Ero-Game: Power and Sword

“Can I borrow some money?” Nikola asked.
We were having breakfast. Everyone was at the table, including Sterling.
“What happened to all your wins?” She’d won enough in the casino to last her for years if it’s not spent stupidly.
“I sent most of it to my village.” She said, putting in a few apple slices in her mouth.
“Hmm.” Well, that’s one way to run out of it too. “Why do you need money?” I was providing her with everything anyway.
She swallowed what she was chewing and said, “The boys want to go out. I promised them I would.”
I looked over at the two moochers at the table. “No,” I said. This was a good opportunity to get rid of them. When she runs out of money, they’d  naturally leave.
But Garth came to her rescue, “I can pay Nikola. I have a lot saved up.”
So this is how you’re going to use your salary? I shook my head.
“O, thanks.” Nikola happily accepted. “Do you want to come with us, Sterling?”
I wondered what he’d say, and he said, “No.” And shook his head. I don’t  know why, but I was kind of happy. Though, it’s not like I’d mind if he went out and had some fun or anything… I wouldn’t care… “I have to go  home. I have to go to work too.” He needed to talk to a lot of people.  Say his goodbyes and all that before the end of the month.
Things were kind of moving fast, and I didn’t want to think about it, so I stared at my plate and ate.
“Okay. That’s too bad.” She said.

“And Garth, I need you to go buy these ingredients.” I pulled out a list from my pocket and gave it to him. “You might have to look around, but you should be able to find everything in the marketplace. If you can’t find something, let me know right away.” If he couldn’t find it in the normal markets, I was sure the old goblin hiding in the ghetto would have it.
“O.” He took the list and looked through it.
“Do I need to find these today?” He was hoping to travel around with Nikola and them.
I made a mental note to hire more butlers when I get a base in Delaron. He has been corrupted by a certain beastwoman. “Yes. You need to find them as soon as possible.”
“Okay.” He looked over the list seriously. “These are for the insecticide, right? Master.”
“Yes.” After running errands for me all his life, I’m glad he’d picked up a few things. “We need these before we enter the dungeon again.”
“I’m also level 12, so we don’t need to worry anymore,” Nikola said.
“Right, what did you specialization in?” I asked.
“Dual Swords.” She said. “I always go one-handed when I use my sword, so with two swords, I’ll be twice as strong.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Woodie said.
“Yeah.” Dixon agreed.
“Thanks, guys.” She smiled.
“Yeah, I noticed you only use one hand.” I nodded. “A dual wielder is a good specialization.” I had played it before. It has many skills to deal  with multiple opponents and was decent against magicians and martial artists. “Then you’ll need to buy another sword.”
“Ah, yeah.” She stared at her plate and said, “Maybe I’ll go to the  casino again. Or maybe I’ll just wait till I saved up enough.”
“Don’t be stupid.” What’s the point of specialization if you can’t use its skills. Well, your Qi does become stronger, and there are other benefits, but that isn’t the point! I shook my head and took out my wallet (money pouch). I took out two gold coins and handed them to her.
“O.” She was happy to receive them.
“This. Is. For. Your. Sword.” I said, placing it in her hand and coldly  staring into her eyes. “This is not. For you to have fun.”
She nodded. “I understand.” And quickly pocketed them.
I made a mental note to electrocute her if I saw a cheap sword in her hand.

We all finished our breakfast and went our separate ways for the day.
I went back to my room and continued to work on The Bracelet of Eros. Finishing the bracelets was on the top of my list right now.

***

“Welcome back.” His mother said when Sterling entered his home.
“I’m back.” He said, taking off his shoes.
“Well, did you eat?” She said, putting on her coat.
“Yeah. We ate breakfast together.”
“Okay, I’m going to the bakery. I won’t be back till 5.” She’d gotten  herself a job at the local bakery. She hardly took any rest at all after  her health returned. “Did you already tell your manager you’ll be  late?”
“No. She’s going to be mad.” He was planning on coming back last night. But he’d gotten too comfortable in Sherrie’s bed and decided to take a  yelling from the manager.

