When Ikky arrived at Charles' shop, Josh was already there.
"You're late man," Josh said.
"Late? Isn't it noon? Don't tell me you've been here since morning?" asked Ikky.
"Um, he said morning… and I couldn't sleep from the excitement," Josh said, looking everywhere but his friend.
"Oh, Hello." Charles entered the store through the doors in the back, holding a book in hand. He then walked over to Josh and handed him the book.
"What did you choose?" Ikky asked curiously.
"Hundred-slashes strike, that's an insanely powerful skill. I could probably kill the bandit leader by myself with this skill, Mu-hah-ah," Josh laughed.
Ikky raised an eyebrow and looked at Charles questioningly.
Charles understood and began to explain, "It's one of my rare skills. It's a Chain skill, so when you land a hit, you can connect with another hit and so on. The attack speed of this skill is around 5.0, -".
"Five attacks per second?!" Ikky cut him off in disbelief.
"Yes, but the attacks only do about 45% of your total damage. The real rarity of this skill is its university. You can use it either as a single target skill or even as an area damage attack." Charles finished his explanation.
"See, amazing isn't it? Maybe you should pray to me like I'm a god now." Josh said with his nose up to the sky.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Dragoner," Ikky said jokingly, pulling out two items from his inventory and handing them to Josh.
When Josh saw the sword and skill book he was momentarily dumbfounded.
"Take it, it's your reward for helping me and Charles," Ikky said.
"Oh? Isn't it Berserker Rage? That's very rare passive." Charles said when he saw the skill book.
"Thank you, Thank you." Josh was almost crying from happiness. He was becoming a god of the game. That's what he thought.
"So we should pick a skill for you now," Charles said and continued.
"What skills do you have? Don't keep anything hidden so I can help you to find the best skill that you currently lack.".
"Well-" Ikky paused for a second to order his thoughts.
"I have a few passives like crit chance, and a way to find target weak spots, I also regenerate some mana when I hit a target, but my active skills take that mana from me pretty quickly. Lastly, I have a passive capable of a combination of different traits to create a new skill, but the cooldown is extremely long," Ikky said and continued.
"For example, my active skill Guided arrow is a skill I got from this passive, it improves the arrows to always follow the target. I also have a Mana Arrow that creates an arrow from mana. Additionally, I have Poison arrow and Mana rapture, which allows me to use skills without mana for a short period. Finally, I have the three skills I bought from you." Ikky finished and saw both Charles and Josh with their eyes and mouths wide open. There was a moment of silence, the moment became second, and the seconds became minutes.
"*Cough* I'm sorry, I didn't expect someone of your level to have so many skills already," said Charles
"..mg...akl.., more passives..than.... active skills,...mot...r..er..," Josh started, muttering something under his nose. Ikky paid him no attention and looked back at Charles.
"Okay, I think I have a tip or two. Follow me," he said walking towards the back door of the store. Both Ikky and Josh followed him, one silent and the other still mumbling.
---
Behind the doors, there were stairs leading downstairs. When they arrived at the button there were oversized steel doors. Charles opened them with a key.
A small room with a bookshelf was found behind the doors.
"Those are most rare skill books we have, the ones upstairs are just for common people, except for some that are placed there for a (show). However, here we have things that you would not find easily." Charles said when he walked toward one of the shelves.
"This should do." he picked up a book and handed it to Ikky.
'Elemental enhancement?' Ikky read the book's name and raised his eyebrow.
"This skill is something that can give elemental effect to any of the magic attacks. Since you have Mana arrow, which is an arrow made from magic, you should be able to use the Elemental enhancement on the skill." Charles explained.
"Elemental effect? Like a fire?" Ikky asked in curiosity.
"Earth, Fire, Water, Air." nodded Charles.
"Hmmm, I like it, I will take it." Ikky gave him big smile.
"Great, as for the second skill, to be honest, I'm not sure which one to give you. I feel like you would need additional skills to keep your distance from the target, such as a Shadow blink, or maybe some Defensive skill like a barrier, what do you think?" Charles asked.
"Maybe I can select one skill and buy another one from you?" Ikky asked.
"Yes but,...since I'm no longer desperate for money, all of the prices have returned to normal. The cheapest skill back in the shop now is for 3 golds." Charles said with a stone face, the face of a real merchant.
