Days passed as Maria and the others rested for a few days. Joshua was still out of town looking for the giant Faceless to no avail. As days passed, he was starting to believe that Maria was saying the truth which was the outcome he didn't like to have.
"Sir Joshua, I suggest we go back to town since there are no Faceless around anymore." One of the knights that Joshua bought over said. The knights and mercenaries was getting tired of going around the area but not doing anything else.
"Alright..." Joshua reluctantly nods as he thinks about the things he will need to do to satisfy someone like Maria. After all, he was afraid of offending someone who can kill that giant Faceless.
--
"What a good day we have, right?" Maria smiles as she walks around the town. She can feel the townspeople having a brighter aura around them compared to before.
"Yeah, I can even see some children running around now. It feels great knowing that we've manage to do this." Cen says as she picks up a necklace from a stall.
"It feels like we have achieved something great." Olly puffs her flat chest as she looks over some earrings.
Rem just stayed quiet and nods around as he too was looking at some accessories. He wants to find some necklaces to wear that might enhance his strength. Maria wanted to gift them some rewards after the hardships they've faced. She thinks that they deserve it, and she knows that she'll get extra cash from Joshua in a few more days so a few extra spending is fine.
'The accessories around here are subpar. They just raise one stat point while some has negligible HP and SP regeneration. Where can I find something good?' Rem ponders as he sighs seeing another useless bracelet.
"Little Rem, what's the problem? You don't like the accessories here?" Maria asked as she notice Rem not picking anything. Rem was reluctant to nod but decided to just be honest since that was for the best.
"Yes, Miss Maria. It's just that the accessories feel weak." Rem answered.
"These accessories might be weak but they are very expensive. You can't find a magical accessory that can raise 5 stats as if it's something you can pick from the market. Weapons might do that but accessories are harder to make." Maria explains as she frowns from Rem's standard. This explanation from Maria made Rem woke up from his expectations.
"You're right, Miss Maria. I'm sorry." He bowed his head as Maria just shook her head and chuckles.
"It's fine, little Rem."
"I can't help but over hear that the young child wants better accessories than the current present ones in my stall." The old man from the stall says. As he took out a small red jewel container from his pockets.
"I have here an accessory that he might like. It's a magical necklace from Izumo. It took me great lengths just to get it. I heard that this was blessed and engraved with many magical seals by 10 Onmyojis. It's a precious necklace that was suppose to be gifted to the son of the Archduke." The old man said as he shows a plain looking necklace that has a jade looking mineral on the middle. It was shaped into a circle and has a hole in the middle where the string is in between, and it has many golden markings that looked mysterious. While the string used for the necklace was covered in black and it looks like it was made from precious minerals.
Rem checked it and once he did, he almost lost himself and taking it from the old man's hands.
[Izumo's Pendant of Vigor
Effects: Regenerate 10% of users maximum SP per hour.]
It was a weaker version of his ring but it was still impressive compared to the other accessories in the stall.
"We can't possibly buy that since we'll most likely be hunted down by people from Izumo." Cen says as she shakes her head.
"Clever girl, it's true that you might be hunted down by Izumo, and that's why I'll be selling it in a cheaper price since it's dangerous for me to keep it." The old man said.
"What if we just report you to Izumo then? I'm sure that we'll be rewarded handsomely if we do that." Maria said with a sly smile.
"If you do that then I'll just let it be, I may not be strong enough to protect myself but I am a clever man that can hide." The old man confidently answered.
"Can we buy it, Miss Maria? I won't ask for anything if you give me this." Rem gave his best puppy eyes to persuade her.
"Awww, buy it for little bro, Miss Maria." Olly gave in to Rem's puppy eyes as she too tries to persuade Maria. Cen can only helplessly look at Maria since she can't help at the situation.
"*Sigh* …Fine. How much is it, old swindler?" Maria asked as she took out her purse.
"It's around 400,000 gold but I'll sell it for 100,000 gold just for you."
"What!? Just steal a store instead. Give it for 50,000 gold and it's a deal." Maria shouted as many bystander looked at them. The old man hurriedly hid the necklace since it's dangerous.
"95,000."
"55,000."
"90,000."
"60,000."
"Fine! I'll just sell it for 70,000 gold. That's final. Any lower and I might just kill myself." The old man grumbled as Maria smiled.
"Deal." She says as she gives a pay check that the old man can exchange in the bank for gold.
"Alright, this will do. Here's the necklace, boy. Don't ever show it outside or you'll get yourself killed. Also, try to modify it's look like buying a cloth that you can use to cover the jade part." The old man says as he passes the necklace in it's container.
"You won't get any gifts from me for the years to come, little Rem. You made me lose some gambling money after all." Maria said as she looks at the pay check she gave with a frown. She wanted to take it back but seeing Rem's smile made her feel it's worth it.
Rem just nodded as he kept the necklace inside one of his pocket. He plans to wear it once they got home. For now, he'll just hide it since it looked like they are going for another direction. Unfortunately, he can't pass this to the main body yet. Once he passes it though, the main body can just cancel the clones and summon them again to get an exact copy of the necklace.
"Next stop, the Seal Shop." Maria said as Cen and Olly finished buying their own accessory. It was just one of the cheap ones but they still smiled as they wore it. Olly got a red ribbon clip while Cen took a pair of butterfly earrings.
"What's the Seal Shop, sister Olly?" Rem asked but he already has an idea what it is.
"It's a shop that sells some seals that can basically change one's job class." Olly answered as they walk.
"Sometimes, they even sell some Seal classes that are rare for our country. That was where we got the Shrine Maiden class of Olly which turned her into Priestess afterwards as soon as she level capped it. Those Seal class though are expensive but they help in making short cuts since we won't need to fulfill the requirements of the job class we want to turn into." Cen explained.
"Yeah, we can't afford to go around making one teach us. Well, we have Miss Maria that can help us change classes to her previous classes before, but me and Cen wants to class change into a different one." Olly says as she hops around.
"What classes do you plan to change into, sisters?" Rem was curious about their classes.
"Cen wants to be Mercenary while Olly wants to be a Knight. The weirdest class change choices if you ask me." Maria answered. This shocked Rem since he thought the two ladies will pick some magic oriented class but if they do chose that then they must have fulfilled it's requirements already considering they are being taught by Maria.
"Yeah, it's not the most optimal but we wanted to compensate for our weakness. I learned how reliant I became with my dark magic so I wanted to practice some close combat to cover my weakness." Cen said.
"That's true, I felt powerless when we faced that giant Faceless. I can't even help you little bro when you're facing that monster. So, I promised myself to train as a tank like you little bro so I can lift some of your burden in the battlefield. I also felt like I got an epiphany when I watched you tanking attacks while healing your wounds. You were impressive!"
"Also, I have the Renewal skill so I heal wounds at a faster rate. I plan to learn the Aegis and Pavise skill to be a great tank. Once I've finished that, I'll focus on my healing spells again. I dreamt to be a undying tank in the future!" Olly jumps. Maria just shook her head as she hears this. She felt like both Cen and Olly are doing wrong but she didn't stop them since she wants them to have the freedom of choice.
Rem thought about Olly tanking attacks of their enemies, and once she is full of injuries, she'll just cast a healing spell on herself returning her back to her peak. That will surely frustrate her enemies.