Chapter 159 –Early customers.

“We have really improved, haven’t we?”

“Yes at first I was worried when you proposed that stupid idea but we did manage.”

“What do you mean stupid idea? Those Troglodytes didn’t stand a chance!”

“Yeah because Sansa was smart enough to get some of those explosive magical scrolls.”

A familiar-looking group of four adventurers walked out from the Albrook dungeon. All of them were smiling as they had gone through quite the large battle.

“It was clever to place them at the spot they would fall in, we took out half of them with just a few scrolls!”

This group of steel grade adventurers thought back to the battle. Once before they triggered a trap which caused them to be almost wiped out. If not for a certain person saving them by pelting the monsters with runic spells they would be long dead.

This time around after some time had passed and they had managed to level up, they decided to pay that room a visit. The monsters proved a lot easier to defeat now and with so many bodies they would make quite the penny from all the materials.

“With all the money we get from those mana stones and monster parts we will be able to relax for a while!”

“You want to spend it all on booze again, don’t you Rudy?”

The red-haired boy flinched a bit as his scheme was quickly discovered. With all the materials they would be set for a month or two if they didn’t spend it all.

“Stop being an idiot, now is the time to invest! We are all approaching level fifty, we need to invest in our gear, I propose that we spend it on new weapons and armor!”

“What’s wrong with our weapons, Keira? I bet it can last us all the way till silver grade!”

“If you think that little sword will do you any good against the lower level monsters then you are more of a muscle brain than I thought!”

“Keira is right, we only managed to kill those monsters because of the magic scrolls, you should understand the importance of good equipment by now!”

Rudy the red-haired youth looked to the other girl and started frowning.

“Not you too Sansa, hey Miron you say something.”

He turned to the largest person in the group, another youth in half-plate armor that was clearly all scratched up and dented in a couple of places. While the group was talking he was looking over a hole in his shield.

“I don’t know Rudy, I think the girls are right this time around…”

Rudy started looking over everyone. It was true that they had been using old weapons and armor that they had gotten after ranking up into steel grade adventurers. After going through the dungeon their gear wasn’t looking that good.

“We should have bought them earlier, there was a big discount at the stores…”

The group went silent as all of them knew that they were at fault. While Rudy spent most of it on drinking, the girls did put it into jewelry and new clothes. Then there was Miron that liked to indulge in excessive eating.

“We don’t need to feel down, even if the prices have gone up they are just the same as they were before!”

Keira smiled while cheering everyone on as she tried to shift the conversation in a different direction.

“Keira is right, no use worrying about it now, we have some money and we can just go into that chamber to get more!”

Rudy replied as he intended to farm the lizard man-looking monsters for their parts as much as he could. Sansa on the other hand shook her head as she found a small problem with that reasoning.

“It won’t be that easy, I’m all out of those exploding scrolls.”

“Can’t you just get more?”

“I wish, for some reason, I haven’t seen them being sold anywhere, it’s as if they stopped making them, they were also runic scrolls but they didn’t cost that much over the enchanted ones…”

Sansa replied to Rudy as they entered the road leading towards Albrook. The girl was worried as the scrolls were somewhat special. They exploded the moment a monster stepped on them which made them perfect as traps. They could even be hidden under some dirt and would require a small jolt of mana to activate.

“Is that so? Come to think of it, I did try to look up some magical short swords but they were all enchanted ones that the dwarves make, I saw some other ones at the other shops a month or so ago…”

Keira replied to Sansa while the two thought that it was strange that most of the runic wares started vanishing from the store shelves. They saw an influx of them when a certain runesmith appeared in town but it seemed that they had been bought out and now none remained.

“Runic, enchanted or empowered, it’s all the same to me.”
Rudy on the other hand just shrugged as he didn’t really care about where the magical items came from. The two girls from the party gave out a sigh as they were aware of the differences between each item that he had listed.

The group continued to walk towards the city while discussing their finances. While they divided their earnings between themselves equally they were still a team. All of them needed to keep up with each other to not drag everyone behind.

This was the same for their items that required an update. All of them were close to reaching the 50th level and this would grant them access to tier 2 classes. Then they would be able to take the guild exam towards the silver grade.

Being a silver grade adventurer started meaning something and mostly all of them were known to use some sort of magical item. It was a requirement as the gap between people and monsters started to grow.

Without the proper weapons, it would be impossible to defeat increasingly more resistant monsters. There was always a high price attached to these weapons but they would make life easier for them.

While their thoughts were riddled with new shiny magical weapons they noticed something that wasn’t there before. Around halfway towards the city, they saw a large sign that was not there before.

“What is this? Wayland’s Runic Emporium?”

Rudy read the bright red text that was on the wooden boards. It was clearly an advertisement and under the store’s name was a short description along with an arrow pointing towards a narrow dirt road that led into the forest.

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“For all your runic needs please visit Wayland’s Runic Emporium?…”

Keira read part of the slogan which had a list of services that this magic store gave. Apparently, they repaired runic items for cheap and also sold various runic related items. This quickly piqued the interest of this small group of adventurers as they were just looking for magical items to buy.

“Mr. Wayland made a store and is accepting customers?”

Keira clapped her hands while smiling and looking over to the other girl in the party. Both of them nodded at each other while the two men frowned.

“Mr?”

Rudy lowered his voice as he was not fond of the fact that Keira was being so formal towards this runesmith. He knew him after being rescued and then saw him again at that presentation. Ever since he tried his best to rise to the occasion but it seemed that the girls in his party were still interested in that peculiar man.
“Something wrong?”

Keira asked while looking at Rudy who shook his head as he did not want to seem like the jealous type.

“We should go check it out! Maybe we can find something good there!”

“You want to go now? We just got back from the dungeon, shouldn’t we go to the guild and drop these monster parts off?”

Rudy pointed to Miron, who had a large backpack. It was a standard spatial bag that normally porters wore but without having much money and being stingy they decided to carry it around themselves. Thanks to it, they didn’t have to suffer through the smell of monster remains.

“Hoh? It’s rare that you propose something sensible for a change.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Rudy recoiled after Keira called him stupid in a roundabout way. Both the girls started laughing but then nodded.

“Then, how about you and Miron go to the guild while me and Sansa check the new store out~”

Both of the young men looked at each other and then back to the two girls. The moment they turned their heads they could see them skipping towards the forest. Rudy and Miron just nodded at each other before following behind as they were worried what could come of this visit to the runesmith.

A few minutes later all of them found themselves inside the forest. They walked through a small dirt road and found more arrows pointing in the direction of this supposed emporium.

“Have you ever been here before?”