Dungeons and Dalliances

7.100 – Gearing Back Up

"The Emporium keys are one-time use," Natalie said as they headed for the shopping district. "That means we should hold off until the last day, right?"

"Unless we get another set, yeah."

"Just feels like a waste of tokens, buying gear outside. We should be saving up."

"I'm not disagreeing," Vanetta hedged. "But it's not cut and dried. It's probably better to buy cheap gear to hold us over until the end of the second week. That way, we'll be going into the Emporium with as many tokens as possible."

Natalie knew she was right. She sighed. "If we only go for the rares and not the epics, the prices won't be too bad. Having to downgrade, even temporarily, sucks though."

Like any delver, she had an itch inside her that demanded everything be bigger and better than the week before. Ignoring it agitated her, even if she recognized the sensibility of the plan.

"We'll survive," Vanetta said.

Thankfully, they didn't need to buy a full new set of gear. Vanetta, having the [Mercurial Heart], the veil, and the earrings, needed two more pieces to fill her slots. Natalie needed a weapon too, though. And downgrading a weapon would be a lot more painful.

The City of Eros's shopping district was expansive; even after a week, Natalie wasn't sure she had peeked into every shop. And inventories were constantly changing. Which meant tracking down the best deals would take some effort. Thankfully, they had plenty of time before their agreed-upon meeting with the team, which happened every twelve hours—in this upcoming case, just before midnight.

In the end, Natalie bought three rares. Epics were available, some good ones too, but they were too expensive for filler equipment meant only to tide her over until she went into the Emporium.

For her weapon, she bought a [Heartwood Club]. She hadn't been able to find a cheap and effective hammer, but the club had been priced excellently, and had great stats for a rare. It had been the obvious choice. A large two-handed club wasn't much different from a hammer, stylistically, and she had plenty of experience with various weapons, so adapting wouldn't be hard.

And, again, it was temporary. She'd be back to a hammer shortly, so long as she could find one in the Emporium.

For her armor, she bought a pair of boots and a breastplate. The breastplate was, like all gear in the City of Eros, on the skimpy side. Though not as revealing as the metal bra she'd been walking around in. It gave some coverage of her organs, too. Not that metal was what provided the bulk of protection for delvers—stats and HP did.

Vanetta bought a pair of gloves and, hilariously, empowered panties. She clearly would rather have avoided the second, but they had been cheap and excellent for her class, and despite being panties, hadn't come with a lewd requirement, so she had caved to practicality. Natalie teased her relentlessly over the decision.

Since Vanetta had sacrificed her mundane armor, she needed to buy a set of leather gear to cover up with. Even the most chaste armor in the City was revealing, so Natalie much appreciated the skimpy corset-like torso-piece that revealed Vanetta's pushed-up cleavage.

With that handled, they had time remaining before the team's scheduled meet-up. Natalie socialized throughout town to learn more about the Emporium, though failed to glean much useful; it was extremely rare to find a key. She couldn't find a single person with first-hand experience, only second-hand stories.

Apparently, most people who did get keys got them late into their stay and thus left the City the next morning. She and Vanetta were edge cases, having gotten theirs a week in. And even they had no plans to use the Emporium until the last day. So it made sense that information was hard to come by.

She made a mental note to spread around what she learned so others might benefit—though there might not be much worth talking about. The Emporium might be as simple as a shop with rarer items; nothing she had heard suggested otherwise.

When the next reset was close to rolling around, their team met at their designated spot, the lobby where the assignment boards were hanging on the wall. Elida raised an eyebrow as Natalie approached alongside Vanetta—they had met up before heading over.

"So?" Elida asked. "How was the dreaded Palace Basement?"

"We got Emporium keys," Vanetta said. "It was more or less as we heard it described. Nothing further to report."

Elida paused, then turned an amused look to Natalie. No doubt, the red-haired girl could read the flustered tone and make all the correct assumptions. The general idea, at least.

"I would never dream of prying into a lady's private life," Elida said dryly, "but I do believe some elaboration is necessary."

Natalie outlined how they'd come into the two Emporium keys, at least insofar as was relevant; she left off the requirement of the lewdest of the trials. "And that sums that up. What happened with you three? Anything important?"

Not really, she discovered. After a few discussions touching on Natalie and Vanetta's new items and how they might affect team combat—they didn't, really, so they didn't go into detail—they waited the last few minutes making idle small talk. The usual crowd gathered in the lobby as the twelve-hour reset approached, and when the bell rang through the city, people flocked to the boards.

The next assignments everyone received were routine, weak enough that they decided to go hunting instead. They could make excellent profits hunting the Ruins; it was more lucrative than the lower-level assignments, they had found, no doubt thanks to how they were the most combat-capable team in the City.

But they intended to do so after sleeping. Better to tackle the Ruins after resting, not before.

And, in Natalie's case, she had a level-up potion to drink. There was zero reason to put that off. Since sleep was required for levels to take hold—though she wasn't sure how a level-up potion, a truly unheard-of item, would interact with that piece of common knowledge—it was especially important to rest before heading into the Ruins.

Naturally, she buzzed with excitement as she retired to her room. What skill or skills would she be getting for hitting level four?