Mantle of the Gods

Fray didn’t buy a weapon.

Oz bought a compound bow that was constructed from so many different monster parts that I had lost count when she showed me the description. It was a custom request for another Noble, but Fine had sold it to his niece after claiming that he had enough time and materials to make another.

I had purchased the pistol and four magazines. I could fire off about thirty shots normally, which would be doubled if I stored them in the magazine, but I wanted to keep some mana in reserve in case I needed to use some of my other spells.

Oz had paid for the whole thing, so I wasn’t exactly sure how much it had cost, but given that I had five-thousand All to play with, I had no doubt that I still had most of that remaining.

We headed towards Bright Weapons and this time Fray walked beside us without having to be prompted. The brunette was being even more reserved than usual after her outburst, but she at least wasn’t drifting behind us anymore.

Her rant had made me think about not only the Mantles, but my heritage. If she was right and only the Nobility passed down Mantles, then my Mantle had to have been passed down to me from one of my parents. And since it seemed that your class was also passed down from your parents, that meant that one of my parents had probably been a God. Given how Tres talked about some of the Gods having affairs with the Mundane, if I had to guess right now, then I’d say that my father was probably a God and my mother had died in Zeb when I was three.

I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. It was something that I could ask Trent about later, but for now I needed to focus on the present.

“Welcome to Bright Weapons!” A redheaded woman with green eyes who looked to be in her sixties was behind the counter. She was wearing a nice white business suit, which was a stark contrast to the dirty clothes that Fine Reace had been wearing. "I’m Welley Bright. What can I help you with today?”

“We need some level two blunt weapons.” Oz scanned the store for the section of weapons that we could use.

Compared to the empty Reace Armaments, this store had a couple customers, but it looked like they were all near the Tier Two and Three weapons. Which made sense, only students would want the Tier Zero weapons.

“Over there.” The older woman pointed at the corner at the far back of the store. She must have thought that we were higher level, because as soon as we said our level, her interest in us plummeted.

“Thank you.” I smiled at her even though she had already turned away from us.

“She wouldn’t be acting like that if she knew who we were.” Oz eyed me. "Should we drop our names to teach her not to judge people so fast?”

“Let’s not make a scene.” I looked at my crystal band, we’d spent almost half of our time in Reace Armaments, and getting outfitted for armor was supposed to take the longest of our three stops. “We don’t have time if this turns into fanfare.

Oz looked like she was going to do it anyway, but after a long moment, she turned away. "You’re right, probably not worth it.”

I saw Fray breathe a sigh of relief as we followed Oz to the back of the store.

Honestly, there weren’t many weapons for our level. There was a barrel with swords in it that had the handles wrapped with something and the level of the weapon displayed on it. I assumed that was so that customers wouldn’t get hurt while browsing if they touched a weapon that was outside of their level. I'd seen what just one level difference had done to Frays hands, and Gesai had permanent scars all the way up to her elbows for holding a weapon well above her Tier. That had been more than enough to convince me to never willingly touch an item that was outside of my level.

Oz rooted around in the barrel, but didn’t see anything that she liked. She picked up one of the long handled hammers next to the barrel and tossed it to me. “What do you think?”

I caught the hammer and tested the balance. I could use it, but it didn’t feel right. But considering that I wasn’t going to be able to use a sword or magic against Celia’s dungeon in town, I needed one of these.

“What about the two of you?” I looked at Fray, but the brunette wasn’t holding a blunt weapon. Instead, she had a katana in her hand. “You like it?”

The brunette started to put it back. "It’s not what we came for.”

I touched her arm and she froze. "If you like it, then you should get it.” I stared at her face until she turned to look at me. "You’ve got the All and you’re supposed to spend it on gear.”

She pulled the katana back and looked at the price tag again. "But it’s so expensive.”

I looked at the number, which was three hundred All. For a level two weapon, it was really expensive but if it was the weapon that she wanted to use, then she’d still have plenty of All left over.

“I found it!” Oz exclaimed.