Takuma seemed to be developing a talent for falling unconscious. This time he found himself staring up at a stone ceiling in a very comfortable bed. He soaked in the sensation of warmth as he slowly grew accustomed to his waking moments. He could feel his head pounding, no doubt a consequence of the Blight Carousel. He sat up on his elbows to get a better view of the small room he found himself in--only to realize his hands had been shackled to the bedside.
"Oh. Look who's up." A nearby voice said. Takuma glanced across the room and realized he was not alone. Two people sat at a nearby table across from each other. One a woman with long, red hair and pale skin. She seemed dressed like a cleric if Takuma had to guess. The other was a guard, a male who was so busy gorging himself on a plate of food that he didn't pay Takuma a bit of attention.
"Yea. Um, where am I ?" Takuma asked, lifting his arm so that the chain links of his shackles jingled against one another.
"Guard tower." The man answered as he sipped on a tankard of golden fluid. Simply watching was enough to make Takuma's mouth water.
"You passed out, just outside the city gates a few hours ago." The woman responded as she got to her feet and walked towards the bed. She bent down slightly and placed her hand on Takuma's forehead as if inspecting his temperature.
"Why am I chained?" Takuma asked.
"Well, usually we just stab weirdos who burst outta the forest after dark…" The guard said rather casually as he continued his meal. Takuma shot a look of disbelief towards the woman before him, mostly for confirmation. She nodded, affirming the guard's words to be true.
"You're obviously an adventurer. Am I right?" She said, finally removing her hand from his forehead. Takuma was disappointed for a split second as the cool temperature of her skin against his forehead felt amazing.
"Y-yea." He replied. Was he an adventurer? If he had to guess, he'd say yes.
"Great. Do you have an adventurer's badge? We couldn't find anything but then again your clothing was ragged.." The woman continued her line of questioning. This must have been why Takuma felt naked beneath the bed spread.
"I must have lost it." Takuma quickly lied. He could tell that she registered his fib but she didn't press the matter any further.
"Chloe." She said as she extended her hand for a shake. Takuma noticed how beautiful her eyes were, pink pupils were a compliment to her red hair color.
"Takuma." He replied.
"Well without your adventurer's badge we weren't sure if you were a brigand...so we had to confine you. Is there some kind of way you can prove your adventurer status?" She next asked as she held up her hand and ignited a flickering green flame in her palm.
"I'm a healer by trade." She then added. "I'm responsible for easing your...sickness?" She said, "Which if you don't mind me asking….what is it? I've never seen anything of the like."
"It's not a sickness per say. My adventurer's class is Relic Meister. I can purify curses that have been placed on objects. I'm currently dealing with the effects of this amulet." Takuma replied, pointing to the amulet laying across his chest.
"Ah, that. That definitely is a strange accessory." She remarked.
"I take it, you tried to remove it?" Takuma asked.
"No. One of my men did. And now he's nearly dead in the infirmary." The old guard said as he finally finished his meal and got to his feet. Takuma could now get a good look at his face and realized the man was well into his late forties. His demeanor suggested he'd been at his profession too long to care or be surprised by anything.
"Curses are dangerous. This particular one has many effects and the amulet won't be purified for some hours yet." Takuma added. According to the timer there were still about eight hours remaining until the curse ran its course.
"Interesting. I've never heard of such a class--but really there are all sorts out there -- even specialists. Still, you understand the dilemma. Strange guy,stumbling about in the woods after dark..with no identification , items, provisions and obviously he's been in some kind of struggle." Chloe continued. She never seemed aggressive in her interrogations, in fact her tone was pleasant and even.
Takuma got the distinct feeling that she was probably more powerful than him. A notion supported by the guard's laxness.
"Yea. I understand. By the way, where am I ?" Takuma asked. He had an idea based on the map's newly updated locational info but considering he'd passed out just moments after viewing it the name was hard to recall.
"Arnia. In the city guard's tower." Chole responded.
