Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, the man who tries to scam others has the same atmosphere even in a different word, I wonder why? In the first place, in this world, even having the Scam skill is enough to get you arrested--”

The Radar which has so far only been displaying white dots, suddenly shows a lone red dot.

It’s nearby and traveling in our direction, but it is moving fairly slowly.

The approaching man pretends to stagger, ‘tripping’ straight at me, in his hands is a box wrapped in velvet cloth--a scammer, or should I say a fraudulent extortionist.

At his speed, and the current distance, it would be unavoidable for normal people--so, of course, I avoid him. To the surroundings, it probably looks like a random man suddenly staggered and then fell down on his own. The fact is, that is what happened, but--

“Aaah! My family heirloom!” He started shouting, looking at a broken box on the ground, with a broken pot in the pile of debris.

We can’t not get involved now.

After I avoided the man, I quickly checked and made sure that both Liza and Arisa had completely ignored the man and kept walking, following me. It seems that Arisa had also noticed his approach with her Sense Intent.

“Hey, you! Don’t run away!” The man holds the remains of the broken pot with one hand, and grabs me with the other.

Perfectly matching the timing when he grabbed me, I move slightly and made him faint. Anyone looking on would just see it as him fainting because he was too angry.

If I had only put skills into the Fighting skill, then it would be a lot more difficult to pull off without attracting attention. But, because of the Abduction skill, it went smoothly--I managed to pull it off without anyone noticing.

I carefully pulled the fainted man into the nearby back alley; before leaving him, I check his status and make sure he doesn’t belong to a Guild.

He will have probably lost all of his belongings, possibly even his clothing, by the time he wakes up; but it is unlikely that he will manage to keep his life.

“The security here is really bad.” Arisa mutters with a frown.

“Yeah, when I first went to the East District, I had my fake purse cut and all the coins were stolen.

Come to think of it, even though this is a district with bad security, there sure are a lot of shops with expensive commodities; I wonder how the crime prevention works.

However, when I observer more carefully, there are several people walking in a patrol-like patterns up and down the isles formed by the stalls; they have good physiques, and are clearly not merchants.

Checking on the Heads-Up-Display, they are part of a Guild called the East District Vigilante Corp, one of the watchdog Guilds that Nadi mentioned.

***

Right now, we are in an area of the Flea Market that is focused on forms of pottery. I buy a bottle with a lid, to put medicine and ointments in. The bottle isn’t made from glass, but from something that reminds me of china.

A crowd is formed a bit in front of us.

“I wonder what’s going on?” Arisa asks in curiousity, walking briskly into the crowd, but she soon comes back after a short time with a bored look on her face.

“So, what was it?”

“Since they said that it’s a Magic Tool, I expected something good--but it’s just a spinning top which rotates after you pour Magic Power into it; furthermore the cost is one gold coin, those people are crowding around just because they’re curious.

What did she say?

“How did he pour in the Magic Power?”

“There’s some kind of Magic Circle-like part on the side of the disk which he uses to directly pour the Magic Power in by hand--when he moves his hand and then let’s go, the disk begins to spin. What? Are you interested in that toy?” Arisa looks at me in confusion, before muttering quietly to herself about ‘childish’, ‘cute’, and ‘screaming out mummy’--I’m not sure where her mind went, and I don’t know if I want to know either.

Shaking my head, I walk toward the crowd. After standing behind them for a bit, I see that when the demonstration is finished, the crowd disperses.

According to Appraisal, the thing at the stall is called a ‘Rolling Ring’.

Since the description is, like usual, censored, I don’t bother reading it.

The disk is about twenty centimeters in diameter, which is fairly big for a spinning top.

The market price is two gold coins.

Some children pester the shopkeeper to spin the disk again, but he refused because he’s out of Magic Power.

“Hello, if you’re fine with it, I could poor Magic Power in for you.” I say to the shopkeeper.

“Alright, hold the disk in both of your hands then circulate the Magic Power form your right hand to your left. A line of blue light will be lit on the disk after a bit, then you can stop pouring in Magic Power and gently place the disk on the stand.”

Following the shopkeeper’s advice, I begin to pour in Magic Power--however, it’s completely filled after I only put in 2 MP.

I release the disk, setting it on the stand, where it began to spin.

The Heads-Up-Display displays the number of rotations when I look at the disk. Apparently, it’s doing 600 rotations per 10 minutes: 1 rotation a second; moreover the spinning speed is constant until it runs out of Magic Power. Depending on its torque, it could be useful for a lot of things.

Some people who are interested, like Arisa was earlier are coming,but they soon leave again after hearing the price.

“Shopkeeper, I want to try something. I will buy it if this breaks it, so will you let me?”

“If possible, I’d like you to buy it before you break it--” What the shopkeeper says is a matter of course, but maybe because he couldn’t sell it to anyone else--for even the tiniest possibility of selling it, he allows me.

I ask Arisa to put her Magic into the disk, it consumes 10MP for her.

Are there differences between individuals?

The rotation speed is the same as earlier.

I carefully press on both sides of the spinning disk, after only three minutes have passed. The children begin booing, but I ignore them.

The rotation is surprisingly strong--it’s about the same as the power in an average remote controlled car.

 

>>Skill: Experiment Acquired.

>>Skill: Verification Acquired.

 

After I take out the gold coins, I buy the disk. When I ask the shopkeeper, he happily tells me who the creator was, because he has nothing to lose. It seems to be the work of an old Mage from the Royal Capital, his name is Jahad, and he’s famous for creating ‘useless’ Magic Tools.

I buy four of the disks eight gold coins, causing both Liza and Arisa to gasp softly.

“Uhh, Master, isn’t that a waste of money?” Arisa asks, shocked--her tone is a little less controlled and happy than usual; she seems to be a little displeased seeing money ‘wasted’--which is not only understandable, but also common among those who grew up in poorer situations and households.

“Arisa, please don’t doubt Master’s decisions--” Liza speaks a little forcefully, which is a little surprising because she is usually mild-mannered.

“Uuu, I’m sorry Master--” Arisa looks a little upset, apologizing to me, and looking at Liza’s face.

Liza nods, and let’s out a small smile, her tail is moving in a pleased way--It seems that she found the apology worthy.

I was a little surprised, because usually Liza is the calm one, being nice to all the others and allowing their shenanigans--it seems that either Arisa’s words or tone were pushing it a little too far.

“It’s okay, Arisa.” I smile to her, showing I’m not displeased, before ruffling her hair--which cheered her up a little.

“What do you think would be a better spending of our money?”

My words may seem harsh or scolding, but I make sure to speak in a soft tone--conveying that I don’t mean it like it sounds; judging by the fact that Arisa pauses and puts a finger to her chin, thinking, instead of looking worried or sad--it seems I succeeded.

“Rather than toys, I would prefer it if Master would buy Magic Books, ones that I could possibly read after you finish learning them.” She smiles as her eyes meet mine.

“Well, I have some books on Life Magic, do you want those?”

“I’d rather something that’s more useful for increasing our strength in battle--” She spoke carefully, glancing at Liza as she did.

Liza seems to have realized she may have gone a little too far, because she looked contrite, and nodded to Arisa.

Yeah, I can sort of understand the reason the author of the Life Magic books laments.

I want a Recovery Magic user with us when we go to the Labyrinth City--we need at least two more people, a healer, and a proper tank--well if I can find someone to teach me some skills, I can be the tank.

With a smile, I promise that I will take Arisa with me when I go to the bookshop to buy a map. I think the bookshop may still be closed, however.