Best Shop In The Multiverse

Shout out to my new patron. 

Kymani Gwinn

There were consequences to his actions. As a lord of the realm and guardian of Basin City, he faced few threats to his rule. Few wanted the privilege of keeping the ancient beasts within Basin City's catacombs contained and paying the price of a breach. Such an enviable position as Basin City's Lord gave him many opportunities to push himself against adversity.

The City's Lord grabbed a lantern covered in mystical symbols.

"Are you going to check on the seals again? There have been no reports of strange sights or nightmares in the city. Our dream keepers have yet to send us any alarming reports." His Lady said.

Her high cheekbones and luscious blonde hair were the envy of the realm. His sickly princess, cast out by her family for weak blood, had become a great lady. This city had changed her from a bratty princess to a responsible noble lady.

"You should feed before you go. If there is no time to take a servant, then my blood is yours." His wife offered her neck, but he abstained. Rarely did he need to drink any longer.

Some spoke in the dark, believing his ears couldn't hear them about his lack of hunger. They believed he was a changed vampire who no longer hungered for blood.

Once, he controlled blood and used many whips and aerial maneuvers. Before he was a city lord, he was an acrobatic combatant. But speed wasn't needed in the cold damp catacombs where skulls were stacked into pillars to hold up the city above. Where there were creatures who moved like wandering fog in tight spaces speed was a poor shield. So the acrobat died and the scholar was born. In a time when Basin was the name of the outpost where he was stationed, he was forced to learn and rework his entire way of fighting.

From the creatures below, he learned to wield shadows and cold darkness. Light became his food, as not even the sun could burn his body at the height of his power and foolishness.

The lord leaped into a dark crevasse in his own mansion, which once was a well, and fell hundreds of feet. He landed on a floor of scattered bones. Beyond the lantern, there was nothing, no ground, sensation, or continuity. Without the lantern, he would surely be lost in the royal tomb. But with it, reality was forced upon the world, and all things equalized.

The green light of the lantern flashed upon a mummified creature with too many arms, eyes, or mouths, depending on when the lantern touched her. It was dead, but for how long, he couldn't know.

"Welcome," A jarring sensation like a pianist playing his nerves like keys in the grandest ballads swept through him. Once, he thought he was the master of darkness, but he had only been a puppet then.

"Have you made a deal with the royal?"

"To what end?"

Pain like few things he's ever felt ripped at his soul as sensations betrayed him. He opened his fanged mouth and sucked in and let the spores of long-dead but soon-to-live things into him. The pain lessened as he glutted himself on the darkness freely flowing from the evil within the catacombs. Every time he fed, he grew more powerful but less whole. The thing that spoke was the true master of the darkness he wielded.

"No, you haven't escaped this place. I haven't lost yet." Lord Vrynos Noctvalen said.

It was what wasn't said that spoke volumes.

"Yes, you are correct." Pain spread through the ancient vampire with every word. The power that made him so feared by others also made him vulnerable to its source. If only he could get rid of it.

…

Red basked in the gentle rain and kept an eye on the still trees, which were such a problem in the cold. They swayed in the breeze. Their roots drank up the rain. The fairy rested on his shoulder and was little help against the army of brownies Red was forced to fight.

An ax slammed into his back and stopped on the chainmail. Red turned around and drove a knife through a brownie's eye. Explosive bolts were out because they might make the trees go wild, and they already surrounded him. His fairy friend couldn't do a thing to help because the rain had already made her wings too wet to fly. Then there were his mud-soaked boots; with every step, the muddy ground sucked at his feet, rooting him in place at the worst times.

The bark-skinned little goblins only came up to Red's chest, armed with bone axes and clubs. Red had his normal bolts but only a magazine and a half left. So, he worked with his knife, an 8-inch blade that clearly needed a tune-up if he was going to keep killing. Arrows whizzed around him, blow darts curved over his head, and slung stones seemed to veer wide.

