Chương 83: Limitless Path Chapter Eighty-Three

"Damn, we need to get you a bell or something," she said, only starting at little at his silent appearance.

"I must, sadly, decline such a generous offer," he replied in his usual deadpan manner.

"Got some stuff to sell and some stuff to identify here," she said, crossing her arms at his reply.

"Well?" he replied, gesturing at the counter of goods. Beth picked up her first unidentified find and presented it to the ornery merchant. It was the silver ring with the inscriptions carved inside, and Jaq plucked it from her fingers with superhuman dexterity before holding it up to examine. The strange circuitry patterns lit up in his eyes as he inspected the ring for a few moments before he set it back down on the counter.

"It has a simple enchantment that helps resist cold and frost based magics," he stated simply.

"Selling or keeping?" he continued.

"Definitely keeping. We found a mine type area with kobolds that have frost aspects, and it leads to a labyrinth that I imagine is more of the same," Beth explained. With a grunt, Jaq moved on before she could grab the next item, picking up the pouch containing the gems. Opening the pouch, he dumped the gems on the counter, corralling them with a few swift hand motions as they tumbled. He was left with two lines of small, uncut gems before him, which he quickly examined with a critical eye.

"These are small, uncut, and low quality," he stated.

"You could get someone to cut them for you and use them in crafting, or I would buy the whole bag for two golds." Beth held out her hand with a big smile.

"Two golds please." Jaq's eyebrow twitched at her chipper tone as he swept the gems up, returning them to the pouch before making it disappear. He made two gold coins appear from thin air right above her outstretched palm, Beth instantly making them disappear as they hit her gauntlet. As she was beaming happily, he took a glance at the few small mana copper ore pieces that she had grabbed because of their high quality. He hefted each once before giving them an almost cursory inspection.

"Fifty silvers," he stated flatly as he gestured at the mana copper ore. Beth simply held her hand out again while grinning, and Jaq made the ore disappear and coins appear. He examined the necklace with the little silver gem next, coming to a conclusion quickly.

"Helps the wearer resist heat," he said.

"It does not help against fire magics, only the environment."

"And how much?" Beth asked.

"One gold and fifty silvers, if you were selling," he answered stoically.

"Nah, keeping," she replied, moving it to the side. He moved on to the weird piece of blue ore that the Kobold Hulk had stashed in its clothes, picking it up to get a gauge of its weight while inspecting it. He spent much longer on this piece than the copper pieces, turning it over several times in his hands before setting it back down on the counter. He looked up at her with a slight shake of his head.

"What, no good?" she asked with a frown.

"No, no. It is quite good," he replied.

"I was just pondering on your luck. Exploring during the first few years of an integration can usually net you some rather good things, but it seems you have a touch of great luck."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" she shot back, her frown deepening.

"Keep your temper sheathed," he replied with an eyeroll.

"I am merely saying the quality of goods you find on your excursions is rather good. Not the best I have ever seen, but more than passable." Beth's frown didn't lessen any as she just stared at him for a moment.

"I feel like there was an insult in there somewhere, but I'm going to ignore it based on all the gold you're giving me."

"What remarkable intuition," Jaq returned, still entirely deadpan.

"The ore, Jaq," she said, tapping the blue chuck of rock impatiently.

"Yes, yes. Mustn't keep you from your overflowing wealth," he replied.

"You've found a chunk of Frost Iron." After waiting for a moment, Beth impatiently waved her hand, saying, "Annnnnnd…?"

"And you could either sell it to me for ten golds or hang on to it and use it in your smithing," he responded, holding up a hand to forestall her predictable shout of 'sold!' He continued after seeing her bite her lip, "I would recommend the second, in this case. This ore is rare, I have none in stock currently, and the few bars of this we have you wouldn't want to even see the price of.

Additionally, it would be a rather good experience learning how to smelt and purify this ore, as it is somewhat more complex and difficult than the regular copper or iron you would normally work with."

"Fine, I can take advice," she replied a bit petulantly, moving the ore off to the side to join the necklace. Jaq just grunted before picking up the boot knife she had unsheathed from within her boot and set on the counter. He examined it for a few moments before placing it back down and gesturing at her to take it. He explained the knife as she re-sheathed it within her right boot. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Always good to have a few fallback weapons," he started with.

