NOVEL WEB Chapter 156: Enchantments
Getting to the enchanter was almost a hike, which spoke to the growth of the town.
Before, Arthur would walk out of his house and be, well, everywhere. All the houses and shops with anyone in them were within a few steps. Now, he sometimes had to make a small walk, especially if the person he needed to see was a recent arrival or the place he needed to go was just built. The town stretched much farther towards both the beach and the canyon opening than it had before.
It was actually Karra who had proposed that the roads should bend and wind slightly as they went through the town instead of being a ramrod straight. She had said, and most people agreed, that this would help each new section of the town around a bend in the road feel like its own place. When Spiky pointed out that this would also help control ambient noise a bit as things filled up, that was that. Arthur was now walking through winding streets towards his next goal, happy as a clam at the decision.
Like all enchanter’s shops, Lina’s was nearly empty besides a few shelves carrying everyday goods and a large worktable. Enchanters worked with fine, precious-metal needles and their own majicka and precious little else. The hippo demon had no problem spotting Arthur as he came into the shop and worked her wispy form around the counter to meet him.
“Arthur!” Lina called. “Finally. I was wondering when you’d actually shop.”
“Is it really that widely known?” Arthur asked.
“Among us newbies? Yup. We’ve talked about how little we see you compared to everyone else.”
“Well, I’m trying to make it up today.” Arthur wasn’t big on reputation, but it wouldn’t do to be thought of as a money hoarder. That wasn’t good mayor behavior. “I actually know the first thing I need already. Rebes sent me down to talk about shoes.”
Lina clapped her hands together in joy. “Oh, good. If it’s not the normal enchantments I put on his mass-produced stuff, you must want something special.”
People keep thinking I know things lately, Arthur thought. It’s nice.
“Well, actually, I don’t know exactly what I want. I was sort of going dealer’s choice on this one. Whatever you think is best for the way you’ve seen me live my life,” Arthur said.
“Oooh.” Lina smiled. “Working for crafter-types is so much better than people who think they know exactly what they need. I have a lot of ideas, lately. Want to see?”
“Absolutely.”
Lina’s work was complex. Like Mizu, she made stacks of runes, each of which had to work together perfectly or risk failing entirely. Some things went with others, while others conflicted. Some of the strongest versions of runes didn’t play nicely with others, but could be watered down to mostly-the-same-effect cousins that were weaker but combined better.
“Now remember, it’s not about the individual runes. You want to think about it as the effect of the whole stack.” Lina eyed Arthur up and down. “About ten vitality?”
“Yup. Good eye.”
“It’s part of the job. One of the nice things about ten vitality is that comfort makes a bigger difference. If you had the kind of vitality Karra has, you’d hardly notice.” Lina made some notes on a pad. “I’m assuming speed isn’t a big priority?”
“Not really. Maybe a bit, but…”
“But you don’t want to leave your friends in the dust or for them to leave you. Got it.”
They spent about an hour setting priorities. Unlike Rebes, Lina implicitly assumed Arthur was willing to pay, maybe because he had visited the shoe store first and gotten this far in the process.
By the end, they had a fair idea of the direction they wanted to go. He’d be a little bit faster and a lot more stable on his feet. Lina said the latter would make him even faster than the speed enhancement, considering the wonders it would do for his stride. They’d be waterproofed, dirt-repelling, and self-cleaning to some extent. But those were all little, standard things. The vast majority of everything else went to Arthur’s main goal, the thing he thought was most important of all.
“That is…” Lina blinked at her pad. “That’s a lot of comfort runes, Arthur. It’s the most I’ve ever seen anyone order at once. You are sure you don’t want to run faster and jump higher? Most people do.”
“I want happy feet.” Arthur nodded decisively. It was a thing he had learned about himself today. “So long as all the comfort runes will work together, I want all of them.”
“It’s actually weird.” Lina made some quick sketches on her pad. “People don’t usually put this many comfort runes together, but I think I can make them fit. It’s like they are designed to.”
“Maybe they were. The system seems to like things like that.”
“So she does.” Lina was apparently in the the-system-is-a-mom camp of things. “Is that it? Just the shoes?”
“Oh, no. We haven’t even talked about socks yet. Or the enchantments for shop,” Arthur said.
Lina was not Rebes and did not kiss Arthur’s forehead. He suspected she wanted to, though. By the time they were through talking, they had built up quite the little list of items.
Invoice: Arthur Teamaster
Shoes, Two Pairs, Custom Stack
Socks, Fourteen Pairs, Custom Stack
Shop Structural Enhancements, Standard x7
Shop Equipment Enhancements, Standard, x50
Shop Equipment Enhancements, Custom, x5
Shop Furniture Enhancements, Four Interior Table Sets, Five Stools
Shop Apron and Uniforms Sets, Standard, x8
Bedclothes, Sheets, and Blankets (If Possible to Improve, Custom Stack, Fees Waived)
Shop Clothing Acquisition Fee (Waived)
Analysis and Consultation Fees (Waived)
“Are you sure you should be waiving all those fees? It seems like a fair amount of work,” Arthur said.
“Arthur, do people tell you to shut up very often?”
