Scorching Ascension - [Progression Litrpg Apocalypse]

With the tier upgrade bought for the pylon, Ethan took a minute to browse through the pylon's interface, and he was happy to see that the new communication and defensive modules didn't need to be bought. They would have to be upgraded, as both had shown up at tier-1, but they did come packaged with the tier-2 upgrade. He was also relieved to learn that both modules would require a sit down and a little time to get working, which meant he could postpone it for later.

For the communication module, it had said it was initializing and scanning, while the defensive module required spells to be set, which then could be cast by someone he had to pick.

That would be the council's job, Ethan thought. Aside from the defensive casting, the module should make it so their buildings were a little more resilient toward hostile magics.

Ethan dismissed the interface and moved on to the next item on his todo list. For now, the new modules were a nice start, and just like everything else, he expected these modules to get a lot better once they stepped into tier-2, which also just happened to be an issue for another time.

Right now, Ethan wanted something for himself. And that something involved shopping and so, with Gavin at his side, Ethan made his way back to the second and less occupied cabin he'd noticed earlier, to see if he could find the primagems he'd been looking for, and he soon came to realize that he'd set his hopes a little too high. And that wasn't the only problem Ethan could see in the list of available items that had been offered to him.

"This is… really expensive," Ethan said as he turned toward the apologetic Gavin. They were the only two standing in front of Jonathan's desk. The owner—and runner—of the spell and primagem exchange service of Wyldrock was a young man with smooth features and a bright, confident smile. He had handed him a list of what they had available. It didn't specify how many of each item were available, but considering the content of the list, Ethan doubted the young man had many duplicates. "Do people actually pay these rates?"

At that, one of the two bodyguards seemed to gulp nervously, though Ethan didn't think the man had any need to worry. It wasn't as if he had any intent on forcing a deal here. Thankfully, the store owner himself didn't seem bothered by Ethan's slightly miffed tone.

"They do," Jonathan said, a casual smile on his face. "After all, this is still a service. And while the collection is not as large as I want it to be, you have to admit there's a few solid spells and primagems in there. Maybe even the specific ones you were looking for? That ought to be worth more than just any random spell that just happened to be sitting in your pouch over there—which I'm also willing to give you a good rate for if you're willing to part with it."

"That one's not for sale," Ethan grumbled as turned his attention back to the list.

"Fair enough," Jonathan said with a shrug. "There's not many other ways I can pay myself, mind you. It's not as if it's easy to transfer fragments. But tell you what, I'll be generous with whatever you offer to sell. That should let you grab at least a couple of good things. Wouldn't want to end up on the new big boss's shit list."

Ethan looked up and met the young man's eyes for a moment, then he smiled, and he could swear he saw Jonathan's shoulder tense before he looked down at the list. "I won't be the one you have to worry about," he said as he thought of another sharp negotiator back in New Dawn.

Available spells:

Sunshard (General Tier-3) - 10 units

Wall of fire (General Tier-2) - 7 units

Entomb (General Tier-2) - 6 units

Alarm (General Tier-1) - 3 units

Heal (General Tier-1) - 10 units

Fear (General Tier-2) - 4 units

Enlarge (Modifier Tier-2) - 5 units

Available low-grade primagems:

Slowing - 4 units

Barrier - 5 units

Lightning - 7 units

Drain - 4 units

Explosion - 6 units

Earth - 3 units

Exchange rates:

1 tier-1 spell: starts at 1 unit

1 tier-2 spell: starts at 3 unit

1 tier-3 spell: starts at 5 unit

1 low-grade primagem: starts at 3 unit

Cost of extracting a spell or a primagem: 10 units

Ethan was pretty shocked at seeing a tier-3 spell for sale. He would have never put any of his for sale. But it was pretty telling that a measly tier-1 [Heal] cost the same. Amelie and those who had picked one of those were extremely lucky to have gotten one early.

