Chapter 196: Last minute shopping

Remey stayed silent letting the girl adjust to this news. It was most likely some of the best news she had ever heard in her life. Walker and Su gave each other a look and decided to leave them along to take away the pressure from two more sets of eyes. Leaving Midnight and Onyx who had found a spot to nap, they left the resting quarters. They trusted Remey and Gil to take diligent notes and smooth things out for the girl, Walker only wished that she had a name so they would be able to better address her. He decided it would be something they talked about when the two of them returned from their last minute shopping. Maybe if the girl decided to go with them she would think of a name for herself. 

The tamers guild members were at their usual routine after the morning drama had calmed down, some of them seemed to be running towards the underground but it was few and far between. The two tamers at the fence were surprised that Walker and Su were going back out again after everything that occurred but after Walker made a bit of small talk asking about an armor shop they understood why the two were heading out. 

There was a much heavier presence of guards on the streets since this morning, it was obviously due to the demon, they wanted to put the citizens at ease. However the fact that anything had happened did not deter the crowds from storming the coliseums since Walker could see them from the opposite side of the long market road. Walker went towards the same stand that had prepared the fruit for Gil this morning finding that the same mad was running it. "Hello there, looking to buy a snack for the afternoon?" The merchant was rather polite and gestured at his many fruits at the ready.

"I actually was wondering if I could purchase some seeds from you? You see we have a large garden back home and would like to try growing some of these fruits there since we don't often see them in our kingdom. Would that be possibly?" The man shuffled some buckets and bowls around from underneath his work space. It looked like he had buckets filled with every type of fruit seed he sold.

"Usually I let them dry and save them to sell to the farmers once a month. I have no reason not to sell some to you, just don't get too angry at me if they do not like the soil you put them in. Some of these are very picky on how they like to grow." The man began to fill small paper bags with about thirty of each seed. There ended up being six bags of different seeds all together. "I am willing to sell you each for one gold. I could not call myself a merchant if I gave them all away for free but I couldn't possibly sell them at an expensive price to the esteemed hero party." The man had a playful smile as he called them a hero party. He had spent most of his morning gossiping with customers over the emissaries from the Crystal kingdom and especially over the mornings capture of a vile demon criminal. 

"Ah you're so kind to us, we would not expect such a generous discount. We will take the seeds and two bowls of sliced fruit." Walker handed over twelve gold to the man who in turn gave him the bags. Walker stored them away which brought a sparkle to the man's eyes as he expertly sliced away at the fruit. The two bowls he gave them had been arranged in a way that made the thin sliced fruit in the form of a large rose flower. 

Su was in a trance, it was a beautiful presentation. "Sir i am sure this will taste as amazing as it looks. You must really love what you do." Her words were so genuine that the man had to smile in response. He had received many compliments through the years but today it was just a little sweeter. 

Giving the merchant man a wave the two moved onward with an armor shop in their sights. They devoured the delicious fresh fruit being sure to toss the empty bowls in the proper collection area. The shop they had in their sights was very plain looking, a simple shield and sword sign hung from the entrance. The two opened the plain wooden door to find a small open room with about twenty armor sets on display. Most were very basic in design, they were made of very common material.

Su immediately started judging each one, they may not have been here for armor but Walker saw no harm in using this chance to learn about armors. The more experience they had in the designs the better for when their forge was used to enhance or craft their own gears. The shields and swords were all on display against the walls. There were large two handed shields that followed general rectangular or badge like shapes. The single handed shields were mostly round or longer rectangles. Walker was judging the shapes to see what might be best for deflecting attacks. Su may be able to easily block things but since she had some skills and gear that led her to be able to deflect things more he was thinking that having an oval shaped shield with rounded top may be better. He was drawing designs in his head, since Su often used her shield to bash forward or downwards he thought some spikes or a point on the edge would be fitting. 

Realizing he was getting way ahead of himself he waved for Su to come over, he had already taken a look at every shield to make sure that they weren't cursed, he was a bit paranoid about this now. The best two options were either a two handed iron shield that was larger rectangle or two smaller bronze shields that were circular. Su did not see anything that greatly stood out and started to pick up the two handed shield. She would prefer this for temporary use since she would more or less need it to block attacks from getting near the girl. Su felt it was easier to completely hide her behind the one shield then need speed to use two small shields at once to hope they can cover enough area. 

Walker had expected this and after the shield was in Su's hands he looked at the small counter by the door. One man sat there focused on reading a newspaper. The title on the front page read "Young emissaries make a splash in the arena!" This was another reason the party was so talked about. The kingdom news had been printing articles constantly, Walker could only fear how large the headline would be the next day after they had written about the demon being captured. He was also happy that there was no way to put pictures in these small newspapers or else everyone would know what he looked like. He could only deal with so much attention.

The man noticed them coming to the counter and placed the paper down, "Find something for yourself miss?"

"Yes sir, I would like to purchase this iron shield. May I inquire about the price?" With a nod the man checked some documents.

"That was crafted by a younger blacksmith, It is only made with iron at the most basic level. Due to this it comes at a cheap price of five gold. Many of a blacksmith's first works are normally sold this cheap or even less." This was not unheard of, most young craftsman system users would just sell their first creations for whatever they could get so they could find more materials to continue their work and push to increase their level.

Su used her adventurers plaque to purchase the shield and equipped it to her back so that it was easier to travel back. They were barely in the shop for half an hour before they had headed out. The streets were much more lively, Walker could see a massive crowd at the coliseum. It would see a battle was about to start, this was a good chance to get away from the area so they weren't lost in the sea of people. 

Doubling their efforts to head back to the tamers guild they weaved through the streets, many merchants had closed up shop after today's events. This explained why so many were heading to the coliseums. When a demon selling cursed items causes the market road to be temporarily closed it was common sense that people would feel put off buy things for the day. The only benefit in this was an impromptu day off for merchants and neither Walker of Su were distracted to buy something they didn't need at another stall.