Everybody Gangsta Until Science Meets Magic

30 - Penalty Quest

Mouth hanging wide open, Aiden's eyes were blinking rapidly. He was trying to burn the image of Eara, who just came out of the armor shop's fitting room.

She was wearing a suit of shiny, black leather armor that covered only her torso down to half of her thighs. Under her leather armor were black tights that covered up to her neck, to her elbows, and down to her knees. The design was simple, but the quality was top-notch. Not to mention it looked good on Eara.

She looked like a prime example of a rogue or assassin in an RPG game.

After a few seconds, Aiden realized that he was probably staring at her too much, so he pressed his lips together into a smile and said, "That looks very good-- too much in fact." The armor was perfectly accentuating her features, and she was bound to attract gazes if she was to roam around in that.

"Do you have cloaks or stuff in here?" Aiden asked the lady shop assistant who affirmed with professionalism.

". . . It's hard to move with a cloak." Eara muttered under her breath, feeling a bit dissatisfied. She understood why Aiden requested for a cloak, however, so she didn't actively go against it. 

Still, her soft plea was, for some reason, heard by the owner of the armor shop. 

"I have a cloak," a very buff-looking man stated with a thick voice, showing up to behind the shop counter from a door, "You won't experience any hardships in moving wearing it."

Seeing as Eara was interested, Aiden didn't hesitate and asked about this cloak the shop owner was talking about.

"Here it is." He took out a hanger of sorts with a dark purple cloak hanging on it, and raised it forward to the duo, "It's called a Phantom Cloak."

'Phantom? Like, does it make the user invisible or something?' Aiden smiled at himself jokingly, before asking, "How does it help in movement?" Aiden stepped towards the piece of equipment and tried touching the cloak's fabric, mesmerized by its color.

His eyes widened in shock when the fabric slid right along his fingers. He tried grabbing the fabric, but it would slip away from his grasp like water. ". . . What . . ?"

"The fabric of this cloak is made from the membrane of a rare egg in the pit, and it is impossible for it to be grabbed." The shop owner puffed his chest out, smiling. "Of course, it's a different story once the fabric is punctured, but puncturing it isn't easy as well."

Satisfied, Aiden nodded and shot Eara a glance. She seemed to be looking forward to trying out such a mystic-seeming equipment.

"So?" Aiden turned his head back to the shop owner, "How much is it?"

"Since you've already bought a Shadowskin set, I'll bring the price down from a crystal and 870 thousand units to a crystal and 800 thousand-- final price."

'1.8 Million units, huh?' Aiden pursed his lips into a line, before looking at Eara who was faintly shaking her head.

"We'll buy a normal cloak for now. We're just going to make a quick trip to the market and trade some stuff for the money." 

"Hm." The shop owner stashed the equipment in his storage trinket, before asking them, "If you have the ores I need, I can buy them straight from you at a slightly higher price." 

Raising his eyebrows in interest, Aiden asked, "What ores?"

"Darbon for 50 thousand units per clump, berrubium for 60 thousand units. Or if you have arophyte or erindium, we can discuss their prices."