Chapter 88: Catching people naked

Evin smiled at the child's behavior. At least he wasn't as overbearing as before. He walked up to the shopkeeper, who seemed to be a young woman in her pre-20s.

"I wanted to buy a channeling artifact, could you instruct me on them?"

"What Worlds do you use, child?" the shopkeeper asked, amused with how fast the noble boy changed his behavior when this newcomer came in.

Glancing at the new kid, she thought inside her head: 'Thoughts, Dark, and maybe Fire or Water'

"Dark, Thoughts, Heavy and Storms,"

"Quite a lot of Worlds there, ain't it? And moreover, Heavy is quite a rare choice, so you'll have to wait for a custom one to be made," The shopkeeper replied.

"How long will that take?"

"About a week or so. But more importantly, everything will cost you 1800 gold if you want top quality stuff, is that fine? And just to be clear, we don't accept haggles here," the shopkeeper said.

'Guess Rith wasn't lying when she said that Channeling artifacts were expensive as hell. Doesn't that mean I gave Arza a 900 gold artifact?' Evin's eyebrows creased.

"What's the difference between low-quality and top quality?" Evin asked.

The shopkeeper pulled out a sample top-quality artifact. It was shaped like a gauntlet, and there were two pebble-sized sorbothium orbs on it. One black and one silver. The shopkeeper inhaled a big breath in preparation to start her explanation.

"The biggest difference is the amount of energy that you can store in it. For the top-quality ones, each sorbothium orb can store up to 500 kgs (1102 lbs) worth of mana, and obviously, will come inside a specialized artifact body. The carrier is basically a World of Space storage device that has space to store mana-lodestones and has a weight nullifying engraving on it. It requires only 5 kg of mana to stay functional for the whole day! It also doesn't have to be activated all the time, so if you know when you're about to fight, and activate it at that time only, it will cost practically nothing," the shopkeeper said in one breath. She took another and continued.

"The artifact body also has a function similar to Lodestone storage devices, where it can naturally charge the lodestones inside. Moreover, if the fight ends before you finished the amount of mana you stored, you will not have to waste the mana inside the channeling artifact, like you would with other similar artifacts. The artifact will automatically extract the World energies inside the orbs and redirect them to the lodestones. And everything is super easy to use, you just have to put in the mana lodestones in the artifact's storage space and it will automatically put them where they need to be and you can choose the amount of mana to put inside each orb with a single thought! But the best part this that you can bind the item to your Oath and if you ever lose it, or someone takes it from you, you can simply will it and it will come back to you!"

'I can't believe this little thing can store 500 kgs worth of mana inside it. Well, when I become a peak half-core mage, I will have a heart that can store 100 kgs (220 lbs) of mana in it. How does that even work?' Evin thought.

The shopkeeper took Evin's pondering face as one of defeat and started explaining how lower-quality artifacts were made.

"As for lower-quality artifacts, it will depend on your own choice. You can remove or weaken the features you think you won't need from the top-quality one and depending on what feature you chose, we can calculate the final price for you," she finished her explanation.

"I'll choose the top-quality one with every attachment, thanks. And also, could you leave maybe three or four empty sockets inside it, for when I learn other Worlds in the future?" Evin said with a calm face.

Silence ensued in the shop as everyone other than Rith and Arza stared at Evin with shock. A brief moment later, the shopkeeper asked Evin warily.

"I must ask you to bring out the money first, please be understanding"

"Do you have a bank account for the Cosmic bank?" Evin asked.

"Oh, we do," the shopkeeper replied. Any business that dealt with large amounts of money had dealings with the Cosmics. So, obviously, this shop that dealt with hundreds of gold per product had a bank account.

"Then I shall send you half the payment now and the rest of it after I receive the product, is that fine?" Evin asked.

"That would be great, yes"

Evin called Rith and was finished with the transaction in a few minutes. The shopkeeper did not question the legitimacy of the Cosmic, as she knew how heavy the punishments for a Cosmic who committed frauds were. She even thought that their Oath had a clause that addressed fraudulence.

The lack of need to carry around huge amounts of money and the ease of doing transactions increased the onlookers' interest in banks.

Then, the shopkeeper invited Evin to the workshop, so the artificer could take his measurements, with Rith following behind them.

"Master Lorn? A customer needs measurement," the shopkeeper announced from behind the door.

"Ain't one of the samples fitting him? I'm quite busy here, Rona," a man's voice replied.

"Well, you're probably going to become even more busy afterwards. We got an order for a top-quality artifact with four Worlds," Rona said.

"What? Where the hell are these rich bastards appearing from?" Evin could hear the man grumbling from behind the door as footsteps sounded.

The door opened and Evin could see a Cobfolk wearing nothing but some underclothing that barely covered his private parts. It was the first time Evin saw the naked body of a Cobfolk. Darkish pale skin, that looked glossy and hard, like plastic and the three arms that uncomfortably protruded from their sides. On their chests, several thin slits opened and closed. Evin guessed that that was where they breathed.

But the most disturbing part were their faces. Eight glossy eyes, unmoving and wet, and two huge upper fangs that practically reached their necks. Evin could also see some human like teeth and a tongue in the Cobfolk's mouth. They didn't have noses, as they breathed directly through their lungs.

'My fucking heart,' Evin thought. Just because Evin was old, it didn't mean that he wasn't disgusted or scared.

"Wear your goddamn clothes! Didn't I make you wear them 10 minutes ago?!" Rona shouted and went past the man, picked up a cloak on the ground and threw it over the man. She also picked up the man's mask and forced him to wear it, ignoring the man's passionate protests.

A few minutes later, everything had settled and Evin was having his arm measured by the Cobfolk.

After hearing the two's interactions, Evin could kind of guess the two had quite a close relationship. The Cobfolk didn't seem to be one that's old either, maybe in their thirties or even twenties...

"Four Worlds and a Top-quality Artifact body… Moreover, you're only four or five years old. How much are you charging this kid, again?" the Cobfolk asked.

"Eighteen hundred," Rona answered.

"I suppose that's fair enough. Hey kid, tell you what. For an extra fifty, I can make it so that your artifact grows bigger with your arm. How about that? It's also going to be much lighter as well," Master Lorn asked Evin.

Evin didn't mind and nodded in response.

"Well then, it's settled. You can come back in a week and your artifact should be ready," Lorn said.

…

A few minutes later, Evin was out of the shop, walking towards a scroll making one.

"I suppose you were right, when you said that Channeling artifacts were goddamn expensive," Evin spoke to Rith.

"I was actually talking about most common ones. Nothing like that monstrosity you just bought," Rith replied.

"Now I only have 150 gold, I hope it's enough to buy some good scrolls"

"Scrolls aren't that expensive, you just need a special paper and a drawing on top. Most of the price comes from the spell's rarity and the amount of mana required to fuel it," Rith reassured.

"So with 150 golden coins, I can at most buy a lesser-imposer spell?"

"No, those things are only for lesser-imposers or super-imposers. Us weaklings can only have weapons suited for us," Rith scoffed at Evin's carefree thoughts.

"Well, I can dream. I have all this money and nothing to spend it on. The magical device shops aren't open until I finish the horn ceremony and no books until then as well," Evin lamented.

"Well, for the time being, saving it up is probably the best solution for you. Who knows what your going to need them in the future for?" Rith said.

"Are you sure? Wait, I suppose you're right. The channeling artifact cost me almost 2k gold… Hmm, what's the most expensive thing you bought?" Evin asked with curiosity.

"Well, it's not one thing, exactly, but I suppose all the money I spent trying to increase my mana-core? Probably dumped 160k gold into this stupid heart of mine," Rith said.

Hearing the number, Evin's face started paling.

'Maybe I need to find another way of finding money…'

"Ah, you don't have to worry about that. Since you're the kingdom and the North's Oathtaker, you'll probably get your mana-core increased through contributions. For us, making money is contributions, so we have the most expensive method of getting stronger. But for you, even if you were shitting gold bricks, it would become useless at some point. You will need to serve the country to get some benefits back," Rith explained.