CH 21

Ellis forgot that Claire had no equipment other than the Magical ring they bought her.

“Everyone, don’t leave me…….” Claire was quickly becoming teary eyed.

Ellis began to panic. She turned to Frau asking for help. “What kind of equipment do magician’s use?”

Frau was also looking troubled and her words just started to tumble out of her. “Magicians don’t really use much equipment. They wear cloth and tools to increase their affinity with magic, but metal or leather armor interferes with the exercise of magic.”

“What?”

“It’s a stupid story, but, magician’s uniforms are just made up of their hobbies.”

Apparently magicians wear robes because they think they feel nice. That’s kind of disappointing.

“So the point is that anything goes?”

“Ideally it would be clothing that could raise their magic.”

I see. Well money has been accumulating from the overfishing of cows and horses, and income has stabilized with Lily Garden. We should be able to afford getting some spare equipment.

“The upper labyrinth is said to be dangerous because undead appear right?”

“That’s right, but we have already taken countermeasures,” Frau delightedly laughed.

Undead cannot be damaged by normal weapons, but the Purification bastard sword was the prize from the Gozame labyrinth.

Purification–Can deal damage to undead. Undead receive twice as much damage. Required MP: 0. Autonomous type.

Along with that, a Stupor mace was also obtained.

Stupor–An opponent struck by this has a 50% chance of having their movements be constrained for a time. Required MP: 1. Command word: {An Obstacle}.

It was already confirmed through some experiments that an autonomous type ability and a command type such as Inhalation and Flying Swallow can coexist in one weapon. If they prepared normal damage weapons and weapons for undead, will everything be fine?

“Alright everyone. Let’s go shopping!”

◊

Each person prepares to go out.

Ellis puts on a white blouse with a sky blue jumper skirt. She picks out a red brooch and pins it to her chest.

Reeve wears a thin red shirt over a black tank top. She decided to go with an unusual choice for herself and selected a light brown long flare skirt. Although the belt armor and shamshir were attached to her waist as usual.

Frau decided to go with a forest green Chinese long dress with slits on both sides. She combined it with a pair of white long pants and ties with a thin red crimp on the waist to add in an accent. (TL Note: I’m learning a lot about clothes from this novel.)

“Before equipment, we need to fix this.” Four people carved these words into their hearts.

“Take this off quickly!” Claire isn’t allowed to object or ask questions as the other four stripped her down to her underwear.

First Reeve picked through some of her own clothes. “The top should be fine with this black tunic.”

Ellis prepared a skirt. “The bottom will be a red flare skirt.”

Instead of clothes, Frau focused on the shoes. Frau picked up Claire’s construction boots and threw them behind the shoe box. “Please wear construction boots only when you are on site. I’ll make a few adjustments to my sandals so that Claire can wear those instead.”

When Claire stood up again she was fully dressed. A red flare skirt that exposed the knees and a slightly too large tunic that had its own charm with the string adjustments. Frau attached a leather strap to the sandals and tailored them to fit.

Long black straight hair with jelly-like boyish eyes wrapped in cute clothes.

“Great job.”

Ellis and the other three were all satisfied with their work and gave each other congratulatory handshakes.

Meanwhile Claire was pulling on her skirt as she was embarrassed about being able to see her knees.

That irritated look of hers only served to light the fashionable hearts of the four even further.

“Today we are going clothes shopping for Claire!”

Ellis took point to the city followed by Reeve and Frau. Claire was held by the two’s arms and was being dragged backwards without room for objections. Katie took up the rear.

While carefully watching the figures of the four people heading towards the town, Katie unintentionally murmured, “Will I also be part of the group someday?”

Claire heard Katie’s quiet whisper, and as she was dragged backwards, gave Katie a wink. “Katie is fine. I was anxious at the beginning too, but look where I am now.”

Yes, Claire was being dragged out by Reeve and Frau, but she was enjoying it. Naturally Reeve and Frau who were doing the dragging felt the same way.