"Well, I'm going to get back to work. Call me if you need me Chloe." The older guard said as he stepped out of the room. She nodded as the man closed the door behind him before she turned to speak with Takuma once more.
"In that case, I'll wait until you dispel this curse. I'm most curious to see how a Relic Meister operates. Can you tell me more about it and how you came to be cursed?" Chole asked as she took a seat on a nearby stool.
Takuma recounted the story of how he'd found the chapel in the forest, discovered the necklace and somehow made his way to town.
He then could feel his stomach churning as a sudden bout of nausea gripped him. He quickly slapped his hand over his mouth and gazed around wildly. Chloe on the other hand was ready with a wooden bucket.
"That's the fourth ailment I've counted so far since you've been here. This must be one hell of a curse." She replied, unphased by Takuma upchucking before her.
"Really? Which ones did you notice?" Takuma asked as he swallowed hard, his hands shaking as he struggled to avoid puking once more.
"Nausea. Migraines. Fever. Internal bleeding." Chloe listed.
"That sounds about right. Though you're forgetting blindness." Takuma added, tapping his right temple as he laid back down.
"Wow. Blindness too? Luckily I have some magic that will dispel all the basic stuff." Chloe said with a smile as she pushed her glasses up over the bridge of her nose. The two talked about various things, mostly related to his adventure and how he came to find the town of Arnia. From their discussion Takuma was able to gather a few key pieces of intel. The first was the identity of the entity depicted in the Statue, Kalifa the Aspect of Creation. Chloe wasn't sure of the details as to how she fell from power but it seemed Kalifa hadn't been worshiped for quite some time. The second was that only he seemed to have a "system" associated with his adventure class. This came to light after a somewhat awkward line of conversation which he was forced to downplay.
The last piece of intel concerned the troubles in Arnia. People mysteriously dying, fights breaking out , arsons, a laundry list of tiny problems that had begun to give the town guard a huge headache. This in turn contributed to their wariness of strangers at the moment.
"Well. Get some rest." Chloe said as she finally got to her feet. During their conversation she had been kind enough to use her magic on Takuma the second she noticed any type of ailment befall him. Part of him didn't want her to go, but he felt a little embarrassed to say as much.
"I'll check in on you later." Chloe said as she closed the door behind her. Now, chained to the bed with little else to do but wait, Takuma decided he should mess around with his system. He first checked out his Status.
Vitality (133%)
Mana (6%)
Stamina (200% MAX)
Force (165%)
Accel (111%)
Knowledge (99%)
The numbers were significantly higher compared to earlier in the day. What's more he noticed that 200% seemed to be the maximum. With his vitality and force nearly maxed he decided to target both before triggering his rank up.
He started by doing leg lifts and repeated several reps as he thought back to the things he'd learned today about the Relic Meister class. The only way to gain experience seemed to be to break curses. He had no mana regeneration to speak of, but also no limitations on mana. In fact his current mana was just over 1,200 points even though he had no skills or abilities that required mana use. He also noted that his appraisal skill needed work. Perhaps if he had known about the specifics of the Blight Carousel curse he would have stored the amulet and attempted to purify it at a later date. Finally, his lack of defense or offense skills bothered him. Some of the abilities he would learn later didn't remedy that problem either so he would have to compensate in some other way. With his class' inability to equip weapons or armors of any type he was beginning to feel overwhelmingly disadvantaged.
What interested him the most were General Skills and Abilities.Initially he made the mistake of believing the tab to be locked , but upon clicking it he learned he could view the contents of the tab--but not activate any of the skills.
To do so would require him to reach Class rank three but he perused the skills by hovering over the descriptions. Based on the categories listed he would most likely be able to use a great deal of the skills to cover for his weaknesses -- particularly healing magic. The green flames Chloe so skillfully wielded ; Takuma recognized this as a basic healing spell called 'Emerald Flames'. The description said that basic ailments and enhanced vitality regeneration could be achieved at the cost of expending mana. The skill even boasted limited flesh mending and bone setting capability. Takuma decided this would be his first new acquisition once he'd managed rank three. For now he was left with how to spend his upcoming SP.
