Chapter 175 - Barry Johnson
Ryan half expected Barry to be the one causing trouble again. With the orc’s grumpy mood and the shop section of Grettfield’s home being mostly public, he wouldn’t have been surprised to find the orc surrounded by a bunch of angry ‘rookie’ adventurers.
It turned out that the last of his friends he expected to cause a fuss was the one in trouble.
Ryan entered the shop area to find a group of teens recording a screaming Clara. His friend was shouting and trying to grab at a thick old book that looked like it was eating her hair. Milock was trying to help while Barry sat at a table, drinking from a fancy goblet and enjoying the show.
Clara screamed out in pain at Milo. “Ahhh! Get it off! Get it off!”
She was dangerously close to knocking over a bunch of trinkets on a shelf. Ryan immediately dashed over and gently held her in place.
“Ryan! Help! Get it off!”
He grabbed the thick book flailing in midair, holding it still so it would stop pulling at her hair.
“What did you do?”
Clara massaged her poor scalp. “I didn’t do anything!”
“She passed by the book and called it ugly.”
To his surprise, the book in his hand started struggling harder when Milo reminded it of their encounter. Ryan’s eyes widened, with the amount of force it was currently producing, the book could have easily ripped Clara’s hair and scalp right off. It had been clearly holding back until he arrived. Not that its full force was much of a problem.
He put both hands around the book, about to gently open the pages and—
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
The moment the [Arm of the Arcane Saboteur] made contact, it opened its pages in a panic, letting go of Clara’s hair. Then it started shaking and screaming in a horrible, high pitched tone that made everyone else cover their ears.
Ryan let go of the book in surprise. “What the fuck?”
It zoomed towards the door, and with perfect timing, [Witch] Grettfield entered her shop as the book hid behind her and started whimpering at her.
Grettfield turned her head to look down on the book in admonishment.
“Chester! There you are, what did I tell you about harassing guests?”
The book started spinning its pages at her, as if that made any sense whatsoever. Grettfield simply nodded in understanding, then turned to the teens recording the entire encounter. She started to loom over them.
“Now, Jansler, Anne, Estle, what did I say about recording in my shop? I find it quite disrespectful when you ignore my words.”
The teens’ eyes all went wide and they started mock screaming. More of a ‘oh no we’re caught doing a fun prank’ scream instead of a ‘oh no a dragonslayer tier [Witch] is telling us off’ scream. Then they booked it to one of the other doors, their voices disappearing the moment they passed the threshold.
Grettfield shook her head in exasperation.
Clara hid behind Ryan’s back and peered at the [Witch] over his shoulder.
“I didn’t break hospitality rules!” Clara squeaked.
The [Witch] smiled unkindly. “One could say that insulting another’s familiar is fairly disrespectful.”
Clara just cowered behind him.
“I only said ‘ew!’ I didn’t know it was your familiar!”
“Well, one should learn to not judge a book by its cover.”
Chester the book seemed to get more brazen with its owner around it. It rose up and started snapping at the girl. When Ryan frowned at it, the book snuck a little back down Grettfield’s back. Still fluttering its pages at Clara.
Clara glared at the mocking book, over her own makeshift shield. “You realize she just called you ugly too, right?”
The sentient book stopped, hung in the air, as if thinking about what she’d said. Then it turned to face Grettfield. The [Witch] raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I did create you when I was only starting out.”
Even Ryan had to say that the book wasn’t that flattering. The cover was a discolored shade of pale with rough indents that could charitably be called runes etched out by a child.
The thick tome fled, spinning its pages in absolute distress.
This time it was Ryan’s turn to turn to Clara. “You just bullied a book.”
“It pulled my hair!”
Milock decided to join in. “After you said ew. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking it was a book someone left on the ground!”
Grettfield walked over to the table with the orc, watching the three of them bicker away.
“Is it always so chaotic with them?”
Barry grunted. “I think they’re getting worse. I blame modern adventurers.”
All three of them paused arguing and turned to the orc.
“Like you’re one to talk!”
—
When the four of them left Grettfield’s gothic mansion, Milock turned on the silence bubble, making the outline of the bubble invisible to not attract attention.
Clara cleared her throat. “So what was that about? You both went tense the moment she came out.”
Both had realized Barry and Ryan had gotten cautious of the [Witch] but not the why of it.
Ryan elaborated. “[Witch] Grettfield behaves similarly like the Witch Tyrant does in real life. She’s also a dragonslayer.”
“What? Really? That doesn’t sound right, she seems cool in an angry grandma kinda way.”
“Guys, tail.”
In some impossible fashion, Milo was the one who detected their stalker first. Ryan tensed, then turned around to see a book breaking out of invisibility behind them. The spell wore off as it passed the threshold of Milock’s silencing bubble.
