Power Source of the Tome

After some long-winded conversation, Eidiri finally got the matter of the making of a pillow handled.

Of course, the clerk that he was talking to wasn't helpful in the slightest.

In the end, the clerk got fed up with Eidiri's antics and wild gesticulations and resorted to calling the manager.

When the manager had arrived, she was quite disgruntled from being disturbed with her paperwork, as such, she didn't possess the most favorable of attitudes.

This just resulted in a further clash between the 2 parties, though neither of them outright confronted one another.

They merely stood there, trying to understand each other until Eidiri got fed up with it and asked for something along the lines of wool.

'If no one understands me,' Eidiri inwardly sighed, 'I guess I'll just have to do it myself.'

It really was startling, the vast difference between reality and the Land of Orthus, in a weird sort of way, after spending enough time in-game, it wouldn't be uncommon to receive a culture shock.

Eidiri managed to obtain a ream of soft cotton, far more than what he needed for his material but unfortunately, the store only sold the material by the ream.

Quite unfortunate really, if there were other clothing stores Eidiri would definitely check them out, having felt scammed with his most recent experience.

After he had finished meandering around with purchasing cloth, Eidiri left the store, only now recalling his original intent on returning to the village.

That was, to ask Master Jarid about the tome.

He hadn't taken too long in the shop, only passively arguing for about an hour or so.

Walking down the streets, Eidiri passed by fruit carts, hawkers yelling about fresh monster meat from the fields, little peddlers trying to sell off some trinkets and souvenirs.

A deep breath in and Eidiri just took in the smell of it all, truly just enjoying his experience.

The roasting meat in a nearby grill was absolutely alluring, and as much as Eidiri wanted to sample a taste of it, he decided to hold himself back in anticipation for Miss Gloria's dish with the top-notch Murder Crow meat.

Passing through the crowd, shoulders bumping at times, he made his way to an alleyway branching off from the street.

While the streets painted a lively picture of life, the alleys were where the more gritty kind of action was handled.

Fortunately, Eidiri trusted this particular dealer. Not a drug dealer, mind you. To put it in a better fashion, his ore supplier.

Gerod was a gritty, rough miner, apparently, he had been a miner since he was but a "wee lad" according to him.

But that didn't necessarily matter, Gerod provided the ores, Eidiri purchased them, a simple enough transaction, and everyone goes on with their lives satisfied.

After purchasing the next batch of ores that he would forge into weapons later, Eidiri, now done with his business, finally made his way to the smithy.

"Master Jarid?" he asked.

"I'm right here boy," a voice said from behind Eidiri, starling him a bit.

"Ah! Master Jarid. Goddamn it," Eidiri breathed out, slightly unsettled from the little shock he had received from Jarid's surprise appearance.

"What?" jarid asked in amusement, "It's not like I did that on purpose. I just happened to be there."

"But surely you must be here for something. You here to learn more? I can't teach you much more unless ye be a dwarf. So just keep doing what your doing," Jarid said.

"No no no, I'm not here about that. It's more about something we happened to find in the Caverns before that we forgot to bring up. Here just give me a second," Eidiri said, clarifying the situation.

Eidiri deftly retrieved the tome from his bag, blowing some of the dust off of it before handing it over to Jarid.

"Ah, this thing brings back old memories..." Jarid said wistfully. "This used to be the beginner tome for rookie miners."

"Oftentimes they come in too feeble and weak, not able to do the hard work of swinging the pick for long lengths of time."

"So we just used this. A key tool in any mine I assure you. You keep it now, I can tell you've used it now that I take a good look at you."

"What do want to ask boy?" Jarid then asked.

"Well," Eidiri trailed on with a bit of flush in his cheeks, "You see, I've tried to use this to help some of my friends out as well. And It worked at first! They got sturdier!"

"But then this thing just stopped working, I'm assuming this thing needs some sort of energy source but the thing is that I don't know what powers it," EIdiri stated his problem.

"Oh, that's a simple enough thing. Nothing too complicated my boy. You just gotta mine things."

"Actually let me rephrase that, you gotta mine quality things, like magical ore. Offer the magic within the ore to the tome and it'll absorb it, regaining power," Jarid explained.

"All good now?" he asked.

"Yea, thanks Master Jarid. You've helped a lot," Eidiri thanked Master Jarid.

"Okay, well you run on along now. You're still young, don't let an old dwarf like me keep you down, go off now," Jarid said, practically chasing Eidiri out the blacksmith.

"Okay, I get it, I get it. You're busy," Eidiri said as he left the shop.

The sun was setting overhead, the skies painted a fiery orange, the clouds dotting the horizon. A truly breathless scene.

But Eidiri ignored this in favor of the meal promised to him, he hadn't been eating well recently, having grown accustomed to cold, hard food.

This meal from Miss Gloria would be a godsend to him, his tastebuds would sing holy hymns upon warm food.

Wiping the drool off his mouth from his fantasies, Eidiri snuck a quick glance around him to make sure no one was looking at him weirdly, luckily enough, everyone was going about their own business.

In no time at all, Eidiri's feet had carried him to Miss Gloria's door, pushing it open with the ever familiar ring of the bell.