Though 6 hadn't checked the missions yet, and didn't even know if there were more to pick from or if the alchemical madman mission was already complete, he was already planning on what he would need in order to do the mission.
"Pull up the missions for me please, Trivrium."
[The World Of The Wandering Forest]
[The Alchemical Madman]
[Rapids Of Gallows]
Once again, there were three available, though 6 was only interested in one.
The new one, [Rapids of Gallows], was some planet having an issue with a river in one of their large cities that had caused many deaths.
Ignoring it, 6 confirmed that the alchemy planet was still among his options, which was all he needed to know.
First visiting the shopping district, 6 took a look at the skills Trivrium had for sale, looking to see if there were any he could use.
Aside from the ones he saw last time he visited, there was a much wider selection at hand, likely because he now had a good amount of money to spend.
Unfortunately, most of them were general use skills, and none of them were attack skills that were used with daggers. The only tempting one was a kicking skill, [Brazen Kick].
It was basically a kick that massively increased the strength output compared to your actual kicking strength, but the downside was that you had to loudly announce your attack and make it clear that you were about to kick them harder than you normally could.
Were it not for that downside, 6 may have chosen to buy the skill, as it was well within his budget.
But 6's ego wouldn't allow him to use [Brazen Kick] without being at least a little bit embarrassed.
The equipment she was selling definitely interested him, but 6 wanted to explore all of his options before using up any of his small fortune.
Before looking at anything else, 6 finally decided to do something he had put off before going on his first adventure to the spider's egg.
At the appraisal store, 6 found out that all item appraisals cost exactly 5000 points, no matter what the item is.
With only roughly 1000 points, getting his knife appraised was entirely off the table, unless his bell sold for much more than he was anticipating.
As he expected, selling his bell was nowhere near enough, though it did sell for more than he expected. Trivrium bought it off of him for 2000 points, enough for him to be satisfied with his compensation.
[Trivrium only sells items that Trivrium considers worth very little. You will not find much of worth in her stores.]
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Not like I can really pin my hopes elsewhere, can I?" 6 said in response to Trivrium's words.
[Most adventurers conduct trades amongst themselves rather than selling to Trivrium or waiting for an auction. Trivrium will act as a guarantor for these trades.]
"Great. Now I just gotta know people to trade with, which is far from my strong suit. Very helpful."
Heading back to finish out his shopping, as he had given up on appraising his knife until finishing his next mission at the very least, he purchased just two things.
Firstly, after the 2000 points from selling Ting-Ting, new skills were available in the shop, which allowed him to snag a useful skill.
[Quick Strike]
[Type: Active Skill]
[Quality: Basic]
[Effect: When used, your next attack will always deal as much damage as a full strength attack. Has a 30 second cooldown between uses.]
[Requirements: A short sword or dagger]
[Description: Great for attacking at an awkward angle or to catch your opponent off guard, but doesn't actually give you any strength benefits.]
Though the skill couldn't help him break through something's defense if it was too tough for him, it could help him in many other situations. He could strike with his quickest attack that would normally have nearly no real power behind the blow, yet still get the same results as his best attack.
He also went ahead and brought [Basic Protection of Trivrium], the body armor he had been intrigued with previously.
It 25% of its total defense to the entire body of whoever was wearing it, which was a large upgrade for 6. Overall, it was still less effective than the blessing that Trivrium had previously granted him during his mission, but it was better than nothing.
After the two purchases, 6 was left with a paltry 600 points, not enough to buy any good equipment to take with him, and he didn't feel like buying any low level stuff that he would just end up discarding after a single mission.
Interestingly, while he stuck around outside of the shopping facility, loitering while he eavesdropped on the conversations of the people entering and exiting the area in groups, 6 heard several interesting things, which he took note of.
During this time, Nameless, the kid who was supposed to act as 6's tour guide when he first arrived on the planet, happened to pass by, but he didn't give any indication of wanting to speak with him.
Nameless walked in an entire semi circle around the place 6 was sitting down, totally detouring his place upon the concrete floor, without so much as a glance in his direction.
To 6, it was clear that the kid noticed him, otherwise he wouldn't have walked around his place as he did, but 6 didn't mind. In fact, it worked out better for him, as he was waiting for some fool to ask him about why he was sitting in the middle of where everyone was walking, and Nameless would already know how full of shit he was.
Aside from spotting Nameless, the interesting things he heard were about Trivrium. He did glean a conversation about something called awakening, but though it sounded awesome, he had no clue what it was and if it even pertained to himself, so he set it aside for the time being.
Trivrium seemed to have taken part in several mid to large scale battles by way of sending adventurers, involving multiple other Domus planets. It wasn't clear what the cause of these battles were from the conversations, but there were Domus planets on both sides of the conflict.
This meant the war wasn't just Trivrium vs. something, but a larger war, much bigger than 6 had initially anticipated.
Which was...good. It meant less personal risk for Trivrium, and it meant the war was more likely to last long enough for 6 to get strong enough to consider taking part in it.
Wars were always the best time to make a profit, and that was true even on 6's own boring homeworld. It went doubly true in a place like this, where the wars would wage on an entirely different scale than 6 had ever known.
It was far beyond 6's level, and something he couldn't consider getting involved with anytime soon.
Currently, the only thing 6 could consider worrying about was his next mission.
The alchemical madman mission took place on an abandoned vassal planet of another Domus planet, one that Trivrium had friendly relations with.
Compared to the unknown mystery nature of the spider egg/nest that 6 had to investigate on his last mission, this mission was much more cut and dry. It was cut into two separate parts.
Firstly, the actual mad alchemist himself. He was long dead, decades ago, but very little had been found out about the man after the point in time where he went mad. The mission was to investigate his laboratories, find out what caused him to go mad, and find out as much as possible about the things he did in his madness.
The second part of the mission involved the mad alchemist's assistant, an aspiring scholar with a bright future who was tortured by the madman in various ways, which would go onto to cause the young man's death.
Aside from those two objectives, there was one additional thing that whoever accepted the mission would be tasked with.
They were to investigate, record, and uncover any and all mysteries they ran into, to the fullest extent of their capabilities. This covered just about anything that one could consider a mystery, or even anything that could be an interesting story.
The reason behind this odd request, as well as the odd mission in general, as the mission itself had nothing to do with investigating the means by which the alchemist destroyed the worlds soul, and only seemed to care about the details surrounding it, was because this mission wasn't issued by Trivrium, or even any Domus planet at all.
A powerful, wealthy individual by the name of Palon caught wind of what happened on the planet, and was very interested in what they heard. They commissioned the mission through every Domus planet that would accept the request, and offered an above average pay for a mission of this level as incentive to get as many adventurers as possible to accept the mission, so long as they recorded and shared every detail of what they heard on the planet with them.
Notably, the pay wasn't based upon the mission in general, but by what exactly the adventurers could tell them at the end of their investigation. The more details shared, the higher the pay, and if you could tell them something that caught their attention, they would even reward you with something very valuable, or so the mission details stated.