"Your shop is a waste of space and so are you Europa, you have been unable to pay us back the smallest interest for over a year, when we overheard from the grapevine that you had borrowed another 20,000 Gold from the Demon Mice clan, we knew we had to pay you a visit."
Shortly the Alpha Demon Bull turned and stood menacingly above me with its giant build, with skin tough as Iron.
After getting a whiff of me "This is not your place to interfere Demon Chicken Man, this woman and her grandmother is a subsidiary clan of the Alpha Demon Bulls and they have racked up 10,000 gold of debt thanks to her gambling crazed grandmother and we have given chances over and over, but this is the only way to get her to close the shop and cut her losses.
The ugly truth was that he was right, this was not a matter of being a hero to save a friend. This had complicated woven matters with logical reasonings behind. I was in no position to argue or even defend their reasoning, but I couldn't do nothing to help.
Moving past the hulking giant, I approached Europa tear-stained face and asked gently, "Are you okay...and where is my underwear..."
She sniffles and pulls out a pair of intricately woven astral boxers and smiled, "my best work yet".
I changed on the spot and put on the Astral boxers, Equipped: Astral boxers (+500 DEF)
More than just the stat boost from equipping, the sheer comfort of the material was amazing no more chaffing at the groin, it's as if my balls were planets floating in the deepness of space.
"As promised, double the cost for this fine armor, thank you Europa." as I handed to her 10,000 gold and tapped the Alpha demon bull on the back, "there your debt is settled let her operate her shop in peace brother."
Somehow between men a silent unspoken understanding and respect was made, knowing how difficult it must have been for him to trash her shop in the first place, having such concerns on her future. He gave me a silent nod gently scooped up the gold and left peacefully.
Sniffling Europa began tearing again, "thank you Yuujiro you are a good friend...if it hasn't been for Grandmother's gambling habits my parents wouldn't have lost their life savings or their lives borrowing from the worst triad the Blood Dragon clan." It was brother Minato who stepped in and paid our debt in advance to the Blood Dragons and took the debt and transferred it under himself so that Grandmother would stop her toxic habits."
"Months past but nothing changed, the debt towards brother Minato kept growing as grandmother was unapologetic and kept borrowing only thinking of herself. Then one day she died bludgeoned in the head and died in an alley".
Glancing at the twilight assassin's armor displayed in the corner, I noticed a star shaped indent at the side of the skull helm. Eyes slowly widening the look of realization, eyes darting to the hammer that Europa always held in her hand a small star shaped hammer matching the exact size of the indent.
It was clear that Europa had enough and took matters in her own hands and ended her subsequently having her skinned, tanned and made into an armor in an attempt for the grandmother to repay her debts in this life. With eyes of empathy and assurance, "Europa it's not your fault and she deserved it..."
Curling into a demonic smile she softly replied, "Yes she did..."
"So anyways how did you manage to borrow 20,000 gold from the demon mice anyways isn't that a very dangerous sum and how could Minato have left knowingly that you borrowed again?"
"The demon mice are a clan only known to trade for high quality items they don't act as money lenders, so I struck a business deal to craft for them 200 miniature armor that fits them using the highly prized astral beast materials."
"Minato was wrecking my shop because he thought that I had taken a request way over my head and wanted me to give up...but once he saw your crotch he gave up."
"What! Oh, the underwear? Yes, that really was a finely crafted item."
Europa beaming with confidence "On that note, I have really enjoyed our interactions and business relationship let me be your personal blacksmith" as she handed me a silver coin branded with the Tauros horns blacksmithing shop logo, just a badly drawn picture of a cow.
"It is a two-way teleportation regulator, as long as its somewhere on your person, you can just call out teleport and anything in the magic circle will be transported to me, take this as a token of our trust and friendship and bring back even rarer materials for me!"
I humbly accepted the coin and placed it in my infinite inventory, both sharing a laugh before I left the shop and headed towards the guild...
There was only a central guild for aspiring adventurers to register and make a name for themselves, it was located on the west side of the town of Andros, giant like an ancient cathedral situated very close to a coliseum twice its size.
Walking through the giant gates of the guild, I approach the counter and was served by an old grumpy armored dwarf "Please include your name and magic type and prepare yourself for the exhibition tomorrow."
"Sorry I'm not familiar, what do you mean exhibition?"
Breathing a heavy sigh, he looks up at me and explained, "All existing party looking for members will be scouting for potential new recruits to join them. Those who are not chosen will be unable to create their own party and wander on their own."
"This is a safeguard to make sure we have as many budding adventurers get prepared physically enough to survive outside".
"Special privileges are only given to those who achieve the top 3 positions this of course is only achieved by defeating the rest of the contestants."
"Between you and me kid, for magic users those with special magic properties outside of the four elements tend to be targeted first...so watch your back." Winking as he shooed me away to fill my form elsewhere.
I began filling the form and got stumped at the magic type box, thought long and hard and included it as fire and earth magic. Deposited the form and made my way to the markets to purchase some items and materials to prepare for the exhibition.