With a deep breath of air, Ryusei smiled as he crossed his arms, glancing around at the variety of stalls and storefronts around him. Despite being the first place that players had access to (or, rather, because it was the first place they arrived at), Grasspeak had grown into a place where more than a few merchants had set up shop. Of course, being run on the official servers meant that they were always bustling with life, and today was no exception. Though most of the shops were tailored towards catering to newer players, there was a different reason that he had decided to drop by the area today.

Namely, a certain store at which he had placed an order a little while ago.

"Hey, Raza," he called out, opening the door to the shop in question as he poked his head around. "You in right now? I've got what you asked for the equipment I ordered."

After a few moments, the young man stepped inside the shop proper, glancing around at whatever seemed to be up for display today.

Not like he really wanted to poke at anything, though; there was a definite folly to trying to grab at a cursed item without figuring out what the curse on it was, of course.

@Rune_Alchemist

@PKMNB0Y

---

Ryusei would be greeted by the somewhat familiar interior of Raza's shop. The place itself wasn't anything fancy. Built from wood, and big enough to have all the essentials someone pursuing a crafting skill in Elysium would need. A forge, a few weapons on display and armor stands. Big enough for a few people to comfortably be in. A few particular decorations might stand out, however. A particularly creepy looking mask in a permanent look of horror, and was that...a...human skull sitting on the counter? He was pretty sure he could see a jar of shruken goblin heads on a shelf.

Nothing too out of place for Raza.

Luckily for Ryusei, the resident blacksmith was in and doing exactly what she did best. In a scene that he might not have gotten quite used too yet, she was standing next to a sleek, polished looking set of armor. It seemed to be made of particularly cheap materials, though incredibly well crafted. A few people in beginner gear were eagerly looking around it. Seemed he had walked in on the tail end of a sales pitch.

"Made of the finest quality iron I could get my hands on. Might not be the best material, but lemme tells ya my forging skills are the best in Grasspeak." She said with a star salesman like smile. "It aint' exactly cheap, but I can guarantee - this bad boy can stop so many injuries." She said, slapping the armor.

"I'll take it!"

After a completely legal, and totally not shady business transaction, the person walked out with the gear and she made a hefty profit.

"Thank yoooou, come agaaaain!~" She held the money in her hand, grinning like a cheshire cat as she counted how much she had been given. Little did they know, that yes, the armor was quite well fortified and could withstand quite heavy blows compared to most armor of its level...but unfortunately for them, he'd find out real soon that it'd had a nasty habit of constantly draining the wearers HP every second. He'd unfortunately, probably get KO'ed a few minutes after wearing it. "Hehehe, heyas Ryusei. Just the order? Ooooor can I interest you in something else?" She stood behind a counter, sliding that creepy mask on display across the counter. "Maaaybe this thing? It increases your mana capcity."

Eisamira had spent a good amount of her time speaking to any who would listen. Too bad none would truly listen and heed her praise for Amamein, the goddess she may or may not have made up as she found her nun outfit. Still, it seems she made an impact on the game. She stood out greatly though perhaps not quite in a good way. Still, this was fine. It was a multiplayer game and she got into character. This much was fine. "Hmm, perhaps it's time to head out and smite some monsters and heathens. "For the Lady~" She hummed a bit as she gracefully walked towards the town exit.

"Hmmm?" Eisamira voiced as she passed the shop of a very curious and malicious person. As she continued to walk by, she noticed someone walk out of the shop with a happy look on his face. "Tch." The nun quickly trotted over to the new looking player and spoke. "Pardon me, young sir." She gave him a wide smile and that seemed to throw him off a bit. "Would you have happened to buy something from inside there?"

He looked over her odd outfit before answering. "Y-yes?" She could tell that he felt like she was going to try doing something to him.

"Ahh, good, I see." She bowed. "Might I give you a warning? This store is known for its- Shall I say... Yes, it's goods are very strong. That said, there are always downsides to them. You might want to search for it yourself." She giggled. "If you excuse me." Eisamira turned and walked into the building. The player looked confused for sure.

There she was, the Witch of Curses. A horrible person, really. Now, if she weren't in character it wouldn't bother her too much, but, in the character of Eisamira, she followed the made up tenants. Curses are bad, undead are bad and some other things. "Oh yes, increases mana capacity but drains it at the same time I suppose." The nun stood at the front of the store and cracked her knuckles with a friendly but simultaneously threatening smile. "You're still selling that cursed stuff, huh?" She looked at Ryusei since she no doubt grabbed his attention with her arrival. "Don't mind me, good man. I have business with the witch over there. Take your time."

