The following morning was the same routine up until lunch time when Victoria broached the topic.
"Andrew, you said yesterday that you wanted to invest more in adventure and architecture, correct?"
Having passed another test from my studying to my teacher's satisfaction, I felt comfortable with diversifying my experience in this world. "Yes." I replied. "I have found myself overly focused on learning from you, and I feel like indulging in some minor distractions would help to clear my mind."
Victoria nodded seemingly appreciative of that. "I can attest to the need for giving yourself a break every once in a while. As such, I was able to procure an opportunity for you that I believe you will find to be very unique."
Pulling out a rolled-up paper she opened it and read off the contents. "As per your request this morning, to involve your apprentice in interacting with the architecture of the city and experiencing more 'adventure', we have deliberated and come to a solution that we believe will be to your satisfaction. We are seeking to avail ourselves of the unique abilities of Travelers in their relative fearlessness and ability to return to life after dying. As such, we are able to open up some new opportunities that would originally have been restricted to more advanced and experienced employees or adventurers. A task that we felt would be applicable to your request would be ridding the overflow of slimes in the aqueducts of our sewer system. We will provide general training and tools to accommodate his and another traveler's sojourn into the under-depths of the city if you find this opportunity amenable."
Turning to me, she inquired. "What are your thoughts on that?"
It honestly sounded very interesting! I had been wanting to look more closely at their drainage and sewer system anyways due to my surprise of the impressive hygiene facilities mid-city that appeared more far lacking further out in the outskirts. "Yes! I'd love to join them for that. When is it supposed to be?" I inquired.
Glancing at the paper, she reviewed it once again before commenting. "It looks to be in about an hour. They want you to join them at the Traveler's or Seer stone at the central marketplace." Looking me more intently, she continued. "If you do injure yourself, I would ask that you do use the Travelers stone to heal your injuries this time. It would be an inconvenience if you got an acid burn that hindered your ability to learn or help in my shop for a time."
Acid burn? Huh, I was getting very curious about what getting rid of slimes entailed.
"Also, before you go, I would have you bring this with you." Rummaging through the various shelves in search, Victoria finally came upon a wax covered cloth bag. Pulling it out, she handed it to me. "This can help in containing more acidic materials with reduced hassle. I would appreciate if you would bring back some slime nuclei for me to experiment on." Her eyes took on a crafty look. "You too can experiment with the nuclei. However, I ask that you do such outside of my shop in a more secluded area."
Waving around at the shelves littered with various herbal components, she added. "Use of these in creations will rarely, if ever result in a violent reaction. Odorous and poisonous quite possibly, but rarely volatile."
My eyes widened at such information in surprise. Then I glanced down at the apothecary book I had been studying. I looked forward to learning more from there.
Noticing my look, Victoria clarified. "Oh dear, there are no such instructions in there that might lead you to those creations. But, overtime, you may design several theoretical combinations that could produce some highly interesting results."
"Now as I don't have anything for you to work on now, I advise you to start heading over to the Travelers stone to not be late."
Estimating the time that it would only take me about 10 -15 minutes to reach there, she forestalled my concern. "I know that it is early, however, it wouldn't hurt to familiarize yourself more with the marketplace and surroundings."
Slapping me on the back towards her shop door, she didn't give me time to resist. "Now off you go. I've got other things to take care of without your distractions."
*Sigh* I hadn't really gotten to observe her much with her personal experimentations, which sounding much more exciting. I'd seen her process several ointments and grind down various herbs for storage in her many shelves, open to perusal by shoppers. But there was little difference in the ways that she processed things with the few that I'd seen.
Several times I did observe armored carriages arrive in front of her shop, and watch as she pulled large carefully contained packages from who knows where to be then carted off by the military like personnel. She explained to me that her most lucrative products were the mild to moderate strength healing and anti-venom concoctions used by the local military and city patrol in their duties.
I guess it was fully intended to be a learning experience for me, when she sent me with a delivery to the Red District. Pushing such thoughts to the back of my mind, I strode out into the streets to follow the sounds of metal hammering on metal.
Brutus's blacksmith shop was about halfway between Victoria's apothecary shop and the Travelers stone. I'd been meaning to stop by to get a closer look at the shop as my encounter in the wilds had impressed upon me a desire to better be able to defend myself.
Looking at the coin purse at my waist, a somewhat incredulous smile twitched at my face as I thought back on the interaction with the thugs back at the Red District. If every such interaction was as lucrative as that, then I'd consider placing myself in other various questionable situations.
