novelraw Chapter 232: Is Master Going to Punish Me?
Chapter 232: Is Master Going to Punish Me?
"Who’s the little glutton coming today?"
Lin Mo opened the door while teasing.
Then...
his eyes met a pair of light purple eyes, and he froze awkwardly in place.
"Mr. Lin Mo?"
Finnie tilted her head slightly, looking at him with a puzzled expression.
What glutton... Would Miss Lena come by tonight to chat with Mr. Lin Mo?
Lin Mo's mouth twitched as Sherfilia's calm face immediately popped into his mind.
This little maid definitely did it on purpose to egg things on!
"Ahem, ahem—"He cleared his throat twice and said, "Oh, Finnie... is there something you need?"
"Um..."
Finnie hugged a pillow to her chest, lowering her head shyly. "Mr. Lin Mo, could I... rest in your room?"
"Can't sleep alone?"
Little Finnie naturally had none of those complicated thoughts, so Lin Mo didn't assume anything strange.
"Yes!"
Finnie nodded firmly, nervously watching her small fists.
"Alright then..."
Since Finnie had just left home suddenly, it was understandable she felt lonely. Lin Mo felt a bit of pity for the adorable girl, so he wouldn't refuse.
He closed the door, and the room grew quiet.
Finnie walked stiffly to the bed, placed her pillow on it, and slowly crawled under the covers. Her heart raced uncontrollably.
Sherfilia's suggestion had really worked... just say it like that, and she could sleep together with Mr. Lin Mo!
"Has Finnie taken a bath?"
"Ah? Um... yes, I already did."
Finnie, sensing the warmth of the bedding, spoke in a voice trembling with nervousness.
"Then rest early."
But Lin Mo only walked to the bedside, lifted the book he had placed nearby, and continued reading.
The mana lamp was off, but Lin Mo activated Eagle Eye, so he could still clearly make out the words on the page.
He normally didn't sleep this early, so falling asleep right away might be difficult.
In the darkness, Finnie's nervousness gradually eased. She glanced at Lin Mo beside her, only able to see his silhouette.
Sherfilia's promise of something more "exciting" hadn't come to pass, which left Finnie both relieved and slightly disappointed.
She had thought—
she had thought she might get a kiss tonight!
But those messy thoughts were soon pushed aside. The cozy warmth of the blankets and the familiar scent at her side made Finnie feel safe.
Since leaving home she had been unsettled, often sleeping poorly and sometimes struggling to fall asleep. Tonight, though, drowsiness came early.
Before long, Finnie closed her eyes.
Lin Mo gently stroked the girl's beautiful blonde hair, a placid smile at his lips.
Finally he leaned over and planted a light kiss on Finnie's smooth, soft cheek.
Girls like Finnie were different from Ellie and Sherfilia. Moving too fast could scare her;
Sherfilia surely understood that.
So Sherfilia's aim was only to help her young mistress advance a bit emotionally, at least to allow for a slightly more intimate contact.
Lin Mo's gaze returned to the book, and he cast a sidelong glance at the cute sleeping face. Sure enough, a visible blush had spread.
Fortunately, shy Finnie didn't dare move, fearing she would be discovered awake. After a while she really did fall asleep, her breathing even.
Lin Mo yawned, finding the book hard to focus on, and prepared to rest.
Just then, the room suddenly sounded the prompt of the doorbell being pressed again.
Lin Mo was startled.
What was going on?
He walked over and opened the door to find the expressionless little maid standing there.
Lin Mo rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Did you scare Finnie into coming here?"
Sherfilia didn't answer, instead fixing him with her golden gaze. "So, does Master want to punish Sherfilia?"
Lin Mo's temper flared.
This one definitely did it on purpose!
Wait... was Finnie also part of her plan?
She wouldn't have done it intentionally just to increase the excitement, would she?
Lin Mo glanced at the sleeping Finnie and suddenly felt a strange twinge of guilt.
A barely perceptible curve lifted Sherfilia's lips.
