Taylor Shard Keeper Part 3 (Patreon)

Taylor glanced at the line in front of the leatherworker's booth and headed over to the booth with various rock samples and cut gems scattered around on the counter. 'So much for it being like a computer game you never have to wait in line.' She pulled her pack off and grabbed the tokens then walked up to the counter.

"What do you need?" the man behind the counter asked without looking up from the crystal he was working on.

"I have tokens for gem cutting and mining," Taylor said.

"Good for you," the man replied with a touch of sarcasm. "What else did you pick?"

"Enchanting and tailoring," Taylor admitted.

The man glanced up from the gem he was polishing and looked at Taylor. "Magic user?"

"I'm trying," Taylor said, not sure what she was 'supposed' to say.

"Fair enough," the man admitted as he held his hand out for the tokens. "If you weren't a magic user, you'd be an idiot for picking tailoring. You should pick up silversmithing when you get a chance, it synergizes with gem cutting and enchanting."

Taylor dropped the mining and gem cutting tokens into the man's hand. "I'll try."

The man glanced at the tokens then dropped them in a box under the table. "Let's start with mining." The man gestured at a row of samples on the counter. "Take a look at the labeled samples then rearrange the second row to match."

Taylor glanced over the collection of labeled samples. 'Mithral? Iron, silver, fool's gold, gold, dark stone, ethereal iron, nickel and lead.'

The man waited for Taylor to start arranging things before he continued talking, "The hardest part of mining isn't swinging your pickaxe, it's knowing where to swing your pickaxe and how to avoid shattering the gems you'll want to collect."

"Speaking of which, do you know what these teeth are made out of?" Taylor asked as she held the dead rabbit monster up.

The man stared at the rabbit for a couple of seconds then focused on the metal teeth. "I'd have to run some tests to be sure but they look like mithral. You're lucky you survived, mithral holds an edge and these look like they'd cut stone. How did you kill it? It doesn't look hurt."

"I hit it in the head until it stopped moving then hit it a couple more times to be sure," Taylor admitted as she finished organizing the metal samples.

"Not bad," the man said as he looked over the second row of ore samples. "Let's see if you can swing a pickaxe."

Taylor followed him over to a pillar of stone and rusty looking iron that was growing out of the ground and watched as the man knocked a couple of fist sized chunks of rusty metal off the pillar. "I just hit the pillar?"

"Something like that," the man replied with amusement as he handed a pickaxe to Taylor and took a step back. "Give it a go."

Taylor did her best to copy the way the man swung the pickaxe, finding it a bit harder than it looked if only because she wasn't used to swinging the pickaxe. It took eleven swings and three chunks of metal before she picked up the mining skill. "I got it, should I keep going?"

"Nah, it's conjured metal and the experience is shit, just enough to unlock the skill," the man replied with amusement as he gestured towards the table filled with tools and various cheap looking crystals. "Don't bother stealing anything, they're conjured. Take a seat, I'll show you the basics then you can get a bit of practice."

"Sounds good," Taylor replied as she quickly sat down and watched the man show her the basics of his craft. Thankfully it only took ten minutes to pick up the skill and everything he could teach her at the basic level which left her plenty of time to make her way over to the leatherworker.

"Oh, where did you find that?" the woman behind the counter asked as she stared at the blue rabbit Taylor was holding.

"I killed it before I got to the training area," Taylor replied as she handed the rabbit to her. "Do you think you could make something out of it?"

"Sadly, I'd need more than one to make anything too impressive," the woman replied.

"I might be able to find more," Taylor offered as she held out the leatherworking token.

The woman accepted the token with a smile then turned to look at the smith in the next booth. "Arjiss, can I borrow your pliers? I need to pull some metal teeth."

The hulking smith grabbed a pair of black pliers off the forge and walked over. "I don't suppose you want to sell the teeth?" he asked as he got to work pulling the mithral teeth.

"That depends, do you have extra tokens that you'd trade?" Taylor asked hopefully.

The smith glanced at his apprentice who was working on a bracelet. "No but my apprentice decided to take a long lunch and I could use some help."

The young man looked up at his master in surprise. "What?"

"You look a bit faint, you should get something to eat," the smith replied as he pulled a silver coin out of his coin purse and tossed it to the young man. "Grab me a roast chicken and cider while you're at it, keep the change."

"Right," the young man replied as he set his bracelet down and left with a smile on his face and a spring in his steps, wanting to be gone before his master changed his mind as he was going to make half a day's pay for taking a lunch break.

"I don't mind working," Taylor assured them, hoping she had enough energy left to get everything finished.

Arjiss finished pulling all of the teeth then handed the rabbit to Vivian. "Have fun."

