For students, unlike for miners, weekends were two days. It was something I’d briefly brought up in the ethics class, only to be told off. Students, apparently, needed the time to complete their assignments, and course material wouldn’t stick if everyone was too tired. To hear Warram’s take on things, miners, on the other hand, had no reason not to work like good little mindless automata.

Morality aside, that meant that I tended to have one day a week where I focused solely on magic, and another day where I tried to rest or socialize. Today was the latter, and I’d failed to set anything up with Alara or Emin, leaving me to my own devices for the day.

I considered vegetating, or maybe even abandoning my rest day to get in some extra magic practice, but discarded both ideas. I was feeling a bit antsy, the kind of restlessness which lent itself best to getting out of the house. Sadly, however, none of my usual haunts (well, usual haunt, really) were calling out to me.

There’s still some districts I haven’t even set foot in, right? I’d been here for a fair while now, but my track record for exploration was pretty poor.

What’s left? Adventurers’ District? At least for the outer city that was all I had left. If I was going to visit, though, I figured I might as well wait until Alara was free. It felt silly to explore when I had such a good tour guide who I was sure would be excited to show me around.

Inner city then? I’d been to the Magic District for my lessons. Ever so briefly, I’d touched down in the Noble District for the ball. That leaves the Artisan, Peace, and Divinity Districts.

Peace, I had little desire to ever visit, no matter how long I stayed in Sylum. Divinity could be interesting, possibly. On the flip side, I wanted to stay as far away from the whole “gods” thing as I could. I’d already been roped into enough deific nonsense to last a lifetime, and with my luck, I’d get burdened with some grand quest the moment I stepped into a temple.

So… Artisan?

I shrugged. Might as well?

For no good reason, walking through the grand gates into the inner city still made me nervous. No one stopped me or anything, but it was that daunting sensation of being under scrutiny that set my nerves aflare. It hardly helped that I could very literally feel whenever people stared at me, courtesy of the first Perception threshold.

Once I was well within the district, however, all those thoughts were shoved to the back as the sights impressed themselves upon me.

First and foremost, the roads here were paved with what appeared to be steel, a similar but distinct style from the copper-plated roads in the Magic District. Why, I couldn’t say, but the effect was striking nonetheless.

The buildings had their own distinctive style as well, eschewing the animated earth and wood of the commons as well as the rough gray stone of the Knowledge District. The dominant style seemed to be small bricks, lightly glossy as if some cousin of glass. For whatever reason, though, the bricks were rarely if ever rectangular. Trapezoidal seemed to be the norm, although I spotted a few triangular brick buildings, and even one with perfectly square bricks too.

I wasn’t sure if any of that was great for building load bearing walls, but then again, magic. Also, none of the buildings appeared to be higher than two or rarely three stories, so I imagined it was less of a concern on that front as well.

On top of that, much more in line with the stores I was familiar with back on Earth, the Artisan District seemed to be the first district I’d seen to make extensive use of glass, with large windows being the norm.

Unlike in its outer-city sibling, the district didn’t have much going on outdoors. No stalls or street markets. Whatever shopping was going on was evidently happening inside the various stores, with patrons flitting about from door to door. Rather notably, said patrons were of a visibly wealthier sort than those I’d seen in the Wealth District. I imagined a fair deal of them were coming in from the nearby Noble District.

All in all, though, I hadn’t come just to gawk and do an impromptu architectural study. The point of the district, after all, was to shop, so shop I would.

Anything I need?

Armor and weapons were largely out, with Suds having taken on the role of outfitting me “in style.” Rings, trinkets and accessories were fair game, though. As someone who dabbled in jewelry making and woodcarving, I was also curious to what the real deal looked like, too.

Thus decided, I ventured out.

After meandering past a few tiny gardens and one plaza with a giant and somewhat ostentatious fountain, I stumbled upon my quarry — a storefront with glossy, rose-colored bricks bearing the name Gemma’s. A few rings and pendants were propped up behind the display window, and I shot one with God’s Eye.

Socialite’s Band

A ring that grabs the eye. Wear it to any event, and you’re sure to grab a wealth of compliments and questions. Better yet, the enchantments on the ring will help you handle your newfound attention with ease.

+3 Charisma

+1 to all Social skills*

+4 to Conversation

*(only applies to skills Rare or below)

Unable to help myself, I let out an “oop” as my brows shot up.

Back in Ftheran, I crafted a Rare, named item with mana-infused material, and it just gave one stat point, plus an extra point to Drinking and Bartending. This, on the other hand, was on an entirely different level.

A small placard lay beneath it, the description fairly similar to what my skill had given me. One piece of information that my skill hadn’t given me, however, was the price. I read the figure, feeling as my brows — already lifted high — attempted to escape my forehead.

