7.109 – EMPORIUM VI

After Natalie paid for the item, the automaton glanced at the growing pile of discarded gear. "We'll purchase those at market price, by the way," she said, gesturing. "It's a service the Emporium offers all its clients, if you're interested."

Natalie blinked. "Seriously? For the same price I bought them?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Then yeah, absolutely." The gear was cheap by the standards of these mythicals, but a refund on her temporary gear was a nice perk. "You can take both."

Meaning her old weapon and her old breastplate. With luck, she would find replacements for her other temporary armor as well.

"That's it, then? No more requests?" Natalie asked.

"There's still the gallery, but yes, three specialized requests is all a visitor is permitted. Did you … did you find my choices acceptable?"

Natalie tsked, then tapped the automaton gently on the forehead, making her go cross-eyed. "The eager-to-please thing is really cute, but seriously—I've made it clear how amazing you've been. Even if the gallery is a wash, I'd consider my visit here a win overall. And it's thanks to you. So, enough. No more doubting yourself. You've been a huge help."

It was a little over the top, but the automaton seemed like she needed the reassurance. What Natalie didn't expect was how deeply the woman would blush. She bowed several times in rapid succession.

"I'm extremely happy to hear that, Mistress. You're … very kind."

Looking up to meet her eyes, she bit her lip. Her eyes flicked down Natalie's body, landing somewhere indiscreet before skittering back up. The blush went a shade deeper.

Natalie's brain locked up. Because on any other woman, that would have been highly suggestive.

But automatons didn't—? Surely she hadn't just—?

"Let me show you the way," the automaton said. She turned and hurried forward. Natalie jolted, then trailed after her.

Her mind was still running in circles when the automaton began speaking again, and Natalie was unfortunately forced to focus on the matter at hand.

"The gallery works as you might imagine, Mistress. Inside will be a variety of items on display, with prices listed for each. The inventory changes every day. The selection hasn't, unfortunately, been curated for you in specific, so quite a lot might not be of particular interest."

"That's fine," Natalie said idly, still distracted by how the automaton had bitten her lip and stolen a peek at her bulge. Seriously, had she misinterpreted that? How could she have? "I plan on buying something for my teammates, so it's a good thing there'll be variety."

"Oh? How generous. I'm glad to hear that. But I'm afraid I won't be able to recommend specific items like before. My role will be limited to answering questions about how the merchandise functions, and serving you however else you might need."

"Alright," Natalie said slowly. "How much sifting through am I gonna have to do? How big's the inventory?"

She got her answer without the automaton needing to respond, because she tugged open a door and ushered Natalie through.

She stepped into an enormous, opulent hall spanning at least two hundred feet. In regular increments stood pedestals or stands displaying items of no single theme—armor, accessories, weapons, and stranger items she couldn't even identify.

She did basic math and tallied an approximation. "At least … forty items here?" Not too horrible; she could sort through that in an hour or so.

"Thirty six, two sets of eighteen. The eastern and western halls are approximately the same size," the automaton added cheerfully. "Some days we have more or less on display, so I would need to go check."

Natalie winced, though she should have celebrated. A large selection was a good thing. And with how much variance there was, most would be useless—especially since rares and epics were scattered around, and she was hoping for mythicals.

"Wonderful," Natalie mumbled. "This is gonna take a while. Might as well get to it."

The automaton shadowed Natalie as she worked her way through the gallery. The items on display weren't the only randomized factor; the prices were too. She had a decent idea how many tokens something should cost and yet the prices didn't follow that judgment in the slightest.

Some were dirt cheap and some were expensive enough to make her do a double-take. Some rares were as expensive as epics, and vice versa. Some middle-tier mythics were up to four times as expensive as the ones she'd gotten from her hostess earlier. Even if she found something she liked, she might not be able to justify its purchase.

But the nonsensicality—or rather, luck factor—didn't faze her. Everyone knew the dungeon was partially luck. Sometimes a delver went down, killed a difficult boss and nearly died in the process, only to receive pocket lint in reward. Sometimes, they were showered in riches.

Honestly, that was accurate to life. In many regards the dungeon was more fair than reality. But that said, it certainly didn't operate on rigid and equitable rules.

The automaton was surprisingly helpful. She knew what every item did, usually beyond what the descriptions themselves said, explaining edge cases or quirks. Natalie would have taken advantage of that during her earlier purchases had she known, but it wasn't like she'd have declined her hammer, capture core upgrade, or bandeau regardless of their quirks.

She had spent a little under two-thirds of her budget buying the previous three mythicals, so even if she was lucky, she could buy two more at most. Probably one mythical and one rare, or two mythicals if she was lucky, depending on how the prices shook out. She intended to take her time in the Emporium and come to an optimal decision.

But that was going to take time.

Eventually, she came to a stop in front of something that drew her attention by physical design alone.

***

Winterfrost Blush

Mythical

Lv. 5

Effects

Major increase to physical Prowess.

Moderate increase to physical Furor.

Minor increase to Tenacity.

Cache. Store Embarrassment from qualifying encounters up to a fixed capacity.

Vent. Expend stored Embarrassment to massively increase weapon striking speed.

Description

A sleek rapier with a blade of polished white alloy, cold to the touch. The hilt features a wristguard etched with delicate snowflakes.

***