Grasspeak wasn't exactly her preferred location--for one it was perhaps busier than Hecate wanted to deal with, which was quite an odd thing to be saying when you spent as much time as she did in an MMO; secondly, it was full of low level players. Of course, PvP was disabled but... there was still something to be said for knowing that you could probably ruin the day of every player here if that were to change for any reason.

But both of these made it an excellent place to get rid of materials that she had no use for: things picked up almost by accident in the course of taking the scenic route, or joining a party just to have something to do for an afternoon. None of it even slightly useful for improving on her existing gear and, well... there was nothing cute about a bunch of monster parts worth keeping around. And her current looks were fine, maybe she'd find someone with magical girl inclinations at some point to help with another set...

Though maybe she ought to work on flight magic to do that? Maybe see if there was a way to do bullet hell...

Thus distracted, Hecate--in full witchy guise--made her way around Grasspeak selling off materials here and there for less than they were probably worth, before actually finding a shop that seemed to be busy. The nun she recognised, some of the game's roleplayers were pretty hard to miss when you were on official servers a lot. The smith... well, Hecate had heard about her as well, but more in the sense of "don't let the bargains fool you, find someone higher level if you want that sort of power". But maybe she'd want monster parts? She still had some manticore parts... those would fit right into this decor.

"Is this a bad time? I've got materials to sell..."

Swinging around treetops and flying through the air was super fun. In a world that already granted you immense freedom of movement, getting to soar through the air and experience the thrill of free-falling was a wonderful sensation not readily available in real life. If Akarin could, she would spend every moment in Elysium arcing through the sky!

Unfortunately, she was still pretty terrible at properly utilising her chains for such a task. Also, it was annoyingly difficult to find suitable locations to do so - indoor dungeons or whatever were too cramped, and areas outside were not the most reliable for swinging points. Also, for reasons totally not her own fault, sometimes her spearheads failed to stick to anything and she'd end up plummeting onto her face. Akarin was the exact opposite of an experienced gamer, and perhaps even less experienced when it came to properly taking responsibility, so she had managed to figure out it was most definitely the game's fault for those shortcomings.

She found herself wandering the marketplace on the advice of some other players, suggesting she might need to 'upgrade' her stuff. That was a tad annoying if true, but it wasn't like she wouldn't be able to afford it, right? Let's see, they'd named a certain shop that seemed to sell decently strong stuff, though Akarin had missed the hesitant tone that accompanied that suggestion. Oh, that was it, right? Ifrit's Hammer!

It already seemed a little busy when she arrived, peering through the doorway to find several others inside. If it was this lively, that could only mean their goods and services were in high demand, right?! Even if she had to wait a bit, Akarin didn't mind doing some window-shopping in the meantime.

"S'cuse me~" Akarin give a cheerful little apology as she slipped past the tall witch-looking girl. Sometimes it amazed the fox just how... varied the inhabitants were. Well, the players at any rate. It was rare to see two people with a vaguely similar style. Her eyes wandered to the nun that seemed ready to beat someone up, and that would have been fun to see, but...

"Geh?"

What the hell was that freaky looking mask over there?!

Despite the apparent buzz within the shop as he entered, Ryusei hadn't been particularly fazed by the transaction. If anything, though, he was a bit worried about the poor sap who had just shelled out for one of Raza's patented pieces of cursed gear. Sure, there were a few weirdoes who wanted to try optimizing for whatever downside her gear had tacked onto it, or were praying that the upsides outweighed the downsides (heavens knew he had been one of them a week ago), but he was here for something more experimental.

Heck, maybe he wouldn't lose the gamble too hard this time.

"Nah, I'm good," he responded simply, waving his hand in the air before a bag of coins dropped into it. "I'll just take the order, so--"

Before he could finish the transaction, though, the arrival of someone else edging their way in to interrupt irked him, however slightly. The possibility that Raza had sold the wrong thing to the wrong person crossed his mind momentarily, of course, but ideally he wouldn't get wrapped up in a mess like that if that was the case.

"...Right. In any case..." he resumed, placing the money in front of Raza with a nod. "Twin clawshots, custom order. You said you also wanted some spirit silver for... Something?"

A fist-sized piece of ore followed soon after the cash, and Ryusei looked at the shopkeeper expectantly.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious, but you said you'd tag along for a Sacred Grove run to make sure things weren't breaking apart at the seams before that, right?"

