The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (26 page)

After making a full
circle, I looked up to Denise, my eyes still glowing from the spell.
“Find anything?”

“
Nothing. No hidden
mechanisms or anything. You?”

“
I can see where the
path is underground… I just can’t see how to get to it.
It might take magic to get in. Or…”

“
Or, what?”

I glanced towards the pond
at the center of the oasis, and saw that it dips down underground, a
small tunnel leading to the path. “Or we have to swim.”

“
Fine… you
win. Let’s go get our gear so we can come back to this. How
about we come back tomorrow, and do our training inside the dungeon?”

“
Sounds good. So,
what did I win?” I asked with a smile and canceled the spell.

“
Hmm… how
about..?” She leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the lips.
“There, that oughta cover it.”

“
Uhuh… and
tell me, what would you have gotten if you won?” I asked with a
smirk.

“
Well, obviously you
would have had to kiss me, duh!”

I couldn’t help but
laugh. “Win, win. Okay, we’ve got just over a week till
Kevin shows up. That gives us plenty of time to explore a bit of the
dungeon if we’re careful.”

She nodded, and we got
back on Midnight, moving at a faster pace towards Coatin to make up
for the detour. “So… you’re taking me shopping…
and we have virtually no price limit… this is gonna be fun.”

“
Spoken on behalf of
women everywhere.” I laughed, and she glared at me for a few
moments before joining in. “Let’s figure out how much
stuff costs, and then I’ll make sure that we have enough for
it, alright? I can’t customize items without taking them out,
and we don’t want people to see me doing it.”

“
Right. We’re
totally getting the best we can, though.” I looked into
Denise’s eyes… and I swear I saw golden dollar signs for
a moment.
Have I created a monster?

After another hour, we
began to see the high stone walls of Coatin off in the distance.
Aside from Rosenheim, this was the first proper city I’ve seen
since coming to the game. And this one wasn’t a starter city,
so I was sure that I’d be able to find a lot of good equipment.
Granted, I could have probably found equipment in Rosenheim if I had
more than 10 gild at the time.

As we approached the
walls, we saw two guards standing outside the gate, and a short line
of people waiting to enter. “Guess there’s a bit of
traffic?” I looked over to Denise curiously.

“
Some cities require
you to register your visit so that they can impose tax on any
merchandise you carry.”

“
Well… good
thing we aren’t traders.” We moved to get in line, and
then hopped off of Midnight. It took us about ten minutes of slowly
moving forward before we got to the front of the line.

“
Names and reason
for your visit.” The guard spoke, not even looking to us as he
focused on the papers in his hand, a pen in the other to write down
answers.

“
Jin and Denise,
here to acquire equipment and rest during our travels.” I spoke
quickly, not wanting to waste his time or my own.

“
Alright, that’ll
be 50 gild each to enter.” My eye began twitching at the words.
50 gild to just enter the town…
I
swear, they better have something useful in here. They can probably
only get away with this because it’s the biggest city in the
desert.

I made a pained face,
reluctantly handing over ten silver coins, and he waved us through
the gate. “You could have warned me there was an entrance fee…”

“
Sorry…
nobody told me about it either. Not like we have much to worry about,
right?”

I nodded, discretely
casting Customize on my coinpurse, editing the contents to more than
replace what I had just spent. “Right. Still, its no wonder we
haven’t come across any other travelers from Coatin if you have
to pay just to get in the gate. Most people probably don’t risk
it without a big group.”

Inside the city, there
were stalls and shops lined in every direction, with signs indicating
the names of the stores. Every now and then, we’d hear a
merchant declare the best potions for the best prices, or swords
straight from the dwarven forges.
Is…
is the entire city a giant flea market?

I was stunned at first
from the sight, and then quickly found someone to talk to. “Hello,
could you give me some directions?”

The man turned to me and
raised an eyebrow, appraising me and Denise. “You’re
looking for the cheap weapons and armors, right?”

“
Uh, no.. We just
came from Rosenheim. We’re actually looking to update our
equipment with more advanced gear.” I considered asking about
magic items, but decided to keep that a low profile for now.

“
Alright. If you’re
looking for advanced equipment, try the shops about five blocks
south, on the right. Prices suck, but the quality is good.” He
obviously considered that the end of our conversation, because he
abruptly turned to leave at that.

“
O..kay…
well, you heard the man, woman.” We turned to the south and
went to the indicated street. There were several stores along this
area as well, and I still had to wonder if there was anything in this
town
except
merchants.
In one, we found a nice selection of bows, but none better than
Denise’s modified Elven bow. We did manage to find her some new
leather armor though, which was much better designed than her old
thrown-together set.

At one of the stores, I
just got tired of all the back and forth and decided to ask. “Pardon,
but is there somewhere that we can buy enchanted items? Or
spellbooks, things of that nature?”

“
Ah, you’re
looking for the expensive stuff. Sure, I know where that’s at.
Dead center of town is where you can find magical goods. Also got a
library, though don’t know how many books there are on magic in
it.”

“
Thank you…”
We abruptly turned to leave and headed for the center of town. “An
inn, my kingdom for an inn. Or a restaurant, or something other than
wall to wall salesmen.”

“
Oh, it’s not
that bad… there’s plenty of nice things here to buy.”

“
You’re just
saying that because I bought you that necklace you wanted.”

