am-books Chapter 116
Chapter 116
Chapter 116‘Ole Merlo wasn’t that hard to find. A brilliant purple banner hung above her market stall, covered in golden symbols just like Suvroc said. Her stall was more of a large, rich purple tent covered in golden threads than the market stalls elsewhere in the cavern. Every bit of her tent was covered in what I could only call occult paraphernalia.
Crystals dangled on golden chains, each pulled into crazy shapes and dimensions. Feathers of birds, some looking even older than me, hung from dream catchers or were fastened into wands. Stacks of crystals of all kinds were everywhere, each more misshapen than the last. Banners hung from the tent’s poles, displaying prominent colors and bright shades.
I cautiously approached, flicking on Aetherial Perception. To my surprise, there were barely any items in the entire shop that glowed with anything of the Aether. The only thing I could see that resonated with the Aether was a stack of books off to the side of a rack.
”Welcome, welcome, young dreamer. I am your oracle, Merlo. Don’t tell me, you want a crystal from my fine collection.” A middle-aged woman approached me, her body bent deeply in a bow. She wore a forest green dress with simplistic frills and baggy sleeves. A witch's hat sat off-centered on her head. A polite smile wormed across her lips, not quite corpy but in the same ballpark.
”Maybe.” I eyed the place. A good eighty or ninety percent of her wares had crystals on them, so it really wasn’t that good of a guess. “I was told you have nice purple crystals?”
”Ah, come, come, child.” The woman waved her arm, the sleeves of her dress hung loosely as she led me to a rack covered in purple crystals. Her expression was pensive, though her muscles were tensed slightly as if the look was forced to hide her actual expression.
I was only knowledgeable enough about crystals to recognize an expensive gemstone when I saw one, so most of the stuff on the rack looked unfamiliar. The majority of it looked lab-grown if I had to guess. I did recognize a few small natural-looking amethysts, however.
I checked each of the crystals, trusting Suvroc didn’t just send me on a wild goose chase. To my surprise, there were actually pieces of rykon in the collection. They looked almost exactly like amethyst, but the core of its structure took on a deeper blue pitch than the rest of the crystals on display. The deep blue almost appeared powdery inside the rest of the material’s structure. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if not for having spent the last couple days looking up information on it.
I carefully picked out all the rykon I could from the shelf. There were five fingernail-sized pieces of the material. The stuff was entirely safe to handle, at least in its base state, so I didn’t have to worry about interacting with it. “How much for these?”
The woman eyed me, then looked over my selection. “Ah, the mighty tazelphine. You have a good eye, child. Each piece is said to grant immense beauty to its user, though its peaceful exterior hides its powerful use in curses. Twenty Rayn each.”
Tazelphine? What the hell was that? I inspected the crystals again. This was definitely rykon. Or at least I was almost a hundred percent sure I knew what the stuff was. Maybe
didn’t know? It would make sense why she just casually had the stuff on display instead of locked up somewhere.
Wait, how did Suvroc know what they were then if Merlo didn't? And he knew immediately what I was talking about without having to look it up or anything. A chill went up my spine. I needed to be more careful around that guy.
It was good for me though. Twenty was way cheaper than the actual prices for the stuff, at least from what I saw on the Net.“ ‘Course. My sister loves stuff made of t-tazelphine.”
”Then I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a discount for the precious crystal if you buy one other item from my shop to help you in your journey.” Her expression slipped minutely, revealing a careless smirk mixed with boredom.
A discount would be nice… And I'd already planned on checking out the books. “I’ll look around, I guess.”
”Nova.” The woman walked back to the front of the tent, calming waiting at the front. “Call for me if you need help identifying any of my mystical wares.”
Everything else in her shop didn’t hold my interest. A part of me did want to look through her other ‘crystals’ to see if I couldn’t find something else out of the ordinary. Sadly, I wasn’t well versed in materials and elements enough to pick out stuff outside of what I’ve re
Oh, just eight hundred- what the hell? Eight hundred Rayn?! Even Blackout was only around two fifty for a gallon from what I saw. ‘Course, that wasn’t including the license for it, but still! Okay, okay… calm down, Shiro. It’s not paint…
My heart ached as I thought of something else. “Okay… can I also get a pint with adjustable chroma added in?” I had a plan to make some togglable highlights to push home any intimidation tactics.
I held my breath as he pulled up his phone again and ran some calculations. “Sure. An additional two hundred Rayn. Oh, and adjustable chroma will lower the paint's light-absorbing properties by point two percent while inactive.”
My heart ached as I nodded my head. “I’ll take it.”
The guy nodded, tapping on his phone once more. “Okay. Return in thirty minutes, and I’ll have it ready.” Then the guy adjusted his ballcap and walked back to the paint mixer.
I sighed as I moved away from his stand. I saved on rykon, which I expected to take almost all my money, only to be wombo comboed by frickin’ paint. That’s just about right.
I wandered around the Night Market, entranced by the goods on sale. I bought a few things from a chemical vendor. I finally got my hands on some liquid nitrogen, which was pretty cheap. Only five Rayn for a liter. If I didn’t need a license to purchase it, just like almost everything else in the world, I’d already have gotten some. I found a secluded spot to dump the thing into my canteen.
I did think about getting some other stuff from the guy, like hydrofluoric acid, but I was apprehensive about handling it. As far as I know, a high concentration of the stuff could cause necrosis in less than a minute. I didn’t necessarily want to have something like that without more knowledge about it. Well, that and it was damn expensive.
I also managed to swing by and buy a box of random chrome from a massive market stall. The guy fashioned his entire setup like a casino with bright and dazzling lights. His whole shtick was basically loot boxes. He sold the cheapest bulk of chrome that I found, so I bought a fairly large mystery box of stuff from him for five hundred Rayn. It made moving around the market a bit more difficult.
There were so many other things out on display as I wandered around, each one calling out to purchase them. If I hadn’t just spent a bit over sixteen hundred Rayn in less than an hour, I would’ve been more than happy to get any number of them. Unfortunately, as things were, I was too broke to get most of the stuff without putting myself in a super tight pinch. I could only stare in frustration.
It was even more depressing when I found a section detached from the rest of the market by a thick stone wall. Beyond it were all sorts of explosive vendors, each hawking the best and brightest. I had to force myself to walk out of there.
Thankfully, the temptations didn’t last much longer as the thirty minutes passed. I returned to Pete’s Paints and paid for my gallon and pint. It hurt to hand over so much money just like that, but I needed the stuff for my plans.
With my arms full of goods, I backtracked out of the Night Market and to my apartment. Overall, I was happy with my purchases. I was just about to start putting together my new armor when I got a call. “Hello?”
”Shquire! I need you in my office. Yeshterday.” The guy hung up before I had time to even say anything back.