Chapter 93: [Swordsmanship] Evolution

Arnold’s Armaments was a wonderful little shop. It didn’t look like much from the outside, by all appearances it was a very plain storefront. But the inside was a different story altogether. It was immaculate. The entire store had gorgeous glass displays with various accessories and weapons.

On the wall were blades of all kinds. From rapiers to broadswords, Julius could see pristine weapons of all kinds on show. Julius’s gramps used to take him to knife shops frequently when he was younger, and this store reminded him a lot of it.

Declan and his family seemed to know the man as well. The second they walked through, little Gabby ran up to the counter where the man was already smiling seeing the little girl approach.

Julius noticed that Abby was walking up behind him with [Spatial Perception]. He turned his head to look over his shoulder and met her eyes as she approached him. Then he turned back to watch the interaction between the older man and the young girl.

Abby stopped as she reached next to him. “Arnold and his wife have been good friends to my family and me for years. He and my father used to adventure together. Then one day he found himself settling down with his wife and opened this little shop.”

Julius fully turned his body around as she explained that to him. “He makes everything here?” He asked her. He was curious, not many adventurers had the skills to take on crafting after they were done. There were only so many skills slots one had and using some for crafting was never a good idea.

Abby laughed lightly. “Oh no. No, his wife is the daughter of a blacksmith and he taught her everything he knew about the craft. Arnold did end up removing some of his more specific skills to take up some new ones but his wife makes most of the items here. Her father has some things he sells as well, but the majority is her’s.”

“So why not name the shop after her then? Why Arnold’s Armaments?” Julius asked confused. He would expect that a store called “Arnold Armaments” would sell armaments made from Arnold. Otherwise, they should have called it “Arnold’s Wife’s Armaments”.

She laughed again. “My daughter had the same exact question. ‘Why is it called Arnold Armaments if you don’t make anything’, she asked.” Abby shook her head in amusement. “Apparently, Arnold’s wife really liked the alliteration of the name. She is also very superstitious and said the numbers were lucky or something. I don’t fully understand what she means, but it works so I can’t say anything.”

Julius had met some people who had similar beliefs. There was a girl he knew who really believed in numerology and used it to decide everything. She was a nice girl, just a little odd, always counting anything she saw and commenting on whether or not it was a good sign or not. However, it was interesting to see that there were similar beliefs in this world as well.

The rest of the day was very nice. Julius got to know each of Declan’s family members and got to know some of the shop owners as well. Declan and his family were quite renowned around Heston it seemed.

Even with his newfound wealth, Julius did not end up buying anything. Truthfully, the fact that he was now the owner of such a vast amount of wealth was still not quite hitting him yet. He understood when Declan had told him that powerful people would consider the amount he had as a paltry sum, but to a person who had only the limited experience that Julius did, it was hard to comprehend.

There was an interesting development though. At the end of their shopping trip, Julius had wanted to go back to Arnold’s Armaments and see if he could get the chieftain troll’s core made into an accessory. However, when Julius was bringing out the core to hand over to Arnold, Drasil decided to make an appearance.

The little life spirit, who was usually sleeping in his core came zooming out and wrapped his arms around the core like it was a treasured item. Julius looked on as the cute green spirit bear-hugged the core with a content smile on his face.

Julius did not know quite why Drasil was acting like that, but he suspected it had to do with the fact that the core was life-attributed. With Drasil taking such a liking to it, Julius could not find it in himself to take away the core from Drasil or to make it into an accessory. He would allow Drasil to cherish it for a bit more. After all, Julius was surprised that the little glutton wasn’t even trying to suck any of the life essence out of the core.

Drasil was acting like the core was some sort of heated blanket or stuffed animal. He didn’t even try to go back into Julius’s core once he got his arms around it. He just draped himself over it, while Julius carried the little spirit with both hands.

Realizing that the spirit had no intention of going back into his core, at least for now, Julius tucked him away gently into one of his jacket pockets. The little guy quickly fell asleep and maintained a firm and possessive grip over the core.

I guess no accessory for me. He joked to himself.

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A small part of Julius was a little sad that he wasn’t able to make an item out of it. After all, he had been planning to make one almost immediately after he had extracted the core. But seeing Drasil enjoying so much was better in every way.

Arnold had been observing the entire interaction but said nothing. Julius just saw the older man gently chuckle to himself and didn’t try to bring it up again, just forgetting anything happened.