With Alphonse still rebuffing our efforts to meet with him, we decided to continue stocking up just in case. It didn’t take long to decide where to go next, as when I recited the list of shops I thought we still needed to visit, I latched onto one almost as soon as I named it. That being the Blacksmith.

                “I need to replace my sword.”

                “Why? I can protect you.”

                Letting this chance slip by would be a mistake. We had the coin now and who knows when I’d be able to find a replacement weapon once we were on the run? Neither I nor Yua knew if someone like Alphonse would have a way to communicate with any partners he might have in other cities, so stopping by one would be risky. Likely unavoidable, since we’d have to restock on food at some point, but having someone alert him to our whereabouts was a needless risk.

                That aside, I should probably be just a little grateful to my past self for selling my swords in the first place. I’d been walking around with those things on my hip this whole time, just to take advantage of the fact that nobody in this city cared how one protected themselves —and because I may or may not have thought it was cool— but having them might have been dangerous. If I’d had them when Alphonse’s thugs verbally backhanded us a second time after we returned to DeGrave, I might have done something stupid. Thankfully, conjuring up a spell was a little more difficult than drawing a sword, so I had a chance to think it over before the anger could boil over and before I could make the situation any harder on us.

                “I know you can,” I said. “But I want to be able to return the favor. And my mana will only last so long in a fight. I need a backup. Besides, we got most of what we needed already, but we still need a few things.”

                Yua was knowledgeable enough to spot a good frying pan from a bad one and put that to good use in the market, but we still needed some of what you could call “kitchen essentials,” such as silverware, cooking knives and other utensils. I was fine with eating things by hand, but my modern sensibilities wouldn’t allow me to turn that into a daily thing. And the blacksmith was likely the best place to find what we needed while we rearmed ourselves.

                “That’s true,” she said, looking a little unsure if she should be happy that I countered her protection with some of my own. With a small huff and a shrug, she sipped on a glass containing a greenish drink whose name had escaped me when she’d ordered it, but that to the best of my knowledge contained milk of some sort.

                We’d taken a small break and gotten a drink in one of the city’s many restaurants so we could try and cool down while we discussed our plans. While we waited for the passage of time to slowly trickle on and catch up to the moment where our fate on the matter next actions would be set in stone, I brought up the idea of teleporting into the DeGrave building now that I had a cloak that could hide my face, but Yua shot me down instantly. Saying it’d be too dangerous even if she went with me, because the other battle slaves he owns may be called in to subdue us and she wasn’t at all sure we’d stand much of a chance against them. Meaning we were forced to sit on our hands yet again while I sipped on what I hoped was tea. So, the conversation quickly turned back to our supply run.

                The city was aglow with the same blue streetlights that never seemed to interest anyone other than me. Thankfully despite our worrying, we were able to relax somewhat comfortably at a fairly secluded table on the outside veranda of a restaurant Yua had visited a time or two before she had a better grasp on how money worked. Since I went out of the way to reserve the few tables next to ours for the short time we planned on staying by handing the waiter a generous tip, we were free to do as we pleased.

                Leaning against each other, Yua resting her head on my shoulder and with me enjoying the small tickle of her ear pressing against my cheek, we took to our drinks the best we could. From up on the second story, just about the only spot the place had that offered any discretion for a pair like us, we watched the city-folk walk on by as we talked.

                The ups and downs we’d been delt today had us both a little exhausted, hence the break, but ever true to her love for fighting, the talk of one of us defending the other perked Yua right back up.

                “I don’t think it’ll be that bad anyways,” she said, setting her empty glass on the table.

                “What do you mean?”

                “If anyone or anything tried to come for us, I’d hear them long before we were in any danger.”

                To illustrate her point, Yua wiggled her ear against my cheek. Without thinking much about it, my arm seemed to move of its own accord, as if it’d decided the only possible retort to her tickling was to wrap itself around her shoulder. She remained mostly still, her only moving to take hold of the hand now draped over her shoulder in both of hers.

                “That’s true, but what about when you’re asleep?”

                “Well, you’d probably be asleep too. So, I don’t think it’d matter.”

                “We could sleep in shifts.”

                She giggled, shifting into a more comfortable position and pressing herself into me just enough to notice a softness that her strength and will to protect should have denied possible.

                “I don’t see that happening.”

                “What do you mean?”

                As far as I’m aware, when traveling in a group in the wild, even in modern times, it was probably a good idea to take turns sleeping. That way, someone would always be vigilant in case of wild animal attacks. And because of the time period this world was set in was more or less equivalent to the medieval period of my own world, there had to be numerous dangers we’d need to be weary of. Some of, if not most of were of the fantastical persuasion that I couldn’t be ready enough for.

                Yua, however, just giggled again and started fiddling with my fingers, pressing them down in an almost rhythmic motion like she was teaching me to play an invisible piano. I left it at that.

                Once we were sufficiently rested and I finished my probably-tea, we left for the Blacksmith.

 

                “Hey, it’s the kid again. What can I get ya?”

Once more, we found the Blacksmith Larloll sitting on a barrel out by the forge and, even though her earlier attitude wasn’t the best, she was already a breath of fresh air in comparison to Garfield.

                Wearing what looked like it could be the very same tank top she wore yesterday, except with a few extra splotches of grease to add to the sweat making it almost entirely see-through again. And again,  entirely unaware of why the men passing by her shop stopped to take the time to notice her, she tossed her hammer onto her anvil and stretched her back. She no doubt had been working hard all day, so I made sure not to look when she accidentally puffed out her chest.