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Both Grettfield’s familiar and the four of them stared at each other for a good second. Then the book, confused, spun around–realized their eyes were tracking exactly where it was, panicked in a flutter of pages–then fled.
Ryan blinked at Grettfield’s familiar flying away in a panic.
“Is that a function of your ring?”
“Yup.”
“Damn.”
Naturally, the next order of business was getting a silencing bubble. Ryan refused to believe for a second that the Secretary hadn’t bugged Milock’s ring. It brought up a good question however.
How did you ensure your privacy artifact didn’t have a spying rune built into it?
Custom solutions would imply you had great need for it, increasing the incentive to bug the artifact. Custom solutions were also expensive as shit. Even if they might not cost as much as custom wrappings made by a dragonslayer tier [Witch] it would still far, far exceed his net worth.
So, they went to a second hand store. One selling fairly expensive goods designed for adventurers in mind. Regalford’s Shoppette. A building in the middle section of the city, designed to look like a fancy magical emporium. Enchanted windows projecting goods into air above them.
The security stopped them.
“Any of you adventurers?”
Ryan pointed at the orc. “Uncle Barry is an ex-adventurer.”
The security guard eyed the old orc then didn’t bother trying to check anyone else. “I see.”
Without his mana leaking everywhere and with [Aura command], Ryan could actually hide most of his presence to the outside world. The rest was simply copying Milo’s walking style so he didn’t look like he was effortlessly gliding across the ground.
Barry also gave off the vibe of an old-timer that didn’t care about his looks and secretly had a lot of money. It also helped that Clara, Milo and Ryan were wearing fairly nice clothing.
The security guard nodded. “Well, enter but don't touch anything without asking for an assistant first. Got it?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
They entered into what had to have been the fanciest second-hand stores any of them had ever walked into. Showy displays showing prices in what was likely realmcoin. Close to them were non-violent artifacts that someone rich might consider buying for fun. There were plenty of ornamental shields in the front too. Some even having weaker enchantments.
Plenty of items were locked behind enchanted wood and glass. Looking as if a realm four [Smith] had personally just crafted it.
Despite the eye watering prices, all this fancy stuff was just the trinkets for the rich general populace. Everyone knew the real stuff was at the back.
A clerk was upon them immediately, especially eying Barry as the likely buyer. He smiled brightly.
“Hi, welcome to Regalford’s Shoppette. Open since 1972. My name is Wesley Sharp, are you looking for anything in particular or just browsing today?”
Barry simply ignored the friendly clerk while Ryan stepped up. “Just looking for a silencing artifact, adventurer grade.”
The clerk seamlessly switched his smile from Barry to Ryan, looking at him as if he was representing the old orc. “Come this way then.”
They navigated around the enormous shop, seemingly bigger on the inside than the outside. It was actually quite disorienting. Though he couldn’t help but be impressed, spatial magic on this scale could only be done by a learned [Enchanter] in the seventh realm or a dragonslayer tier [Mage].
The clerk led them deeper into the store, past some browsing tourists. “What qualities are you looking for in a silencing box?”
Ryan thought about Milo’s ring. “Blocks most of the electromagnetic spectrum other than light, allows air to come in but blocks all sound from leaving. Still allows vision from the inside out, doesn’t have to allow others to be able to see in, blurring our mouths is optional but preferred.”
He wanted to add a part about turning off invisibility but that would probably be too expensive.
The store clerk stopped in his tracks. “I’m sorry, but taking something like that out of the case will require a verification of income or proof that you’re an adventurer.”
“No problem. I’m an adventurer.”
Ryan let out a bit of his aura, the presence causing a visible reaction to the clerk. “Sorry you’re an adventurer?”
“Uh yeah, mid realms, is that a problem?”
“No, just uh, apologies I’ll get someone else to help.”
The clerk glanced at the entrance as he said this. Clearly more than a little annoyed that the guard hadn’t identified an adventurer in their midst.
“I didn’t mean to get him in trouble. I’m practicing masking my presence. Practicing as a [Rogue] you know?”
The clerk was a little less annoyed. “Ah, that’s understandable. Either way, I am wholly unsuited to dealing with adventurers, please let me call someone up.”
Barry spoke. “No, just take us to the aisle.”
“I–but, trust me I am not qualified to take the order–”
“Barry, what’s up?”
“Lesson one.” When Barry said that, Ryan instinctively sharpened up, glancing around for threats. The orc continued. “A shoppette’s a convenience store used in military installations. This place has military roots all over it.”
The clerk was offended. “I promise you we have no ties with the American government. Our name’s just been passed on from back when San Kingsgrove used to be a military base.”
