Helen handle the details of this transaction You will probably be doing this a lot for me in the future so uh good luck
The woman seemed to tense to Claptrap’s eyes and what followed was a very awkward series of bargaining between the two of them while the Ghosthound and the other spear attendant watched After a few minutes the Ghosthound sat down and began to engrave right there working while they hammered out the details of the deal and things began to go much more smoothly
Although Helen was very savvy she lacked the sinister and unrelenting quality that allowed the Ghosthound to ask seemingly innocuous questions and still have Claptrap’s confidence in his price plummet There was just a calculating way that he had that made him impossible to fool It was much less stressful for Claptrap to negotiate with Helen but he sensed that for her she was sweating bullets After all if she failed at obtaining a good deal
Luckily she seemed well versed in the subject so much so that they started talking more exacting details on the quality of the workmanship turnover times and cost sharing
But then the Ghosthound spoke interrupting them both right before Claptrap was willing to accept a deal that would have earned him enough of the profits
Oh Claptrap the man said standing and smiling at him Just one quick question
Inwardly Claptrap began making calculations trying to parse out how much lower he could go and still respect himself There was definitely money to be made here but if the Ghosthound insisted on keeping it all to himself there really was nothing that Claptrap could do But when the question was finally asked Claptrap just blinked completely bewildered
do you have any information on Patrons
Err yes Claptrap stuttered Would you like the general Risk Sheet or the detailed
The Ghosthound simply glanced at Helen his mouth twisted into a frown She seemed to hesitate for several long seconds torn between two options very near to each other but after a time she seemed to settle on her answer and said We will take it all Perhaps you can throw it into our previous discussions and we will call it a day
After another quick round of mental mathematics Claptrap nodded and he shook hands with Helen The Ghosthound turned to leave then paused and pulled a long streamer out of his ring
Oh here I heard that if I wanted to show my support I should give you this Just hang it wherever I guess
And with that the Ghosthound took the armors to be Engraved and left leaving a very confused Claptrap holding the streamer And when he looked down to examine it finally noticing its color his confusion only grew This color
He recognized this color The color of the great shame of the Spearman School Why would he Was he possibly connected to that woman all those years ago
As his eyes ran over the gold lettering and the incredibly large and bold Ghosthound across the streamer his eyes landed on the Style affiliation It wasn’t one that Claptrap immediately recognized but it seemed strangely familiar to him The Spear Phantom style huh Why did that seem so familiar
Making a mental note to research it more later Claptrap pushed those thoughts out of his mind Instead he began to consider how to proceed with his purchases Although Izzat had been silent for a single day if Claptrap continued to make such mass purchases he would eventually surface looking for a slice of the pie
If he couldn’t get that
Better to start planning now Claptrap breathed in and then breathed out picturing Ciel’s shy smile He was not a particularly bold man but neither was he a scared one He had always lived his life simply because he was content A few months ago he had found a goal and flailed out searching for a hope Just when he thought it was impossible a hope came flickering into his field of view but now more things followed that hope including the cold threat of steel
Claptrap smiled and began to hum For Ciel he would break this entire world Let them come
Then he shook his head ruefully Confidence and madness was one thing but
How was he going to handle it
Randidly set the last scroll down his mouth twisted into a grin The information provided by Claptrap had been a rating sheet that showed the relative risks of several of the most common Patrons a guide that detailed the training sequence of some common Patrons and finally an encyclopedia that listed all of the known Patrons and some background on Patrons
Patron of Ash wasn’t included on the risk sheet which was initially very confusing to Randidly but his reading in the encyclopedia helped him understand It was unclear what Patrons were but it was clear that different worlds had access to different Patrons Perhaps once more due to their perspective on the subject
There were dozens of varieties of fire Patrons but there was only one Patron of Ash which was addressed in a fairly large section explaining some history and sightings of the Patron and some notable Initiates of Ash From the guide materials Randidly had learned that there were 3 levels given to people who take the Apprentice Path Initiates Anointed and Chosen
These labels were related to how far along in the apprenticeship a person had progressed All Patrons had 3 requirements each name signifying how many requirements an individual had passed
The Patron of Ash encyclopedia entry stated that at one point Initiates of Ash were fairly common There were even some Anointed of Ash But there had never been a Chosen of Ash according to the encyclopedia and many Anointed chose never to advance through the third path giving them access to the third challenge although they would not speak of why
Perhaps it was simply the failures of their predecessors but the book described how many speculated there was more to it than that There was a certain set to the eyes of the Anointed that made the writers suspicious But of course this was only speculation and for now Randidly had no proof
There was a small relief it was clear from the texts that only the 1st and 3rd challenges would teleport you to the world of the Patron The 2nd challenge was one that needed to be accomplished where you were So Randidly decided that he would soon try for the Initiate of Ash path
But before that he needed to get through this strange seemingly bugged path Randidly had seen a lot of things about the Nexus and its system that made him think that it was a programed system of some strange extremely esoteric energy language but the more he experienced the more suspicious he was of whether that was all there was to it The Lonesome Spear path made him dubious
And those fingers
One step at a time ever onward Never stopping always advancing and eventually Randidly knew that he would find the answer naturally But right now
Being here among these individuals who had trained since birth under the system where his strength was only that of a Lvl 15 individual and where his skill level was so far below his peers Randidly was still shocked at Shal’s casual reveal When Shal had told him all that time ago that his skill level was around 50 who would have thought that he had meant his lowest and weakest skills As for his strongest skills Spear Mastery was 202 Phantom Thrust was probably even higher
Randidly shivered but he couldn’t help but smile as the knock came on the door to his room
Disciple Come we begin immediately
At the very least it wouldn’t be boring And being here reminded him no matter how far he had already come the path stretched ever onward Randidly stood and walked out to meet Shal
Chapter 141
This fucking asshole cunt the whole reason I ran away from home was to fucking avoid the smell of leather Now he makes me act like a common merchant
The former star disciple of the Iron Spear Style sat still his face studiously blank as he listened to Helen’s relentless tirade Although she had been extremely well spoken around their master for whatever reason Helen continued her constant stream of mutters and hateful whispers around him
I hate its fucking shit color I hate its vomit smell I hate its old people skin feel Leather should be burnt and leather workers put to death Helen glanced quickly over at him and seemed to see right through his carefully maintained facade But if you say anything about it I’ll bite your cock off in your sleep