                “We’re actually here to buy this time,” I said.

                “Great! Glad ya took my advice, kid. Come on in.”

                She hopped off her barrel and led us into the shop, kicking aside a few scraps of metal as she went. One of these scraps looked like one of the spearheads that once belonged to the goblin weapons we sold her yesterday. Nearby, looking almost like they’d been left out to be taken with the trash, was a crate filled with the rest of them.

                Like all the other stores, the walls were lined top to bottom with a wide array of products, but almost everything here was a weapon. From knives you could easily fit in your boot, to short swords of a clearly better make than the bronze one I started with, to giant warhammers that looked so heavy they’d be impossible to pick up without the help of a forklift, she seemed to have something to suit anyone’s tastes.

                This too should have been one of the places I should have loved to see, but it looked just a little too similar to the sort of weapon displays you’d see at a geeky convention, the majority of which would be fake replicas. The only real difference between the two was the sheer amount of weaponry on display and the smokey stench of the coals burning in the forge outside that managed to cling to both the room and to Larloll. Well, that and the fact that each of these weapons were actually forged to kill, not sit on a bookshelf somewhere. It didn’t help the shops image when I saw that the other metal works we were expecting like simple teapots, metal bowls, hammers, nails and the like were all obviously cast into a crate as a second thought, instead of put on full display like her weapons.

                She clearly had took no issue with playing favorites in her own work as she invited in.

                “Ya after anything specific?” she asked, rubbing at the back of her neck.

                “Yes. What kinds of weapons do you have for people that fight with their fists?”

                “Fist weapons, eh? Ya mean like for Monks? How ‘bout those?”

                She pointed to a corner of the room that looked a little neglected when compared to the vast array of other arms she had for sale. There weren’t many to choose from and nothing looked all that interesting. I left it up to Yua to try them out and pick and unlike her blunt rejection the other day, she took a moment to look them over. Her tail only barely swishing about to feign interest as she examined the small variety of brass knuckles and metal gauntlets, both with and without spikes on them. I saw it coming, but I was surprised at how quickly she protested.

                “I… don’t think I need a weapon.”

                “I’m sure you don’t, but I’d be happy if we got you something. Look,” I pointed out a furred gauntlet that looked both exceedingly durable and oversized for someone like her. “If you got something like that, every punch you throw would be about as powerful as Iron Fist, but you won’t have to cast that skill before using it.”

                I already knew how strong she was, so I didn’t mind her not having a weapon she’d use often, but I thought it better to keep her protected for the same reason she asked me to keep from selling my sword. And being that I was already well aware of how much of a benefit it was to not have to verbally cast an ability before using it, I knew just about anything she picked would be a big help to her. Plus, the knuckle weapons were small enough to fit in her pocket. So, she could carry it everywhere she goes.

                Yua nodded at this and started looking the selection over a little more earnestly. Still, I knew she favored to go into a fight with her bare hands, so I wasn’t expecting much. Not wanting to pressure her into buying something she didn’t want, I set about choosing my own weapon.

                Feeling just a little excited, I moved to the wall filled with swords of all shapes and sizes, but before I picked up one up to test how it felt in hand, a curiously-shaped spear caught my eye. Stuck in an otherwise lackluster barrel with no less than ten other spears trapped in with it, some of which I was sure were actually just pitchforks, was a spear maybe seven or eight feet long with a thin, wavy blade that looked expertly made, but also that it would bend after one thrust into anything thicker than a sheet of paper. Likewise, its overly decorated shaft made it look like it’d be a pain to hold. I had to wonder who would buy such a thing on purpose. It looked more like a mantle piece than the functional weapon it was being sold as.

                Then again, I was never really a fan of spears to begin with. At least not where video games were concerned. Thinking back to the dungeon’s goblins, I had no idea how one could actually fight with such a weapon reliably without a giant shield or a phalanx of other men holding similar spears to protect each other from mistakes. Just like the obnoxiously large hammer in the corner of the shop, they felt like they’d be slow enough to leave plenty of openings for someone to slip in close where you’d be mostly defenseless.

                But that was likely just my inexperience talking. If these things had been around since humans first invented weapons, assuming it was the humans that invented such weapons in this world, they had to be worth a test at least.

                Mostly out of a continued curiosity, I lifted the spear out of the bucket to see if it was as uncomfortable as it looked and…

                [New Class Acquired: Spear Warrior.]

                Wow, really…? All I did was touch it and my mind was suddenly flooded with a basic understanding of how to fight with a spear that should have taken a least a year of practice to achieve, as well as the proof that I was too quick to judge. But still, all I did was touch the thing. At least I had to see a spell being used before memorizing it.

                Well, I guess I shouldn’t complain. I probably wasn’t going to make use of that class anyways. I would, however, at least be able to reverse engineer it and figure out how to fight against someone using a spear if I ever needed to.

                I shrugged off the nearly non-existent requirements for getting a new class and went around the shop, picking up everything in sight just to see what I’d get out of it. At best, I was expecting to learn how to defend against each weapon type, but all I got out of it were the Axe Warrior and Bowman classes. Not as much as I was expecting and neither of which I could see myself using anytime soon, the class system just doesn’t seem to differentiate between different weapon of the same class, such as hand axes and pole axes.  