“That’s funny, because I remember Regalford loved having the arm of the American government shoved up his ass. Now, do you want the sale or not?”
Barry loomed over the poor clerk. Now Wesley looked terrified he was dealing with a genuine orc from the Settler generation.
“O-of course, right this way sirs—and ma’am.”
They were moved quickly to an enormous aisle. The open cabinets had prices on them while the closed and enchanted cabinets didn’t.
Clara leaned over some of the boxes in the open installations. “Ooo, I didn’t know silence boxes were that cheap.”
“Clara, that’s realmcoin prices.”
“Oh–oh my god.”
Indeed, the lower open cabinets were priced in the hundreds of realmcoin. Which meant that the ones in closed cabinets were in thousands of realmcoin… or worse.
Barry glared at the clerk. “Tell us the specs on the one you were going to introduce us to.”
The clerk swallowed. “Well, we have this here. Used by adventurer Hunritte in her study before she upgraded to a better one.”
“Specs. Now.”
“Well, it blocks most of the EM spectrum, it’ll cut off most non-specialized mana and qi… but the rate of allowing fresh air in is roughly consistent at two human adults. The bubble is also opaque from the outside. It also needs recharging by a realm three [Mage] after twenty hours of use.”
Ryan paused at that. He hadn’t even considered the charging rate before. In The Realm, ambient mana was often enough to charge simple artifacts. On Earth? Unless you were directly next to a portal only specialized cores or those with mana cores could produce mana. Not only that, he had zero idea how much mana the rest of his body produced an hour. A fifth realm [Veilpiercer Assassin] should produce enough mana to match a third realm [Mage].
Wait, he wasn’t a [Veilpiercer Assassin] on Earth. He was a [Conceptual Metamorph]. He had zero idea if he even had mana generation with the rest of his body.
Then Ryan had another thought. This was a clunky device that was half his torso’s size with far less capability than Milo’s ring.
“Tell me, how much would an artifact like this cost if it was shrunk to the size of a finger?”
The clerk thought about it a little. “An actual carryable adventurer’s silencing device is almost always custom made. A ninth realm [Enchanter] or a dragonslayer [Mage] with the right skills would be needed. Those wouldn’t be artifacts.”
Artifacts were magical tools that anyone could use. It went without saying that adventurers didn’t need their gear to be an artifact type. More simplified gear that required realm grades and levels in [Mana Manipulation] were often cheaper.
“I’ve seen it around. I’m just curious here.”
The clerk shook their head. “Possibly thirty thousand to fifty thousand realmcoin. In the current market, you’re looking upwards to possibly eighty thousand.”
“What if it was even smaller, like say a ring, one that could do everything the fanciest silence boxes do plus dispel spells like invisibility and give you early detection?”
The clerk considered it for a moment. “Something like that would definitely require multiple dragonslayer tier [Mages] or a Dragonslayer tier [Enchanter] of which there are only two. We did have a silence ring a couple years ago. It went for a hundred and fifty thousand and it didn’t have any such disenchanting capability. I cannot estimate how much something like that would cost. It also cannot be an artifact. The amount of mana required? I simply cannot guess.”
Ryan’s head mechanically turned to Milock. His friend was staring at the top shelves, pretending like he hadn’t heard anything. Hiding his ring in his pockets.
Milock had more money on his index finger than Ryan did. Times a hundred, maybe even more.
Suddenly he was hit with a huge envious urge to make more money.
“We’ll take it.” Barry’s voice broke him out of his envious stare.
“Wait hold on Barry we don’t even know how much it costs.”
“We’re sorting this out now. I’m tired of waiting.”
“O-of course, the price is sixteen thousand realmcoin. We’ll package it and bring it out.”
This inferior, shitty clunky silence box was worth more than triple his net worth.
“No need.” Barry grunted. “Bring the card scanner here, I’m not letting the box out of my sight.”
Ryan hissed at the insane orc. “Barry, I don't have that kinda money.”
The store clerk was at least professional. “Well, we do have other pieces here, they might not cover any other EM spectrum but I promise you they’re quite functional–” Wesley trailed off as his years of experience told him the orc wasn’t bluffing.
Ryan realized it only a few seconds later.
The orc looked down at Ryan like the poor single digit multi-millionaire peasant he was. He reached for his pocket, taking out a beat up old wallet. Then reached into one of the inner openings and slid out the fanciest card both Wesley and Ryan had ever seen before.
A pure black metallic card reflected the light, mesmerizing Ryan. On the corner was a stylized sapphire. On the other corner was a name.
Barry Johnson
The orc had access to the entirety of Seffara’s bank account.