Arthur nodded heavily. “They do.”
“This is… what you’re spending with me must be your accumulated fortune of the better part of a year. Of course, I’m comping those things.” Arthur saw Lina’s fingers twitch as if contemplating a forehead flick, which was an oddly universal gesture among the youth of this world. “It’s a lot of money. Are you going to have anything left?”
He wouldn’t have much, honestly. He had originally planned to get Lily some things, but now was running low enough that he needed to conserve funds for his day-to-day needs. He’d just recommend nice things to her. She had her own money burning holes in her pockets these days, and probably wanted different things than Arthur did.
“Not much. But that’s what it’s for, right?” Arthur smiled. “This is going to make me work so much faster.”
“True. The enhancements to your dish-cleaning basin alone are a lot.” Lina sat down and fanned her face as if calming herself. “It’s a big investment, but most of these runes will last forever unless they’re mishandled. So long as you don’t change size too much, you should be able to use those uniforms for years before they show any wear.”
His purse was very, very light by the time he made it to the tailor’s and explained his sock needs. The best socks the tailor could do weren’t cheap, but were luckily orders of magnitude less expensive than the boots and enchantments costs.
I’m so glad I’m not a combat class. Arthur really was. Combat classes made a lot of money depending on how often they went into dungeons, but had to spend an enormous amount on enchanting equipment, then replacing and re-enchanting it as it wore out from the duress of fighting big, scary things. Most of the enchantments they bought were utilitarian keep-me-alive type of stuff too. Granted, high physical stats made a lot of the kind of comfort enchantments moot, but it was still a rougher life.
After the socks, Arthur was completely tapped. Every aspect of his waking and sleeping life was about to get better, so he considered it worth it. Still, he was glad that he grew the majority of his own materials these days. He’d have to count coins for the next few days, something he hadn’t done in a while.
“Arthur, are you shopping?” Karra asked. “Damn, I guess I lost that bet.”
“There are bets?” Arthur’s jaw dropped a bit before he snapped it closed. “About me?”
“There are bets about everything. But yes, especially you. They do a long pool for a couple of bets related to how long you can go without calming down and taking a break. I couldn’t bet on some of them because I’m in the council, but I bet on when you’d go shopping. Looks like I lost.”
“Sorry,” Arthur said sheepishly.
“No worries. It was just a few coins. I can lose a few coins here and there.” Karra laughed. “By the way, come to the wall when you can. I need you to look at something. Don’t worry, I told Mizu. She won’t kill you over it.”
Arthur thought about going right then, but realized the lunch rush was just about to start. He excused himself as politely as he could and rushed back to his shop to do prep. Suddenly, making money seemed like a much more immediate need than it had that morning.
As Arthur tidied the shop and got the boba ready for the next wave of customers, he got to have some fun anticipating the improvements that were to come.
All of his furniture would become slightly more comfortable and temperature-regulating, something he was going to pitch to the town council as an upgrade for all the furniture in the public spaces if it turned out to be affordable. His floors wouldn’t completely clean themselves, especially when he spilled things, but both they and the walls would stay naturally cleaner. All his heating equipment would be supercharged and better at regulating things at the temperatures he needed, which were custom jobs he hadn’t even known were possible before.
“Hey, Arthur!” A large Aardvark who had joined Karra’s building crew bellied up to the outdoor counter. “Can I get what I got yesterday? It’s another cold one today.”
Arthur nodded and built up a warming tea for the guy, who also wanted as much pep as he could get, in as spiced and strong of a brew as possible. Not every worker-class was like that, but most of them were. They went for strong, powerful drinks that could keep them going at their jobs. This particular worker didn’t need an extra strong drink enhancement today, but Arthur was glad to lay down some weak ones for him.
The drink orders came fast and heavy after that. Lily stopped in for a while between jobs, expediting all his orders and reacting with glee when she heard how Arthur had spent his day. Given that she had a good idea of how much money he had on hand, her eyes went wide when she found out he had spent nearly all of it.
“Good gods, Arthur. You are going to be a walking ball of majicka. It was good you didn’t get me anything, by the way. I have some ideas for that, and I’m growing out of a lot of my everyday things,” Lily said.
“Glad to hear it. I will, of course, reserve the right to get you presents once I’m not broke,” Arthur laughed.
“And I’ll take them,” Lily said. “Just not clothes.”
“I was thinking maybe a tiara. For parties.”
Lily puffed up in a way Arthur knew meant she was slightly offended for a moment, probably because of the little-girl connotations of an actual princess tiara. They were just as common in demon world literature as they were on Earth, but were a distinctly little-kid thing to own.
After a moment, something else inside Lily grew strong enough to cancel the puffing, and Arthur had a good guess as to what that was too. After all, she was, in fact, a kid. A little one. One who was not, as he predicted, immune to the calls of looking especially pretty and magical.
“A real one?” Lily said, quietly. “A pretty one?”
“As pretty as Milo can make. But I have to save up.” Arthur was pretty sure Milo would comp the work using his limited amount of available free jobs, but he still needed to provide the metal. That meant melting literal coins for what he had planned. It wouldn’t be cheap. “And I want when to be a surprise.”