It wasn't the shopkeeper. Because the voice that came from behind my back belonged to a woman.
When I turned around, what met my eyes were suitably worn leather armor and greaves, boots commonly worn by travelers, and even a sword hanging at her waist.
She obviously wasn't a shop clerk; like me, she seemed to be an adventurer who had visited the shop to buy gear.
'...'
I looked at her with renewed interest.
It wasn't that female adventurers didn't exist. Still, traveling alone was very rare.
In the rough forests, open fields, and battlefields that served as the main stage for mercenaries and adventurers, what mattered most wasn't law or conscience, but sheer strength alone.
In fact, from the execution platform to the nearby country village, and all the way here to Cailen now, I hadn't seen a single female mercenary or adventurer.
And that meant one thing.
This person in front of my eyes was that confident in her own skill.
A Gold-Plate Mercenary, maybe, or a seasoned adventurer.
Well, since this is a huge city, bumping into skilled people isn't all that strange.
What mattered was something else entirely.
The item I had just picked up was something a skilled veteran like her would call "decent enough in power."
"I'm giving you advice because you look like a rookie. Try using that thing, and you'll probably shrivel up and die on the spot from mana exhaustion."
She spoke right off the bat. Before I could even reply, the woman frowned and called out to the shop owner.
"Hey, Henson! Even if merchants only care about money, you shouldn't try peddling this damned thing to a rookie!"
At her bark, the shopkeeper came running over quickly.
Perhaps because this female adventurer really was someone with quite a bit of clout as I had guessed, the owner looked flustered by her words.
"Uh... Why is that over there? I thought I set it aside separately. Haha."
An awkward laugh. He didn't seem to be very good at lying.
Keeping an unbothered look on my face, I asked the two of them in front of me.
"It seems to be an item with a story behind it."
Looking slightly relieved by my polite demeanor, the shopkeeper scratched the back of his head and nodded.
"Y-You could say that. It's presumed to be a Dwarven-made piece, but..."
As the shopkeeper hesitated, the female adventurer picked up where he left off.
"It's a kind of Hand Cannon, and some guy tried using it right before a battle and croaked on the spot. Nobody's bought it since."
"..."
A clear-cut answer. At the exact same time the shopkeeper squeezed his eyes shut, interest crept onto my face.
"He died on the spot, you say? Is that because, like you mentioned, this item consumes an excessive amount of mana?"
"Yeah."
Letting out a faint sigh, she answered.
"It's not cursed or anything like that. It simply sucks up an ungodly amount of mana."
"Hmm."
Shrugging her shoulders, she continued.
"Well, its power is the real deal. I tested it out jointly with three mages once before. But we came to the conclusion that with that much mana, you'd be much better off just casting other spells instead."
"I see."
A neat explanation. I nodded.
Hearing her warning about the danger, only one thought came to mind.
'...I have to buy this no matter what.'
High mana consumption? To me, that's no penalty at all.
If anything, it was an item tailor-made for me.
'A mana-powered Hand Cannon, huh.'
I glanced down at the metal rod. Finely engraved with silver letters and patterns, the craftsmanship alone looked like it would fetch quite a price.
In fact, the amount written on the price tag hanging on the back was a full hundred gold. That was more than the total sum I currently had on me.
"Now you see why I went out of my way to step in, right? Looks like you just came up from the countryside, so be extra careful when buying anything related to mana."
A tone closer to blunt honesty than rudeness. Hearing that, I smirked inwardly.
Well, she wasn't wrong that I had just come up from the countryside. If you only counted the places I had walked from on foot, that is.
Right then, a thought crossed my mind. Perhaps I could buy this item for much cheaper than its listed price.
"Mr. Henson, was it? So you were planning to just sell this dangerous item to me like that? Without any explanation at all?"
"Th-That's..."
Flustered by my words, the shopkeeper stammered as he tried hard to make excuses.
"I-I really had no idea a customer would pick that up! I swear, if I'd seen it at the counter, I would have explained everything to you!"
Given how fervently he was pleading his case, he didn't seem to be lying. Not that whether he was telling the truth mattered to me, of course.
"That's fine. I'll buy it."
"...What did you say?"
His face doubted his own ears. Looking at the shopkeeper, I repeated myself.
"This item—I said I'll buy it."