                With Larloll eyeing my openly suspicious actions, I decided not to try and tackle these new classes head on by taking a few practice swings with the deadly weapons. Instead, I opted to go back to the wall of swords, since I was more familiar with their use.

                Short swords, long swords, broad swords and even curved swords like sabers and scimitars lined the wall without any sort of order to them that was readily apparent. Many of them looked nice and some looked down right gaudy, but after the ridiculous number of swings it took to do a significant amount of damage to the Proud Great Wolf, all I needed was something stronger and sharper than steel. The problem was that I couldn’t tell what they were made of by just looking.

                They were all polished to a near mirror shine, compliments of the woman that made them no doubt, but this didn’t exactly make telling them apart easy to the untrained eye. A discrete cast of Appraisal on a few of the swords I liked the looks of helped levy this issue. That is until a metal type that was only barely familiar to me thanks to the auction showed up in the info box of a shining long sword that’d been locked away in a display case.

                Its design was simple and not too disturbed by needlessly flourishing patterns and engravings, but with just enough to say it’d look good on a nobleman’s hip. It also looked perfectly sturdy despite how thin the blade itself was. I knew at once that it’d be easy to wield for a beginner like myself, but what really caught my eye was how the color of its blade almost perfectly matched the glow of Yua’s Iron Fist.

                “Ohhh? Ya want the Parundum Long sword?” Larloll said, arms crossed and leaning over the case with me.

                With her customer’s gaze on such a weapon that itself needed to be protected behind a box of glass, she was nothing but smiles. And it was easy to see why thanks to Appraisal.

                “That sword’ll run ya 30 gold. Go ahead. Take it for a few swings.”

                “30 gold?” I repeated for the sake of feigning surprise.

                “Yup. Parundum’s a special type of metal that is very hard ta forge, but when forged by a master smith, like myself, it’s one of the strongest metals there is. Not only is it several times more durable than steel, but it’ll never need to be sharpened as long as ya treat it right and ya don’t go slammin’ it against something hard like a rock or mountain or my father's head.”

                The blacksmith then proceeded to rattle off more facts about the type of metal I didn't need to know including, how handsome the Adventurer who brought back the Parundum she used to make it was, that it was apparently one of her personal favorite weapons to have worked on, and that it was one of the most expensive swords in her shop and more. The comment on its price nearly made me lose interest, but I nodded along peaceably to her enthusiasm as somewhere in her rambling, she popped the case and handed me the sword to try it out. From the moment my hand wrapped around the unblemished black leather binding its handle, her voice all but faded into obscurity.

                Fire and ice clashed within the blade itself, lights flickering constantly in its polished surface as the magic candles lighting the shop warred with the blue glow of the streetlamps climbing in through the window to get a better look. About the same length as my old steel sword, but also somehow lighter, it felt like it could cut the air itself when I took a couple practice swings. When Larloll handed it to me, she’d passed it off as if it were no heavier than a large dagger might be and I wasn’t sure if I had the metal or the points I added to my Strength to thank for the fact that it really was that light. Thankfully, in the dungeons, I had my sword drawn most of the time and carrying it around never got too tiring, but I imagined that might change if we were off running through the countryside for hours on end.

                The item box could alleviate that burden, obviously, but with a sword this light, I wouldn’t even need to worry about it. The more I thought about it, the more it grew on me. However, it’s price tag was weighing it down. Almost enough to want to set it back in the display case.

                It didn’t feel right buying something so wildly expensive for myself when all Yua was getting was a pair of brass knuckles. Unless, of course, Larloll had a pair made of Parundum.

                Yua, done with her own perusing, took note of my hesitation and nodded to me and, with a smile said, “You worked hard for your coin. Don’t be afraid to spend it.”

                “But it’s our coin,” I mumbled, very much under my breath.

                Yua’s ears easily caught this and she managed to put away her slave’s mindset long enough to broaden her smile just a little in thanks, only for Larloll to ruin the moment.

                “Pfft. Ain’t no woman worth her salt gonna get in the way of a man picking out a sword.”

                I chuckled to myself and ran my hand over the sheath.

                “I’m a man now? What happened to calling me kid?”

                “Hey, if yer buying my weapons, I’ll call ya whatever you want. So, what’s it gonna be? Kid or…”

                “Alright, alright. I’ll take it.”

                With that as my final verdict, Larloll finally gave us a real smile and dashed off to find her silver tray before I could change my mind. I was happy to have Yua’s approval for a bit of selfish splurging on my part, but when I turned to see what she’d chosen for herself, all I found was her standing in the middle of the shop waiting for me, her hands free of any sort of weaponry.

                “Did you not like any of them?” I whispered, wanting to avoid offending yet another person so dedicated to their craft.

                Yua shook her head.

                “It’s not that. I just don’t need any weapons. Fighting with something like that would just restrict movement and having to put them on would just slow down my reaction speed. Plus, I’m used to using my bare hands. Wearing those might cause me to make a mistake I can’t recover from in battle.”

                I moved my hand to scratch my head, but quickly dropped it back down when I realized I was still holding a very sharp sword.

                I couldn’t really deny her logic. While she could always train with the knuckles to get used to them, asking her to wear them right off the bat would be similar to me using a spear before I got the Spear Warrior class and learned the basics. In other words, it might actually be a bad idea, regardless of how I felt on the matter.