“That’s not good.” His mother said. “But I guess if it’s Sherrie…” How could she oppose her son getting closer to her savior.
“About Sherrie, mom… She said she’d leave the capital by the end of the month.”
“I see.” She could see the sadness in her son’s eyes. “That can’t be  helped; she’s an adventurer. She has to think about ranking up and  leveling too.” She remembered her own youth and her desire to level up.  But that was a long time ago; these days, she was happy to spend time  with her son. Well, she still had some desire, but she wasn’t one of  those women in a midlife crisis. Her days of leveling up were far in the  past. Nowadays, she just wanted one or two partners to peacefully spend  the rest of her life with.
“Mom, I’m thinking of going with her.” He said shyly.
“Oh,” she was surprised that her cute son wanted to leave the nest. “Is she fine with that? What did she say?”
“Yeah,” he did have to beg a little, but he didn’t want to mention that, “for the most part.” He couldn’t look his mother in the eyes. “I’m sure  a lot of boys will fall for her… Right now… I just want to be with her mom. Right now, that’s all I know. I know I want to go with her.”
“Looks like you made up your mind.” She said. He nodded a little guilty.  His mother had only recovered a few weeks ago, and already he wanted to  leave her. “We’ll talk about it when I come back. If you really do plan on leaving, you need to let your boss and everyone else know too. And  what about your friends?”
“I will. I was going to tell everyone.” He said.
“Okay, I’m running late. We’ll talk about it when I get back.” And she ran out the door.

He scratched his head and got changed for work.

***

“Come on, try it on.” Nikola urged Dixon, trying to put a cute hat she’d found on his head.
“No, no.” He stopped her, shaking his head. “You’ll buy it.” He was afraid she’d buy it if she liked how it looked on him.
“Don’t you like it?” She pouted her lips.
“That’s not it,” he shook his head, “and you know it.”
“Yeah, that money’s for a sword,” Woodie told her. They’d somehow gotten themselves in a clothing store, and now Nikola wanted to buy them something. “Let’s go look for your sword.” Woodie pushed her towards the exit.
“She gave me a lot.” She said. “I have enough for you guys and a sword.”
“Then we’ll do this after we get you a sword,” Dixon said. She was harder to push than she looked. She was as tough as a boulder.
“Fine.” She said, putting down the hat. Finally, she agreed to leave the shop. “We’ll come back after we buy my sword.”
“Okay,” Dixon said, taking one of her hands in his. Woodie took hold of her other hand. Holding hands with two handsome men, she walked down the street. They had to keep pulling her from entering random shops.

After struggling with her for over an hour, they managed to get her to a sword shop. They both looked tired from trying to control her.
“Alright, we’re here like you guys wanted.” She said, feigning disinterest. Truthfully she was very excited to get her second sword and  become a true dual wielder.
They walked in and started looking around.
Nikola carefully looked for a good sword while Dixon and Woodie browsed. Every now and then, one of them would point at a sword they thought was cool and say: “O, what about this one.”
And She’d caringly smile and say something like, “Yeah, that one has a  nice design, but I’m looking for a one-handed sword. I think that’s a little too heavy for one-handed use.”
And they’d say, “O, okay. Then we’ll keep looking.”
And she’d say, “Yeah.”
They had a few more conversations like that before the owner took notice of the men in her store and came over to talk.

“Men looking at swords? What’s this about?” She asked them. “You guys aren’t part of the Machos, are you?”
“No, it’s not for us. It’s for her.” Woodie said, pointing at Nikola.
“Machos? What’s that?” Dixon asked.
“You haven’t heard of them? Well, they’re old news now. They were more of a problem back in my day.” The shop owner said. “I was only teasing  you guys.”
Nikola looked for a moment at her lovers conversing with the shop owner but then turned back to studying the swords on the shelves.
“No, I’ve never heard of them,” Dixon said. “Who are they?”
“They were just a bunch of villains, terrorists, whatever you want to call them, from back in the day.” The shop owner said.
“Oh, what did they do?” Dixon was curious, and so was Woodie.
“Look, I’m not really against men wanting to level up, but they were the  worst kind. They did a lot of terrible things to both men and women, trying to do whatever it was that they were trying to do. It’s all in  the past now. Why am I rambling about that now?”
“I’ve never even heard of them,” Woodie said.
“The church took care of them long before you kids were ever born. Ah, I’m showing my age.” She sighed.
“They’re like the Black Widows,” Dixon said. The Black Widows are a  notorious group of women considered highly dangerous in every country by all major organizations, including the church. For doing things in keeping with what their name would suggest.
“Yeah, you could say that.” She nodded. Everyone became a little contemplative, and the shop became silent. “Girl, what are you looking  for.” The shop owner shattered the silence and asked Nikola who was  going through the swords on the shelf.

