47: Book Hunt

I just stared up at Milo, who was still holding out the ring towards me.

“It… It’s too much,” I stammered, as Milo gently took hold of my hand and slipped the ring onto my finger.

“Nonsense. We, as a group are investing in our party members. It only makes sense,” Milo said, releasing my hand once the ring adjusted to my finger. I could barely even feel it there. Liane and Jen both nodded in agreement.

“He’s right, you know. Now you’ll be able to carry Crisplet without getting burnt,” Jen said, as the little flame elemental shot out bright sparks and floated over to my shoulder. I could still feel some heat, but it was just warm—not hot.

“Just… err, watch the hair,” Liane chuckled as I started to smell burnt hair.

“Damn,” I muttered, but it was worth it to have Crisplet on my shoulder. “I… I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much,” I said, looking down at the ring on my finger. With the resize, I could see the gems a little more clearly, though it was still a very thin ring.

“I guess now is as good a time as any… but what does Water Purification do?” I chuckled.

Milo laughed. “It won’t be much use if I’m conjuring water for you, but you’ll find that you have access to an ability that allows you to purify water from other sources, like a river or lake, leaving you with clean, fresh water. Usually, the cost is based on how much water you want to purify. So, you won’t be able to run up to Lake Veyran and purify the whole thing.”

It was then that I noticed Hari come up the stairs and enter the room. Spotting us quickly, he made his way over.

“All done in there?” he asked, and Milo nodded.

“Perfect. Well, I got our earnings from the job. It should have been 6 gold, but it seems Troy paid 7 gold 50 silver instead. So, we still get our 1 gold 50 silver each.” Hari handed the coin pouch to Jen to take her share.

“So, did you find the book? Or Fire Resistance? I assume you did, since Crisplet is on his shoulder, and only his hair is slightly smouldering,” Hari asked with a chuckle.

“No luck on the book, but we got him a ring with resistance and water purification,” Milo said, gesturing to the ring on my finger.

“Nice, within budget?” Hari asked.

“Yep, 20 gold and 15 silver for it. Well within budget,” Milo responded happily.

Budget? What budget? I thought to myself. My confused look must’ve caught Hari’s eye.

“We all agreed to pitch in to get you the item, so I’m glad we managed to find one!” Hari said jovially before turning around.

“What say we get lunch? Today’s been a lot less stressful than I expected, and now I’m starving!” he added. Liane and Jen both nodded emphatically.

“Sounds good to me. Then we’ll go book hunting after that. The one inside was… well, outside of any of our budgets,” Milo said with a laugh, before continuing to explain the quizzical look from Hari.

“It was a book for master scribes. It cost 1800 gold,” he said again, still chuckling.

Hari’s eyes went wide, mouthing ‘1800’ as if he couldn’t find the words.

“They make way too much money if they can casually buy an 1800 gold book…” Hari muttered, leading us to the stairs and out of the Guild.

“Oh, sorry, before we leave,” I said, interrupting them. “Is there something we can get for Crisplet to stay in at night?”

Crisplet let off a burst of bright sparks, almost as if to agree with me.

I knew Milo had the lantern, but I couldn’t shake the thought that it was too small, especially since the lantern was roughly the same size as Crisplet.

Milo was the first to respond. “Not in the guild, no… But I think I may know a place we can detour past on the way to get the book. Everything up here will be similar-sized lanterns or smaller,” he said, gesturing around him.

Following Hari, we left the guild. I was surprised that he knew where to go as we turned down streets, eventually arriving at a large, single-story building. It looked like an inn, but everyone was sitting at tables eating, and there seemed to be a lot of fish and things from the lake. The food smelled amazing, and I was ready to eat the moment we walked through the door.

“Greetings, welcome to Marinar’s Restaurant. Table of five today?” the lady at the entrance asked. After Hari confirmed, we were escorted to a table, and several jugs of water were placed in front of us. I was surprised to find that the water was actually cold.

When a man approached the table, Hari took the lead again.

“Hello, could we get two seafood group platters, please? Water’s fine for drinks,” he asked. The man nodded and left.

“So, we’re going to try their seafood platters, Trev. We’ve had them before, and they’re amazing. But this way, you can try lots of different things from the lake, and see how they’re cooked,” he said, a giant smile on his face.

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It didn’t take long for the food to arrive. The platters were massive. There was a whole fish, several creatures in their shells that looked almost like giant insects—one even had claws. There were smaller ones, open and drenched in a spicy, yet amazing sauce.

“Well, don’t just gawk, try everything,” Hari said with a chuckle. I did just that. I tried everything. The fish was nice; its flesh was flaky and full of flavour, but despite being delicious, it didn’t even come close to the best dish. The ones called Lake Vayren Bugs—which had a hard outer shell and soft white flesh inside—were cooked with garlic grass and butter. That came in solid second place for me.

But the winner? The small black-shelled creatures. You’d open them up and eat the meat inside the shell, which was coated in a chilli sauce. The flavour was an explosion in my mouth. It tasted so good that I practically finished off the entire bowl from one of the platters, much to Jen’s amusement.

My least favourite were the oysters. They tasted like salty slime. Apparently, Hari absolutely loved them though and nearly ate all of them from both platters.

Overall, the meal was amazing—easily one of, if not the, best meals I’ve ever had in my life.

When we were done, Hari got up to pay for the meal, and we all regrouped outside the restaurant. Afterward, we split up. I went with Milo to get the book, while Liane decided to tag along with us. Jen and Hari went off to handle other errands.

I followed Milo through the streets, trying to follow along with the map, but I came to regret it almost immediately. I walked directly into someone, and after much apologising, I figured it was safer to just focus on where I was going than to try learning the map on the go.

Our first stop wasn’t the bookstore, though. Instead, we were going to find something for Crisplet. I wasn’t sure what Milo had in mind, but I trusted he knew what he was looking for.

After a short while, Milo seemed to find the place he was looking for. From the outside, it didn’t look very fancy. It seemed to be a store specialising in different kinds of lanterns. As we walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to find that lanterns were only part of what they offered. There were lanterns of all shapes and sizes, as well as cooking stoves and ovens in every variety, indoor fireplaces with metal tubes leading to the roof, and then, what Milo seemed to settle on… well, it was odd.