The drakken jeweler set the pieces of jewelry on the counter for us. All of the unique effects sparkled and glowed in different shades to my magic sight. Two amulets, a bracer, and six rings. She quickly ran through and pointed them out to me and I rearranged them to be in sets for everyone. The red-scaled drakken was grinning from ear to ear as she watched me arrange each piece.

  I looked up at her after a moment and smiled. "Are you still happy with the trade?"

  She nodded. "I am."

  I pulled out the wrapped crystal and placed it on the counter between us. She unwrapped it and smiled down at it before accepting it. "Great! This is perfect. Thanks so much for trading this to me! If you ever need any help in the jewelry business or want to get something valuable appraised, come to me. In my experience, people who walk through the door with stuff like this once will likely come through again. I'll give you good deals and point you in the right direction if I can't help you myself."

  I smiled. "Thanks, Angela. I'll keep that in mind."

  To start with, I picked up the spatial ring that was set aside for me. Just like the telepathy ring, it automatically sized to my finger as soon as I slipped it on. "How do I activate it?"

  Her brow ridge furrowed as she looked down at it. "Uh, you already are? Just think about your weapon disappearing and it should..."

  The moment I thought about it I felt the weight of the axe slung from my back disappear and I almost fell forward from the change in my center of gravity. "Whoa, that's trippy," I said to myself in English.

  "You should probably not be pumping so much magic into it, there's no reason to..." the drakken said.

  "Oh... I have an issue with mana regulation. I can't really control it yet," I told her.

  "Well you should work on that, otherwise everything that you think too much about while touching is going to disappear into the ring by accident," she said with a chuckle. "Oh, it won't work on living things though of course."

  "I... see. What happens to the stuff inside when I take it off?" I asked.

  "It stays in the ring. But be careful, if anyone steals the ring they can take everything out of it too. It only allows people to take things out of it if they're wearing the ring though. It binds to you when it resizes to fit," the drakken explained.

  ("Take it off for now. I'll help you work on your mana regulation tonight,") Luna promised me.

  I stored my shield into it too before taking the ring off and placing it back on the counter for now. I can see this thing being very helpful.

  I pointed out the ring that was intended for Luna. "How do we connect this to the other rings?" I asked.

  She nodded and smiled. "Just make sure whoever is going to wear the ring going forward puts it on while they're still wearing the old one and it'll temporarily bind to the rings until another telepathy ring is put on their finger, even after the old one is taken off. It's kind of awkward, but this was the best workaround we could come up with after I looked at your ring yesterday. The only potential drawback is that whoever is wearing the new ring pays the entire mana cost of using it and that cost is increased for each additional ring they target. But, that may be better if whoever is wearing it has a larger mana pool than the others."

  I picked up the ring and turned to Luna who smiled and held her finger out. I slipped it on her ring finger and she blushed with the unstated knowledge of what the gesture meant in my world after we talked about my customs this morning. She told me we would swap our locks of hair in the moonlight tonight. The idea tickled the sense of mysticism in me, but she said it was normal to commit to the engagement at night under the light of the moon. It felt even more fitting to me that tonight would be a full moon due to my recent resemblance to a werewolf and because of her namesake, which amusingly does not mean moon here. I was looking forward to it.

  Before Luna tested the new ring, she removed the old one and gave it to Aria to wear. She slipped it on her finger with a smile. And looked up at Luna, ready for the test. ("Can everyone hear me okay?") Luna asked all of us at once.

  ("Loud and clear!") I replied.

  Luna suddenly winced and flicked her ears. ("I can hear all of you at once. It was kind of loud. Can you hear each other?") she asked.

  "No," Maxwell said out loud. "It's a drawback, but at least you can talk to all of us now. Even me, since it's supported by your mana now."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Piper nodded. "Yep, it seems to work great. Now it's your turn, time for you to wear this mana storage ring! This should help you use the telepathy rings more in combat." Piper picked up the ring and handed it to Maxwell who slid it on.

  After a moment Piper smiled and nodded. "Yep, I can hear you perfectly fine. This will be helpful when we're trying to be quiet in the dungeon or are talking about something sensitive. It's too bad these rings don't work the way that Luna's does."

  "Still, it will be useful," Maxwell agreed.

  Piper and Luna took their jewelry and put it on, Piper being the only one to receive two of the larger crystals, a mana regeneration amulet, and a magic amplifying bracer. The bracer looked like a silvery ornate forearm cuff with a pearlescent gem embedded into the glowing magic crystal. The heavy-duty amulet Luna was wearing matched Piper's bracer and was attached by a very sturdy looking cord with wire woven into it. Each of Luna's hands had two rings on them now. She favored her middle and ring fingers for her four rings on both hands. The last ring was for Aria. The stone on her ring was a dark purple with two beads of the glowing crystal on either side of it and had a band that trailed the entire perimeter of the ring as well. She smiled down at it as she put it on. I could see a small amount of mana flare through the ring as she activated it.

  "The last thing for you guys is the lantern. Sorry my uncle couldn't be here, he was up late working on this and asked me to take the payment in his stead. Honestly, I think it came out much better than I expected." She opened up a wooden box she had carried out and placed a beautifully decorated lantern on the counter. It was made from a dark looking metal that looked similar to the daggers Aria used. It had four faces and each face had its own closing shutter. She pointed out four sliding rails on each diagonal on the top of the boxy lantern. "These slides open and close the internal shutters. You can use these to open and close each shutter if you want to hide or focus the light it gives off or to contain the regeneration field it releases."

