Semi-retired Adventurer Lives Leisurely Chapter 11

Published at 6th of June 2021 10:50:50 AM

Chapter 11: The Magical Artifact Store

Henry: “Ahhhhhhhhhh——-...”

I wake up.

Judging from the light coming through the window, it’s getting close to noon. I slept in more than usual this morning. I mean, we did drink quite a bit last night.

We went on an expedition yesterday, and today’s my off day so I’m not late to anything. OHHH—- but I did miss the Bear’s Keg’s morning breakfast special… dang it…

I look lazily out at the scene from the window.

I turn my eyes to the single flower in a small vase decorating my windowsill. I don’t know the name of the flower, but it’s a pretty red one.

In Flowtier, the City of Flower and Water, decorating spaces with flowers like this is a very common practice. I have to admit that it is a nice touch and really lifts your spirits.

Henry: “Alright…”

I did sleep in later than usual, but my meeting time isn’t till after lunch, so there’s no problems.

I quickly get up and get myself ready.

Cyril: “Oh! HEEEEENNNNRY! OVER HERE——! HEYYYYYYYY!!”

Henry: “...hey.”

At our meeting spot, Cyril greets me garnering attention from the people passing by. She’s always high energy like this, but when we first started meeting, it was really embarrassing, and I really wished that she wouldn’t do this.

Henry: “You’re early as always.”

Cyril: “Oh, well, I love taking walks, so I generally walk around exploring the surrounding area and leave earlier so I can do so.”

Huh... walks eh?

It’s true that this city has flowers decorating the scenery everywhere, so just talking a walk around would be pleasant.

Henry: “Well, let’s get going, shall we? Which way was Mr. Thomas’ store?”

Cyril: “It’s over here. This way.”

I follow after Cyril as she leads the way.

Today, we will be visiting Mr. Thomas’ magical artifacts shop.

Lately, we have been increasing the difficulty of our opponents, and Cyril also wanted a new magical trinket.

I’m also interested in buying anything that catches my eye, but the main reason why I’m going is to request maintenance for my mage artifact. If it’s a magical artifacts store, there are typically magic craftsmen working there. The store will take out a percentage of the cut as the middleman, but I really need this done.

Oh, and Jend couldn’t come with us today. His sword master had the day off and offered to train Jend personally.

Cyril: “Hm? Oh! Look at how cute these clothes are!”

And Cyril veers off the main path and looks intently through the display window of a clothes store.

I calmly and carefully flick the back of her head.

Henry: “C’mon. Let’s head to the magic store first.”

Cyril: “Henry, you have to enjoy the things around you as you go when gping shopping!”

Henry: “AFTER we’re done what we came here to do.”

I’m actually the type that’s more restless if I have things remaining on my to-do list.

Cyril: “Oh! Then how about you buy me clothes for the anniversary of our first date!”

Henry: “It’s not a date. We’re fellow adventurers on the same party, and you asked me to give you advice on purchasing magical artifacts.”

Cyril: “I know but….dang it.”

Don’t think that you can weasel me out of my hard earned coin so easily.

….wait, is it because I’m so uptight about money that women don’t like me?

Still, I’m not going to start spoiling Cyril. I can’t see the end of it if I start now.

Henry: “Alright, alright. I’ll buy you a snack or dessert after we’re done.”

Cyril: “YES! Awesome! That’s a promise, okay?”

Well, this much should be fine.

…..or am I being too easy on her?

We follow a street off the main road, but this street is also spacious and packed with people.

And we arrive at Mr. Thomas’ store - a very nice looking building with a wide assortment of goods laid out very nicely.

Henry: “Hello.”

Inside the spacious store, this time of day was not busy. I’m glad because I had to meet with him personally to discuss my business with the mage craftsman.

Thomas: “Oh hello there, Mr. Henry, Cyril.”

Mr. Thomas was watching over his store and came to greet us.

Thomas: “I haven’t seen you in my store in a while, Me. Henry.”

Henry: “Haha, yes, I haven’t had any opportunities to drop by lately.”

Thomas: “Well, I guess it’ll be stranger if you had to buy my goods on a frequent basis. But anyways, we should catch up over a drink some time.”

