A expensive day

During the time Mia, Ellie and Jay waited for their food and drinks, the three of them continued their conversation. It was mostly Mia that explained what Ellie had so hastily blabbered out before and so Jay learned it had been to make sure Ellie not only receives a blessing, but a good one.

Once the food arrived, she asked Jay another question that he had hoped she had forgotten about. It was the one if he had asked for information about the amulet or at least went to the bank.

Hanging his head a bit he could only tell the truth that he hadn't.

While it was true that he didn't have had time for it until then, Jay stated he was still reluctant to show the small piece of jewelery as it might get him more trouble and attention than he wants.

She only shrugged and stated he never knew, but should at least go to the bank and possibly even show it there. He might find someone trustworthy or bribe-able there or otherwise tell he had found it.

Mia's hopes for the variant with the trustworthy one were low, but as in a bank it was all about gold, he shouldn't have problems…

The rest of the conversation was mostly about where the two wanted to go next as Ellie had finished her strawberry cake first and regained her active mouth. She blabbered unstoppable about different shops and what she wanted to buy, bringing a wide smile on the other two's faces.

Once they were done with their really tasty cakes, Jay paid for the three of them and got both females to thank him. He even gave the middle aged waitress a good tip and then they left the Heavenly Cake together.

The first location they wanted to go to, was the stalls on the market in the trade district. Ellie needed some practical clothes for once she started her training.

After they crossed the long bridge connecting the church district to there, the three of them passed through a side alley and ended directly on the market plaza with the giant oak in the middle.

Instead of the stalls there that sold mostly food or some gadgets, the three of them went into a shop to their right. Jay got a bit surprised as the skirts the women first looked at were anything but practical.

He still kept on watching them without commenting and got rewarded with them trying some of them on. In the end even Mia decided for one of them and as Jay brought their selection to the tailor, she threw three more shirts on the pile.

The female clerk hinted her that those were for men, but Mia only stated she knew and then looked at Jay.

Nodding her head, the woman seemed to have understood and asked Jay to follow her to a cabin. He simply dropped the clothes onto the counter and explained there was no need.

For the next half a minute the shop seemed to stand still while Jay disposed of his own shirt, bared his upper body and then tried one of the chosen shirts.

He only noticed once he was done though and looked through the shop.

The two female clerks, Mia, Ellie and two other female customers eyes were glued onto him.

While the situation turned a bit awkward, it had at least sped up their shopping in this store as Mia and Ellie grabbed the clothes they held onto, rushed to the counter and threw them onto the pile.

The price of nearly two gold again got paid by Jay to what both of them thanked him.

Mia got closer once they had left the shop and whispered to him she would make up for it. Then she placed a smooch on his cheek and looked irritated.

After touching his cheek she looked up to his hair and slid her hand through it.

"You really need a haircut… and more importantly a shaving!" M.

With Ellie agreeing to her statement, their next aim got set. They would go to a barber and get Jay a new look, as well as one for Ellie. Crossing the plaza and passing a small alley, they arrived at the barber pretty fast.

A male gnome and a human woman greeted them once they entered the small shop.

Jay again had Mia choose the styling and leaned back. It wasn't that he couldn't choose or was passive, it simply didn't matter to him. Should it look good, both women would be happy. If not it at least would grant him a little less attention. Not that him standing out thanks to being taller than the average human man and absurdly handsome would cease with a simple haircut.

Half an hour later he was led to a mirror and looked at himself. Contrary to his hopes, the short hair styling with a little wild look suited him extremely good.

If at all, the only downside would be that he would probably catch even more attention through it.

While the fresh shave was still prickling a bit, his cheeks were smooth again to his tough. His facial hair had only recently started to grow, but he was still far from growing a beard.

They had to wait about twenty minutes longer until Ellie was done and proudly presented them her new hairdo. It was a bob cut that suited her surprisingly well, so both complimented her for her choice and thanked the women responsible for it. After Jay paid again, the three left for the marketplace once more until Ellie's stomach rumbled.

While it hadn't been that long since they last ate something, they all had been active since early morning.

Deciding to fetch some food, Jay rushed over to his preferred skewer stand to buy some. After finding a place under the big oak, the three of them had some skewers each while Jay explained the buildings in close proximity to Ellie.

When he mentioned the bank to her, it was Mia that threw him a questioning gaze. Because of that Jay hurriedly went on and told Ellie about the Guild. She seemed honestly interested in it and even more when Jay mentioned to Mia that he met the Guild-master.

She didn't seem too surprised but still inquired how it was.

He didn't have much chance to narrate their meeting as Ellie blabbered in between that she would go to the guild the next day as well. Mia had seemingly explained to her that they should check on her first job together there. By the time her high speed speech ended, Jay got already included and seemed to have no room for negotiations.

After they had rested some more, Mia was the first to stand back up and then asked the others to follow her. Where she led them to was a shop called Limited Immunity, situated at one corner of the main street and the marked plaza. Jay had seen it a few times but never entered.

Once inside he learned it was an armor shop, so he couldn't help but inquire from Mia what they wanted there.

She only stated that little Ellie needed some protective equipment for after the ceremony and getting her first job. They would start her practical training and hunting once they got back to Gold Creek.

In the end, it wasn't only Ellie that got a complete set of a leather patched cloth robe with a fitting pant, shoes and gloves.

The blonde elf had fancied a brown leather corset and decided to buy new boots as well. Without even asking, Jay paid the bill and slowly began to feel like a walking wallet.

At least their next destination wasn't far once they left the armor shop.

Right next to it, even sharing the same open veranda, they went to a weapon trader called Weller's Arsenal.

This time Jay didn't even have the chance to ask as Mia explained that it was best to buy a stave and wand for Ellie.