"Y-You'll buy it...?"
"Though naturally, I assume you won't be charging full price for it."
"O-Of course!"
The man cried out, brightening at once. He seemed thrilled at the thought of finally getting rid of a troublesome piece of junk that had even cost someone their life.
What's more, he wasn't tricking me into buying it, so he wouldn't have to worry about any blowback later either. From the shopkeeper's perspective, there was no reason to refuse.
"I'll sell it for fifty gold—no, twenty-five gold!"
Less than a quarter of its original hundred-gold price. Without batting an eye, however, I spoke.
"How about ten gold?"
Slashing the price all the way down to a tenth. Yet it was by no means an unreasonable offer.
From the shopkeeper's perspective, there was no telling when another chance to legally dispose of this thing would ever come along.
He'd be lucky if people didn't spit on his shop floor and walk out calling it bad luck.
"Hmm..."
As if realizing that himself, a deep furrow formed between the shopkeeper's brows.
Reluctance to hand over such fine metalwork at dirt-cheap prices seemed to clash with the urge to get rid of an unlucky item as quickly as possible.
However, his hesitation didn't last long.
That ten was better than zero was the simplest common sense.
"...Very well! I'll let it go for ten gold!"
A tone relieved yet dripping with deep regret. I nodded.
A quickly reached agreement. Naturally, someone else showed a very different reaction from the shopkeeper and me.
"...Hey, rookie. Did you even hear a word I said?"
The woman who had warned me. Having watched the deal between the shopkeeper and me, sheer incredulity was written across her face.
Looking at her, I nodded.
"I heard you loud and clear. Thanks to you, I managed to buy it for cheap."
"Ha...!"
The woman let out a dry laugh. About to say something more, she soon shook her head and backed off.
She seemed to figure that no matter what she said to a typical country rookie overconfident in his own skill, he wouldn't listen.
"...Whatever. I clearly warned you, kid. Don't go regretting it later. Though it'll already be too late by then."
Looking as if she had no intention of trying to stop me any further, she turned right around and walked out of the shop.
"Ahem."
Watching the adventurer leave, the shopkeeper cleared his throat. Smirking, I turned back around.
I didn't leave the shop.
Ninety gold saved thanks to an unnamed adventurer. Now I could use that to buy other magic items, after all.
***
I bought four items in total at the shop.
A ring enchanted with a Shield spell. A dagger that generated an electric current, and boots enchanted with temperature-control and weight-reduction magic.
Along with the Hand Cannon that looked like a silver rod.
It had eaten up a considerable portion of the money I had on me, but I didn't regret it. Considering what I would obtain at the next place I was heading, this was a cheap investment.
'It was a cave-type dungeon, right.'
Calling to mind the dungeon closest to Cailen among the places where I could obtain the next rune, I left the beaming shopkeeper behind and stepped out of the shop.
Part of me wanted to test out the Hand Cannon's power right away, but I pushed that thought down.
No matter how much explosive power it packed, firing off a Hand Cannon in the middle of a big city was the perfect way to get hauled off by the guard.
Instead, the place I visited was the Adventurers' Guild located in the center of the city.
At the entrance of the building, where many people came and went, a long list of commissions currently recruiting was posted.
Unlike the Mercenaries' Guild, whose jobs consisted mostly of escorting, hunting, or small-scale territorial skirmishes, this place was filled with commissions that were quite dangerous yet exciting.
-Explore the Hideout of the Steel-Toothed Rabbits
-Search for Missing Persons in Galoa Forest (Detailed personal information provided upon accepting commission)
-Gather Crescent Moon Grass (1 gold per bundle)
-Resolve the Strange Rumors in Porins Village (Detailed information provided upon accepting commission)
.
.
.
Commissions filling the board. Several of them had red lines drawn through them as if their applicant quotas were already full, but most were still open.
Reading down the lines of text, I smirked.
Just like everywhere else, all the quests available here in Cailen were right in the palm of my hand.
Things whose walkthroughs I already knew inside and out. Even with my current skill, I could resolve most of them.
Of course, I had no intention of blindly taking on just anything.
I had already ranked them by priority according to the size of their rewards, after all.
Besides, what I was looking for in the first place was something else.
Scanning down the lists with an easy mind, I soon spotted the entry I had been looking for.