I haven’t been to Mr. Thomas’ store since I first arrived at Flowtier, but he comes around the Bear’s Keg Inn to dine, and we had dinner together on a number of occasions. He’ll usually be with other merchants, so I’ve been able to make connections as well.

Thomas: “So what can I do for you today?”

Henry: “Cyril needs a defensive artifact. I need some maintenance work done on my spellcall stone. If you can introduce me to a magic craftsman, I’d be grateful. It’s a Kroseid-style artifact.”

The Spellcall Stone. One of the many common types of magical artifacts.

In order to use magecraft, the spellcall stone has the spell already engraved into the tool. They say that long ago, spells were vocal incantations only, and you changed the spell by raising or lowering the volume or pitch of the voice. Hence, the origin of the name “spell call” - like calling forth a spell.

My artifact is a dice shaped stone wrapped around my neck as a pendant. Other artifacts could be staffs, books, bracelets, or any of the other millions of different objects you can use.

And apparently, depending on the mage style, the material, shape and size of the spellcall stone does matter.

One of the oldest magecraft style is the Aron Style Magecraft. To use their magecraft, you have to carve the spell inscriptions on a special stone that can only be excavated from select mountains. But to be honest, their magecraft does not have a lot of practical uses applicable to today’s standards.

And typically, the spellcall stone used by adventurers are small. Mine only had 6 sides, so I’m limited to 6 type of spells, but it’s something I can pinch between two fingers. I’m more of a close combat specialist so a large spellcall stone would only get in the way.

And as you cast spells, the magic that flows through the inscriptions will slowly wear the carvings away causing minor twists and warps in the inscription itself. Once the damage exceeds a certain point, it loses the ability to cast the spell and becomes useless. This is why a regular maintenance and upkeep is required. The smaller the artifact, the faster the maintenance can be performed as well.

Thomas: “What tier of Kroseid-Style do you use, Mr. Henry?”

Henry: “I’m a 3rd tier.”

Thomas: “We’re able to take up to 2nd tier artifacts here.”

Oh, that’s good.

Henry: “Do you have a magic craftsman working here?”

Thomas: “No, my wife is a former magic craftsman. She still helps out with repairs today.”

Oh, I see. Yeah, I can see how that can happen. You’ll have close business ties with that industry as a magical artifact merchant.

Henry: “Then can I lend this to you to fix? The base material is mythril 4, lead 3, bronze 1, and iron 2.”

Thomas: “Yes, that will be fine. With this size and material, it will be about 3,000 zeniths.”

Henry: “Yes, here’s the payment.”

I hand over my pendant with the payment.

Henry: “How long do you think the repairs will take?”

Thomas: “We’re not so busy at the moment, so the repairs should be done by tomorrow evening.”

Henry: “Then I’ll see you again tomorrow.”

Okay, so my business is done here.

I look for Cyril in the store.

Henry: “Hey, why are you looking at house keeping magic artifacts?”

Visit readel.me for extra chapters.

Cyril: “Oh! Henry! Look at this burner! You can easily boil water anywhere using this!”

She pulls out a plate that is about 20 cm (8 in) wide. Apparently, it’s an artifact that you can put a tea kettle on it to heat it up.

Henry: “If I need hot water, I’ll combine [WATER] Eedle with [FIRE] Ignus, so it’s not useful to me.”

Cyril: “Oh that’s convenient. The Endel Style uses very broad blasting magic and lacks that kind of fine touch.”

Even her weakest spell is equivalent to a fire arrow reinforced by [STRENGTH] Hazac, so I can’t imagine her spells being useful inside a house for chores. It’s just not a style of magic that was made for that.

Henry: “Gah, wait a sec. We’re here to find you a defensive artifact. Not this.”

Cyril: “Huh? But don’t you think it’s overkill? My equipment is already high quality.”

Yeah, I know. What Cyril has on normally is a top quality defensive gear, and it will not allow normal attacks to penetrate it easily.

But what I’m worried about is to prepare for the “just in case.” You have to always prepare for the worst in this line of work.

Henry: “Since you have an over abundance of magic reserves, this will be a very effective tool to keep around.”

Cyril: “I guess you’re right…”

There are in general, 3 kinds of magical artifacts you can use.