                Still, if she felt she’d do better without them, who was I to complain? She’s been fighting a hell of a lot longer than me. I’d just have to put more points into her Endurance so that using her Iron Fist ability didn’t take up too much stamina going forward.

                With our, my, weapon decided, we added the extras we’d planned to buy when Larloll came back with the tray. Since she seemed to know what she was doing here too, I asked Yua to pick out a set of silverware, a single dented teapot that looked just about ready for the scrap bin as it was the only one Larloll had in stock, and a few other cooking implements we weren’t able to find elsewhere.

                After it was totaled up, I set the coin on her tray, much to Larloll’s delight while Yua bagged all we bought, save for the sword. As I stacked up the coin, Larloll had to repeatedly stop herself from reaching out for it until I finished and she snatched it all up, completing the purchase. I’d have been worried that she might have just swindled me were she not so enthusiastic in detailing just how great the sword was.

                Based on how much money we still had after that large purchase and after having a fairly good understanding of how much things in this world cost, I felt we were still relatively well-off enough to not have to worry about money anytime in the near future. It was a strange thought, considering how much time I spent worrying about our finances just this morning. It’s almost like we won the lottery.

                I tied my new sheath to my belt before leaving the shop and when I slipped the blade back into it and it let out a playful metallic clink, a shiver ran up my spine. The sword I started with and the one we found were both nice, but buying one myself felt so much better. I’d earned this.

                “Where should we go now?” Yua asked.

                “Hmm. I don’t know.”

                Checking in at the DeGrave building again was a must, but each tick of the clock in my HUD made me more and more certain that my guess about Alphonse’s plan was correct.

                “But don’t you need a wand or staff?”

                “Yea. I suppose I wouldn’t mind having one again, but the lady at the Mage’s Guild said they only had spell books. So, I’ll have to put looking for one off until later.”

                “Then why not just buy some spell books?”

                I froze in place mid-step but Yua kept on down the sidewalk for a few paces before she noticed and doubled back.

                I was so focused on getting the things we were going to need, that I forgot about the things I wanted. Not only was this a good opportunity to buy some spell books since we had the coin, it was the perfect chance to test how good my Memorization trait was. If I could memorize an entire contract the very second I looked at it, then it didn’t take too much imagination to wonder what I could do with a spell book.

                Not to mention that learning more magic sounded incredibly fun.

                “Alex?” Yua cooed, waving her hand in front of my face.

                “Huh? Oh, you’re right. Let’s check out what the Mage’s Guild has for spells. Good idea.”

                “Of course! I want to see some new magic too!”

                Yua’s tail swished happily as she led me back to DeGrave Imports, though at this point, I’d seen and memorized enough of the city to not need an escort. But I was happy to have her.

 

                Same as the last couple of times,  I was mostly unsurprised to find that we got nothing from our visit to the slave house but a handful of laughter at our expense from a pair of new thugs, as they were at least kind enough to let someone else tell us off this time. So, we moved on.

 

                After our failure, we headed straight to the Mage’s Guild. It was already getting late and, while I didn’t know the exact hours businesses in Amoranth operated by, I was sure it and everywhere else were likely going to be closing up shop soon.

                Strolling past the other, more raucous guild and the drunks it let spill into the late-night street, we skipped over commenting on the Mage’s Guild’s exterior and entered the building to find that it was still just as full of Mage’s studying their books with all the fervor of a university senior reviewing for their final exam.

                There was only one person in the entirety of the silence that bothered to lift her nose out of her book to notice our arrival, but my guess was that this was only due to the distracting noise of the city streets entering with us before the door closed.

                “Ah, Member Alex. What brings you here this evening? Found yourself another staff, perhaps?”

                Surprised she remembered my name after only one meeting right up until I remembered the fuss she made upon learning of my Dimensional Step spell, the woman that ran the Mage’s Guild, Beth, greeted me with a slight smile that almost didn’t look forced. Apparently, the kindness she marked her face with really was only for the sake of members, as she didn’t give Yua so much as a passing glance. This irked me some, but she clearly didn’t plan on being all that polite to me either. Wanting this conversation to be over from the moment she initiated it, she kept her finger on the exact word in her spell book she left off on when we interrupted her.

                “Unfortunately, no. I’m surprised this place is still open.”

                It was impossible to miss the zombies milling about as they read their books that might have been able to pass for mages if any bothered to speak. Likewise, they couldn’t have been so focused on their studies that they wouldn’t been unable to notice that it was very clearly night time filtering in through the gaps in the curtains they kept mostly shut, not daylight. They should have all called it a day once the sun set, but this lot all had a candle burning near them. A few had ones made of wax and whose flickering wicks were nearly burnt away, but most were making use of the more convenient magic item candles since they no doubt had mana to spare. Sprinkle in a few stray mages using one of the many that lined the guild’s halls to keep the building itself lit, and you’d have a complete night-time study session that had gone on for way too long.

                Beth nodded stiffly to my question, but with did so with pride as her expression softened. Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, she even dared an honest smile for once.

                “So long as there is a mind willing to dedicate itself to the study of magic, our doors will always be open.”

                “That’s great news, because I’m here to buy a few spell books.”

                I went right out and said it. My Merchant job had been giving me tiny bits of advice all day now for every shop or stall we visited, and it was telling me not to be so blunt since I didn’t yet know what they had for sale. I also needed to be weary because I might not find anything useful, thereby making me a liar and putting a dent in my already flimsy Merchant persona if I didn’t buy anything. But I shook it off.

