Sol walked towards the market district as he thought about what he needed to buy.
'Some new clothes, a quiver, and arrows for the bow, what else… Ah, it would be nice to buy a weapon of every type just to try them out, but that's too much to carry around. Maybe I should buy a small spatial ring since I have the money.'
Originally, Sol did not pick the unique Spatial ring as a reward because he could easily find one in the city as long as he had money. Now thanks to the money he gained from the quest reward, he had more than enough to buy a common spatial ring, which would make his life much more convenient. Since he planned on buying multiple things today, Sol decided to get a ring to store things first and went searching for a magic item shop.
As he looked around for a good shop, he thought about using [Mana Perception] to simply pick the store with the most ambient mana surrounding it. What surprised Sol was that when he did search this way, the shop with the most mana surrounding it was not a building but a small carriage parked between other stalls in the market street. On the side of the carriage, an opening was made, creating a makeshift counter. Behind the counter was a young girl no older than 12 with silver hair that reached down to her neck. She looked very bored as she leaned on the counter and stared at a toy windmill as its blades spun from the wind. Sol saw no wares being displayed, which made him doubt whether they even sold anything, but the mana he saw led him to believe they definitely had something special.
Seeing his approach, the young girl straightened up, "Customer! What would you like?"
Sol was confused; she asked what he wanted before he saw any of the wares?
"What do you have?"
"Oh umm…" She looked around behind her, "A lot of things!"
'Is this her first time selling anything? Where are her parents?'
Most would have left by now, but Sol knew she had something interesting back there, so he stayed.
"Okay… how about we start from the basics, do you sell food, armor, items, weapons?"
She looked behind the counter and turned back, "Things!"
"... Can I see one of them?"
"Sure!"
She turned around again and grabbed the first thing she saw. "Here, look!"
It was an earring with a small feather hanging off it. Sol used [Analysis] to find out more.
Harpy's Fall
Rare
Skills:
[Glide] Lv 5, [Wind Blast] Lv 6
[Glide] Lv 5: Activating will decrease the user's weight to be as light as a feather. The user will be able to glide across the air to traverse obstacles. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 4 hours.
[Wind Blast] Lv 6: Use stored mana to create a vicious blast of air pressure. Damage increases based on intelligence. Cooldown: 30 minutes.
'The effects are pretty good…'
Sol returned the earring to her, which made the little girl sad.
"Are you not going to buy it…"
The little girl started sniffling and looked like she was about to cry, in an attempt to distract her before she did, he asked to see more "things".
"Do you have any rings?"
The girl sniffled a bit before nodding and bringing out a box full of rings.
'Spatial rings, magic amplifying rings, status resistant rings… Gods, why are there so many…'
Although a lot of them piqued his interest, he ended up choosing the spatial ring he was initially searching for.
Spatial Ring
Common
Skills:
[Pocket Space] Lv 2
[Pocket Space] Lv 2: The ring is connected to a 2x2x2-meter pocket space to store items for safekeeping. The creator has placed restrictions to not allow living organisms inside with the exception of plants.
"How much for this one?"
The girl stared at it for a while but did not answer; instead, she grabbed a thick book from under the counter. She opened it, revealing a cute picture book which seemed to act as an item catalogue with small descriptions written next to them. It took the girl a while to find the page with the rings, but eventually, she did find the right one.
"It's umm… 120 gold! But it says I can lower the price by 20 gold if they are nice. You seem nice!"
Sol was honestly speechless; were her parents so irresponsible to just leave her here alone? He even looked around to see if he was being watched and it was some elaborate prank, but it simply wouldn't make sense if it was. Another thing that didn't add up is that his [Mana Perception] is showing a mass of mana throughout the entire carriage himself, but so far no items had such dense mana. Putting that thought aside, he took 120 gold from his backpack and handed it to the girl.
"No, it's ok. I'll pay in full."
Sol just couldn't bring himself to take advantage of her.
The girl excitedly put away the money, "Wow! Mom will be so proud!"
"Speaking of which, where is your mom?"
"Mom's busy with work, but it's ok! I will run the shop while she is gone."
"She left you to manage the store on your own?"
"Yes! She said it would be good… good…" It seemed the little girl forgot what her mother told her but it wasn't hard for Sol to figure it out.
"Practice."
"Practice!"
This conversation really took a lot out of Sol. While he liked children he sometimes found them to be a bit exhausting. The only reason he hasn't left yet is because he is still worried over her safety.
"Will you be okay here? What if someone comes to bully you?"
"Bob will protect me!"
"Bob?"
"Yep! Bob say hi!"
No voice responded, but instead the carriage itself started shaking as one of the front wheels wiggled as if they were… waving as Sol.
'No way…'
Bob (Living Rune Construct)
Unique
Skills:
[Physical Resistance] Lv Max, [Reinforced Armor] Lv Max, [Rune Algorithm] Lv 6, [Spell Matrix] Lv 6
'What the-'
Having never seen such a thing in his life, Sol had no idea what to say. At least he was assured of the little girl's safety. He also now knew the source of the mana he saw, originally thinking it was something inside the carriage it was actually the carriage itself.
After composing himself, Sol spoke, "I see… Thank you for looking after her, Bob. I should get going, take care of yourself… umm what's your name?"
"Chloe! Oh and tell your friends to come to my shop!"
Embarrassed to tell the little girl he had almost no friends in this city, he nodded his head, "Haha… will do Chloe."
Leaving the little girl and living rune construct behind, Sol, equipped with his new spatial ring, went to do some light shopping.