"That boot knife is made of an alloy of true silver, known for its mana conductivity and ability to injure monsters. The alloy you have sacrifices some of its mana conductivity for toughness, but you could still pump quite a bit of mana through it. That is, if you had any kind of skill that affected a weapon, or simply elemental control that let you manipulate an element and direct it."

"Right, good knife that works against monsters," she nodded.

"Wish I would've had that against those plant monsters in the trial."

"Its ability to harm things of corruption is not particularly great," he replied.

"Better that you hacked through them with that giant butter knife versus that needle."

"Well, how about you identify my new butter knife and see if it's any better?" she said, gesturing at her new greatsword. Jaq picked up the sheathed blade, examining the scabbard before moving on to the hilt. After thoroughly inspecting the outside, he carefully drew the blade from the scabbard, examining it in great detail. He went so far as to test the edge and check the balance, holding it at different points to test the weight and feel.

Lastly, he gave the runes engraved down the center of the blade a fairly quick look, Beth guessing he was rather conversant with enchantment based on how quickly he always figured them out.

"This is a very fine blade," he started by saying.

"It is made of mana steel infused with the essence of several low strength flame gems. It is why the steel is tinged red, and it gives the blade a greater ability to conduct fire-type mana as well as greater effect when wielded against frost- or water-type beasts. The runes allow you to channel mana into the blade to increase the weight and to add a flame to the edge. Against another sapient being, the flame wouldn't do very much; at least, not if they have any skill at all.

Against beasts and monsters, it should prove effective at further increasing the damage of your swings. I am assuming that this is not for sale, but just to give you an evaluation, I would say this is worth in the range of fifteen to twenty golds."

"Holy shit," Beth breathed as Jaq re-sheathed the blade with a snap and set it back on the counter.

"Uh, I have one problem though," she continued, snapping herself out of the reverie his words had induced.

"You can't equip it properly," he replied, already figuring out where she was heading.

"One moment." He stepped over to the door on the left, Beth again narrowing her eyes at his choice of exit. It wasn't more than a few seconds before he emerged from the center door, Beth's eyes down to little more than slits at this point as she glared at him. He, of course, entirely ignored her look as he set a box on the counter in front of her. Opening the box, she saw it contained two different belts and a number of clamps and clasps. Raising an eyebrow, she looked up at Jaq for an explanation.

"The belts can be worn across your torso," he explained.

"The clasps can either be attached to the belts or even to your pack. You can push a thread of mana into the clasps to operate them. This allows you to either set the unsheathed blade in the clasps and easily pull it from your back, or you can attach the scabbard to the belt or your pack and draw the sword from there." Beth examined the belts and clasps before looking at her pack on the ground, trying to work out a way that she could attach the new sword to make it easily accessible.

She wouldn't be able to wear this blade like her previous, as it was simply too long, but she figured she might be able to get it to work with the pack. The pack had some extra leather straps and loops available, and she took a few minutes to try to tie off two clasps before Jaq reached over with a sigh and took the pack from her. Beth grunted at him, but he flipped the pack towards her and slowly tied knots with the straps on the right side of the pack to secure the clasps, letting her observe how he did it.

Beth put the pack on while Jaq drew the blade and handed it to her, and she fumbled for a moment before slotting it in the clasps. The clasps locked the blade like they were magnetic when she sent a pulse of mana through the blade, and she was able to let it go and have it remain firmly in place. Testing it the other way, she was able to grasp the hilt and, with a tiny pulse of mana, have the clasps fully release.

It was a slight bit awkward still, but it was more than doable, and besides, Beth could always fight with her fists and feet, giving her time to clear a space to draw the blade.

"So. How much?" she asked Jaq.

"Let's just call it fifty silvers for everything, box included," he replied with a shrug before turning his attention to the next item. He picked up the small buckler she had found, looking it over for a minute with a critical eye. He flipped it over, examining the back before testing the straps and giving them a quick tug. Seeming to find what he wanted, he set it back down on the counter before looking at her.