  She slid all four open at once and the immediate area was bathed with a more intense version of the magic that my blindfold could pick up, giving me an even more detailed and vibrant view of the world than before. Using this lantern, my vision was barely impaired at all by the blindfold and because of my ability to see mana, it gave everything an even richer sense of sight. In the store, I couldn't see the purple glow that it was supposed to have, but I should be able to see the glow later when I take my blindfold off. The corscant crystal was worked into the shape of the lantern so you wouldn't necessarily recognize it as that at a glance, despite the obvious veins of it throughout the intricate and beautiful metalwork.

  ("Helena... it's beautiful,") Luna told me.

  I smiled and picked it up to get a closer look. It was a bit heavier than I expected which gave it a sense of sturdiness that was reassuring for something I intended to hang from my belt most of the time. I slid one of the shutters open and closed and was pleased to find that they were stiff enough to hold in place even when partially open, yet weren't difficult to move along the guided tracks. Each slide on the diagonal of the lantern's top opened and closed the panel to the right of it, making it easily usable one-handed when hanging on my left side. I was really happy with it.

  "This is amazing. Much better than I had hoped," I said.

  Angela grinned with her toothy smile. "I'm glad you like it. Uncle worked really hard on this late into the night to have it finished before you came to pick it up today. He'll be happy to hear how much you like it."

  I pulled the coins out of my purse and placed them on the counter. She smiled and inspected each of the eight golden tiger coins before nodding and placing them into a locking metal box. "I will make sure to deliver this to him as soon as he wakes up. Thanks again for working something out with me. Like I said before, if you need anything jewelry related, or even crafting related, come to me and I'll help you out or point you in the right direction."

  I nodded. "Thanks, Angela. I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

  The five of us left the shop and headed for the armor smith next. I noticed that Aria and Luna were looking at each other while walking. They were probably getting to know each other a little bit now that they could finally talk to each other. I was happy that things were working out, I think the new ring would help Aria feel included more.

  I walked into the armor smith not knowing what to expect. The apprentice we met yesterday ushered us into the back room where my new armor was waiting for me on a stand. And it was... wow. Imposing, crazy, wild. It looked badass and the colors appealed to my inner umber hound instincts as well. It did look a bit edgy but in a way I could live with.

  The breastplate was made of a dark metal with silver lines decorating the surface. Carved bone curled around the side of it like ribs and the neck and shoulders had a shadowy black-furred coif lying on top of the metal pauldrons. The legs were made of a matching black leather made of the same material and covered in dark metal plates that protected my legs and shins. Around the waist was a short mid-thigh skirt made from more of the umber hound fur but looked loose enough not to actually restrict my movements at all. The arms had similar metal gauntlets but these ones covered the entire arm other than the bottom side of my hand. The whole ensemble looked intimidating with its dark metal, magically smoky fur, and silver trim.

  "Good, Maximus and you lot are here. You, the tall one, set your bag down and let my apprentice show you how to put it on. I don't want you to complain to me if you have a strap in the wrong place or something stupid," the old smith grumbled at us.

  The smith kept talking about the armor while the apprentice walked me through the process of how to properly equip it. "The armor came out real well. The coif can be raised above the head and worn like a hood or kept around the neck, either way, that fur is strong enough to stop most blades but it won't dampen the impact much. The silver trim there has ground bone mixed in so it shouldn't flake or tarnish because of the magic. It'll get scratched up but the repair enchantment should clean it up along with everything else. I tested the materials for magical resonance while working on it, the expected shadow affinity was there, but there was also the spatial affinity you mentioned too, surprisingly enough. You should mention that when you take it to get enchanted further, any good enchanter will take advantage of that resonance and make any enchantments you put on it go further. That's especially good for the resizing enchantment you were asking about. I don't know why you would want that sort of thing unless you planned to share the armor or pass it down like an heirloom, but the affinity would be good for that. Since it had such good affinity for shadow magic, I made the armor darker to help with that. No use in shiny steel armor if you're trying to hide in a forest with this. I enjoyed working on it. If you want it, pay my apprentice. Either way, get out. I'm busy." Without listening for another word the smith went to a back room and we could hear him start working on something else.

  I stretched in the armor and found that it gave me plenty freedom of movement. It felt a bit heavier than I was used to, like wearing a weighted blanket, but it felt surprisingly easy to move around in without getting tired. I wasn't sure how much of that was my improved strength and how much of it was how well-balanced the armor felt though. Probably a bit of both. I felt like a walking tank, I would have to train with it and get used to wearing it in combat, but it felt good. Made me a bit less wary of fighting in my human form. There was a belt loop that let me hang my new lantern from it comfortably and even had a loose strap that I was able to use to tie it into place so it wouldn't move much.

  The apprentice gave us a weary grin before leading us back to the front and taking the eight tigers I owed him, leaving me with only seven left. Two-thirds of my money was gone in a single day but I felt much better about my purchases now that I was wearing them. I felt powerful and imposing in a way that I didn't know I liked. From the interested looks and smile I was seeing from Luna, it seemed like she approved too.

  Hello! New stuff! This is kind of a part two to the other chapter about equipment, getting to see how it looks and stuff! Our Helena is getting better and better equipped each day! I hope you enjoyed reading!

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