Chương 277: Leland and Flannery’s Artifact Emporium

"I'll think of something," Damion told Manager Halsey and then stored his new documents in the Magic System Inventory.

"I'm sure you will. Perhaps Leland will be able to make an artifact for you. He is quite the talented artificer you know."

"Maybe he can. Even if he isn't able to, I suspect he will enjoy the challenge."

"Let me know if you need anything else while you are here in Saung," Manager Halsey told Damion.

"Any chance of me getting into the A Rank dungeon here in Saung?"

"Not under your real name. Several of the noble houses have made the Adventurer Association a large donation, on the condition that you not be allowed into any of our dungeons."

"Not a hard guess who is responsible for that. Though, I am surprised they would waste resources like this. What will they do if I just stay out in the wilds? Pay Demonic Beasts to not let me enter any Breaches I find?"

"They paid for a year. I guess they hope to slow down your growth and limit your ability to reach A Rank."

"A year huh. Well, I have a new identity, I suppose once I get a good disguise, I can enter using it."

"Aren't you forgetting, you don't actually have the Spatial affinity." Manager Halsey pointed out.

"I have Spatial artifacts that hold a lot. That is just as good."

"And where did you get those? I thought you sold the rings you got from the Fontanes?"

"Arica's master was kind enough to share."

"So, the rumors are true then. The Fletcher's have made a breakthrough in spatial artifacts too."

"Apparently," Damion said with a smile.

"Now, I must be on my way. Thank you for your assistance."

"Take care," Manager Halsey said as Damion got up and left his office. After leaving the Adventurer Association, Damion headed straight to Leland's shop. On arriving outside the artifact store, he was surprised to see its name had changed from Leland's Artifacts to Leland and Flannery's Artifact Emporium. Inside the shop Damion could see the influences of both men. Their personalities were rather flamboyant, and the colorful nature of the store reflected that.

Shortly after entering, the two proprietors appeared and happily greeted him.

"Damion my boy. So, good to see you again," Leland greeted. Leland's short stature, purple suit and purple beard appeared unchanged in the year since Damion had last see him. Amos Flannery, however, appeared, if not younger, livelier. It seemed getting away from the oppressive nobles in Argentum had reinvigorated him.

"Mage Wells. My favorite customer. Here for a refitting? Got something in need of repair?" Flannery prattled on.

"I have two things to discuss. First, I'm hoping you might have a room I can stay in for a time." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"Not a problem my boy," Leland said quickly.

"What is the second thing. I hope it doesn't involve money; I can let you stay for free. But I'm a businessman, I can't just go around giving away money."

"Don't worry lad. I've got you covered. How much do you need?" Flannery said quickly.

"Actually, it is about making money," Damion's answer got both of the men's attention, but neither said anything, waiting for him to continue.

"While at Silver Spire I discovered I am rather good at… improving artifacts, and I would like to propose an arrangement."

"Improving artifacts you say," Leland thought for a moment.

"That is quite the skill and easily confirmable. How about this, you rest for the night, and I will select a few artifacts for you to improve and depending on your skill, we can then negotiate pay."

"I have no problem offering an example of my work," Damion said taking his auto-mapper out of his adventurer pack.

"I believe you are familiar with my earlier model."

"Goodness," Flannery said, snatching the artifact from Damion's hands.

"This is quite the improvement. I can already see several adjustments from your original enchantments. These new ones will make this artifact much more mana efficient and allow for longer range."

"That is well and good. But I want to see what you can do with something that was not of your own design," Leland said, taking the artifact from Flannery and handing it back to Damion.

"Not a problem. However, I want to work on commission, and I will set my fee for each piece prior to any work."

"You will find that a hard sell," Leland told him.

"Not if I don't charge anything upfront, on the condition that the fee is paid when they collect their artifact and if they decide they don't want to pay, I have the right to sell the artifact at whatever price I deem fit."

"You will have to offer them a guarantee," Flannery said. Since he specialized in repair of broken and damaged artifacts, he was keenly aware of how adventurers disliked giving up any advantage.

"I'm sure we can come up with a service contract for each transaction. I will guarantee my work and pay the cost of their artifact if I damage or destroy it, so long as they agree to pay the fee negotiated ahead of time."

"That should be sufficient," Flannery said.

"There will be some who refuse at first, but as long as your work is quality, I doubt any naysayers will complain for too long. What will you be charging?"

"My fee will depend on the quality of the artifact to start with. But I will only accept payment in cores. What Rank and how many, will depend on my appraisal at the start."

"Cores? You are wanting payment solely in Demonic Beast Cores?" Leland questioned.

"That is going to limit your prospective client base."

"At first, but I don't think it will for long. I'm not making any restrictions on the affinity of a core. I'll just be setting a Rank and number requirement. Not every adventurer has the chance or ability to go on dungeon runs, but that doesn't mean they can't buy up cores from the market."

"But then you will just end up with the most common cores. And around here that means, Dark, Fire, and Earth. What could you possibly do with them?"

"I have uses for them. Remember, I'll be traveling around a lot in the future. What about Poison affinity cores from the Aerico dungeon?" Damion asked. That dungeon should provide plenty of cores. Aericos were usually slow and dumb, making them easy to kill.

"People don't like harvesting those cores. Too easy to get infected by the Aerico if you aren't careful."

"Well, maybe that will change once I start improving people's artifacts."

"Maybe. How will you advertise your services? What will you claim you will do for their artifact? Optimize it? Enhance its strength?" Flannery questioned.

"I will advertise that I will optimize their enchantments and raise an artifact by one Rank." Both Leland and Flannery's jaws dropped at Damion's claim. Improving an artifact was one thing, but being able to increase the Rank of an artifact was quite another. Most artificers pushed materials to their limits when creating an artifact, to make sure they could sell it for the most profit.

Improving on that was doable, if another artificer was more talented, but actually improving an artifact by a Rank, that was unheard of.

"You are going to have a lot of people calling you a fraud," Leland said.

"Select your artifacts," Damion said confidently.

"I'll work on them tomorrow and prove what I say, just be prepared to offer me whatever cores I ask for when I'm done."

"Deal," Leland said. He wanted to see if Damion could actually do what he claimed. If so, then it would generate a huge amount of business for his store.

"Amos, show the boy to the guest room."