-MARKETTWO-

Telling my parents about my upcoming adventure to the wilderness or about Cataclysm was a big no no. Instead I had Roland help me out by introducing himself to them, saying he wanted to take me in as his student and train me. That way when I go to the wilderness I can lie and say that I'm going on a training getaway with him.

I feel bad lying to them but I can't help it, they would worry far too much if they knew the whole truth.

For now I'm going to go see what I can buy. My bank account has been looking nice these past few days, plus with the boost Roland just gave me to help prepare, I should be able to buy everything I want.

'Balance: 1,316,585'

Upon entering the market I was greeted by a gentleman in a suit this time instead of the lady from before. He scanned my license and this time he asked if I would like to call a specific attendant to assist me. Last time Emily was quite kind to me so I asked for her.

The attendant gives me a bit of a puzzled look but it is quickly replaced by his normal stern look. He starts tapping away on his tablet.

"Emily is currently looking after a customer. You may call for another attendant, find a new one yourself on the shop floor or wait for Emily to finish with her current customer."

"I think I will wait, thank you for helping me."

With that i take a seat to the side of the entrance. There was no real hurry and I remember Emily talked before about how important it was for attendants to have customers so I didn't mind doing this favor for her.

If I remember correctly, The amount of money you earn for the market through sales determines your rank within the company. Last time I was here Emily was at the lowest rank, only able to access the floors available to F-Rank. If she was requested by a specific customer for higher floors then she had permission to take them up there but she wouldn't be able to get new customers from those higher floors. 

D-Ranked floors should be available to me now and after I bought some stuff with Emily it's safe to assume that she will know everything available on at least the E-Ranked floors. I wonder if she has gotten high enough for D-Ranked floors…

After about 20 minutes I'd received odd stares from the few workers who tended to the first floor including the doorman who let me in and other attendants passing by as they started or ended their shifts. Finally Emily emerged from the elevator with a little girl who couldn't be older than 10 as well as an old man who seemed to walk at a snail's pace due to some kind of injury. 

Holding onto her hand, the little girl dragged Emily out of the elevator and gave her a big hug and a thank you while the old man hobbled behind trying to catch up. He gave the best bow he could given his current state and then hobbled away with what must have been his granddaughter.

As Emily turned to return to the elevator a woman approached her and whispered into her ear. Her head popped up at whatever was whispered and she looked around the ground floor before meeting my eyes. I stood to greet her.

"Very nice to see you again Miss Emily."

I give a polite bow as she greets me back. She seems very shocked to see me again. Apparently it wasn't common for people to come back for the same attendant unless they were really high ranked so she was grateful I would call for her again.

"Your last purchase was enough to allow me access to the E-Ranked floors, ive been able to get more customers since, so I thank you for the kindness."

"It was nothing, you did a great job so you deserved it."

Giving a polite smile, we entered the elevator.

"So which floor would you like to go to today?"

"Let's start at the bottom and work our way up. I'm looking for more intelligence or luck boosting items. Some kind of staff or weapon would be nice but I'm also willing to buy something other than a weapon if it seems good."

"Of course sir."

With this we began making our way to the bottom F-Ranked floor. With 5 floors per ranked it would take some time to go through them all but that was alright with me as I needed to check thoroughly for the luck based items. They seem to be a little all over the place as nobody really wants them. Over time as nobody buys them, they drop floors so they really are all over the place.

It seems that I bought the good ones last time I was on this floor so there aren't many on the very bottom floor that are worth my time. Emily was unperturbed by this and led me to the next floor. This continued until the second highest ranked F-Rank floor. There we found another ring that seemed to give +luck like my last one but this one also gave +20 stamina. While it's not a stat that I need, it is pretty good and it would be better than one of my rings.

"Let's continue looking for now, may I ask you to put this to one side just in case we find nothing else?"

Emily seems to understand and takes the ring, hiding it behind the counter where a few other items seem to have been hidden, clearly others thinking the same. I assume after a while they would be moved back to the displays so people can't reserve them forever.

The top F-Ranked floor had the most items. There were a lot but there was also a significant jump in price for some of the items. Nothing here really happened to catch my eye either besides a necklace that offered +60 luck. My current necklace only gives +30 luck but also gives +30 intelligence so I don't think that swapping it would be worth it. As I have one last look at the necklace I notice a familiar engraving inside of it. The initials J.C. are carved into the back. This is the same one as my rings.

Taking a mental note I continue on to the E-Ranked floors. Emily seems to think that these floors will offer some much better items but we will have to wait and see.

The lowest of the E-Ranked floors had a much different design than the F-Ranked floors. Bright green carpets lined the walkways with quite a few nice decorations littering the room to give a more royal feel. 

"The accessories are this way sir."

