Ch. 53 Path Beginner

The trio talked for nearly an hour before going to get food at a nearby stall. After they ate it was about time for Smithy to have finished his tool up. As they walked through the door they heard the ringing of metal hitting metal. (He must be down to the finishing touches. We can just browse for now.) After wasting another 20 minutes browsing the store, Smithy came out from the Forge area with a huge grin on his face.

"Here you are my friend. Thank you for allowing me to work with such a rare material. Normally I charge 1 silver for a commissioned item, but for letting me be the one to design and build this tool for the first time, how's 650 steel?" Gabriel pulled out a silver and gave it to Smithy Jones.

"No, thank you, this is going to the most useful belonging I have and will probably last for generations. Thank you for your efforts Smithy." Gabriel took the tool into his hand admiring the craftsmanship. He opened and closed the latch several times before finally taking a Crystal Seed and putting it into the depression and tightening the latch. He shook the tool around vigorously to ensure it wouldn't move or fall out. "This is perfect Smithy, again, thank you for your efforts."

"The pleasure was mine, if there is nothing else I'll be getting back to work."

"Have a good day Smithy!" Gabriel quickly pocketed his tool and secretly put it into his Tiny Dimension, before heading back to pick everything up from Lady Ara's. They had planned to pick up their earlier purchases before leaving the Village.

"Hey Lady Ara we're here to pick everything up!" Gabriel yelled out as they walked in the door. On the counter was a large pack with Gabriel's name on it, beside it were two cauldrons wrapped in brown paper. "Lady Ara! I forgot I needed something else!"

"What would you do without me Gabriel?" Lady Ara touched his shoulder as she walked past him and behind the counter. "So, what did you forget?"

"Do you have any cooking pans and utensils?"

"Yeah, do you want steel or forged iron? Steel holds up decent over time and costs 10 silver for the pan, spatula, fork, and spoon. 50 silver for the forged set. Do you need plates, bowls, and eating utensils as well? Cups?"

"I'll go with the forged set and 4 sets of the eating utensils, plates, bowls and cups."

"That'll be another 100 silver." Gabriel tossed her a gold coin and she counted out 900 silver in change. "Thank you for your patronage. Now load up and get out, it's late and I have things to do before I close up."

Gabriel handed the smaller of the cauldron to Emmie with a smile. He then opened the pack and handed her earrings over, before giving the bracelets and book to Serah. "Actually, one of these bracelets is for you Emmie. They're communication bracelets, they can send and receive one message a day. Thanks to the miniature magic funneling path inscribed on them they recharge themselves overnight. I've made up my mind, I'll be leaving with Gabriel tonight."

"I understand. Thank you for the gift. At least with this we can communicate wherever we are." Emmie looked a little sad, but she knew her friend wouldn't be far and she could always send her a message if she missed her. (Maybe one day Gabriel will show me where they live so I can come visit whenever I want.)

"We have one more place to stop before leaving, is there a clothing store here in town?" Gabriel had almost forgot to at least get a few sets of clothes, especially considering Serah was going to move into the cave as well.

"We don't have a clothing store, but we do have a seamstress that carries a lot of extra clothes. She doesn't have a store front, but she should be able to help." Emmie led the way around to the other side of Lady Ara's Apothecary, to a smaller house on the far side of the village. "Lilah, are you home?" They stood out front of the modest house while a young lady made her way to the front door.

"Hello Emmie! Did you need something? Oh you brought friends, nice to meet you I'm Lilah!"

"Actually, my friends were looking for some new clothes and since there's not a store in town I thought maybe you'd be able to sell them some."

"Emmie, you know I'm just an amateur, even if you like my clothes I don't think they're good enough for sale yet."

"Your clothes are amazing! Trust me, they won't mind." Lilah was one of Emmie's oldest friends in the village. She was a farmer by trade, but an amateur seamstress in her free time. "Can you show us some for both of them?"

Emmie pushed her friend back in the door with Gabriel and Serah in tow. Acorn and Gala decided to run around in the field while the others were inside so as to not scare Lilah. Emmie pointed to a bench in the front room and told the 2 to sit down before pushing Lilah into the back. After 10 minutes of waiting Lilah and Emmie came out with several outfits for Gabriel and Serah. Gabriel just asked how much each outfit would cost which stunned Lilah.

