Chapter 17: 017 The Near Death Of Wallet-Chan
The sun was just now starting to reach its peak in the sky by the time we left the residential district and got back to the market.
As we walked down the street I noticed all of the different stores on either side of us offering all sorts of adventuring items and supplies. If I was being completely honest, the variety of products was off the charts but none of it really appealed to me.
What I really needed, the weapons and armor, Otto was already working on.
At this point I just need some mana potions and some more basic spells. With this I should be able to start my spell crafting.
As I looked over to Ventus, it was clear that she was ecstatic to go out and do something normal like shopping. She dragged me from store to store to look at every single thing available.
It was pure insanity. I knew what I needed. All I had to do was go get it and be done. I genuinely didn't understand the fascination with examining everything.
It was Ven though, and she looked adorable bouncing around the stores. I guess the insanity could be overlooked.
Finally after an ungodly amount of window shopping we made our way to a general supply store.
Adventure Haven.
It was really an ordinary store with nothing more than basic supplies and such.
The first thing Ven noticed however, were some clothes.
I couldn't blame her. The state of our dress situation was terrible. If it wasn't for this armor I would look like a homeless person. To be honest Ven's clothes weren't faring any better.
I guess I should also look for some decent attire right?
We began our search and very quickly for me it ended. I found nothing. I sighed.
Maybe Otto has something I could borrow?
I kept walking around the store contemplating if Otto's clothes would fit me when out of the corner of my eye I finally I saw something I wanted.
On the shelves were several survival kits similar to what Ven had.
This I wanted. It's an absolute essential when one is out on the floors.
I had my hand stretched out reaching for one when I noticed a sign pointing to the "Super Sale" of top tier survival kits.
I followed the sign and eventually came across a different shelf with many of the promised high end fancy kits.
Disbelief at what I saw came as fast as lightning.
Where was Ven she needed to see this nonsense.
"Ventus come here!"
Moments later she appeared. I pointed to the shelf.
"Do you see what I see?"
"Yes, and it's frightening."
The kits were organized as such:
Deluxe
Super Deluxe
Super Mega Deluxe
Super Mega Ultra Deluxe
Super Mega Ultra Max Deluxe
Super Mega Ultra Max Divine Deluxe
Super Mega Ultra Max Divine Omega Deluxe
Meh Small Ok Minimum Basic Kinda Alpha Deluxe
Well....I guess over the course of five years they have seemed to upgrade the adventure's survival kits from Basic Survival Kit to whatever monstrosity was before me.
This was my initial thought but as I read the description of the contents of each I was flabbergasted.
Each kit had the same basic items:
Cookware
Utensils
Cups
Fire starter
Blanket
Pitcher Of Infinite Water
The difference between the basic and Deluxe kit was that they offered health potions as well. At a ridiculously overpriced amount. With each step of the Deluxe series both the quantity and price of the potions increased.
This was a blatant rip off. Especially since the price jumped by the thousands with each tier while the amount of potions increased by 20 or so.
After coming back to my senses, I had a logical conversation with myself.
I could craft my own healing spells easily, so health potions were basically useless to me. All I really needed to go along with the basic necessities was mana potions and I could stop by the alchemist to get them.
Anyone would be a fool to purchase this.
I went back to the basic kits and nabbed one for myself.
As I came up to the counter to pay Ven approached me. She had picked a new outfit for herself.
She chose a simple blue blouse with Cotten pants for her. The clothes seemed like they would be a bit too tight but...I'm not gonna complain about that.
Out of nowhere Ven started to give me a pair of puppy dog eyes.
Oh no I know where this is heading.
"Em"
No please not there.
"Would you"
Goddess no. Why!!!!
"Be kind enough to get this for me?"
She put her cuteness output at max level.
I fell for it. Pretty soon both the shop keep and I had a stupid smile on both our faces from the overload we were experiencing.
"Dammit. Ok fine."
"Thank you so much."
She was jumping up and down out of happiness.
I turned back to pay when SB started fidgeting and making weird noises atop my head. It took me by surprise.
