[NR] Chapter 122 - Graded Daggers (Patreon)

Early next morning Jason, Rosha, and Courtney meet up at the Adventurers Guild. The building is crowded and they almost despair at the lines. Even though there is a desk set aside for non-quest related help the wait still takes what seems like forever. Once the team gets to the desk even more troubles pop up. It was simple to add Courtney to the team but removing James was an annoyance. Not hard to do, just a lot of paperwork. If he had been there to agree with the removal, it would have been streamlined. However, without him they need to sign so many things to declare they were not removing him for many reasons. The biggest one and why so many papers needed signed was to make certain they were not ditching him just before turning in a quest to screw him out of rewards.

With the paperwork done they went to check on the quest board. After going over all the requests with a fine-toothed comb though none of them found a workable quest. While the way they wanted to go wasn’t pure wilderness, it was close. Any town there would bring their goods here instead of a caravan going to them. Rosha looks a bit down but Courtney interrupts her gloom by reminding her that, “this just means we have more freedom in our travels! Until now you have stuck to the roads and tamed forests. A little wildness will be perfect to work on your ranger skills.”

Without a quest to hold them here the group heads right over to a weapon store so Jason can pick up his daggers. Despite their rush it still takes a while to find a good shop or rather a bad shop. Jason only has 20 some silver and the others are worse off. The group ends up in the closest thing to a slum the city has before he can afford even the cheapest of throwing daggers. This confused Jason so when he bought a set of five throwing daggers he asked why 15 silver was the cheapest around.

The clerk sighed at the question, “Look at the store. Average place isn’t’ it? You could run a place like the fancy stores on the main strip in another town with how much it costs the owner to run this joint. Biggest problem is who owns the land or rather who doesn’t. We are a ‘city’ but not officially. The actual population here is at the level of a town. Even most of the workers in the fancy shops are just people passing through. Now what is the biggest defining feature of this place?”

Our team makes a few suggestions. However once Courtney mentions being halfway between a couple of big cities, the clerk slaps his hands. “That the thing. When this place first got set up that didn’t matter because no one would bother to tax somewhere so small. As it grew that little detail provided a golden age for the town. Neither of the major cities will let the other have the tax money if they couldn’t. One thing led to another including a small war or two and then suddenly the kingdom decreed both cities can tax the place. Oh, and the kingdom obviously needs in on it so they get tax us directly as well as if we were a city. It costs so much for a shop to be run here that they can only afford to sell the good stuff.”

He sighs again, “don’t know why I am telling you this. Guess I just want to get it off my chest. Anyway, the taxes are based on how much you sell which is stupid but I don’t make the laws. We lost money selling you those daggers but now they are gone. Don’t know why the owner tried to set up this place anyway. All the big stores are run by large organizations. Some silly dream of having a local owned place. Doesn’t mean squat when your opponents spend more in a day on bread for their workers than we do in a year. Anyway, here are your throwing daggers.”

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Throwing Daggers x5

Description:

Basic iron throwing daggers crafted by a journeymen smith. While the material and shape are nothing special, the smith used a special heritage technique in the crafting of this set of daggers. This elevates them to the status of graded items.

Grade: Low Normal (technique)

Effects:

• Slip-through - The blade is able to slip through things like foliage with great ease

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The group leaves the shop quickly. That clerk was a bit too depressing. It almost makes you wonder why the various organizations set up shop here. When Rosha vocalizes this thought both Jason and Courtney glance at each other. Jason gives first and explains that, “likely as a status symbol. To be able to afford to have your shop on the main street is an amazing feat.” Rosha stares at him skeptically for a while before he gives in, “and smuggling. I stayed on a wagon owned by one of those big caravans. That thing was so laced with space magic and other such enchantments they could smuggle a lot of good stuff through. All that magic would interfere with whatever methods the guards used to check for that kind of stuff. The triple tax nonsense is just the governments demanding their cut. Though besides that my daggers are apparently graded? I saw that mentioned in the newbie stuff but it seemed less official than being in the items description.”

Rosha was looking down at all the nonsense people had to deal with in this town but the mention of graded items distracts her. Courtney takes this chance to keep her thoughts away from the darker side of things and is about to explain it all when a thought occurs to her. She turns to the other two and asks, “So how much do you understand about all the various grades and ranks that stuff has in NeoRealm?” Both Rosha and Jason suddenly find something interesting in the distance to stare at while whistling.