Limitless Path

"Holy shit," Beth breathed as Jaq re-sheathed the blade with a snap and set it back on the counter. "Uh, I have one problem though," she continued, snapping herself out of the reverie his words had induced.

"You can't equip it properly," he replied, already figuring out where she was heading. "One moment."

He stepped over to the door on the left, Beth again narrowing her eyes at his choice of exit. It wasn't more than a few seconds before he emerged from the center door, Beth's eyes down to little more than slits at this point as she glared at him. He, of course, entirely ignored her look as he set a box on the counter in front of her.

Opening the box, she saw it contained two different belts and a number of clamps and clasps. Raising an eyebrow, she looked up at Jaq for an explanation.

"The belts can be worn across your torso," he explained. "The clasps can either be attached to the belts or even to your pack. You can push a thread of mana into the clasps to operate them. This allows you to either set the unsheathed blade in the clasps and easily pull it from your back, or you can attach the scabbard to the belt or your pack and draw the sword from there."

Beth examined the belts and clasps before looking at her pack on the ground, trying to work out a way that she could attach the new sword to make it easily accessible. She wouldn't be able to wear this blade like her previous, as it was simply too long, but she figured she might be able to get it to work with the pack. The pack had some extra leather straps and loops available, and she took a few minutes to try to tie off two clasps before Jaq reached over with a sigh and took the pack from her.

Beth grunted at him, but he flipped the pack towards her and slowly tied knots with the straps on the right side of the pack to secure the clasps, letting her observe how he did it. Beth put the pack on while Jaq drew the blade and handed it to her, and she fumbled for a moment before slotting it in the clasps. The clasps locked the blade like they were magnetic when she sent a pulse of mana through the blade, and she was able to let it go and have it remain firmly in place. Testing it the other way, she was able to grasp the hilt and, with a tiny pulse of mana, have the clasps fully release. It was a slight bit awkward still, but it was more than doable, and besides, Beth could always fight with her fists and feet, giving her time to clear a space to draw the blade.

"So. How much?" she asked Jaq.

"Let's just call it fifty silvers for everything, box included," he replied with a shrug before turning his attention to the next item.

He picked up the small buckler she had found, looking it over for a minute with a critical eye. He flipped it over, examining the back before testing the straps and giving them a quick tug. Seeming to find what he wanted, he set it back down on the counter before looking at her.

"Standard duelist shield, blackened steel, not much there really. One gold," he said.

"Done," she replied with a nod, Jaq making the item disappear and the coin appear.

He moved on to the two small spheres next, picking them up and giving them each a thorough examination. Beth could see the circuit-like lines in his sclera quite clearly as he inspected, likely using a decent dash of power to inspect the items. He infused enough mana in the tip of his right index finger that Beth could see it glow in the visible spectrum before tapping the first sphere. He finished with that one and placed it down before examining and tapping the second. Satisfied with whatever the hell he had been doing, he looked over at her.

"These are beast cores," he stated calmly.

"Oh, I think Baelvyr mentioned something about them to me before," she replied, tapping her chin lightly as she pondered.

"He might have. Anyway, let me give you a very quick explanation. These are formed from the concentration of mana within a wild beast or sometimes monster. The minimum level you start seeing these is level fifty, as anything below that won't have the mana concentration or density to actually form a physical core. Even over level fifty, beasts aren't guaranteed to form them, and they often break when the beasts die, especially if it is a violent death. They are useful for pretty much every profession in equal measure, whether you are a smith, leatherworker, alchemist, enchanter, or so on. I wouldn't sell or buy a beast core for any less than two gold apiece, and if anyone ever tries to sell you one for cheaper, they are likely scamming the seven dark pits out of you," he explained, gesturing several times at the cores throughout to emphasize his point.

"I assume you're gonna tell me to keep them?" she asked in response, quirking a brow at him.

"It's almost like you have basic reasoning and deduction capabilities," he replied acerbically.

"Clever," she bit off with a frown.

"I would give you four gold for them, but again, I tell you it would be better for you to keep many of these things that work as good, solid crafting materials. Elana or Tazeen would be happy to teach you how to make them into something quite good, and having a chance to use beast cores early on while crafting can be both a good learning opportunity as well as a great shot at some quick skill levels," he reasoned, gesturing at the cores and then at her.

"Do they have any kind of mana aspect or anything? They're not, like, frost cores, or something?" she asked in response as she moved them over with the box of clasps, the Frost Iron, and the necklace.

"Stars beyond, no," he replied with a shake of his head. "Such things do exist, but they are from much more powerful beings. Even if you found these laying around, I don't believe you have that kind of luck. You would need to quickly and efficiently kill a beast well over level one hundred for a chance at an aspected core."

"Didn't know that; good to have that tidbit," Beth said with a nod.

"Now, this bottle is pretty simple," he continued, picking up the glass bottle with the blue liquid inside. "You have had something similar before, in that this is an elixir. Weaker and different than what you took, but still a nice find. It will increase your INT stat by a permanent five points when drank."