Vivian frowned when she grabbed a skinning knife off the table and tried to cut into the rabbit, frowning slightly when her blade didn't even scratch the leather. "Huh, where did you say you found this?"

"I killed it before I got to the training field," Taylor replied, not seeing a point in admitting that she'd brought it from another world until she had a better idea how they'd react.

"That's a bit concerning," Vivian mused as she set the skinning knife back on the table and grabbed her personal blade off her belt. She quickly skinned the rabbit. "You should probably take the rest of it to the cook, he'd be able to tell if it's edible."

"It looks like there are threads of metal in the bones, it's probably worth crushing the bones and smelting the mess," Arjiss mused. "It's almost a shame you killed it, I'd love to raise some of these."

Taylor shook her head, remembering the fight and how they hadn't stopped trying to kill her until she'd killed them. "They're sort of foul tempered."

Vivian laughed. "Some of the best monsters are, have you tried feeding them?"

"Not yet," Taylor admitted.

"It's worth a try if you run into more," Vivian replied thoughtfully. "Either way, let me show you the basics then you can help Arjiss for a bit."

"Sure," Taylor agreed.

0o0o0

Taylor had barely finished learning the three recipes the fat cook was willing to teach her when she found herself out of energy and back in the garage. She glanced at the ice chest filled with dead rabbits. "I'm going to need a better knife which means I need more energy." She opened her crafting window and looked at her options for knives and frowned when she noticed the crafting times were measured in hours instead of seconds. "What the fuck?"

"That's a load of shit," Taylor complained when she noticed the note informing her that worlds without a supporting system increased the crafting time. "So much for setting up a forge in the backyard. I'll have to test my exploration world," she mused as she focused on her shard that gave her energy and slipped into the zen state she needed, finding it easier the more she did it.

Ten seconds later she vanished from the garage and reappeared sitting in a leather chair in an unfamiliar upscale apartment with a great view of a bay thanks to the large windows. Her gaze jumped to the large flat screen mounted on the wall above an expensive looking leather couch. "Elves and dragons, at least the actors are decent looking."

She glanced at her four blue hands then looked at the expensive kitchenette with a granite countertop. "Someone spent way too much on this place," she mused as she walked over to the bathroom door that was only partially opened and looked at the glass shower that looked like it could fit a group of cheerleaders. 'You could probably buy a nice house for what this place cost, if it was real.'

Taylor walked over to the other door and looked at the bedroom and the queen sized bed with expensive looking sheets. "That looks way too comfortable…" she trailed off as she turned and spotted a stack of cash on the kitchen counter. "Now you're just taunting me," she muttered when she remembered that she couldn't take the cash with her.

She walked over to the fridge and opened it, not particularly surprised that it was well stocked. "At least I won't starve while I'm here," she mused, jumping when the doorbell rang. "Just a minute."

Taylor walked over to the door and peeked through the spyhole. 'Three girl scouts carrying magic wands and a tied up and gagged Vista? Yeah, there's no way this is going to end well.' She opened the door. "Can I help you?" she asked, glancing over the three teenage girls standing in front of her door in short skirts and sheer white shirts that couldn't possibly be regular for the scouts.

The redhead girl smiled at Taylor. "We're selling girl scout nookie and defeated heroes, are you interested?"

"Girl scout nookie?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yep, one hundred an hour, we'll do anything you want," the blonde girl offered.

"How much to free the hero?" Taylor asked as she walked over to the counter and grabbed the stack of money.

"Two hundred," the red haired girl replied without hesitation as she waved her wand and floated the Vista look alike into the apartment.

Taylor handed the red haired girl the top two hundreds. "Okay, set her free."

The red haired girl lowered her wand and set the Vista look alike on the ground then waved it and the ropes she'd been tied up with vanished. "Happy?"

The Vista lookalike reached up and took her gag out. "You should pay them and spank them for being naughty girls."

Taylor glanced between the Vista look alike and the red haired girl. "Let me guess, they're part of your scout group?"

"Yes and they've been naughty, can you help a girl punish them?" the Vista look alike asked with a smile, letting Taylor know that she hadn't really been kidnapped.

'Screw it, it's not like they're real and I need the energy,' Taylor mused as she gave the four girls a hundred each then stuck the rest of the cash in the pocket of her robe. "Naughty girls shouldn't have clothes."

"Don't worry, I doubt she hits harder than my little sister," the redhead 'assured' the rest of the girls as she pulled her skirt down then let it drop.

