Chapter: 61

“Ok, now that you’re all partied up, take these map coordinates” he pointed to the stone pillar “and meet us at the bridge on the north side of the village in one hour. You should have enough time to get a weapon and grab some supplies in that time. Usually, we wouldn’t escort you to the dungeon, however the woods may be dangerous right now, so we are taking precautions.”

And with that, he left the podium and went back into the administration building. One by one, the groups of adventurers began to leave through the floating-stone gate.

As Jay left he felt a sharp pair of eyes on him again as he began to walk towards the gate with Anya. ‘Thanks Sullivan’ he sarcastically thought as he shook his head. It was pretty obvious to him now who’s eyes those were.

Jay turned to Anya “Well, I need to get a new dagger so I’m going to have a look in the market area – a weapons merchant came to town yesterday.”

“Ok. I don’t need anything. I’ll be waiting at the bridge. Don’t be late.” she walked off without looking at Jay.

With a tense feeling in his chest from the recent events, Jay sighed and made his way to the fat weapons merchant and the skinny top-knot guy.


Walking towards the merchant’s weapon stand, there was a long line of adventurers waiting to buy weapons, while some were still browsing the cart.

“Weird, why do they only have these junk weapons on display when they have much better magical weapons in the crates?” Jay wondered as he looked at the rugged weapons currently on display. Jay noticed the top-knot guy was looking at him, but he then immediately looked away, pretending not to recognise Jay.

Shrugging, Jay thought about what to buy “Hmm, I need a new dagger… but I will have Anya with me and she can launch bolts while I can just have one of my minions to do the damage. Maybe I can just fight passively…”

Jay studied the weapons as his eyes drifted away from the dagger.

“I know! I’ll get a shield. That way I can protect Anya so she can do even more damage, and if she doesn’t like it, she can just loan me a dagger” A mischievous grin appeared on Jay’s face when he thought about manipulating Anya into loaning him the dagger.

“And I suppose if things get really bad, I can just re-summon the other two Don’s”.

With resolve, Jay stepped into the queue to buy a shield.

As Jay approached the merchant, he was still wondering why there was only trash weapons on display.

“Hmm…” a smug grin appeared on Jay’s face as he went to order, while he watched the other adventurer’s buying the low quality weapons..

“I’ll take one of those shields please” he pointed to an iron buckler, which looked like it had taken it’s fair share of beatings in it’s lifespan.

“Sure” Bertram smiled as he rubbed his hands. “That will be 30 gold”.

“30 gold huh? Seems quite steep for a worn out shield.”

“Ha! That’s the price, boy. If you don’t like it, find another weapons merchant” Bertram said as he laughed at Jay, knowing there were no other weapon merchants in town.

“For 30 gold I thought you would be selling me one of those magical weapons you have in the back”.

Bertram’s smile disappeared, replaced by a cold sweat. “…You know, now that you put it that way,” he looked around, making sure no one heard him as he spoke more softly “I’ll drop it to 15…”

Smiling, Jay stuck out his hand “You got a deal.”

Bertram didn’t even shake his hand as he gave Jay the buckler, while Jay passed him the gold.

‘How the hell did he find out about the other weapons…’ Thought Bertram as he squinted at Jay. “By the way, it’s not a shield, it’s a buckler. Learn the difference, boy.”

Jay waved with the back of his hand as he walked off, analysing the shield.