After an hour of sit ups and leg lifts Takuma's stats now looked like so:
Vitality (157%)
Mana (6%)
Stamina (200% MAX)
Force (182%)
Accel (114%)
Knowledge (102%)
The increase of vitality and force were expected but accel and knowledge also increased by minimal amounts. For knowledge he could very well guess how, he'd spent the last hour strategizing and preparing mentally. It seemed that also affected his knowledge modifier.
As for the mystery of the accel increase, he surmised it was related to the rate at which he'd been exercising. It was a shame he couldn't get up to run in place. He rested for another fifteen minutes before throwing himself into his exercises once more.
Every hour on the hour Chloe appeared to alleviate Takuma's curse symptoms. With her help things were manageable (even comfortable), so much so that he shuddered to think he'd even considered staying at the chapel.
Around the 6 hour and 15 minute mark Takuma finally managed to max out his vitality and force. For now this would be good enough, it was time to see exactly what ranking up could offer.
As things stood Takuma's base stats were:
Vitality - 55 [61] (200% MAX)
Mana- 1,231 (6%)
Stamina- 50 (200% MAX)
Force- 2 (200% MAX)
Accel- 2 (135%)
Knowledge- 2 (102%)
He took special note of the Vitality buff currently active and realized it was due to one of his passives, Disguised Blessing. With half of his stat modifiers maxed Takuma finally accepted the Class Rank up prompt.
He felt a rushing sensation fill his body, creating full body warmness in relaxing waves. The feeling quickly faded and Takuma noticed several new alerts.
"Relic Meister has reached Rank 2/10. Visit the Status Menu to level up."
"Class Ranks [2] : You've triggered a rank up. Stat modifiers have been applied and are now reset. You've also gained 3 additional Skill Points. In addition, your stats have increased to the following:
Vitality 55>> 85
Mana- 1,231>> 1,337
Stamina- 50>> 70
Force- 2>> 4
Accel- 2>> 3
Knowledge 2>> 4
"
It took a minute for Takuma to process his new stats. As he suspected his vitality and stamina increased substantially. What was puzzling to him was the fact that his mana increased the most despite little to no modifier progress. He had no clue how this worked, but since he had little use for mana at the moment it didn't seem to matter that much. Much to his chagrin, Force, Accel and Knowledge all exhibited minimal gains. His Force roughly doubled which could be taken one of two ways. The first was that the modifier simply doubled the base attribute by 2. He doubted this method as things would quickly spiral out of control by his final Class Rank. The second was that stats increased based on his class selection, like in most games. Naturally different people were better suited for different roles, right?
He leaned more towards the latter for a couple of reasons. The first was the fact that both his Force and Knowledge scores were now ranked as 4 points. It would only make sense if he gained 2 points of Knowledge to his base score with the last level up. The second was that this explanation also explained his Force score. Assuming he wasn't a close range combat class type (which Takuma had to admit, his skills and abilities would make sense under this assumption) it would mean he'd progress more slowly in physical traits such as speed or strength.
Given this hypothesis, he gained one base point to Force, which was then multiplied by the modifier, giving him two points total. If he applied this to all of his gains it made sense -- save for his vitality, stamina and mana. These three seemed to follow a different formula altogether. Takuma decided to test this with his next rank up, opting to move onto skill point distribution.
Takuma mulled over this moment for the last few hours. He'd come to the conclusion that many of the Relic Meister's Class Skills and Abilities were designed to allow him to manipulate curses in some way or another. They could either be performed on objects or affected himself to a degree. With this in mind there were two skills he wanted to acquire as soon as possible.
