Only his diligence at completing contracts allowed him to slowly grow his pot.
Yet as much as it pained him, there was one expense he had to make. A purchase he’d been wanting to make for some time but had deferred: armor.
Vir swept everything he had into his coin bag and headed down with Neel.
Let’s see what the Brotherhood armorers got for sale.
It was time to go shopping.
82EKAVIR GOES SHOPPING
Vir contemplated heading to Param’s shop, but the Brotherhood not only had more weapons and armor to choose from, with examples all across the Known World, but their quality was better. And, unlike with the inn, Vir got a five percent discount.
Located in the same Sanctum building, the armory shop was just a short walk from his room, across the courtyard that served as the Balar Rank arena.
Hundreds of weapons lined the racks of the tall, vaulted-ceilinged room. A long counter dominated the side wall, behind which hung several more weapons.
The expensive ones.
Vir doubted he’d have the money to afford those gorgeous blades, but it was still fun to ogle.
Only a handful of other mercenaries were present, allowing Neel to freely run around while Vir admired the sea of armaments on display. Not only were there multiple examples of most weapon types—arming swords, greatswords, talwars, shamshirs, maces, polearms, flails, and several more—they all had different accents and styles, too.
Some were unadorned, meant to be basic, rugged implements of war. Others had intricate carvings and gold inlays. Those would be more at home on a Sawai aristocrat’s waist than in a warrior’s hand.
There were even a couple of urumis—bizarre flexible whip-swords that looked both deadly and comical at the same time. Vir had to wonder if any martial arts incorporated such strange weapons, or if they were more for intimidation.
To Vir’s immense disappointment, there wasn’t a single seric weapon in sight. Materials ranged all the way from mid-grade iron all the way up to gleaming steel alloys, but there wasn’t a hint of seric.
Maybe they keep those in a back room? Or maybe they were so expensive that most warriors couldn’t afford them. After all, who’d stock an item that never sold? Seric blades started at one seric coin and went up from there. To afford even the cheapest seric katar, Vir would have to work over a hundred contracts for the Brotherhood. Taking living expenses into account, he’d probably have to work nonstop for an entire year to afford one.
Some day, Vir thought with a sigh, approaching an especially strange rack of swords. Vir initially mistook them for training swords, since some were made of wood. Others were steel, but pencil-thin. They looked as though they’d snap when struck at anything harder than flesh.
That was when he noticed the spherical cavities at their hilts.
Magic weapons!
Every weapon on this rack had at least one slot for magical orbs.
So that’s why they look like this. They’re designed to be used with magic!
Vir had heard of combat support magic but had never really understood how it worked. Spells like Sharpen Edge, Enhance Speed, Enhance Edge Retention, and Enhance Durability could be slotted into these swords, boosting their properties.
With magic augmenting them, these swords would behave extremely differently from regular weapons. A sword with the weight of a feather could deal the damage of a greatsword.
It’d be able to strike much faster, too. He could scarcely imagine how devastating these weapons could be.
Must be nice to have a mejai along. Vir wondered whether he’d ever get to join a party with a mejai in it. Maybe he could pair up with Maiya to become an unstoppable duo one day?
Vir shook off those delusions and forced himself to think about the reason he was here. He didn’t come here to buy weapons. He needed armor.
Walking to the far wall of the room, he found an array of armor-clad straw dummies. There was less selection here, but still dozens to choose from. Gambesons in various colors and thicknesses, brigandines—both fitted and square-shaped, and full plate armor, with a half dozen helmet options.
Those he ignored. While protecting one’s head was most peoples’ top priority, Vir found helmets made him feel stuffy, no matter how many coifs he wore, and they robbed him of his hearing. Maybe he’d regret it one day, but his hood would suffice for now.
The same went for boots. He’d learned that any metal in his soles interfered with his ability to pull prana through the ground. He imagined it was the same for mejai, which was likely why mejai never wore gauntlets.
He’d given a great deal of thought to what kind of armor suited him best. Everyone always coveted full plate, and while it was more mobile than it looked, it wouldn’t do for Vir’s acrobatics. The Kalari arts were some of the flashiest he’d seen, regularly involving somersaults, jumps, and flips in combat.
Kalari demanded extreme mobility and speed. Moreover, Vir needed to remain quiet while executing his flips and somersaults. In fact, there was an argument to be made for not wearing any armor at all. Dexterity and mobility provided its own security—better not to be hit at all.
But that was easier said than done. What about monsters that spit venom? Or against Lightning Affinity magic? Lightning spells were nearly impossible to avoid.
In Vir’s case, it was the prana rats that caused him to reconsider. A single puncture in his skin could end him, owing to the diseases they carried. Armor would protect him against such foes.
He ruled out full plate, for two reasons. Even if he bought a cuirass, those armor pieces were heavier than the other options, and were usually worn over gambeson, so he’d need to buy that too. Plate was also expensive, and the cost of both exceeded his budget. The cheapest plate cuirass would set him back ten silvers, and he barely had five to spare.
That said, plate bracers and greaves seemed close to ideal. With his five silvers, Vir could just barely afford both, but that would leave his vitals unprotected.
Gambeson was a tempting option. Unlike the other armor types, they were a single piece of thick, heavy fabric, which brought down their cost. Cheaper to tailor too.
That was also the issue with them. They didn’t make a gambeson cuirass, unless Vir did a custom order, which he couldn’t afford. The full gambeson covered his arms and legs down to the knees. While it’d offer some cushioning, it would still impede his acrobatics, and he was unsure whether even the thick gambeson was strong enough to protect against deadly prana beast fangs. Not to mention, fabric generally fared poorly against acidic venom.
Mail was far beyond his budget and made too much noise.
Which left the third main type of armor available: Brigandine. Brigs were made of small overlapping steel plates riveted to a leather backing. They looked like studded leather armor, with most of the penetration protection of steel plate without the cost and with slightly greater mobility.
And they were more affordable. The cheapest brig cuirass was on sale for five silvers.
But that would leave his extremities unprotected.
Vir didn’t have enough for both.
“You look like you could use some help there, friend,” a clean-shaven, bald and browless man said as he approached. Nicks and scars covered his cheeks and his nose, marring what would’ve otherwise been a striking face. Like all Sanctum employees, he wore a black robe, a black sash at his waist, and a black hood.
He appeared to be the kind of guy who’d seen his fair share of battles, so Vir laid out his concerns.