"Haha!" My sudden outburst of laughter started some of the others nearby me on the street. Giving me a concerned glance, they crossed to the other side and pointedly ignored me. Keeping my humor more to myself, I recounted the amount involved in the blood money. The coin purse they gave me had about 95 coppers, and 8 silvers. This more than doubled my previous funds left to me by Monroe.
That night, Victoria had been more than happy to exchange the lower value coins for larger denominations. She had been muttering under her breath that what they had given to me should be the least of what their lives were worth to them. I didn't argue with her, but felt that hopefully she meant to let it go after that.
Having not ended up eating at the Red District earlier, I had yet to actually use any of my money. Accounting for everything that I had earned, including the delivery fee and what Monroe had left with me, I now had 19 silvers, four coppers, and three chips. Almost half a gold!
According to what Monroe told me before, with a single silver, I could get a generic mass-produced steel sword. But a Gold opens up the door of composite and rare metal weapons. Something like that, could probably take me through any adventures I may hope to participate in.
Walking into the intermittently noisy blacksmith shop, I saw off to the side a bellows and furnace, anvil, and various workshop counter tops. 2 younger apprentices or assistants appeared to be engrossed in minute work, fastening handles to swords. One appeared to be the reptilian apprentice with snake or lizard like scales which I had seen with Monroe that first day. The other was a kind of half dwarf with granite like limbs. I wondered if he was part elemental.
The large and bulky Smith was hammering away at the anvil with a glowing metallic bow of sorts. It was extremely enchanting to watch the flow of light and metal. Fiery metal seemed to swim in various shades with each of his hammer strikes.
Only the dwarf like apprentice nodded to me in awareness of my presence. Then he called out. "If you are here for an order or pick-up, we can be with you shortly. Otherwise, if you are looking to browse the wares, feel free to, and we will assist you with any requests."
Nodding to him in silence, I followed his advice and moved to look over their wares. In the main room, as before, when I came with Monroe, I saw a large array of various weapons in the open and behind clear glass displays. Then seeing as the apprentice continued to watch me as if waiting for my answer, I called out in response. "I appreciate it. For now, I'm just browsing but I'll let you know if I find anything that suits me."
With another nod, the stone-like dwarf returned to his work.
Now that I was browsing while wearing the translation amulet I could read and understand the descriptions and prices listed alongside the weapon or tool. My eyes took in an entire wall of various swords and sabers. Many appeared to be 2 handed and extremely heavy as they sagged upon the suspension bars holding them up. Others appeared very light and fragile, but held what looked to be a wicked edge that promised lethality.
I had tried wielding a sword once in my life in mock combat. One of my friends at the time had been a weapons buff. He had purchased a pair of katanas from a small store that boasted a huge array of bladed weaponry. When he showed me his prized swords, my mind came up with the idea of play fighting with them. Hesitant at first, he had been convinced to fight when I had cut up my bathrobe's waist belt. Slipping the belt over the top of the somewhat dull blade of the katanas we set out to swinging them at each other with light abandon. Getting hit by the padded blades, didn't notably hurt. But when the blades met each other, even through the cloth, I winced at the sensation I felt on contact. Although we were suitably protected from the blades, I felt that the padding was proving insufficient to the task of protecting the blades from each other.
It wasn't until later that we pulled the padding off that several small notches could be seen marring the surface of both blades. My friend never made mention of it, however, I still felt guilty of being a contributing force to that outcome. We never play fought with real swords again.
Now thinking back to that memory, I absolutely sucked at swordplay. I know some people believe that if given the opportunity to wield a certain weapon which they've never touched before, that they would break out in a display of sheer genius. That was certainly Not Me. Just like with martial arts, the best thing I learned was just how little I knew, when I trained up to yellow belt.
Taking these memories and woefully lacking history with weapons into deep consideration, I looked to a more practical weapon. Staffs. Usable as a walking stick, able to aid in keeping a distance between me and other opponents, as well as being an impromptu leveraging stick. *Wince* I gritted my teeth at the recollection of trying to utilize those two random sticks during my initiation test for my apprenticeship under Victoria, in order to avoid those nasty thorns. With a longer staff, I could have potentially handled that obstruction much better.
With that recollection, my mind was made. Staff it would be. Looking at the much smaller display of staffs, I wasn't sure what to do in order to make a decision. Some of the staffs were a single smooth length of metal or wood, evenly dispersed throughout. Others had edges that flared outward with a mixture of wood and metal. A few select ones had ribbed or spiral grip patterns along the haft of them. Those on the display wall, open to handling were priced anywhere from three silver to a few golds.
The most expensive one that looked to be made of a black stone was hidden behind a display case labeled as costing four Mithril and five gold! It said it was carved of pure Adamantium. That was far out of my price range, but it was a beautiful and mysterious work to behold.