Wandering Dungeon

Blixie woke up slowly. "Nothing like sleeping in an actual bed." She yawned out as she stretched. Her face contorted in disgust. "Ugh, what is that smell? It's like something died in here." She quickly flew to the window and threw it open.

Garrett and Kyle looked at her puzzled. "What smell?" They said together.

Blixie looked back at them. "Must be nice not being able to smell." she groaned while she flopped down on the window frame. Her head jerked up as a realization hit her. "Oh crap." she flew over to Garrett and sniffed him. "Ugh. It's you. That body has started to decay and smells horrible. There goes our adventurer cover." She sighed.

"Can't we just say he hasn't been able to bathe in a long time because he was on the road?" Kyle suggested.

"Unfortunately not." Blixie replied. "There is a big difference between the sour smell of body odor and the sickly-sweet scent of a rotting corpse."

"I think I have an idea that might work for now." Garrett said. A light breeze started to swirl around him, his clothes swaying lightly, and the stench of decay that permeated the room was pushed out of the open window. "How's that?"

Blixie sniffed the air and gave a sigh of relief. "Much better. You've been practicing that Air Shaping skill, haven't you?"

"I was practicing it all night. It's a lot easier to control now but I can still only get a light breeze out of it. No summoning tornadoes yet." He chuckled. "But it might still be a good idea to try to find something new to replace this body."

"Let's go check out the weapon and armor shop that was by the guild before we leave. if we sell off the equipment from those bandits, we might be able to afford something better than that rusty sword you still have."

"But I still have the couple of daggers and that axe from them that I can use."

"While that may be, it would look odd for you to use an axe that is made for someone a lot bigger and stronger than the body you are using now, unless you want to take after grandma Jenny, and the daggers require more dexterity and precision that you just can't do right now." Blixie lectured. "With your capabilities right now, it makes more sense to use a sword and maybe a shield, or you could lean into more of the magic wielding side of what a monster tamer is supposed to use by getting a magic staff."

"But I don't have any spells I can cast." Garrett replied. "I only have the Earth Shaping and Air Shaping skills that I can use."

"So?" Kyle interjected. Garrett looked over at him curiously. "Really Garrett!?" Kyle was flabbergasted. "For being such a good DM in your past life I'm surprised you haven't realized the opportunity your skills give you. It looks like Blixie thought of some though."

"Then please enlighten me, oh great one." Garrett said sarcastically.

"Just create some rock spears or something around you using Earth Shaping then fling them at enemies using your Unseen Force skill. Just make sure to do some fancy hand gestures or something." Kyle said.

"Or you can do like what you did with the test against grandma Jenny and set traps for Kyle to lead enemies into." Blixie remarked.

"I can't believe I didn't think of that." Garrett said. "You guys are geniuses."

Blixie and Kyle smirked, as much as a slime can smirk at least. "Now let's go shopping." Yelled Kyle.

"Why are so excited to go shopping? Could you even use the equipment being just a ball of goo?" Blixie asked.

"Don't mock a man's love of awesome weapons and armor." Kyle retorted. "I had an extensive collection of reproduced medieval weapons and armors back in our world." He said with pride.

"How do you reproduce a weapon?" Blixie asked. "Is that like fixing them? Were you a blacksmith in your old life?"

Garrett laughed. "Hardly, He just loved to buy them, besides they weren't actually made for combat."

"Not all of them were decorations, there were a few that could have survived combat." Kyle shot back.

Blixie stared at them confused. "Why would you buy a weapon that you couldn't use in actually combat. Seems like a waste of gold to me."

"That's a fair assessment coming from someone in this world where they are actually necessary, but you have to remember, in our world we have a lot less fighting and no monsters. Swords and spears are just not made any more except as decorations. Same with armor and shields." Garrett explained.

"I see. So, they are like trophies or reminders of the past for your world." Blixie mused. "I'm surprised that you are as decent with the sword as you are then if no one in your world actually uses them."

"Garrett just watched a lot of movies whereas I actually practiced with those 'decorations' as you called them." Kyle said. "I can't wait to see what they have."