Partial Purification (Class Skill) - Select an amount of mana to place into a cursed relic. May lessen the duration or effect of some curses and counts as progress towards purification. Can only be done in increments, which decrease in amount based on skill level. 25% - 5% increments.
Instant Purification (Class Skill) - Use mana to instantly purify a relic. Costs 2x the XP gained for purifying the curse. Cost lowers with skill level.
The main problem was his spent SP point. He now regretted using it considering he needed to upgrade his Relic Appraisal ability. He wanted to completely max Relic Appraisal as soon as possible and while it would only require two points, had he not spent the earlier skill point he could have done so while also obtaining both purification skills.
The main reason he wanted them was that he now realized just how valuable they were. The ability to avoid hours of headaches, nausea, hallucinations and other dreadful ailments? Since none of the class skills seemed to have level requirements it meant he could learn them in any order he wanted. By contrast, Abilities were set to unlock at levels 3, 5 and 7 and the next he was set to receive was:
Relic Activation (Class Ability(Rank 3)) - Allows the user to activate any two purified relics in their possession (non equipped relics only). The duration of the effect is based on the level of the skill and secondary effect of the relic. Furthermore, for each additional level of the skill another 2 relics can be activated (6 total). Duration scales evenly among active effects.
Takuma wasn't sure what the benefit was of activating relics at this point but if there were some he could use as spell types or weapon types it would greatly help him. In preparation of this he needed one or both Purification skills.
Ultimately he decided upon Partial Purification[1], Relic Appraisal [3] as he figured he could simply use Partial Purification four times if need be, it also didn't have additional mana costs associated with it like Instant Purification. Takuma could feel a sense of buyer's remorse as he finished distributing his SP. The rank up felt underwhelming to him for some reason, most likely due to the minimal gains versus the amount of effort he'd made. He had to remind himself that he still had no standard for comparison yet. He laid in bed for several moments thinking about various things before it finally occurred to him to use the skill he'd just obtained.
"Chloe? Chloooooe?" Takuma shouted. It was now the morning hours, so he wasn't sure if she was still awake. Within a few moments she entered the room, flashing a brief smile as she walked to his bedside.
"I'm going to break the curse on this amulet. If all goes well I should be able to show you how being a Relic Meister works. I thought you might want to see." Takuma explained as he prepared to attempt his first purification. For a moment he wondered if there was some special trick to using skills but his curiosity was soon answered by an alert.
"To activate active skills or abilities, call out the skill."
"Simple enough." He thought to himself as he mentally prepared himself. He wasn't sure why but nervous energy filled his mind. He dismissed it as jitters and with a deep breath he finally began. He next gazed down at the amulet lying on his chest he was shocked to find a wealth of new information in its tooltip.
"
Goddess Amulet (Quality : 321) [Cursed Rank 4] [Armament] - An amulet crafted by those faithful to the Goddess. Currently corrupted by miasma. 100% chance to convert into a blessed item upon purification.
Curse Effect: Blight Carousel - Experience a variety of progressively dangerous curses during the curse's duration.
Curse Duration: 24 hours.
Mana Rewarded: 2,000
Experience Rewarded: 1,500
Secondary Effect : Goddess Aura - Create an aura of protection around the user.
"
He knew it! Maxing out Relic Appraisal had definitely been worth it, enough to completely wash away his earlier doubts. So much new information was available to him that Takuma felt like a cheat character for a moment. Since he could discern information like this at a glance from now on, he felt like this would make his life much easier.
"Are you ready?" Takuma asked, taking a deep breath as he laid his right hand on the Goddess Amulet. Chloe nodded, almost as if she was beginning to grow bored.