                These were spells we’re talking about. There’s bound to be something interesting, if not useful, to learn.

                “Alright, Member Alex,” she huffed, making the great effort to place her bookmark just below the line of text she’d been forced to forsake so she could close her book. “Please follow me.”

                Letting her gaze linger almost forlornly on her book a second or two, Beth gestured to then led us down the same hallway she took us through when I was forced to prove the existence of my teleportation spell. This time, however, she led us all the way to the back of the building, proving once and for all that it was truly larger on the inside than it appeared when it took a couple of minutes to reach our destination.

                She stopped in front of a pair of large, expertly carved wooden doors that alone stood taller than the outside face of the building. Complete with a set of intricate runes that circled into and around each other across the length of the door’s face, my mind went straight to the boss rooms in the dungeon. However, instead of effortlessly pushing them open the way Yua would, Beth slowly placed her palm on the center-most rune and went silent, tucking her chin in as if in prayer. 

                Just when I was starting to think she might need a moment alone with the doorframe, a brilliant purple light streaked its way up, tracing a path through the runes until every inch was shining. Once the light reached its zenith and looped back around on itself, I heard the loud click of a lock being undone.

                “Is that door a magic item?”

                “Indeed,” Beth answered cooly. Hand on the handle, she turned just her face to meet my gaze. “This library is protected by powerful defensive magics. Only the mana of a true member can open it. Meaning that I must warn you that any non-guild member that dares set foot in this library will be electrocuted on the spot without pause or hesitation. So, unless you’d like your cat-girl there to resemble a pile of dust ready to be swept into the gutter, I suggest you take a moment to ask her to wait outside.”

                “Oh, uh, okay then…? Yua, sorry, but could you wait for me? I’ll try to be quick.”

                “Of course. Don’t worry about me.”

                Yua stood in place, her tail slowly flicking back and forth as a content grin spread across her lips. She’d said she wanted to see more magic, but with beast-kin like her unable to learn it, she must have known that she’d be left with nothing to do in the book store Beth referred to as a library regardless of whether or not she went in.

                I smiled back and nodded to Beth. She cracked the door open just wide enough for a man of my size to pass through and waited. With a quick sympathetic wave to Yua, I slipped inside, intent on finding a spell that would be both useful to me and interesting enough to impress her.

                Beth followed me in so fast that we nearly collided with one another, but thanks to the number of times she’s likely had to do this, she noticed I’d stopped to take in the sights. 

                The room she brought me into was just as much a library as she said. The very moment I stepped into the room, I was surrounded by bookshelves, each of which was packed so tightly with spell books that it almost looked impossible to pull one out without the whole thing collapsing on you in an avalanche of text. Before I could ask if it was alright to start skimming the titles in search for something good, I noticed a large marble staircase locked in place between yet more shelves, suggesting at a second floor to the already impressive array of knowledge. And when my eyes traced up its handrail to see what the second floor had in store for me, I found not only a second floor, but a third. And a fourth. Then a fifth. Then so many more than I had to tilt my head all the way back just to see that the staircase spiraled up to a ceiling so impossibly far away that its end might as well have been invisible to the naked eye.

                Each of the floors I could make out the details of were filled with books. The whole column that made up this library was fairly small, but there were so many books lining the shelves that no one person could read them all in a single lifetime. Even if they didn’t try to memorize them in order to use the spells they contained.

                “I… Wasn’t expecting there to be so many.”

                “Naturally,” she cast an admiring smile upwards at the endless shelves. “The Mage’s guild has been collecting these books since its founding some two hundred years before the Great War of the Melburn Plains. No merchant, caravan or weary traveler entering this city carrying a spell book for sale goes unnoticed by us.”

                While I was lost in thought wondering if the Mage’s Guild put some kind of enchantment on the city gate that notified them whenever a spell book waltzed into the city, Beth strode over to a four-foot-tall marble pillar that I somehow missed despite it being in the center of the room. A single, thick book rested there, its worn pages open and ready to be read.

                “This here is our catalogue of spell books. I assure you that any spell whose name you see written in this book’s pages exists within this library.”

                She pointed up, not towards the ceiling that only seemed to grow further and further away each time I tried to find it, but to the upper levels that were still in sight.

                It took me a double-take to acknowledge what I was looking at, but after following her finger I found that dozens of other mages were already wondering about the shelves. Most of them were already studiously reading the books in their hands where they stood. They must have barely managed to pull the tomes from the shelves before diving straight in. Others still were searching the shelves for the spell they wanted. I wondered why she allowed them to thoroughly read the books before buying them, but she seemed to have noticed my confusion and responded appropriately.

                “You may borrow the books and read them anywhere here in the Guild, but you must return them once you are done studying for the day. Walking out of the Guild with a book you didn’t pay for will be classified as stealing.”

                “Ah, so it really is like a library,” I said to myself, but she nodded.

                “Exactly. Now, what types of spells are you interested in finding?”

                Since coming here was more of a spur of the moment decision, I wasn’t too sure. I could think of all kinds of spells from the games I played, but whether or not they existed in this world, I couldn’t know. But the nigh endless possibilities made my breath catch.

