Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 74 Deal?

“Um, fifty coins is a pound. That’s why all the coins are different sizes and thicknesses. It’s a little over a thousand coins.” Alice said and started doing the math in her head. “At least two hundred pounds.”

“Holy shit.” Isaac whispered. “I can’t carry that.”

“Let’s get a bag.” Lenna advised.

“Yeah.” Isaac’s eyes left the bag moved to Alice’s. “Can we withdraw a hundred platinum now and get the rest later?”

“You’re not supposed to.” Alice replied and then sighed. “But if you are going to come right back and don’t mind me stashing it behind the desk that’s fine.” She relented.

“Great. Thanks Alice.” Isaac replied and Lenna nodded her thanks as well.

Alice withdrew a hundred platinum coins from her bottomless bag and counted them as she handed them to Isaac. She pushed them across in sets of ten and each time he would make it look like he was pushing them off the desk into his other hand. In reality they were falling into his Inventory.

After the third time Alice stopped. “Where are they going? If you can just do that, why not take all of it?”

“Limited weight.” Isaac replied. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Like your bag but the limit is a lot lower.”

“Huh.” Alice thought for a moment. “Is it an item?” Isaac was being more and more open with her and her sister so she felt comfortable asking more questions.

“Nope.” Isaac replied but did not elaborate. Alice handed him the last ten platinum coins. “Thanks. Be right back.” He told her and beckoned Lenna to follow.

—

The V’Nova Wexler duo headed to the alchemists’ store a few buildings down. “Adventurous Taste? Sounds like a restaurant that serves monster meat or something.” Isaac commented upon seeing the sign.

“Indeed.” Lenna replied and led the way inside without hesitation.

Inside the shop were rows upon rows of shelves with plants, vials of mysterious liquids, scrolls, small gems with magical runes carved into them, staves, crystal balls, and all other sorts of miscellaneous trinkets. “Greetings adventurers.” The pair heard in a voice that sounded a bit off. The voice was too high, nasally, and loud to be from a person.

It took Lenna a moment to pinpoint where the voice had come from but when she did she pointed it out to Isaac. “There. The raven.”

Isaac followed her gesture to see the raven. The bird was nestled in a nest at the end of one of the rows on the highest shelf. It looked down on them like it was the lord of a castle and they were peasants who had come to seek an audience. “Hello.” Isaac spoke to the bird.

The raven just stared at them for a moment before a noise in the back of the store notified the bird of the clerk coming to deal with their prospective customers. “Greetings.” A tired looking teenage boy in wizardry robes and a pair of cracked glasses said as he rounded one of the shelves to meet them. “What can I do for you?”

“We were looking for one of those bags that you can store a bunch of stuff in at once.” Isaac told the boy.

“Ah yes. A bottomless bag as you adventurers call them right?” The young wizard asked.

“That would be it I believe. I was told we could get one here for a reasonable price.” Isaac replied. He specifically didn’t give a number just in case he would be able to negotiate a cheaper price. He was usually all for paying asking price for things but when the prices started getting into the hundreds haggling started to matter more and more.

“Yes yes. Follow me.” The wizard told them and started weaving his way through the dozens of rows of shelves. “We should have one back here somewhere.” He said when they were deep into the store.

Isaac was too focused on following the young wizard to notice but Lenna noticed, about the time they stopped, that they had walked further inside than the building should have been deep. There were still more shelves and a door to the back that could be seen from where they were. ‘Magically enlarged. This is very high grade enchantment work.’ She thought.

“Ah yes, here it is.” The young man said and pulled a satchel much like the other two they had seen out of a pile of random gear. He reached into the bag and pulled out a small slip of paper. “Yes. Six hundred gold.”

“Do we get a discount for buying other stuff at the same time?” Isaac asked.

“No.” The wizard replied instantly. He turned towards them with the bag in his hands. “Is there anything else you would like?”

“Do you have a catalog? Maybe an inventory list of all the magic items in here? I’m not looking for any plants.” Isaac responded.