He never moves so I forget he even exists. I assume he sleeps all the time, honestly I have no idea what he does all day.
"What are you doing? You celebrating with Ven too?"
Bloop Bloop Bloop Bloop
"What is it SB, what are you looking at?"
He started to stretch his jelly like body and point to my left. As I approached what he was pointing to I was able to read the description label. It was for a bottle of SLIME EXTRACT!
"You psycho what do you want that slime extract for!?"
BLOOP BLOOOP BLOOP
"You know I don't speak slime! Now tell me what you want with it but know that I am not getting it because I am not raising a cannibal!"
BLOOOOOOOOOOOOP BLOP BLOP BLOOP
In protest SB jumped off my head and bounced his way to the shelf containing the many bottles of the extract.
What did he want them? Was he lamenting over the loss of his slime brethren? Was he just hungry with an appetite for the exotic? The world may never know.
I ran after him but it was too late. He had ingested all the bottles. Slowly one by one they were disappearing within him. He kept expanding and getting bigger with each one he consumed.
My heart dropped at the sight.
Ven was just in the corner of the store covering her face pretending not to know who I was like she didn't just ask me to pay for her two seconds ago.
I poured my heart out to SB.
"My child where have I failed you. Is it because you hunger? Perhaps it was always in your nature and I never knew? Woe to me...woe to me!"
The shop keeper started yelling angrily. This pulled me away from the suffering and pain I was going through.
The shop keeper quickly started demanding I pay him for the loss and damages.
With no other choice I agreed and paid him.
As SB continued his feast of Slime juice, I with much pain handed over 2,000 gold coins for everything.
The kit, clothes, and damages.
The sight of my wallet losing its size made me depressed.
I walked towards SB. He stared back at me with the same soulless black abyss like eyes. I worry about him sometimes.
Cautiously I picked him up and put him atop my head again.
"Come on buddy let's go. You caused enough damage for the day."
The moment I said that I got a system notice.
[Required Material Obtained]
[SB Can Now Evolve]
[Go To Pet Menu To Commence Evolution]
WHAT!!! Is that what he was doing?
Why didn't he just tell me?
Well its good news I guess that I don't have to go to an information broker to learn how to evolve him.
"Why didn't you tell me that's what you were doing?"
Bloop Bloop
I huffed.
"Whatever."
With that emotional ordeal behind us, Ven and I finally walked out of the store decided our next stop should be to the local alchemist.
Since we both use magic in combat it was important to have potions that could regenerate our mana.
As we entered the store, we saw shelves and shelves full of different colored potions. Potions to resist de buffs, or mitigate damage, even potions to increase strength lined the walls.
It would amaze anyone who saw the display. I'm pretty sure it would cause an instant shopping spree however, we were both unfazed.
We knew why we were there and what we needed. Since we already had SB and he protected us against Status de buffs, really the only thing we needed were mana potions.
Thankfully this time, no problems occurred. Minutes later Ventus and I walked out with too many Mana Potions.
Was it necessary? Absolutely not. Did I splurge? Totally. But I didn't care, I wanted to be as prepared as possible for any situation.
Of course the price of preparedness was 1,500 gold coins.
The pain! It's so great!
We were on the street again when Ventus spoke up.
"So we have survival kits and potions, what else do we need Em?"
"Hmmmm I believe the last stop should be the arcane shop. I need to get some spells and then we should be able to call it a day."
"Ok not a problem I think I saw one over here."
She grabbed my hand and started pulling me in one direction.
For the first time in a long time my heart skipped a beat.
Moments later we walking into the arcane shop.
Entering here was a dream. On the shelves were rows of books and more books. Incantations and spells of all kinds were everywhere.
The back part of the store housed all of the magic artifacts.
I made a note to go by that area before we leave. I had a feeling there were some useful items there.
As we walked throughout the store I made sure we took our time.
Ventus and I browsed through several tomes and incantations side by side. While some of these were interesting and others were enticing to get, deep down I knew an unshakable truth.
