Chronicles of the True Wizard

Felix continued to walk down the street and inspected many of the goods but didn't find anything he was interested in besides a change of clothes. They were ultimately unnecessary and all of the styles Felix saw were too garish for him so he didn't end up getting anything. He did however turn around and walk into a large armor shop with all kinds of plate armor and leather goods. A young woman, though possibly just in appearance from her evolution, approached Felix almost immediately.

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 44)

[E - Common] Healer (Lvl 31)

[E - Common] Merchant (Lvl 58)

"Good evening and welcome to Susan's Armorium. I carry all kinds of armor and other protective gear. What class are you so I can help you find the perfect fit."

"Oh uh fighter." Felix lied, caught off guard. He quickly recovered though and shored up his persona, "I like to use large two handed weapons, currently using a great sword. My armor situation has been kind of lacking though. I didn't see it as an issue until I had a… closer than I'd like, encounter in the combat dungeon to the south."

"Ah, I see. Well, I'm glad you managed to live through it. It's odd that the dungeon didn't give you any armor to use as a reward though…"

Oh shit, it probably would have…

"It did, but I don't think leather is really my thing. The dungeon seems to have pegged me as a barbarian or something, but I'm not super into the whole rage and scream through the pain thing. I think I'd rather avoid the damage if I can. I was hoping for something like plate armor, but a little more… flexible, maybe scale mail?" Felix improvised.

"Aha, I have just the thing." Susan, Felix presumed, led Felix through some of the stands towards the back area. "I never understood those either, plate armor is a much smarter call if you ask me. Luckily, I think we can find something that will fit you perfectly. Not sure about any scale mail, but I have multiple suits of Henry's finest that should let you stay mobile and protected at the same time."

Where do I recognize that name from…

"I'm sorry, Henry?"

"Oh are you new to the city then? Henry is the most famous blacksmith in the city. His work is considered the best you can get outside of some of the fancier dungeon loot. Most of what he makes comes out as uncommon and I hear he managed to craft a few rare pieces as well but those were for direct commissions."

"Wow, he sounds very impressive."

"He also kind of leads the crafters in the city, most of them tend to listen to him. He's quite famous in the city, I'm sure you'll love his work. I have to warn you though, it is quite expensive."

Oh, Noah talked about this guy. He's the one that wants to send an army after a world boss.

"That makes sense, if it's so high quality and he's famous. Is any of his equipment enchanted by any chance?"

"No, I don't think I've actually seen anything that was crafted being enchanted yet. Most of the enchanters are busy up at the university and seem to still be trying to figure things out."

"That's unfortunate."

"All the enchanted gear usually comes straight from the dungeons and is sold directly through merchants for clients usually. Plus it's usually exorbitantly expensive."

Susan proceed to show Felix multiple suits of plate armor that were finely crafted and seemed to be exactly as she had promised, high quality and high cost. They were all within the range of 5 to 10 thousand credits. Felix didn't end up buying anything as he had already gotten what he wanted out of this excursion so he excused himself and continued on through the city. He quickly checked out a clothing store and ended up buying simple navy robes made entirely of silk with some simple white accents. It cost him 2500 credits and he stowed it in his inventory, not wanting it to get damaged.

He didn't end up buying anything else, though he was tempted to buy more food as he passed by spiced meat dishes, vegetable dishes and other colorful foods with tantalizing smells. He was surprised to find the city full of people walking along as well as carts contributing to the hustle and bustle. As Felix was nearing the edge of the commerce district when he heard a young woman yelling out through the crowd, "Another fort conquered, another conqueror. Get the latest news here!"

Felix walked over and purchased a newspaper which was actually just a single sheet of paper with information stamped on both sides. It cost 20 credits with half of that refundable if he returned the actual sheet of paper. Felix stood next to the stand and quickly read through the paper. Apparently, one of the forest towns had declared a siege on the other which lasted only a day before they were conquered.

In other news, all of the dungeons had been found and were available in Tri-Peak valley with the synced up map updates. Other than some areas of the ocean, 80% of the land mass within the tutorial had been revealed. Only some of the land around the corners and on the edges remained hidden. It was also being speculated that the town in the mountains to the east were preparing to take on a world boss some time in the next month or so. They were training and recruiting for some undisclosed event. The System taxes in the auction house were now 0 but the auction house now had a minimum price of 10000 credits imposed on all transactions.

The last article Felix skimmed over, even though it was on the front page under the siege, because he had been avoiding it, was about the leader of Tri-Peak being spotted. Apparently many had speculated he was high level but the actual number was unknown. No one in the city could identify him when he walked through the library and into the courtyard around it, without his disguise, on multiple occasions. This sighting had fueled the rumors, some of which were completely ridiculous. He couldn't make himself read through it as reading the article written about himself was too weird so he simply handed the paper back to the woman for his 10 credit refund.

Felix continued on into the industrial area of the city with the forges and warehouses. He had one in particular he wanted to visit but he also wanted to gauge the town's progress in general. He walked by many large non descript buildings which made him realize he probably should have asked for directions. He had no idea what the purpose of the buildings he saw were other than that he knew there were forges, workshops and warehouses in there. Eventually he gave up on walking around and opened his map. He was going to look for the bigger buildings as he figured if Henry was famous, he probably had a large forge.

Felix was surprised to find his map labeled within the city though. He simply located the building in the industrial district labeled as Henry's forge and walked over there. The building was large with a handful of smoke stacks, but not the largest building or even forge by far. He approached the large metal door and knocked, which caused a loud echo to reverberate through the forge. After waiting for a few minutes without a response, he knocked again. He didn't hear anything coming from inside, but it was possible Henry was just on a break or something. Checking his map, Felix knew for a fact Henry was inside.