That’s… a lot.

Definitely more than I had on me. Not that I had a great sense of exactly how much most things cost here, but I’d been to bars, cafes, and the Wealth District’s market. All data points pointed to the price being, well, high.

“Okay. Maybe this is more of a window shopping trip.”

Unless I have anything to sell? I doubted my little wooden rings would fetch much of a price anywhere around here, but I thought back to Ftheran where I’d sold some of the rarer materials I’d gathered. Don’t I have a few things that might be exciting?

It wasn’t exactly a gem, per se, but I still had some of the mana-infused obsidian from Slippy. Past that, I had a good stash of darkwood in my pouch for whenever I wanted to practice carving.

Emboldened by my mana-rich materials, but knowing there was a chance I’d be laughed out of the store, I decided to venture into Gemma’s. Were it not for the visible glow and soft hum of the mana coming off from the jewelry, for a moment, I could have believed it was a store back on Earth. A curly-haired woman stood behind a counter in the back, her entire figure covered in rings and bracelets and necklaces that likely added up to several fortunes.

“Welcome to Gemma’s. Self eponymous, if you were wondering. Just browsing, or looking for something in particular?” She surreptitiously gave me a once over, her eyes drinking in various bracelets and necklaces I wore. Barring the shower gem pendant, I imagined she found them wanting.

“Mostly browsing. Although, this may be a bit weird, but I came across a material in a dungeon, and I was wondering if a jeweler might be interested in it?” I imagined if Gemma had been looking to make a big sale, she was sighing within. To her credit, however, even with my Perception, I couldn’t see her smile falter even a smidgen.

“Well, I’d be happy to take a look, at the very least.” She beckoned me forward, and I took the opportunity to pull out some of the mana-infused obsidian.

Far from scoffing at the stone, Gemma attempted to still her face, failing to hide the interest which flashed across it. “Mmmm. I’ll admit, when you said it was from a dungeon, I thought you meant our dungeon. Can’t say I tend to have the pleasure of working with anything infused with dark mana. Unpleasantly hard to come by, wouldn’t you know. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a touch of life mana in there too. A lovely find.”

While she seemed taken in by the stone, she did her best to appear disinterested as she handed it back to me. “I’m afraid it’s fairly scuffed, though. Indicative of a low Mining level.”

Whoops.

“But if you were to sell me just this… I might be interested at around-”

My mind short-circuited for a second, and I had to rely on God’s Mind to replay the woman’s words. She misplaced a zero, right? There was no way materials from a first floor dungeon boss were worth that much, was there?

Misinterpreting my shock, Gemma pressed on. “Of course, I’m open to negotiation. Especially if you have more, and especially if you’d be willing to sign an exclusivity contract. I dare say there are a few designs I’ve had rolling around in my head that this would work nicely for.”

I was stunned enough to almost reflexively activate my Cleansing Shower Gem Pendant, only holding off at the last second. The only thing I cursed at was that the obsidian had come from a hidden boss. I doubted I’d be getting my hands on much more.

Some tiny voice in the back of my head told me to leave and think on it before committing to anything. For all I knew, another shop would pay even more, and I had the vague sense that you were never supposed to accept the first offer. With all that in mind, I mumbled out some sort of “I’ll think about it” and stumbled out of the shop.

I wonder how much the wood’s worth?

Only one way to find out, I supposed.

As it turned out, the answer was also a lot. Less of a lot, admittedly, but still a lot. I’d sold some life mana-infused wood back in Ftheran, but apparently dark mana fetched a much higher price. Something about life, earth, and water dungeons and mana being incredibly common, but darkness being one of the rarer basic mana types.

Not having any particular need for fast cash, I decided to sleep on it before flat out selling everything. Maybe ask Suds and Markus for second opinions.

With that settled, I mostly just wandered. A bit more window shopping reaffirmed that, yes, the best artisans in a major city were a lot better than I was, and their prices were absurd, although it gave me something to look forward to. How long would it take before I could make things like that if I really put my mind to it?

It was somewhat shamefully, then, that I stumbled upon my next stop. Were I a bit more thoughtful, I would have sought it out myself, but at least on seeing the building, it jogged my memory.

A large sign outside proclaimed the building’s function for all to see: Sylum Architectural Guild. As one might expect, the building would have stood out with or without the sign: While striking in a number of ways, it boasted vertical, almost comically thin bricks that gave the entire structure the illusion of being woven out of stone.

Good place to ask about blueprints, probably. I’m sure Tuk wouldn’t mind if I brought back something good, and if I find anything fun, everyone else will appreciate it too. Something for Emer’Thalis besides a bar and a bathhouse might be nice, after all.