“Such a thing…” Katie didn’t really understand the situation, but gradually, she started to have fun.

They headed straight for the city’s center.

“Let’s first check out the performance for magic armor and clothing at the high-end armor shop.”

Following Frau’s proposal, everyone headed to the shop that Ellis had gone to when she was first investigating magic tools.

“Oh, come on in.” The shopkeeper who noticed Ellis invited her in.

Ellis had already become a celebrity in Warren. Besides her beauty and cuteness and high income as an adventurer, every man knew her as the cute little girl who could inflict the Scarlet Laundry punishment with a calm expression.

The five girls looked around the store carefully. It seems like the abilities granted to armor were largely dependent on the material the armor is made of. For instance, metal armor generally has enchantments that increase their defense while the leather armor increases mobility.

“So welded armor and sewn armor are considered different things,” Ellis muttered.

“Ellis, Claire, there is some interesting armor over here.”

Ellis and Claire were brought over to the clothing section that Frau was at, and she pulled out a jet black high-neck one piece.

Guidance dress–By casting a spell in advance, the spell can be stored in the dress. The accumulated magic is activated immediately by the wearer’s will. Required

MP: 0. Autonomous type. Price: 3 million ril.

“Because it’s exclusively for magicians, the price is cheap for the effect.”

While listening to Frau’s explanation, she took a good look at the designer one piece dress. This is a really cute dress isn’t it? Then the answer is obvious.

“Claire, try this on for a bit.”

“Oh, but it’s embarrassing.”

Ellis put forward a merciless condition to the shy Claire.

“If you don’t try it on, I won’t come over tonight.”

Horrified, Claire almost ran into the dressing room designated by the clerk.

After awhile, she came back out and shyly asked, “How is it?”

The black fabric came up to her neck and went down to her wrists and ankles. Only Claire’s head, her palms, and her feet could be seen. Her black hair held a contrast with the jet black dress and wonderfully complimented each other.

“Really cute!”

Ellis held back the sudden urge to hug her.

Frau and Reeve came forward having already prepared some similarly colored boots beforehand.

“The size should fit you.”

Then Katie came out with a black triangle hat.

The boots hid Claire’s feet while the triangle hat hid her expression. The only parts of Claire that would peep out were her milky white hands and her thin red lips.

With this, the Raven Witch Girl was complete.

“Claire’s battle uniform has been determined with this.”

“It is decided.” x3

Claire, who was checking out her appearance in front of a mirror, was also fascinated by her figure. It is important that Claire feel comfortable in her outfit in the labyrinth as she not only has the highest attack power but the lowest defense as well. She checked herself from every angle. Even though the enemy could only see her fingers and lips, she made sure that the hat didn’t also obstruct her vision. When she was satisfied, she turned back to everyone else, picked up both ends of her skirt and did a curtsy.

“Everyone, thank you.”

Once seeing that Claire was satisfied, Frau took Ellis’s hand and brought her over to another corner of the store.

“How about this outfit for Ellis?”

Shadow clothes–creates an alter ego of the caster for a certain period of time. Necessary MP: 5. Command word: {Come out shadow}.

The costume hanging up before her had a design similar to the black clothes Ellis usually wore, but this outfit was made of soft leather instead of cloth. It also had a black and white color scheme to it.

The price is 10 million ril. It is probably this expensive due to the versatility of the ability, but the ability is very attractive. If it is copied, it would continue to be used in the future.

“I will try it on.” Ellis took the outfit to the dressing room that Claire had just been in.

When she came out, Ellis looked a little awkward. “It’s a bit big.”

The outfit was made for adults after all. As soon as she came out, the clerk got to work adjusting the clothes to match Ellis’s body size.

“Since the leather is thin, you can adjust the size by folding back the main points like this.”

Apparently the size can be adjusted by adjusting a belt that was sewn into the wrist, elbow, ankle, knee, waist, and chest. The people selling these expensive outfits are certainly prepared to not allow anyone to say no because the size doesn’t fit.

