After our fatal boss fight, we left the Tower to resupply.
We had collected a bunch of monster skins, meats, and essence gems.
The monster skins couldn't sell for much, even less because of our 'outcast' status, but the meat could be made into jerky and the essence gems were something no one could barter on.
Essence gems were a power source that the government would buy at a flat rate for each grade.
Our gems were grade zero and one.
Grades went from zero to seven. Zero being the lowest and seven being the highest.
Grades measured how much mana a gem could absorb in a given amount of time.
Grades were also applied to a monster's ability to destroy things. For example a grade zero monster caused a little amount of destruction while a grade seven's sneeze was an atom bomb.
After selling what we didn't need, we went through the arduous task of bartering with a prejudiced shopkeeper.
As they were struggling to get a price that wasn't the entirety of our combined life's savings, Nymph finally broke and said something that caused the shopkeeper to pause.
"I can't believe we beat the first floor boss just to have this man try and gouge our profits from it." She sighed dramatically.
The shopkeeper glanced at her suspiciously. "And where's your evidence?"
Nick pulled out the sword that had dropped. He could change it's size at will, which was useful especially against larger enemies.
"This dropped." Nick said.
"That's too small to be a- Oh." The shopkeeper stopped talking when the sword abruptly grew to two meters in length.
After that, he offered us fair prices.
Getting ourselves spatial pouches was something none of us thought would be possible.
While they weren't exactly expensive, we really couldn't scrounge together enough money until now.
Now, each of us had a spatial pouch hanging on our waists. It felt good to feel like I had something nice.
"We still look like beggars, don't we?" Nymph said, glancing down at her torn and filthy T-shirt and jeans.
The rest of us glanced down too.
"Maybe we should get several sets." Jacob suggested. "Because I know for a fact that my clothing is going to get trashed."
They headed for a clothing store specifically dedicated to adventurer clothing.
We couldn't afford monster cloth things yet, so we settled for normal clothing.
Jacob saw an outfit he liked and bought seven sets of the exact same outfit.
Nymph bought seven of the same outfit as Jacob, but each was a different colour.
I bought four outfits, one was designed for stealth, one for casual wear, and two back-ups.
Nick bought a leather jacket that was studded with metal in addition to his four outfits.
We were easily able to pay for the clothing after we had proved we finished the first floor.
It was so satisfying, to me, to see the attitudes of those who had scorned us rapidly change into grudging respect.
Well, some people.
"What are you doing hanging with those people, Jacob?" Someone wearing a Puritist robe asked.
"It's called 'Friendship' and seeing as you're always alone, I'd say you're friendless." This was incredibly out of character for Jacob. Normally, he'd be polite to anyone, but I guess since they were insulting us, his friends, he adopted a different attitude.
Hearing Jacob stand up for us was gratifying.
The Puritist looked ready to fight, so I patted Jacob's shoulder and led him away, along with the rest of our small group.
"You do realize that not everyone's attitude is going to change, right?" I asked him.
"I know, it just makes me inexplicably angry to see abuse that would normally go to me head for my friends." He said, slightly depressed.
"At least monsters don't judge." Nymph broke in.
"What do you mean?" Jacob asked.
"They don't disciminate against people." She said. "They hate everyone equally."
We all looked at her.
"What?" She asked. "That was a joke. Come on! It was funny!"
"Let's head to the second floor." I suggested, changing the topic. "Let's see if we can prepare for the next boss as well."