The shopkeeper couldn't use his long-range weapon, but his armor made all other long-range weapons below the uncommon rank useless against him.

Red put the last brownie down and picked up one of their axes. It had changed after it landed in a pool of blood. The pool was gone. Red thought it was just the ground absorbing it or the rain diluting it, but the runes were shining.

"That's a vampire and its brother tyrant. Haven't you ever studied runes before?"

"Mine are a little less complicated." He turned the weapon over. "What's this one," Red asked.

"That's a lake. It stores things. If you link vampires, tyrants, and lakes, it can store the blood of enemies, and if you have something that uses blood, you can use the stored blood. I'm somewhat worried about my spear. You're supposed to be the master craftsman who made my spear, and you don't seem to know the basics." His fairy friend said.

"Hey, I'm mostly self-taught." He thought about it. "So if I had something like mage or anything that used mana instead of vampire, I could make a weapon that stores mana for me," Red said.

"Now you're getting it, but that's more complicated than you think. Lady Vivian would know more, but mana is in the air, so theoretically, depending on what you're thinking while you make it, you could make a weapon that absorbed mana until its reservoir was full and then use it yourself."

"How do I determine the size of a reservoir?" Red asked.

"I can answer that one. All you have to do is slowly invest your mana while carving the lake rune. Some masters like Lady Viviane will use fractals to make the rune and empty their reserves daily to make the weapon's truly huge."

"What about a blood reservoir?" Red asked.

"Oh, you would need blood to pour into it initially. So get a bunch, dive into it, and carve the rune within the blood. Red shook his head.

"That wouldn't work." Maybe if he had a blood control skill, but no, it wasn't feasible the way she described it. No, he was sure it required mana instead of blood to make a reservoir like that.

He saw a shift in the forest just before he heard a battle cry.

A brownie charged out of the cover, and others joined it. Red raised his crossbow and fired, hitting each one before lowering his weapon. He scanned the forest again, seeing the occasional mouse scurry or the centipede crawl up a tree from dozens of yards away.

Eagle Eyes was a game-changer. Without it, he would have died already.

They left the forest and entered the beach of a vast lake with pristine waters currently being rained on. He could see massive fish make dark forms in the water. It was tempting to raise his crossbow as he left the dangerous forest behind. Beyond the lake, a path led further into the dungeon. At 5 hours in, he knew he wouldn't make it and return in time. Making it to the winter court had been a pipe dream.

That was, of course, unless he managed to grab a teacher.

He spotted a small beach house near the lake and approached it. With all the fairies and bone weapons, he expected to see a straw hut.

He watched the door open, and a blue-haired fairy strode out. She looked up and down. Then her eyes widened when she spotted the fairy on his shoulder.

"Momma," his traveling companion said and zoomed off his shoulder.

If he was being honest with himself, as far as surprises go, finding out the little fairy he bribed was the daughter of Lady Viviane, the lady of the lake, was nice. That must have been his luck attribute coming into play. He hadn't even attacked any fairies if the brownies weren't counted. Maybe if he was lucky, he could get some pointers from Lady Viviane.

No scratch that Red had a much better idea.

Red looked at the fairy woman up and down. Her green, almost black hair was silky smooth like it had just been taken out of a waterfall. Her slender chest was covered in a leather bra under a shirt spun from an unknown material. Then there were her long, elvish ears and large pink wings. The woman looked like she belonged in a painting or the dankest Doujin. She had cute pink lips that pressed together as she watched him. She moved as if she weighed nothing and almost danced off the ground.

There were calluses on her fingers and an air about her that Red couldn't quite place. Was she the one who forged King Arthur's sword? It was said to have come from a fairy smith, but who forged it wasn't known. In some myths, it was Merlin; in others, it was Lady Viviane of the lake.

Red only knew that he had to have her as a teacher and, more importantly, as an employee. Lady Viviane would attract heroes like flies to shit and bankroll his shop. There was also credibility. Only her name held that couldn't be replicated. He had every reason to try and get her to join him and none to back down.