Although helping Miss Finnie's emotional progress was indeed her duty, it was only reasonable to consider a little benefit for herself while fulfilling that duty, right?
"Go, to your room!"
In short, what followed was a wonderful story that cannot be spoken of...
"Attribute points gained: Agility +1!"
Seeing the floating prompt, Lin Mo closed his eyes contentedly and fell asleep.
Good. His efforts had not been in vain.
The next morning, when Finnie opened her eyes, she found herself alone in the room.
The bedding beside her had long since lost its warmth, leaving a hollow feeling in her chest.
Luckily the door was soon pushed open and Lin Mo entered carrying a tray. "Awake? Have some breakfast. Afterward we’ll go into the city to look around, and help Lena rent that plantation plot."
Finnie looked at him and immediately recalled what had happened last night. She covered half her face with her hand and lowered her head in embarrassment.
"Yes..."
After breakfast they headed out together. Lin Mo carried a handbook borrowed from the innkeeper, containing information about Fargard City's adventure-related industries.
The first thing to check was the smithies.
Compared to Roland Town and Silverstream City, Fargard City had far more smithies;
the handbook's descriptions occupied many dense pages.
These independent smithies varied in quality. Some catered only to low-tier adventurers, forging inexpensive ordinary weapons. Others specialized in fine goods, with store inventories starting at excellent-grade.
Many also took custom orders: you provide requirements and materials, and the owner handles forging, charging only a customization fee and forging fee.
Overall, the biggest problem with these independent shops was uneven quality and a relative lack of high-end gear.
Some stores might have one or two exceptional-grade items, but choices were sparse and mostly weapons. Visiting each one would be a pure waste of time. Fargard City was large, with many Adventurer Commercial Streets;
exploring them all would take days.
So Lin Mo planned to go straight to a large chain smithy. Prices might be a bit higher, but it's convenient and time-saving.
There were far fewer chain smithies;
in Fargard City, only three could be considered sizable.
They were called Copper Hammer Silver Axe Smithy, Adventurers' Cottage, and Preston Smithy.
The last one had the biggest reputation. Preston was the name of a duke of the Doria Kingdom, a famous Transcendent-level powerhouse, Nathaniel Preston, the Grand Duke praised as the Kingdom's Sword. It was his family's business.
This grand duke was one of the few who could be mentioned alongside Duke Sted Morin.
Other dukes in the kingdom might have titles and status on paper, but financially and politically they paled compared to these two.
Lin Mo was quite interested in the duke hailed as the Kingdom's Sword. It was said his shop had the most and widest variety of high-grade equipment among the three chains.
Though slightly pricier, the costs were still reasonable.
As for the other two, Copper Hammer Silver Axe was the most down-to-earth chain, selling the cheapest goods, similar in price to ordinary independent smithies. Its drawback was having the fewest fine items and relatively poor decor and service.
Adventurers' Cottage sounded friendly but was actually the worst of the three.
The wares there were not expensive and the storefront appeared flashy, attracting many newcomers. But quality control was awful—some weapons were decent, others shoddy. If you were unlucky and bought a poor-quality weapon, you'd be in big trouble.
A shop like that couldn't survive long in a city with a steady adventurer population, but in a bustling hub like Fargard City it could continuously reap new victims.
Even though the handbook warned about the shop, not every adventurer bought and carefully read the manual.
There are always lazy or foolish people who see a shop that looks established and buy on impulse, only to regret when they get a bad deal.
Weighing pros and cons, Lin Mo chose the most trustworthy-looking Preston Smithy.
The smithy was a bit far from their lodgings, but they had no pressing matters today and could walk. They could also enjoy the city's sights and buy snacks along the way.
Finnie and Lena were the happiest, excitedly looking left and right and pulling Lin Mo into interesting shops, buying many things.
Some purchases were useful, but many were pointless "fashion junk," like character figurines from the famous bard Wenqi's work—"Bard Adventurers' Log: Racial Traits and Differences of the Continent."
