"What are you doing here?" the half-elf asked.
Immediately after seeing Sage, Kaylee adopted a hostile pose. She even swapped out her knife for her bow, drawing its string to the limit in her direction.
In response to this Sage lifted her hands to show that she was not attempting anything.
"I just came to say hi," she said calmly.
"What do you want?" Kaylee asked.
Her tone was hostile. Cleary the half-elf still had something against her.
"Nothing," Sage replied. "I just wanted to see where you live. Now that I have I'll be going now."
With that she turned around and hopped out of the window, but not before witnessing Kaylee's dumbstruck expression.
Sage truly did not have any ulterior motives other than to greet her. After all, the two of them were bonded now so it was okay pass through from time to time. Also, she needed a place to get out of Nyx's {Void Space} without attracting attention. Since she was bonded to Kaylee, she had surmised it was fine to leave the Space in front of her.
The idea to rest in the {Void Space} came to her after seeing the cat put away the old man's body.
{Void Space} could store anything as long as it was not alive. Being an undead, she was obviously qualified. For the past day and a half she stayed in the small extra dimensional room refreshing her knowledge with some of the books recovered from the tower rubble. The only uncomfortable aspect of this was that she had to share the Space with Bori's aged carcass, which actually a little creepy even to her who was undead. She remedied this factor by encasing the old man's corpse in a block of ice and using that block to rest her back while she read.
An advantage of being undead was that the cold did not affect her. In fact, she even found it a little comforting. So using the huge block of ice as a support suited her just well.
Another thing that happened over the past day was that Nyx found a raven carcass somewhere in the forest and {Devour}ed it, giving him the ability to assume the bird's form. This turned out to be a great boon where travel was concerned.
Also, she realised something. While she was in the {Void Space} she could not perceive the bond. Judging from Kaylee's reaction a while back the same could be assumed of her. This knowledge was sure to come in handy sometime in the future.
Nyx abilities were not so useless after all.
Except {Misfortune}; she was still angry about that one.
Kaylee's room was not facing the main road, so when Sage vaulted out the window she landed in an empty alley. This was a good thing for her. If the window had been facing the street she no doubt would have caught a lot of attention, not only because of her appearance but also because of how suspicious act was.
Due to activating {Lightfoot}, her landing did not utter a sound. The moment her feet hit the ground she immediately activated another ability, {Invisibility}. With these two abilities she was set to explore the city.
Tiih as a city was impressive on the whole.
There were all sorts of booming businesses around. Many of these were related to production such as tailoring, smithing and alchemy. Of course the most impressive of these items could be found in the streets lining the main road. However, the shops close by did not seem to that much worse off.
Sage had been walking for a while when she spied what looked like a clothing shop. Unlike the stores on the main road where there was light, this one had been closed early. Probably to avoid being robbed in the night. She took one look at it and decided to do some "shopping."
Using {Ghostwalk}, she easily entered the shop and browsed the clothes in the shop. Trousers and shirts, blouses and skirts; there were even some impressive looking dresses and coats. The prices of these articles ranged from several bronze coins to several silvers. At the moment Sage had around fifteen gold stored in Nyx's {Void Space} so these items were affordable to her.
However, she scoffed at the idea of actually paying for them. Why would she do that when she could take them for free?
And so she decided to go on a spree.
First off she replaced her shirt, which had been missing a sleeve since the bastard cut off her arm. The replacement she found was a white cotton shirt that was neither too big nor too small, just the right fit for her. After that she replaced her pants, which were starting to look worn out. She also managed to find herself a pair of under-clothes. This she welcomed wholeheartedly; after all, she was tired of going commando.
There were other clothes she fancied as well. These were given to Nyx to store.
When she was done she left the clothe shop in search for other stores.
Her journey took her further into the city, where she witnessed a completely different world from the one presented on the main road. The structures here were cracked and crumbling, which was surprising since this place looked like a middle-class area. If the situation was already like this in such a place, then what about the poorer districts?
When she thought about it Sage immediately made a U-turn and decided to head back to the main road.
The purpose for doing so was obviously because she wanted to avoid the poor districts. It was not because she did not think she could handle the sights such a place had to offer, but because she just remembered something.
Bori had found her current body somewhere there.
Even though she was now a 7th Order mage, her abilities could not be maintained forever, which meant at some point she would have to deactivate {Invisibility}. What would then happen if she was spotted by someone who knew the previous inhabitant of this body?
Sage did not need that drama.
Which was why she had no plans to stay in this city longer than a few days.
Tiih was just a rest-stop for her before she moved on to the Yshian capital Yshta. Being the largest city and the centre of government, Yshta was bound to be livelier and she would definitely be able to get more information there. She had decided that it would be the first place she would search for clues of the Elixir of Rejuvenation.
Besides, it was not like she could stay in this city if she wanted to anyway.
Tiih was the residence of the two people she was most intent on killing. The first was the bastard Guard Captain and the second- this one she was not so sure of- was the one who sent the light elemental.
With her current strength, she was sure she could now match the bastard, but she was not so sure about the other one. Either way, both of them knew her face so she could not stay here for long. It was better to retreat somewhere far and accumulate strength before coming back for revenge.
But before that she would be going on a bit of a "shopping" spree.
It was a while later she got back to the main road. The place was no longer as crowded as when she had left it. Many of the shops that had been previously open were now shut. The few exceptions were the taverns and inns as well as the Mercenary Guild. The latter was probably open all day.
Still invisible, she {Ghostwalk}ed into one of the closed stores.
This one too was a clothing shop. However, its prices were preposterous compared to the previous one. These prices ranged from several tens of silver to several tens of gold; complete daylight robbery.
You can't blame me for returning the favour, she thought a she swiped a leather coat off the hanger.
The items in this shop were much more luxurious than the other shop. Some of the articles here were actually made of silk. She naturally took all of these and dumped them into the {Void Space}.
The best piece of clothing she found was a black hooded coat, which she took an instant liking to. She immediately put it on and covered her head with the hood. It was perfect for hiding her appearance under the cover of night.
When she was done with the clothing shop she {Ghostwalk}ed into the next one, which happened to be a shoe shop.
Entering this store, Sage was even more excited than when she had walked into the clothing shop. Ever since coming to this world she had not worn a single pair of shoes, courtesy of not finding ones that were the right fit. At this point she had pretty much gotten used to walking around barefoot. However, that did not mean she did not desire a nice sturdy pair of shoes.
She immediately got to testing the shoes on the racks and found a pair of sandals and a pair of boots that suited her well. The boots she tossed to Nyx for storage, while the sandals were immediately equiped. After doing so she took a look at herself and let out a comfortable breath.
Now she felt somewhat human.
After that she visited a few more shops. There was a blacksmith's shop where she plundered a neat-looking shortsword, a silversmith shop where she plundered every expensive-looking trinket and a bookstore where she picked out some unfamiliar books to fill the gaps in her knowledge.
It was a shame that the latter did not have magic books, but not unexpected. Having travelled around the city for a while she had seen that mages were actually quite rare, so magic tomes must be even rarer and probably pricier than anything she had swiped.
Still, the results of her "shopping" spree left her satisfied.
Happily, she lifted Nyx into her arms and {Blink}ed away.
Now that she had gotten clothes she would go looking for something to eat next.