Chapter 57: Detour
Misha woke up late and by the time she made it downstairs, the inn no longer smelled like breakfast. It smelled like food meant to judge her for waking up after everyone else. It was the scent of something roasted, buttery. It was mixed with something else, a rich, warm smell that made her stomach remember it existed before the rest of her body fully caught up.
She ended up eating brunch alone near the front of the lobby. At the same time, every time the door opened, she looked up.
Not Elyes. Instead, it was a merchant with too many rings.
Misha stabbed a piece of egg with slightly more violence than necessary. "He better not have dragged himself halfway here and collapsed in a ditch..."
A few minutes later, someone from the counter approached her table and held out a folded note.
"This was left for you."
Misha took it once. The handwriting looked like Elyes had fought the paper personally. Inside it was only an address.
She stared at it for a second, then let out a soft huff through her nose.
So he could not make it. That made sense. He had pushed himself far too hard last night. Walking to her room at all had probably counted as a terrible decision for his body.
Misha folded the note and tucked it away. That could wait.
After finishing her meal, she spent the next part of the day doing practical things. She sold most of the drops and scraps in her inventory that no longer had any use for her. Bits of monster materials, duplicate junk that she had no idea on where to use.
One by one, the merchants weighed, inspected, and priced them. The merchants tried to haggle, but Misha haggle harder. There was no way she was selling anything cheaply after barely clawing her way through those floors.
「 〔INVENTORY〕
Tower Coins: 3,710
Tracker’s Compass x1
Goblin King’s Core x1
Goblin King’s Bloodstone x1
Mana Shard x7
Cracked Enhancement Stone x4
Minor Healing Potion x10
Minor Stamina Potion x9
Teleportation Rune (I) x2
Teleportation Rune (II) x1 」
By the end of it, she couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear. For one brief, stupid moment, the Tower felt less like a nightmare and more like a game that had finally remembered to pay her.
After that, she went to the weapon shop she remembered from before.
The bell above the door gave a low metal chime as she entered.
Weapons lined the walls from end to end, and the air smelled like oil, leather, and metal left to rest in the dark. It felt cooled in there too.
Misha walked slowly. This time, she did not browse like a beginner hoping something would magically choose her. She knew what she needed now.
Or at least, she knew what they would need. If they were going to possess her body, they needed proper weapons. She could not let them take control of her body while handing them the wrong tools. That would be stupid.
Her eyes moved over the spear rack first. Her gaze settled on a long spear with a dark shaft and a clean silver head, simple but balanced. She lifted it and grunted at the weight.
The weight of it wouldn’t matter once Gerbaut took control of her body.
"Stormpiercer," the shopkeeper said from behind the counter. "It’s a SR-grade weapon. It has good reach and is reliable. You should buy it."
Reliable, yes, that sounded about right.
A window appeared in front of her.
「 〔Stormpiercer〕
Grade: Super Rare (SR)
Type: Spear
Description: A sleek spear forged to resemble a bolt of lightning.
Effects:
•Strength +4
• Agility +3
• Perception +2
• Increases thrusting speed by 15%.
• Piercing attacks gain slightly increased range.
• Consecutive successful hits increase movement speed by 2% per stack.
Maximum Stacks: 5 」
This was good enough– No, it was better than good.
Then she moved toward the claymores.
Even among the heavier blades, one stood out. Massive and broad. The blade carried a faint star-like pattern across the steel, almost hidden until the light struck it from the right angle.
Misha stared at it for a second, then she sighed. "I’ll get that one."
The shopkeeper followed her gaze and nodded. "That’s a nice one. It’s also an SR-grade, built to hit like a collapsing wall."
Yes, that was definitely for Nyxie.
She reached for it with both hands and lifted. Then she blinked a few times.
Was she imagining it?
It was lighter than she expected.
Not light, exactly. A claymore that size still carried real weight. Still, it moved more smoothly than it should have, as if the weapon itself wanted to be swung.
