Chương 50: 1.3.06 - Breaking Brine

I was so tired that I immediately collapsed in the bed of the room I rented after seeing a healer for the burns on my arms. The lack of sleep, the fight with the bandits, followed by the high tension march all the way to Saltmere had tired me out more than I had expected. Despite being the first time sleeping in a different city — if you excluded the poor excuse of a bed in the middle of nowhere en route to Saltmere — I slept like a certain monster that always blocked people's path in another game I used to play.

I recalled I still had those notifications which I was too tired to check yesterday and pulled them up immediately. [Lightning Bolt leveled up 7 -> 8] [You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 1, 600] [You have leveled up 4 -> 5] [Electrolocation leveled up 3 -> 4] [You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 800] [You have absorbed a Human Yellow Core. You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 462] [You have leveled up 5 -> 6] [You have absorbed a Human Orange Core. You have increased your Mana Core Capacity by 65] I was glad that my Lightning Bolt was close to level 10. It seemed that usage during actual combat was the key to your spell's growth. At least until the spell hit the max level within the tier anyway. I could also see why Fallic made such a fuss about the Yellow Core from the bandit leader. The cores had started degrading already by the time we got back but it was still close to 500 experience.

5 cores from a fellow Yellow Cored human and you would progress by one level. Less than 3 if they shared the same affinity as you. I was surprised there weren't more power crazed murderers hunting down other humans to fast track their core progression. Then again, I could imagine the Adventurer Guild issuing bounties to hunt these criminals down immediately. I pulled on the Weave next to look at my status window.

Status Core: Lightning Affinity (Perfect) Core Stage: Yellow Stage Level: 6 Mana Core Capacity (MCC) Progress to Next Level: 426/2, 500 Core Mutations: - Lightning Brain - Lightning Adaptation Spells: - Electrolocation (Tier 2) - Level 4 - Lightning Bolt (Tier 2) - Level 8 - Lightning Infusion (Tier 1) - Level 9 Soul Mutations: - Adaptive Soul - Nature's Constitution - Myelin Insulation My progress would likely slow again once Lightning Bolt and Lightning Infusion reach level 10.

I had not yet thought about what the next steps in their upgrades were going to be, something to ponder upon when I'm back in the Weeping Grotto. For now, I had more important things to do. I jumped out the bed, ready to finally explore Saltmere. I had decided to visit the smithing district first, as the main reason I had wanted to come to Saltmere was to look for high purity copper. Though looking at the geography and the main trade the town thrived on, it was looking less likely.

Nevertheless, I wasn't one to give up before trying. The smithing shops were better organized than the row of cobbled together shacks that were in Hollow's Reach. The shops were divided by whether they specialized in weapons or armors. I decided to take a look around first before approaching one of the shops.

"Eh? High purity copper? Now what in cursed seas would I do with that? Don't you know steel make for stronger weapons? Now shoo if ye ain't buying anyfing~" one of the black smiths chased me out of their shops. That was the third shop that I had been chased out of. It was true though — all I could see were mostly steel, or the occasional mithril that was used to coat parts of the weapon.

Mithril was probably too expensive to be used to make an entire weapon, and was only selectively used to reinforce the bladed portions. There were some exotic materials that I had not seen before being used in the same way but they looked like they were for one of the common affinities.

"Well, I knew it was a long shot" I said as I walked towards the armor smiths. There were a few more shops but they all looked to be working with the same materials. I decided that I might as well get myself some armor while I was here. The last encounter with the bandits had proven how ill equipped I was. I did not need a weapon at the moment but I could definitely get some better defensive gear. I looked at all the different armors on display, from splinted leather armor all the way to a cuirass.

The problem was they were all too big. The armors did have some flexibility to accommodate individuals of different sizes but they couldn't quite be adjusted to my size. While my muscles were toned, I was only slightly more than 150 centimeters tall. My torso was not nearly big enough to fill up the entire armor.

"Excuse me, do you have any armor that are smaller in size?" I asked one of the shop keepers. He took a good look at me, thought it over before pointing to a different section of the shop.

"Yes lass, you're looking in the wrong area. You should head on over to the women's section" If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. I wanted to correct him but looking at all the different armors here, he was correct that the woman's section would probably have something more in my size.

There were more variants of hybrid armors and while the chest area wasn't specifically shaped to accommodate different body parts, the upper torso seemed to be narrower. The length of the armor was right but they all looked too tight. The last thing I wanted was to restrict my own mobility as I still relied on evasion more than deflecting a hit. After trying on a few armors, I had to compromise in the end and went with metal pauldrons with leather straps, as well as a pair of splinted vambraces.

I could at least use my pauldrons and vambraces to deflect hits I could not completely avoid. If I had the vambraces yesterday, I could have avoided the nasty burn from the Acid affinity bandit.

"That'll be 25 silvers" the shop keeper said. I cried internally as I paid up, lamenting the fact that my entire week's worth of goblin hunt could just afford me a few pieces of armor. It was probably good that I did not end up buying a full body armor as I might outgrow it in a year or two and would need to replace it.

"Ok, main agenda is out of the way, might as well go take a look at what Saltmere is famous for." Piles of shining white powder were piled high in every single pit. If I didn't know better, I would have thought Mr. White got reincarnated as well and started his production line here. The white powder was in fact just regular sea salt piled up at the side. There were a few others like me who were roaming around the salt pans, probably first timers visiting the city.