Lin Mo hadn't read the book but had heard of it. Fellow bards rated it as little more than fantasies before starving to death.
Still, the figurines were entertaining, depicting figures that would never exist in this world, such as voluptuous elves and tsundere playful female imp-dragon girls...
From a character-design perspective, the bards of this world had remarkable imagination.
Before they knew it, most of the morning had passed and they reached their destination.
Lin Mo looked up at the vast smithy ahead.
As the handbook stated, the scale of this shop was impressive. From the exterior it wasn't lavish, but gave a solid, unpretentious feeling.
Inside, no clerk greeted them at the door, but the layout was orderly and comfortable.
On the first floor, the most prominent area had a sign reading: Common Equipment Area.
Lin Mo wasted no time and went straight to the second floor.
The amount of gear on the second floor didn't seem much different from the first, and it too had a conspicuous sign: Excellent Equipment Area.
So the third floor should be the Exceptional Equipment Area.
Lin Mo climbed on to the third floor.
Compared to the lower two floors, this level held far fewer items—only about a tenth of the previous floors.
Correspondingly, the weapon racks were more refined.
A few clerks were checking inventory and inspecting gear, with no flashy salespeople or fake-smiling promoters—customers browsed and asked prices for items they liked.
Lin Mo liked the atmosphere and smiled as he wandered among the wares.
The equipment was well organized, divided into three main zones: weapons, armor, and accessories, each with further subcategories to save customers time.
He went to the armor section for leather and soft armor.
There were two racks with over a dozen items, mostly leather, and a few lighter, more attractive soft armors.
Soft armor, also called inner armor, was a lighter upgrade over leather, made from tough fabrics or materials derived from special crops.
Its overall defensive capability was similar to leather, but it had its own advantages.
First, it's lightweight and doesn't hinder movement, making it comfortable.
Compared to leather, this inner armor matches better with mage robes.
Because inner armor is often layered under clothing or robes, it can also throw off an enemy's estimation of your defense.
For Lin Mo, this kind of inner armor was very suitable.
Of course, an upgraded leather-type has a downside.
Its single flaw could be summed up in one word—expensive.
But sometimes expensive is not a flaw of the item, but of the buyer.
Lin Mo wasn't short on money.
He scanned the six inner armors, and two made the shortlist.
[Violet Cloth Cuirass]
Type: Magic Equipment / Cloth Armor
Grade: Exceptional (Blue)
Attributes: Durability +120%, Solidity +90%
Hidden Attribute: Flexibility III: Reduces piercing-type damage by 20%, chance to be pierced reduced by 20%
Equip Boost: Violet Ward III: Constitution +10 when attacked
A good defensive piece focused on pure protection, especially effective against piercing weapons.
The other piece was a different type.
[Bloodvine Soft Armor]
Type: Magic Equipment / Cloth Armor
Grade: Exceptional (Blue)
Attributes: Durability +100%, Solidity +110%
Hidden Attribute: Bloodvine Ward III: Reduces all damage types by 8%, increases fire elemental damage taken by 6%
Equip Boost: Bloodvine Strength III: Grants +5 Mana and +5 Constitution when attacking or being attacked
Compared to the previous item, this Bloodvine armor was more well-rounded. It directly reduced all types of damage by 8%, but had the drawback of increasing fire damage taken by 6%.
For equip boost, it granted +5 Mana and +5 Constitution when attacking or when attacked, making it both offensive and defensive.
After some thought, Lin Mo chose the Bloodvine Soft Armor.
Having decided, he waved to a clerk, who hurried over. "Customer, may I help you?"
"I'd like to ask the price of this item."
"This Bloodvine Soft Armor is mid-tier Exceptional-grade equipment. The shop price right now is 2,900 gold coins."
Exceptional-grade items have upper, mid, and lower tiers. Lin Mo's Frost Chill Robe belonged to the lower Exceptional tier, so it was cheaper.
