"Hurry up, Cain! If we don't leave now, we'll be caught up in the uproar." Veronica pleads, dragging Cain outside the guild.
"Ok ok, calm down--" Veronica glares back at him before he could finish his sentence. 'Yikes, shouldn't have said that…'
"Everyone else is at the bakery, c'mon let's hurry over there." Veronica leads Cain into the bakery, a few buildings on the right, across the street. As they enter the building, a fresh scent of bread floods Cain's nose. 'I can almost taste it from here…' He thought as Veronica dragged him to the table everyone was sitting at.
"The lovebirds are back!" Victoria greets the two as they sit down. Veronica immediately lets go of Cain's hand, her face tinted red.
"How did it go?" Jacob asked while ordering a basket of bread for both of them. Veronica fills the group in on what happened, her mouth stuffed with bread half of the time.
"Yikes, you're unlucky meeting Diana off the bat." Jared says, holding back fits of laughter. Veronica notices how she was telling the story and offers Cain a piece of bread, hoping he didn't pay attention.
"Is she really that bad?" He replies, taking the loaf. 'Hush loaf? Noice.'
"Maybe not for you, but her reputation is well known." Jacob answers Cain, pulling out a small notebook. "You can use your spirits during the duel though, so you should be fine. Anyways, let's go over what quests we can take, now that Cain will be joining our party. Any suggestions?"
"Oh! Let's finally take that A-rank one to explore those ruins! Now that we have Cain, we can do much more dangerous quests!" Jared excitedly suggests.
"I object. I don't mind helping you guys with this quest, and any other quest, but I won't be playing a major part unless necessary. I will heal you and repair whatever armor or weapons that need to be repaired while we are in a village or camping out.
"However, once we encounter monsters or enter the ruins, I'll only intervene if there is absolutely no chance of winning or if someone is on the verge of death. At this point, I'll save them, then pull them off to the side behind me. They will be treated as "dead" until the fight is over. If everyone is saved by me, then I'll teleport us to the nearest village or safe area or simply finish off the enemies depending on the situation.
"It would be best if you didn't rely on me too much or else none of you will improve. That said, I will still help you guys train or answer any questions you may have. Lastly, try not to be too reckless..." The group listens intently as Cain sets down some ground rules.
"You say that as if you will be leaving soon…" Veronica says, dispirited.
"Not in the near future, but eventually. I will also be taking some quests by myself from time to time." Cain installs a magic circle on the back of each of their hands. It combines the technique of thought transmission with a sliver of Bob's power to relay the transmission.
"If you pour some mana into that magic circle, you can contact me directly, no matter where I am or even what dimension I am in." They stare intently at the magic circle as it slowly fades into their skin.
"Does anyone else have any objections?" Jacob asks after inspecting the new magic circle. "Alright then, we will investigate those ruins two days after Cain's duel."
Victoria stands up abruptly after the conclusion has been stated. "Let's go shopping now! We need to replace our torn clothes." The boys' faces sour immediately.
"Veronica, Victoria, could you two take Dresil to go get some new clothes? I still have some things to talk to Jared and Jacob about. You can put all of your expenses on my tab. If anyone asks, say the dean of the adventurer's guild will guarantee I'll pay it off."
'Using the Mana Zone, I noticed he looked through my files earlier and was planning something. I'll consider using his name as a down payment then complete the task later. Hopefully it's fun...'
Dresil slowly emerges from Cain's clothes. Jared's eyes almost pop out of his head in surprise once this new babe appears in loosely covered leaves. Veronica throws a loaf of bread at his face and invites Dresil into her clothes for the time being.
Dresil reluctantly merges with Veronica's leather and rough clothes. She restlessly stirs before unmerging and walking back over to Cain. Cain sighs as he explains. "She must have gotten too used to my soft clothes. Here, Veronica, put this on so Dresil can go inside of it." Cain forms a loose sweatshirt out of mana and hands it to Veronica. Dresil merges into the hoodie happily once Veronica puts it on.
"Dang, this is almost softer than silk!" She exclaims, unable to hold back her joy from touching the soft fabric. Cain hands her his adventurer card while saying, "Yep, it's Dresil's favorite fabric. Don't tell anyone where you got it from. If they ask, just say Dresil was holding onto it when you picked her up."
---Dms: Cain and Dresil--- (100ms)
Dresil: Master, I'm not a lost dog…
--------------------------
'At times, I beg to differ.' Cain thinks to himself silently as the girls leave. Jared and Jacob let our hefty sighs of relief.
"If we went with them, I'm afraid we wouldn't go back to our inn until sunset… Not to mention our funds can barely support it." Jacob informs Cain while grabbing the last piece of bread.
"Tell me about it… I had to carry most of their stuff too. I felt like I was going to die if I even dropped one bag… It's hell man…" Jared slumps in his chair, remembering those hard times.
"I believe ya. It's true that I need your help with some stuff though." As Cain finishes his sentences, Jacob readies his notepad.
