...

-"So, Lucy," I asked the woman next to me, " Where are we going first?"

-"Hmm...We'll visit all the interesting places and move radially outward from the guild." replied Lucy.

-"Your town, your rules."

-"hehe, how about we get you a weapon first? what kind would you prefer?" She asked, looking at me brightly.

-"Don't laugh, but I don't have experience with any weapon, as I mainly love magic and has always been my research subject, so I never bothered learning to use swords and the like, neither did my mentor bother teaching me." They to say convince someone mix half-truth with half a lie. While it's true that I never used weapons since, you know, Earth is relatively safe and all. but it's also a lie that It was because I focused on magic and my mentor not bothering.

-"Don't worry big guy, no shame in that. How about we get you a wand or staff then? which do you prefer?" inquired Lucy about my taste in a magic-user weapon.

-"I most definitely want a staff, to look cool and wise." I told her with a straight, shameless face, to which I got a light punch on the stomach.

-"Wow, really. You could've come up with a dozen reasons for picking a staff over a wand; like the better mana channeling it offers the wielder. but that was your reason? look cool and wise?" she asked while rolling her eyes.

-"Bah! Leave the technicalities to the shop owners, " I waved my hand at her, "A staff is more to my style;" I told her," besides, I have a high-affinity with mana, I don't need a wand when I can just wave my hands and have the same results. Staves, on the other hand, will give me an overhaul boost."

-"True, I guess. Forgot that someone here might be as good with magic as the dragons." Said Lucy nonchalantly, which got her a surprised reply from me:

-"Dragons?!" 'DRAGONS EXIST!!!!' I shouted both inside and outside my head.

-"Calm down, I was joking, of course, if you'd be as proficient with mana as dragons are, you'd be able to wield all the elements from birth. If you're interested in them you should go to the capital, while they don't have dragons per se, they do have the wyvern guards."

-"Interesting..." I mumbled to myself and followed the girl as she lead the way from the guild to the first shop.

...

-"We're here Chill, This is the shop I'd recommend for all mage adventures, my sister bought her first wand and enchanted clothes from here. back when she was still adventuring at least.*sigh*" Said Lucy with the last bit accompanied by a sigh that managed to escape from under her breath.

-"Hmm, you sister huh? as beautiful as you I presume?" I asked her with a smile, trying to lessen the mood, as I caught on to her sigh.

-"Hah! more beautiful than me even," she responded with a proud smile and continued, " She's a mage too but stopped adventuring as she couldn't keep going solo, and most that tried to form a party with her had ulterior motives".

-'LANDMINE!' I screamed sarcastically and internally, 'lol.'

-"Hmm, Can't deny that my curiosity got peeked; Won't lie and say that I can party with her since I'm basically new to adventuring, but I still would like to meet her. Hearing someone like you say she is more beautiful got me interested not gonna lie." I told her with an honest smile. 'honestly, I don't believe her sister couldn't find a single decent guy or a party of women to join her, but I guess when lucy said she was lazy she wasn't lying, hope she's at least taller than her sister here'.

-"You compliment me left and right and said you wanted us to be friends, are you sure you're not second-guessing yourself handsome~?" Teased lucy with a bit of doubt in her eyes.

-"Oh that? I am really shy, but I do enjoy your company no matter how short it has been. not to mention I won't be self-conscious about myself all the time since we are just friends. That's why I can speak freely with you, I hope It's not a bother" I said apologetically while finding myself slightly surprised that I warmed up to a stranger this casually, 'seems we really click together as friends.'

-"fufu~ I like your honesty Chill, and yeah I feel the same way, more or less." said, Lucy, while filing with her hair, "It has been a long time since I found someone to chat with without a worry. Other than my sister and the old man Tom." she gave me a warm honest smile.

-"Cheers to a long-lasting friendship, then." I said making a bro-fist gesture toward her, which made her giggle and reply:

-"*giggle* We don't have beer for that, but still, Cheers~" and reciprocated with her own bro-first.

