A rabbit and a wolf

Annoyance flashed through Alea's mind at the casual dismissal, and for a moment Alea wondered where that feeling came from. The feeling subsided and Alea calmed herself. She looked at the piles of weapons around her and decided to just pick up something small and leave the shop to look elsewhere.

She glanced around, looking for a side arm that would only cost a little silver and not take too much time to learn. She quickly found a plain and ordinary dagger.

"How much for this one?" Alea asked, holding an unblemished piece of steel no larger than her own hand.

"One hundred gold." the shopkeeper yawned without even glancing at the item in Alea's hands.

"One hundred!?" Alea sputtered, perplexed at the price. She's seen finer knives being sold for a single silver.

"Everything in that corner is one hundred gold." The shopkeeper waved before she closed her eyes and yawned.

Alea put the knife down as though it really was worth one hundred gold. "I'm looking for something a bit cheaper."

"No, you're looking for a weapon that can get you into the Throbbing Immortal Fist school." The shopkeeper said without opening her eyes. "You'll want something simple but versatile. Let's see... you use fire spells?" After a moment of contemplation, the shopkeeper plucked a tiny stone out of her pocket and threw it haphazardly over her shoulder.

The stone struck a pair of nun chucks, which tipped over and caught the point of a sai sword in their chains. The sai sword struck a bladed wheel, which rolled across the shop floor before hitting a barrel of arrows. Those arrows spilled on the floor and knocked over a rack of spears, which scattered all over the floor. One spear rolled out of the rack and slowly came to a stop at Alea's feet.

"That's the one for you." The shopkeeper declared. "Three hundred gold. Leave it in the basket before you go."

Alea bent over and picked up the spear. The blade was wide and had a fat teardrop ruby set in the middle. The tempered head of the weapon emitted a dull orange glow, clearly some sort of treasure. Inactivated it was hardly remarkable, but once Alea's hands wrapped around it she found she could extend her fireball technique through it as easily as she could through her own palm, and with less Resolve wasted in the process.

This did seem like a rather good spear. It wasn't a magic treasure, but it was an excellent weapon for a mystic artist at the third layer like herself. Alea would have just barely had enough money from what she'd taken from Kass to pay for something like this, but just because Alea had grown up on a farm didn't mean she couldn't haggle like a city girl.

"I'll give you seventy five gold for it." Alea offered.

"Three hundred." The shopkeeper replied, quickly and easily.

Alea bit her lip. "One fifty, and I'll trade a few weapons I've picked up on my adventures."

"Three hundred, and you get to keep your scraps." The shopkeeper shook her head, like the weapons Alea had offered her were children's toys and candy.

"Fine. You can keep your spear." Alea said, heat flushing to her face. She picked the spear rack up off the ground and stuffed the spear into the slot where it had been resting just moments ago. She couldn't help but feel a little sad when the weapon left her hand, like a piece of her had been cut away. The ruby in the spear's head seemed to dim as it left her grasp, and Alea left the store.

"I'll keep it reserved for when you for one day!" The shopkeeper called out after Alea's departing from.

Alea spent the rest of the day going from shop to shop, knocking on doors and taking practice swings with swords, axes, hammers, knives, and even some of the more creative mystic artist weapons like rulers and spools of thread.

Nothing gave her the same feeling as the spear she'd held in the first shop she visited though, like she'd had a taste of the finest of wines and now no common drink would ever taste good to her again.

The sun started to set and Alea realized she'd need to meet up with Jenna, Thali and Yadra at the Crawling Beta inn soon. She managed to sell off some of Kass's old weapons and expensive trinkets as she visited the various shops and pocketed the gold, which she now counted to be in excess of five hundred. That was more than her parent's farm was worth.

Without thinking or realizing where she was going until she was already there, Alea found herself at the Number One Weapon's Shop Under Heaven once again. When she opened the door, she realized it was exactly as it had been when she first entered. The room was equally messy, but in a hastily tidied way. Upon closer examination, she realized it was messy in the exact same way it had been before her initial arrival. The pile of weapons she'd knocked over precariously balanced in exactly the same way as it had been before.

"Change your mind already, proud little warrior?" The shopkeeper said.

Her words irked Alea, so she crossed her arms and said, "Two hundred and fifty gold. That's my final offer."

"If I wished to haggle with you, I would have done so the last time you were here."

Reluctantly and resentfully, Alea pulled out three hundred gold and tossed them into the basket. It had been completely empty both times Alea had seen it, so this shopkeeper couldn't have been doing much business.

"The spear is yours." The shopkeeper announced once Alea's final coin clinked into the basket. She hadn't needed to stand or even open her eyes, just hearing their metallic jingle had been enough for her to account for every one.

Alea picked up the spear and that familiar feeling of rightness filled her once again. The weapon sat comfortably in her hands and she caressed its shaft fondly like she would the skin of a familiar lover.

The weapon between her fingers gave Alea new confidence. It mingled with the feeling of power the new Resolve she'd accumulated granted her, and the two of them bred an ambitious new idea.

Alea was a mystic artist, and no slouch of one at that. This spear was good, but she knew she'd been robbed paying for it. A hundred and fifty gold would be a perfectly fair price for it, and Alea did need the gold. Even a hundred gold would still make this shopkeeper a fortune.

Temptation tickled the surface of Alea's mind as she glanced at her own gold in the basket beside us. The shopkeeper lay before her, eyes closed and not caring in the least. Alea felt the desire to simply take her gold back and storm away with it in her pocket. Perhaps it would be a good lesson for this shopkeeper to get her to start charging fair prices. The dominant thoughts magnified with each passing moment as Alea's subconscious mind told her to take what she wanted.

Then the shopkeeper cracked open an eye and a wave of icy dread enveloped Alea's entire soul. It was like getting struck by lightning, set on fire, and witnessing the brutal **** of everyone she'd ever cared about all at once.

Alea jerked her hand away, cursing herself for the thought. She was no thief. Where had those thoughts come from?

The shopkeeper snorted. "You belong at home, stabilizing your cultivation and soothing your mind. Find yourself a room at the inn and meditate until the trials begin."

"Apologies." Alea bowed until her shoulders were perpendicular to her hips. Then she scurried off like a rabbit who realized they'd just tried to take a bite out of a wolf.