The To-do List

Dinner at Old Lins'

Raizel rented the shop for six months. He stocked it up and paid for a little renovation. With time 600,000 his credits slowly dwindled to about 250,000 credits. 

His days were going very well. He woke up, practised his sword, cultivated, ate breakfast, sat down to mind his shop while practising his talisman crafting, ate lunch, cultivated, ate dinner and went to bed.

It was a peaceful, beautiful life, the perfect life. There was just one problem, his shop was deserted. He had not seen a single customer in over two weeks. Ben said that the plaque is the problem, so he ordered a new one done but it seemed like the plaque was not the problem in the end as the empty doorway remained the same.

He bent down as he focused on the talisman paper he was crafting. The tip of the brush that was stained sufficiently in ink floated atop brown and soft talisman paper, drawing line after line of smooth and winding talisman markings. His brush technique was light, precise and extremely flexible like his hands were like a snake, boneless

His speed slowed and the last marking slowly came to form on the brown talisman paper. Hundreds of greenish markings curled into one single pattern. The talisman shone abruptly before returning to normal. Seeing the completed Spirit replenishing talisman, Raizel felt satisfied.

A loud clap distracted him and he looked up to find Peter standing beside him, "So wonderful. Raizel, only a few people can craft talismans with the same skill as you. You must have worked hard."

Raizel simply looked at him. He was glad that the man had stopped asking him if he was shocked to see him. He did not want to lie so he did not answer, how could he be shocked? 

The moment entered his vicinity, he knew. The arrays around his shop were that formidable and even if Peter would bypass his arrays, would he also escape his senses? He was not born with the Primordial Void Spirit for nothing.

How are both of them entangled? The day after he visited his shop, Peter had rushed over the next morning to insist that he never said he would process the materials for him for free. Raizel paid him thinking it would be the end of it but Peter had shown up the next evening and the one after that. Eating dinner with him had become routine.

As he prepared himself to close up for the day, he heard a small hiss behind him. He looked and Peter was analysing the talisman judiciously, "This was crafted with the nether vine."

Raizel nodded while turning the tag on the door from open to closed.

"Which tier is this talisman?" Peter asked not taking his eyes off the talisman, he was simply admiring Raizel's speed and precision as he crafted. It was only now that he was shocked at the power contained within the single talisman.

"Tier-3 talisman, the Spirit replenishing talisman." Raizel introduced the talisman and his eyes brightened a bit. Is he going to have his first customer?

"It is the spirit replenishing talisman, just that this one is so beautiful, it would hurt to activate it. Is there any need to make it this pretty, it is going to burn anyway?" He said placing the talisman back on the table.

He looked at the sky and he smiled even wider, "Come, let us celebrate your second week without a customer. I placed a huge bet on your head. You have to wait patiently till the fourth week before you get a customer."

As the man chattered on and on, Raizel just looked wistfully at the talisman on the table then at the man now outside the shop and finally at the keys in his hand. Should he enter inside and close the door behind him? 

He really did not want to be associated with this man anymore.

Peter looked back and saw Raizel still stalling at the door. “What are you still standing there for? Hurry up, those old men will soon finish everything.”