"I need to rent a room at an inn, go visit a blacksmith, hopefully the best one around here, and buy a decent weapon; preferably something that will last me a decade." Cain leaned in, looking around his surroundings to see if anyone was listening (of course this was an act since he could just use the Mana Zone).
"And most importantly… " feeling the seriousness of this question that's about to be asked, Jared and Jacob leaned forward as well. "Does Maddison have a boyfriend?" 'Crap… do they understand the term "boyfriend?" Welp, too late…'
Jared sighs and leans back. "It's not that she doesn't have a boyfriend, but the son of the head of the Shadowtrap family is one-sidedly pursuing her. Oh right, Shadowtrap is one of the three families along with Tri'laze and Rapidclaw. They are known for using dirty tricks and their young master, Hunter, is extremely petty.
"Once, a store owner accidentally bumped into him and he used the family resources to shut down his shop. To make matters worse, his father spoils him, so anyone who harms him will be punished severely.
"Rumor has it that a powerful force is backing them, giving them the confidence to do these things. That force is really secretive though, not even the family head knows his face." Cain stares at Jared in surprise. 'Where did this info come from..?'
"Anything gossip worthy is known by Jared…" Jacob looks at him as if he was trying to silently scold him.
"It's not like I have a choice! My master just gets in these moods sometimes where she rants constantly…"
Cain leans back, letting a frustrated sigh escape his chest. 'Ugh… I can't believe I've already come across someone petty already. It hasn't even been a week yet… Meh, I'll modify the tag I put on him to begin tagging everyone he meets. Once I can use the tags to read minds, I'll add a clause to read their identities and sort them out later.
'I'll need a plan to draw out this mysterious force in case I need to eradicate the Shadowtrap family. It will only serve as a precaution and be put into action if their actions show they won't leave me alone.'
As Cain begins making changes to the tags already distributed, Jacob looks through his notes. "Jared, should we take Cain to that place? He might have a chance, seeing how powerful he is."
"True… We should do it." Jared replies, checking his coin purse. "We need money though…"
"Are your funds really that tight?" Cain asks while gesturing to the waiter for another basket of bread.
"Unfortunately, yes… We earn a decent amount of silvers from every quest we do, but between meals, repairs, renting an inn, carriage rentals, and other miscellaneous costs, we're left with half a silver to a silver. I used up most of our savings on buying new armor though…" Jacob looks through his notepad that holds calculations in a neat, feminine handstyle.
'Dang… Maybe I should give them some money to help out. They do seem pretty trustworthy, they've repeatedly helped me out with my experiments, and they're helping Dresil get some clothes to blend in…
'Meh, that's a problem for later. If I get money, I'll send some of it to them.' The bowl of bread arrives just as Cain finishes his thoughts. "What was this place you wanted to bring me to?"
"It's a weapons shop that sells legendary weapons with spirits inside of them. These weapons choose their owners and used to be piled up in the castle's treasury collecting dust until the previous king enacted a new order.
"After distributing some of the best weapons among a select few of the Royal Guards, he established this shop to improve the adventurer's fighting power and bring in a new source of funds for the capital. Future invasions had less casualties due to this change and it has been maintained since.
"The price of the weapon depends on their grade which is derived from their rank and selectability, or how picky they are in choosing their owner. Selectability is based on how many people previously wielded the weapon compared to the amount of people who attempted to wield it. High selectability means more people can wield it and therefore it costs more.
"Obviously the higher the rank, the higher its power. They are ranked similar to adventurers; this reflects the lowest rank of adventurer the weapon can be fully used by. If you bring a weapon into the shop, you can also sell it.
"The shop is managed by the Rapidclaw family and protected by several hired mercs equivalent to A-rank adventurers, therefore most people don't dare to steal from there." Jacob reads off his notepad, flipping through the pages. Meanwhile, Cain devours the bowl of bread before Jacob is finished.
'The actual power levels may differ slightly on the grounds that mercenaries are more accustomed to fighting humans than adventurers...' "Sounds fun, let's go there first." Cain replies, looking down at his pocket watch.
'It should be around dinner time once we are done with everything and settle down at an inn. I'll probably just rent at whatever inn they are renting in to keep things simple.
'I'll do some investigations and experiments into these two spirits' abilities and look at the map Dresil made earlier for a suitable place to test physical enhancement with 10 million mana then.'
Jacob gestures a waitress over to pay for the food with hints of anguish when he hands her some of the last coins that remained in his storage ring. Once the tab has been paid, the boys rise in silence, mourning the loss of funds. On the way to the exit, Cain pulls up the group chat.
---Group Chat: Cain, Bob, and Rex--- (500ms)
Cain: Rex, Bob. After I have dinner and get settled in at an inn, I'll have quite a few questions for you. Make sure you have a few hours available then. We'll also set some ground rules.
Bob: *sends image*
Rex: *sends meme*
'These two… I'm not annoyed since they each gave me a thumbs up… but when did Rex look through my collection of memes? More importantly… how many of the 10,000+ has he seen..? He should be studying…'