Sofia stood in front of the ‘Champion’s charms and crests’ shop headquarters, speechless, still processing what had just happened to her.
Before she could even say anything, the guards had recognised her, and created a commotion asking her for autographs, which drew in a substantial crowd. She awkwardly used an ink pen to doodle her name on their pauldrons, adding small skulls at their request, after which they insisted to personally escort her to her destination, flying at unreasonable speeds right above the city’s rooftops.
They even cleared the way in front of the shop for her to land in peace, which Sofia found frankly unnecessary and embarrassing, even if it stemmed from a good intention.
“People here very Klepra, but leg extreme nice,” Pestle commented, sitting invisible on Sofia’s shoulder.
“You know what, I completely agree…”
After staying lost in thought for an instant, Sofia got self-conscious from all the people in the street staring at her and keeping their distance, so she quickly entered the shop and closed the door behind her.
The bell on the door rang, and Sofia could feel the magic from several rituals washing over her.
The shop was much larger than its counterpart in Ser’Extra, and several floors tall built around a long straight central staircase. Faint music played from a box-shaped artifact built into the ceiling, accompanied by a pleasant light floral smell. Sparse people silently browsed the products showcased under glass, which were all lit by their own lightstone fixture, making the shop’s interior even brighter than the sunny day outside. There was no clerk in sight, but Sofia could feel someone rushing from the floor above since the doorbell rang, so she opted to wait near the entrance.
The person rushing down turned out to be a daisy-covered Dryad wearing a long apron stamped with the shop’s emblem. She walked up to Sofia, the ambient floral scent getting stronger. Her face was mostly hidden by long tangles of white flowers that hung from her head like hair, and her soft voice spread through the air carried by mana.
“Welcome to Champion’s C&C,” she greeted Sofia with a polite nod, “Are you looking for something in particular or do you wish to browse our products?”
“Hello, actually I have an appointment with a certain Wodek Roer?”
The dryad froze for an instant before smoothly getting back into her professional demeanor, “Certainly, please come with me.”
The dryad clerk led Sofia upstairs. The other customers whisper in shock; ‘Who is that?’,‘Just a few words and she can go up?!’, ‘Definitely a big shot. Don’t stare, Miri, we don’t want to offend anyone.’
People in the Arege Union are quite loose-tongued. Sofia thought, equal parts embarrassed and amused by their whispers that she could clearly hear without even trying.
The dryad took Sofia all the way to the second-to-last floor, which looked less like a shop and more like a luxury tea salon with no other customers. After actually serving Sofia some tea and biscuits, the dryad excused herself, informing her that she had to wait for a moment, and might have to come back later.
About ten minutes later, long after Pestle had run out of cookies, someone came down from the floor above.
???? I cannot feel them at all?!
The person was a vaguely human-shaped mix of a preying mantis and a butterfly, with a strange head that was half hard exoskeleton on the top half, half soft-looking grey-purple skin on the bottom half, with thin-lipped mouth and sharp teeth. Unlike the Kleptras, they had a majestic, regal air to them, their exoskeleton, wings and clothes bright and colorful.
Aside from seeing them with her eyes, Sofia could not feel a speck of mana or any bones from them, in fact her mana senses seemed to fly right through as they would when targeting a Phageid.
The glowing numbers above the person’s head formed as they approached. And they jolted Sofia’s memory. She had already seen this big insect, on the Ark, in the spectator seats.
‘500+’
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“W- Wodek Roer?” Sofia asked, feeling her senses suddenly isolated to this floor of the building only.
“Silly code name. Master Thu’ul Nak at your service, Saintomancer,” they answered, sounding quite jovial but with a completely stoic body language save for a faint smile. “Did you enjoy touring our little city?”
Thu’ul Nak… He was in the list for my Holder anticipated applications. And the one who made that ‘get rich quick’ 25 stones charm.
“It is an honor to meet you, master Thu’ul Nak. Your city is… interesting.”
