The Flying Emporium

For some inexplicable reason, everyone was up unexpectedly early this day. Even the new guests, who one might have expected to take a bit more time to fully recuperate, soon met up with everyone else.

Given the original purpose for their visit they quickly, if still sleepy, decided to actually visit Severin’s store.

But some of the tiredness was soon dispelled as they remembered someone mentioning new wares the day before. Knowing nothing specific about those said wares, their curiosity got them moving.

That and the two youths, who both seemed way too animated for this time of the day, ushering them inside.

“Just wait till you see the new products, Xandi! Your trip was definitely worth it.” Timothy advertised with an excited grin on his face.

If one didn’t know any better, one might’ve easily mistaken him for Severin’s employee. Or [Employee], rather.

With that comment, Xander’s mood instantly turned sour.

‘Now even a brat like him already calls me that.’

Knowing who this brat’s backup was, Xander didn’t dare to dish out the slap he thought would be deserved.

“Careful there, you little shi…”

He halted mid-sentence upon entering the store. That was not how he remembered it. Before, he didn’t really pay any attention to the store itself, but once inside the change to both the size as well as the general layout was impossible to miss.

On its own, this sight wouldn’t warrant a practiced talker like him to lose his words like this.

It still couldn’t really be called spacious. And it sure wasn’t luxurious either. Still lined with that unfamiliar-looking wood and, from what he could see, still only the same kind of items on the shelves as before.

Even though it had taken longer than initially planned, thanks to the Dungeon Break incident on their way, for him to be back inside Severin’s store, it was in no way long enough for this kind of renovations to have taken place. Certainly not on a mountaintop disconnected from all other signs of civilization. And with no useful resources in the vicinity. The timeline simply didn’t add up. Unless some rare [Construction Worker]…

Samuel would’ve certainly laughed out loud while also expressing his sympathy if he knew of those thoughts.

The four first-time customers who expected a ‘tiny little shop’ didn’t have much of a reaction. The discrepancy between reality and their expectations was quickly chalked up to Xander’s well-known tendency to exaggerate. After all, if Xander didn’t have concrete evidence to help convince people of the magical items this store had to offer, then they surely wouldn’t be standing here right now. Not to mention sending a respected officer as well as a healer of their guild to scout this place.

Before anyone of them had the chance to open their mouths though, everyone already had an item pressed into their hands. A small bottle with a somewhat viscous liquid inside of it.

“Here, check this stuff out.”

Timothy’s voice snapped Xander out of his wonder. Looking at the item in his hands, he was somewhat reluctant to actually will its tooltip into existence. Simply because he didn’t want to follow the prompt of a person who had just slighted him.

Only when his companions let out a collective shout of excitement, shortly followed by very vocal expressions of frustration and disappointment, by some of them, did his own curiosity get the better of him.

Seeing the all too familiar-looking container gave Xander a good idea of what to expect, even if the liquid contained inside was not of the same green color as last time.

[Weapon Oil – Water Damage Conversion (5)

Forty percent of all Physical Damage dealt by the enchanted Weapon gets converted into Water Damage.

Lasts for 30 minutes.]

Xander turned around. Not making any sound or showing any reaction on his face whatsoever.

From the blue variant in his own hand did he peek over at the revealed tooltips of the other versions.

‘Hahaha! With that, I’m able to target any of the common elemental weaknesses! Nothing can stop me now! With my high damage, even just a forty percent conversion rate is more than enough…If I combine that with the resource potions, I might very well be able to out-damage some of the casters even in encounters against bosses which possess high physical resistances.‘ Xander was extremely delighted, but he still didn’t say anything, and his expression was still as unreadable as before.

Now, he deliberately put on a very solemn face and stepped towards the two people of his group who had just expressed their displeasure, laying a hand on one of their shoulders each.

“Don’t worry guys. We are all part of the same guild. Basically family. We won’t just abandon you only because you can’t use them. You can still make yourself useful in other ways. They are tradable after all.”

“FUCK!”

“PISS OFF!”

Standing on the side, it took all of his self-control for Timothy to not also hurl some well-chosen words at Xander. And Miriam’s grin wasn’t making it any easier to bear either.

After a few rounds of banter and shit-talking, it became very apparent that this group of more experienced adventurers evaluated these products very differently than Samuel’s disciples had back then.

The two of them thought it would be funny to first tease the group with these supposedly disappointing products before then revealing what was to them the new main attraction.

Instead, they now just stood there somewhat deflated, seeing the confusion in each other's eyes. What were they missing? That’s certainly not how it was supposed to play out.

But now there was no way for them to join the animated and unexpectedly serious discussions that ensued. None of these people might be guild officers and coming up with strategies was certainly not within their responsibilities, but suddenly the possibilities seemed to be endless. And then, of course, there still were the health and resource potions, which had just proven their worth many times over.

When boarding the Airships, most of the guild members hadn’t actually known the reason for their excursion or its destination; The leadership wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible. No need to draw unnecessary attention to them. Not that a guilds raid group moving away from any of the profitable raids in the area didn’t draw its own kind of attention, anyway.

When they were confronted with a horde of monsters escaping from the dungeon, though, the priorities obviously shifted in such a situation. As a consequence, their initial objective was revealed.

Everyone had seen the effectiveness of those strange jelly potions first hand.

And how Andreas was able to consume another health pot while it should’ve still been on cooldown.

Or how Lynn’s mana pool was seemingly endless.

So before making sure they bought, as many as the carrying capacity allowed, from every single item on display, there was no way they would even spare a single glance at some strange box that very obviously didn’t seem to be an item for sale.

Just like that, almost three thousand gold changed hands, with a nonchalance on the buyer's side that almost tempted Severin to try biting into the coins. In the end, he decided to trust the System’s built-in forgery-detection-measures. Who could ever hope to out-scam the thing?

The conclusion of those five transactions was like a start signal. A System notification popped up and demanded Severin’s attention, confirming the successful completion of his quest and reminding him of the corresponding reward. Not any slower than the System itself, the impatiently waiting youths once again sprang into action, to finally show off the colorful box.

They both still had their ten daily uses available to them. Very deliberately did they walk toward the left back corner of the room, making sure neither Xander nor his companions left the store yet.

Not wanting to wait any longer till he was alone, Severin didn’t hesitate for a moment before opening the System Screen and navigating to his newly earned quest reward.

‘Please don’t disappoint me again.’