Chương 15: Curse these damnable Limits!

Wally tingled me, tingled me real good. You know that feeling when you sit on your feet too long, and your foot falls asleep? It was like that, but across my whole body. At least, all the clothed parts. So the bottom part of my arms and my head didn't get to enjoy the tingles. I'm not sure I ever want to experience my head feeling that way. Wally was done with his part within about thirty seconds, but the tingles continued at a low level for the next several minutes.

"Nice working with you, I'm headed back to my booth. Hit me up when you need more stuff enchanted." Wally left us in our empty booth.

"Well, should we go look around the market to see if there's anything else we want to buy with the regular money we have?" I asked.

"Mr. Frog is loaded with cash," Lakshmi said.

"We can do a little shopping."

"There's a wand of firebolts for sale that's only five silver!" Damon had, apparently, had a look around already when he was getting supplies.

"And I bet I could attune to it too, now that I've got a spellbook." Lakshmi shrugged. Giving Damon a weapon might be dangerous, but also, I had no problem with a boy having a BB gun.

"Sure Damon, lead the way," I said, and we followed him through the market to the wand shop. There was a man from our secondary crowd that followed us too. Stayed back a ways, but wasn't good enough at tailing us that I didn't notice him tracking us through the crowd.

"Damon, nice to see you. Actually have some money to spend for a change?" The shopkeeper of the 'Wand Emporium' asked.

"I heard you lost your job and Doug's."

"Emporium?" Lakshmi said with a chuckle, pointing at his sign, and distracting Damon from the job loss.

"You're in a booth at a flea market, my friend."

"Yeah, well. Dress for the job I want, right. One day I'll have a proper emporium." He said with a salesman's chuckle. I could see he was offended, but didn't want to miss a sale... but at the same time, he couldn't not snipe back.

"Anyway who're you to talk shit, you're shopping at the flea market, lady."

"I'd be more polite to her, she's the one with all our money. Damon's hoping to get her to pay for him," I advised the man.

"Hmmph." Lakshmi said, turning her nose up and away from him.

"Well, shit. Lost that sale, didn't I?" He said, recognizing me as a fellow salesman.

"Aw, Come on, Lakshmi! Please!" Damon begged. She sighed and stared down the wand maker, a head shorter than her.

"Damon said the wand he wants is listed at five silver. I'll give you four." The man looked between her and Damon, and spared very little attention for me. He seemed to be trying to discern how Damon had convinced her to pay for him, but gave up on that task, and said, "Uhh... deal." Lakshmi pulled four silver coins from the Frog's mouth, and handed it to the man.

"Go get Damon his new toy, Emporium Keeper." The man grabbed the wand, and handed it to Lakshmi, she'd paid. She handed it to Damon, and he 'attuned' to it, right there. I guess that's something Mana-havers do. He took his new wand in both hands and held it in front of himself. It glowed the orange and red of fire. Damon glowed red(ish) too, but his was more a golden-red glow. Then, he shot a little spurt of fire out of his wand and it dribbled to the floor.

"Jesus, boy! Have some trigger discipline," I chided Damon as I stomped out the tiny magical fire he'd made on the floor.

"Sorry, I was just..." He cut the mana he was sending to his wand and looked apologetic.

"... so excited." Lakshmi and the shopkeep both burst into wild laughter, and Damon did not understand why.

"Come on, kid, let's see what else there is." I dragged Damon from the Wand Emporium, and Lakshmi followed after us a moment later. The wand man had more words for her, but I didn't catch what he said, nor what she replied, but she caught up to us a moment later, still chuckling. The man following us continued to do so, not well hidden enough to not be noticed now by Lakshmi too.

"There is a man following you, Johnny."

"I know."

"Should I hurt him?"

"No... we'll see if he follows us outside the market, and then have a Chat with him if we need to." We found a weapon enchanter and purchased a 1 gold accuracy enchantment from the man, applied to her hammer. Next to the weapon enchanter was an armor enchanter for heavy metal armors. She spent a large gold here for a multi-layered enchantment. We had to return to Wally's to 'borrow' a half pound of pink salt for the woman who ran the stall to do the damn enchantments.