"Probably give that to Soph or Kim," Beth muttered, moving it into the keep pile.

"What have we here?" Jaq asked, picking up the pouch with the scales in. Upon opening the pouch, both his eyebrows climbed for his hairline. "Well, well. This is quite an exceptional find. Maybe you will get some aspected cores before level one hundred, at this rate."

"What are they?" Beth asked, peering at the scale with a slight squint.

"Scales from a young shadow wyrm. They can be used in a massive number of crafting applications, particularly alchemy. A shame you didn't find a few more than what you have, they are also excellent in armor smithing, but you don't really have enough to make even a helmet with this amount," he explained, counting and inspecting the scales while he spoke.

"You think I should hang onto those, even not being an alchemist?" she asked in a dubious tone.

"Up to you," he replied. "I will say, they could be useful in weapon making. You could fold them into a blade to reinforce it, but that's not my area of expertise."

"What about price?" she asked with a slight frown.

"The scales are in good condition, but they are rather small and from a young beast. I would put an estimate on them of about fifteen silvers per scale. There are twenty scales in the bag, so as much as three gold coins, if you would sell them all," he gave her a quick glance with a raised brow before quickly returning all the scales to the pouch.

"Three gold it is. Deal," she replied quickly. She could maybe craft with them, but she had plenty of materials already, especially if she hauled that chest of mana steel stock back, so she'd rather have more gold on hand.

"I take it you want this identified?" Jaq asked a little confusedly, eyeing the already opened ration pack.

"Well, I seem to be OK, but Blood and I ate some and I worried they might not be good for us long term. Is there anything wrong with having tons of them?" Beth asked.

"No," he replied simply. When she glared at him for a minute, he sighed and continued, "No, there's nothing wrong with them or eating them long term. They are designed to be fully compatible with a huge range of physiologies, and you should have no problems. The only complaint I know of is that a few people out of a hundred might get the runs if they eat nothing but the bars long term."

"So, they're fine, but there's a low chance I'll shit my pants if I just eat them and nothing else?" Beth asked with a slight smirk.

"Not how I would phrase it, but yes," he replied with a frown. "If you had several of them yesterday and were fine it is not enough to tell yet, but based on how sturdy you seem to be, I wouldn't really worry."

"What the hell do you mean by 'sturdy?'" Beth asked with air quotes around the last word.

"Would you rather weak, inept, and generally incompetent?" he returned smarmily.

"I would rather neither," she said while crossing her arms with a glare.

"Sometimes in this life we don't actually get a choice," he responded, one hundred percent stoic.

"Can you just look at the next thing?" she asked with a sigh.

Jaq grabbed the green box with a frown and popped it open, rummaging through it for a minute before packing it back up. "Worth about a gold," he said, "but you should keep it. Standard weapon maintenance box, good to have a nice little kit with plenty of functionality in your gear."

"Right, I'll hang on to it," she replied, moving it with the rest of the 'keep' pile.

Next, he grabbed the blue box that spat heat when opened. Beth had felt like she was roasting holding it at arms' length, but Jaq opened it directly in front of his own face without a care, not seeming to notice the temperature of the shop spiking. He grabbed one of the glowing objects from within with his bare hands and lifted it out to inspect it.

"Holy hell, how can you just grab that?!" Beth exclaimed, left arm held in front of her face to block off the heat.

"Multi-faceted resistance skill at Diamond level, plus a number of other factors including my raw power being extremely high and this being a low-level item, by universal accounts," he replied calmly, placing the first of the objects back in the box before plucking out the next to examine. Beth took a step back, still holding her arm in front of her face, and waited for him to examine the objects. He seemed to be taking quite a long time to go through the contents of the box, and a muscle in Beth's jaw bunched as she assumed he was just fucking with her at this point.

Finally, he finished the examination and snapped the box closed. He said to her, "Another of those finds that you could do either with, sell or keep. This box has ten lava cores in it, which are not beast cores, but are formed naturally in powerful volcanoes with high levels of ambient mana. Of course, the usual applies about them being excellent crafting materials, particularly for smiths, but I would buy them for fifty silvers a piece, or five golds total."

"I'll keep them, as long as I don't have to open the damn box for a long time," she muttered grumpily as she stepped back up to the counter before moving the blue box to the 'keep' pile.

Jaq picked up the last pouch next with a slightly surprised grunt, opening the drawstring to see the gold inside. He turned the pouch over to unceremoniously dump the gold on the counter, where he deftly arranged it into two neat rows of six bars. He quickly thumbed through them, giving each a quick turn and glance before looking back to Beth.

"Very high purity mana gold here," he started off saying. "In terms of actual coinage, I would estimate each of these between one gold twenty silvers and one gold forty silvers, depending on the circumstances and who's buying. You must remember, I am giving you fairly standardized prices for things, and you could get more elsewhere. Of course, elsewhere means off-world right now, and you do not have the funds or strength for that journey quite yet. If you were to sell, I would pay one gold twenty-five silvers a piece, but they are also rather good materials for your chosen trade."