I can craft better spells than what's available here.
Really it's not that hard, well the theory of it isn't.
You just start by manipulating and visualizing the mana, add the desired elements to it, follow it up by the injection of the casters will and finally, you just pour your mana into it to feed the spell and bring it to life.
If you succeeded then the system recognizes and registers the spell, if you failed then the worst thing that happened is that you just expended your mana and have to wait for it to regenerate.
The Theory isn't too difficult but to actually pull this off takes quite a lot of skill.
As we kept browsing we eventually ended up in the artifacts section. This area was a dream. There were all sorts of items on display.
Some had powerful elemental magic, others had incredible stat buffs. All in all it was a better selection than the tomes we were looking at.
Once again though I hesitated to get too excited over them. As powerful as artifacts are. They are a one time use item. Essentially a glass canon so not worth the expensive price tag.
Eager to leave already I turned to Ven.
"Hey Ventus let's split up to find some basic spell books so that we can hurry and leave."
"Sure that's not a problem, I think I actually saw a section for basic magic over here."
She headed over in one direction.
Instead of aiding in the request I decided to go directly to the shop keep and ask about something I had on my mind.
He was half asleep so when I approached him and spoke, he got startled. I gave him a moment to center himself.
"Excuse me I was wondering do you have any blank rings?"
"Oh we have an Enchanter in our midst. Impressive."
I rolled my eyes. He seemed embarrassed.
"Sorry about that, No one ever asks for them so we may or may not have them. Let me go to the back to check."
He shuffled his way towards the back of the store.
Moments later Ven came by with a stack of books.
I helped her put them on the counter. Separating the ones I needed from the ones that were completely useless.
"Em where did the shop keep go?"
"Oh he went to the back to get something for me."
"What did you ask for?"
"Blank rings."
At that answer Ven seemed a little surprised.
"Why would you want blank rings?"
"Well to tell you the truth none of the magical items here seemed worth the price tag. With this new stack of magic books we are buying, I should have all the basic magical forms covered and I can start crafting spells."
"Yes but spells crafting is one thing. You asked for blank rings that means you plan on enchanting them. That's a whole different process. What good are blank rings if you can't enchant them."
"Who said I couldn't? Besides spells and enchantments are fundamentally the same. The application is just different."
She was right. I planned on enchanting the rings. Since I saw no item here that would be useful enough to help us I decided to make my own hence the blank rings.
They are called as such because it's an metal band ring that's been primed with mana so that it can be enchanted. It doesn't have an enchantment so it's blank.
The shop keep returned with a box. Hopefully he had what I had asked for.
"I only have ten in my stock." He said as he placed them on the counter.
"I'll take all ten and these books."
I pointed to the stack of books on the counter.
"It's gonna be 1,250 pieces of gold."
"For ten blank rings and some books! That's extortion!" I yelled.
"Look buy them or not I don't care but that's the price."
I grumbled to myself as I reluctantly paid. They were too important for me to just let them slip through my fingers.
After I paid for everything We headed out.
I was putting my pouch of gold back in the dimensional space along with the purchased items.
I started the day with 4,994 gold coins and now I'm ending it with only 244 gold pieces left.
Why is everything expensive? It once again hurt me to see a near empty pouch of gold. It looked back at me skinnier than I have ever seen it. Almost on the verge of death.
I patted him before officially storing him away.
The only good thing about my wallet dying was that we got everything we needed. And things we didn't know we needed. I looked up to SB.
We walked back to Otto's In silence, at least for a moment before Ventus spoke up.
"Thank you Em, it's been so long since I've done anything normal. Today was really fun."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was definitely an experience."
"We should do this again."
Agony was the only thing I felt hearing those words.
We continued in silence until we eventually reached the well which was the entrance to Otto's hidden area.
As I was about to move the loose brick I heard an ear piercing scream come from below.
Ven and I looked at each other with worry.
"What was that Em?"
"I don't know but we have to hurry!"
I moved the brick and the water began to drain as panic settled.
What is going on?
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone