Chapter 359 - 359 Helping Clarisa

Looking at Clarissa's desperate expression, Marcus smiled and said, "Sure, I will explain every enchantment I put on your swords. I suppose some of them are difficult to figure out if you do not know what they do."

After that Marcus asked Clarisa about which enchantments she already knew how to use, and it turned out she did understand most of them.

She was currently only having trouble with two of the enchantments that could only be activated when the swords were used together.

"I see. Those two are definitely the most complicated enchants. Here let me walk you through how they are supposed to be used."

Marcus then taught Clarisa how to activate the enchantments and let her get a feel for them, though they had to be carful as to not blow up the room they were in.

"I think you have a good grasp of them now, so make sure when you have time to go to a practice field and test them out. Then if you have anymore questions feel free to come and find me."

Once Marcus had taught Clarisa everything she needed to know, he was about to leave when he thought of something else.

"Hey Clarisa, what kind of armor do you wear."

Taken aback by the is sudden question, Clarisa looked up from her swords with a confused expression on her face and said, "I wear the standard enchanted bronze plate mail that all knights receive from the kingdom."

"I see but do you not find that clunky to fight in. Your fighting style is more based on speed, so having such heavy armor slows you down don't you think." Marcus said, pointing out a flaw in Clarisa' equipment.

Thinking about it for a moment, Clarisa realized she had not actually fought in her recently acquired armor only having worn it for ceremonial purposes.

Still the more she thought about it, she realized that the clunky plate mail definitely would slow her down and go against her fighting style.

"Yeah, you are right. Maybe I can get it switched out for some light armor instead." Clarisa said hoping that she would not upset her superior with trying to switch out armor.

However, smiling deviously, Marcus had another plan and said, "No need for that, you can get one of the sets I recently made. I have plenty of different types of mithril light armor for you to choose from."

Yet hearing this Clarisa shook her head and said, "No there is no way I can afford such high-quality armor. Some of my friends and I went to a shop recently and I saw that even some of their cheapest mithril armor was three hundred gold coins. Right now, I have very little money, and even now that I am a knight, I only get paid eighty gold coins a month."

Waving her hands in front of her face Clarisa rejected Marcus' idea of buying his armor, knowing it was well beyond her means.

'Hm, even as a knight she does not got paid very much. Well, I guess it actually is a decent sum considering most places you can survive even with just a few dozen silver for a year if you are frugal. She is also a new knight so she will probably make more as her years of service and level increase.'

Still even though Clarisa made eighty gold a month Marcus knew that it was not really enough to afford his armor unless she saved up everything for a year, and even then, it would still not be one of his better works.

"I understand, but you are my friend so I can give you a discount, and just charge you for materials, and not aim for a profit. And I can also allow you to pay in instalments so that it does not break the bank." Marcus said with an almost angelic smile

Of course, if anyone else had told her this, Clarisa would have called them a scam artist and punched them in the face, but she already knew how caring Marcus could be to his friends.

When she had first gotten her swords, she became curious and had their value appraised, finding that together the two of them were worth at least eight thousand gold.

She then went to her master and tried to return them saying she could not accept a gift that must have cost Adriana years' worth of her salary. 

Except that was when Clarisa had found out that Adriana had only paid Marcus a few hundred gold coins, and that he had made these swords of his own accord regardless of the loss he took.

"I appreciate the offer, but you have already been too kind, to make these swords for me. I will just make do with what the kingdom can provide me." Clarisa said humbly.

However, Marcus just shook his head and said, "I understand that you are trying to be admirable, but when you have the chance, you should take whatever powerups you can get. You only have one life and losing it because you were too proud to accept a friend's help will just make things worse for you and everyone that cares about you."

Staring sternly at Clarisa, Marcus was trying to wear her down into accepting his offer. He had already lost friends before, and he did not want it to happen again if possible.

"Okay, I will accept your help. But you must let me pay you the correct amount even if it takes me years. I do not want to feel like I did not earn what I have." Clarisa said resolutely.

"Got it. So once the kingdom's meeting is over, we will go to the Blazegram forge's shop, and you can pick out one of the sets of armor I made. I doubt that they have all sold yet."

Lowering her head Clarisa thanked Marcus for his help, and he responded saying, what are friends for."

After that the two of them talked for a couple more minutes about this and that, before going their sperate ways, each having other things to do.