"I don't think you should use a weapon, Kyle." Blixie said. "A slime swinging a sword would be unheard of in our world." Kyle seemed to melt at hearing that. Blixie felt bad for him.

"Maybe you could still practice in secret, huh?" Garrett said trying to cheer up his friend. Kyle seemed to perk up at the idea. "Anyway, let's worry about that later." Garrett said trying to lighten the mood. They all got up, left the room, and headed downstairs. When they reached the main room, they saw Tracy sweeping the floor. Her daughter Alice was helping by wiping the tables clean.

Tracy looked up at them. "Finally awake I see." She said in a light joking tone. "Probably for the best. You missed the breakfast rush. Do you all want some breakfast?" She asked.

"No thank you. We have got to get going on our quest." Garrett replied. "Thanks for the rooms. They were very comfortable."

"You're very welcome." Tracy said with a smile. "We look forward to your stay next time you are in town then."

"Bye, bye." Alice said as she waved to them. Garrett, Blixie, and Kyle waved back as they headed out of the inn and across the way to the weapons shop.

The warmth of the sun enveloped the three adventurers as they stepped out of the inn. Few people wandered around the street outside the inn. They headed straight for the weapons shop and entered. "Welcome to Quillions Quills." Said a friendly man behind a counter opposite the door. "My name is Dave. How may I help you?" The three took a quick look around the store. Axes and swords of various sizes lined the walls behind the counter and daggers, bows, and even a few staffs hung from racks and displays around the room that seemed smaller than the outside would suggest. A rather large porcupine was seen sleeping in one of the corners of the room.

Garrett approached the counter pulling the large axe out from behind him and set it on the counter followed by the two daggers. "We were looking into selling off these items to get some weapons we could actually use."

Dave was taller than Garrett's body puppet by a few inches but looked like he only weighed about a hundred pounds soaking wet. "My, my. These are in rather rough shape aren't they." He said as he inspected the weapons. "If this is the state of the weapons, I would hate to see the how the ruffians you got them off of look. But with a bit of love and care I'm sure they will find new homes soon enough. I can offer you about fifty gold for everything."

Garrett glanced at Blixie for advice. She nodded her head slightly. "That's fine," Garrett responded to Dave. "But how did you know they belonged to bandits?"

Dave pulled out some gold coins from under the counter and placed them in front of Garrett. "When you have been working with weapons as long as I have you learn to tell a lot about someone from how they take care of their gear." Garrett was impressed. "It also helps to have a skill or two that can tell me the history of the weapon." Dave chuckled.

Garrett was shocked. "There are skills like that?"

"Of course there are. I would ask if you have been living in a cave your whole life, but you don't look much like a dwarf to me." Dave laughed at his own joke.

Blixie turned to Dave. "Sorry, my companion is suffering from amnesia."

Dave looked at Garrett with worry. "Oh dear. I'm so sorry about that. My friend had amnesia once. She thought she was a cow and would just stand in the field all day chewing on grass."

"Is she okay?" Garrett asked.

"Oh, she's fine. Turns out she was a cow that someone had turned into a human a few years before. I miss old Bess. She is an adventurer in the capital now. Pretty strong one at that. Any who, what kind of weapon were you looking into getting."

"I was wanting to look at a staff that could help boost my magic."

"Ah, that makes sense. Looks like you are a monster tamer. What element do you use?"

"I use earth magic."

"I do have a basic earth staff that would boost earth skills by about ten percent." Dave walked over to a rack and pulled out a wooden staff about five feet tall. "Here we go." It was warm brown in color with a few shoots of what appeared to be new growth on it. A rough chunk of some kind of grey stone Garrett couldn't identify was tied on to the top that looked like a mix between a spear and a hammer. "It can even be used to smack someone if they get too close."

Garrett, Blixie, and Dave jumped in surprise as a loud crash echoed out through the store. They turned to see Kyle by a pile of fallen weapons, a mace handle held in his tentacle with the head lying on the floor. "Bad Squishy." Garrett yeld out at him. "Sorry about him. He is rather curious."

"Don't worry about it." Dave replied as he pointed to the large porcupine in the corner that was still asleep. "Quillion is known to play fetch with some of the merchandise."