In the couple days since Reon had managed to reach civilization in Akram, he started to feel that some people of this society were a bit backwards.
It seemed like they only cared about honor, such as Sujin and Gole. Both of them risked something important for honor.
Sujin even risked his life, losing it all, over some supposed threat to his honor.
Reon wasn't like that at all though. Deep down, Reon knew he was only fighting to return home and not let his family's expectations down.
This made him wonder about his original goal in the first place, wanting to be acknowledged as a great warrior.
"What does it mean to be a great warrior? To be acknowledged by others? To gain honor or respect? Or, to do good things for others? Maybe it's to protect something, or someone?" Reon contemplated.
"After thinking things over deeply, I realize now that my true goal was never to be acknowledged by those of this country as a great warrior."
"My goal is to Be a true honorable warrior." Reon opened his eyes wide.
"We've reached the port of Cradle, guild warriors!" the carriage driver said.
Reon saw the light, figuratively and literally. Opening his eyes after a few hours of meditation made the daytime sight of the port extremely bright to his eyes.
There were many ships with people unloading cargo from them at the docks. There were also so many people promoting foreign items for trade.
"The Inferno Family's ship won't arrive anytime soon. In the meantime let's go check out the shops for rare foreign goods!" Raya said excitedly as a kid on holidays.
The two from the Raider Corps went off on their own, while Reon and Raya walked through the port looking at the goods from the shops.
Each merchant had a small booth with different items on display, and each merchant would tell everyone who passed by how amazing their items were to try to sell them.
"Careful Reon, some of the stuff at these places can be really good, but some of the traders are looking to scam ignorant people." Raya informed me.
"Ah, 'ignorant people' like me, huh." Reon thought to himself, slightly annoyed although he knew it was partially true.
Reon looked around trying to see if he could find a new weapon.
He still had at least a couple thousand Zeal to spend, and hoped he could find a decent long blade or sword which he preferred over long daggers.
"Come here young warrior, what are you on the market for? I have everything a young warrior could need, from weapons to armor and even enchanted items." the stall owner said.
"Enchanted Items?" said Reon.
"Ah, you probably don't know, yes, enchanted items from the land of mages, Daimo, where they practice all kinds of magic. Some mages even infuse their magic into items to create rare special effects, called enchantments." said the merchant.
"Interesting. So what enchanted items do you have?" said Reon.
"I could tell by your energy that you had an astute mind. Allow me to show you my most prized treasured, enchanted items." said the man.
The merchant unrolled a sheet containing five items that each glowed with a certain shimmer.
Reon thought the items definitely looked impressive but he kept Raya's words in mind.
"May I inspect each item before deciding?" Reon asked.
"Of course, my astute young warrior, please inspect them. As you can see they glow with the force of powerful enchantments." the merchant smiled.
Reon picked up a jeweled knife from the stall that glowed with yellow aura.
"Kinshi Sense." thought Reon, allowing him to see the purple energy within the merchant.
Reon had seen special weapons before, such as his uncle's dagger.
He knew that they gave off a certain type of energy, due to this he realized that the knife in his hand was nothing special.
Looking at all of the items, it was all the same.
Although all of these items had a mystical glow to them, it was not indicative of their true abilities.
"You know what, sir, I just realized that I probably couldn't afford these items, I only have a measly couple of thousand Zeal with me, surely these are worth more." said Reon.
The merchant looked disappointed but smiled once again.
"You know, normally you would be right, they would cost more, but I'll make a special exception for you and allow you to purchase one for 2000 Zeal. How does that sound?" asked the merchant.
Reon sighed. He tried to go the soft way to avoid awkwardness, but the scamming merchant kept pushing so now he'd need to do it the hard way.
"To be honest, it sounds like crap, since these items aren't special. They aren't even actually enchanted! Goodbye, scammer." Reon walked off.
Pulgin, another old merchant, slightly away from the scammer's stall, saw this and laughed heartily.
"Hey kid, come over here!" yelled Pulgin.
Reon noticed the old man calling him and began to walk over.
Raya also noticed this and made his way over to look out for Reon.
"Hey Reon, what are you looking for?" Raya asked.
"Oh, hey Raya. I'm trying to look for a new weapon to use, like a long blade or a sword." said Reon.
Reon was on guard now, and would be sure to inspect every item with Kinshi Sense to avoid getting scammed.
As he got closer he saw that the old man was trading weapons and accessories at his stall.
"You've got a good eye kid, that Bezin always tries to get one over on people who don't know any better. See if you find anything you like, don't worry I won't scam you over here, ha ha ha." the man said with a jolly laugh.