Lakshmi got 'self-repair', 'reduced mana coefficient for proficiency magic use', and 'extra padding'. But the enchantress here wasn't high enough level to do more than three things in a single set of armor. Apparently, the best enchanters can do up to eleven enchantments at once on an item, but the cost of such things is outrageous. We stopped by the alloprat vendor and got a couple more sticks of meat, each, before we left the flea market. If I could have I would have bought him some ketchup and mustard.

Skewers in hand, we headed toward Herman Buster, Mystery Buster's for some Identifying lenses, and other fine glasswerks. It was a few blocks away from the flea market, further from our home building. Nestled amongst the other shops that were so successful they had ended up with permanent locations. And, it was only two doors down from the Adventurer's guild, the biggest building in the area. Herman's place looked like it might also be his house, because he had a wonderful garden out front.

Thick, fluffy bushes, two tall trees that shaded both the street and his business, and some very well manicured topiary. The abruptness of his topiary's edge gave me an advantage and opportunity to catch my pursuer. A more skilled stalker might take his time and check his corners better, but this felt like a rookie... or something. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"You two go ahead, I'll catch up to you." I had two skewers in one hand, and I had pressed myself against the topiary so that when he rounded the corner I could snag him. Lakshmi shrugged and she and Damon went inside. The first part of my plan went great! I surprised him real good, snagged him up by the collar and put a skewer to his neck. But he was a big fella, and the part where I backed him up to the bushes on the other side of the entryway didn't exactly work. I pushed, but... he didn't move.

And then the skewers snapped against his neck in the process, because I was expecting him to move. I had pressed them a little... but this man was HARD muscled. Even his neck. Uh oh.

"Sorry friend, I didn't mean to startle you." HE said to ME. His hand gripped my wrist with such a firm, but gentle power that I felt like a little boy again refusing to share with my brother, and having my dad peel my fingers off a toy.

"Why are you following me?" I asked, as I let go of his collar, and dropped my worthless broken sticks. He could have hurt me, badly, but he didn't. When I let go, he let go.

"Oh, you noticed that did you? I keep forgetting how big I am now. I used to be a little fella, before." He used a hand to indicate he was about five feet tall before. Quite the difference between this, over six foot tall, slab of cornfed pure American manbeef standing in front of me.

"Recent arrival?" I asked, trying to sound casual, and not terribly afraid. I wasn't terribly afraid. If he wanted to hurt me he would have already.

"About six months. But I'm here to ask you questions, pally."

"What? Pally? Why?"

"Some guy shows up and he summons a bunch of first world goods for extremely reasonable prices at the pauper's market?" He pulled out a pen and pad to take notes.

"That's a scoop, friend. Maybe the best one I've had since I got here."

"Scoop? What're you a newsie?"

"Yeah. I was, in '99. During the strike. Then later I was a reporter, reported on the great war, and then the Mob got me in '32 when I was reporting on them. Name's Teddy." He sighed.

"Theodore, really, but no one seems to like that name anymore and it's all Roosevelt's fault. Everyone always wants to shorten it to Teddy now."

"I'll call you Theodore. All three syllables if you tell me how you are so strong."

"I'm the reporter here, mister...?" He took a half step back and then put his hand out to shake mine.

"Johnny." I shook his hand. He was insanely strong. I could feel it. This man could punch a building down in only a few blows. Probably one if he really focused and had good technique.

"Got a last name, Johnny?" He let go of my hand and wrote down my name.

"Let's keep it a little coy, on the record, Theodore. Not ready for my full name to be out there just yet. How about this? I'll tell you about my power if you tell me about yours." He noted that too, in his little pad.

"That's a fair deal. I'm not gonna publish mine in the newspaper, though. I guess you want the free advertising?"

"Couldn't hurt. I do plan to be at the... did you call it the pauper's market? The next few days, at least." He wrote that down.