"Standard duelist shield, blackened steel, not much there really. One gold," he said.

"Done," she replied with a nod, Jaq making the item disappear and the coin appear. He moved on to the two small spheres next, picking them up and giving them each a thorough examination. Beth could see the circuit-like lines in his sclera quite clearly as he inspected the orbs, likely using a decent dash of power to inspect the items. He infused enough mana in the tip of his right index finger that Beth could see it glow in the visible spectrum before tapping the first sphere.

He finished with that one and placed it down before examining and tapping the second. Satisfied with whatever the hell he had been doing, he looked over at her.

"These are beast cores," he stated calmly.

"Oh, I think Baelvyr mentioned something about them to me before," she replied, tapping her chin lightly as she pondered.

"He might have. Anyway, let me give you a very quick explanation. These are formed from the concentration of mana within a wild beast or sometimes monster. The minimum level you start seeing these is level fifty, as anything below that won't have the mana concentration or density to actually form a physical core. Even over level fifty, beasts aren't guaranteed to form them, and they often break when the beasts die, especially if it is a violent death.

They are useful for pretty much every profession in equal measure, whether you are a smith, leatherworker, alchemist, enchanter, or so on. I wouldn't sell or buy a beast core for any less than two golds apiece, and if anyone ever tries to sell you one for cheaper, they are likely scamming the seven dark pits out of you," he explained, gesturing several times at the cores throughout to emphasize his point.

"I assume you're gonna tell me to keep them?" she asked in response, quirking a brow at him.

"It's almost like you have basic reasoning and deduction capabilities," he replied acerbically.

"Clever," she bit off with a frown.

"I would give you four golds for them, but again, I will tell you it would be better for you to keep many of these things that work as good, solid crafting materials. Elana or Tazeen would be happy to teach you how to make them into something quite good, and having a chance to use beast cores early on while crafting can be both a good learning opportunity as well as a great shot at some quick skill levels," he reasoned, gesturing at the cores and then at her.

"Do they have any kind of mana aspect or anything? They're not, like, frost cores, or something?" she asked in response as she moved them over with the box of clasps, the Frost Iron, and the necklace.

"Stars beyond, no," he replied with a shake of his head.

"Such things do exist, but they are from much more powerful beings. Even if you found these laying around, I don't believe you have that kind of luck. You would need to quickly and efficiently kill a beast well over level one hundred for a chance at an aspected core."

"Didn't know that; good to have that tidbit," Beth said with a nod.

"Now, this bottle is pretty simple," he continued, picking up the glass bottle with the blue liquid inside.

"You have had something similar before, in that this is an elixir. Weaker and different than what you took, but still a nice find. It will increase your Intelligence stat by a permanent five points when drank."

"Probably give that to Soph or Kim," Beth muttered, moving it into the keep pile.

"What have we here?" Jaq asked, picking up the pouch with the scales in. Upon opening the pouch, both his eyebrows climbed for his hairline.

"Well, well. This is quite an exceptional find. Maybe you will get some aspected cores before level one hundred, at this rate."

"What are they?" Beth asked, peering at the scale with a slight squint.

"Scales from a young shadow wyrm. They can be used in a massive number of crafting applications, particularly alchemy. A shame you didn't find a few more than what you have, they are also excellent in armor smithing, but you don't really have enough to make even a helmet with this amount," he explained, counting and inspecting the scales while he spoke.

"You think I should hang onto those, even not being an alchemist?" she asked in a dubious tone.

"Up to you," he replied.

"I will say, they could be useful in weapon making. You could fold them into a blade to reinforce it, but that's not my area of expertise."

"What about price?" she asked with a slight frown.

"The scales are in good condition, but they are rather small and from a young beast. I would put an estimate on them of about fifteen silvers per scale. There are twenty scales in the bag, so as much as three gold coins, if you would sell them all," he gave her a quick glance with a raised brow before quickly returning all the scales to the pouch.

"Three golds it is. Deal," she replied quickly. She could maybe craft with them, but she had plenty of materials already, especially if she hauled that chest of mana steel stock back, so she'd rather have more gold on hand.