Chương 198: Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Two

"Sell us what we need and we're out," Beth said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"And what is it you need?" he asked in a disgruntled voice.

"First, communicators," she replied.

"Ah, have you already forgotten you have one? Or were you unaware you can only use one at a time?" he inquired with a slight sarcastic tone.

"Not for me, you dope," Beth huffed.

"For her," she continued, gesturing with her thumb at Sabs.

"Hi, yes, for me," Sabs said, giving Jaq a little wave, which was met with a glower.

"Fine, fine. I have several models in stock. What are we in the market for?" he said.

"Something that works over very long distances, for a start," Beth answered.

"They all do that, girl," Jaq commented acerbically as he reached under the counter and pulled three devices out. They were all of a similar size and shape, not much different than the ones Aytasha had presented to her and Blood essentially for free.

"We have to choose from these three?" Beth asked.

"I do have more," he replied before holding up a hand.

"But here we run into CRA regulations for perhaps the first time. Communicators are regulated technology, and to see other stock you must have a certain rank. These three can be bought by any Copper member and re-sold or given away, so I have no issues selling them to you three. Any of the others, and we'd have to have a different conversation, and that would be after at least one of you had your Silver Emblem."

"I see," Beth responded.

"Can you just give us the quick rundown on these three, then?"

"Super basic, low functionality, moderately low range, twenty-five golds," Jaq began explaining, pointing to each unit in turn.

"A more complete suite of functions, extended range, seventy-golds price. Lastly, very long range and ability to function through some low level of natural interference, what I would deem a 'complete' suite of functions, and a two platinums price tag."

"Two platinums?!" Sabs gasped, staring at the small cube in shock.

"That one for her, please," Beth said, making two platinum coins appear on the counter.

"Beth!" Sabs hissed, but Beth just waved her hand, brushing Sabs's concerns away. Jaq ignored their byplay and made the two coins disappear before lifting the high-end communicator and handing it to Sabs. He then put the other two models back under the counter before giving the two of them a slight glare.

"Uh, how do I use this?" Sabs asked.

"Push mana into it," Jaq replied immediately. Sabs followed his direction and pushed her mana into the object, her eyes widening slightly as the cube-like device sank into her hand and flowed up her arm. She was clearly experiencing the same strange sensation of the device flowing into her body and settling somewhere deep within, before finally glancing around at everyone. Beth held out her right hand in the position for a handshake, causing Sabs to raise an eyebrow before taking her hand and shaking it.

Beth initiated the exchange of contact information, Sabs flinching a little before accepting the exchange.

"How good are the super basic ones?" Beth asked him.

"Quite honestly, they're trash," Jaq replied calmly.

"Would they be good enough that I could buy one for my parents and they could get calls from me if they're in civilization and I'm in random places?" she asked.

"Yes, it's the opposite scenario that wouldn't work. And yes, before you ask, you can upgrade or replace your communicator rather easily, so you won't cripple them by buying them a 'bad' one," he explained.

"Give me four of those 'bad' ones and two more 'good' ones," she said, and Jaq made the six appear. She set five platinum coins on the counter, making Sabs's eyes bulge, before swiping her hand and making the communicators disappear into her necklace.

"Beth! How much do you have?" Sabs asked in surprise.

"Now, only fourteen plat," she responded with a sigh.

"You have fourteen platinums?!" Sabs asked, her voice climbing an octave.

"You know about higher level enemies dropping more money?" Beth asked in response.

"Well, yeah, we've noticed we're making more now," Sabs said.

"Well, it goes higher the higher the level, and Blood and I fight quite a lot. We've saved up quite a bit," Beth explained, slightly hand-waving away their eight months of grinding.

"If you're going to explain the basics, you can do it elsewhere," Jaq commented derisively.

"We're not done yet," Beth snapped, to which Jaq just grunted.

"Well?" he said with a leading tone after a moment.

"Do you have any better armor? Blood and I got something while we were at the Trial, but it was basically only a single step up from what we had. I think we're ready for some much better armor," Beth said.

"Hmm, I do have a few things, let me get a couple for you to look at," he replied, this time disappearing into the back through one of the three doors. It didn't take long for him to re-emerge from the center door, Beth giving him a bit of a side-eye as that wasn't the door he had left through. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"OK," he said, stopping in front of them.