The tide was low at this time of day, which meant that the mages of House Brinemark were hard at work. It seemed like they used the high tide to fill the pits with sea water. The mages then used their specialized spell form to rapidly evaporate the water. It was a trade secret that only direct members of the noble house were privy to. It was what elevated the house from a simple merchant family to a noble house of Vesperia.

Normal water mages would not be able to separate the salt from water with their basic water manipulation. House Brinemark had figured out a way to accelerate that process rather than relying on simple dehydration.

Of course there were other smaller merchants throughout the coast of Vesperia that produce their own salt, but none could produce them in the quality and efficiency that House Brinemark did, making the manual process costly due to the amount of land and time that was needed to produce the same amount of salt. The partially filled pits coupled with the occasional piles of salt gave the whole area a shimmering look when the sun's rays came down at the right angle.

"It's not bad being a tourist once in a while" a few passersby gave me weird looks, though I was not sure if it was due to what I just said or my mask. Which reminds me, I do need to get a new mask. But first! I need to get some lunch! My stomach was kind enough to remind me that it was past noon and I had not eaten anything besides some porridge this morning. The rain was pouring outside the window I was seated by.

I selected a restaurant based on the smell of the food and was pleasantly surprised by the roasted pie and tea the waitress had recommended. The place was pricier than your standard tavern food most adventurers frequent but I did not mind playing the tourist today. I had to wait another 2 hours before the rain let up, by then it was already late afternoon. With nothing else to do for the day, I decided to head over to the local Adventurer Guild branch to look through their mission board.

"Hmmm, the standard missions to recharge enchantments for common affinities. Escort... escort... Sailing?!? That's new...." I muttered as I went through the list. It was not too different from the missions in Hollow's Reach except some of the missions went up to Silver or Gold Rank. Escort missions were also a lot more common, some requiring months of sailing to other kingdoms. Something I could consider if I ever decide to flee Vesperia. None of them had what I needed but it was still interesting to see.

It was already too late to make my trip back to Hollow's Reach today. If I rushed, I could probably make the trip back in a single day without having to spend the night on the road. To do that though I would have to leave at the break of dawn. I decided to head to the market square and see if they had any interesting stalls. The market square was not too far from the Adventurer's Guild, but it was a lot more quiet than what I had expected.

Perhaps it was due to the rain or the time of day, but some of the stalls were already closed by the time I got there. I stopped by a stall that was, interestingly, selling masks. They had all kinds of designs, one of which looked surprisingly similar to the one I was wearing. The fuck, did Garrick buy it from here and rip me off? Most were only selling for 2 large coppers, with some of the fancier ones going up to a small silver.

I did see one that was made mostly of metal and only obstructed half my face, very similar to a masquerade mask that Italians wore during the 15th-century. There was one that was made of a light silvery metal. Hmmm. Doesn't look like silver, especially not at this price. The sheen looks off. Some kind of Nickel or Zinc alloy perhaps?

"Hello there! How much for this mask? And does it come with a leather strap?" I asked the man seated behind the stall.

"Ahh! A connoisseur of mask I see. You have an excellent eye my friend. This mask is very popular among the nobles, it..." the vendor started to prattle on about the qualities of what was obviously just a simple mask.

"Cut the plodder droppings. I know it's not silver, but I can appreciate good workmanship when I see it. I'll give you one small silver if you throw in the leather bindings" I interrupted the vendor. I didn't mean to be rude but he reminded me of a certain old hag who ripped me off the last time.

"Ah.... err.... certainly. Let me wrap it up for you" the vendor stammered, clearly thrown off by my bluntness.

"No need, just give me the bindings" I handed the vendor one small silver after I placed both the mask and bindings in my cloak. Finally, I can change out of this ugly piece of thing. Happy with my last purchase of the day, I decided to head back to my room and retire early since I had to wake up early tomorrow. Daresh POV THUD—THUD"Come in." Daresh called when he heard the knock. Sennika entered the room and could see the guild master buried in his usual monthly pile of paperwork behind his desk.

"As you can see, this isn't the best time" Daresh said without looking up from his reports.

"It's the boy, he's been asking several times to take the Steel rank test and I've been putting it off. He's sharper than he looks — might sense something is off if I keep delaying without a good reason" Sennika said, seeming to have finally caught Daresh's attention as he looked up.

"Hmmm, does he have enough contribution?" Daresh asked for confirmation.

"He's been putting down goblins like they killed his family for the past week. He's also on an escort mission to Saltmere as we speak""An escort mission? Who in their right minds would hire a Bronze?"

"A caravan was attacked on the way here and they lost someone. They hired other Steel ranks but wanted more bodies to make up the numbers as they were pressed for time so they opened it to Bronze as well. The boy was the only Bronze that signed up though."

"Hmmm, I see.... Find someone who will really test his restraint. I want to see how he treats his fellow adventurer before I decide" Daresh said.

"I'll see what I can do" Sennika gave a small bow before she left the room, closing the door behind her. Daresh looked to the closed drawer by his desk. He would also use the Steel rank assessment to determine if he would leave the boy for the time being or report him to the Royal Inspectors.