"Ummm... I don't know, people just normally give me what they can and I reinvest it into more materials..." Lilah had never been one to take payment as this was just a hobby for her. Although the few friends of hers that bought clothes from her always paid her efforts, she never had thought about what they were worth.

"Well, I see 5 outfits for me and 11 for Serah, since I'm buying 16 outfits at once and I'll need a few more in the future. How about I give you 1 gold, and you make some outfits for me when I come back to the village some time?" Emmie and Lilah both looked at Gabriel like he was insane.

"No no no.... my clothes aren't worth that much barely even silver...."

"Like I said, it's also to hire you on commission for some clothes in the future. Plus, looking at this quality I feel it will definitely be worth it to give you that gold now so you can get even better materials for my commissioned clothes. I won't take no for an answer." Gabriel put the gold coin in Lilah's hand and put the clothes into the pack with everything else. Picking up his cauldron Gabriel headed for the door with Serah on his heels.

"Thanks much! I look forward to what you'll make in the future. I'm heading home Emmie!" Walking out the door without a worry in the world, Gabriel saw his companions playing tag in the front yard and it warmed his heart. "C'mon, let's go home everyone."

Leaving Emmie behind they headed out of town and made the long 3 hour walk to their new home. Serah kept looking around as they got closer to the mountain wondering where Gabriel had built the home he had told her and Emmie about.

"Hahahaha, take my hand Serah." Gabriel took Serah's hand into his and pulled her through the Illusion and into the cave. "Welcome home." Serah's eyes lit up as they came into the cave. Seeing the tile and brick work made her feel like maybe her brother wasn't that great of an Earth Magic user after all. Gabriel took his torch out and lit it with the one of the last remaining lit torches in the main hall. He gave her the grand tour of their facilities before taking a seat on the couch in his home.

"So, where do you want your house and what do you want it to look like?" Serah was excited to get her own home and from the look of everything else Gabriel had built, it would be beautiful. She spent the next hour describing her dream house to him and Gabriel continued to get more excited as it would test a few of his ideas out when he made it. "This will take me at least a day or two and I need to work on some Path Stones to fix this place up some more first. I'll throw together a small guest room off the main floor for you in the meantime."

"Thank you Gabriel, not only did you save me, but you've taken the time to help get me an education and now a home. Take as long as you need. I may not be useful for very much, but I can at least cook and clean around here to help make up for everything you've done for me."

"Don't concern yourself with such things. I'm already helping to feed the other two, it's nothing to add you on as well. Plus, this way you can earn your keep working around the base instead of being a burden to Emmie. She's a good person, but her brother didn't seem to be, I'm sure they have money problems and you being there wasn't helping the situation. Relax for now, I have things to get to work on. I'll come down and we'll make dinner in a few hours, until then just relax or wander about."

Gabriel headed upstairs and started unloading everything he had bought. First, he took out the large cauldron that he had stored as soon as they got out of sight from the village. He put it in the center of the floor in the second room. Returning to his desk he pulled out the pack and unloaded the books. He kept the Fire stone in his Tiny Dimension for use as a new torch with it's special contraption to hold it. Until he could make Illumination Stones he was still going to need a torch. (Let's begin.) Taking the Illumination Paths book into his hands, he received a prompt.

'Would you like to acquire knowledge of Illumination Paths?'

(Yes.) Gabriel's head felt like it was zapped by lightning. The pain in acquiring the knowledge of a path was on par with learning a skill. Gabriel was completely unprepared and assumed it would only hurt as much as an informational book. He grabbed his head right before the pain intensified. His head felt like it was being split into tiny pieces and forced back together repeatedly. Before he was able to catch his breath the pain had stopped. It was only a few moments, but Gabriel had felt as if months had gone by. (.....I need them all.... I'll push through until I'm done.... then we can eat and call it a day.....) Gabriel laid out the remaining 6 books and prepared the pain he was about to experience. (It'll be worth it. When I'm done I'll be a beginner in Magic Paths and once I've practiced my carving techniques I'll be able to finish this place. Then we can finally call it a home.)