"Partial Purification!" Takuma shouted as he glared down at the amulet. For a moment nothing happened then he felt a strange sensation as his right hand was filled with glowing white energy. The magic reminded him of luminescent mist which flowed forth, covering the amulet in its glow. Chloe's expression lit up in awe as Takuma focused on pushing the purification energy into the amulet. Due to the skill's level one restriction he could only use an amount of mana equivalent to 25% of the Mana reward -- in this case 500 points. He watched his mana shrink for the first time as it flowed into the Amulet. In turn the amulet began to resist the positive energy flowing into it, an orange aura flaring up quickly. Chloe took a half-step backwards as a wave of negative energy slammed into her, briefly causing her mind to go blank. After taking a moment to recover her awareness she gasped. Takuma was fiercely struggling to force the remaining mana into the amulet.
For a moment Takuma felt he may have succeeded. The amulet's ominous aura quieted down and the once cold amulet had grown quite warm. But soon all hopes were dashed,he noticed the curse timer, which read 6:29. What's more the numbers began to blink red, signaling that the curse had entered the final stages.
"Did it work?" Chloe asked, but Takuma couldn't answer. His body had seized up as paralysis set in. His skin had also taken on a pale blue color, a sure sign that he was suffering from dire poison. Chloe quickly sprang into action, casting a regeneration spell on him to offset the effects of the poison. She next reached into her waist pack, fumbling around for an antidote vial.
"This isn't the one I need. But.. it may lessen the effects." She said as she crushed a small vial filled with light blue liquid in her palm. Instantly blue vapors floated from her hand and into Takuma's nostrils. Takuma felt as if his very blood was on fire as the poison coursed through his veins. If this kept up for much longer he'd definitely die!
Chloe counted no less than eight active status ailments affecting Takuma and she barely had remedies for three of them. The most she could do was numb his pain, cure his blindness, stymie the effects of poison and ultimately remove the paralysis affecting his body.
She worked quickly as waves of miasma dispersed from the amulet and into the air. Soon there was a thick orange fog which had begun to linger in the room. Chloe had never seen anything quite like it in all of her years as a healer and she was completely shaken by it. A cold foreboding feeling had taken over her and it was slowly beginning to force her mind to unravel, but still she soldiered on. After administering the paralysis cure she then focused with all of her remaining mana as she lay her hands on Takuma's chest. Within the next instant she had begun spreading as much of her healing flames across his body as she could.
"Takuma, whatever you are going to do, you need to hurry. I can't hold this any longer!" She shouted as waves of powerful backlashing energy erupted from the amulet. Takuma felt as if he could barely breathe or think, the pain in his body was maddening yet all he could do was endure. His muscles were now slowly softening and the instant he could move he cast Partial Purification once more. His magic quickly plummeted to 337 points as the skill activated, it was now do or die! This time the white energy flared up and began to take form as it contained and consumed the orange energy in a solid sphere. After several seconds the bursts of negative energy within the room ceased and the miasma which lingered in the air was sucked into the white sphere as well. The containment magic slowly began to shrink in size before finally a bright flash of light filled the room. The Goddess Amulet had become purified.
"Quest Complete, Purify A Relic. +15 System XP."
"Hidden Quest Complete, 'Orange Is Ominous'. +100 System XP."
"The Curse System has leveled from 2 to 3. New Quality Of Life features added."
" 'Goddess Amulet' Acquired."
"+2,000 Mana. +1,500 XP."
"Lore Menu updated with (1) new entry."
Takuma fought to keep his eyes open as the alerts rolled in. A sudden rush of fatigue had become him and he felt like sleeping. Soon the pain faded from his body and he was able to sit up again, his drowsiness fading away. Though he still felt numb from the effects of paralysis, the poison left as quickly as it came. When his eyes met Chloe's it was apparent that she felt an overwhelming sense of pity towards Takuma. Her hair was in disarray, her glasses lopsided on her face as she fought the urge to burst into tears.
"You poor, poor boy! I can't believe you have to deal with this burden! I'm sorry I ever doubted you! No wonder you showed up in such a state! It's a miracle you've survived this long!" Chloe exclaimed frantically as she forced herself onto him with a massive hug. Takuma wasn't really sure how to handle it so he just chuckled to himself while her feelings ran their course.