"That's the name of it. It's not as bad as the name makes it sound, but it is the market most starting adventurers go to when they're relatively broke."

"I see." There was a lot there that cost a gold or more, not exactly pauper's amounts. I'd got an idea what Damon's pauper wages were like, he couldn't shop there.

"So, manaless? That's a tough break. How's your power work without mana?" This clark kent, but a 7 instead of a 9 in the face asked.

"You first, buster." Something about the way he spoke made me talk like when I was a kid again.' Buster.' I ain't called someone buster in forty years.

"I'll tell you how my power works if you tell me how yours works."

"I'm also an irregular. No mana either. I do seem to have levels though. Level two, 'Man of Steel', at your service."

"I have online shopping. Level 1. Been here a day, by the way."

"Hot Damn! Level one in just a day. Golly mister, that's impressive."

"Uh... thanks." I decided not to tell him that Lakshmi is level three. His head might explode.

"I've heard of this internet and online stuff, but it came well after I died. Kind of a kick in the pants finding out I'd come out in the future. Worse still, you idiots had a second great war!"

"Ugh, I know. I fought in it."

"Oh! Another man out of time?"

"Well, yes and no. I survived that war, and a few others. Lived to over 100."

"Damn! Congrats Johnny."

"Heh, thanks Theodore." I felt awkward boasting about my long life next to a man who was probably shot to death early.

"So this man of steel power, how's it work?"

"You share some of yours first." He cocked an eyebrow and waited to write.

"Ah fine. I have a balance I can use to buy stuff. Good exchange rate with the local currency, but I can't seem to touch money here without it being added to my balance. Can't seem to take my balance back out as coins either."

"Ahh, that explains why people pay your body guard, mostly, and not you. So why'd you really quit selling today?"

"Oh, I was honest with the crowd. Hit my spending limit. It was news to me I even had one, truth be told."

"That's the pain about being an irregular. We don't know what we're gonna get. Regulars, Clerics, like your lady friend-""Lakshmi."

"Clerics like Lakshmi, and that wizard of yours have got it relatively easy. They can go look up their level progression if they want, see the general shape of things up to level twenty. Even their subclasses are normally well documented. Sure everyone gets a little special personal touch, but she'll be able to reattach limbs when she's level ten, if she lives that long, and levels up enough, all clerics can... well, except evil ones. They tend to detach limbs instead."

"Right. I should probably read about all the regulars stuff at some point."

"It's a lot to take in, Johnny, I've been studying up for six months, and I don't think I've got it all, and the library card isn't free, neither. Anyhow. You told me about yours, now I gotta play fair and tell you about mine."

"Ahh, yes, how does your power work?"

"Well, I'm basically as hard as steel, as you've seen." He glanced down at the broken wooden skewers on the ground.

"It seems, so long as I do at least eight hours of proper journalism a day, I keep the power working. If I don't be a reporter looking for good scoops, I lose the power."

"Leap over any tall buildings in a single bound?" His face turned sour, he looked like I felt when I had thought he was stalking me.

"How did you know I can do that?"

"Do you not know who the man of steel is?"

"Doesn't ring a bell."

"Superman?"

"Nietzsche?"

"No, comics."

"I'm afraid you've lost me, sir."

"Jesus Christ."

"I've heard of him."

"I bet."... I glanced at the entry to Herman's.

"Listen, tomorrow, when my spending limit resets, why don't you come by my place in the morning for breakfast. I'll give you some light reading." Even without the ability to purchase, I could still add things to lists. I started loading up a list with superman comics.

"That's quite the invitation, sir." He thought for a moment.

"Say, could I follow you for a whole day tomorrow? I'll give you a really solid story. I could even build the desire for it based on our short conversation today. My readers will be hungry for more about you, I'm certain of it."

"You know what Theodore, that's a deal. You got yourself an exclusive interview." We shook hands.

"Now come in with me, and my wizard will tell you our address, because I can't rightly remember the damn thing. I'd know my way back if I walked there, though, I swear.