Meeting back up with Wild Wind Marcus asked, "Did you find anything good."
Bryce looked up and smiled at Marcus before saying, "We sure did, there is a steel level request to wipe out a family of chuuls that have taken over a section of the first level where people often mine luminescent crystals. Since chuuls are one of the strongest monsters on the first level of the Ocean Bluff Temple we normally would avoid this kind of request, but since you are with us, we figured we could handle it. We also picked out a generic magic core collection job for fifty grade two or higher cores."
"Uh, I know that magic cores have a deeper color of green the stronger the monster or beast but how do you tell the exact grade."
"Ah, well once we get in the dungeon, I will help you figure that out, but for the most part any creature level ten or over is going to have a grade two core or higher. Now why don't you pick out a few iron level jobs, and we can get registered."
Searching through the iron rank missions Marcus found three that caught his eye. The first was a mission to collect ten pounds of scarlet carp roe, the second was for the bodies of five colossal shrimp, and the third to clear out a nests of dire bats that were polluting the dungeon's ecosystem.
'These look interesting and all of them pay out pretty well.'
Having selected the requests, they were going to do, Marcus and Wild Wind headed back to the over worked receptionist and waited in line for their turn to be served. When Wild Wind and Marcus applied for their chosen requests, the receptionist looked a little surprised to see the group of people submit so many difficult requests. However, they were not breaking any rules, so she quickly registered them and sent them on their way. Before leaving though Bryce spoke up and said to Marcus.
"Okay, now that we have the jobs, we are going to need to gather up some supplies. Irene, you chose the request for scarlet carp roe so you will need a reinforced fishing rod and harpoon to complete that. We also will need two days to repair Bo's shield since it recently got damaged. So, let us meet up again here after two days and we can make our trek into the dungeon."
Heading their separate ways Marcus, quickly found lodging at a nearby inn and paid sixty copper to stay there for two days.
…
Waking up the next day Marcus headed out intent on finding a few things that would be helpful for his upcoming missions.
'The first thing I need to do is find the fishing rod and harpoon necessary for catching the scarlet carp and then I think I should try to find a magic shop and expand my repertoire of spells.'
Looking around Marcus quickly found a fishing shop that sold rods that were reinforced to withstand the power of monster fish and a large harpoon specially crafted for piercing the scales of scarlet carp.
'Okay I spent around a gold for these, no wonder no one was taking those requests even though their pay was thirty silver, the startup cost is too hefty for most iron and bronze adventures. I already took the request though and since I already bought the rod and harpoon, I can always do more scarlet carp roe collecting missions. Now let me locate a magic shop and hope they have some cool spells for me.'
Searching around for a magic shop Marcus had to travel deep into the interior of Loursend before he came across a large four-story tall build called Lewalt's Vault of Magic. Walking inside Marcus immediately could tell that this shop was different from the last one he had gone to. Finding dozens of people looking around and numerous items for sale Marcus was nearly overwhelmed by the some of the things he saw.
'Wands, staffs, hundreds of alchemical items I have never seen, and there is even a flying carpet behind a glass case over there. Shit two thousand gold, who do they think is going to be able to afford that for a flying rug. These wands all have basic spells stored in them like fire shot and the staffs apparently help increase the power of spells and lower the cost of mana. But damn is everything in hear expensive, just the basic fire shot wand cost two gold and they even eventually run out of charges. I only have around seventeen gold left hopefully I can purchase a few good spells at least.'
Finding an employee sitting behind a counter Marcus asked, "Do you sell any fire, lightning or iron magic spells."
The employee looking up from her book seemed disinterested and responded saying, "Yeah we have spells of fire and lightning magic for sale, but we do not have any for iron since that is a relatively rare type of magic."
"Could I see the spells of fire and lightning magic you have for sale then."
"I guess but just so you know I can only sell you spells up to tier two unless you have a license from the city."
"That is fine."
The woman then got up and leisurely grabbed a few scrolls before coming back and placing them in front of Marcus.
Looking over the scrolls Marcus found that most of them were fire magic spells and three of them were spells he already had. After looking them all over Marcus picked out three spells, he thought would be useful. He picked out the tier one fire magic spell searing weapon which coated a weapon in fire and another tier one fire spell heat resistance. The third spell Marcus decided to get was the one he was happiest about, the tier two lightning magic spell lightning strider which boosted the casters speed by coating their legs in electricity.
"For the two tier one spells it will be three gold each and the tier two spell will cost eight gold bringing your total to fourteen gold."
Looking at his wallet with a bit of reflectance, Marcus eventually pulled out the fourteen gold and handed it to the employee. With a now bright smile since she would receive a commission from this sale the employee thanked Marcus and told him to come back if he was ever in any need of magic spells or items.
'Whew, that certainly hurt the old pocketbook, but there is no use in having money if you do not spend it on things you need. Now, let me read these spells, store their formations, and test them out.'
Finding a quite alley Marcus memorized the chants and formations and tested out each of the spells. He first tried heat resistance and found that his body suddenly felt cooled off and when he hit himself with a fire shot it did almost no damage. Next, he tried out searing weapon on his scythe and watched as the metal on the blade became red hot before bursting into flames. Giving it a few practice swings, Marcus felt quite satisfied with his new ability. Finally, he cast lightning strider the spell he had the highest hopes for. After casting the spell Marcus could immediately feel his body tingling, and he found that his speed had increased by around twenty percent.
'That should do it, as I thought lightning strider is the best spell of the lot and when I combine it with speed burst, I can reach truly terrifying speeds. I may even be able to outrun a cheetah if I use them both in conjunction. Now there are a few miscellaneous things I need to get like food rations and a tent and then I will be ready for exploring the dungeon once more.'
Finding some general stores Marcus purchased a relatively cheap secondhand tent and some dried food rations when he heard a large commotion coming from the direction of the adventures guild.
'It sounds like a festival is starting over there, I wonder what is going on, if there was some important event, I think I would have heard about it at least in passing.'
Curious about what all of the clamor was Marcus made his way over towards the guild hall hoping to find out what was the cause of the excitement.