7.110 – EMPORIUM VII

After digesting the item's description, Natalie laughed. How couldn't she?

"I think the dungeon knows who it made this for," she said wryly, lifting the sleek white rapier out of its holder. She held it in the air and examined the elegant weapon lengthwise—the way light glinted across its polished metal. The snowflake-engraved wrist guard was exquisitely done; incredible workmanship. Unlike her cavewoman items, the rapier looked like a mythical item.

"All weapons have an ideal wielder," the automaton chimed happily, though she certainly didn't know that Natalie had meant Sofia. She was just agreeable by nature.

Natalie had worked through half of the gallery's inventory so far. Of this hall, rather, and apparently there were two more, so only one-sixth actually. She had a lot of work left. But this was the first item that had genuine promise. One that she suspected would make the final list, she thought, glancing at the placard displaying the cost in Empowered Tokens, because she'd rolled high in that regard too: it was well within her budget.

She set the rapier down, crossed her arms, and forced herself to consider the item logically.

It was a rapier, thus it would be used by Sofia. Was it a worthwhile purchase for her?

A major increase to physical Prowess. Obviously, that was ideal or close to ideal: as the team's physical fighter, and without spells to care about magical Prowess, it suited her perfectly. Then a moderate increase to physical Furor, and a minor increase to Tenacity.

Besides swapping the major and moderate stats, it was a near-perfect arrangement of boosts. Sofia was an agility-style fighter, yes, but she would probably prefer a higher raw damage boost. But a major increase to Prowess wasn't bad. In fact, it might be better; Natalie really wasn't sure which Sofia would prefer.

Then the primary effect. The part of the weapon that mattered. Cache and Vent.

"When it says store Embarrassment from qualifying encounters," Natalie said, "what are qualifying encounters, exactly?"

She had a strong suspicion. But the automaton had been helpful in laying out the specifics of how items worked, even when descriptions were vague, so she might as well ask.

"Any encounter the user finds sexual in nature, Mistress. The description is perhaps slightly misleading."

Not really. Considering that the item had been born in the City of Eros, Natalie had known what it meant simply by context.

"Interestingly, though," the automaton continued, "the item needs merely have been the weapon most recently equipped; it doesn't need to be carried around."

"The effect is global?" Natalie asked, raising her eyebrows. She snorted after a second of consideration. "That makes sense, actually."

The rapier was encouraging 'embarrassing sexual encounters', and forcing the user to carry it around would limit how easily it could be used. So a loose distance requirement was a given.

A resource, though. Energy stored and spent. She couldn't help but draw a comparison to her own Lust. It wasn't a tenth as useful, naturally—which wasn't to say it was bad. Expending that resource to 'massively increase weapon striking speed' was an insane benefit for a duelist like Sofia.

That closet pervert would surely be using the weapon as an excuse to get into all sorts of 'scenarios'. Like the collar and their bet from earlier. Natalie smirked; she was looking forward to that.

Natalie sighed. She missed Sofia.

And the rest of her team, naturally, but looking at the sleek white rapier made another wave of homesickness pass through her.

Only a few more days.

Concluding her analysis was the fact that it was a level five item. Items scaled to accommodate the user, and in fact, it being higher-level meant it would keep up with her. She wouldn't have to worry about a new weapon until level six, maybe level seven.

 "This is the top contender so far," Natalie announced. "But it's better to look through everything first. It won't be going anywhere, right?"

"Not unless anyone else buys it."

"Is that … likely?"

"We get less than one visitor a day, but it's not impossible."

"Can you tell me if someone does come in, then?"

"Yes, Mistress."

She relaxed. It wasn't likely; the automaton had only informed her to be cautious.

"Alright, let's keep looking."

Assuming she bought the rapier for Sofia, she had enough tokens for one more item—and she was definitely burning through Vanetta's loan with that calculation.

Her hope was to find something for Jordan. If something popped up specifically for Liz or Ana, she would get that instead, but Jordan and Sofia were the two closest of her teammates to girlfriends, so—

She abruptly stopped walking. Her brain took a few seconds to start working again.

Not girlfriends

. Just, sort of, kind of, like that.

She jerkily moved forward again. Anyway, she was fond of Ana and Liz, but it was undeniable that Natalie's relationship was closer with Jordan and Sofia, hence she would prefer to bring back gifts for them if possible—as a way of saying sorry for being gone so long. But if the Emporium gods decided to present an item better suited to one of her other two teammates, of course she would buy that instead.

The search continued. She worked her way through the north wing and the east wing without finding another item as perfectly suited as the rapier for Sofia. But she enjoyed perusing the Emporium's wares on its own merit.

The process was spoiling her standards. Even with her incredible luck as a divinely sponsored individual, she wouldn't be seeing items this good for a long while. Not in this quantity at least.

In the west gallery, Natalie found the next contender, and probably the final item she would be buying in the City of Eros.

An item that was certainly promising … if a bit unusual.

***

Silverthread Bonds

Epic

Lv. 5

Effects

Stat Link. Gain a major increase in the primary stat of whoever is wearing the opposite ring. Doubles when Portal has been utilized in qualifying encounters within the past week.

Portal. Twisting both rings creates a two-way portal between which only body parts may pass.

Adaptive Fit. Reshapes and molds to the wearer's body. Adheres securely to any surface for hands-free use.

Recall. Either wearer may teleport the linked ring to their location.

Description

A pair of seemingly normal, unadorned silver bands.

***