Ellis wearing her black clothes stood beside Claire for comparison.

The shopkeeper let out a great sigh at the two girls posing before the mirror in front of them. Because reflected in the mirror were two black bisque dolls–one with golden locks and another with black. The shopkeeper couldn’t believe that there was such a sublime cuteness before them. They wondered if these two sets of clothes were set out for these girls specifically, so they made a proposition.

“If you purchase the one piece, I will throw in the hat and boots for free.”

A prompt decision was made.

Ellis took out 10 million ril for her own outfit while pulling out an additional 3 million for Claire since she hadn’t been exploring yet, and she paid the shopkeeper on the spot. Then both of them changed back into their original clothes and put their new battle outfits into their bags.

Next the five people went around to take a look at other armor shops.

Since Reeve had acquired the bastard sword and Frau had the Minotaur’s mace, no new weapons were really necessary. So the five of them were looking for preliminary equipment for Katie. However, it could not be found easily.

Whenever asking either weapon shop owners or armor shop owners for cat warrior weapons, they always just gave out a quizzical look and asked, “What is that?”

After awhile, they had one hit with a weapon shop owner. He took one look at Katie and nodded his head. “Sorry about this. Claw equipment is over her.”

The shopkeeper guided them to the back of the store to a set of white silver claw gauntlets and claw shin guards.

Despite them not having an ability, the price was an expensive 1 million ril. The store owner explained that it is expensive because it is rare. The claw type weapons don’t sell well, so it is only natural that it would have a higher price. In short, there is no supply because there is no demand and the price goes up accordingly.

Meanwhile, Reeve is eagerly looking at another item being exhibited. A set of ten throwing knives.

“If you gave Stupor to these, it would be great for keeping enemies in check.”

Frau agreed. “Even on there own, throwing knives are a versatile secondary weapon set that could help out in emergencies.”

This one set is 500 thousand ril. It could be a surprisingly good deal if you consider it as one knife for 50 thousand ril.

Then Claire called to Ellis from another part of the store. “Hey Ellis, I found something unreasonable!”

Claire pointed to an estoc. A sword with a blade similar to a thin needle.

Berserker estoc–The damage to an enemy increases 5 fold for a certain period of time. Required MP: 10 every attack. Command word: {Annihilation}.

“What a messy performance.”

“The ability is awful too.”

Reeve and Frau were astounded by the terrible weapon, but while the MP cost is outrageous, the high offensive power is also insane. If the average mental power of a person is 10, then an ordinary person would faint after just one attack. Depending on the person, they could very well end up fainting before they could swing the estoc.

The price here is also 500 thousand ril. The reason for the cheap price is undoubtedly due to its lack of practicality, and there is no meaning to owning it other than for collection purposes. Even if it was used as an assassination tool, it would almost be essential to have a Spirit ring along side it. And if you have 100 million ril to afford a spirit ring, then there are better avenues for assassination available to you. It was an item that only Ellis could use.

Ellis got the shopkeeper’s permission and pulled the small needle sword from its black sheath. It’s weight and size were perfect for an eight year old girl.

“I will buy this.”

The shopkeeper looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. It is a fact that he was finally able to get rid of a troublesome item.

By the end of shopping there, Ellis had spent 500 thousand ril, Reeve had spent 500 thousand ril, and Katie had 1 million ril.

Ellis paid for Katie since she didn’t have that kind of money yet.

“Katie, do your best to earn 1 million ril quickly. The interest is exorbitant.”

“Why is Claire treatable while I’m in debt?”

“Work well and quietly.”

By the way, Ellis’s interest rate is a 10 percent increase every ten days. The type of rate where one could be accused of robbery.

Then the five people made their way to the regular clothing store.

At this store, Claire was forced to spend 1 million ril on new clothes. All the while, she was made into a victim as four other people treated her as their own life size dress up doll.