CHAPTER 48: STICK AND STONES

With the still unnamed man’s declaration we all stood there for a moment, still registering that we were no longer fighting but instead had passed his test? Whilst we were contemplating that a wave of mana washed out from the man and swept away all traces of our battle in an instant. Blinking in suprise at that I cannt help but blurt out. "How did you do that?"

He looks up at me with an eyebrow raised in amusement as he replied, his voice still carries the same level of power but now a hint of amusement laced with it. "You ask about a simple cleaning spell and not how I avoided all of your attacks bar one?"

Not deterred by that I simply nod and continue. "Well your obviously strong which explains the fight but Iv been wanting a cleaning spell for ages now!" My mind thinking back to the regular messes we leave each night, this unfortunately causes a small blush to colour my cheeks before I get myself under control.

Thankfully he seems to mistake my blush for embarrassment over asking him about a simple cleaning spell as he chuckles at it. "Well it’s quite simple really, you just need to control your mana to coat whatever item you wish to ’clean’ and then will it to do so. It does take a bit of practice but given your apparent control over mana I wouldn’t imagine it to be too difficult for you at least."

I blink at that before slapping my hand to my forehead in annoyance as that really is quite simple and I’m quite ashamed that I hadn’t thought of trying that out before now myself. "Well thank you for letting me know about that. Oh also we never got your name? And you never got ours?" I say ending with a questioning tone.

His eyes widen slightly at that before he lets out a bellow of a laugh. As he settles himself down he scratches at his chin before speaking with a slightly abashed tone. "Ahh I suppose I did rush things a touch there didn’t I." He pauses then for a moment likely replaying our initial interactions.

He then turns to face me fully and give me a small bow before speaking up once again. "Allow me to apologies for using one of my skills on you and forcing you to reveal information that you likely want to stay hidden. And I swear on my name that I shall not reveal it to anyone." He pauses for a moment before continuing. "And allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Atar Stone, Gold Ranked Adventurer and the man in charge of putting together this expedition into the Trail Ground known as Lilliths Den." Finishing his introduction with a flourishing bow.

Slightly taken aback by the formal introduction i take a moment to gather my thoughts, thankfully Amanda gets it together quicker than me and she takes a step forward and gives a shallow bow herself and introduces us for herself. "Well you already seem to know quite a bit about us but I shall introduce us all regardless. My name is Amanda, Kana to my right and this is Lilliana and her bonded companion Dawn." She gestures to each of us during the introduction.

Kana then speaks up and asks in a respectful but still obviously tense tone. "How did you even know all of our races like that? It should be quite hard to notice Amanda and Lilly’s race."

Atar smiles before speaking. "Well I have developed a number of skills over my long years and one of them is an upgraded investigate skill now called Eyes of Truth. It allows me to see some basic information about any person and is very hard to deceive. I’m afraid that is all I shall say on the matter as I won’t be giving away much else on my capabilities." Hearing this Kana just nods her head in thanks before stepping back slightly.

At this time Dawn has made her way back to me and begins to climb up my leg so I lean down and pick her up before placing her back around my neck where she promptly sends over the impression of being tired and quickly falls fast asleep. "Well thank you for answering our question but unless we are needed for anything else I believe that we best be off. Still want to explore the city." I say

Star nods at that before thinking for a moment and then speaks up. "Well if you are looking for something nice to do I recomend heading to the east end of the city and find the establishment called Stone Stories. I’m sure you will find something you will enjoy there, just tell them I sent you and they should treat you right."

"We just might, thank you for the suggestion." I say. After that is done we quickly say our thanks and goodbyes before making our way out, only to be reminded to come back in 2 days at mid day once more.

Back out in the smaller reception room the worker behind the desk gives us a wry smile before nodding at us and then gestures back down the hall we originally came in from. Taking the dismissal for what it likely was we head down the corridor and come back out into the main reception hall. Once more taking in the grand decor we make our way outside and back into the street before we say anything else.

"Well that was quite the test." Kana mutters under her breath, and I can only wryly agree.

"He showed remarkable restraint during the fight, he could have easily disarmed me, or killed me with a single counter attack but he only ever dodged or parried during the entire exchange." Amanda notes.

"I agree he was insanely powerful, are all Gold Ranks that powerful?" I ask the two women.

Amanda replies again. "Whilst all Gold Ranks are most definitely powerful, he was way above average, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had one or two aspects at Azur rank. He is probsbally one of the strongest individuals in this entire city." I blink at her assessment but it made a lot of sense given how effortlessly he weathered all of our attacks.

"Makes you wonder why he would bother conducting all of these tests himself though? Surely someone that powerful has better ways to spend their time no?" I question.

That seems to make Amanda pause for a moment as she thinks that over. She eventually just shrugs and replies. "Well normal people don’t exactly get that powerful so he probably has some unique qualities and maybe he just wanted to oversee the trial? Either way it doesn’t matter all that much."

"That’s is true enough, well what do you say we try find this Stone Stories he mentioned. And wanna bet it is run by his family?" I say with a smirk forming in my lips at the end.

Kana rolls her eyes before replying. "That is one bet I am not going to take, why else would he send us there." Chuckling at that reply we reorient ourselves and begin to head in the general direction he indicated.

It takes up a while to find the spot, during which time we stop at a few interesting looking shops and grab some lunch. We did have to ask several people for directions but we did spot the place eventually.

It was a smaller building from the outside compared to some of the larger shops we had seen so far, made of the same white marble as everywhere else it changed things up by being fronted by2 large glass windows showing a peak at what to expect from the shop itself as it had some display cases showing it wares.

What were its wares? well it looked like quite the mix of things really. In the display cases their was an odd mix of items from weapons, armour and jewelry made up a decent chunk but arguably the largest section was made up of various books. Curious at this the three girls made their way into the shop to have a propper look around.

Walking through the door a small bell jingled to announce their arrival. A small ruckus could be heard from within the depths of the store which got a few raised eyebrows from them all. After a moment a voice rang out from the same place as the noise. "I’ll be with ya in a minute!" Then in a tone clearly not meant to be overheard but was quite clear in the mostly silent store. "Just fuckin.. get in the.. bloody packaging." This was accompanied by the sounds of something being tossed around mixed with the clattering of something else.

Looking between each other I just shrugged and turned to give the store a propper look now that we were inside. It was a true hodgepodge of items, but after looking around in confusion I noticed something. Nearly every single item had the feeling of being magical. I let out a small ghasp. "What is it?" Kama asked me upon hearing that.

I spoke up hesitantly. "I think basically every item on display here is enchanted." I still didn’t quite believe it myself so tried to expand my magical senses somewhat but found that I was completly unable to do so. If felt like something was forcibly suppressing them making me a touch anxious. However, before I could continue to get worried it seemed like the voice we heard before finally finished whatever it was that it was doing as footsteps started making their way over to us.

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Yeah sorry for the abrupt cliffhanger there lol just didn’t have a great place to end the Chapter and this felt appropriate!