"I think I have enough gold coins for now," Beth replied reluctantly, moving the gold bars to the 'keep' pile as well.

"One moment, I need to check outside to see if the sun is rising in the west today," Jaq said.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" she asked, crossing her arms and sticking her lower lip out in a bit of a pout.

"The gold obsessed girl has enough gold, I was going to check if you were a dragon at some point here," he responded with a slight sneer.

"Wait, dragons are real?" Beth asked, eyes widening and an unstoppable grin forming.

"Yes, they are very real, and very powerful," Jaq responded with an eyeroll. "I would suggest avoiding even the sapient ones, though with how these things go, I imagine you'll stroll in here with one as a life partner at some point."

"Ah, I'm already taken, and I think that's just as likely as pigs flying," she replied sarcastically.

"There is a species of magical boar that can fly at higher levels," Jaq replied with a shrug.

"You must be bored," Beth fired back with a shake of her head. "Let's just get through the last few things."

Jaq picked up the shirts she had purloined and looked them over very quickly. "Fine tailoring," he said noncommittally. "Other than that, they are shirts. I don't know what else you expected."

"Not magical shirts?" she asked hopefully.

"No," he replied coldly.

"Oh."

"Now, this is much better," Jaq continued, picking up the odd staff she had found. "This is made of the heartwood of a red sage oak. The tree is a variant of oak that has an alignment with fire and burning mana, and the wood was worked quite well. The gem at the top is only semi-precious, but it allows for faster, more concentrated casting of ice and water aligned skills and magics. A nice dual fire-ice type item like this would go for at least five golds, possibly a bit more. I'm assuming this is going to that tiny caster you tote around."

"That tiny caster is my sister, whom I love very much, and yes, it's going to her," Beth replied with a very matter-of-fact attitude as she grabbed the staff and added it to the 'keep' pile.

"These, however, are not up to snuff," Jaq continued with a snort, whether at her antics or the potions, she was unsure. "These are barely above bargain bin level healing potions. They likely won't make you nauseous and woozy when you take them, but they're not going to just pop a chopped off arm right back out of your shoulder joint, either."

"So then how strong are we talking?" she asked as she eyed first the potions and then Jaq somewhat dubiously.

"Severe lacerations and bruising, moderate help in speeding up a broken bone IF it is set properly first, and some light help with things like organ or nervous system damage. They are certainly not very high grade, but if you need something that you could slug in the middle of a fight to keep you going, they'll do the job," he replied, before adding under his breath, "Barely."

"I'll definitely keep them," she said, raising a brow at his snootiness when it came to potions, but she moved them to her right into the ever-growing pile. "Just out of curiosity, how much are they worth?"

"Ah, I would say fifty silvers a piece, if I were in a generous mood," he answered with lowered brow, giving the potions a glare as if they had personally offended him.

"I thought you were an engineer, not an alchemist?" Beth said with a questioning lilt to her voice.

"And I thought you were a meathead, not a busybody," he replied acerbically.

"Mature," she shot back coldly.

"Accurate," he continued in his usual deadpan.

"Fine, fine. What about the bottle of pills?" she asked, trying to keep them on track.

"Alchemist brewed pain pills," he replied simply. Just as she was opening her mouth again to prod him, he continued, "They'll do what they say on the bottle, girl. Just don't take more than the prescribed dose if you need them. And the bottle is about a gold in total."

"Right," she sighed, putting them in with the rest.

"Now, this is a nice little finale," he said, picking up the forging hammer. "I would tell you to take it to Elana or Tazeen to get their opinion, but it’s a solid piece of smithing equipment built to last. The balance seems quite fair, and the runes are for increased force and to impart heat to the impacted area. Have one of the smiths check it and give you feed back before you start using it."

"Right, will do," Beth answered with a nod, adding it to the 'keep' pile before frowning at the jumble. She would have to spend a few minutes to get things packed the way she wanted, and she arranged it so the materials and hammer were at the top. She would run them by Elana or Tazeen first before stashing them in her room. The medicine she put in the first aid kit, as it had some free space for bottles to be stored therein. The weapon maintenance box she put more towards the bottom of the pack along with the rations. She didn't need the shirt shirts for now, so put them in beside the smithing stuff to take out when she made a quick stop at her room.

"Remind me never to go on a long delve with you if that's how you pack," Jaq couldn't refrain from making comments to the side as she finished re-assembling her pack.

"I don't know what's up your butt today but try working it out before anybody else comes in here," she replied a little hotly, her only response a snort as he held his hand out. "What?"

"Don't try and pull that shit on me, girl. You didn't give me the fifty silvers for the box of sword attachments. Hand it over before you dash out of here."

"Fine, sorry," she replied, not contrite in the least. She dumped a pile of silver coins on the counter before turning and dashing out of the commissary, hearing another snort behind her.