<~> Chapter 170"I don't know Lilith... I was thinking about starting with something a little more... basic."

  Bel and I were staring at the wall of different colored paints. Most of the warmer colors were avaible but shades of purple and blue weren't avaible on this wall here. If they had them at all they would probably be locked up behind the ter or something, I remember blues and purples being expeo make ih's past. I would think magic would be able to deal with that limitation but maybe it isn't a high priority.

  "Yeah... painting is a bit of a jump, isn't it? Still, maybe some of the cheaper ight be fun to py with a little," I replied.

  "Maybe we start with chalk? I don't want to waste something as expensive as paper or vas for learning," Bel said nervously.

  I tapped my . "That's not a bad idea. Let's see if they have colored chalk."

  "Colored chalk? Yes, we have some of that! Do you need a good chalkboard as well?" the overly enthusiastic human man asked. The store was small and not very busy. Unlike most of the stores in the area, they weren't running out of supplies, they were running out of ers. There was a hunger in his eyes to get any sale they could and it made me a little unfortable but I suppose I couldn't bme the puy.

  He came back with a set of multicolored chalks and the set even came with a stick of light blue chalk, which seemed pretty unong most of the on pigments.

  "This one's blue," I said pointing it out.

  The shopkeeper nodded. "Yes, I'm told it's made from a toxic rock found during copper mining. It's heavily thinned when it's used to make chalk but I wouldn't stick it in your mouth," he said with a nervous chuckle. "Handling the rock is somewhat dangerous so it hasn't been used widely in paints yet, though one of my suppliers is experimenting with it."

  I nodded, sounded like cobalt then. There were plenty of oil and watercolor paints that used cobalt from my old world. "How much for the set?" I asked.

  "Well, these chalk sets aren't carried by anyone else in town but with things being as they are... How about eighty silver for the set?"

  I scratched the base of my horn. "How about sixty silver each for two sets, owenty total?"

  Bel turoward me looking nervous. "We don't wo, we could just share, I don't mind..."

  "Deal!" Spurred on by Bel trying to talk me out of it he jumped on the sale. "Owenty silver! I'll have two sets ready for you in a moment!" He pced the set he was showing us on the ter and ran into the back t out another.

  "I feel as though you're too loose with money sometimes..." Bel said.

  I ughed as I dug my purse out of my backpack. "I know, but we'll get use out of these. I don't feel bad spending money on stuff like this from time to time. I'm just kind of happy to find someone who shares this on i with me. I really haven't had time to enjoy drawing tely, spending some time teag you to draw sounds like a lot of fun for me."

  Bel leaned into me aed her head on my shoulder. "I suppose that's fair. It's not like we're exactly hurting for money. Oe has even put us up for free all of this time."

  "Exactly!" I said with a grin. "And who do we have to thank for that hm?"

  Bel looked away and smiled bashfully. "I was just gd I could help."

  The man came back with another wooden box filled with the chalk sticks a on the ter. "Two sets of colored chalk! You- you pay today correct?"

  "Yes, no problem. I buy a small chalkboard as well?"

  "Absolutely! I have one here." He pulled a roughly twelve by six inch chalkboard out from uhe table a dowo the chalk. "With the chalk that would be one-fifty silver total. Is that fine?"

  I set one gold and fifty silver s oray for him. "As promised."

  The man looked relieved as he quickly ted the s. You could t them by eye but this was also to look for terfeit s I assumed as he weighed most of them in his hand before s them into a sed pile. When he finished he turo me with a rge grin. "One gold and fifty silver, I've firmed the amount. Thanks for doing business with me! Please e to me again if you have any more art reted needs!"

  I took the items and carefully slipped them into my bag. "So, how about we look for a fishing store and then we try out our new chalk?"

  Bel giggled. "I'm sure we find a tackle shop somewhere."

  I turo the shopkeeper. "Do you know of a tackle shop iy?"

  "Hmm, I believe there's one on the western side of town. But I'm not certain if it's open, I apologize."

  "That's a good enough start. Thanks for the dires."

  I took Bel's hand and led her out of the store at a rexed pace. She squeezed my hand lovingly as she followed along. She rested her head against my shoulder again and sighed. "I do like the others but spending time like this alone is nice."

  I squeezed her hand. "I'll make sure we get some time to ourselves more often from now on. It is kind of reminds me of when it was just the two of us."

  She giggled. "It wasn't even that long. We met Man and Torien only a few days after the two of us met."

  "True," I ceded. "But it was an important time for me. You really helped me after what happe the inn..."

  Bel shushed me. "Let's not discuss that right now. Oh! That looks like it might be the pce!"

  The store iion was a small building with a gss window covered ial bars. Lined up o the window were fishing poles of differehs. I pushed the door open and held it for Bel before following her in.

  I had to stifle a giggle when I saw the way Bel's ears perked up aail fluttered as she looked around the different fishing gear.

  "Do you think the others would want to fish too? I haven't had a ce to fish in a long time, more than a year. Now that I'm here I'm a bit excited to do it again!"