Of course, learning how to use his new tools (if they worked) was a priority, but hunting for spare fairy flowers in the process was never a bad thing.

@Rune_Alchemist @Pyromania99 @Raineh Daze @RolePlayerRoxas

@PKMNB0Y@RolePlayerRoxas@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

---

As soon as Eisamira walked into the store, Raza's face contorted into one of absolute disgust. This was not the first time the 'nun' had done this, and this probably wouldn't be the last. For a moment, she almost wanted to grab her hammer and yeet her right into the store's furnace and call it a day. Burning would be a fitting end for that mild annoyance - did someone just go 'Geh'? who so audaciously had the gall to go 'geh' at her beautiful works of art?! They were all top quality, great stuff! For virtual items in a game she'd definitely say they were top of the-

"...Fluffy." As soon as Raza's eyes fell on Akarin. More specifically the supremely fluffy appendage coming out of the fox girls back. Oh, she wanted to pet that. She very much wanted to floof that tail. Should she ask? Would that be weird? Petting fluffy tails wouldn't be weird, who didn't want to pet fluffy things? And that tail was definitely fluffy. She was so small and cute and fluffy and-

Wait, she was drooling like she did over shiny new armor.

"Ahahaha, sorrry! Was lost in thought for a moment." Right, the spirit stone and field testing. "Right, right. I did say that didn't I?~" She snatched up the Spirit Silver and turned. "Everyone, wait right a moment and I'll be with you all shortly!~ Wow, I'm busy today, must be all my good karma, heheh!~" Raza disappeared into a back room a few moments. The sound of someone rummaging through things could be heard, followed by an metal clang and a rather loud 'ow' before Raza returned with Ryusei's order.

"Here ya go! Two clawshots just as you wanted." She placed both of the contraptions on the counter, giving the metal claws a last shiny polish. They appeared to be quite simple upon first inspection, simple gauntlets that would could easily wear with a wicked looking for pronged claw at the end. They seemed to mimic the talons of some beast or monster, reaching forward with twisted metal. "These beauty's can latch onto anything. Put a little extra oomph into them, too. Could probably pull a fully grown dragon if you had a strong enough foundation." She picked one up, carefully handing it to Ryusei. "That said, It's prone to breaking and it generates a lot of heat when used. So if you're not careful it'll probably jam or even break completely if you use it too much. See how they feel, I gotta get to these other customers real quick."

Passing off the clawshots to Ryusei, Raza hopped over to Hecate.

"I might be willing to buy things if you're selling anything good."

There was a thump from the doorway of Ifrit's shop. A tall Demon ducked even more as he entered, standing head and shoulders above the rest of the room.He grunted and muttered under his breath. "Why are these lesser races always so short..."

Ignacio looked around as he straightened up, looking around the shop. "Ifrit! I was wondering if you had any odd materials leftover. My current project is at a bit of a standstill so I'm looking for some fresh ideas."

That project, the production of magic homing bullets, was proving to be more problematic than he expected. Either there was an alchemical material he had yet to discover or a he required the help of a mage of some sort. Something to distract him might give him some new insight to the problem.

@RolePlayerRoxas

Eisamira calmly waited for Ryusei's transaction to be over though in the mean time more people entered the shop. What seemed to be a witch... A fox girl... A demon? The nun's face looked slightly confused before sighing and relaxing her shoulders. She couldn't really dispense her brand of justice on this annoying Ifrit when there were so many people around. Perhaps she should leave and return later. Well, she will. First thing's first though.

There was a cute little fox girl that looked at her. Curiously, of course. There weren't many people who dressed as a nun in this game. She fixed the look on her face of wanting to decimate Raza and her curse making ways and went back to that gentle look that was ever so common on her. "Greetings, Kitsune." Eisamira said, smiling at Akarin. "This is your first time in this shop?" The nun giggled slightly. "Well, not to disparage the shop but... There's always some downside to any of the items. Think and choose carefully if you were to buy from here."

The nun then gave a few pats to the fox-girl on the head, much like she did her own daughter in real life. "That said, I am looking for those interested in following the teachings of My Lady, Amamein." She mentioned as her hand retracted back to her side, failing to mention that she's basically the only person that follows the teaching. "But, perhaps introductions are in order first." The human avatar stood back and gave a curtsy to the fox. "Eisamira, at your service. If you are in need of help, do not fret in asking. I am always available to help those of a just cause."