The third time Felix knocked he thought it was possible Henry didn't hear him but he was also getting a little impatient so he knocked a little harder than intended. He didn't damage the door or anything, but the reverberations were thunderous, even from outside. Shortly afterwards Felix heard a yell from inside, "Oi, leave my damn door alone will ya?"

"Sorry. I'm looking for Henry?" Felix yelled at the door.

It took a few moments, but eventually a tall man with messy brown hair and a beard opened the door. He was wearing thick leather pants and boots with steel toe caps and no shirt whatsoever. His chest and arms were some of the thickest Felix had ever seen and were also covered in hair. All in all, he looked like a bear.

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 43)

[E - Common] Fighter (Lvl 23)

[E - Common] Blacksmith (Lvl 63)

That is the highest level I've seen on either class or profession. Looks like he focuses pretty hard on it though, at the expense of his class it seems.

"Commissions start at 20,000 credits."

"Not looking for a commission. I… was sent by an enchanter looking to enchant some of your commissioned gear… if you'd be interested."

"Nope. Who thinks they're so self important they need to send someone anyways?"

"Uh, Felix?"

"You mean the guy that owns the whole damn city? Guess he couldn't be arsed to leave his damn tower. Tell him to visit himself, I got some things I need to talk to em about anyways." Henry began closing the door but Felix reached out and held it open. Henry immediately pushed harder but it seemed like Felix's strength was greater as the door only slightly moved. Henry immediately frowned at Felix, likely because it should have been impossible for Felix to match his strength at level 35.

Screw it, this is too much of a pain in the ass.

"Oi, fuck you too buddy. Now back up and let me in."

Henry seemed to consider for a moment then smirked and shrugged as he stepped back to allow Felix inside. "It's a little toasty in here, might want to reconsider that."

Felix strolled into the building, which felt exactly the same as it did outside thanks to his cloak, and smiled at Henry.

Henry waited for a minute then his smirk turned back into a frown as he shut the door a little stronger than necessary.

"Alright, what does he want. I don't have that much time."

You really didn't figure it out by now?

Felix sighed as he removed his mask.

"Oi… it's you."

"Yep, plenty arsed thank you very much."

"Damn, didn't think the rumors ‘bout yer level were true.'"

Felix shrugged, "I want you to let me enchant some stuff. I got practice gear for enchanting from the dungeons but enchanting practice stuff that's never going to be used is boring."

"Woah hold on, my thing first. I want to kill a world boss." Henry paused for dramatic effect.

"I know, not interested. You can go do it if you want with your army and all that but I'm not fighting with a group let alone, an army."

"So you're just gonna give up on the rewards and quest and all that, just so you don't have to fight with people?"

No, I'm gonna kill it myself. I just don't need or want other people to make it easier or steal my experience.

"Yuperoo."

"Alright, I'll look at getting some more people involved then. What's your class by the way? There was a rumor it was caster with the tower and all that but casters are so weak in general that didn't make much sense. Now I know you have more strength than most fighters, even with your high level."

"Fighter, use two handed weapons."

"Yeah, that makes more sense. We figured you found some crazy sword or something…" Henry waited for Felix to confirm or deny his theory but Felix just looked at him blankly.

"Alright, well I got other things to talk about too. What's happening after the tutorial? I know right now you have an open door policy but The System also enforces the law right now, what's gonna happen after the tutorial?"

"I don't know. I didn't know the city would even exist after the tutorial until a few days ago. I have no plans to change the open door thing and I have no idea about the policing, maybe we just pay guards or something. I'm open to ideas or suggestions, just send them through Noah. For now, things seem to be good. I'm happy with the progress and all that. The taxes could probably be lowered but I think it will be more necessary for guards, repairs and purchasing goods later. I figure I leave it for now, build up a small pool of credits then rely on that, if needed I raise it by a percent or so."

"That seems reasonable. I just don't want you going crazy on us or anything, us crafter's have a nice thing going here and we don't want it ruined."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, given that your answer was pretty good to the last question, we crafter's want to help defend the city. We know that now that we're a major city we're kind of a target, which sucks but it's necessary, I get it. Had to convince some people but, the wall and your level helps. We want to keep being big and relevant with a wide trade network and upgrading to a major city was going to have to be a part of that. With the raiding going on between Icewatch and The Grove we figure our city will be targeted eventually so what's the plan on city defense and how can we help?"

City defense? Do we really need a plan, we have a giant wall and a population of over a quarter of the tutorial's population…

"Noah's managing it for now. The main goal is to currently migrate as many people as we can over here. The bigger our population, the smaller theirs is. I guess we could mount cannons or ballista on top of the walls. I think catapults would be too slow with everyone having such high agility."

"We can work on those, I'll coordinate with Noah. I assume you are working on some secret sauce yourself plus with you fighting with us, I think we should be fine. Plus I think I can convince the other's that we've got this in the bag. Having something to do will make easier to convince them too so I'll get started on figuring out siege and defense weapons. Great job upgrading the wall by the way, that went a long way to building trust."

That semi-random choice of mine is turning out to be more useful than I thought it would be. Lucky me.

"Alright, can we talk about enchanting now?"

"Sure… I'm gonna need to see some samples of your work before I agree to anything."

"Alright give me an hour or so and I'll enchant a training breastplate for you."

"Sure, I got things in the forge I gotta get back to anyways. Come back and knock when you're done." Henry said, clearly expecting Felix to leave.

Felix sat down right where he was and pulled out a training breastplate as well as his enchanting quill. Henry looked at him for a minute, ready to say something then decided against it and went back to his forges. . . . . .