Chương 30: Frivolous Purchases

When they emerged from the ruins, the sun was just about to disappear behind the horizon, painting the sky deep purple. Still giddy from their victory and Oliver's breakthrough to rank 3, they gathered some of the twigs and branches from the forest and built a small campfire in the wind shadow of one of the ruin's crumbled walls. Evan watched Oliver ignite the fire with his magic-powered lighter. He took out his own, the one he'd bought at the general store in Silvercreek, and inspected it more closely.

The bottom had the oval opening so many objects and appliances in this world had. The slot to refill mana stones.

"If mana stones can be used to refill magical objects, can we use them to replenish our own mana?" Evan asked Oliver as he sat down next to the now crackling fire.

"No. Not directly, at least. Alchemists can turn mana stones into potions for human consumption, though." Evan's eyebrows rose.

"We can buy potions that refill mana?"

"Yeah, like the health potion you gave me to fix my leg back when we first met."

"We need some! More specifically, you need some."

"We can buy some when we get back," Oliver said, opening the latch of his heavy plate cuirass to take it off, "but they're pretty expensive." Evan sighed.

"We keep looting, but it seems our shopping list just keeps growing and growing. We still need to buy that metal crystal for Maya, a new skill gem for you, and you'll probably need a new sword sooner rather than later." Oliver looked at his sword with its rust-streaked blade.

"Maybe that smith my sister works for can refurbish it. It's a decent weapon, just old."

"You could get magical enhancements too," Evan suggested excitedly.

"Another item for our shopping list, huh? But that sounds more like a thing for you. Besides, I wouldn't be able to use enchantments now anyway. Maybe at a higher rank I will, but I've heard some people never learn how to properly channel their mana to control object enchantments." Evan glanced at his own sword. The beautiful orange-speckled blade was hidden by the leather scabbard.

Alex had told him that the sword had fire powers, but that he would need to learn to control his mana better before he could make use of them. He wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but hopefully it would reveal itself to him as he rose through the ranks. Oliver took off the last pieces of his armor and leaned back on his elbows with a sigh.

"I'm going to spend my new attribute points now. Watch my back while I go into my ledger, okay?" Oliver's words went through him like a bolt. He sat up straight and slapped his hand against his forehead.

"My attribute points!"

"Huh?"

"From ranking up. I still haven't spent my attribute points from when I reached rank 3." He shook his head in disbelief.

"I was a bit shaken after that fight in the tunnel, and then Alex chased us through the countryside, and then we had so much new stuff to do in the city… I just completely forgot about them." Oliver shook his head, laughing.

"You go first, then. How are you going to spend them?"

"Give me a moment to think about it." Evan mentally opened his interface, still wondering how he could've missed the five unspent attribute points sitting right there on the first page. [Strenght: 9] [Endurance: 9] [Speed: 10] [Dexterity: 7] [Perception: 6] [Spirit: 8] Evan considered his choices. He wanted to be stronger. Being stronger meant more weapon damage and also more health, so he put 2 points into Strength.

Speed would upgrade his [Teleport], but it was already his highest stat, and considering how often he used [Teleport] during fights, his Speed attribute would improve on its own, so he decided against spending points on Speed. He didn't really know how to put his Perception attribute to good use right now, so he left it as it was and instead put a point into Dexterity, since it was tied to his new [Comet Shot] skill, which he liked quite a lot. The last 2 points went into Spirit to increase his mana pool.

"Okay, done. Now it's your turn." Oliver's eyes glazed over, an expression Evan knew meant he was looking at his menus, invisible to anyone but him.

"I put two into strength and three into endurance." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. A frown appeared on his friend's face.

"What?" Evan asked.

"What's bothering you?"

"I'm not an expert, but I feel like our attributes look very low for rank 3. Remember how I told you how many problems it can cause if you rank up too fast without properly training your attributes?"

"You think we have that problem?" Oliver exited his ledger and shrugged.

"Not yet, but if we keep rushing, we might run into issues soon."

"Quests sometimes give attribute points as rewards, right? Maybe we can catch up if we do some of those?" He checked his quest log, but the only open quest was the Swordsman Apprentice quest. The progress currently sat at 13%.

"I thought all that fighting would've done wonders for our swordsman quest, but the progress bar hardly moved." Oliver rubbed his chin in thought.

"Maybe just using a sword isn't enough. Maybe we need to improve our technique? Too bad Alex is off doing her own thing. Her lessons were great stuff."

"Kirby said the guild offers courses."

"I bet those cost money, though." Evan's shoulders slumped.

"Yeah, probably." No matter how many monsters they looted, they always quickly found new opportunities to drain their funds. It was starting to dawn on Evan that this new world might look like a world from his childhood fantasy books on the surface, with its monsters and magic and funny fruits, but under the hood, it ran very similarly to Earth. Paperwork and capitalism. It even had rich people hoarding all the wealth. Only here they were called guilds instead of companies.

And they hoarded affinity crystals and magical weapons instead of Bitcoin and stocks. Oliver was still contemplating their quest progress issues.

"I wonder if hitting the books might help."