She grinned, looking down
and touching a golden necklace around her neck. “True.”

When we arrived at the
center of town, the atmosphere changed from the normal stores. The
traffic was so much less here it seemed like we had secretly entered
a different city altogether.
Okay, there
aren’t many high level adventurers, and out of those only a few
would have traveled this way
.

I had to remind myself of
that a few times as we browsed the shops. It wasn’t unheard of
for items to cost tens of thousand of gild, which seemed like an
obscene price. Though, we found a few interesting things. At one
stall, I noticed an intricately etched staff, and instinctively went
over to it. “This looks quite good…”

The shopkeeper, a scrawny
man with a black eyepatch, glanced up to me and grinned. “Aye,
you got a good eye there. That’s an enchanted staff passed down
from one of the last great mages.”

“
Really?” I
narrowed my eyes at the staff, bringing up its information window.

I grinned, nodding to
Denise. “Give me just a moment, and I’ll be back for
that. I trust you can hold it for five minutes?”

The man’s eye went
wide. “If you can afford it, and nobody grabs it before you get
back, it’s yours.”

I nodded, moving back to
an alley with Denise, making sure nobody was looking before I cast
Customize again on my coinpurse to fill in the amount needed. When I
came back, I apologized and explained that we had to make sure that
we had the funds between us. I handed him two platinum coins, and
purchased both the staff and a ring set that doubles mana recovery.

The man laughed with an
exaggerated expression. “About time. I thought I’d never
get rid of that staff. Nobody’s given it more than a single
glance since I put it on for sale.”

“
Maybe they just
couldn’t appreciate it?” It seemed that staff was his
most expensive item, so he was happy to sell it. “By the way,
do you know where I can get books on magic? I’m looking for
teleportation and enchantment.”

“
Ah, so you are the
real thing, not just some collector.”

“
That’s right.
I’d also like to find a suitable sword for my companion, but
for that I can shop in the mundane section.” Denise glared at
me, and I smiled. She can’t use a magic sword yet until she
practices with a normal one, after all!

“
Okay. There’s
a shop a couple streets over. Calls itself the Arcane Emporium. They
usually carry some spellbooks and other magical gear. Tell them Brim
sent you.”

“
I’ll do that,
thanks.” I smiled, and went over to Denise, carrying my new
staff.

“
So… what
exactly did you just pay a small fortune for?” She eyed my new
acquisition accusingly, like it had grown a mouth and consumed the
money itself.

“
A relic of a past
mage. Gives me a serious bonus to my magic. Also got some information
on where we can get spellbooks.”

“
Finally! Then we
can get me a sword and leave this city.”

“
Right.” We
moved down the street until we found a rundown store with a crooked
wooden sign up above the door. ‘Arcane Emporium’. Next to
the name was a small symbol, but at a closer look, it seemed to be
the rune for ‘Enter’. “Huh.. Well, if you insist.”

Denise, being unable to
read runes, had no idea what I was talking about as I walked into the
store. “Excuse me? Someone named Brim told me this was a good
place to find what I was looking for?”

“
Oh, he did, did
he?” I heard a deep voice call out, and could feel the ground
shake in time with heavy footsteps. “About time that
good-for-nothing sent some business my way!” As the steps
approached a door in the back, I cringed inwardly.
Am
I going to get in a boss fight before I even enter the dungeon?

When the door opened…
my eyes were where I expected to see a giant’s face. Instead, I
saw what looked like a teenager carrying a massive stack of boxes by
himself. “Name’s Finley. Just what is it that Brim said I
could help you with.” He asked, peeking his head around his
burden to look at us, and then blinked as he saw the staff I was
carrying, suddenly grinning.

“
I’m looking
for books on magic. Specifically, enchanting and teleporting.”

“
Okay, well, I can
help you with the first one, sure. But teleporting is just a spell in
the summoning school, you know? It could take a ritual, depending on
your mastery and the distance, but at most you’ll need a
scroll, not a book.” Finley moved to the counter, setting down
the pile of boxes, and suddenly his steps were much lighter. Then, he
turned to look at me. “Mind if I see your proof?” He
asked cautiously, making sure nobody else was in the store.

“
My..? Ah.” I
got out the grimoire, and held it up to him.

Nodding quickly, he let
out a sigh. “Sorry, policy not to sell to dropouts. Blame my
dad. We won’t sell spells to anyone if they can’t prove
that they graduated the academy.”

I nodded my understanding.
“Did you yourself graduate as well?”

He must have thought that
was funny, because he laughed loudly. “Oh lord no. I’m
still training. Got a few years yet before I’m ready. Besides,
the more you know about magic, the harder it is to pass the final
test, you know?”

“
Yeah…
knowing so many examples would probably make it harder to come up
with your own thing.”
“Exactly. And don’t
worry, I won’t try to buy whatever it is you used. Since you
passed with it, it would be useless for me to cheat off of it.”

I smirked, having not been
planning to show him anyways. “Alright. But, about the teleport
spell?”

“
Oh, yeah. That’s
one that a lot of people have been asking about lately. Though,
nobody has been able to present their proof, so the best I could give
them was a one-use item to teleport them. For you, though, I think I
can sell you the scroll. And the book on enchanting, as well. Now, I
just want to make myself clear because there are two common
definitions. You mean enchanting as in powering up items and people,
or as the mind control magic?”