A guilty expression came over his face as he held the three coppers in his hands. "Well." He began haltingly. "I actually ran by the figures with Master Brutus in the shop before grabbing the dagger to show you. He told me that the actual price is a total of 31 Silvers and two coppers. Since I had already quoted you a price, he said that I was to just accept it and consider the rest as a favor from him."
I felt my heart drop and begin to bleed at the price mentioned. Maybe accepting a favor this time wasn't such a bad thing. Still my hand moved to my coin purse and I drew out my last five silvers and almost forcefully had to add it to the apprentice's hand. "Would mind asking him if 30 silvers and three coppers is a bearable cost with a reduced favor?" I asked as my teeth were near gritted. With that counter offer in hand, the apprentice swiftly departed to confer with his master.
I waited in the corner of the shop with my head cast downward, trying to retain the image of the mystifyingly beautiful dagger in my mind, along with the feeling I had when holding it. I was desperately trying to justify the expenditure that I just paid.
I didn't know how long it took, but I eventually saw the apprentice return with a smile on his face and a paper receipt in his hand.
"My master says that that is an acceptable offer." Handing me the receipt he added. "He also wanted me to tell you, that he admires and appreciates your integrity."
A warmth filled my chest as I heard his words. The energy which rarely pulsed within me, seemed a little bigger than before.
"Please tell him, that I am grateful for his favor and that I will seek to return it, when the time comes that it is convenient for him." I said with respect and appreciation in my voice, even as my frugal heart continued to bleed.
"I will do so, and thank you." He replied.
As I began to depart, I turned back momentarily. "I'm sorry I forgot to ask earlier. What is your name?" I inquired.
An appreciative smile shone on his face as he responded. "My name is Peter. Again, it's nice to meet you Apprentice Andrew."
"And you as well, Apprentice Peter." I replied. Then I dashed off. 'He seemed like a cool guy that could be a good friend' The thought ran through my head as I left the blacksmith shop.
With the paper receipt in hand, I hurriedly returned to the apothecary shop, immensely poorer and ready to help out with the influx of customers.
***************************************
The next week went by rather quickly, as I mostly stayed in the shop at this time to deal with the large influx of customers. I felt that the majority of them simply wanted to have bragging rights that they shopped at the apothecary store in which the earlier altercation occurred.
During this time, I had seen a notable influx of more Travelers arriving in the city, via the Traveler's stone. In the progressively more frequent instances that I observed them interacting with those in the marketplace, I was often reminded of my past game play in other virtual realities. Frequently these Travelers would approach each interaction like they were greeting an NPC (Non Player Character) with a limited repertoire of triggered responses. This put many of the natural residents on edge as they began limiting their interactions to simple transactions with the Travelers.
Having already established my presence and being the first to arrive in their city, I was still able to retain a more cordial interaction with the various merchants. Amidst the many eccentric Travelers confusing this place to be like a virtual reality game, there had been one particular group of note who took things to an extreme. Their actions had engendered a strong negative reaction from the natural populous regarding the latest reception of Travelers.
I was unsure if they had somehow arrived together, or found common ground based on various factors. However, four guys had grouped up together and begun to be a fair nuisance to the various marketplace merchants. They would get up in the faces of the various peddlers of wares, and demand that they be given quests in order to earn money. Upon their frequent rejection, they would wander off jostling each other about, while speaking loud insults about the individual they had just been rejected by.
I had learned that after this method proved to bear little fruit in terms of financial gain, they had turned to harassing Brutus the blacksmith into taking on all of them as apprentices. That particular encounter I would have loved to have been a silent observer for.
As I had imagined, Brutus was certainly no pushover, and he had given those four Travelers a very strong piece of his mind. Physically ejecting them from his forge, they had been forced to leave in the form of a stacked heap of bodies. Limping away after having been severely manhandled, they had made their way to the Traveler's stone in order to be healed of their recent roughhousing. After that, they avoided the blacksmith shop like a plague.
I believe that this occurrence had been a strong contributing factor which led to the creation of a more permanent stall specifically for travelers, a mere few meters away from the stone. They did this in order to limit the harassing interactions between new Travelers and the natural inhabitants of the city. Each of the prevalent guilds would take turns sending someone to run the stall. There, new arriving Travelers would create a photo ID and be given the option to sign-up for military enrollment. Doing such was not a requirement, however, the pot was sweetened with a free weapon, basic elemental affinity test, and a single basic elemental stone for those that joined the military. Those that only allowed for the creation of an ID card were given permission to at least accept missions on the request board.