  This shop was much busier tha supply store we had just e from. There was quite a rge crowd looking at the different equipment and more than half of their stock was gone judging by the empty shelves that held the different fishing poles upright. The food she robably pushing people who didn't even ordinarily fish into the sport, though I could tell just by looking that this shop was more for recreation than a supplier for any kind of fishing industry. The river wouldn't be able to support any kind e fishing operation but the people here were desperate.

  Bel was looking over the fishing poles, looking for ohat suited her tastes. They looked simir to the modern equivalents but had simpler reels. They looked a bit like yo-yos attached to the poles and would spin freely unless locked with a cmp lever. Bel got quite a few stares as she zipped around looking at different poles. She looked like she knew what she was looking for too, unlike me. She would grab one of the poles and tilt it this way and that to get a feel for the weight and would examine each of the reels carefully, I wasn't sure what she was looking for but she seemed to know what she wanted.

  "Oh! I think this one would be great for you! The weight of it would suit yer strength without being too cumbersome. We shouldn't need a rod with high power for river fishing so this one would be perfect." She hahe rod to me before pig up a different ohis one would be better for me, it's lighter than that o the two together would give us a better range of fish we could go for. You don't want a rod with too much power for some fish."

  "Er, right," I answered. I could tell I was out of my depth but I would trust her, she really did look like she knew what she was talking about. Even some of the nearby people looked surprised by the cute girl in an adventurer's dress being so knowledgeable about fishing. Though it would make sense for traveling adveo know about this kind of thing I guess.

  She also picked out a tacklebox and some hooks and lures and expihat we would o get live bait closer to wheually decided to fish. They had some jars of paste stuff we could use in pce of bait though so we grabbed some of those too. It would be less effective than actual bait but it wouldn't go bad for a long time and we could take it on our trip.

  When we reached the ter of the tackle shop the e beastfolk woman raised an eyebrow. "This is a lot of stuff, you have the gold for all of this right? Our prices are higher than normal right now."

  For the first time since we ehe store Bel's excitement waned. She got so caught up in pig things out that she didn't realize just how much stuff we actually grabbed. She gave me a worried look.

  "How much are we talking?" I asked.

  The shopkeeper let out a sigh and started looking over everythi out. "Hmm, if you buy all of this now I give it to you for five gold."

  Bel's eyes widened. "F-five gold?"

  The shopkeeper shrugged. "Look around, we're having trouble keeping enough poles in stock, let alone bait and tackle. People are doing anything they to eat right now, I know the prices are high but we're running out of stuff too fast. If you're just a hobbyist starting from scratch you should e bace things are settled down again. Maybe we work something out if you o put some of it back."

  I felt the pang of insult Bel felt when she was called a hobbyist but she quickly let it go. She turo me. "I-I dunno about—"

  I turo the shopkeeper. "We'll take everything. Give me a sed to dig out five gold."

  The shopkeeper's eyebrows raised and Bel gaped. "Lilith, I... doly want to talk you out of this but that's a lot of money for this stuff..."

  I shrugged and smiled. "After seeing how excited you've been since we've e in here I wouldn't dare hold out on you now. Besides, I think this is the first time you've ever shown this muterest in anything. You were more excited ihan I was i store." I set five gold on the shopkeeper's tray before she could argue any further.

  The shopkeeper smoothly switched to a smile as she examined each of the gold pieces. "Five gold, I've firmed the amount. Thanks for your patronage. Let me help you pack your acklebox."

  Bel and the shopkeeper spent some time pag the supplies into the tackbox while I held onto the two poles. I got a weird feeling and noticed a few of the scruffier-looking people watg us. I preteo look away and noticed one of them signal another.

  Crap, looks like my show of wealth backfired a little.

  Ohe two of them finished and everything other than the poles were loaded ly into Bel's acklebox, she took back her pole. She was beaming now and couldn't help staring over at her new fishing pole. The look on her face made a little bit of overspending totally worth it and I'm sure the others will be happy if she did mao supplement our food with fish along the way.

  As we were walking toward the exit I pced my hand on the guy's shoulder and looked him in the eye.

  "Don't try it," I rumbled out.

  The guy's face went white and I had to stop him from falling back all over one of the shelves.

  Bel did a half-turn wheiced I had stopped. "Hm? Something the matter Lilith?"

  "Just bumped into this guy on act. Sorry man," I patted his shoulder but he didn't reply, still frozen stiff.

  I held the door open for her as I looked at the person it looked like he signaled. He didn't seem to be ied in following anymore either but it was better to be safe.

  Once we left the tackle shop I took her hand and pulled her along quickly. She didn't seem to realize anything , she just ughed and giggled at me being silly, pullihrough town. I smiled and ughed with her, treating it like a game.

  I looked over the notification I got.

  [Intimidation lv. 1 unlocked - Successfully intimidate someoo doing what you want.]

  Saine

  Hello! This was a bit of a rexed chapter pared the the more ret few but it was a ime to throw something like this in. There's two more chapters in this book and then we'll head to the capital city arc! There will be some travel time before everyohere but it won't be an almost entire book like it was st time there was travel involved. I'm actually not sure how people felt about that at the time but you only do so much traveling before it's kind of uing. Travel still takes quite a while in this world but as much as I am ied in keeping this book as in-the-moment as possible, a lot of that isn't necessary. Anyway, that's enough of my rambling! I hope you ehe chapter!

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