                Almost the from moment I realized I was in this fantasy world, I’ve been wanting to tackle its magic system and expand what I could do, but the two spells I’ve learned since then, beside of the freebee I’d started with, haven’t gotten to see much use, unfortunately. One of them hadn’t even been used once and was essentially just taking up space in my menu. And now I’m here, filled with ideas.  

                “Well, I’m an Adventurer, so how about we start with the types of spells fit for combat?”

                She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

                “Of course. You want attack magic… One moment.”

                “Wait, is there something wrong with that?”

                “Not at all. Magic itself is without fault. Those casting it, however, are another issue entirely. If you wish to risk all your hard-earned knowledge in some brutish bout, then be my guest. But I myself will have nothing to do with it.”

                I was moments away from assuming that she was just one of those sorts of magic snobs that preferred the study of helpful and casual magic, rather than the sort being used for violence, but her answer shut me up. Though it was a little unsettling that she’d be more worried about the knowledge lost by a mage felled in battle, rather than the mage themself.

                I could respect her reasoning to an extent, but in a city with both a dungeon and an Adventurer’s guild, I didn’t see why she bothered to complain.

                Beth flipped through the book on the marble pillar and opened it to a page labeled “Attack Magic” with an efficiency that suggested she’d studied these pages as well.

                “Please read this, Member Alex, and let me know what catches your interest.”

                Ready and willing to do as she suggested regardless of how annoyance afflicted her tone, I buried myself in the book the same way the other mages around us were in theirs, once again happy to see that the language it was written in was English.

                Skimming through the list, I came to realize that my Memorize ability didn’t only allow me to easily remember the names of the spells my eyes passed over, but that it actually made me read faster. Way faster. Like, memorizing and understanding the entire page’s contents the very second I looked at it. Just like how I engraved the auction’s contract into my soul to prevent making another mistake. It was just as utterly baffling as it was exciting.

                Back in my old world, whenever I would read a typical novel, it would take me about an hour to get through twenty to thirty pages because of my constantly waning focus. But now I was turning pages so fast that it surely didn’t look like I was reading at all. I was positive that it looked like I was doing nothing more skipping through the pages whose contents didn’t interest me.

                However, Beth here didn’t seem to think that way.

                “Curious… Member Alex, have you always been able to read that fast?”

                “Oh, uh, yea. My mom taught me how to speed-read,” I said, quickly following up on my abusive mage-mother story from the day before.

                Again, sorry for lying, Mom.

                “Hmm. Maybe that is how you managed to learn a teleportation spell already.”

                “Could you maybe not talk about that? There are other people in here.”

                Showing none of the consideration Yua would, she raised an eyebrow at me like I was being an idiot, but I could kind of understand where she was coming from. While there were other people in the library, all of them were either several stories above us and too far to hear her or too busy reading to care what she said. And since beast-kin couldn’t use magic, I doubted there were any in here whose ears were sensitive enough to eavesdrop.

                Not to mention that the way she freaked out upon learning I knew the Dimensional Step spell alone suggested it was quite the accomplishment that the other mages might actually applaud. If they could manage to pull their noses out of their books long enough to do so, that is.

                “Did any of the spells interest you?”

                Already looking like she was tired of having to help me and eyeing the doorway and the book waiting for her beyond the library’s walls, Beth pressured me for an answer.

                “Uh, yes. I would like these, please.”

                I pointed to a few Novice spells from every basic element available, that way I could have a variety of spells prepared no matter the enemy’s resistances and because they sounded easy to control.

                From the list, I chose; Rock Throw, Ice Arrow, Strangle Thorn, Water Ball and Lightning Bolt. Having read past the attack magic section, I also threw in a spell of each of the Light and Dark schools of magic and asked for the Fairy’s Light and Shadow Cloak spells, because I was fairly sure I knew what they’d do.

                One attack spell for each element, minus the fire spell I already knew and two of what seemed like support-type spells. The attack spells may have been mostly commonplace where games were concerned, but when taking into consideration how they might be applied in a real world setting such as this, they could be game changing.

                From electrocuting an enemy after they fell into a river or was drenched by another spell, to potentially shattering a wall that was otherwise unbreakable with a magically infused rock acting as a wrecking ball, to something as simple as putting a lump of ice in your glass of water after a hard day’s work. Assuming the glass didn’t explode from the impact, of course. There were potentially endless possibilities.

                There were more spells that sounded like they’d be flashier and more devastating, but as I read through the list, I decided it was best to keep it simple. At least until I could make better use of the spells I already knew. Wouldn’t want to risk hurting Yua or myself with my own magic.

                Beth watched as I pointed to each new spell and turned more and more doubtful with each addition, like she was starting to think I was only here to waste her precious studying time.

                “That’s quite a few spells. Are you sure you are ready to learn all of those?”

                “Yes, I am.”

                I honestly thought that I was. Given how I memorized the content of the spell catalogue without even trying, I figured learning and memorizing the spells themselves would be a breeze. Although, I was sure she was just doubtful because of how long it supposedly took other people to memorize even a single spell.

                “Well, if you say you can, then it is up to you to apply yourself. However, I would recommend lightening your load. Trying to learn this many spells at once is a fool’s errand.”

                “No need to worry. I’ll take it slow.”

                Beth shrugged, sighing in resignation and put her hand on the spell catalogue. After a short breath to collect herself, she chanted a short spell under her breath and included in it the names of all the spells I mentioned. The pages of the book began to flutter and flap like the wings of a trapped bird desperately trying to escape from beneath her palm, but she held it down easily enough.

