Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 45: Shopping

“You really shouldn’t drink anymore…” says Fresh uneasily, rubbing the back of her head as she looks at the large coin in her hand. “Ten in two days seems like a lot.”

“Huh?” The wizard in red waves her off and pushes the girl’s hand back against her chest, gesturing for her to keep the coin. “It’s fine!”

“Does the effect even stack?” asks Fresh nervously, trying to find something to ease her worries.

“No, but it resets the timer each time. I just like the taste!” The wizard bends down to grab their potions and lifts the little bag up. It had cost an extra five Obols, bringing the total sales price of five minor soul potions up from ninety-five to an even hundred. “They taste like blue, you know?”

“Ah… do they?” laughs Fresh, realizing that she hadn’t actually ever tried drinking any of her own potions since the first antidote. “Is your dungeoneering going well?”

“Yeah!” says the wizard in excitement, looking at the little bag. “I’m up to floor thirteen now, thankfully I have magic. Ghosts, you know?” The wizard leaves, waving goodbye, before they step outside to pull open the first of their soul potions.

Ghosts? Fresh fidgets uncomfortably as Jubilee walks by, carrying a load of fresh potions for the shelves. “Talk about a repeat customer.”

“Is it bad? To drink too many potions?” asks Fresh curiously, getting the images of floating specters out of her mind’s eye.

“Depends how they’re made. Medicine can have side-effects, you know?” says Jubilee, placing the batch from upstairs down on the counter. “But we’re merchants. It’s our job to sell things. What people do with those things is none of our business.” They shrug, going to walk back up the stairs. “If she wants to buy a barrel of it to drown herself in, that’s not our problem, as long as she pays in advance.”

The girl rubs her arm, not sure how she feels about it. Maybe it was fine. The wizard was the only one who seemed to have a particular taste for the potions. Maybe they just really liked the flavor. Fresh looks at one of the bottles down at her side and, tilting her head curiously, pops the top off and takes a sip.

+ [Status Effect: Minor Soul Potion(Normal)]

Her eyes shoot open wide and she holds the bottle back at arms length, inspecting it. “It really does taste like blue…”

Business is slow today again, though a tad faster than on the previous day. But most of the time, the girl just ends up twiddling her thumbs.

“If you want, you can go take a walk,” says a voice down from next to her. Fresh looks at Jubilee. “It’s a slow day, you need to go order a mattress anyways. So go knock yourself out, I’ll take care of things here.”

“Are you sure?” asks Fresh, but Jubilee waves her off.

Smiling, the girl thanks her friend and grabs her bag, lifting it over her shoulder. “Okay, I’ll be back in a bit!”

Jubilee tells her where to go to find a mattress, though the girl isn’t happy about the prospect as she hears it. But at least they apparently would deliver it and Fresh walks out of the door, stepping outside of the store and into the bright day.

The sun somehow seemed to manage to find its way back into the forefront of the world again, as if all the rain-clouds had been banished entirely from this world. It’s a hot spring day, but the damp air from the previous days seems to linger just a little, as there is a distinct lack of a breeze. Smiling, she takes a deep breath, rising to the tips of her toes to stretch. Something pops in her lower back and she winces, letting out a defeated sigh as she turns right towards the plaza. Her bag, heavy from all the coins filling it, jingling just a little as she makes her way to the adventurer’s guild.

Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she enters into the somber building, diving right into the sad atmosphere and does her best to not let the melancholic wail of the mourning song distract her as she marches straight towards the counter.

The barkeeper, polishing a glass as always, looks up to her with an expression that seems just a little more familiar now. Fresh nods to her with a smile, opening her bag and laying down two large gold coins onto the wooden surface and sliding them over to the scarred elf. She picks them up, inspecting them and then looks at Fresh, nodding.

Eight-thousand left to go.

Waving kindly, Fresh turns to leave. Apparently the silver obols were worth a clean hundred each. The larger gold ones, like the kind the merchant’s guild representative had tried to scam them with, were worth a thousand. There are other denominations, but for most of the ‘lower class’ like they were, these were far, far out of their reach and hardly worth mentioning.

Exiting the guild, having deposited about half of her money, Fresh looks around the busy plaza and opts to go to the baker’s stall and makes small-talk with the baker, before buying a small loaf of a seed-cake to take back with her for her and Jubilee to share. Though she can’t help but notice that the broad-shouldered giant seems oddly… meek, in her presence. His loud, jolly nature seems somewhat suppressed. The girl scratches her cheek, a curious expression on her eyes and leaves, wishing him a nice day.

“Maybe he isn’t feeling well?” she wonders, before turning towards the tailor that she had gotten her new robe from.

Gulping once, she steeles her resolve and steps inside. A tiny bell jingles out as the door pushes it aside.

The sweet smoky air of the heavily drab inside of the tailor’s shop surrounds her and the girl stops as she feels twenty-four faces turned her way, all of them looking straight to the door. Straight at her.

“H-hello…” says Fresh meekly to the mannequins. They say nothing in response and nervously, she walks towards the counter.

The strange, lanky man steps out from behind the curtain, taking a long draw of his pipe. “Hello. Back so soon?” he asks her curiously.

Fresh explains why she’s there, though she finds it rather odd that a tailor would make mattresses, but in a weird way it also makes sense to her. The tall man nods, writing everything down in his ledger.

“Uh… I don’t know what size it is exactly though…” says the girl, scratching her cheek.

The tall man slaps the book shut, taking the coins she slid over the counter.

“Don’t worry. We know what size your bed-frame is,” he says, nodding to her before waving goodbye, as he returns to the back-room. “It’ll be there before you get home.”

Nervously, the girl looks around herself at the full room, opting it best to not think about either of these implications and she quietly backs out and away towards the door, certain that every time a mannequin leaves her field of vision, that it shifts ever so slightly as if to watch her.

Fresh retreats back out and quickly closes the door behind herself in one sweeping motion. She sighs a breath of relief once the rays of the sun come to touch her skin again. Now that it is so warm again, she actually kind of misses her old robe. It was embarrassing for her to have so much skin showing, but at least it felt nice when the sun warmed her skin.

Still, the girl perks back up, having had three successful stops so far. Supposing that this was everything that she wanted to do today, she begins walking back to the store. It was getting close to the afternoon and that’s when business usually seemed to pick back up a little again, so she shouldn’t leave Jubilee alone for too long.

Happily, with her bag considerably lighter, Fresh begins to walk back, having decided that it’s time to go back home.

The girl stops, thinking about the word she just thought. “Home.” A finger taps her chin and she smiles. Home, huh? Apparently. Walking just a little faster now, with a little more spring in her step she hurries back, eager to see her home again.

But despite that, her eyes can’t help but wonder as she passes the side-street. As she stands at the start of the little passage that leads down past a few houses, the little road at which sits a single alchemist's shop on the far side. No light burns behind the dark windows.

The girl fidgets uncomfortably as she looks at Donata’s store. Her head turns left, to look back down the main road. But then it turns back right again to look towards the dead windows. She gulps and walks down the street, her curiosity getting the best of her once again as she heads towards the dark building.