Item upgrades

It was another dusty desert morning, the sands raced high in the air as the winds started to pick up and ravage the dunes in full ****. Having stayed the night in some dank dreary inn, Sven and his party were rested well enough to face the day. Sven, Elise, Ignis, Alice and... Adriana? After telling her that she was free the night before, she had insisted that she had no where else to go, and would tag along until she found her path. That was all well and good with Sven, after all he had good experience with how powerful her abilities were and knew she could be a reliable ally in a pinch.

Still clutching onto that steak knife she had stolen from the commanders mansion, and looking at his old out leveled Slyvian blade, Sven's purpose for today would be to seek out a smith or a weapons vendor to purchase a much needed upgrade. They would all be needing new gear and potions if they were going to be pulling off such a crazy mission, after all.

"My feet are tired, can I have a piggy back ride master?" Ignis moaned as she dragged her feet through the warm sands. Sven sighed halfheartedly before kneeling to one leg and stretching his arms backwards to accommodate her properly. In truth, Sven loved her child like innocence and selfishness at times, it was one of her more endearing traits.

"Yay!" She exclaimed giddily before climbing onto his back like a jockey would a horse. Alice and Elise meanwhile shot their short companion dirty stares when they thought she wasn't looking.

"I wonder who is the master in this relationship sometimes." Elise brushed back a lock of her mossy green hair, Ignis turned around briefly to blow her a raspberry. Elise puffed her cheeks out in frustration mixed with a tint of jealousy. Alice giggled at Elise's reaction, the cat woman hadn't known Elise long but she could draw similarities between Ignis and Elise's relationship with her own relationship with Ignis.

"Hahaha she's right Sven, you shouldn't spoil her so much! You should spoil me instead!" Alice ran up to join Sven at his side, nuzzling her face into the side of his arm, sneaking in a few breath fulls of his scent as she did so. Sven could feel his roger start to rage down below. The mixture of Ignis rubbing her petite breasts into his back and Alice rubbing her warm fur into his exposed flesh was starting to play on his pent up sexual desires.

"No fair, that's cheating!" Elise fumed from behind but kept her distance, her cheeks reddening from both embarrassment of not willing to debase herself in front of the other girls but also frustration that they could do so freely and without reservation. She felt a stab in her heart again seeing other girls fawning over Sven, her father had always preached monogamous marriage for political reasons, but she found such notions dull and droll. However, the stories she would read before bed time of princes and princesses finding love within one another were by far her favorites, and in none of the stories did the princess ever have to share her prince with other princesses. What she was witnessing went against everything she ever thought she wanted, but she vowed not to give up on him, to not let him get stolen from her by Ignis or Alice, or hell even the new girl who was currently trailing slightly behind herself, wordlessly observing the party dynamic.

"Here's our last stop before we leave the city." Sven said abruptly, bringing Elise out of her inner tribulations for a second to see that they were standing in front of a sandstone house with a large wooden sign above the entrance reading 'Van's Weapons and Armor'. "When we go inside, each of you should be looking to pick out a new set of armor and a new weapon to wield. Oh, except you Ignis, I have plans for your staff." Sven finished as he looked over his shoulder to Ignis who was resting her head comfortably on his shoulder blade. As Sven turned to look at her, she quickly kissed him on his nose cutely.

"We can buy whatever we like? How are we going to afford it?" Alice wondered, she had seen their party's funds and they weren't anything special last she checked. Their stay in PikanVale had stagnated their funds significantly, not to mention Sven had used most of their money just before the class selection mission to buy them all a new set of gear then.

"Don't you worry about that, our trip to Berghs mansion wasn't as profitless as I made it sound to Vander." Sven smirked as he opened the shop door, hearing the bell ring out to announce to the owner that he had customers. Out through the back room there walked an Orc broad of shoulders and mean of face. Walking up to his counter, Sven marveled at some of the craftsmanship on some of the weapons and armors mounted both to the walls and propped up by stands.

"Non Orcs, eh? Don't see many of you light skinned folks round here, what with the blazing hot sun and all." The man spoke idly as he cleaned the handle of one of his in-progress creations.

"We're here to spend a lot of money on upgrades, a new set of armor and weapons for the entire party." Sven looked back at Adriana to let her know that she was included in all of this, her red eyes flashing over faintly as she was struck with emotion in having been included in something for once in her life. Spitting into the handle again, the Orc continued wiping but raised a singular brow at the mention of 'a lot of money'.

"Adventurers, huh? Not much wealth to be made round here, I should know cus' I live in this shit hole. How can I be sure you truly plan on paying me for this costly order?" The Orc asked skeptically, Sven nodded in understanding, he could see why the Orc would be so suspicious of adventurers, especially a human adventurer, coming to purchase a large scale order from an Orc city. Reaching into his magical item box, or his inventory as it was referred to in the game world, Sven retrieved a bag full of choice cut gemstones of all shapes and sizes.

