Ryan POV
The weapon shop smells like oil and hot metal.
Daniel’s already at the display wall before I’ve fully stepped through the door, pointing at swords. Emily moves slower, more deliberate, scanning price tags and stat descriptions instead of just the blades themselves.
"You’re still using starter gear," she says to me. "Time to fix that."
"What’s wrong with starter gear?"
"Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s just weak. Base stats, no bonuses, no durability to speak of. You’ll outgrow it in a week either way."
The blacksmith looks up from his workbench at the back of the shop. Older man, forearms thick from years of hammering steel, a leather apron scarred with burn marks. He studies me for a second before setting down his tools.
"New adventurer," he says. It’s not a question.
"That obvious?"
"Your sword’s still got the guild stamp on the hilt. Nobody keeps that past their first week unless they don’t know better." He waves me over. "Let’s see what you’re working with."
I hand him my sword. He turns it over once, runs a thumb along the edge, hands it back without much ceremony.
"Serviceable. Nothing more." He gestures to the wall behind him. "Everything here’s graded. Common, up through rare. I don’t stock anything higher than that — this is a starting city shop, not a capital forge."
"What’s the difference between grades?" I ask.
"Common’s basic. Does what it says, nothing extra. Uncommon adds a small bonus, usually a stat boost. Rare starts adding actual effects — faster cooldowns, bonus damage under certain conditions, things like that." He nods toward a blade mounted separately from the rest. "That one’s rare. Minor bleed effect on critical hits."
"How much?" This story is hosted at novelping.com.
"More than you’ve got right now, probably. Rare gear isn’t cheap, even at this tier."
Emily’s beside me, examining a different sword further down the wall. "This one’s uncommon. Strength plus two, nothing else. Reasonable price for someone your level."
I check the price tag. It’s well within what I made from the quest.
"I’ll take that one," I say.
The blacksmith nods and starts wrapping it. "Smart choice for now. Don’t overspend on gear you’ll replace in two weeks. Save for something better once you know what build you’re working toward."
"Build?" Daniel asks, wandering over with an armor piece he’s clearly not going to buy.
"Playstyle," Emily says. "Some Warriors go heavy defense, tank hits and outlast enemies. Others go pure offense, hit hard and end fights fast. Equipment should match whichever direction you lean."
"Which one are you?" I ask her.
"Neither, fully. I balance based on the fight. Rigid builds get predictable, and predictable gets you killed against anything smarter than a boar."
The blacksmith hands me the wrapped sword, and I pay him the listed price, watching my gold total drop on the interface.
Daniel’s already moved on to the armor shop next door, dragging us along before I can fully process the purchase.
The armor shopkeeper is younger, friendlier, far more talkative than the blacksmith. She walks us through leather sets, chain options, the handful of plate pieces she has in stock, rattling off defense values and weight penalties without needing to check anything.
"Heavier armor means more defense but slower movement," she explains. "For a Warrior still learning positioning, I’d stick with mid-weight. Enough protection to survive mistakes, not so much that you can’t dodge."
Daniel buys something similar, mostly because Emily tells him to instead of what he originally wanted, which was a chestplate clearly above both his budget and his level.
By the time we step back outside, the sun’s dropping lower, the plaza shifting into the warm evening light I noticed on my first day here.
"Good first gear upgrade," Emily says. "Nothing flashy, but it’ll hold until you’re ready for better."
"Define better," I say.
"Rare, eventually. Epic if you’re lucky and patient. Anything past that, you’re not seeing for a long time."
Daniel checks his new armor stats, grinning despite the dent it put in his gold. "Feels good having an upgrade. Actual progress."
We start back toward the guild, and I catch a side street I hadn’t noticed before, narrower than the main roads, lined with smaller shops that look older, less maintained than the polished storefronts near the plaza.
One of them catches my eye without any clear reason why.
The sign above the door is faded, the paint peeling, the window display cluttered with mismatched items that don’t look like they belong to any organized shop at all. A pile of old gear shoved together.
Something in the pile catches the light.
I stop walking.
"Ryan?" Emily notices first. "What is it?"
I don’t answer right away. I’m already crossing the street toward the shop window.