CH.78 Staff for Alice
<span style="font-weight:400">“Please get me this.” Alice said, pointing at a wooden staff.
<span style="font-weight:400">The staff was just over a meter long. It was made of a darker wood and had a crescent moon carved as its head.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why that one?” I asked her. “There are three other staves there and all of them have more decorations.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I just think it should be this.” Alice said as she picked it up.
<span style="font-weight:400">Why that one? It just seems basic. Not that basic is bad, but I thought that she would go for one with more decorations or gems on it. The other three staves had magic stones, or something like that in them. One of them even had six of them. So why this one? I guess price wise this is cheaper, but I just don’t understand why she wants that one when she was going to have me pay for it.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...sure, we can ask the owner about the price when hees back.” I told Alice. “I just don’t understand why you chose that one.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It just feels correct.” She answered.
<span style="font-weight:400">Is it something to do with her attribute? Or her skill in magic? Or is the wood just higher quality? So many questions.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sir Brian.” I heard Lawrence call for me. “I got your money.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thank you.” I responded and took Alice with me to the counter.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Here you go. Please confirm it.” He said as he ced a bag on the counter.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Actually,” I interrupted. “Alice is interested in that staff. How much would that cost?” I asked him.
<span style="font-weight:400">“A staff? Which one?” He looked at the staff Alice was holding. He opened his eyes a little wider when he saw the one Alice picked. “Miss, are you sure you want that one?” He asked Alice.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes.” Alice responded. “It felt the best for me.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I see. That staff is carved from a treant branch. I’m surprised you like it.” Lawrence said to Alice. “I’ve heard that they are more difficult to use and require higher levels of mana control. But they also improve over time as they are used, so some mages swear by them.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I guess Alice would have higher skills than most beginner mages after all her training, so a difficult to master staff that will grow with her might be for the best.
<span style="font-weight:400">“So, how much is it?” I asked Lawrence.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I can let it go for 30 gold.” He answered.
<span style="font-weight:400">Thirty? That sounds low. Is he trying to give me a super good deal again?
<span style="font-weight:400">“Are you sure it''s thirty?” I confirmed. “You are not trying to give me another super good deal, are you?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Deal?” Alice asked next to me. “No. We will pay the full price. I can’t have the Watchman name ruined.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Does she even care about it? I’m surprised that she does.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...I’ve never heard of someone haggling like that. Fine. Forty gold. That’s it. I won’t take more for it.” Lawrence gave up.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Pleasure doing business with you.” I said to him. I opened the bag of coins he put out on the table and took out ten gold coins. Then I ced the magic fanny pack onto the table.
<span style="font-weight:400">…
<span style="font-weight:400">After a second of awkward silence, I asked him. “Will you take out the sk or not?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, right.” He realized that he was frozen. Then he pulled out the box he showed mest time. “Here it is.” He handed the box over.
<span style="font-weight:400">I slid the cover of the box to the side and confirmed that the sk was inside. And it was, so we are good to go. Then I took the ten gold coins and shoved it all inside my fanny pack.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thank you.” I said to Lawrence.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thank you.” Alice repeated after me.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I think I should be thanking you. This is the biggest sale I’ve made in a while.” He told us.
<span style="font-weight:400">“But we are the ones walking out of here with the coins.” I joked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll make that money back when I sell this.” He said, padding the magic fanny pack.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good luck.” I said to him as I took Alice’s arm. “Let’s go.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. Goodbye.” Alice said to Lawrence as we left.
<span style="font-weight:400">—
<span style="font-weight:400">I noticed something strange as I ced the magic sk that I just bought inside my fanny pack. The strange thing is, it actually went inside just fine. The one I made in the dungeon didn’t, so I just kept it in my pocket, but the new one went in just fine. I wonder why.
<span style="font-weight:400">(It is because the sk you bought is empty and stored inside a box. The box prevents the interference that would normallye from stacking spatial distortions.) Laura told me.
<span style="font-weight:400">(So I can ce an empty magic bag inside a magic bag if there is something in between?) I confirmed.
<span style="font-weight:400">(Something that is made to reduce spatial interference.) Laura specified.
<span style="font-weight:400">(I guess I should at some point search for something like that then.) I told Laura.
<span style="font-weight:400">(Why? You don’t actually need it. Master is not a merchant and even most merchants wouldn’t have many items like that. They are seen as unnecessary, unless you deal in magic items that require them.) Laura told me.
<span style="font-weight:400">(I guess.) I admitted. (And I do have this one now.)
<span style="font-weight:400">—
<span style="font-weight:400">“So, where are we going next?” Alice asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What part of the ‘I have no n’ did you forget?” I countered.
<span style="font-weight:400">“All of it.” Alice joked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, we can go wherever we want.” I told her until I looked to the west. “At least until the rain starts.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Will we have to call off our date?” Alice asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“We are already on a date, aren’t we? Can we call off something that is already going on? It would be more like cutting it short.” I told her. “And I think those clouds won’t be here until the afternoon, so we still have time.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Can’t you do something about them?” She asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Are you asking me to change the weather just so we can extend our date, where we already have no ns. I think it’s better not to mess with natural things too much. Not that I know if I could even do anything about the rainclouds.” I told her.
<span style="font-weight:400">I have some monsters that might be able to do something, but honestly I don’t want to try. Blue-Eyes might be able to make a hole in the clouds and I guess I have a monster called Weather Report as well, but Weather Report’s effect has nothing to do with the weather. He actually counters different kinds of binding spells.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then we have to hurry. We don’t have the time to just stand around.” Alice said as she pulled me along.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well there''s always tomorrow. And the day after that.” I told her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“But Father will be home soon and after that I can’t do things like this anymore.” Alice argued.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then you’ll just have to show to your father that going outside is good for you. You just got a nice staff that you wouldn’t have had without this date, so that’s already an improvement to your magic abilities.” I told her. “By the way, why didn’t you have one already?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Father said he would get me one when I casted my first spell. But then everything went crazy, so I guess he just hasn’t yet.” Alice told me. “Staves are usually fitted with a magic stone with the same attribute as the user.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I guess the other staves had magic stones already. And if I had to guess, dark magic stones are rare. Everything dark magic seems to be. But what even are magic stones?
<span style="font-weight:400">(Magic stones are refined from monster cores with magic. They take on the attribute of the magic they are refined with, but they favor the attribute of the monster they were originally in.) Laura told me. (And like any magic, they don’t like their opposite element.)
<span style="font-weight:400">(So I can’t turn a monster core from an earth monster into a wind magic stone?) I confirmed.
<span style="font-weight:400">(Exactly. But Master’s stones would be without an element in the first ce. Stones like that are good for beginner staves, but often are reced with elemental onester.) Laura told me.
<span style="font-weight:400">I guess a neutral one would be nice when you are still learning. Makes me wonder why Alice didn’t have one like that.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alice, why did you not have a practice staff while you were studying?” I asked her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I did have one.” She told me. “But then it broke. Teacher said it could no longer take the amount of mana I used when I attempted casting spells.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“So it was flimsy. Please be careful with that one. I don’t want to see it blown to pieces.” I told her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure. I’ll be careful.” She told me.
<span style="font-weight:400">I just don’t want her to break it immediately. I just got it for her. Actually, analyzing it wouldn’t be a bad idea. That way, I could recreate it with the dungeon if it does break. And perhaps I could even make an improved version eventually.
<span style="font-weight:400">With those thoughts, we continued our date.