The next day, Ashton acted as if nothing was wrong and headed out along with Disha. Obviously, they had to take permission from the mistress before doing so.
The mistress also wanted the slaves to accompany them. But Ashton refused by saying since they were going to accompany him throughout the duration of his education and training in the academy, it was only fair that he was allowed to live the rest of the week without feeling like anyone was tracking him.
The mistress thought about it for a couple of minutes and then allowed the two of them to go without the slaves. She initially wanted to make the slaves get acquainted with Ashton's habits as soon as they could...
But then again, she thought maybe she was being too irrational and after all, Disha was accompanying him already. On top of that, she had not even rewarded or acknowledged Ashton after getting the first position in the exam. So this could be a way for her to do so.
"Finally out of there... phew." Ashton stretched a bit while walking on the streets, "What about you Disha? Don't you feel a bit overworked? I mean being around the mistress is quite draining isn't it? Also Don't you miss being a human?"
"I would rather be overworked than be treated like shit." Disha sighed, "As far as the question of missing my humanity... I don't think there's anything stopping me from continuing to behave like one. I mean I still pretty much look the same and all. If anything I can enjoy being a human more while staying as a werewolf, than being a human, if you know what I mean."
She continued, "Like imagine being a vampire or an undead. Being forced to transform into one of those would have really sucked. At least right now I can enjoy my heartbeat and the feeling of the sun kissing my skin. I can never even think about living as a Vampire or an Undead."
Ashton nodded to her reply and kept walking. Well... there was nothing wrong with what Disha was saying. Even as 'mutts' their life was much better than living in the enclosures till the last of their days. Also, objectively, there was nothing wrong with being a werewolf... if it wasn't for what they had done to his parents.
At that moment, Ashton realised he didn't have problems with the werewolves, just with the Mistress for doing what she did. Still, he hated all of them 'pureblooded' bastards. Soon he began remembering everything the werewolves had done for and against him and well... the things they had done to vex him overweighed the things they had done to help him.
While lost in his thoughts, he heard a sudden commotion erupt in front of one of the countless stores. They had already arrived at Merchant Avenue. The marketplace of Contingent where one could find anything and everything as long as they had enough money for it.
From exotic slaves to weapons and potions, everything anyone would need was readily available there. And right now, there was a crowd gathered in front of one of such shops. It also happened to be the shop Ashton wanted to visit first.
Divine Armoury... that was the name of the shop. However, contrary to the name, the shop looked everything but divine. It was clear that the place had not been maintained for some time as the paints were coming off of the walls and mould growing on everything.
However, Ashton knew not to judge a book by its cover. After all, this shop was arguably the best shop to buy weapons and other gear from. The crowd gathered in front of the shop was only proof of what kind of great goods did the shop had to offer.
"Let's check it out," Disha said and the two of them headed into the shop.
***
'This... is crap!'
That was Ashton's first thought as soon as he looked at some of the 'great' weapons the merchant had to offer. None of the weapons there were even of uncommon quality, let alone rare quality like Ashton was looking for.
As if selling shitty things was not enough for the merchant, they were being sold at absurd prices. Like none of the weapons even had a permanent blessing on them and yet they were priced at 1000 blue units or more.
Ashton had even started to wonder whether this place was a joke or an actual armoury. Hell, even the rusty weapons he had trained with were much better than these shiny ones. It was still a wonder why all these idiots were buying these weapons that wouldn't even last more than a month.
'Well... I do know the answer for that.' Ashton shook his head and put the sword he had been looking at, back in its place.
As the mistress had already told him... none of them possessed the innate detection skill as he did. For them, the only way to get to know about the true stat of the gear was to buy it and then pay another merchant to verify the usefulness of the said gear.
In other words, it could be said that the merchants were one unit hellbent on making as much money from the others as they could. That was the reason most of these people took the merchant's word for the skills and stats associated with a certain gear.
But this trick only worked on commoners and lower-ranked soldiers and officers. As the rest of them had more than enough money to get their weapons made from scratch and by reputed weaponsmiths.
But since Ashton could know about the history of anything he set his eyes on, fooling him using these tricks was impossible. However, he knew better than to anger the merchants so he decided it was wise to stay silent and leave the place.
"Found anything you wanna buy?" Disha asked him as Ashton shrugged his shoulders and walked out.
"Nah... there's nothing worth the price they are asking for," Ashton replied and was about to take a step out of the shop when someone grabbed onto him.
"You boy... are you trying to say my goods are overpriced?" A thunderous voice boomed behind him as the merchant and the owner of the shop jumped right in front of Ashton, "Or do you mean my goods are shit? Huh?"
'... oh boy, here we go again..' Ashton sighed as uninvited trouble crossed his path yet again.
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