This Bloodvine armor being mid-tier made its better stats justify the higher price.
Plus, being a big-city flagship shop, 2,900 gold was reasonable.
Lin Mo considered his funds. The party's money would also be used to buy gear for Finnie and Ellie, and for Sherfilia’s dagger repairs, so he only took 1,300 gold from the 4,000 in party funds and paid the remaining 1,600 himself.
Besides his own armor, they still needed to buy armor for Ellie and boots for Finnie.
Ellie's armor would naturally differ from Lin Mo’s. As a strength-type warrior doing close-quarters combat, she needed metal armor with strong defense.
But Ellie disliked heavy plate, so they limited the search to relatively lightweight metal armors.
They picked for Ellie with Lin Mo's help, using the ability to view exact gear attributes to find a suitable set.
Ellie's armor cost 2,600 gold. Half came from the party funds and the other 1,300 from Ellie herself.
There was no other way—the party's pooled funds were just starting and came from a single mission reward, so were a bit short. Over time, with more savings, they could cover everything themselves.
Next came Finnie's boots. Lin Mo chose a pair that looked nice and matched her outfit.
The boots also had good stats, increasing Finnie's Mana and Agility and offering a hidden movement speed bonus.
They cost 3,100 gold—the most expensive of the three—but Finnie could easily afford it. Before she left Silverstream City, Behira had given her a generous amount.
So they used 1,000 gold from the party funds and Finnie paid the remaining 2,100.
After these purchases, the party fund of 4,000 had only 400 left, which was still enough to pay for Sherfilia's dagger repairs.
With the first major errand done, they still needed to buy skill scrolls and rent the plantation plot.
Lena had already picked a location, not nearby, so they would deal with that later.
In Fargard City, the skill scroll market was large and relatively well organized.
Every major Adventurer Commercial Street had a corresponding trading area, a place where adventurers bought and sold skill scrolls, weapon materials, and other items.
Besides adventurer-to-adventurer trading, the Adventurers' Association and some shops sold basic scrolls.
Lin Mo had never been to the trading area and wanted to see it.
Following the handbook's directions, they soon arrived at the commercial district's adventurer trading locale.
"It's so lively!"
Finnie exclaimed.
Indeed, the place was crowded and noisy.
This wasn't an open street but an underground area, resembling a black market.
In fact, it wasn't an official trading venue but a spontaneous market formed by adventurers.
So the crowd was mixed and chaotic.
Lin Mo and Sherfilia exchanged a glance;
Sherfilia immediately moved closer to Finnie to protect her.
Lin Mo held little Lena's hand.
As for Ellie... she didn't really need protection.
Though far below Lin Mo in power, Ellie was a solid level-3 warrior. Unlike Lena and Finnie, Ellie's temperament and experience meant she wouldn't easily get cheated.
Their presence still drew attention in the underground market.
After all, two half-orcs, plus Finnie and Sherfilia, were beautiful and eye-catching;
Sherfilia in a maid outfit especially attracted looks.
But no one rude came to start trouble.
Finnie and Sherfilia together almost wore their noble status on their faces.
Lin Mo's mage robes also lent him a certain authority;
mages were rare even in Fargard City.
Lin Mo walked through the underground area, constantly surveying his surroundings.
As it appeared at first glance, this was a disorderly district.
There were no proper stores;
stalls lined the way, displaying all manner of nonsense.
Lin Mo stopped at several stalls to observe;
most goods were fakes.
Fake skill scrolls, fake equipment, fake materials...
Indeed, scammers exist in every world.
Besides the stalls, adventurers traded among themselves, often posting signs detailing items for sale or wanted.
Lin Mo browsed for a while but didn't find what he wanted.
"Brother, do you need anything?"
At that moment, a lean, suspicious-looking short man suddenly popped up in front of him. "Let me introduce myself: I'm a guide for the trading market, specializing in pointing adventurers toward the items they want to buy. You just pay me one silver coin, and I guarantee I can find what you're looking for."