"What!? What's going on!?" The middle aged guard shouted as he burst through the door several moments too late, his spear at the ready.
—-----------
Takuma slept like a rock for the remainder of the night. Comfort had never felt so sweet and what's more the toll on his mental state had become apparent. Curses were a scary thing -- the fear that comes from anticipating pain was just as detrimental as the affliction.
By the morning he awoke feeling completely refreshed. As he got dressed he thought back to the discussion with Chloe earlier in the night. She'd agreed to meet and guide him around the city as a "thank you" for opening her eyes. Takuma felt a bit remorseful, after all he had the sense that Chloe was now traumatized.
He imagined that the sight of purifying a curse would be akin to watching a real life exorcism to the uninitiated. In fact, he wondered why he, himself, wasn't affected as much. The only feelings Takuma had on the matter were a sense of relief -- as if he'd been relieved of a huge burden. It was strange how quickly humans could get used to their circumstances.
He quickly changed into the set of clothes that Chloe had provided for him, from the looks of things they seemed to be the apprentice clothing of a healer class adventurer. Simple cloth, slightly more sturdy than normal fabric but fabric nonetheless.
Everything matched from head to toe, blue with white trim and black underclothing completing the outfit. Blue wasn't really a color he favored and he'd honestly be glad to get rid of the borrowed set as soon as practical. In fact, his first plan was to visit a shop so that he could get his hands on some currency. He sat on his bed for some time awaiting Chloe, who finally knocked on the door.
"I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. I had to grab a few spare things." Chloe apologized, her arms filled with various potions, pouches and items.
"What's all of this?" Takuma asked as Chloe approached him. She then sat the items down upon a nearby dresser before facing Takuma to explain.
"Oh, just a few things I no longer need. I thought maybe I'd put them to good use. You can … have them-" Chloe said as she rummaged around in her waist pack, finally pulling out the key to Takuma's shackles. She flashed a smile before undoing the restraints and offering to help Takuma to his feet.
"You look pretty good in those. If Relic Meister work doesn't pan out, how about you apprentice under me?" Chloe asked with a pleasant smile.
"Hmm. Healing isn't really my thing. But.. I'll keep it in mind." Takuma replied.
"Well. Before we head out, let me show you what we have here." Chloe said as she motioned for Takuma to step over to the dresser. Before them were six small glass vials filled with liquids of various colors, two larger potions, three pouches neatly tied at the tops and one orb.
"These are -- "
"Toxin Bane. Frost Water. Blaze Water.." Takuma's voice trailed off as he noticed Chloe staring at him in awe.
He laughed nervously, taking it as he'd done something he shouldn't have.
"How did you know? Are you actually an experienced adventurer?" She asked.
"Oh, no. One of my abilities allows me to discern information at a glance." He explained. He'd already established that the "system" wasn't real for other people so this was the best and most truthful way he could explain things.
"Really? What type of information?" Chloe seemed genuinely intrigued.
"Let's see. Well, the name and a general description for starters. There's also the quality of these items--" Takuma began.
"Quality? You mean you can tell what the quality of an item is simply by looking at it?" Chloe's eyes lit up as she clasped Takuma's hands into her own.
"Y-yea?" He replied, a bit unsure if that was a good thing or not.
"That's amazing. You have an ability that only master level crafters acquire over many years!" It suddenly occurred to Takuma that Chloe might be a bit of an otaku for things like potions and herbs….
"Mhm. It seems so." He said as he nodded stiffly.
He moved from item to item on the dresser, explaining in detail the effects and other details to Chloe. In the end it seemed she'd been impressed sufficiently, but also simultaneously disappointed. Perhaps she wanted to use the items as a way of conversing?
Takuma quickly changed the subject at that thought.
"So you made these?" He asked.
"Yes! I'm a healer so it's a good idea to have a variety of usable items in a pinch. Some things every adventurer should have, really."