Reon activated his Kinshi sense once again looking at Pulgin's items.
This time he was surprised that multiple weapons and items were now giving off the familiar vibe of a special item, not only that, but there was something else in some of the items that Reon had never felt before.
"These must be enchanted items! So this energy I'm sensing from them is mana." thought Reon.
"It's quite different from spiritual energy, more voracious and dense but also more fluid." he thought
"You have some good items here, old timer. So how much do you charge per weapon and accessory?" Reon asked.
"It depends." Pulgin stated.
"What do you mean it depends? On what?" asked Raya thinking this was suspicious.
"It depends on your choice. Pick the right item, and you can keep it at a steal. Pick the wrong item and it'll cost you greatly." said Pulgin.
"So you're basically saying the price changes based on how you feel about the person. Let's get out of here Reon, this guys probably a scammer!" said Raya.
"Hold on Raya. Let me think." said Reon.
"Alright," Raya smirked.
"Did he find something out?" Raya thought to himself.
(Reon's Pov)
"The old-timer said that if you pick the right item you can get it at a steal but if you pick the wrong one it comes at a great price."
"If you take his words literally, he is just saying that certain items have better deals and some are pricier than others which is common knowledge, it's probably not that simple."
"There is also the meaning that Raya assumed, that if you pick an item he doesn't want to sell you, he'll charge you more for it like a scammer would."
"But this man told me about the other merchant being a scammer, and he has many good weapons and enchantment items, so there would be no need for him to scam to earn a great profit, so it's not that simple either."
"The only thing I could think of that matches with what he said is the items Affinity."
"If you pick an item that has a good affinity with you no matter if you pay its standard price or a little more, you'll get a great deal as the item is of greater use to you. That would be the right item to pick."
"But if you pick an item with a poor affinity to you, no matter what price you pay, it won't be worth it in the end, as the item won't be as useful. Choosing a weapon like that could be a waste of money and time if you practice with it."
"That would be the wrong item to pick."
"And the old-timer also praised me for having a good eye earlier."
"If I'm right about this then he wants to see if someone has the ability to determine which item has the best affinity for them."
" In that case, I'll focus on my Kinshi Sense to see which item has the best affinity for me and Raya."
(---------)
Reon looked over each item carefully. If he saw that the item's energy wasn't drawing toward him or Raya he went to the next.
Reon looked at a red pearl necklace on the stall and sensed it had no affinity and moved on to the weapon next to it.
It was a silver curved blade that was about 2 feet long, it was morphed with blue crystals for etchings by the blade guard.
When he focused his Kinshi Sense on this blade, almost instantly he saw the blade had a great affinity with Raya.
The yellow sparking energy of the blade was drawing towards Raya's blue sparking energy which was drawing towards the blades energy. Both energies drawing toward each other met and convulsed in the middle, representing an almost perfectly balanced affinity.
Reon realized this must have been an electric affinity, which meant Raya was a 3-Star twin blade user with an electric affinity.
"Raya, get that blade, no matter what." said Reon.
"Oh, this one, really? But I already have two blades." questioned Raya.
"Trust me," said Reon.
This was all he could say as Raya could not sense the elemental energy affinity the same way that Reon could.
"Alright, I'll trust you kid, but I hope I don't regret it." Raya smiled.
"I'll choose this blade, old-timer, was that the right choice?" asked Raya.
"Hmm, let's see." Pulgin said, picking up the blade.
He squinted at the blade in his hand, then at Raya, back and forth for a few moments.
"Ah yes, it was a great choice!" said Pulgin.
"If I'm not mistaken, then you're a 3-Star warrior who uses shortblades, and your technique of choice involves the lightning element, right?" Pulgin asked.
"Well yeah, but how the hell did you know that old-timer?" Raya was shocked.
"The names Pulgin son. Quickly, use your strongest technique whilst wielding this blade!" Pulgin urged, handing Raya the blade.
"My strongest technique? What's going on?" Raya said, confused.
"Trust him Raya, just do it." Reon replied.
Looking at the blade in his right hand, Raya felt strangely energized.
He made space for himself away from the stall, before quickly spinning and slashing the blade.
While he did this he infused energy through his body and into his blade as he usually would, generating a blue eclectic aura on his body and weapon.
Unexpectedly however, when the energy reached his weapon as he slashed, the blue electricity transformed in color and intensity, becoming yellow lightning.
The yellow lightning shot out from the blade, creating an arc slash of yellow electricity that flew forward for a few meters before dissolving in the air.
This shocked many people that had seen this, but none more than Raya.
What he just did was known as "Energy Emission", a feat that marked the entry into 4-Star level.