"You mean skill books? The system gave me one when I arrived in this world. It helped me learn your language in just a few seconds. Great idea. I bet there are skill books for sword fighting techniques."

"I'm sure there are," Oliver said grimly.

"They cost a fortune, though." Evan groaned.

"Of course they do. So ordinary books then? Good old studying?"

"It can't do any harm, right? To read up on some foundational stuff?"

"You don't have to convince me, Olly. I was the kid who hid in the library during lunch breaks instead of playing kickball at the playground."

"What's kickball?"

"Not important. You do have public libraries in your world, right?"

"Uh…" Evan closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face.

"Let me guess? They cost money?" Oliver replied with a solemn nod, but then his face lit up again.

"Hey, you know where a free library is? Actually, free for everyone to use?"

"Where?"

"The academy! And you wanted to go there anyway, right? To find out more about the whole traveling-between-worlds thing." Evan was surprised by how reluctantly his answer came.

"Yeah…" He did want to learn more about the whole traveling-between-worlds thing, right? He wanted to find a way home. But what if the scholars there told him it was actually super easy, and they could send him home right now? He would never see Oliver again. He would never buy that affinity crystal for Maya. He would never get the chance to become a renowned Monster Hunter. Oliver didn't seem to notice his distress.

"Two birds with one stone then. We'll visit the academy, you'll talk with someone about your world travel problem, and then we'll take a look at the books in the library. The only issue is getting there. The academy is built on an island, and the ferry will cost…"

"Money," Evan finished his sentence.

"But that's alright. We might not have enough for fancy magical weapons or highly sought-after affinity crystals, but I'm sure we have enough for a damn ferry ticket. Right?" They killed every monster they ran into on their way back to Stormhaven and took another contract involving about two dozen Scrapmaws in a horse stable.

After cleaning out the Scrapmaw burrow in Silvercreek, clearing the stable was pretty much a walk in the park for Evan and Oliver, but it still netted them a nice reward of 100 mana stones each, and completing the corresponding quest that had popped up when they'd taken the red notice from the board had granted them a +1 to Dexterity. As soon as they were back in the city, they took their hard-earned loot to the auction house.

After selling everything they had stored in their inventories, they had exactly the amount they needed for Maya's affinity crystal, with only a few mana stones to spare. Evan glanced at the affinity crystal vendor.

"What do you say? Do we do it now, before we get tempted to spend it on something frivolous?" Oliver still needed a skill gem after ranking up, and they wanted to take one of the training courses the guild offered, and Evan definitely wanted to buy some mana and health potions, but they had a time limit to buy that affinity crystal, and he really, really wanted to see the look on Maya's face when they handed over the gift that would change her life forever.

"Buying my annoying sister a crystal is frivolous," Oliver laughed.

"Maybe, but just think about how she'll be in your debt for all eternity. If that's not perfect sibling-fight ammunition, I don't know what is." A grin spread across Oliver's face, and his eyes lit up when he realized the endless potential a gift like that had.

"I'm sold. Let's do it. I haven't decided on my skill gem yet anyway. And maybe we'll loot a good one soon and can save the money." The crystal vendor recognized their faces when they approached his stand.

"Ah, you're here to make good on your promise." Evan only smiled in answer, opened his inventory, and started stacking up the mana stones on the counter. Oliver added the other half. The vendor waved his hand, and a wisp of white glowing magic appeared, circled around the stacks of mana stones a few times, and dissipated again.

"6500 mana stones on the dot," the vendor said.

"Was that a skill?" Evan asked, intrigued.

"Did you just count those mana stones with magic?"

"Yes, it's a skill. Pretty handy."

"I had no idea you could get skills like this."

"Not all skills are combat-focused, kid," the vendor said, bending down to retrieve something from a crate under his counter.

"Here you go. A metal affinity crystal. Great condition. I think whoever you're buying this for will be very happy." Once again, Evan was in awe of the beauty of the magical crystals. This one was multicolored, a mix of silver, bronze, and gold mingling inside in lazy swirls. Evan took it from him with utmost care and handed it over to Oliver, who stored it in his inventory. Grinning from ear to ear, they headed for the exit, but getting there wasn't easy. The entire crowd seemed to move in the opposite direction.

Evan looked around to figure out where they were going.

"Everyone is going upstairs," he said to Oliver.

"What's happening?" Oliver shrugged, but a young woman pushing past them must've overheard Evan's question. She looked at him, one eyebrow arched, as if he'd just asked the silliest question she'd ever heard.

"You don't know? The auction is about to start." Evan was still puzzled as to why the crowd behaved like a bunch of football fans heading for the Super Bowl final.

"Is that… unusual? We're in an auction house, are we not?"

"It's not just any auction. It's the auction for the legendary items. Those only happen three times a year. Some of the most famous mana users on the continent are here today." Oliver bit his lip, longingly staring up at the upper level.

"You know, Maya's probably working right now anyway…" Evan laughed.

"You want to watch that auction, don't you?"

"Legendary items, man. Don't you want to see them?" Evan didn't hesitate for one second.

"I totally do. Come on, let's head upstairs."