"And you're just giving away? I can't just accept them." Takuma said as he held his hands up before his chest.
"Hmm? Why not? Oh. OH!" Chloe said as if she'd been hit with a sudden epiphany.
"You don't have anything to carry this stuff around in! I should have known I'd forget something. I wanted to bring you my spare satchel! It's a bit of a bother to carry around but it's better than nothing!"
"Ah, no that's not the issue--I just wouldn't feel right accepting these, especially after all of your help last night. I can easily store a great deal of items. Watch." Takuma instructed as he held his right hand, palm upwards and activated his Inventory menu with his freehand. To Chloe he was sure this resembled some type of spell being cast and he didn't bother to explain since the ambiguity suited his purpose.
With a blip of magical energy one of the items he'd procured yesterday, 'Star Lily' appeared in his palm. It was a beautiful white petal flower with lavender colored trim near the pointed tips; if Takuma had to guess the name came from the shape of the flower's petals.
"WHOA!" Chloe shouted as she snatched the flower from Takuma's hand instantly. If the item had been something of value he'd be out of luck!
"That's amazing! So you're telling me you have a storage spell AND you're a master at identifying items? Takuma….you're like a cheat character." Chloe whispered, her face suddenly taking on a very serious expression.
"You're not a cheat character, are you? If so--can you teach me?" Chloe asked, grabbing his arm and pulling him extremely close.
"No.. I'm not. Maybe being a Relic Meister just has some really good abilities to offset all of the trouble curses bring.." Takuma laughed nervously. He didn't realize system features were such a big deal. He decided at that moment to do everything he could to further improve the Curse System when he had the chance.
After amazing Chloe with feats of dimensional storage, he was forced to take the gifts. With that matter settled, Takuma then followed her out of the guard's tower and into the city streets of Arnia. It was a beautiful early morning now, the first Takuma had gotten to experience in this new world. The clean, crisp air felt good rushing into his lungs. After giving him a few moments to soak in the sunshine Chloe started her personal tour of Arnia.
Arnia was small enough that one could walk the perimeter of the city in just under two hours (according to Chloe). Still the impression that Takuma got after all was said and done was "backwater". Nearly three hundred people resided in Arnia and while they had the basics like a tavern, inn and general stores -- that was about it. No running water, no bathrooms or indoor plumbing, no livestock--no true convenience.
In fact, Chloe acted as the city's only doctor despite her status as an adventurer. She claimed that adventuring was "much too dangerous these days" with all sorts of "mishaps and misfortunes" occurring. Given that his experience was rather limited Takuma couldn't dispute this fact so he took her at her word.
"Well." Chloe said, as she came to a stop just outside of the general store. "You can find me in my shop, which is just down the way along the main street. In fact, I insist that you drop by soon, don't be a stranger, Takuma."
Takuma nodded and smiled, waving to Chloe as she parted ways with him, leaving him to his own devices.
"Time to sell some items and get some grub."
Takuma found himself with a rather hearty appetite this morning, thus he couldn't wait to visit the tavern. The scent of something particularly mouth watering beckoned to him as they passed by earlier.
He pushed open the door to the general shop, half expecting a small square room.This was because the building seemed rather small from the outside. Its structure seemed traditional, made completely of wood with a quaint, "lived in" feel. Takuma was pleasantly surprised to find two long walls filled with various items for display the moment he stepped into the shop. Potions, weapons, various types of tools and trinkets -- it was all present and ready to be purchased by some lucky adventurer. Unfortunately for Takuma his good mood was immediately ruined as he gazed around the shop.
"Ugh. I've walked into the seventh circle of hell." He whispered to himself as he shook his head, a feeling of chagrin quickly settling in.
From the front door to the counter, on both walls and even further back, the store was filled with cursed items of various sorts.
"Hello! Welcome to Arnia General Shop!" A young woman's voice carried from the rear of the shop as she moved to take a place behind the counter.