Placing the bag onto the counter and then opening it up for the Orc to see, the shop owners visage went from skeptical to absolutely blown away.

"This! This is!..." He was speechless, the street value alone for such gems would be his life savings times a bakers dozen! His mouth salivated for a few moments before he composed himself properly. Coughing to mask his embarrassment of letting his customers see him in such a greedy disposition he gesticulated to the armors and weapons surrounding him.

"You have convinced me, strange adventurers! You will find no finer items of battle within this fair port city, nay, in the entire Triadom! They are yours to browse!" His fervent changes to his attitude had alerted the workers in the backroom to come out and see for themselves the cause of the excitement they could hear from their bosses usually stern and bored voice. Seeing the pile of gems on the counter, many of the Orcs had to pick up their own jaws that had since fallen to the floor.

"I have an elemental ranger class, where might I find some light cloth based armors and class specific bows?" Elise asked first, the boss motioned needily for one of the awestruck workers to go an see to her needs. One of them quickly snapped out of his shock and rushed to Elise's side as he showed her towards the rangers section of the shop.

"I'm a Fire enchanter, but I just need a new set of armor. Where can I find some magically woven silk cloths?" Ignis was the next to inquire, and like before one of the workers rushed to her side Sven's side to lead her towards the mage section. Letting her down off of his back, she followed the man to a corner in the room.

"I'm the healer, I could do with a new weapon and set of robes. The more tightly they fit, the better!" Alice winked at Sven before being lead away by the second to last worker towards the same corner of the shop as Ignis.

"I..." Adriana shifted uncomfortably at having all of her items paid for by another, however Sven's look reassured her to continue. "I'm a Night Matron, I'm looking for a hard leather armor and a set of light daggers." The dark elf was the last one to be whisked away into a different corner of the room close to the back room. Looking at the owner of the shop and then to the remaining articles of armor, Sven noticed that there were no flails up on the wall.

"I've got the gate keeper class, do you know anything about it?" If the heavy plate armor on the wall was anything to go by, then perhaps he just might serve the gear he needed.

"Yes I do, I'm impressed you have such a class, you must have spent a lot of time in orc territories then, after all, only a select few number of orc guilds have access to such a class, but it's not often picked due to how weak it is." The vendor admitted as he studied the armors on his wall. Then, a light seemed to turn on in his head.

"Ahh! You must specialize in flails then?" He asked gleefully, Sven could practically see the dollar signs flash in front of his eyes at his own epiphany. Beaconing Sven into the back room, grin beaming he lead Sven through rows of active smithing stations and anvils and up the stairs into the more communal, living quarters where they had stored spare or less popular items of combat. Off into the back, Sven could see where he was being lead to.

A glass cabinet propped up at the far end of the room contained a white flail that had grayed from dust and cobwebs, haven't having been cleaned for years, maybe even decades. Fumbling inside of his coat pocket, the orc retrieved a brass key that he then proceeded to use of the glass cabinet, opening the doors gently, the orc motioned for Sven to take it. Picking up the flail and clearing it of layers of dust with one gentle flick, Sven gasped at what he now understood he was holding.

"A leveling weapon..." Sven's eyes were wide at such a find, in the Axiom world leveling weapons were a special grade of item that were often purchased by rich main accounts in order to speed up the process of leveling an alternative account. They were strong and could be upgraded all the way to end game content, although at that stage they would obviously fall off when compared to other high grade legendaries and uniques. The point of them though was to give all around good damage up until most players would acquire their secondary class. Such an item would cost a fortune to acquire in the game world, and strangely enough were only obtainable as a rare drop by slaying max level solo or group bosses, what such an item was doing in a glum, dusty orc city Sven had absolutely no idea.

"Leveling weapon? I know not what you speak of, fine hero, but this weapon has been passed down through my family for generations. I've been looking for the right buyer for generations, and although it has served me neither use nor ornament trapped in its holding cell as I like to see it, I shan't part with such a sentimental item without an extravagant asking price." The Orc rubbed his hands together. Sven swallowed hard as he felt the power coming from within the flail, it was simply perfect for him right now - with this, he would simply become an unstoppable ****. Breathing calmly, Sven tried not to let on to the orc how desperately he needed this.