-"Anyway, my sister. she's a bit cold with strangers but I guess you might be able to meet her soon, She's studying to replace Tom when he retires. Nothing set in stone yet, but still."

-"Oh, Tom is retiring?" I asked her, with genuine concern, as Tom seemed nice.

-"Yeah, anyway let's not stay standing in front of the shop like idiots, I can see the owner fidgeting inside*giggle*"

-"Right, After you." I said after opening the shop's wooden door so she could enter before me, and a bell sound rang from above the door on the interior's side.

-"*ding*ding* Welcome, dear customers!" Said a smiling middle-aged man with white hair and a trimmed mustache.

-ping-[LVL 10 Lark: Human male- 50y- 170cm]

-"Hello, Lark. Got you a customer for you, though we might only be checking stuff today." Greeted Lucy Lark as we entered the shop.

It was a cozy shop, layered with spruce wooden tiles from the floor to the walls all the way to the ceiling. there were all kinds of different staves and wands hanging on racks or on display inside glass boxes, the expensive part I concluded. Most staves had all kinds of gems inside them and the wands were made of all kinds of different materials, from different types of wood, stone, or even metal even. I noticed that staves were mostly made of wood tho, but I guessed the magic part in them comes from the gems embedded into the wood. There were also more than a dozen mannequins displaying different kinds of glittering robes, enchanted I assumed. Anyway, Lark was sitting behind a counter with a cup of warm beverage, tea mayhaps, on the table next to him.

-"Oh, it's always nice to see a young mage, I'm Lark, son. A pleasure to meet you." said Lark, looking at me with inspecting eyes.

-ping-[foreign mana signatures detected...analyzing...Human Lark using Inspect on User, attempt to block?]

-'Oh? that's interesting. Go ahead and block it, making it automatic in the future.'

-ping-[Noted. Foreign mana blocked...Target's Inspection failed]

-"Oh!"  Suprised, exclaimed Lark.

-"I don't think prying on someone's information is a good way for a first impression, especially if said someone is a customer." I told the man with a neutral face.

-"Oh, please forgive me, sir, that was just an old habit from my adventuring days." said lark in an apologetic tone.

-"Forgive you for what?" Asked Lucy, oblivious to what just happened, so I answered her:

-"Sir Lark here just tried to Inspect me with one of his skills I presume."

-"What! Hey old man! You know that's considered a breach of privacy, yeah?" Angered, reprimanded Lucy the man, slamming her fists on the counter.

-"Yes, Miss Lucy, I'm really sorry that-" Lark tried to apologize but was cut short by Lucy before he could continue:

-"How about you give us a discount as an apology? My friend here is looking for staff." Demanded Lucy with a calm voice, walking back from the counter, pointing at me and grinning as she turned her back to him.

-'Nice one, Girl' I gave her an appreciative nod and picked up the conversation.

-"It's okay, Lucy. So what's the price range for the staves you got here?" I inquired which seemed to have a positive effect on the man after hearing the calm voice of Lucy, yet threatening actions.

-"I got staves raging from a silver up to 5 gold coins, all depends on the quality of course."

-'not very cheap but affordable for a mage I guess, maybe wands are even cheaper too.' I thought before asking him again:

-"Hmm, I have a budget of 5 silver coins. What can I get with that?*cough* discount included." I inquired making sure he heard the last part.

-"*sigh* you can get some pretty nice staves for beginners with 5 silvers, most element-aligned ones at that. There is also the option of getting a staff that is not attuned to any element with 5 silver coins but I'd advise against that as they tend to be more powerful since they help with all kinds of elemental magic but to have any apparent results you'd need a bigger gemstone on the staff which raises the price to 8 silvers" explained Lark.

I was actually surprised because I did speculate magic being separated into different affinities because of my stat but I did not know that mana was too. I need to get more information on this matter.

-ping-[Recorded library information shows that mana is separated into different elements, the most basic ones being water, fire, wind, and earth. The higher the magic affinity the more easily can mana, in general, be used, and the lower the affinity the harder mana usage is lest it is of the element the user has an affinity with]

-'hmm...interesting. Anyway that Lark is smooth at selling his products even tho I said I only have 5 silver coins, he still hinted at a better general staff with a higher price, seems he is confident that I'll come back if I don't have the money now, which works in my favor anyway.'