“Ah,”  Nikola looked at the shop owner, pulled her sword halfway out of its sheath, and said, “I’m looking for a sword like this. Or something  that’d go with this.”
“Let me see it.” The shop owner said.
Nikola pulled out the sword, flipped it, and holding it by the blade, gave her the handle. The shop owner took the handle, looked at the  sword, ran her fingers over it, and walked off to the other side of the shop. Nikola followed behind her. She went into an aisle and pulled out a  sword from the shelf. “This about seems right.” She said, showing  Nikola the sword.

“That looks perfect.” Nikola grabbed the sword.
“Perfect? Why are you getting two swords?”
“I just became a dual sword wielder,” Nikola told her.
“Oh.” The shop owner looked at two boys in the shop. Then she looked back at Nikola and said, “Then you don’t want to use that.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“You want dual swords. Those ones might look good, but they’re just light swords. They’re good more for a weapon master or a blade wielder type. You know, ones that can switch between weapons on the fly. What you want are dual swords made for dual sword wielders.”
“Hmm.”
“Come on, I’ll show you.” The shop owner led her to another part of the store. The store was quite big with different aisles containing all  variations of swords. An aisle was wholly dedicated to dual wielders. “Here, pick out one of these.”
“These are all…” She looked through them. Unlike the other aisle, the swords here were all in pairs.
“You should try a few out.” The shop owner said. “There isn’t a lot of  room here, but you can try them out behind the store if you’d like.”
“Okay.” Nikola picked out a pair.
“Alright, come.” She led her to the back of the store. The back of the store was facing the back of another store, but there was enough room between them to swing a few swords.
Nikola tried out the pair she’d picked up and said, “They’re good.” Then she wanted to try her old sword. “Can I try my old sword,” Nikola said,  handing the new pair to Woodie.
“Sure.” The shop owner handed the two swords she was carrying to Nikola.
Nikola tried out her old sword with the counterpart they found for it.  She immediately felt the difference. Though the weight difference was only slight, and it wasn’t anything she couldn’t manage, the swords  built for dual wielders felt better. “Let me try out a few more.” She  said.

Nikola  spent a good hour trying out the various swords in the dual swords aisle. Finally, she came to a decision, “I’ll take these.” She held in  her hands two deep blue swords with a simple gladius type design. They both had two runes carved on the base of the blades.
“That’s a good choice.” The shop owner scratched her head. “But can you afford those?”
“How much are they?”
“2 gold.” The owner said.
“That…” That’s everything Sherrie had given her. “1 and a half gold.” She tried to bargain.
“No way.” The shop owner shook her head. “No, no, it’s 2 gold. I don’t bargain.”
“1 gold and 60 silver.”
“I don’t bargain.”
“1 gold and 70 silver.”
“No. no.” She shook her head. “The sword has rune magic embedded in it.”
“This rune magic only makes it sharper. 1 gold and 75 silver.”
“Girl, I don’t bargain.”
“No, no, no. 1 gold and 80 silver. I can’t go any higher.”
“How about you exchange in your old sword, and I’ll make it 1 gold and 99 silver.”
“99 silver! My sword’s only 1 silver!?”
“I won’t even be able to sell it for 1 silver. It’s my loss. Did you  even pay 1 silver for your sword? After I repair it, it’ll surely be my  loss.”
“What!? Then the other sword we looked at is less than 1 silver.”
“What sword? Oh, that one. That one’s different from yours. They might look the same, but you held it. You felt it. Bring any appraiser, and  they’ll say the same thing. Plus, yours is used.”
“My sword’s at least 5 silver.” She was lying through her teeth; she’d bought it for 70 something coppers. “1 gold and 95 silver, plus the  sword.”
“I’m being generous. Your sword isn’t worth a silver. 1 gold and 99 silver.”
“1 gold and 96 silver.”
The shop owner looked at the stupid girl in front of her and sighed. “Fine, 1 gold and 96 silver.”
Nikola smiled. “Alright.”

Nikola walked out of the shop with two swords hanging from her waist and 4 silvers in her pocket.
“Should we go back to the hat shop?” She asked the two.
“No, let’s go get something to eat,” Woodie said.
“Yeah.” Dixon agreed.
“Okay. I could go for some seafood. What about you guys?” She said.
“That sounds good,” Woodie said.
“Yeah.” Dixon agreed.
“Do you guys know a place we can go to?” Nikola looked around, hoping to see a restaurant.
“Oh, I do,” Woodie said. Being residents of the capital, they knew the lay of the land much better than Nikola.
“Alright, lead the way.” She smiled.