The wizard sighed. “Not yet. I’ve been working on it but Eliza just throws everything wherever it’ll fit.” He went to throw up his arms in exasperation but the bag in his hands prevented that. The motion had been started though before the bag quickly arrested that effort.

“Eliza? Did he do the enchantments here?” Lenna asked.

Her voice seemed to startle the wizard and he almost dropped the bag. “Uh, no, ma’am.” He replied, obviously not used to speaking while a woman was present.

‘How long has he been in here?’ Both Lenna and Isaac thought at the same time. Lenna nodded in acceptance of his answer and let Isaac continue to lead the interaction.

“This’ll be all for now. We might come back later though if you have any magical armor in here.” Isaac continued.

The wizard tore his eyes off of Lenna and nodded to Isaac. “Yes we do actually, though I couldn’t tell you what enchantments are on it. I’m hoping to have everything cataloged by the end of the month and I would be able to help you better then.”

“How many days is that? I haven’t been keeping track.” Isaac replied.

“Thirteen. At least I think so. I haven’t slept in a while so I might be off.” He replied.

Isaac nodded slowly. It did look like the poor boy needed some sleep. “Alright. Do you want the coin here or…” Isaac’s voice trailed off letting the wizard finish the thought on his own.

“No. There is a counter a few rows down. Please follow me.” The wizard replied and started speed walking down the isles again.

The duo hurried after him. A few moments later they arrived at what looked like a bar but it was covered in potted plants. It was then that Isaac noticed some areas were brighter than others. It always seemed like whatever was lighting the place was just out of sight. The entire store had been cast in a faint shadow but it was only when they stopped at the counter that the fact that there were no lighting implements really struck him.

“What’s lighting this place?” Isaac asked.

The wizard pushed up his thick glasses a bit. “Nothing. Well not nothing exactly. It’s an illusion. It creates indirect sunlight to feed the plants.” He explained.

Isaac looked around in wonder for a moment. The application of magic was truly something Isaac wished he was capable of. Being limited to only dark mana had railroaded him into only using magic the hard way. Raw mana manipulation and willpower.

The wizard cleared his throat. He had work to do that wasn’t waiting on customers. “Six hundred gold for the bag please.”

“Oh, yes, sorry.” Isaac apologized and walked over to the counter. He reached behind himself and grabbed a handful of coins before sighing. ‘There has to be a better way to deal with large amounts of coin than just shoveling it out of my Inventory. This is just awkward.’ He thought.

Isaac set the coins on the desk and counted them. The wizard grabbed one of the coins and whispered something. His eyes started to glow and he inspected the coin. “Where are you getting these?” He asked.

“The, Adventurers’ Guild?” Isaac responded tentatively.

“No. I mean where did you just take these from? You don’t have a coin purse on you.” He clarified.

Isaac gulped and then resigned himself for what was going to be an awkward interaction. He reached out in front of him and pulled more coins out of his Inventory and set them on the counter as the wizard watched with his breath held. Once the full sixty were on the counter Isaac stopped and waited for the wizard to say something.

“How?” Was all he could say as he stared at the empty space that Isaac had taken the coins from. “There was no mana movement, no spatial distortion.” His eyes went to Isaac’s. “Who are you?”

“Usually people introduce themselves first.” Isaac countered. “Sixty platinum.”

“Never mind the platinum. What kind of magic is that? That’s revolutionary. I can’t even begin to understand how it works! This is so exciting!” The young wizard went on.

“Tell you what.” Isaac began. “Let’s finish this transaction. Then you can go back to cataloging this place. We’ll be back in two weeks to look for armor and stuff. Don’t tell anyone about this magic by the way. We can talk about my crazy magic then and maybe you can help me with a problem I’m having in exchange. Deal?”

The wizard’s eyes went wide. “I would love to do so now but yes! Deal!”

“Great. I’m Isaac Wexler. The Dark Mage everyone is talking about.” Isaac told him and offered his hand.

The wizard took a moment to realize why Isaac had extended his hand and then quickly took it. “Clayton Smith. Apprentice artificer and alchemist of Eliza Thane.”