Another window appeared.
「 〔Starfall〕
Grade: Super Rare (SR)
Type: Claymore
Description: A massive claymore said to strike like a falling star. Despite its size, the blade feels unusually light in the wielder’s hands.
Effects:
•Strength +4
• Agility +4
• Jumping and charging attacks deal 20% increased damage.
• Every 5th attack releases a crescent blade of mana.
• Falling attacks generate a small Shockwave upon impact 」
She looked at Description then at the blade.
"This is definitely for Nyxie."
Then came the rapiers.
Misha checked each one with growing disappointment. A few were decent, a few were flashy, one looked like it would snap if someone breathed on it with enough malice. None of them felt like an upgrade.
In the end, she had to settle for something familiar. Another Stinger.
Her old one had been broken during Olivia’s fight with Yara. Thinking about that still annoyed her.
"This one again?" The shopkeeper asked, faintly surprised.
Misha gave him a flat look. "Do you have anything better like this one?"
"...No."
"Then yes, this one again."
He accepted that answer without complaint. "That will be a total of 324 coins."
Once the purchases were wrapped and paid for, Misha stored the spear and claymore inside her storage. The rapier, however, she kept at her waist.
At least she did not need new daggers.
When she defeated the Goblin King, one of the rewards had been more than enough.
The daggers rested at either side of her thighs now, sleek and curved, their dark blades catching light like fangs half-hidden inside a grin.
A window appeared as she checked them again.
「 〔Twinfang〕
Grade: Super Rare (SR)
Description: A matched pair of swift kill daggers designed for relentless pursuit and close-range pressure.
Effects:
•Agility +5
• Strength +3
• Movement Speed +10% while pursuing enemy.
• Consecutive attacks within 3 seconds deal 15% additional damage.
• Damage dealt to Disaster Class and above monsters increased by 10% 」
Misha stared at the last line for a second and smiled. At least she has something effective she could use to stab boss monsters.
The next shop she decided to go to was an artifact shop.
Compared to the weapon shop, this one felt quieter and somehow more suspicious. Charms hung in neat rows while rings, earrings, bracelets, talisman, and odd little trinkets rested in glass cases under low blue light. Everything looked either priceless or cursed. Possibly both.
Misha moved from case to case until a pair of earrings caught her eye.
It was simple at first glance. Gold, with a pale shimmer through the metal, like a faint dream had been threaded into the design and then forgotten there.
"That’s a Dreamweaver Earrings," the shopkeeper said.
Misha looked up. "What do they do?"
The woman smiled in that irritating shopkeeper way that always suggested she knew five more things than she intended to say aloud. "Why don’t you check it yourself?"
She went and handed the earrings over.
「 〔Dreamweaver〕
Grade: Rare (R)
Type: Earrings
Description: A pair of earrings woven into a delicate web-like pattern.
Effects:
•Mental Strength +2
• Slightly improves reaction speed. 」
It was useful enough to matter so Misha bought them and put them on at once.
By the time she stepped back into the street, the light over Genesis had shifted toward late afternoon.
The city remained lively, but she could feel the day beginning to tilt. Shadows stretched longer and heat softened. The marketplace noise changed tone in that subtle way it always did before evening.
Misha took out the note with the address Elyes had given her. It was time to meet him.
So she headed toward the address, asking passerby from time to time until the streets gradually changed around her.
The busier shops gave way to broader roads and quieter walls. The buildings grew larger, older, and more expensive-lookimg in that way wealth managed to be even without showing off too much.
Eventually, she stopped. There before her, a mansion stood.
Misha stared. "...What?"
The estate rose behind black iron gates, framed by stone walls and trimmed hedges that probablu got more care than half the Raiders in Genesis. The main house itself stood several stories tall, all pale stone and dark windows. It looked just like what she saw in the fantasy comics she read back then.
She looked down at the note, then back at the mansion.
No... there was no way...
She checked the address a third time. It was still the same.