Equipment

The swirling vortex of mana suddenly turned blue and started spewing out people.

Many guild members and the hunters´ close ones surrounded the raid team in concern. When they heard that their friends or family members were trapped in a red gate they hurried to the site.

With a grin, Evelyn shouted. "You think of us as a bunch of pussies? Of course, we´re fine!"

The group quickly dispersed. Some simply headed home while others went to the bar to celebrate today´s victory.

Mark, Arthur and Owen gathered next to the car Mark borrowed from his dad.

"As I said I´ll call you when a free spot in the raid team appears." said Owen.

"Yeah, I appreciate it." Mark responded with a smile. "Arthur when I graduate and have some free time I´ll call you."

"That´s the way, dude!"

"I won´t drink with you, though. I´m still 18." he added.

"Yeah, but that´s just what cowards do."

"Or people who don´t want to break the law."

Mark then entered the car and sighed, enjoying the silence

'Two days with people constantly around was a bit too many.'

He then started the car and headed home.

[Half an hour later]

As he stepped inside Mark heard his father say. "You´re back? What took you so long?"

"You won´t believe what happened today."

"Well, let´s find out."

After recounting his days in the gate Mark jumped into his bed and got the rest he wanted. A mattress was a nice improvement from a pile of leaves.

[Next day]

Mark was currently driving through New York in his dad´s car.

"So why am I going with you, exactly?" asked Drew in the passenger seat.

"Your mom wanted to get you the hell out of the house and I also think that some fresh air won´t hurt you."

"We´re going to buy hunter equipment. There´s not much fresh air around here."

"Everything is better than your room because there´s precisely no fresh air in there. I´m surprised it didn´t turn into a dungeon yet."

They parked in front of a large three-story building with a large sign saying Daedalus on top.

"We´re here. Get out." said Mark exiting the car.

With Drew behind him, he headed towards the store.

"Don´t you have enough money to buy a new car? Why are you still borrowing it from your dad?" Drew asked on the way.

"I´ll be graduating this week and I want to have some money to move out. I have around 48,000$ in my account and that should be enough to pay rent for a while. Buying a car right now would ruin my plans. Hunter equipment is expensive enough."

"It always hurts when I hear your balance. I´ve got like 100 bucks in my account."

"You can also work, though." Mark said with a smile.

"Yeah, fuck that."

The duo stopped a few meters from the front doors.

"Alright, we have to look normal."

"Good luck with that. You´re going into a store where the cheapest thing costs 1000 dollars." Drew said with a smirk and walked inside.

They were immediately greeted by a guard who watched them with an unnerving look.

'What´s your problem, my dude? You look like I killed your parents.' Drew thought.

The ground floor was used for appraising the goods. Under the guidance of the signs present, they headed upstairs.

"This place is fucking insane." Drew marveled.

It was filled with shining ornate armors and weapons straight out of the legends.

"Yeah, I thought about making something on my own, but the quality would just be shit for the first hundred tries. This is probably more worth it."

"What are we looking for, by the way?"

"A robe, with a lot of pockets, preferably under 10k."

"Okay, let´s get to it."

They walked through the giant store and after a moment they came across the magician section.

"Yo, don´t you want a staff or some weapon?" Drew asked as they passed by a rack of magic staffs.

"Not really. You know how disappointed I was when I found out how magic amplification works?"

"No?" Drew answered.

"They´re dogshit. I can make a staff. It´s just a basically mana storage that empowers your spells when you cast them. The cheaper ones can´t even be refilled so you can throw it away after five raids. That´s such a useless thing to do with mana storage."

"Alright, then what about a weapon? Like daggers or a sword?"

"Why?" Mark asked absolutely confused.

"You can make spells, right? So make a spell that will make you stronger."

"You think like my grandma when I turn the TV source to HDMI. I´m not a goddamn electrician, grandma. You just have to think for a second If I can make some spell. Just ask yourself how would you explain that phenomenon and If you can´t then I probably also can´t."

"I don´t know how exactly would I make myself stronger. If I just overload my muscles with mana then I´ll get stronger... for like a second until my bones shatter because that´s not how buffing works. I could theoretically make my reactions quicker, but I´m not trying that on myself." Mark kept on rambling.

"That just sounds like you suck." Drew commented with a smug smile.

A smile grew on Mark´s face after that snarky remark. "Yeah, it also sounds like you will be sucking dicks behind Walmart if you don´t find a job after graduation."

"Low blow, low blow."

Under the unnerving gazes of the people present they came up to a rack of magician robes.

"Ooh, they´ve got even some special attributes. Ultra warm, water repellant, and so on." Drew commented as he rummaged through the robes.

Mark picked one of the robes. It was dark brown with silver lining on the edges and several pockets on the sides. It was a fairly simple design, but It was exactly what he needed.

"Have you seen a changing room on the way?" Mark asked with the robe in hand.

"Yeah, I think." Said Drew and led him to the changing room.

After a minute Mark came out with the robe on. "Do I look like a hunter?" he asked.

"Bro, you see this?" Drew pointed at him.

Mark confused by the question started looking for a tear or a stain on the clothes.

"Because I see that you´re dripping as hell."

He laughed at the stupid joke. "Alright, I guess I´ll take it. It´s not even that expensive. Just 3k."

"Shut up, man. That is like my dad´s monthly income."

"Dude, your dad is a manager at the FBH. If you think he makes 3k a month then you´re turbo wrong. That´s the money a cleaner makes at the FBH."

The duo took the robe to the register, Mark paid the hefty price, and headed home.

On the way, Drew asked. "Why did you want to have so many pockets, though?"

"Well, I was thinking of making a golem or some magic items for fun and I´ll need to store them somehow. I don´t really want to have a backpack in every raid."

"Golem? You were complaining how you can´t buff yourself and you want to make a golem? Get the hell out of here?"

"I can make a golem. It will take a while, but I should have a lot of time after graduation."

"I wanna see that golem of yours."

"You little bitch, I´ll make three of them if you keep on saying shit like that."

"Heh, I´d like to see that."