"That's not particularly reassuring, your sister is mean," the blonde girl offered as she unbuttoned her shirt off revealing rather large breasts for her age. "She also likes to pinch my nipples, you wouldn't do that would you?" she asked hopefully, giving Taylor a look that said she'd enjoy it.

"Probably, you captured a hero," Taylor pointed out, trying to have fun with things and not think about the moral issues of having sex with girls a year or two younger than she was or that the real Vista would probably kill her if she ever found out. Not that she was planning on telling anyone about this part of her life, but that didn't really help as she watched the girls strip.

0o0o0

"Welcome back," the white haired shopkeeper said as Taylor walked over. "What can I interest you in today?"

"Do you have any crafting tools or unbreakable jars, vials or sample containers?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"Unbreakable or just extremely durable?" the shopkeeper asked thoughtfully.

"Either works but I'd prefer unbreakable," Taylor admitted, knowing cape fights could get nasty, especially against the endbringers.

The shopkeeper scratched his chin as he mentally reviewed his inventory. "That reminds me, I have a couple of bottles cluttering my shelves that are technically indestructible."

Taylor watched as the shopkeeper pulled five mismatched old fashioned bottles out from under the counter and set them on the counter. "Technically?"

"They're indestructible, they're just sealed shut," he admitted. "One perfume bottle, an old pill bottle, a test tube that would be perfect for a potion, a whiskey flask and one genie bottle, sans genie."

"How much?" Taylor asked as she glanced between the bottles, fairly sure being sealed shut wouldn't drop her from learning something or trading them to the glassblower in Cider Falls.

"Twenty five energy for the lot, they're glued shut with sovereign glue which lowers their value a fair bit," the shopkeeper replied with a shrug.

"In other words, getting them apart is going to take some work?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Try impossible,' the shopkeeper thought as he smiled at Taylor. "Basically. If nothing else, they make interesting paperweights."

'Sounds about right,' Taylor mused as she ran her finger over the 'old' genie bottle. "I'll take them. What do you have in the way of leatherworking tools?"

"Not as much as I'd like," the shopkeeper admitted. "A guy just cleaned out most of my stock twenty minutes ago."

'I shouldn't have finished the movie with the girls,' Taylor told herself then shook her head when she thought about how relaxing spending time with people that weren't emotionally checked out or sadistic bitches felt. 'Screw it, I'm not apologizing for spending time gathering energy and relaxing.'

"Of course, not as much as I'd like doesn't mean nothing," the shopkeeper said as he pulled a leather case filled with scraping tools out from under the counter and set it on the table. "Fifteen energy?"

"Fair," Taylor agreed. "Do you have any woodworking tools?"

The shopkeeper grinned as he pulled a battery powered cutting tool out from under the counter along with a sandpaper covered block of wood. "Thirty five energy for both."

"Does the saw come with a charger?" Taylor asked hopefully.

The man shook his head. "The power cells shouldn't run out. I make no claims about the sandpaper wearing out but I should have more by the time you need it."

"In that case, I'll take them," Taylor replied, figuring a battery that didn't need to be charged was worth a fair amount, especially if she could figure out how to replicate it.

"Who do I complain to about cursed items?" a girl asked the shopkeeper as she walked over.

Taylor blinked when she turned and saw a young woman with several glowing cracks of purple light on her face. "Huh."

The shopkeeper gestured towards a sign next to a potted plant that Taylor was fairly sure hadn't been there before the shopkeeper had called their attention to it, 'All sales are final, the Unseen Emporium is not responsible if you buy a cursed item or a knockoff.'

"I look like a freak," the girl complained.

"You look like a dangerous magic girl that opened one too many rifts to the abyss and suffers for her craft," the shopkeeper pointed out. "It's called style points, unless you're saying it doesn't work?"

"It works," the girl admitted reluctantly.

"What is it supposed to do?" Taylor asked, curious what the girl had bought.

The girl held up her hand and showed off her silver ring with an over the top fake ruby in it. "It's a ring of jumping and safe landing. Normally I wouldn't complain but my commanding officer is a paranoid asshole and would probably use the excuse to have me 'reassigned' to the Shadow Waste."

"How much do you want for it?" Taylor asked, glad that she didn't have to deal with that type of crap. 'I'm never joining the wards.'

"I paid ten monster cores for it," the girl admitted.

"Monster cores?" Taylor asked the shopkeeper.

"Some people pay in energy, some people pay in monster cores or souls," the shopkeeper replied as he put Taylor's purchases in a cloth bag. "A basic monster core from her world is worth five energy."

"In other words, fifty energy," Taylor mused. "I can't pay you directly but I don't have a problem buying something worth fifty energy if you want to look for a replacement," she offered, figuring she could reverse engineer the enchantment or sell it to the enchanter in Cider Falls for more training.