"I have to say, it's a unique item to be selling. Since you seemingly have no other flails in your shop though, it appears this will have to do. I recognize it's value, I can do you a fair starting price of 10'000 gold AxM." Sven could feel the heat rising off of him as he tried to play it cool, in total he had perhaps 1k gold AxM coins in his inventory, perhaps 10K gold AxM worth of miscellaneous gear and weapons he'd picked up from bandits or monster drops, another 10K worth in materials and vendor items, and finally perhaps 250K worth of gold AxM in the form of gemstones. 10K starting price was perhaps a little too low given the orcs reaction, but he had to make sure he had enough money to gear out everyone so he needed to be a little tight-fisted in this exchange.

"I've had deals as high as 20'000 and I didn't sell then, I'm afraid that I cannot part with such a specialty item for so low a price." The Orc rubbed his hands together, Sven couldn't help but notice that he wasn't offering a counter proposal of his own. 'He must be trying to get me to over bid and then charge me up even more.' Sven realized.

"Is that so? For such an item I would have thought that to be a fair price. Very well, I can see this weapon means a lot to you, how about I offer 25'000 and we shake on it?" Sven asked, the Orc shook his head slowly.

"I'm sorry, but I can't go lower than at least 50'000! I hope you understand." The Orc held out his hand to take back to flail, Sven sighed as he realized the fucker knew that he had him by the balls on this one.

"Since I'm already purchasing such a big order, how about you do me a little deal, and we say 35'000?" There was no point paying hard to get now, the orc could smell how much Sven needed this weapon, and he knew that he had a lot of money to spare, Sven showing the Orc all of the money was a mistake as he was soon beginning to realize.

"It is true that you are buying a significant amount from me, I think a deal can be made, but for no less than 40'000 gold AxM, from that amount I cannot budge." The orc could hardly contain his grin as he sealed the deal. Sighing, Sven held out his hand and offered it to the shrewd salesman, clasping is swiftly, the orc shook on it happily. Well, now that he was done getting swindled, Sven was lead back downstairs with his newly acquired powerful weapon. He was hoping that the girls armor pieces didn't exceed his buying limit, as he'd just splashed out on a rather ridiculous weapon all for himself.

Walking past the counter, Sven looked at a set of heavy plate armor that he could only just wear. 'This would be perfect for my current level.' Sven thought as he signaled to the owner of the shop that he wanted the set of armor too. Walking back to the others, Sven took in the appearance of his recently reequipped party members.

Ignis was wearing a set of floaty and light black robes with a red trim, accompanied by a witches hat that seemed to blow in the absence of any wind, somehow. Twirling around a little she happily showed off her new outfit to Sven.

Alice was the next one to catch Sven's eye, mainly for how skimpy and tight fitting it all was. She wore a fishnet-like top and bottoms that left little to the imagination in terms of her form and figure, arcing her body she pushed her 'assets' upward to tease Sven into acting on his primal instincts. Blushing slightly, looked to the next girl.

Elise wore a set of green scaled leather, its scales bristled and shone off of what little light could be found in such a glum store every time she moved. Blushing at the attention she was getting, she did her best to turn around and give Sven a proper look at what her new equipment looked like. It was lightweight and allowed her the freedom of movement but also looked strong enough to deflect arrow fire without much problem.

And then finally, Sven directed his attention to Adriana who was doing her best to hide behind one of the workers, seeing Sven gaze towards him, the orc moved out of the way awkwardly to reveal Adriana now dressed in a set of hard black leather armor with bits of magically imbued metal woven into the armor at the fingertips, feet and shoulder guards. In her belt there was holstered two shiny new daggers, black overall with a chromed edge and a small red ruby in each tiny pommel. Sven could tell by her body language that she was perhaps a little too shy at having received such an expensive set for free, but Sven liked her and knew that if he did this for her, she would learn to trust people once again. When she had first met him, she had growled at him in fear of what he, a human, might do to her. Maybe things would change if she could see that not all humans were out to get her? At least, that's what his intentions were.

"We've tallied up the prices and your total, if we add your flail and plate armor set into the equation is..." The shop owner looked over the paperwork for a moment, making sure it all added up. "260'000 gold AxM." The shop keeper couldn't keep himself from drooling openly this time around. Sighing in relief, Sven unloaded the rest of his miscellaneous gear and even gave 500 gold AxM worth of coins to sweeten the deal. Grinning happily, the shop keeper shook on the trade.

"It has been excellent making trade with you, oh strange hero and his party. If you ever find yourself in Vassir again, you know where to come for top quality weapons and armor! Our doors will always be open to such a rich patron!" Van grinned as he set his workers to putting away the newly acquired wealth. Sven nodded with a small grin. 'Yeah I'm sure he'd love to see me back, after the kind of extortionate price I just paid.' Sven thought with a chuckle, exiting the shop the party set off on their journey to the Triadom capital: The Fenner as it was known to the locals.