Pavagar was a city that matched the stereotype of a medieval city in any RPG. It was normal to see carriages pulled by large black horses, women in long dresses even in the sun, and men in armor so shiny that looking at them irritated the eyes. This fascinated Willow at the same time as it disturbed him, because it was all so much more real than it had ever been.
Well, he'd been in this world for almost two days and should be getting used to it, but it wasn't that simple.
Luckily, he was in a familiar world. So, even though everything was strange, he still managed to stay conscious and focused on surviving and moving forward. His plan now was to get some money to buy armor to buff up his physical attributes a bit, pay for food, and also for a hotel or inn. And he knew someone who was very interested in rare items like the ones he had for sale.
As he stopped in front of the store whose frontage said "Carnatic Exchange", Willow noticed how this store was not at all different from the one he knew. The building was old, made only of wood; the windows were opaque with dust, and there wasn't even a sign on the door saying whether it was closed or open. Of course, this didn't stop Willow from pushing the door open and entering. The door creaked loudly, like a door from a horror movie, and the silent interior was frightening.
"Cof... Coof..." Willow coughed because of the dust in the air. "Excuse me! Is anyone here?" he said and closed the door behind him.
The interior of the unique articles and magic items store was what you'd expect from a store of this kind. There were several shelves lined up containing countless strange jars with monster body parts, as well as books and more books teaching the history of magic and rituals, using the very monster parts that were already being sold.
In Ether Online, rituals were commonly used to give players temporary buffs, such as more luck, more strength, more mana and so on, except that making rituals was so complicated and expensive that the modest Willow was never interested.
As Willow walked to the counter at the back of the store, the wooden floorboards creaked under his feet, telling the store owner where he was every second. That's how the owner knew that Willow was in front of the counter, even though his back was turned while he was fiddling with a high shelf.
"Who are you? And what do you want here?" The man asked as he started down the stairs with a book under one shoulder.
When he reached the end of the long staircase leading up, this man was lower than the counter. Anyone would guess that he was a dwarf, of course, but it was obvious that he was no ordinary dwarf. This "dwarf" wasn't bald and didn't have a long red beard, but he had curly green hair, a clean-shaven face, an unfriendly expression and a pair of glasses that looked more like monocles, so thick were the lenses. His eyes seemed glazed over, even when he had a neutral expression.
"What happened, boy? Did a Kokus eat your tongue? Come on, speak up!" Carnatic said.
Willow blinked hard, coming back to reality, and leaned over the counter a little to look directly at the owner as he spoke. "A-ah, I'm sorry. I saw on your storefront that this is a unique items store, so I wondered if I can sell rare items here."
The expression on Carnatic's face changed immediately. He smiled with the corner of his mouth, took off his glasses and climbed up a small ladder behind the counter to be at the ideal height for a serious conversation.
"Well, it depends what kind of item we're talking about. Please show them to me, and I'll tell you how much I'm willing to pay for them."
"Right." Willow placed his right palm facing upwards and then made the Giant Scarab Fragments he had materialized.
Carnatic wasn't surprised that the fragments had simply materialized because having inventory skills was practically commonplace in the world of Ether.
The Giant Beetle Fragments were like black crystals, nothing particularly beautiful or to make most people's eyes glaze over, except that Willow could see Carnatic's eyes widen for a second.
Willow placed the fragments on the bench to let the Carnatic examine them freely.
Then the salesman put on a pair of leather gloves and touched one of the fragments. He brought it close to one of his eyes, then stretched out his small arm and looked at it from a distance. Finally, he put this fragment with the others and, while looking at Willow, said:
"I can give you 200 Drakis for each of these fragments. Here's one, two, three... In total, you'll get 600 Drakis." With the tip of his index finger, he counted the fragments on his counter.
It was a high price for fragments of low-level creatures like the Giant Beetles, but Willow knew that in this case it didn't matter how easy it was to kill the creatures that dropped these fragments, but how rare they were.
"I'm sorry, but this price doesn't match what I had in mind. You know what kind of creature these fragments belong to, right?" Willow asked, gesturing with his hands.