"3 gol-..., just to be sure, what is the price of this book?" Ikky raised a hand with the
"We do not sell those books, only auction them. If I remember, the last time we sold this one was for about 480 golds?" Charles said without any emotion.
'W-WHAT? 500golds?! That's ... a lot of dollars!' Ikkys brain almost stopped.
"I- I think I will keep the second ticket for now, can I do it?" he asked.
"Yes, you can visit any of Blackwell shops and use it anytime you want. However, I recommend looking for me first, some sellers in our shops don't have access to those rooms," Charles spread his hands as an example of what kind of room he was talking about.
"By the way, do you know something about this book?" Ikky took out his book
"...?!!!" Charles didn't even say anything and he snatched the book out of Ikkys hand.
Josh and Ikky looked at each other dumbfounded as Charles listed through the book.
"T-This is...Wh-Where did you get this?" they could hear his voice shaking.
"I found it in bandit's possession," said Ikky.
"Impossible! How could such trash have a relic?!" cursed Charles.
This was the first time Ikky heard him drop his 'noble' act.
Charles sighed deeply, mainly to calm himself. "I apologize," he said while handing the book back to Ikky.
"No problem, but...could you explain what this book is about?" Ikky asked with hope in his voice.
"Sigh, to tell you the truth. I don't know either. I can only recognize that this book is a 'relic', but sealed by strong magic." Charles explained.
"A relic? What is it? Do you know somebody who can unseal it?" Ikky asked and looked at the book curiously.
"No, I could try myself, but it would take me several days to even unseal the top layer of the spell. And we plan to go back to our home in Reld city soon." Charles shook his head.
"I can leave it with you and you can hand it over to me when I visit Reld city. I have a letter to deliver there after all," said Ikky.
"Are you sure? The relic is a really expensive thing, even with a seal it could easily sell for a hundred thousand golds."
Ikkys mind blacked out. The light left his eyes and he looked like dead fish.
"...yes, I trust you," Ikky said after an eternity and handed him the book.
"Okay, I'll try not to disappoint you."
Once they finished their business with him, Charles saw them off from the shop.
Ikky and Josh just left the door when four guards stepped in front of them.
"Could you please follow us?" one of them looked at Ikky.
"Is there any problem?" Ikky asked in surprise.
"Town mayor would like to talk to you," he answered.
Those guards didn't look like they were joking, there was no other way to reject them.
"Alright, lead the way please," he said in worry.
---
The mayor's manor was like a fortified fortress. It was big but also nice looking. When they entered several maids turned their way and bowed for new guests, afterwards they continued with their own business.
Two guards stayed behind Josh and led him to the guest room, while the two remaining led Ikky to the upper floor where the mayor's office was.
Ikky entered the mayor's office and was welcomed by the sight of two knights.
-Level: ??? (???)
Ikky was stunned by the fact that he couldn't see Knight's levels or rank.
"Please have a seat," said the mayor pointing at the chair in front of the table. Ikky sat down on the chair, which was right in between two standing knights.
"You might be wondering why I called you here," asked the mayor right after Ikky sat down.
"It's because one of the gate guards reported an individual with a bloody aura entering the town. Do you think you could explain it?" he asked.
Ikky was shocked, not sure about what bloody aura was mayor talking about.
"I-I don't think I understand, Sir. I only killed some bandits." Ikky hardly explained what happened.
"Hmm,...do you have any proof to back the story you just said? he asked.
"No Sir I don..," then he remembered he still didn't sell the bandit headband. "Actually yes I do," Ikky said and took out the Bandit's headband.
When the mayor saw the Bandit headband he was lost for words. He clearly remembered the bandit wearing this headband.
"Wh-Where did you get this?!" he asked with some emotions in his voice and the knights subconsciously moved their hands to the hilt.
"As I said, I killed a bandit wearing it," Ikky repeated.
Mayor stared at his face for a few seconds then he sighed out a heavy breath.
"I see, let me ask you one thing. Do you know Captain Xarus?" he finally asked.
*******
A/N: Due to some personal reasons, I could not write any of the new chapter for a week. If everything goes well I might return to writing this weekend. I will try to release next chapter on this Friday. With science apologies..