-"I can use multiple elements, so a general staff would be best. How about you sell me one for 6 silver coins?" I probed him.

-"Ouf! That's too low, young man, even with a discount that'd leave me with a net loss. Sorry I can't." Declined politely, but decisively, Lark.

-"6 silvers and 5 coppers maybe?" I increased the price a bit hoping he'd bend.

-"7 silvers and 5 coppers is the most I can do." Answered with a serious tone, yet less decisive.

-"Hmm, how about 7 silvers? Consider the rest as an investment as I'll definitely be needing more mage-oriented gear when I get more money to spare. How about it?" I continued haggling, baiting him that a discount now will net him more profit long-term. The rest is up to him. Oh, it's worth mentioning that I had my poncho or cape as they call it around here widely open so he could see I'm not wearing any specialized gear.

-"*sigh* what a fierce young man, you'd make a fine merchant lad. Fine I got just the staff for you. Please wait a moment." said lark after sighing another time, defeated, getting down from his chair and moving to the back of his shop.

-"Did not expect you to be a good haggler, honest" pointed Lucy in a surprised yet quiet voice, maybe to not be heard by Lark which looked rather cute so I patted her heard and answered:

-"*pat* hehe, it was my first time actually, always wanted to haggle like a merchant." I replied, embarrassed yet proud while rubbing her head for a few seconds before she moved and looked at me half-angry.

-"Hmph! This is the second time you pat me! And it's the second time we meet too! Do you have some kind of fetish or what?" pouted, Lucy.

-"hehe...you talk as if you did not like it. and I have no fetish, I just feel patting you sometimes, it's fun *shrug*" I shrugged at her then grinned. What better entertainment is there other than teasing a cute little demi-human? No video games here to play.

-"Cheeky bastard." murmured under her breath after giving me a quick kick, which was probably controlled considering her high level.

Meanwhile, Lark came back, this time coming to where we were, in front of his counter, with me resting a hand on it and lucy's arms crossed on it with her head resting on them, still pouting clearly.

-"*cough* check this staff out, young man. it's made of sturdy Magical Oakwood, a product of our Town. It got a blue gemstone embedded on its top and a thin thread of copper running from under the gem to the staff's bottom, hidden inside the wood, as copper facilitates mana circulation and will help keep your mana flowing properly in the staff, to and from the gemstone." Explained Lark as he handed me the staff.

-"*whistle*" I whistled, satisfied as I inspected my to-be weapon. It was a light beige wooden staff about 1.6m in length with slight curves here and there and a blue diamond-shaped gemstone about a closed fist size piercing the staff from the top. It was also thick enough to have half the gemstone inside it and went thinner further down, having its bottom like a pointy tip.

-"I like it." I said to no one in particular as I spread out my arms and made the staff hover above the ground in front of me which got me a thumbs up from the now standing Lucy and an intrigued look from Lark.

-"Air magic? It feels different though?" Asked lark, to which Lucy answered before I could.

-"Telekinesis, and he learned it yesterday at that too!" Answered Lucy with a grin as she looked at Lark. the latter having sparkling eyes, even with all the wrinkles on his face.

-"Oh my, that's a very rare and hard to learn skill, not to mention master it. Can be quite deadly too." said lark as he looked at the still hovering staff.

-'hoho, seems I indeed am a genius, ty ty, heh.'

-"I'll take it," I told the man, "and I'll come back later to get some proper gear, I just moved to town, and I'm still short on funds." with that I made the 7 silver coins float from the pouch hung inside my poncho and land in my right hand.

-"Here  you go, and Thanks for the discount." I thanked Lark as I handed him the money and gestured for Lucy to go.

-"Bye, old man." Said Lucy as she moved towards the door.

-"Sure thing, Send my regards to your sister."

-"aye-aye".

I grabbed my new weapon, and with that, We got out of the shop. It was around 10 am at this point.