Chapter 14 Carter's Demise

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.

[Old Buckler]

[Defence – 15]

[Skill – Block] (Passive)

[Block – Negate 100% damage from an attack. 15% chance.]

“Hmm, not bad for 15 gold.” Thought Jay as he stashed the shield in his inventory. Looking around, he noticed some of the other adventurers weren’t too happy with their overpriced crappy weapons.

“Sucks to be them.” Jay thought as he chuckled and began walking to his home. “I’ll pick up some more bondtussle root and food supplies before meeting Anya.”

He decided to make his visit quick as he got home. He refilled his water bottle, then grabbing some bondtussle root and stashing it in his inventory, he decided to get some mist-sheep jerky too – licking his lips as he said “Hope she doesn’t think I’m gonna share.”

It wasn’t long before he left his house and made his way to the bridge.

—

Looking across the crowd, Matheson spotted a level three ranger, finding someone to join his party.

“You! Trenly! You’re going to join me, or else!” the noble brat said to the level three ranger.

Sadly, Trenly didn’t have a choice. “…ok Matheson.” He immediately lost his excitement.

“Good. As a reward, I will loan you a bow to use from my private collection. It’s much stronger than whatever you will have now.” said Matheson with pompousness.

“Thanks” Trenly said emotionlessly as he knew he was not allowed to voice his dissatisfaction to the local lord “at least I can try a better bow” he thought, trying to cheer himself up.

“Now, we just need a manacrafter..” said Matheson as he walked towards a level two manacrafter, but before he could reach one, the manacraft trainer noticed what Matheson was doing and spoke into his mind.

“You will not force a manacrafter to join you. They will choose which duo they would like to join. If you try, I will prohibit your participation in the event.”

Matheson’s face scrunched up in anger, ‘Bastard’ he thought as he death-stared at the manacraft trainer.

—

The more curious local villagers were outside their houses, watching the new recruits with joyful smiles as they made their way to the bridge.

When Jay arrived, he wandered through the large crowd of recruits to find Anya enjoying a muffin. ‘Huh, I guess she’s got a soft side after all.’ Jay smiled mischievously, thinking she was kind of cute.

“Hey” he said.

“Hi. Not long now.” She said, watching the class trainers as she finished her raisin muffin.

‘Seems like she doesn’t want to make conversation..’ Jay thought.

He looked around at the other adventurers, all their faces full of excitement. Some were showing off their weapons, while others were showing their skills – one of the manacrafters was even floating above the crowd in a cross-legged position.

Jay tried to play it cool, acting like he wasn’t excited by this event – Anya looked like she was bored, just another morning to her.

After the stream of adventurers joining the crowd slowed to a trickle, the captain, Michael, yelled out to them in a large voice.

“Recruits, you know the plan! We will make our way to the dungeon and you will enter it. We’re here to guide you to it – nothing more, nothing less. Move out!”

The captain led the way as a four-hundred strong mass of adventurers followed him.

Walking through the cold winter forest, the excited adventurers all moved though, chatting away and laughing together which actually made the forest feel quite warm; though the class trainers all had serious expressions on their faces.

‘Do they ever relax?’ Jay wondered.

Before long, they were at the dungeon. Everyone was amazed by the dungeon entrance – it was a flat black stone that had a glowing red ring in the middle. Above everyone’s head floated a larger glowing yellow ring which was about the diameter of a guard tower.

“Stand in the red circle and you will be able to enter the dungeon.” a trainer said.

With some hesitation, the adventurers started to enter the dungeon.

“Let’s go.” said Anya as she glanced at Jay.