chapter 13: Elrica becomes a rich young lady.

When it came to long swords, sharpness wasn't their specialty, Elrica looked for something made of durable material that wouldn't bend too much but wouldn't be so rigid that it would snap.

After looking around some of the options, Elrica settled on a sword with a red handle.

Picking up the sword, Elrica weighed it with her hand, it was quite heavy, probably around 10 kgs in weight, such a weapon would be impractical to swing around without tremendous strength but it felt just right in Elrica's hand.

Looking at Elrica who was holding the sword, the muscular and grizzled shop owner who was sitting at the counter squinted his eyes slightly.

Walking up to the counter Elrica put the sword on the counter looked up at the large man brimming with muscles that contracted as he stood there with his massive arms and said "I would like to purchase this sword."

Not even glancing at the sword the man wordlessly looked down at Elrica, Elrica met his strong gaze with her deep eyes.

The two looked at eachother for a lingering second before the man asked "are you an adventurer."

"Yes." Elrica answered simply.

"It'll be 5 silver coins." The man said.

"5 silver coins? Do you take me for a fool?" Elrica said with a 'scowl' on her face.

Grabbing the sword, the man picked it up with ease, his size making it seem like a normal sized sword instead of a long sword.

Holding the red handle with both hands and holding the sword straight the man said "This here is a two handed longsword made from pure level 1 titanite, forged with a technique that changes the metal's properties in such a way that is best suited for a longsword."

Dragging his finger gently over the blade the man continued, "Nothing shy of a dragon's scales can even chink this blade."

"Even so, it's price shouldn't be more than one silver coin." Elrica said.

Elrica wasn't foolish enough to choose a weapon without being uninformed, although titanite didn't exist in the spectral world, Elrica made sure to learn about it after hearing about it.

Titanite was a superior metal used for creating strong weapons. Titanite came in different qualities separated into ten different levels. The higher the titanite's quality the stronger it was and the rarer and harder it became to forge with.

The sword Elrica chose was made from level one titanite and although it would be superior to any other sword bot forged from titanite it was still level one making 5 silver coins far too overpriced.

Hearing Elrica's words, the man smiled and said "The sword is 1 silver coin but fixing a crippled hand like yours requires at least level 5 {Healing magic}, skilled people like that won't help strangers for free."

Grabbing a round silver coin from her pouch Elrica put the coin on the counter and said, "I will be taking the sword."

The man shook his head and said, "Come back for it when you fix your hand."

Elrica turned around and headed for another basket of weapons grabbing a black Katana, Elrica slightly unsheathed the blade and looked at the metal that reflected with cold light, putting it back in it's sheath Elrica left the store without saying another word to the man.

Watching the figure of the woman who just left, the man swept the silver coin left on the counter into the a drawer and looked at the long sword in his hand.

"You would be wasted on a person with more agility than strength." The man said.

Walking over to a basket full of swords, he put the sword back in it's place.

"Still, level 35 at 16 years old isn't bad at all." The man said with a grin.

•••••••••

Elrica spent the days before in her room at the inn, resting well was important so Elrica spent most of her time sleeping, waking up only to empty out her mana by using {Healing magic} or to eat.

On the day of the promotion test, Elrica showed up at the guild at the appointed time, although it was important she wasn't nervous about the test.

The average level of a copper ranked adventurer was Lv 25 and Elrica was 10 levels above that at iron rank so she wasn't very nervous.

When she arrived at the guild, the usual desk lady guided her to an office in the back where she introduced her to the person who would be deciding on her promotion.

"This is miss Izal she's the silver ranked adventurer who will be accompanying you on the test." The desk lady introduced the woman hidden under dark purple plain robes.

"Miss Izal, this is Elrica, the promising new adventurer I was telling you about." The desk woman said.

"Hello, nice to meet you." Elrica said.

"Hello." Izal replied.

••••••••

Izal, a silver ranked adventurer part of the "Seven swords" adventurer group often took on the unpopular task of evaluating other adventureres for promotion.

I'm her time as an adventurer, Izal saw time and time again how unfit individuals caused the deaths of many adventureres due to their incompetence and wished to lessen such occurrences by being part of the evaluation process for promotion.

In order to help her asses individuals, she was provided with their history as an adventurer which included the date they joined, number of quests completed and their types and team history.

Elrica was the most interesting case Izal had seen all year. Not even a month of experience, 50 quests completed and all were monster hunting quests. As for the group Elrica relied on to gain such an achievement?

That was the funny part, she was supposed to believe that Elrica did it all by herself. Her case smelled of corruption.

If Elrica was a bit older Izal wouldn't be so resistant to the idea as she knew that some individuals would accumulate a large amount of experience and levels before joining the adventurers guild.

Considering Elrica's age, Izal immediately guessed that she was some rich young lady who payed a bunch of adventureres to complete her quests for her so she could brag about being a real adventurer to her friends.

Izal disliked such individuals so she was eager to see Elrica's performance. She wouldn't sabotage her but she wouldn't favour her neither.