                Soon after her chant was finished, a spell book that had been resting in one of the shelves we passed on the way in began to shake in place, disturbing its neighbors as it fought to free itself. Within a second of Beth’s chant finishing, the book lifted itself off of its shelf entirely unaided and floated towards us. At the same time, my eyes were drawn to several more books removing themselves from their holding places on the upper floors, causing one or two of the mages studying there to have to move out of their way to avoid a collision. Unbothered by the sight of the books seemingly having been granted a life of their own, these mages quickly returned to their work without a word in rebuke for the disturbance. One of the books, the last to fall, came from so high up in the library that it might as well have descend directly from the heavens.

                As if filled with a temporary consciousness, the books all fell into a perfectly uniform line with one another as they soared through the air and down towards us, unassisted by anything but the magic that propelled them. Instead of letting them fall straight to the ground where they no doubt would have received significant damage to their spines and pages, and with one hand still resting on the catalogue, Beth guided them into a neat stack on the floor beside her. When the last spell book touched down, the pile reached all the way up to her waist line.

                She looked with an excess of doubt arching her brow, likely assuming, and assuming correctly, that I wasn’t prepared for how thick the books actually were, but I wasn’t about to back down.

                I was already eager to start reading, but instantly thought better of doing so. If it was for the sake of Yua’s and my future, I didn’t mind learning spells so easily, but I was almost positive that cracking those books open now would only lead to me abusing the Guild’s borrowing system by spending hours here learning every spell I could get my hands on. The thought of giving into that want was very, very tempting.

                Again, for the sake of our future, knowing as many spells as possible could only help us, but I couldn’t risk my Memorization trait coming to light. Not when it would likely entail every member mobbing up, drawing their pitchforks, torches and wands to come hunt me down out of jealousy.

                While this may be the last time I get to visit a library such as this, it’d be best to buy them and take them with me back to the inn before I lean into them.

                “Thank you. How much are they all together?”

                A bit dumfounded by my will to continue when she likely thought I’d fold under the pressure, Beth pushed her glasses up her nose again before answering.

                “Novice spells are worth 50 gold coins each. Intermediate spells are 100 and Master level spells are 200. But since these are all novice spells, this totals to 400 gold.”

                Once more, she looked at me like she was expecting me to back down, but I was still more concerned with spending so much when I’d yet to get Yua anything that wasn’t meant for her alone. But in my mind’s eye, I could see her urging me on with a smile, so I pretended to mull it over for a second and nodded.

                “That’s a lot, but I’ll take them.”

                “Eh, wha…”

                Beth’s surprise finally managed to create a chink in her armor and just then, a lock of hair chose that moment to untangle itself from her pony tail to fall in front of her forehead. I got the impression she was only playing along with me to force me to see an error in my desire that she herself noticed and very much wanted to point out, but her eyes widened at the impressive stack of books. Openly flabbergasted that someone, anyone, would buy so many at a time when they supposedly took months to memorize, her mouth bobbed open and closed several times like a fish gasping for a breath of fresh water.

                She was quick to recover, though. But I couldn’t tell if it was due to her wanting to get back to her own work or if she figured that my supposed speed reading was going to be a great help.

                “Then I wish you luck in your efforts, Member Alex. Will… Will there be anything else?”

                I crossed my arms and tried to conjure up some ideas for spells I’d seen elsewhere in other fantasy worlds. Anything that could be useful, really. Short of dumping even more gold on the master level spells I saw in the catalogue, there wasn’t much I could think of that we’d need.

                Maybe if I asked Yua for some ideas… Oh!

                “Yea, actually,” I said, thumping my fist into my palm. “Do you have any utility spells?”

                “Utility spells? I don’t follow your meaning.”

                “You don’t know? Maybe that’s just not what they’re called. Let’s see… are there any types of spells that can do things like, I don’t know, instantly clean all the dirt off your clothes so you don’t have to wash them in the river?”

                “Oh, you mean Homemaker Spells. Yes, we have some. Although, they are usually favored by women.”

                “That’s fine by me. Can I see them, please?”

                She nodded, her continued surprise making her look like her hair was about to turn white right in front of my eyes as she flipped to another section of the book and left it open on the page labeled “Homemaker Spells,” just like she said. I’d already skimmed through them a moment ago, but I must not have let their potential sink in as I was more focused on my ability to memorize, not what I was memorizing. It was almost like I was just taking pictures of each page with my mind and that I was unsure of what was actually photographed and its contents entailed until I thought to actively think back on it.

                It was a shame really, but I guess even an ability like that had to have its limits. Still, I should have noticed the spells I thought would be useful and whose effects were easy to guess at earlier, as my second read through made me realize they all had rather blatant names.

                “Can I also buy the Clothing Wash, Body Wash, Drying Gust, Purify Water and Mend Clothing spells?”

                I figured being able to clean and fix our clothes would leave less work for Yua and myself to do on the run and the Purify Water spell sounded perfect for just about any situation since drinking water straight from a stream, river or even a well could pose some serious medical issues if the water wasn’t clean enough. I’d heard you could just boil the water to make it drinkable, but I also clearly remembered someone saying that doing that wouldn’t actually work all that well, so using magic to make sure our drinking water was safe seemed like the best option to keep us healthy.