@Pyromania99

Her attention diverted away from that unnverving mask, Akari found that the nun was speaking to her now. Compared to a moment ago, she seemed a lot gentler, closer to how one would expect a Sister to look. The headpatting was a surprise, but not altogether unwelcome. If it were a shady guy in real life, such an act would have been unforgivable, but in a game where it was a nice (probably?) lady expressing adoration for the cute avatar before her, the rules were very different!

"Nice to meet ya!" Akari raised her hands, bringing her thumbs together with her middle and ring fingers to pose with a bright smile, "Name's Akari! I'll take ya up on that offer, Mira-san! ...Oh, one thing though!"
Folding her arms, Akari swayed her fluffy tail behind her with a proud smirk, "I'm not a kitsune! I'm a foxy beastman! Beastlady? Anyways, we're as different as, uh... foxes... and... not-foxes. Let's go with jackals. We're as similar as foxes and jackals!"

Not that Hikari in real life knew of any real differences between the two. Kitsune got more tails, probably? But all of those tails would totally get in the way of her playstyle, so fox beastmen were obviously superior!

Despite the odd chain of interruptions, Ryusei didn't seem to really mind much of it, if at all. He wasn't exactly familiar with any feuds that the blacksmith had, but given the way that the Sister was acting...

Well, he could understand why they weren't on the best of terms. Though he didn't necessarily agree with how Raza marketed her goods (and in his head, there were better people to market to), finding the occasional diamond in the rough in the midst of this mess made the trade-off worth it.

That was, at least, how he felt as the ifrit handed the pair of clawshots to him. The warnings were not lost upon his ears, of course, as he fitted both of them onto his arms. Being prone to breaking or overheating...

"Well, as far as downsides go for a few pieces of experimental gear, that's actually not that bad," he muttered, twisting his arms around to make sure that there wasn't anything that he hadn't noticed about them before nodding. "All right, that's workable for now."

Turning back towards the blacksmith, though, Ryusei glanced for a moment at the person she was addressing—or, more accurately, her equipment—before shrugging his shoulders. Despite the intent of him using his new tools for a test run, he didn't exactly see any harm in bringing more people along besides the two of them. There were plenty of people in here right now that could probably tag along. It was times like these, of course, that Elysium's lack of hard levels showed its benefits.

There wasn't any reason not to suggest they group up, really.

"So, uh..." he began, raising his voice slightly as he raised his arm in the air, "Weird, off-the-cuff question for everyone present: anyone else willing to join for Sacred Grove after you're done here?"

Well, he had to start somewhere, even if it was a bit... Awkward, to say the least.

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@TheFake@Pyromania99@RolePlayerRoxas

The witch-apparent cupped her chin in one hand, thinking for a second over her items, "I still have some manticore parts on me if you want those. I was also thinking of going out and finding something else to fight, so if you have any requests..."

Hecate was pretty sure that she could find a team to deal with most of the enemies one might want to farm materials from. If it wasn't just something weak enough to atomise by finding where they spawned and finding a nice spot to stand whilst casting until enough had dropped to make the endeavour worth it.

Those plans were, of course, temporarily shelved by Ryusei's desire to test out his new toys. "I'll join, I'm not doing anything else."

@PKMNB0Y@RolePlayerRoxas@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

---

"Ah, Manticore parts!" Raza clapped. "Yes, I can make useful things out of those. I'll give you a deal, too." It was then, another presence graced her humble store. Shir. Raza looked over to the demon, eyes lighting up with malicious profiteering intent. "Ah yes, I have some out on the shelves! I got some Elder Toad mucus in the back, too! Great for paralysis!" She shouted over the others, just as Ryusei made his offer.

Huh.

Well, she had been intending to go anyways.

"Hey, I'd be willing to lend a hand. I don't have anything new to test at the moment, but I should probably not spend all day scamm-ahem-making Elysium's economy go around."

---

Eisamira looked a little confused why the girl in front of her would be agitated at being called a Kitsune, but she just chocked it up to people getting into the character as much as she did. "Ahh, I see. My apologies, young Akari." The Nun said giving the girl a small bow. Then she looked back towards the boy that had bought something from the foul shopkeeper. An invitation to the Sacred Grove? Well... She needed to keep an eye on that Ifrit.

Her face scrunched up in thought before relaxing again as she patted Akari's shoulder. "Usually, I'm off on my own doing things, but I believe teaming up with a bunch of others would be an enjoyable reprieve. I would enjoy this. Perhaps I can find some holy relic while there. Come join, Akari. I think it will be enjoyable." The Nun seemed sincere, though the furrowed brow and glance towards Raza may be a tell toward some other intentions.