"What exactly are we looking for, before I pull thirty pieces out that we don't care about?"

"Everything," Beth said, getting an affirming nod from Blood.

"Right, let's start here," Jaq said, gesturing at the counter and making two chest plates appear. The first was a series of heavy plates made of some kind of silvery alloy that Beth didn't immediately recognize. It looked rather heavy and quite durable, with only a thin seam of thinner material on each side and at the armpit to allow the user to retain most of their range-of-motion. The second chest piece was some kind of scalemail with each scale being a hexagonal shape.

Both it and the first piece had runes inscribed across it, with the scale having each scale inscribed while the heavy armor had blocks of script inscribed on certain parts.

"I see you reading the inscription work," Jaq commented.

"Both pieces are inscribed inside and out with multiple enchantments giving durability, minor repair, fit, and damage reduction. The heavy armor is also just thicker overall, giving a slightly higher level of protection due to the extra amount of high-strength silverite it's made from."

"They're both good pieces," Beth said, hefting the heavy armor and examining it more closely.

"How much are we talking?"

"The piece you're holding is four platinums," Jaq replied.

"The other piece is three." Blood didn't comment but dropped three coins on the counter before making the armor disappear into her necklace. Her 'old,' steel chest plate disappeared into her necklace before the new one appeared on her body, slightly shrinking and moving until it fit perfectly. Beth shrugged and copied her, only dropping four coins instead of three, letting the armor settle on her own torso and upper arms.

She swung her arms, noting her movements were only a tiny bit inhibited despite the thickness of the piece and the minimal seams. She turned to Jaq expectantly and he didn't disappoint, producing three sets of greaves. The first pair was pretty clearly part of a set or design that included Beth's chest plate, as they were a set of heavy armor that covered from waist to knee.

There were very thin areas of an armored mesh at the top of the thighs to allow the hips to bend without limiting the mobility of the wearer's legs, but otherwise there were no seams that Beth could see. The second set was again the match to the set Blood had bought, made of some type of cloth or some such with metal scales attached to the cloth. Each scale was also enchanted in much the same way as the chest plate was. The third piece was, somewhat surprisingly, made of leather with no metal of any kind attached.

Beth looked at it a little dubiously before Jaq spoke up, noting her skeptical eye.

"Do not dismiss wholly leather pieces," he intoned coolly.

"A skilled leatherworker, with the proper tools and techniques, as well as some good enchantments, can make gear that competes with partial or fully metal pieces while only being made of the hide of beasts or monsters. I present this piece only because it is a good example of a somewhat low-level Leatherworker making use of tools and techniques to make a top-notch piece. If you don't believe me, you should Identify it." Beth did just that, examining it with her eye powers to check its extended details.

After being startled by both what she saw and that she was able to see it, she examined everything else, including their chest pieces. Mourn Leather Greaves {These greaves, made from Mourn leather and inscribed by a highly skilled enchanter, provide great protection while remaining lightweight. Set includes durability, fit, and minor repair. 5% increased speed. 5% increased DEX. Minimum level 100.} Silverite Scale Greaves {These greaves, made from a thick cloth coated with scales of a silverite alloy, provide great protection while enhancing agility. 5% increased DEX. Minimum level 100.} Silverite Plate Greaves {These greaves, made from a special silverite alloy, provide unparalleled protection while enhancing the user's physical strength. 5% increased STR. Minimum level 100.} Silverite Scale Chest Plate {This chest plate, made from a thick cloth coated with scales of a silverite alloy, provides great protection while enhancing agility. 10% increased DEX. Minimum level 100.} Silverite Plate Chest Plate {This chest plate, made from a special silverite alloy, provides unparalleled protection while enhancing the user's physical strength. 10% increased STR. Minimum level 100.}"Holy shit! Is all good armor like this?" Beth asked incredulously, eyes wide and mouth working.

"Not all, but most," Jaq replied.

"Any decent armor will not only have simple capabilities like fit or minor repair, they will also enhance the wearer as well."

"What's up, Beth? I can't see what you're seeing," Sabs interjected.

"These armor pieces provide stat bonuses," she explained.

"They're percentage increases and, while they're not amazing, they're still pretty big. The chest plates alone give ten percent increases to a single stat. Also, they're showing up colored in my vision, I'm assuming because of some kind of rarity system?"

