Arlie followed her aunt and Polca down the street. They were heading to a shop Polca recommended that specialized in making mage armor. In other words, they were the type of combat robes Polca was wearing. Yet Arlie couldn’t help looking at her new guild card, one that would prove far more useful. It was a lovely card with a bit of weight in her hand, enchanted with various glyphs and the solid metal card was decorated with a purple trim with a light blue background and gold text.

  Name: Arlie Contrey

  Gender: F

  Age: 15

  Affiliation: Royal Mage Guild

  Rank: C-3

  Job: High Mage

  Being able to start as a veteran was more or less due to her rank in the mage guild. Not all that surprising given how valuable mages were in combat roles. A trained mage like herself could easily turn the tide of any battle, especially high mages like herself. Any mage of her rank was capable of casting siege spells which were powerful enough to knock down castle gates. Of course on the flipside, a few high mages could project wards to stop such spells. A factor that led to war mages often engaging in ritual magic, which were powerful spells involving multiple magi.

  Arlie could cast advanced magic on her own, but anything beyond that would require additional mages. Even Ria couldn’t cast such spells on her own. However, their family blessing did allow them to briefly cast spells beyond their means during life and death situations. Naturally that came with a cost after; Magical Exhaustion. Doing so would leave them weakened and unable to cast spells until they recover. While that didn’t sound too bad, the condition was actually rather unpleasant, although symptoms did vary from mage to mage. It was rgely the result of overusing magic.

  Polca commented, “That happy to have a new card?”

  Arlie shuffled a little, “Maybe just a bit.”

  “Well don’t lose it,” replied Polca, “That card will help you in a lot of cities.”

  Arlie knew that, her previous card was just a mage guild card. Useful for accessing mage guild-affiliated facilities, but it was of limited use getting past town gates. It worked for her in Arcs and Voros, but that was due to the fact that she was known to the guards of both towns. Anywhere else and it would be of much less use. More importantly, the card would let her use facilities provided by the Adventurers guild for their adventurers, this included guild-affiliated inns and shops. Guild shops were nice since their prices were managed by the guild and they would buy any loot adventurers received on their travels at guild-managed prices. The result was a stable but profitable retionship between the guild and adventurers. Of course there were people that didn’t like guild management and offered under-the-table prices, but those shops weren’t safe.

  As a traveler, she’d rather make use of guild-affiliated shops. Being certified by the guild she knew they’d be reliable and more importantly they’d offer good prices. It would help her travel budget. More importantly, if she ran out of funds, she’d be able to take up quests to refill her coffers. That would be useful since she couldn’t always count on being able to return home and collect funds from her treasury. Finding a gate wasn’t something to rely on for funds. They were rather rare afterall, not many mages could build one. Her entire cn only had one portal mage, and she worked for the court. All Arlie could do is operate an existing gate, building a new one was beyond her.

  “I have to agree, it would be a big help here in Kamiso. Although I’m not sure about outside the kingdom.”

  Polca gestured to a door, “Well you’d best train with the sword or something, and get a second card as a warrior. Down south in Dragon cn territory it's better not to advertise you are a mage out that way. Trust me.”

  Ria nodded, “I’ve told her the same stories.”

  Arlie sighed, “I’ve heard, it's not that bad is it?”

  Polca gave her a look, “No, it's pretty much exactly as the stories say. The only people allowed to use magic are the Dragon Priests in the West, and the Priestesses in the East. Good luck passing yourself off as one, you’d need a dragon’s mark on your chest for that.”

  Arlie thought of Aurora at that moment and then shuddered. For some reason she had a feeling she could get said mark pretty easily, but why did that feel so... distressing?

  She didn’t have long to think about that before she was dragged into a shop. Reinforced robes stood dispyed on several manikins arranged around the room. They were there as a demonstration of the tailor’s skills. A middle-aged woman sat behind the counter and smiled upon them coming in. “Welcome, girls. What can I help you with?”

  Polca pulled Arlie to the front, “I’ve got a young mage with me who needs her first set of combat robes, she’s only got the usual set you’d use in town or for short trips.”

  The woman looked her over. “Hmm, she’s cute enough, small, good bust. Hmm, I could do something.” She gestured to the back, “Come on back, so I can get your measurements, then we can discuss exactly what you need and what you might like. I presume you’ll want something in your cn colors. Light Blue and Silver if I recall the Contrey colors correctly.”

  Ria said, “That’s correct, and getting something in the cn colors would be a good idea.”

  Next thing Arlie knew she was standing in a small room in nothing more than her panties and chest wrap. While the older woman took her measurements. She ran a tape around her breasts then jotted down the results, commenting, “Quite rge for a girl your size.”

  Arlie sighed, “Yeah they seem to be the only thing the boys look at.”

  Ria shifted, “Count your blessings at least you have a chest. All I’ve got is a couple of tiny bumps.”

  “Surely you could fix that,” commented the tailor, “I know a mage of your caliber can do that much. I’ve heard about the concoctions you’ve sold to the nobles.”

  Ria defted, “I wish. Those potions may work on the nobles, but they are rather... temporary when used on myself.”

  Arlie nodded, “Yeah I tried one myself, it shrank my boobs for a day but no longer than that. We’d be out of gold in a year if we tried to rely on those.”

  “Damn, isn’t your cn wealthy?”

  Polca commented, “I heard they make about 19 ptinum marks a year.”

  That might not sound like a lot, but ptinum marks weren’t something you’d typically use on the market. Most often used were copper and silver marks, gold was only really used for rge purchases. A hundred copper marks to a silver, and a hundred more to a gold, but a single ptinum was worth a thousand gold marks. A few copper marks could buy you a small meal but most things were bought with silvers. Copper marks were used mainly as small change while gold was often used for rger purchases such as armor, magical artifacts, and weapons. Arlie fully expected the tailor to charge her a gold or two for each outfit. Mage armor was not cheap to make, it required rare materials that didn’t interfere with mana flow, and had to be woven with warding spells and enchantments. By every measure, a single outfit would cost as much as a noble’s suit of pte armor or more.

  Ria crified, “Well we might be wealthy, but even we can’t sustain the number of rare ingredients those potions need. Even if we can make them, supplying that many daily? It would drive the cost up. Right now I sell such potions at 12 gold marks a bottle, but it costs...”

  “I understand, my mage armor line isn’t that cheap either. Some of the materials can cost over a gold on the markets, especially for my higher-end designs.”

  As the tailor was measuring her thighs, Arlie asked, “Speaking off, how much will this cost me?”

  “Based on those requirements we discussed? We’d be talking about five marks for the materials, add the need for a spare, factor in the bor and enchantments; I’d wager about 15 gold marks total.”

  Arlie bnched a little at the thought. She’d brought about twice that with her to Arcs. That was half her travel funds right there.

  “Bit more than you were expecting?”

  “Just a tad,” replied Arlie.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” commented Ria, “I was going to cover it. No reason to spend your travel funds just yet.”

  “Thanks, Ria!”

  Some chuckles filled the room, as they went about the business of preparing new armor.