The Flying Emporium

When Andreas opened the door to the shop, he was stunned for a moment by the noise that greeted him, causing him to hesitate for a moment.

Samuel was the only one present who noticed the guild officer’s arrival.

Besides Severin of course, who had already spotted the man on his new map.

Noticing who was responsible for all the commotion, Andreas greeted both of them with a silent, curt nod, not wanting to draw any attention to him. For the moment at least.

Like that, he fully entered the store and, with a perfunctory glance, took in the sight of the remodeled shop. Really just for a short moment though, not even bothering to check out the new items that were showcased on the aisle of shelves standing in the middle of the room.

Before long, he found a place near Samuel where he could observe his subordinates while wearing an unhappy expression on his face.

And who could blame him?

For one, those people were representing the whole guild.

Normally he turned a blind eye to Xander’s questionable behavior. In terms of common decency, Andreas didn’t expect too much of him. But this right here was low, even for Xander’s standards. Competing with two youths in a match of pushing and shoving. All while shouting as if they were watching an arena match. And one of them might still even be a child.

But worst of all, it seemed just one day was all it took for Xander’s behavior to rub off on the other four as well. That’s what bothered Andreas the most.

Well, that and the massive man standing next to him.

Andreas carefully sneaked a glance towards the person. He could only relax a little bit when he noticed the other man didn’t seem to be bothered by all of this. Andreas had seen the duo fight at his last visit. They were the ones that made his group aware of the potion’s cooldowns. And they were clearly somehow related to Samuel.

If this disgraceful behavior somehow resulted in hostilities between Samuel and the guild, Andreas would take it upon himself to flay all five of them personally. Before offering their broken bodies up as reparations.

For another, there was the timing.

Just one day ago, everyone was still fighting for their lives. Some of them only made it out of there by a hair’s breadth. He himself was one of those. After that, in the wake of the Dungeon Break, everyone was assigned their tasks, while still exhausted to their core, with no real break to speak of.

The healers, like Lynn, were kept busy dealing with all kinds of big and small wounds that were both typical and expected for battles like this. Only resting to regenerate some of their mana.

Others were sent to rush back immediately, to either inform the guild’s headquarters of the events and make a status report or to warn some of the smaller outposts which were located nearest to the forgotten dungeon’s location; ‘Nearest’ in this case didn’t mean those were actually nearby and therefore still required quite a bit of traveling to reach them. Still, it was the only right thing to do.

Then, of course, there was Andreas himself, who had to deal with the Adventurer’s Society and all the hassle that was attached to it.

It wasn’t so easy as to drop by and tell them, “Oh hey, so, we came across this dungeon with hordes of monsters escaping it. The one west. You know the one. In the cave.”

He wasn’t detained. But he couldn’t just leave either.

A lot of information was required of him. Recounts of the events. Repeated and detailed recounts. To an ever-growing audience of increasingly important and powerful people. While waiting for reports of confirmation.

And once the issue was finally confirmed and established, there were countermeasures to plan.

Again, not something Andreas was forced to get involved with. But it would be a great chance for the guild. For their reputation as a whole, but also as a chance to grow as individuals. As adventurers.

Even that haphazard battle had awarded them good experience. He wouldn’t be doing his job as an officer if he didn’t give it his all to get their guild a spot on the extermination team. And for that, he couldn’t just snub the Society.

And Xander? What had he done in the meantime?

Sure, Andreas had sent him off himself, but surely not to squabble with some children while taking apart the shop. The shop for which they had gone through so much trouble to visit.

Forget about Samuel being annoyed by them. What about the shop owner? And what the hell were they even doing over there in that corner?

In the beginning, the reason for Andreas to keep his mouth shut was to not reveal himself. After that, the reason he still didn’t say anything was that he knew once he opened his mouth, he wouldn’t be able to restrain himself and explode on the spot.

But if one looked closely, one would notice how Andreas’s expression slowly began to change, becoming more and more curious instead.

Besides some snippets of words, he was able to make out things like ‘recipe‘‚ ‘possible combinations‘ or ‘broken‘, every now and then, an opening showed itself. Revealing either a strange-looking box standing in the corner or some flasks that looked different from all the other products that were on display.

Before long, the officer has moved further and further towards the rowdy group, still not revealing his presence. Which was a problem on its own.

At this distance, by all right, someone should have noticed him. What kind of silver badge didn’t notice someone standing right behind them?

As much as the majority of his original indignation he had already passed, it once again flared up.

“Look at this!” Xander let out a sudden shout, which shut everyone else up while he turned around to face his companions.

And, most importantly, to show off the item he held in his hands.

Suddenly facing Andreas, one might have expected Xander to become meek. To feel guilty or even ashamed at being caught displaying such behavior. At least that much self-reflection could surely be expected?

Instead, after one awkward half-second of silence, he once again shouted,

“Look at this!” With even more emphasis this time around.

Andreas’s face turned red from anger. The vein on his forehead almost popping. The insolence! And the fact that the other four, soon-to-be ex-guild members, if they weren’t careful, still didn’t seem to notice him and were instead occupied by trying to inspect the item, which Xander held so proudly in his hands, didn’t help either.

Yes. Xander seemed proud. Smug even. In this situation, holding eye contact as if nothing was wrong. Totally unashamed. Maybe even waiting for praise?

This was it. Andreas suddenly seemed to loosen up. Lighten up. The burning anger, threatening to explode at any minute, seemed to dissolve into thin air and made way for a smile.

Severin, observing from the side, knew better, though. He recognized the look.

He knew it from back home. Everyone there knew the look.

It was the strained look of a mother promising their children hell, once they were out of public.

Back in the car, on their way home. If the child was lucky. If it was unlucky, it would have to wait until they were back home, with no words exchanged during the ride whatsoever.

Gasp

Suddenly everything went quiet. The eyes of the troublemakers glued to the item in Xander’s hands.

For one short moment, one might’ve been able to hear a needle drop.

Then the scuffling of feet. First one pair, then another. Samuel was somewhat faster to react to this sudden change in the atmosphere than Severin, who, on the other hand, was slightly closer to the group.

Around the same time the [Shopkeeper] began to move, Andreas also finally turned to inspect the tooltip that was now floating in front of him. It had obviously been the cause for this sudden change.

After reading the floating, white text on the familiar light-blue background, he needed another second to process the information it contained. Nothing left of his anger. Truly, this time.

Only confusion. Disbelief.

And then.

Chaos.

Hysteric screams erupted.

Nine people. Crowded inside a small corner, inside a small store, shouting like madmen. Even including Samuel. And even though the [Berserker] was slightly more reserved than the others, it still spoke volumes about the newly discovered item’s effect.

“That can’t be real!”

“How did you...?”

“Not possible!”

“What combination…?”

“Hey, let me see as well!” Funnily enough, it was the shop owner himself who was the only one who hadn’t gotten a good look at the item’s description yet.

Only when someone shouted out parts of the tooltip, more out of excitement than to answer Severin’s question, was he enlightened.

“Ten HP restored. Per hit?! And on top of that still twenty-five percent damage conversion?!”