Seeing him unsure as to why she directly went for caster weapons, the busty elf explained that she thought Ellie had good chances for spell related Jobs. She called it intuition, but Jay had a hunch there was more to it.

But he completely believed her statement that if Ellie asked her, Mia would surely recommend one of those Jobs but help her with training either way...

The shopkeeper welcomed the three heartily and went from behind the counter towards them. As Mia explained what they were looking for, the dark blonde man led them to the side. He presented Ellie a slender looking stave that Jay analyzed as complete trash.

A few poor tries from him later, Jay had spotted a qualitatively good stave that even granted a slight INT boost and was just about to pick it when he heard a female voice commenting he made a good choice.

As he turned around he looked into a relatively pretty face of an auburn haired women in her thirties.

He didn't need to analyze her as she introduced as Marda Weller next and asked if the stave was for him.

To Jay looking over to Ellie and Mia that still got unfitting recommendations from the bearded man, Marda understood and after fetching the stave from Jay, marched over to them. She even reprimanded the man called Gunther and then took over advising them from him.

With the Stave found and brought over to the counter, the next item on Mia's shopping list was a wand. Looking over to Jay she looked like she had an idea.

"Hey, Jay, don't you need a wand for the Academy as well?" M.

"Really? No idea…" J.

Marda instantly took the initiative as she heard this and guided them over to the Wands. While she presented Ellie one slender wooden stick after the other, Jay picked one of those put back and fumbled around with it.

"You simply need to pour a bit of mana into the wand. If it has the right element you will directly see the reaction…" M. Weller

"Yeah, have a try!" M.

Doing as she said, Jay guided a tiny bit of his mana into the wand and it began to glow in a reddish orange light. As the glow started to get brighter, Mia came to his side and put her hand on his holding the wand, signaling him to stop.

Putting the wand back into it's box, Jay picked another one and repeated the same thing, only to have it glow in a blueish white light. With this he caught the attention of Marda anew, having her call Gunther to look after Ellie but do it properly, just to walk over to Jay and give him another wand.

The third one pulsated in a greenish light, then followed a fourth with a red glow again. After five more wands, both women and even the blonde man stared at Jay wide eyed and shook their head.

It was only when she noticed that Jay seemed completely clueless that Marda fetched one last wand from far up on the shelve and began to explain to him.

"You should know that most wands only react to mana with a high affinity to a certain element. While it's not too common that mages have high compatibility with two or three elements, nearly non have mana with a high affinity to those…" M. Weller's

"So it's something good?" J.

"Good? Sweetie, you're some kind of protegee from what I saw. I only heard rumors of someone having high affinity to all basic elements.

Here, try this one please…" M. Weller

Jay grabbed the shiny black wand from her slender hand and again poured mana into it. The glow this time was purplish black, surprising not only Marda and Mia, but Jay himself as well.

Jay by then knew from the feeling that it had been shadow affected mana that had activated it.

To that point Gunther already looked a bit pissed, most certainly to him getting completely ignored. And that only deepened once he heard Marda's next words while her eyes were completely glued onto the handsome youth.

"Keep it. This Wand is so long in our stock that we don't even know when or where we got it. Shadow affinity tools are not that sought after, at least not in stores like ours. May be it can someday save your pretty head…" M. Weller

"Ma'am, you should probably stop the flirting as your husband already looks a bit displeased." J.

"Husband? Oh, haha… Though he already is called Wller, he is my older brother and not my hubby. But your Sis over there looks equally pissed by the way." M. Weller

Not ceasing her flirting in the slightest, Marda gave Jay a nice discount as he went to pay for everything once they found a wand for Ellie. Storing his new wand inside his inventory, he gave the one for wind affinity and the enchanted stave to Ellie.

With this done, they finally left the store and Mia led them to a shopping alley in the back of the main street.

Jay used this chance to inquire if she really wasn't displeased. Her answer was that she in reality was, but of course not at him or the nice looking shopkeeper but latter's brother that had clearly tried to sell junk to them.

From then on their shopping continued for a while. Mia and Ellie went from one of the small stores and stalls to the next, robbing Jay of quite some time, nerves and all together three more gold.

Somewhen in between Ellie even asked if it really was okay for them to buy so much. To that Jay couldn't help but laugh as he thought about the masses of gold inside his inventory he couldn't even fathom.

About two hours later, the three of them finally decided to call it a day and go back to the Cathedral where the women resided.

Up to this point Mia's mood hadn't gone back to her usual one, even though Jay had the feeling that in between their shopping it has been.Falling a bit back on the ring road towards the bridge, he again asked her what was up.

Blushing a bit, Mia admitted she had been searching the lace lingerie he had gifted her before since she wanted to buy some more and surprise him as a thanks for the day.

To that he couldn't help it anymore, grabbed her around her slender waist and lifted her up, placing a deep kiss on her lips.

Then he leaned in more and whispered to her ear that she could have simply wished for some more of it from him. Snickering a bit she asked back if he would demand physical compensation in that case and Jay nodded with a wide grin.

Exactly at that point Ellie noticed they had fallen back a bit and came running to them, asking what had happened.

Looking at each other, Jay and Mia simultaneously answered "nothing" and began to hurry along the road.

As they reached the bridge, Jay and Mia still holding hands, Ellie used her chance and grabbed Jay's other hand. With a mischievous grin she walked alongside him in silence for the first time of the day.

Once they arrived at the Cathedral, Mia asked Jay if he wanted to join them and stay there. He thanked her for her offer but then stated he would come back the next day.

After saying goodnight to Ellie, Jay turned to Mia and gave her a goodnight peck on her cheek. He then stated that he had to buy something else that had the utmost priority for him...