A great idea

"Hey Misha. How's work today."

"Oh hey Jack. It's been busy as usual. Anything good happen today?"

"No, still trying to figure out if I want a different weapon."

"Oh your going to give up your spear? Then you won't be able to be Jack Stickman then. Please don't. I don't want to have to redo all your paperwork." She gives me this puppy dog look as she teases me.

"ha, ha, very funny." Misha and I have a pretty good relationship. Probably helps I go along with her teasing and try to dish it back. As for stickman, that comes from when I mentioned how Steve always got onto me about playing with sticks.

"Of course if you could tell me how to easily deal with ants or large monsters with a spear I'm all ears."

"Just hit em where it hurts."

"Yeah and that's the issue. I'm a rookie with neither the skill or strength to take down those things with just a spear. Any suggestions on what would be good for the future?"

"Well the captain of Loki familia uses a spear so I don't think your argument is good, but lets see. There are glaives, great swords, hammers, and axes. Glaives are the same as a spear but focus more on slashes with a bigger blade so more room for error. Great swords and axes are pretty common for adventurers looking to hit harder so that should be good for the larger size monsters. Hammers are a bit difficult as they're almost pure offense focused. However, they're perfect for getting through ant shells. Though I have heard of monsters like orcs just brushing off hammer hits. So does anything sound good to you." I take a moment to think about it and realize a big problem.

"What you said is pretty good but those are all for party situations right?"

"Oh"

"Right, I'm solo which means whatever I get needs to work against all monsters. About the only thing that could do that for me right now is the great sword or axe. I could use the flat sides as a shield and hit with the edge, but I really want something that could crush like a hammer. They could do it, but I'd always be sharpening the edge. Ah, who am I kidding I just don't want to give up my stick!" The more I talk it out the more I realize I'm making excuses. I like spears or more specifically pole weapons. The reach always helps out and the extra power from swinging feels real nice.

"Well in that case a glaive type weapon might work better. That or just get a spear with a bigger blade."

"You're right. The problem is I'm a little stuck right now with the ants on the seventh floor. It's too difficult to hit the weak spots to kill them quickly and if I don't I get swarmed."

"Wait you fought off a swarm!"

"Yeah how else did you think I had all those ant drops before?"

"I just thought you were saving up for some armor and changed your mind! How on earth did you do that solo?"

"What can I say? I'm good. Besides everyone has secrets right?"

*sigh* "I guess you're right. Sorry about that. Anyway if you're looking for a better weapon I suggest going to the fourth to eighth floor of Babel. Hephaistos familia has stores on those levels geared more towards you're level."

"Alright then thanks for that. Still I wish there was some sort of polearm I could hammer with. Be even better if I could stab and slash with .. it .. too." A sudden memory from a game I used to play comes to mind.

"Hey Misha, do they sell halberds?"

"Halberds?" She gives me this blank look that catches me off guard.

"A halberd, you know a kind of polearm. Have you never seen one?"

"No, never heard of it. What is it?" She shakes her head and looks at me questioningly.

"Okay so basically it's a spear with an axe at the base of the spear head and a hammer opposite the axe. You sure you've never seen one?" It strikes me as odd that with all the crazy weapons people could make no one has made a halberd. It's a staple of medieval settings after all.

"No I think I would remember a crazy weapon like that after all. Still it sounds pretty hard to make and why would you want it anyway?"

"Why not? It can thrust, slash, and smash all in one! Sure it can be a little tricky to learn but with that kind of versatility what's not to like."

"So it's a three in one weapon right? I can only see that being really hard to use and make. Probably only veteran adventurers could use it and they already have a preferred weapon."

"Great, basically there's no market for something like that so no one sells it?"

"You could get a smith to make one for you, but something specialized like that would probably require a high smith and getting one of them to work for you could be difficult."

*sigh* "I guess that's my only hope. Do you know how I could get in touch with some smiths?"

"Not really. You're best bet would be to go to those shops I told you about. They work for smithing familias so they should be able to help. Besides they might have some halberds if you're lucky."

"Thanks for the help Misha. I guess I'll go try my luck."

So I spent the rest of the day trying to find a halberd.