One requires the user to pour in their magic and will to cast the spell. The spellcall stone is a classic example of this.

Another holds the magic inside it so that you just need to press a button or flip a switch to activate the spell. The household artifacts like that burner fall in this category.

And finally, there are artifacts that require the user to continually feed it magic to cast a perpetual spell for some sort of benefit or effect. This is what I’m having Cyril buy.

If you get greedy and put too many on at once, the artifacts will drain up your magic, and you’ll be immobile until you recover, but for Cyril, she could easily adorn 5 or 6 items without any issues.

Cyril: “Fine! Let’s try something then. What should we buy? Which one is good? I’ve only looked at magic enhancing artifacts in the past.”

Henry: “Then try this one. It puts a protective field around you at all times and is called ‘Mr. Forcefield.’”

I recognized these items and pointed out different kinds to Cyril.

Cyril: “Who came up with that name? There’s not a lick of creativity or good sense put into it.”

Henry: “It’s a super popular item for adventurers everywhere. It only prevents demonic creatures from entering your field so it doesn’t get in the way of everyday living or when you’re scouting. They’ve been coming out with several different series recently like ‘Mr. Forcefield Mk II’ and ‘Mr. Forcefield [ROCK HARD BODY]’ and ‘Mr. Forcefield FOREVER.’”

If you can use physical strengthening magic, that would be more efficient than using the item, but if you have a hard time with that kind of spell, this item is a lifesaver for rearguards.

Thomas: “Oh, but our store only carries up to ‘Mr. Force [ROCK HARD BODY]’ and we’ll have to custom order anything else.”

Mr. Thomas added his input to mine.

Cyril: “Hmmmmm… but it looks so bad and out of style…”

Henry: “Hey, don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s about what it can do, not how it looks.”

Cyril: “But what’s the point of wearing an item that makes you look super dumb? It’ll kill your morale!”

Well, I mean… I’m not going to argue that morale and how you feel doesn’t matter, because it does. A forward way of thinking will always get you farther even as an adventurer.

But setting that aside, does this artifact make you look THAT bad? I personally like how it looks.

Thomas: “That is true. Aside from its performance, the looks of the artifact is very unpopular.”

…..really?

Cyril: “See! I told you so!”

Thomas: “In fact, they recently had a complete makeover done. The effects are still the same, but they hired a good designer this time. Would you care to take a look? It’s right over here.”

Oh, I didn’t see the discount tag on this “Mr. Forcefield.”

Cyril: “OH! Look at that! They really did make it look nicer! I like it!”

Over on the table was another bracelet. Its overall silhouette looked sharper, and the way the spell inscription is carved has an elegant flow to it.

Cyril asked if she could try it on, and Mr. Thomas lent the bracelet to her.

Cyril: “How is it, Henry? Doesn’t this one look nicer?”

Henry: “I don’t think a single bracelet is really going to make that much of a difference…”

Cyril’s telling me how I just don’t get it. She’s looking at herself in a mirror with a nod of approval.

I feel like I got a small glimpse of the difference between men and women...

Cyril: “I’ll take it. How much will it be?”

Thomas: “It’ll be 10,000 zeniths.”

Cyril; “Ouch. It’s a little pricey.”

But most adventurers will tell you that compared to its performance value, it’s a bargain. That’s why it’s so popular and many of its kind are being mass produced for the market.

Well, Cyril must have known the general market price for magical artifacts and took the money out of her wallet.

Thomas: “If you like how this one works, please consider purchasing its upgrade in the future. You can use the one you have as a trade-in to get a price reduction.”

Cyril: “I’ll try this out before I give you an answer. The upgrade sounds like it would be pretty expensive.”

Thomas: “The ‘Mr. Forcefield Mk II’ is 50,000 zeniths.”

Cyril looks shocked, but if she continues to be an adventurer, she’ll be making a hefty sum to cover that cost in no time.”

Now that Cyril’s defense, which was the most concerning point for our team, has been covered to a certain degree, we talk about going a little further into the forest for our next expedition.

On the way back, we tried several sweet shops that Cyril recommended.

Having a little too much to drink and more sweets than usual, I woke up with some heartburn the next morning.

Chapter end