An early morning shopping trip was just what they needed to start their day off right. The sun had barely risen, and they had found themselves downstairs enjoying breakfast and chatting about what they should be shopping for.

  It was a short walk from the inn to the market district and the clothing marketplace was on the closest side to them. The shopkeepers were already opening for the early morning crowd, which was surprisingly quite a few people. Kumo said a lot of the class chosen would probably go on patrol in the woods, so they were getting their shopping out of the way early.

  Since she was in the same boat, they decided to start with her. She also knew what she was looking for. Right in the middle of the marketplace was a shop that specialized in clothing for adventuring women. They had everything from exquisite dresses to simple leather armor.

  Kumo had done her research the day before and the other class chosen had recommended this store. She immediately saw why when they walked in. This was a one stop shop for her gear. It was fairly priced too compared to some of the other shops she had seen. Looking over to Synexus, she saw that he was once again amazed or intrigued by the store. It seemed like he had that face on him daily ever since they had been in Gale. She wished wonder came to her that easily, but being the child of the Lord of Whisper had prepared her for the world a little too well. “Maybe we all only get a certain amount of wonder in a lifetime, and I used all mine up?” She thought to herself as they walked through the aisles of clothes.

  She was picking out some practical underclothes, as well as some new armor. Enchanted gear was important, and she hadn’t got any from loot. Her father wanted them to make their own way, so he didn’t let her take any of the enchanted gear from home. It was nice to do something normal for a change, except for the fact that Synexus kept asking her questions. He wanted to know why she knew she would want a piece of clothing or why she picked a certain color. She couldn’t blame him, but how could she explain to him that it’s just a feeling. He would understand when they got around to his gear.

  The underclothes were easy, and she ended up getting four new outfits in total. The armor on the other hand was a bit more difficult. She wasn’t sure exactly what enchantments she wanted to go with. There were a couple of different light armor sets she was deciding between and Synexus had basically told her to go with her feeling which did make her laugh but was super unhelpful. One set made her and everything on her person lighter, which would help her to move faster. Another set made her more resistant to slashing or piercing damage, which would be all around helpful for her wellbeing. The final set provided her with slightly more mana, health points, and stamina. It really shouldn’t have even been a challenging choice because the second one was clearly the most helpful, but the first one was emblazoned with clouds, and the third one was just more her style.

  She decided to walk around the store before deciding, but secretly knew she would go with the first option. The clouds went with her class and the ability still could be helpful, plus it did provide a little more protection than what she had now. Before she bought it though, she wanted to look at a few more things.

  The first thing was dresses. She hadn’t worn a dress in years, however, it would be nice to have something to wear when they wanted to stop in a city. There was quite the selection here. She ended up going with a nice breezy dress that cut off right above her knees. It was her storm grey color with silver accents here and there. She really liked the look of it and Synexus agreed with her.

  The last thing she wanted to look at were solid adventuring boots. She had some from Whisper, but they would be on the ocean for quite some time. Some boots that were light, breezy, and waterproof would be ideal. Luckily, they had the perfect pair for her.

  With that and the selection of the cloud armor she was all done with her gear. Now she would have to help Synexus with his and she could tell he was going to ask a lot of questions.

  Synexus was amazed by all the colors and different kinds of clothing inside the Adventuring Women store. Kumo was so efficient at picking out things she liked. There would be four or five different colors of the same thing, and she would instantly know which one to grab and in what size too. He tried to ask questions, but he could tell she was getting a little annoyed. She kept telling him it was just a feeling. What kind of feeling though? Was he supposed to feel something towards his clothing?

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  When they finally finished with her gear, they made their way towards the men’s apparel store which didn’t seem to have a visible name anywhere. The inside was much less colorful, and the selection wasn’t as big. That was okay with Synexus though because it would make things a little easier.

