Lee left the clinic in a downtrodden mood. The only thought on his mind was how he didn’t really fit into this whole city of Dark Elves.

It wasn’t that he was treated unfairly, as he was not. He was treated very well for being an outsider. It was more along the lines of—things didn’t make sense when he was included.

Take age, for example. As Lee walked down the street, he observed all of the Dark Elves around him. He noticed that even if he really tried, he would not be able to tell their age with any sense of accuracy. The only thing he could do while guessing at their age was approximate their appearance to a human standard.

The oldest Dark Elves Lee knew of were the Elders. Since the Harrowing happened a little less than a thousand years ago, and since Nitis told him that he was just approaching the age when he could join in, Lee can assume he is somewhere around, or over, a thousand years old. The thing was, Nitis only appeared to be in his mid-thirties if Lee was to compare him to a Human.

So while Lee looked around at those around him, he could spot a few that might have been ‘thirtish.’ Meaning that they could be, conservatively, five hundred years old or older.

They have, and will continue to, live their lives with so much more time than he himself possessed. Lee is twenty-three, and the youngest elf he had ever seen had lived a longer life than himself. Out of every living person in Neldam, at least the topmost layer, he was the youngest—and it wasn’t even close.

Lee knew he had to leave, and this only solidified his feelings about it. He was nervous about braving the wilderness by himself, and he did feel like he owed a debt to Neia and Ruven—Just maybe not the whole city. He felt like he had paid that debt during the siege.

Neia singlehandedly changed his life. She had taught him magic, her magic, without any stringent requirements. At the time, he vaguely understood that expert-tier magic was rare and very powerful. Now, he understands that expert-tier magic was something he would have most likely never achieved.

Yes, he has Arcani’s blessing, along with the god-granted skill Arcane Synthesis, but he would have never even gotten that skill or interacted with Arcani unless he had already known magic—which he would not have, except for Neia's help.

Ruven was another person to whom he owed his life. The ambushes of goblins were not to be trifled with, and during his original trek through the Shadowgrove, Ruven was the one who alerted Lee and Neia beforehand.

Lee vividly remembered the very first ambush. He fought for his life with nothing but a knife and the gown from the hospital. Ruven had taken an arrow to his side at the start of the encounter, and that could have very well been him instead.

He felt like he needed to do something for them before he left. Lee didn’t have much to offer, but he did have a few things.

Lee took out the Knot of Notarity as he continued walking down the stone streets and inspected it once more.

Lee had no use for it. It was a nice item in and of itself, but he didn’t need it. It could be a good gift if he could figure out this attunement thing. He didn’t want to give it to one of them if it was going to radiate mercilessness. He put it away as he reached his destination.

Looking at the building in front of him, his first thought was that it looked… unique. The building had the same multicolored roof tiles and stone walls, but it was in the shape of a U. There was a large wooded door with delicately detailed depictions of bows and arrows covering it in its entirety. To get to the door itself, you had to walk past a large wall of hedge. The hedge, from an aerial view, would make up a bowstring if Lee had to guess.

All in all, Halroc’s Arrowworks was unlike anything Lee had seen so far. He hoped Ravoor was a worker. He liked Ruven’s old man.

Lee walked past the hedge and took in a small outdoor archery range. The hedge wall made up a backboard for an assortment of targets, none with a little red bullseye marking, much to Lee dismay. He walked up the cobblestone path lit by hanging lanterns thinking about how terrible this layout was. If anybody was using this range, anybody walking down the path would be downrange.

Shaking his head at the foolishness, Lee finished walking up the pathway and opened the doors to Halroc’s Arrowworks.

The inside was, surprisingly, busy. At least ten other elves were wandering about the store; directly in front of the entrance was the checkout counter. To the right, where the room curved, making up one-half of the ‘bow’ building, showcased a multitude of bows for sale. The bows were set up on nice weapon stands, and at the far end of that side of the building, there were a few bows behind a glass wall. They were probably the more expensive bows, if Lee had to guess.

The other side held barrels full of arrows, tables with fletching, oils, lacquer, and a small worktable with some weird metal bends on top. Lee didn’t know how a bow was made, or how to properly make arrows, so he assumed this was something that did that. Again, at the end of this side, the was a glass wall with a few bundles of arrows strapped behind it.