                And as for the Body Wash spell, I figured that if Yua and I were ever out on a mission for the Adventurer’s Guild and couldn’t stay at an inn with a bath or if we were otherwise just unable to wash up, then we could spare her nose by keeping clean via magic. Although, I would still prefer a nice hot bath any day. Using water from a well may not be too bad now since the weather is calm, but I was sure it was going to be torture in the winter if we didn’t at least heat it up. Even then, without knowing how cold it got in the winter here, it might be best to skip the bath altogether.

                Unaware of the logic I was putting behind my selections, Beth just blinked at me. Asking for anything more than this looked like it might cause her a heart attack, so I ended my request there.

                “I-If that is what you want…”

                Beth chanted her spell again and five more books came flying down to settle atop the pile that now reached to just below her breast.

                “These Novice spells bring your total to 650 gold. If you can’t afford them now, I recommend borrowing…”

                “No, it’s fine. I’ll just buy them. I can, right?”

                Despite the steep price, I figured their usefulness would pay me back in no time. Plus, I had more than enough gold to spare. The question was if the Guild would allow one person to purchase so many spell books at a time.

                “W-Will there be anything else?” Beth asked, looking a bit disheveled at my easy answer.

                “That’ll be all for now. I’ll come back another time once I’m done with these.”

                “R-Right. I, um, then I suppose we may not be seeing each other for a while. Let me… go get the tray.”

                Beth pushed past the library door and headed off down the hall in a stupor. She had managed to work out by herself that I could read quickly, but just reading fast wasn’t enough to actually memorize things. That would take actual studying. And since I was buying a stack of books as tall as a child, and because of how I made it seem like I might have an easy time with it, she seemed a severely dumbstruck instead of angry like I thought she’d be. Tack on to that how I already knew a teleportation spell at my age and I felt I should probably be more careful around her. Unlike Yua and the barkeep at the Adventurer’s Guild, she found the mixture of my levels, age and spell knowledge more baffling than impressive.

                When she came back, her hair returned to its proper order, she set the silver tray right on the stack of books, probably due to the lack of a table anywhere on the first floor of the library. It took the combination of my new cloak, my belt pouch and a bit of amateurish sleight-of-hand to take the coin I owed her out of my item box. When I started stacking coins on the tray, her face grew paler with each successive stack.

                I wasn’t too sure why, though. With as much as it seems she liked to learn, I thought she would be happy that someone else shared her interest the way Madame Turquesse was when I bought the cauldron.

                After I finished paying, I picked up the stack of books while Beth hurried for the door, almost like she thought I might drop them if she dawdled. With a nod of thanks for her help, I left the Mage’s Guild manager with a thanks and some well wishes before I made my way back to Yua. She too was astonished by the stack of books a more than half as tall as I was, but unlike Beth, she shot me a sympathetic smile.

                “Let me help with those.”

                Without uttering so much as a single syllable in question for how much coin I just spent, Yua took half of the stack into her arms. And she took it happily, her eagerness to see more of my magic written excitedly in her expression.

                Leaving Beth to let out an exhausted sigh as she leaned over her book, we left the Mage’s Guild and carried our bundle of books into the nearest vacant alley we could find. Once we were sure nobody was looking, I put the books and everything else Yua was still carrying in her bag into my item box. Thanks to her strength, she hadn’t even broken a sweat carrying it all.

                Hefting the now empty backpack over her shoulders, Yua smiled in thanks for my consideration. That smile, however, roused my guilt and made me want to think hard on where to go next.

                There was nothing that was at all interesting to look at in the alley unless you counted the dull grey brickwork and a man over in the far end whose info box said he was both drunk and unconscious, which I didn’t, so as I pondered our next move, my gaze easily landed on Yua. More importantly, onto her chest. She may have given me a free pass to look whenever I wanted, but that’s not what this was. I’d just noticed that carrying my books disheveled her already messy blouse even more.

                With that in mind, I took her hand in mine, but only long enough to lead her back to the street to keep with her wish to keep any heart-pounding emotions between us private.

                “Where are we going now?” she asked.

                “To see if the tailor is still open. I’ve been wanting to buy you some clothes for a while now and since we just spent so much on myself, I think it’s only right we do just that.”

                “But I don’t need…”

                “You do. You can’t just wear that same outfit forever. And who knows when we’ll get a chance like this again?”

                The three days mentioned in her contract were all but up now. With only a few more hours to spare and with Alphonse nowhere to be found… Well, I wasn’t sure when we’d be able to find ourselves another clothing store.

                I was already fairly certain the spells I just bought could mend the clothes she was already wearing, but why not have more? Even if she hadn’t done enough fighting and worrying to earn them, I say she deserved them.

                “Okay, if you insist,” she said, raising a finger at me. “But we have to get some clothes for you too.”

                “What? But why me…?”

                As soon as the words left my mouth after trying to do something nice for her and only her, I remembered that the clothes I was wearing now, aside from my leather armor, were all I had. And since Yua had that rag of a sleepshirt, she technically had more outfit variation than I did myself.

                “Alright, well, let’s just go see if they’re even still open.”

                It was late. Later than late. Any shops that were still open past this point were going to be outliers operating on the same level as any of Amoranth’s taverns and the pair of Guilds, though their reasons for keeping so late differed wildly. So, this little shopping spree of ours was nearing its end and so was our time in Amoranth.