On walking in, a bored man behind a counter greeted me. Unlike most other stores, there weren’t any obvious wares lying about, but the reason for that soon became clear when the man asked me if I was a guild member or here to register to join.

After clearing up what I was there for, however, I was happy to discover they did have blueprints I could browse. He ushered me to a small side room filled with schematics lining the walls. The entire room, blueprints included, was somewhat drab, although I managed to peer through a doorway on the far side of the room which seemed to lead somewhere slightly nicer.

“You’re free to look at anything back here. Let me know if you have any questions.”

Taking his permission to heart, I started reading through one of the plaques beneath a random blueprint. I was surprised that the guild would have the actual blueprints just lying around, considering that they seemed fairly copyable, but my concern was answered the moment I started reading.

Simple Storefront Blueprint (Display Copy)

This is a display version of the Simple Storefront Blueprint. This schematic is unusable and following it will not yield a system-recognized building.

The Simple Storefront plan results in a building with bonuses to shopkeeper Charisma and Trade, as well as bonuses to customer relaxation and mood. Bonuses are dependent on construction quality. See sample values below…

I read through some of the table before moving to the very bottom of the plaque where some costs were listed. One price for hiring the guild to build it. Another for buying a personal copy of the blueprint.

For the second time today, I nearly choked as I read the price. It was ruinous.

And that was just for a common blueprint! I moved into the next room, finding that it was filled with Uncommon schematics. After reading one of the prices, I decided that for my heart’s sake, I wouldn’t move onto the Rare designs.

“There’s no chance you do trades, is there?” I was fairly certain that building blueprints didn’t magically disappear after one use, which meant Tuk was still holding onto the Stone Bathhouse schematics. Maybe they’d let me do a little swap?

The clerk raised a brow and shrugged. “I mean. I just run the desk. I think there’s someone in right now who could answer that though, if you wanted to have a meeting.”

“You know where these buildings are? Do you have a recall stone there? Can you take us now? I have an hour or two free now. Could just take a look at teleport back here, pronto. And you said the buildings are Rare? Would love to see them. I’m sure we can work something out. Especially if you still have the blueprints.”

What the clerk had failed to mention was that the “someone” who was currently in was not some random guild member. Instead, I was now sitting in front of a frighteningly over-animated man bedecked in flowing golden robes. While he hadn’t actually told me what his position was in the guild, it was apparently vital enough that God’s Mind had.

Guildmaster Laurant: Level 23 Archetypal Architect, 600/600hp

How did a little request to trade a blueprint get bumped up to a guildmaster?

“It’s, uh, a little complicated? I should be able to bring in the blueprints for the bathhouse, but the bar was a special case. I think it upgraded into being Rare because we were working with a dryad, and-”

That was apparently worth another barrage of comments and questions, each slammed into the back of the previous so quickly that there were a dozen questions aimed my way by the time I could get a word in.

“I don’t think I can bring you there, no. It’s, uh… Let’s say it’s not open to the public right now?” Letting people know that I was a settlement owner wasn’t technically something I couldn’t do. My big secret, after all, was the whole Protagonist thing. Still, it felt like one of those things I wanted to keep on the down low if I could help it. It would raise too many questions.

The guildmaster bobbed his head up and down as if that made perfect sense to him. “Of course, of course. Tell you what.” A gemstone suddenly appeared in his hand, which he thrust my way without any warning. “Activate this next time you give this settlement a visit. You’re free to get it checked out. It doesn’t record location or let me know more than you want me to. It’ll just set up a little call between you and me, and also let me see what you see so I can tell what we’re working with.”

I hesitantly accepted, not sure if it was worth the risk. At the very least, I was surprised he was giving me the gem so easily — I had to imagine it was pretty pricey considering it wasn’t more widely used. So far, no one had tried to exchange gem-numbers with me, or any other magical cell-phone equivalent, so long range communication devices like this must have been on the rarer side.

“And just to be clear, if we’re working with some good buildings here, or those schematics of yours are new and valuable to us, then we can offer you some very favorable terms. You could walk away with multiple blueprints of ours if all goes well.”

That caught my attention. I was sure there were plenty of things the city could use, and Tuk had to be getting antsy without any fancy new blueprints to work on.

At the very least, it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a dialogue. If I used the gem, the blueprints were worthless, and nothing ended up coming from it, then all I’d lost was some time.

“All right,” I agreed. “Let’s see where this goes then.”

I stuffed the gem away in my spatial pouch and excused myself, deciding to call an end to my trip into the Artisan District. Still, I was glad I’d taken it. While I’d yet to buy or sell anything, I now had a lead on making some cash, and some potential blueprints to grab as well.

I found myself looking more and more forward to heading back now, eager to share the good news with Tuk.