"Thank you!" the girl replied, stepping forward to hug Taylor before stopping herself and taking a step back.

"Where's your mining gear?" Taylor asked the shopkeeper, figuring buying a pickaxe would be easier than trying to kill enough rabbits to make a mithral pick, especially since she wasn't sure the metal was heavy enough.

"Back room," the shopkeeper replied as he gestured towards one of the doors. "I'll keep an eye on your bag."

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she headed for the backroom. She grinned when she found an entire shelf devoted to mining and exploring caves. "Mining lamp, pickaxe, hammer and spikes," she mused as she wandered down the isles reading the tags. She paused when she saw a collection of cheap looking silver necklaces that promised to give her night vision. 'Even if I don't need it, I could probably sell them.'

She picked up one of the cheaper and uglier necklaces then grabbed a set of welding goggles that should fit over her mask and protect her from flashes of light. She picked up a bag that was supposed to auto sort anything you put into it and a pickaxe enchanted with durability then headed back to the counter.

"Can I talk you into fifty three energy?" the girl asked hopefully.

"Sure," Taylor replied, not particularly concerned with a couple of points of energy as it seemed like it was a lot easier for her to get energy than the girl. "What's your world like?" she asked as she set her purchases on the counter.

"Everything was basically Earth Normal until World War Two, dropping the bombs opened a rift into the Shadow Lands and monsters poured out," the girl explained as she pulled her ring off, causing the glowing 'cracks' on her face to vanish.

"Monsters?" Taylor asked.

The girl scowled as she thought about the monsters they had to deal with. "They're basically twisted creatures that are near impossible to put down without silver weapons and breed like rabbits. Fortunately, most of them aren't particularly smart."

"Lovely," Taylor muttered, taking that to mean some of them were. "What do you mean by Earth Normal?"

"It was a nice world without magic. I mean don't get me wrong, I love magic but I could have done without the monsters," the girl explained.

"Most travelers agree that Earth normal means the continents are in the same place and that humans are the dominant lifeform," the shopkeeper offered as he started ringing things up. "Beyond that things get a bit fuzzy. In short, if the world doesn't have most of the major countries I don't consider it Earth Normal. Of course, most of the travelers consider their own worlds normal even if they aren't."

"In other words, parahumans are weird?" Taylor asked, thinking of what she knew of Earth Aleph.

"For a number of reasons I'm not going into but yeah, basically. Normally when you can fly without magic or tech, you're a mutant or an alien," the shopkeeper replied as he collected the energy Taylor owed for her purchases and tossed the girl her new ring. "Either way, you're good to go."

The girl handed Taylor her ring and put her new ring on. "Better?"

"I don't see any weird cracks," Taylor replied with a smile, glad that she could help someone have a better day.

"Good." The girl jumped into the air about five feet and touched the ceiling. "Nice!"

"Another happy customer," the shopkeeper said, glad that he'd made a profit and that things had worked out.

"Thank you for helping, you're a lifesaver. I've got to go before I'm late for Beltane but hopefully I'll see you around," the girl said, wishing she could stay and chat but knowing she shouldn't.

"Don't worry about it and have fun," Taylor replied with a smile, glad that she could help someone that had a worse life than she did.

"I plan to," the girl replied with a smile, already planning who she was going to dance with.

"Do you need anything else?" the shopkeeper asked Taylor after the other girl vanished.

"Probably, but I'm not sure where to start," Taylor admitted. "Do you have any boots that let you stand on air?"

"I've got a set of cheap shoes that let you stand on air and a boot that would let you run on air if you had two," the shopkeeper replied with a grin, hoping he could get rid of them for a decent price.

"How much for the boot?" Taylor asked, figuring she could reverse engineer it with her leatherworking or get the leatherworker to do it.

"Twenty," the shopkeeper offered.

"Fifteen?" Taylor countered.

"Deal," the man replied with a grin as he pulled it out from under the counter and tossed it to Taylor after taking the energy. "Anything else?"

"Do you have a ring of invisibility?" Taylor asked hopefully.

The shopkeeper shook his head. "Sorry, I sold my last one an hour ago. You'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"It was just a thought, I'll check back later, I need to do some mining," Taylor replied as she put her 'new' boot in her bag with the rest of her purchases other than her pickaxe.

"Best of luck," the shopkeeper offered as he turned to look at the shifty looking cloaked guy walking over with a large stuffed snake curled around his shoulders.

Taylor briefly considered asking about the stuffed snake before deciding that some things were probably better off unanswered. She picked up her pickaxe and focused on heading to her Exploration shard so she could harvest some resources.