The wooden floorboards were a rarity. Most of the floors Lee had walked upon were stone, so the familiar feel of wooden floorboards was nostalgic, reminding him of home.

Lee didn’t get to inspect the store for long before he heard a boisterous laugh boom from a room behind the counter, where an elven worker sat at attention.

Lee expected to see Ravoor burst out from the doorway laughing, but instead, he saw Ruven sulk out of the room.

Lee had seen Ruven without his monster-hunter attire once, and that was when they went to the baths. So, Lee was very surprised to see Ruven in a shop uniform similar to the Elven shop clerk. It was nice and form-fitting, very businesslike if Lee had to have an Earth parallel. A long white-sleeved dress shirt and a very fine dark green blazer on top. He even had a nice set of leather dress shoes.

Ruven sat down sulking at the counter, and was about to start chatting with his Elven associate when his eyes landed upon Lee standing in the center of the open common room. He quickly lost of sulky appearance and got up quickly with a smile, walking out from behind the counter to meet Lee.

Lee smiled in return and began to peer left and right as if looking for something.

“Hello good sir. I am looking for a friend of mine. His name is Ruven and he told me he would be here if he wasn’t out hunting monsters. Do you happen to know where he is? He’s usually pretty smelly from all that leather he wears.”

Ruven did not appreciate the joke. Exasperated, he spoke.

“Why does everybody pick on me? First my father, now you.” He tsk’d.

“Okay fine. You do look rather nice in those clothes though. We have a similar look on my world.” Lee said as he peered around the store. It was pretty large.

“Didn’t Neia say that this store was small or something? Or was a remembering wrong? This is pretty nice. I like the wooden floor.” Lee said while slightly bouncing on his feet, feeling the nice floor.

Ruven began to lead Lee around the store while they conversed.

“Small? It’s the best fletching store in Neldam! Not that you’d ever appreciate any of our fine goods being a spellcaster. Neia used to be pretty good before she abandoned the greatest combat style ever conceived.”

Lee nodded mockingly as he tried to make out what made the bow in front of him better than the others, and he concluded he couldn’t. Instead, he simply used Identify.

Lee raised an eyebrow at the description.

“Well, I came here to ask about what sort of supplies I would need when I left Neldam to go to the Kingdom of Thexis, but it appears I have other questions as well now. How did this get a bonus to dexterity? I remember we found an amulet with a boost to luck in the past.”

Ruven, having been born and raised around bows, didn’t at first realize that this was all new information to Lee. Ruven examined the bow Lee was looking at casually.

“Well, when someone makes an item it can have bonuses. I actually made this one. If you use better materials or craft something to the best of your ability it can naturally have stat bonuses or special effects. This one here is made with simple materials.” Said Ruven.

Lee looked to Ruven in mild surprise.

“You made this? Do you need a class or profession to grant bonuses? I assume your profession has to do with bow-making?” Lee asked.

Ruven shook his head as he responded.

“Kind of, I’m a Fletcher. I make arrows. This is different from a bowyer who makes bows. You don’t need a class or profession to make items with effects, but you won’t ever make something like this over here without a class.”

Ruven led Lee over toward the glass wall, which cut off shoppers from expensive items. Lee saw a beautifully crafted bow behind the glass. He didn’t have any knowledge about bows, but even Lee could have picked this one out of a lineup for being the best.

Lee’s jaw dropped.

“Does this bow give a skill?”

“Not quite, it has the effect of cloaking arrows in a mirage. You can have bows that grant skills, but those are rarer than Epic.”

Lee looked upon the bow in a whole new light. He nodded towards the bow while looking at Ruven.

“Can this be enchanted as well? Or are arrows typically enchanted?” Lee asked.

Ruven started to lead Lee to the other side of the building with the arrows.

“That bow could be enchanted, but that costs money and enchantments are notoriously expensive. While it would make the bow more powerful and make us more money, we don’t bother with that. If someone buys that bow they can get it enchanted themselves. We could buy enchantments and then sell them, but the customer may not want what we put on it.”

That made sense to Lee. Why would you sell something with a niche consumer base? Also, Ravoor probably has some sort of deal with whatever enchanter Neldam has. Lee should probably check who that is before he leaves Neldam.