"Oh, I'm so happy you returned. Who is this a friend of yours?"

"This is Red. He stepped on my nectar farm and made me a new spear. Look at it." The fairy proceeded to show off her new spear a little too close to Lady Viviane's eyes.

"Oh, did you scare him into making it for you?"

"No, he made it to repay me. Red's a good guy. You should teach him. He didn't know what rune links were. He's a total idiot."

"Vicky, that's so rude of you. Apologize to your new friend this instant."

"So that was her name he hadn't asked her. That made him feel a little bad."

"I apologize, but my daughter can be a handful. She's in her early years, and it could be centuries yet before she learns to hide her true nature."

"Momma, what are you saying."

Red smirked but kept his hand near the handle of his weapon.

"So you're a craftsman." Red smiled lightly.

Lady Viviane placed a hand on her daughter and put the fairy to sleep. "I'm certain you didn't bring my daughter to me out of the goodness of your heart or brave the brownies for nothing. What did you come to me for?"

Was this because he thought he might have a little more time? Well, this was it: he was going to give his pitch and roll the dice.

He thought about it carefully before risking. "I want to hire you and your daughter to work in my shop. You as a blacksmith and your daughter as a clerk. If it's not too much trouble, could you also become my teacher? There is so much I don't know that I don't have the questions to ask to fill in what I don't know. Oh, and if you could also point me in the right direction, I need to go to the next fairy realm to take down this winter court." Red said.

"You don't ask for much, just my time, skills, and daughter as your servant."

"You would be paid for your time and have access to any materials I find or new worlds I discover," Red said.

"Oh, so there are boons we can receive in exchange for our eternal servitude that does sweeten the deal."

Red smirked. He liked this woman more and more. "I can also offer you off-days. As my shop's master blacksmith, you set your own hours and decide what customers you see. If you don't want to do something, don't just have a master blacksmith like you would give my shop a ton of prestige."

"How did you know I'm a master blacksmith? My daughter wouldn't have told you."

"You're famous," Red said as if that answered everything.

"Was it that blasted sword Excalibur?" Red nodded his head woodenly. "I expect you want me to make you a sword equal to it, too."

"No, I would prefer it if you didn't. Having a weapon like that seems like it would draw too much attention. The idea is that we use your fame to get more commissions. Making weapons of mass destruction like that sword isn't what I want."

"Why are your words working on me? Did my foolish daughter use her magic to make you more charismatic?"

"She drooled on me through most of the fights." Red leaned forward and gently wiped the drool from Vicky's face. He had a soft spot for children. "She's a good kid."

"Vicky is probably older than your great-grandfather."

"The first thing she did when she met you was show off her new shiny to her mother," Red said.

Lady Viviane sighed dramatically. "That girl could use a little more purpose in her life, and it has been a long time since I've taught anyone. You don't seem interested in conquering any lands or sleeping with your sister."

Red raised an eyebrow. "Don't ask. Morgana had too many issues." Lady Viviane said.

"Very well, I and my daughter will be in your care."

His eyes widened. And he raised his arms in the air and cheered. "I'm so glad I didn't have to make Vicky an orphan."

In a flash of light, an employee designation appeared over both Vicky and Lady Viviane. Red could feel he was moving up in the world. Two employees. He put their salaries at 10,000SP a month for now and saw they had growth statistics based on how much he paid them monthly.

Lady Viviane was an Epic Grade Blacksmith and enchanter. His head hammered in his chest at seeing that. Even if he couldn't get her to make him anything, having her in his shop would be fantastic. Vicky was an uncommon Gardener, enchanter, and a rare alchemist. He didn't just hit the jackpot. He hit two. He needed to invest in rooms for them and get ready to learn everything he could understand.

For some reason, he pictured himself with a straw sucking the knowledge out of them. Red shook that out of his mind.