Carnatic nodded and crossed his arms. "Of course I know! I've been a seller and buyer of unique items for over twenty years! These are Giant Beetle Fragments. I know that they're uncommon to find and that only a thousand or so are seen every year, but I don't believe that each fragment is worth a silver coin or more. As far as I know, there isn't much practical use for these things. They can't be used to make jewelry, weapons, potions, or rituals."
"Of course you can't, because monster fragments usually preserve the main characteristic of the monster they belonged to. And I don't know if you've heard, but Giant Beetles are especially difficult to kill because of their extremely hard armor. So these fragments are good for enchanting armor. If you're willing to buy each of these fragments for, let's see, 1000 Drakis we can do a deal."
"1000 Drakis?! That's absurd!"
"That's a fair price because of the rarity of these fragments. As you said yourself, only a thousand of these appear every year, and how many warriors need new, reinforced armor every year? It's a simple question of supply and demand, don't you think? If you accept my price, I can also provide you with the method for obtaining the best enchantment with these fragments."
Carnatic frowned and put one to his chin, seeming to ponder seriously for the first time. The price was indeed a little high, but Carnatic knew that Willow was right in parts.
"Um.... All right, maybe I can pay the price you asked for. However, before we close the deal, I need to know what that method you just mentioned is like." Carnatic said, which made Willow smile from one corner of his mouth to the other.
"Okay. Put the money in a leather pouch and change it into silver coins if possible. And then we'll do business."
As requested by Willow, Carnatic put twelve silver coins, which equaled 3000 Drakis, into a small leather pouch and placed it on the counter. When Willow reached out with his right hand to take the pouch, Carnatic nimbly took it back and said:
"Before you take the money, you must give me the incantation method."
"Do you have a pen and paper?" Willow asked.
"Pen? What the hell would that be? Anyway, I have paper and ink. Would that work for you?"
"Yes."
Carnatic then brought Willow what he needed to describe the method on a sheet of rice parchment. When the owner took the paper and read the methodology, he was a little startled.
"What? It takes fifty fragments to get the best enchantment?!" He exclaimed. "That can only be wrong! No armor enchantment requires fifty fragments!"
"It sounds wrong, but it's only logical. With one Giant Beetle Fragment it is already possible to increase the Defense of an armor by +1, but this does not increase by another +1 when the second one is placed. The second additional point only comes when the fifth fragment appears in the equation. From then on, you'll need to increase every five shards until you reach the maximum of +20 Defense Points. As you might imagine, +20 Points is the maximum that most armor can withstand before it starts to deteriorate." Willow explained in detail how to get going.
"That's... that's..." Carnatic was disgusted, because he felt that Willow had crossed him, but it was impossible to deny that the logic made sense. "So reaching the maximum would be absurdly expensive and unfeasible!"
"And when did I say it would be cheap? Yes, it's still very expensive, but one day I don't think it will be anymore. Anyway, it was a pleasure doing business with you, Carnatic. Something tells me we'll see each other again soon." Willow said, picked up the bag of coins on the counter, and left the store.
Willow still had the Blackened Golem Fragmet to sell, except that he had managed to get a very good deal from Carnatic and knew that he would be unlikely to get another good deal on the same day, so he decided to wait.
"Lalala~ I wonder what I should buy now. I'm not very hungry because we ate very well at the campfire last night. So, should I go and buy some armor or go back to the Blackened Crypt to get more shards?" Willow wondered when he suddenly saw a commotion up ahead.
Several people were gathering in one of Pavagar's small squares, and Willow, curious, decided to go closer to see what was going on. Entering the crowd of onlookers, Willow saw a familiar face at the center of it all. It was Kevneth, the archer from the group with whom Willow had come to Pavagar.
Kevneth was all wound up, panting and with a frightened countenance, he was shouting:
"Please, someone has to help me! The monster in the forest is not an evil spirit! My group and I were attacked and decimated by that creature! I'll pay any price to anyone who goes into the forest to look for my companions! Any price! Please, someone!"
Normally, in a city of adventurers like this, many people would mobilize to help someone like Kevneth, especially since he was offering a reward. However, when this evil spirit was mentioned, even more so in this desperate way, no one felt motivated enough, even with money, to risk their lives.
Willow's heart squeezed when he remembered Aria Valenwood, the person to whom he owed a lot and who was in the same group as Kevneth and the others to hunt down the evil spirit.