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Or the odds had been skewed, Ethan thought as he considered who else had gotten one of those rare spells. There was one Lance's goons who had healed Martha's arm on their very first day, but unfortunately, both of him and Martha had not survived the tutorial. If he had, it might have been worth making an offer to the man for the spell.

Ethan blinked at the thought, and a little alarm bell rang in the back of his head as he eyed the extraction service listed on the piece of paper. After a short moment, he swallowed.

This thing's a problem, Ethan thought. Couldn't some people abuse this? Predatory deals, blackmail, threats…

The more he thought of how this service could be misused, the more uncomfortable he was getting. Ethan looked up, about to inquire about it, only for Jonathan to give him a knowing look and a nod. "The extraction?"

"Yes. How is it done? Are there… any rules that cover it? Can anyone just use it on anyone?"

Jonathan nodded toward Gavin, who reached into a side pocked and pulled out what looked like a ten-inch long pair of gnarly forceps. They were black, with silver engravings, and as he eyed them, Ethan tilted his head. They looked a little odd. The groves in the handles were angled weirdly in relation to the smoothed out and flattened disk-like bit at the end.

It looked creepy, and Gavin slowly put it on the table and took a step back as Jonathan looked down at the instrument warily before he nodded toward the previous leader.

"It's called Spellwrench. I was the one who picked it out of token, and if I hadn't passed it to Gavin to hold on to, I might have not survived the tutorial. We all trust Gavin here in Wyldrock and we all agreed on some ground rules before it is used. But… yeah. It's a problematic kind of item to have around. And no, you can't use it on anyone else. You have to use it yourself to get anything assimilated back out. Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on your stance on it—it has a limited number of uses, and if the notification we get after it's used is true, then we should only have 3 uses of it left. But the fact that these things exist will be an issue to deal with. It's very useful to someone like me, and I do hope you won't outright ban it—not that I believe that would work—but we'll need some ground rules for these things. As you might have guessed, there is a pretty high potential of abuse."

Ethan eyed Spellwrench and nodded. This item and its kind would definitely need to be talked about as soon as the council was established. Ethan didn't know enough about law making and policing items and resources, but in the same manner someone shouldn't be allowed to divert a public river for their personal use, an item like this needed some guidelines with how it was used. Which might lead to discussing dangerous magics as well. Or the use of regular–but still dangerous–spells like fireballs within city-limits.

Those were all sorts of issues others would have to think about but for now, Ethan brought his attention back to his current task.

"This will be one of the high-priority issues the council will deal with. But let's get back to the list here. You got a bunch of cool stuff, but aside from the [Heal], I don't see much that'd be a must-have for me. Do you have any… stash you're keeping for special occasions? Any spellforms on hand? Any lifeforce primagems?" Ethan said as he put the piece of paper down.

Of course, he was downplaying his interest a little. While Ethan wasn't generally one for mind games and politicking, he had a little experience with haggling. Back when he'd been in the system, some things weren't as easy to access as others, and it was always useful to know who needed what, and how badly they needed it. And one should never show desperation unless they were ready to pay out the nose or owe some annoyingly tall favor. In this scenario, though, he didn't mind saying exactly what it was that he needed. Because even if that would raise the cost, Ethan didn't have all day. And he wanted to see the man's reaction to this opening he was showing. Plus, if he came back with nothing, he could play up the disappointment and maybe get the merchant to lower the price a little for some other items.

Jonathan shook his head, a wince on the corner of his lips. "I wish. Those go fast, and if I had known they were that valuable, I would have priced them even higher. For the lifeforce primagems, same deal. You seem to know they're the key to some forms of healing, to those who didn't manage to snag anything better, so they're gone fast. Honestly, I could set some aside for you if either show back up, but it'll cost you."

