Chương 405: Chapter 378. Finishing Up At Barb's Shop

Swing! / ZHING! /"..." / Bang! / / ZHING! /" Wow. That really is interesting, I almost want to try it out myself. You've found yourself quite the weapon, Ms. Jaime." Ben complimented me after I had cut through a training dummy with a mana sword formed from the Mage Gloves." Yeah, Jai! It's a cool weapon! It really feels like it's made for you! Plus, with it, you can still hold your staff as well!"" Yeah! Lucy's right! Now all you need to do is learn how to use it as a melee weapon!

This means you can join us for our sparring sessions! This is going to be so fun!"" Ashley, throwing her right in to sparring with us will be a bit too much, let's make sure she can actually keep her stance first."" Wow! That really does feel like something a member of the Hero Party should use! I'll need to find something like that to so I can keep up with you, Jaime!" All the girls seemed excited for me. And Luke even seemed a bit jealous of the Mage Gloves.

For now, I was just testing it in the area behind Barb's Shop, it was a simple area, about the size of a playground, it had some training dummies and practice targets for testing weapons. After I was handed the gloves, Barb directed me to this test area. Seeing Barb take an interest in me caused Ben and Jessie to also take an interest, Luke followed suit, loudly asked what was going on and that caused the girls to also become curious.

Lucy and Ashley were already in the back, testing the few weapons that stuck out to them, so it didn't take long for everyone to gather. After that, I demonstrated the gloves and their ability." Good. With this, we should be able to teach you how to fight with them, it'll be a great second option for you... As long as you can concentrate. That'll probably become easier with practice with the weapon though. I've heard of similar items that S and A-Rank Adventurers have.

I believe the philosophy of mastering these types of Mana Weapons is to make them feel like another limb. It'll take time, but after it's all said and done, you'll be as dangerous as any of us in close quarters combat." Jessie also had a high opinion about the gloves. Maybe I should prepare a gift for Barb before we leave? No... She said as we were coming here that the most important thing is to tell her my findings about how the gloves interact with different Magic Spells... I should focus on that...

And then bring her a gift." Okay, with that, has everyone else found a good 2nd weapon? Did you also buy new oils and the like to maintain everything during our journey?"" Yes." Everyone except for me said yes in unison. I wasn't even aware that I needed to maintain anything. The look of confusion must've been easy to see on my face, since Barb quickly spoke to me to clarify a few things to me." Jai, don't worry, they're gloves after all!

You don't need to do anything to them really, that's due to the mix of metals I put into them. All you'll need to do is feed the gloves some kind of metal if they do wind up getting chipped or something similar. Since you're a Mage who can use all kinds of different elements, I assume you have a decent grasp on Earth Magic, right?"" Oh! Ah... Yes, I do. Will any metal really do?""

Well, stronger metal, like steel, will last longer than say, iron or bronze, if you can somehow get your hands on things like Orichalcum or Mithril, it'll actually increase the area of the gloves that the metal covers your hands as well as fixing any damage."" Wow. That's amazing! I wish my weapons could do that to!" If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Ashley quickly voiced her compliments after Barb spoke." Oh, you!

Had I known Ben would've brought such lovely girls along with him, I would've made sure to prepare some other prototypes I've thought up! What a shame!" It looks like Barb was put in a really good mood with Ashley's compliments. Though, looking at the 2 experiments we've been privy to, I'd say we're lucky she didn't prepare more prototypes for us. The last thing we need is for anything to explode while we're fighting Demons... Unless we actually want them to." Enough of that for now, Barb.

I think it's time for us to leave. Would it be too much to ask for you to write down any maintenance ideas you would have about the gloves? Along with that, I want to know how much we owe you."" Oh please, Jessie. You don't need to pay for 4 items on the shelf and some oil and other maintenance items. You're going to fight the Demons to the West, aren't you? Think of it as an investment for me, so that My Business can have some more suck-- I mean, "Tourists" come to spend money!"

Barb looked at Jessie like she was talking to a child... I guess she must've known him from when he was really young." Are you sure? I'm just going to charge it all to the Crown you know?"" Oh?" I could swear I could almost see dollar signs appear in Barb's eyes." Well, if that's the case... I certainly could charge you a bit... I mean... With the Demons, some of the oil prices are jumping up...

I could obviously say that those cans of oil were the last of My Shop, which is why they were worth a large silver coin for the 6 of them..."" And I would happily affirm your story if anyone were to investigate from the Domestic Affairs office." Jessie and Barb began to wear smiles that reminded me of criminals from old movies." Honestly, you both with your scamming... It gets ridiculous after a while."

Ben just offered a few words before sighing and wearing an expression that says he was giving up on the scene in front of us. After Jessie and Barb worked out the details, Jessie left Barb with a piece of paper that had the Official Seal of the Royal Family of Promethia stamped on it. If I had to guess, that'd be the Government of Promethia's official I. O. U letter. All of us who were a part of the Hero Party were now just following the Veteran Adventurers as we headed North for some reason.

Eventually, we made our way to an inn that didn't really stick out in any spectacular way, except for the restaurant that was attached to the inn. and we were given 2 rooms. One for the men and one for us, the women. With that, we all met at the restaurant to eat dinner before heading to bed for the day. At this point in time, the day had ended, the moon was high in the sky and the smells coming from the kitchen of the restaurant that we were in stimulated our empty stomachs."

So, with all of that finally out of the way, we'll all be heading to the West starting tomorrow morning, you should all try and sleep well, since we'll be roughing it out for a while." Jessie gave us some advice before our dinner arrived." No, I'm telling you, it was frozen and tasted like nothing I ever had before. The Dwarf I talked to said that it was a new dish that Kuga had bought from somewhere. It was delicious, after having it, it's hard to go back to these sad excuses for dessert."

I overheard 2 Adventurers having a conversation as we ate our own food. The male Adventurer was talking with great enthusiasm in his voice. It made me curious to hear what he was saying, but before I could ask after eating my fish and rice dish that I had ordered, he and his female friend had already left. Feeling content and full was a great feeling. It felt even better after us girls were able to use the bathhouse in the inn to wash ourselves before bed.

Since we've left Whitestone at the start of this journey, the only way for us to clean ourselves were either river streams or my Water Magic. We all eventually got into 1 of the 2 beds that were available, Lucy and I ended up sharing a bed as Laura and Ashley shared the other. I slept quite well... Until the morning." NO!"

"!"

"!"

"!" Everyone was awakened in the room by Laura's voice full of horror and shock." Laura, what happened!?" Ashley quickly jumped out of bed and was searching around the room, she was looking to see if someone had broken into the room as we slept. Laura quickly tried to answer Ashley's question, but there was only so much she could convey because of the panic she was in." M... My dream... The vision... It... It changed... He's covered in blood and dirt... What's happening back home? Why is he like that?

He needs me to return... He needs my help..." Laura tried to explain, but her explanation didn't really answer Ashley's question. From the clues I heard from her though... It sounds like something is wrong with John." Laura, you need to calm down for now. It could just be your God messing with you, just like how it won't let you talk to him yet. It might feel like he occupies too much of your thoughts and feelings." Lucy offered some words to try and comfort Laura.

She did calm down slightly from Lucy's words, but even as we set out for our traveling in the morning, she still seemed shaken by what she's seen... Even as we walked towards a battle with powerful enemies, I could tell that all of our heads were only filled with one hopeless question that we were powerless to answer. What is happening to John? If only I knew then that the news we'd begin receiving about the battles going on in and around Diablos with the Elves, answered our questions with ease.

If only we could've connected the dots...