"I have a boat that will assist your journey. There is a dock on the other side of the lake. So long as you use my boat with my permission, none of the monsters within my lake will target you," Lady Viviane said.

She pulled a beautiful sword with a gleaming blue scabbard from under her daughter's bed and placed the girl in a pouch at her side. "The map in the corner of my vision will show my way home. I look forward to your return after the winter court is put in their place."

"You're not going to tell me it's too dangerous," Red said.

"I'm aware of more than you think. Fairy magic can be both subtle and extravagant. Perhaps you will learn in time under my tutelage. But I know what your crossbow is capable of."

"I have extras. Do you want one for added protection?"

"You are a generous boss, but I couldn't use something so primitive." Red felt the blow directly to his pride, and it hurt. But what hurt worse was that he couldn't refute it to one of the original craftsmen. The fairy smiled gently. "Don't take my words too harshly. I'm going to teach all the bad habits out of you." Lady Viviane said.

…

The boat glided over the water like a dream and could be controlled with a thought. Lady Viviane was a genius, and he never felt so bitter about it. The enchantments were also completely invisible, mixed in with an abstract design of fractals in an incomprehensible blend. Dark shapes shied away from the boat as he passed. Before he knew it, he was at the other shoreline, and the next leg of his journey awaited him.

Red turned his attention to the dark shapes and raised his crossbow. The trees were too far to do anything, and Lady Viviane had already left.

He pulled the trigger and watched the water explode. One shot after the other, he watched the water bubble and erupt. The dark shapes rose, and suddenly, they blended together until he realized there weren't a bunch of shapes in the water. No, there had only ever been one shape. Its fins had brushed up enough for him to see their shadow, and he believed they were fish.

Red targeted the gaps between scales and fired.

He pulled his empty mag out and slammed another in. As he moved, the monster struck.

Explosions wracked the monster's body, and one of its milky white eyes popped, and gallons of blood poured out. Red felt his feet dig into the sand as the creature lashed out with its open jaws. He fired three times and strafed the monster. He jumped a swiping tail and ran over it using the same gaps in the scales he targeted as footholds.

It flung its tail, and Red went tumbling ass over the tea kettle into a bank of sand and shells. An explosion lit up the monster's insides, and Red finally hit something vital. Loot filled his bag.

Lake Serpent Scales (Uncommon++): This is the nearly impenetrable scale of a deep lake serpent. It can only be seen when the sun reflects on it; look at how it shimmers in the sunlight. 

Lake Serpent Meat (Uncommon++): This is the delicious meat of a once proud and powerful beast. It has grown fat from the mana radiating from Lady Viviane's drowned forge. When cooked properly, the user gains a 400% boost in STR training. 

Lake Serpent Bones (Uncommon++): This material is sturdy enough to handle the weight of a truly massive serpent outside of water. Any weapon used to forge will have increased effectiveness in water-based enchantments. 

Lake Serpent Heart (Uncommon+++): The most valuable possession of Lake Serpent is its crystalized power, which it has absorbed throughout its lifetime. This heart can be used in numerous potions, or when burned in a forge, it can give an object a water affinity. 

…

Red made a run for it through the summer lands. He was both strong and fast enough to get far. Rolling fields of wheat and roaming packs of brownies obstructed him. What trees he saw stalked after the massive hornet nests while others were too weighed down by their hives to move. There was a war between plants and insects going on. Red would have loved to explore it, but he didn't have time. He was already 7 hours in, and there wasn't much time left. As far as he managed to run, he still had to turn around and return.

He found his next destination at the end of the golden fields. He claimed the stuff over a bushel and hoped to plant it somewhere. Wasps the size of hogs flew through the air as he approached a massive hive wrapped around a struggling half-rotten tree. The air was growing cooler, and Red knew he was on the right track. There were signs of quests, but he couldn't be bothered. Red was in it to win.

Chapter 9 is on patreon for only $1 Link or if you want to go even further chapter 10 is out for $5. Link