I had out of personal curiosity, taken the time once to look over the board to see if it was worth investing my personal time in. Most of the tasks appeared to me like intentional busy work. Tasks such as fetch 10 rabbit pelts, shovel out the patrol stables, or bring back 3 left goblin ears made me snicker. I had long since learned that such tasks would be far more easily completed by relatively competent trappers, trainees, or adventurers. I guess the council had to break it somehow to the Travelers that this world was nothing like their prior virtual reality experiences. This seemed like as good of a method as any other.
Continuing to snicker to myself at the many wannabe heroes among the Travelers, I returned to aid Vicotria in her increased workload.
By the end of the week, it appeared that the appeal of visiting the historical shop in which the castrating and subsequent impaling of a foreign adventurer had occurred, was now somewhat faded. Or those that had come for the thrill of the experience, had found other more cheaper pursuits. Admittedly, Victoria's products were a bit more expensive than the average apothecaries in the city. However, the quality of her average tinctures were far and above their best works.
Finally, it was the last day of the week since I went to the blacksmith shop, when I received a personal delivery from Peter. He arrived with a staff length package wrapped in paper. My heart sped up as the seemingly long wait was at an end. It had arrived at last! My very own Expensive staff.
I exchanged pleasantries with Peter who appeared thrilled to be able to briefly check out the apothecary shop while he was here. I wanted to open the wrapping there and now, but I had a feeling that this was something better left for a more private setting, recalling my personal reaction to the dagger from before. As such, I was feeling torn between being a good friend who entertained his friend's company, and retreating back to my room with my new staff.
Eventually he left, looking somewhat forlorn at not having the funds to afford anything there practical to his needs.
After saying our goodbyes, I wasted no time in dashing up the stairs with Victoria's permission and blessing.
Standing in the middle of the room, I stripped away the paper wrapping the length of the staff.
'Oh. . . My . . . .' Even sort of knowing what to expect, I was still floored at holding this masterpiece in front of me. Unwrapped, it felt heftier than the staff I had measured myself against before. But it was more than just a physical weight as it felt like a kind of solid grounding in my senses. With this glistening black and silver streaked staff, I felt more . . . Me.
I subconsciously reached for the same feeling that I was intimately familiar with in reality, and I almost stuttered to a stop in expected disappointment at feeling the much-reduced sensation. However, I was surprised as instead of my core energy simply stirring minutely in reaction to my stimulation, I felt an actual tendril of energy course down my arm, leaving a small rush of chills and warmth behind its wake as it struck a connection with the staff.
Wonder filled me at this new development. I didn't know what this meant, but I felt it was very promising. For an unknown length of time, I simply stood there basking in the residual sense of the familiar rush of warmth and chills. Too soon, the reduced feelings had faded and I was once against simply holding a staff that bedazzled my eyes and tugged at my senses.
Reluctantly, I lay my new weapon across the bed as I returned to my duties in my teachers shop.
**********************************************
That night and every moment since that I could justify returning to my room, I worked to stimulate the energy within my core in order to make it stretch and reach out to the staff. I felt like I was awakening the long-reduced feelings within me, that had at one time been completely absent from me in this place.
**********************************************
May 20th in VR World
May 29th on Earth
Another week went by as the store finally appeared to have returned to a stable normalcy. We did get a few new regulars. But for the most part, most of those that visited and made purchases in the past two weeks did not return. Maybe they had gotten their years-worth of insurance, with their purchases of Victoria's low and mid-tier healing tinctures and potions.
One of the mornings I was working on memorizing my daily herbs and plants from the apothecary book, I was surprised by a familiar if awkward reunion with the Traveler I'd met before. It was Steven the lion featured Traveler, whom I'd met at the griffin and horse stalls at the city patrol base.
"Hey Andrew!" He called out to me in exuberant familiarity. I was honestly a bit shocked at his show of friendliness. If he was legitimately feeling that friendly with me, it was certainly one sided only. I had not had very positive memories from our personal interaction, except to say that he was quite good at shoveling griffin feces. If that says anything. However, maybe I wasn't giving him a fair benefit of the doubt. As such I decided to return the greeting as cheerfully as I could manage.
"Hi Steven." I called back. "I'm surprised to see you here. How's the work at the city barracks been treating you?" I asked, truly somewhat curious.
"Oh yeah, it's been great!" He replied. "They've started bringing me on some of their city patrols this past week. I keep trying to build up enough contribution points to purchase a low-grade healing potion, however they are still too expensive for me to buy. I was wondering if I could get a good discount here since we are friends and all. What do you think of one and a half silvers for one of her basic grade healing potions?"
*cough* I almost choked at hearing his horrible misevaluation of her products.