  He copied Kumo a bit and went to where he saw underclothes that resembled his bamboo ones from the Branch settlement. They were basic but had done their job. He stared at the ones on the shelf for a minute or so, trying to feel something towards one color or another. There wasn’t really a feeling, but he decided he liked the darker ones better. He picked them up in a random size and Kumo told him that he’d have to try them on since he hadn’t bought clothes before. It was like he was a child, and she was his impatient mother. This was never something he learned because the Branch just handed him the same outfit every time he grew up.

  After figuring out his size, he moved onto armor like Kumo had, but quickly realized he didn’t need any since his Elder Branch armor was still going strong. Instead, he wandered for a bit before landing in the shoe section of the store. He had always gone barefoot, but he had noticed the looks he got around the city. Kumo voiced her opinion that he should invest in some decent adventuring boots.

  This was all new to him, however, he finally got this feeling that Kumo was talking about or at least he thought he did. There was a pair of dark green leather boots with light brown accents that matched his armor quite well. It was like they called out to him and the enchantment seemed helpful for his class.

  Planter’s Boots(uncommon): Allows the wearer to sense any plants with in a small distance of themselves.

  The enchantment was almost like the skill he passed up, except a little worse. Still, it was the only enchantment that worked with his class, and he liked the look of them.

  He told Kumo that he finally understood the feeling and she gave him a slight smile, but didn’t reply. This was probably all quite amusing to her. He wondered how old she had been the first time she shopped in a store for clothes. He decided not to ask in the middle of the store.

  Speaking of Kumo, after he picked out his boots, she made him buy a pair of dressier shoes, a black suit, and a bathing suit which she assured him he would need. All of this ran him 12 silver guins which left him with about 18.

  She changed into one of her new outfits and armor and had him keep all their new things in his dimensional thief plant. She still didn’t have a dimensional bag but had found one she liked. He asked her if they could go to the store she saw it at because he wanted to know what other equipment they had, and she decided they still had time.

  It was a store right between the clothing market and the equipment market called Dimensional Emporium. The store was tiny on the outside, but somehow massive on the inside. It was like stepping into a dimensional bag. Synexus would have to find out how that worked at some point. The idea was fascinating to him.

  He thought it had other items in it, however, it only sold dimensional bags. Some were big and meant to be held on your back. Some were like his and were meant to attach to your belt. There were some that looked formal and some that looked simple. Kumo led him to one of the back corners where sitting on the shelf was this beautiful bag resembling a storm cloud. There were little lightning bolts flashing on the inside as they jumped from one side to the other. Synexus could see why she wanted it, but when he read the price tag he realized why she didn’t buy it. It was 10 gold guins. That would have been the entire amount of guins that her father had gave her.

  She put it back down with a little frown and they looked around at some of the other ones for a bit before she had to go report at the front gate. He felt bad she couldn’t have the bag she wanted. His idea was to give her the rest of his money, so she could buy it since he was fine sticking with his dimensional thief plant, but even with his leftover money, she couldn’t afford it. Maybe after Ecclo sold his bamboo variants though.

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  Now that Kumo had gone to the front gate, Synexus decided to go find a library to research the topics he had been dying to get information on. The three big things were his class, the Ullashtt, and anything about his race. That last one was an idea he had the night before as he lay in bed. He would be overjoyed if they had anything on his origins for him to learn.

  It took some asking around and a few wrong turns for him to find the Gale Library. That was a boring name, but it was straightforward. The building was massive from the outside and the architecture was exquisite. He could have stared at it for hours without getting bored. The inside was even more impressive.

  Countless books on massive shelves spanning floor to ceiling. There were multiple floors, however, the atrium had a view of a massive skylight right in the middle of the place. There were railings on each floor to look over into the main atrium with tables set up for people to read while enjoying the sunlight and the view. The view was of a massive tree unlike any tree Synexus had seen before. It had dark black bark with what looked like blue circuitry running up in different patterns from root to branch. Each line gave off a faint blue glow and they all led to the leaves which were glowing a vibrant green. It was as if this tree wasn’t a tree at all, but a technological masterpiece blending nature and technology. He had to touch it.