"Damn," Ethan cursed. His eyes roamed back to the healing spell, then at a couple of primagems he could use. It was unfortunate that he didn't find the exact element he was looking for but still, there were some pretty nice items on the list. The [Sunshard] spell looked interesting, and so did [Wall of Fire]. Both seemed to have a fire element to them, which would mesh well with his Arcanum title. [Enlarge] seemed to be a potent modifier as well, while [Entomb]... he wasn't sure of just yet. He'd need some more details. As for the rest, they weren't bad, but they seemed a little more situational.

For the primagems, arguably he could find a use for all of them, but his attention was mostly on the Lightning and Explosion ones. Maybe Slowing as well, but that wasn't a priority.

Ethan's musings were cut off when Gavin coughed to his side. "I… could give you one. A primagem of Life. One for one. If you can pay the price of the extraction."

Both Ethan and Jonathan turned toward Gavin, eyes wide. Frankly, he'd pass on everything if he could get his hands on that one and it seemed that Jonathan was thinking the same, and it was the latter who reacted first to the offer. "I'll waive the extraction cost, and you can pick anything from the list," the man said urgently, then a smile crept on his face as his eyes swivelled to Ethan. "Even the [Heal]."

Ethan narrowed his eyes, and the merchant gave him a little shrug as if to say 'business is business'. Ethan pursed his lips at the blatant attempt, a little disappointed the man would try to snag the morsel straight out of his mouth.

Gavin grimaced, his eyes going from the merchant to Ethan. "I'm… gonna go ahead and not get on his bad side," the man said, nodding toward him, and before Ethan could respond, Gavin continued, an apologetic smile on his lips. "Plus, I already made my offer. Just seconds ago. What kind of man would I be if I took your offer now?"

Jonathan sighed and smiled wistfully before he looked at Ethan and shrugged. "Well. I've made my attempts and I've lost. I'll waive the extraction fee, then. I'm sure I just earned myself a few negative brownie points, and I know I'm not your favorite in this little town and I can live with that. But I don't need you to be too pissed off to come after me."

Ethan glared for a second at the shameless man and, he had to admit, he couldn't blame him too much. He had never said that he was out here running a charity. He'd made his attempt, lost, and paid the price, though Amanda will surely look into this little enterprise of his. Ethan was still a little miffed at the attempt, but he won't tell her to go scorched earth and tax the ever-living crap out of him. She could at least learn a little of what he was doing, though. They might not recreate this exact business, but setting up something to buy spare spells and sell them at a more reasonable price could be valuable. Not necessarily to earn a profit, but to make things easier for everyone.

Gavin picked up the creepy-looking items, gripped both handles and lined the flattened disk-like part to his chest, explaining why the handles looked so odd to Ethan. The man took a deep breath, then nodded. "Here goes, then."

Gavin stared into the distance for a short second, and the instrument's silver sigils began to glow. A few flicked on and off a few times, until they stopped, and a moment later, Gavin snapped the handles shut. There was a flare of magic, a groan of pain, and a little green bead appeared in the center of the disk.

"Two…left," panted Gavin, putting the instrument back on the table. He reached toward the green, vibrant gem, plucked it, and after eying it for a short second, handed it over to Ethan while with his other hand, he carefully stored the Spellwrench back.

"I appreciate it," said Ethan as he assimilated the primagem, then, reaching into his pouch, he began pulling primagems out. "Tell me which one you'd like. Or if you'd prefer a spell, here's what I have to exchange."

Ethan began listing his spares. He wasn't willing to part with what he had assimilated at the moment and honestly, he wasn't sure if he wanted to sell everything just yet. He'd part with just enough to afford what he really wanted from Jonathan. It might be too soon for prices to settle and well… he didn't want to overpay or sell his things for too cheap. He'd rather wait a little with the rest and sure, these might be the best prices he'd ever encounter, but he was content with waiting.

Still, it was nice to see Jonathan salivating at the spells and primagems Ethan had just listed and as the man began making his offers, and as Gavin considered his pick for the primagem of Life he'd given to Ethan, a new message popped up.

Wyldrock: Intruders detected

It seemed like the communication module was ready, and that the representative of the Union was here.