"That's correct," Jaq replied.

"Armor, weapons, items, artifacts, and so on can all be graded based on a rarity system. Everything you've used until now, while passable, has been of standard or common rarity. The pieces here, apart from the fully leather greaves, are all uncommon in rarity, while the leather greaves are rare, though barely. Different equipment will have different rarities at different levels, and the level is either a range, which is rare, or simply has a minimum requirement."

"I was going to ask about that," Beth said, turning to explain to Sabs.

"Not only are the names colored, providing a level of rarity, but all these pieces have a minimum level of one hundred to use."

"Correct," Jaq answered before Sabs could say anything.

"Using common armor with no level requirements is basically the worst of the worst. You only really start to get into anything good once you start using equipment with a level requirement and a rarity beyond common."

"So could I wear any of these?" Sabs asked, waving a hand over the greaves still on the counter.

"No," Jaq responded shortly with a sharp shake of his head.

"If you don't meet the level requirements, none of the enchantments or passive bonuses of an item will work at bare minimum, while at worst, it will actually strain your mind and body to put it on. If you were to try to equip level five hundred gear right now, not only would it not do anything, it would strain your mind, body, and even soul heavily. You would likely pass out quite quickly from the strain and have to be stripped from the equipment by someone else."

"Isn't that pretty dangerous not to tell people?" Sabs asked hotly, waving at the armor pieces while glaring at Jaq with lowered brows.

"Try and equip this," Jaq commanded in response, picking up the leather greaves and holding them out to Sabs.

"But you just said-" she started before he interrupted her.

"Try it," he commanded again, not yelling but still carrying a quite forceful tone in his voice.

"Fine," Sabs grumbled a little, grabbing the greaves and trying to put them on. She stopped almost right away, however, staring into space for a moment while uttering a slightly surprised "Oh!"

"What is it?" Beth asked, glancing back and forth between Jaq and her girlfriend with a raised brow, noting Blood also giving Sabs a raised brow as well.

"I got a warning message," Sabs said.

"It says that I don't meet the minimum requirements to equip this item. It explains none of the additional properties of the items will work and that I might experience strain from trying to use it."

"A small precaution built into the Path for those with a limited capability to analyze items," Jaq explained.

"Many things in this life aren't fair, but trying to use equipment that could potentially be a weakness rather than a strength, or even cripple you, without you understanding the risks is apparently a bit too much.

"I will warn you, however," he continued, holding up a hand, "that there are things like cursed items out there that you won't get a warning, or not a proper warning about the curse, before using them. You still should be rather cautious, and it always pays to be able to Identify things for yourself."

"Good to know," Beth commented with a nod while Sabs returned the leather greaves to the counter.

"How much for these?"

"Four, three, five," he responded, pointing to each in turn.

"And that's in plat, not anything else." The two girls who were upgrading made the coins appear on the counter before making their new pieces disappear. They quickly replaced their old leg armor while Jaq made the unbought leather greaves disappear from the counter. Once they were settled, with the new armor automatically adjusted to their frames, they turned to Jaq once again. He pulled out a single set of gauntlets.

"Just one?" Beth asked with a raised brow.

"Your companion's soulbound weapon acts as gauntlets. She won't need any for some time, and I understand your tastes and strengths. These are the best for you at your current level range." Silverite Plate Gauntlets of Shattering {These gauntlets are made of a special silverite alloy and enchanted with numerous properties including; mass enhancement, repair, fit, durability, and enhanced force. 10% increased STR. Minimum level 150.}"Wow!" Beth exclaimed, shocked.

"These are something else. What do these enchants actually do?"

"Repair, fit, and durability you should understand by now," Jaq replied slightly snidely.

"Mass enhancement does what it says: it makes the item mass a significant amount more for a short time when injected with mana. It's often found on weapons, particularly blunt or bludgeoning weapons, though you will find it on other equipment as well.

"The second enchantment is just as self-explanatory: it adds more force to any physical strike the equipment executes. When combining the two effects, the gauntlets will mass significantly more and enhance any punch, slap, or other blow you strike using them. They do not modify any other part of your gear, as in the force enchantment will not make you kick any hard, nor will the mass enchantment make your sabatons any heavier.

Still, it will provide a rather significant boost to a warrior like you that uses their fists and feet in combat."