“WAHAHAH! Not even going to lie and spare an old bug’s feelings?!” Thu’ul Nak laughed wildly, throwing his head back, wings fluttering, “Spend more time here and you will grow to love it, I am sure. Now, here to make me some money, I hear?”
“I came to try out a few charms.”
“Hmmhmm I was given the details,” Thu’ul Nak said, calmly pacing around the room, taking a look outside through a window, “I had to come in person for such a big transaction. Especially since it is you. You have become quite the celebrity after your spectacular Ark performance last year.”
“I doubt my meager fame could possibly hold a candle to that of a master craftsman such as yourself,” Sofia answered, not in the least ashamed to pay back some lip service to such a powerful figure.
“HAH! Our names combined are still too meager to compete against a certain dragon’s infamy, or should one say renown? I will give you a one stone discount so put in a good word for me, would you? She has been refusing to sell anything since the war and I really miss her trinkets.”
Grandma used to publicly sell her creations?
Sofia nodded, “I will but I cannot guarantee you anything.”
Thu’ul Nak shook his head, his antennae twitching subtly, “swift retribution is the only guarantee one can hope to get from her, that I know. I would love to chat more but there are a million and a half things I have to handle… Let us get to the charms, then.”
“Alright, can I try all three?”
“But of course, our charms require no priming, trying before buying is the norm. Do you mind a quick teleportation to a more suitable location?”
“No problem.”
Thu’ul Nak smiled widely at Sofia’s answer, and a swarm of locusts suddenly burst out from the patterns in his wings. Sofia stood still watching the millions of insects devour absolutely everything except for the chair she was sitting on in a matter of seconds before flying back to Thu’ul Nak’s wings. Instead of the sixth floor of the shop and the open air of the city, the scenery beyond the walls had changed to a brightly lit underground training grounds, with plenty of glowing wooden puppets running laps around the periphery of the area.
“My own product first?” Thu’ul Nak asked.
“Naturally.”
Thu’ul nak notably had both mantis-like claws and human-ish arms, he extended an empty palm toward Sofia, and the charm appeared there, along with a shared custom system description.
[DBGRQ Chaos Coral Charm] -25 Stones-
Gives your signature skill a random powerful effect that is different for each wearer.
Gain a 50% overall bonus to two random sub-stats that are different for each wearer.
Craftsman: Master Zurug-Et Thu’ul Nak
The charm was a gold coin-sized blue-purple jewel carved in the natural shape of a piece of branched coral.
“Well? Take it. Simply holding it will do but you can pin it as you would. Hold it against any part of your body or armor, and it will stay there.”
“Alright.”
Sofia carefully grabbed the tiny object oozing with condensed mana. It barely weighed anything, and she instantly felt its magic spread through her veins.
“So?” Thu’ul Nak asked, looking genuinely curious as he walked around her.
“I… Don’t feel any different, actually. Did it not work?”
“Impossible!” Thu’ul Nak dismissed, “No, you must have hit two Health sub-stats. Unlucky.”
“Health sub-stats?! Those are a thing?”
“Yes? Have you never heard of resistances by some strange twist of fate?”
“I never knew they were Health sub-stats! That's not said anywhere!”
Thu’ul Nak snickered, “Well, now you know.”
[I can confirm, we have just received an update from DATABASE. The resistances affected are Piercing and Corrosive.]
“Piercing and Corrosive is what I got, apparently,” Sofia notified the bug man.
“Huh. These aren’t the worst at least. Still better than Slashing and fucking Warp,” Thu’ul Nak commented.
“Warp?”
“Yes… Time warp. Time magic is a fool’s errand, but one can still get resistance to it for some ODIOUS reason. More a detriment than anything else. Get too much of it and you will start to notice the time discrepancies as you accelerate or when you approach heavy objects. Cost me some sales before, that… Pardon my ramblings. What about your signature, got anything good, a cooldown reduction, perhaps?”
“Let me check…”