Emily guided me across the floor. The accessories seemed to be in a much larger quantity than the lower floors but most are still pretty bad. I also noticed that despite being a higher ranked floor, a lot of the prices on this floor are similar if not a little cheaper than those of the top F-Ranked floor.

The regular accessories still gave small boosts not worth my while but the lucky ones that were often ignored had some decent boosts. A bracelet that offered +60 luck was the main item that caught my eye among the bunch.

With a price tag of 50,000 credits I decided to have Emily place it to one side so we could come back for it later. Those same initials mark the inside of the bracelet so I decided to ask Emily.

"Oh most craftsmen mark the items they create with either their initials or some kind of symbol."

So whoever this J.C. is keeps creating luck boosting items. Maybe I should see if Emily could connect me with this person or if I could look through just their items.

"Do you have a way of seeing items only produced by this person?" 

As I ask , I show the initials from the inside of one of my rings and Emily thinks for a moment. 

"Ah yes i remember her, she comes in quite often to sell her items but they only ever boost luck so they aren't very popular. The boosts are a lot higher than what others produce though."

She pulls out a tablet as she talks, I have no idea where she was hiding it, and starts to tap away.

"Here it is, It would seem that most of the items she produces are currently on the C-Ranked floors but there are some higher and quite a few of them have dropped to lower floors as they aren't being purchased very often."

"I see and what are the best ones that i can buy on the D-Ranked floors or below?"

Emily seems a little surprised to hear that I've reached D-Rank but quickly continues.

"Let me have a look."

A few more taps on the tablet then she turns it towards me so I can see.

"Here you can see that on the middle D-Ranked floor there is a ring that offers +120 luck that's currently priced at 110,000 credits. The next best is on the highest E-Ranked floor, which is a necklace offering +90 luck priced at 70,000 credits."

"Then let's skip to the top ranked E-Ranked floor so we can reserve that. Also while we're here let me just buy that bracelet."

She quickly tucks the tablet away behind her, it looks like some kind of magic trick the way it just disappears but i don't question it.

We go to the counter and quickly finish the exchange before we return to the elevator and skip the next few floors.

This floor seems quite busy, lots of people shopping around with plenty of attendants all helping deal with their needs.

On the elevator I managed to slide the bracelet onto my wrist and it fit quite nicely and gave me the boost I needed.

We made our way to the accessories and picked out the necklace we were searching for. 

"Let us have a look at both some weapons and a mage's robe while we are here."

Emily happily complies and takes me towards the robes. Most are impressive for their ranks but the total boosts they give aren't as high as I was hoping. Maybe I should give up on this floor and head higher.

As the thought crosses my mind I see a dark green robe tucked away in the corner of all the others. The color catches my eye the most as despite green being the color of mages, it's not often seen for robes. Taking it in my hands I feel the comfort that the material provides.

"That robe gives a boost of +20 to intelligence and +30 to defense. It also increases resistance to wind attribute attacks."

Emily kindly gives me the rundown on the robe in my hands. At the moment I don't have any robes so it's safe to say that it would be an upgrade. The color also fits me quite well.

"I like it, I will take this too."

"That robe will cost 180,000 credits. I hope that's alright sir."

She seemed a bit hesitant to tell me the price but when I told her that was acceptable she seemed to perk right back up.

On the way to the counter we passed by a familiar face.

"What's a loser like you doing on this floor? I'm surprised someone like you managed to get to E-Rank even then you cant afford anything on this floor so go back to the lower floors where you belong!"

Eli smirked and giggled to himself. He must be here to spend his parents money on some upgrades for himself. That same older man was with Eli, I think he was his mentor or something but I've never seen him talk, he simply watches what Eli does. The attendant with them was a tall mature woman with large breasts that seemed to be fighting against her shirt. 'I wonder why he picked her as an attendant' I think sarcastically.

She seems a bit uncomfortable after the comment that Eli made, as does Emily, but I simply ignore him as if he were nothing more than a fly on the wall.

Emily follows me and places the 2 items on the counter.

"The total is 250,000 credits. Please scan your license here."

With the large sum of credits stated out loud, Eli takes a step back in shock. It doesn't take him long to compose himself as he smirks and starts yapping again.

"Spending all your money on such shitty items shows how stupid you are. Why waste every penny you have when it's only E-Ranked equipment? Now you're broke again! loser! "

Again I simply ignored him and scanned my card but I could feel Emily getting a bit uncomfortable at his comments.

"Shall we go up to the D-Ranked floors now?"

I asked Emily with a little smirk on my face while offering her my arm, which she accepts, guiding me back to the elevator.

Eli couldn't believe what he heard. No way was this broke kid from his class already D-Ranked…

We stepped into the elevator and as the doors closed I met Eli's gaze and gave one final smirk. 

END OF CHAPTER 17