Chapter 23: New House, New Gear?

With lunch over the party head back out of the manor, asking their guide to let them explore the town prior to heading over to their guild home. Taking the walk back into town in a more relaxed mindset then the one they had on the way over to the manor the group talk amongst themselves about what gear they want to try and buy to add to their merchant guild purchases. Overhearing their individual suggestions the house staff recommends two or three places to each member on where to look for the highest quality gear, they also add that they will wait at the adventurer’s guild for them to return from their shopping to lead them to their house. Once they arrive in the town square and receive some hastily written directions to each shop they might be interested in the house staff disappears off in the direction of the adventurer’s guild and the rest of the party split into smaller groups that have similar purchasing objectives. With Arano and Ami heading off one way, Suieol and Lekly in another, both Ilev and Aromi both head in their own separate directions leaving Lexa to head out on her own looking for accessories or gear that will help her mana consumption or reduce the negative effects of the void energy released by the voids themselves and her own spells. After a quick journey away from the town square she arrives at the first place the house staff recommended to her, a small jeweller’s shop, little known except by high ranked mages but a place that supposedly has the best quality rings and pendants for mana control and reducing debuff effects. Lexa pushes open the door and hovers inside, the interior of the shop is filled with display cabinets with all sorts of magical items stored within them each advertising a different effect. As Lexa looks through the assortment of accessories the owner appears from the back of the shop and greets Lexa, asking her if she is looking for anything in particular. Lexa then describes what it is she’s after which is a pair of items, on to limit the amount of mana used on a spell without reducing its potency and another to ward off the effects of void energy, the old man who runs the shop goes into a deep thought and beckons Lexa to follow him into the back of the shop which is revealed to be the workshop the old man creates all of the accessories within. Taking a seat on one side of the lone workbench, the old man starts to ask Lexa more in-depth questions about what she wants from these accessories.

“So young mage, what are you truly after when coming to me for accessories?”
“I was looking to get a ring that would limit the amount of mana that I put into my spells without reducing their power, as I don’t seem to be all that good at gauging how much is too much. And as one of only two magic users in my party and currently the only one that can use multiple spells, it would be nice to have a limiter so that I can use more spells when in combat without having to worry about mana exhaustion. I have magic from all four schools of Nature and then some from the Void element after an accident while on a quest. And the other item I was unsure about what it should be but I would like it to reduce the effect using my own void magic and the energy the void emanates has on my body so that I can enter the voids alongside the rest of my party so I can continue to help them. Are either of those things possible?”
“They are indeed but neither are cheap, but looking at you. You match the description of the new S-Rank mage I’ve caught rumour of, so I don’t think money is a problem for you any longer. The ring is the suitable choice for mana control you must have done homework there, and for reducing the effects of the void. Well, that must be a pendant of sorts so it can hold a large crystal without looking too unseemly. Before I get to work my I measure your neck and ring finger you want to use for the ring.”
“Well I was wondering if you could use the measurement of the 2nd toe on my right foot for the ring.”
“Ah, that is alright. I can only assume you have another item you are wishing to get later on for your hands. Very well, a toe ring and pendant it will be for you young mage.”

After saying that and getting the measurements he needs the old man turns away from Lexa and begins to scrawl things on a piece of paper before grabbing materials scattered across the workshop, before starting work in earnest he tells Lexa to return at sunset to pay and collect her items. Lexa then leaves the shop and makes her way to the next place on her list a clothes shop specialising in mage wear, here she purchases a cloak to go over the half shirt and shorts given to her by Evie that will boost her power when casting from her wind spells as well as a pair of gloves that give her a bonus to water spells. Her final stop was a scroll shop as she wanted to broaden her current range of spells with more mid-tier spells in both wind and water as her plant and earth spells are powerful enough as they are now but if a spell of those elements caught her eye, she’d purchase that one as well. After a while she settled on a set of spells that would allow her to summon tornados and blades of air in the wind category, for water she picked up a spell that allowed her to summon balls of boiling water as well as one that let her create a blade of ice, she even picked up a plant spell that let her summon some familiars and an earth spell that caused a localised earthquake. As she left the scroll shop the sun had started to set and so she went back to check on the old man, getting to his shop once again she headed inside and found him waiting at the counter inside the shop. He then presented her with the items she had asked for, after thanking and paying him Lexa equipped her new items and headed for the adventurer’s guild to meet with the others. Upon reaching the guild she saw the others all waiting on her, Aromi with his face in a book and scrolls nearly falling out of his back, Ami and Arano with some new clothes and armour that looked like it was woven inside of it, Lekly and Suieol also had new clothes as well as some tools for goodness knows what and finally Ilev has bought a new staff as well as some other miscellaneous items that would no doubt be helpful. With everyone now back together the house staff guided the group to their new home within this world, entering the house the person from the lord’s manor gave the party the locations of all of the rooms before taking their leave closing the front door behind them. The party immediately headed for where the bedrooms were each person claiming one as their own and then entering and putting their gear away inside before gathering once more to eat what was their second proper meal in this world before heading to sleep for the night.