. “My treasures, on the other hand, are all made by actual Adepts. Not only are they all guaranteed never to fail, they’re a full 30 percent more potent and 30% more efficient than Apprentice-made wands. Further, they have the possibility to last for centuries, perhaps even millennia, with proper care.”

Her smile broadened as her voice grew animated. “Indeed, if you were to evolve your class to the point of being able to soul-bind choice artifacts, far beyond what just stabilizing unorthodox and highly unstable treasures entails, let me assure you, then these wands alone would be well worth expending a bit of your essence in fusing to your soul for all time! Because when you’ve evolved your Artificer class to the point that your tools are but an extension of yourself, why settle for anything less than the best?

Nelly all but squealed with glee. “Ooh this is so exciting!” She looked close to tears, her smile was so bright. “Eric, Rica, I can feel it! From the wands, I mean. I can feel the energy like a warm tingle, emanating from them!”

The proprietress flashed Nelly a genuine smile. “I am truly pleased to hear it, child. That means that, in all likelihood, you would be a good candidate to pursue the Artificer’s path.”

Nelly sighed, pouting her rosebud lips. “If only I hadn’t already reached level 9, throwing javelins just to survive! Who knows what my potential would be, if I could have boosted my mana pool?”

The elf before her flashed an almost motherly smile. “The important thing is that you’re alive, child, and if you don’t mind my saying so, you look to be a healthy and fit specimen. Light on your feet, and likely to survive where many a stumbling, over-specialized apprentice mage would be sobbing with exhaustion after jogging their first mile, or tripping on broken terrain and nearly getting their party killed with their first delve. Far better the well-rounded mage who is light on her feet and knows how to move in rough terrain and use her shield, whether her other arm is casting javelins or lightning bolts.”

Nelly gazed at the proprietress archly. “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

This earned a smile “I am.”

Nelly swallowed thickly. “Oh.”

The elf winked. “Somehow, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to have you coming to my shop many years after more specialized mages, who blossom so richly when everything goes their way, suddenly stop coming altogether, when their final perfectly planned delve goes anything but according to plan.”

Nelly winced. “Ouch. Okay, um… yeah. This really isn’t a game. At all. Is it.”

The elf gave a sad shake of her head. “It isn’t, I’m afraid. But there truly is no pleasure greater than learning to shape and savor the arcane arts to your bidding, while shaping your body to fit your dreams.”

Nelly nodded enthusiastically, making a cute impression of a bodybuilder as she posed… only for her muscles to actually pop, very much defined. “I know. It’s just so awesome having the body of an athlete, with muscles that would have had any of the varsity girls drooling with envy!” She sighed sadly, shaking her head. “If only the cost hadn’t been so high.”

Rica furrowed her brow, gazing intently at the gently smiling elf. “I take it you’re speaking from considerable experience?”

The proprietress turned to Rica, solemnly nodding, her jewel-like orbs never leaving Rica’s soft brown gaze. “That is correct, child.”

“But you retired. You stopped, at some point. Joined Blue Corp… and you’re now running this store.”

“True.”

Rica swallowed. “How did you know when it was time to stop?”

She smiled, gazing at Ria with a mother’s fondness. “When I became pregnant with my firstborn. That was when I knew it was time for me to retire.”

Rica flushed. “I… I don’t exactly have that option.”

“I know,” the elf said gently. “Believe me. I do understand. Your world’s recent… evolution puts you all in a unique position. There will never be a better time to level up, as you put it, and push yourself just as far as you can. As you are natives, your souls have a natural sympathetic resonance to all the Potency that this world is now releasing.”

“So you’re saying we get more experience points for killing enemies than we otherwise would?”

The elf nodded. “In a word, yes. That is precisely what I mean. Your world is also surrendering its bounty, bit by bit, in other ways, for those with the wit to claim it.”

The pointed look she gave Eric chilled him to the quick. Did she understand his hidden gift?

Alarm bells began ringing inside his head.

But all the elf did was smile. “Just look at the fascinating essence tattoos marking your mate’s skin, bold and brazen for the entire world to marvel. The Essence of Flame so clearly writ upon his features. Wearing armor torn from monstrous beasts that belong in realms of Nightmare, infused with the power of his own blood, and essence as well. A glorious mix of essence and native magics that our orthodox arts are still struggling to incorporate.”

She gave a surprisingly sultry chuckle. “No wonder Linus was terrified of him entering his shop. The poor man’s most treasured prizes, more dream than real, and in desperate need of boring buyers without a single exceptional unorthodox power for his tools to safely bind to… they could have been altered and warped, just by his presence.”

Eric furrowed his brow. “But how can that be? I mean… I adventured with another band before, and we seized an ice wand. It was no problem at all to give it to our dedicated spell-caster, who herself is so infused with blood magic that your head would spin.”

The elf blinked at this, before dipping her head. “I take it your adventuring companion claimed this wand while still in Regio?”

“If you mean while we were still in the underrealm, before we made it to the surface? Yes.” He chuckled softly. “Actually, we lived entirely underground. I only hit the surface recently.”

“That would explain it,” the elf said. “The wand is stable in the environment it originated in, forged in Regio, a figment of its own dream, it’s own creation. And while you and your companions lived there, you too were a part of that dream. Until, with an act of will, you pull yourselves into the living realm once more, consolidating your gains and whatever potency you claimed from the rifts between worlds.”

Eric nodded solemnly, deciding that now was not the time to correct the proprietress and explain that actually it was a prize that had very much seen the surface before, owned by a 30th level Artificer who proved firsthand that all the arcane power in the world didn’t mean squat when you were climaxing under the touch of your Sub while your Sub’s assassin friend just unleashed an essence infused Fire arrow cracking forth faster than the speed of sound to tear through your heart.

A grim thought that had Eric spin his head around while still holding Ria protectively against his soft downy vest. But he spotted no one looking his way, save a single adventurer blinking curiously at him.

Eric slowly nodded. The man nodded back, then turned around back to his own shopping. And maybe Eric had sensed… something, for a fraction of a second. Before sensing as well that him holding a child had put Eric in the father and family man camp, instantly shattering whatever preconception the other adventurer might have had of Eric.

Eric swallowed and turned back around, suddenly certain that even if the goblins hadn’t put the word out, he was still a person of interest to at least a few.

Which meant that he had to move quickly, if he was going to set his plans in motion before it was too late.