I forgot to check out my new ability! Oh well, I had to go see what this jerk wanted first. The owner of the cackle was Davian Malbus. He was the son of the owner of a competing adventurer's gear store. It felt like the guy always had it out for us and our business, despite the fact that my father had been friends with his father.

  Sure, they competed from time to time in drinking games and other kinds of games that didn't involve drinking, but they were companions. Friendly rivals at worst. But this Davian guy. He was something else.

  He cackled again in much the same manner as before, like he was intentionally trying to draw me out from the back of the shop. That's actually exactly what he was doing, and it worked.

  "What do you want, Davian?" I asked. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

  "Where is your father?" he asked. "I wanted to laugh at his face when I criticized his handiwork."

  He held up one of the Delphian steel swords.

  "That's actually my handiwork," I said. "And if you must know, my father's dead. He passed two days ago."

  Davian's grin got wider.

  "What did he do?" he asked. "Fall off a bridge?"

  "Yes, actually," I said.

  "Oh, how dreadful," he said. "I'm sorry for your loss."

  "I can feel how sorry you are just radiating off of you," I said.

  "Yes, well," he said, "to the matter at hand. This is Delphian steel, is it not?"

  "It is," I said. "What's your point?"

  "My point, dear boy," he said, "is you just turned eighteen two days ago—Happy Birthday by the way—you couldn't possibly have had time with your father's untimely demise, to have gotten an adventurer's license."

  "Again," I said, "what's your point?"

  "I thought I was spelling it out enough for a dullard like you," he said, "but apparently not. You can only find Delphian steel in the catacombs, and since you don't have an adventurer's license, you're not allowed to be in the catacombs. So unless you want me to report you, I suggest you close up shop right now."

  "Hmm," I said. "You got me there, Davian. You know what? I will close up shop. Right now."

  "What?" Davian said. "Just like that? There's no fight in you, Gwen, is there? I suppose your mother gave you a woman's name for good reason."

  "Don't you dare speak of my mother ever again!" I said. "Now, get out of my shop so I can close."

  "Very well," he said. He turned on his heel and began walking away. "I never knew you to be so sensitive. You must be taking your father's death hard."

  "Hey!" I said.

  Davian turned around. I walked up to him.

  "What?" he asked.

  "That's company property," I said. I pointed at the sword still in his hand. "Were you going to pay for that?"

  "Oh, heavens no," he said. "My apologies. It must have slipped my mind to put it back."

  He handed me the sword.

  "I'm sure a lot of things slip your mind," I said.

  "What does that mean?" he asked.

  "That you're stupid," I said.

  "Well, that seems entirely uncalled for," he said, "but I will let it slide for the sake of your dearly departed father. Gods rest his soul."

  "Thank you," I said.

  I watched as he walked away. He had a very tight ass way of walking, like he was holding a stick between his butt cheeks. I grabbed the signs, brought them in, and closed the doors to the shop.

  I locked the doors and slid down to a sitting position against them. I checked my new ability that I got from leveling up. It was called, "Design." It gave me the ability to create three-dimensional designs in front of my eyes, just by imagining it.

  This would be helpful for any of my building and shaping crafts, especially blacksmithing. I could superimpose the image over the piece of metal I wanted to shape and keep shaping it until it fit perfectly with the image.

  "You ok?" Valda said. She extended her hand to me. I grabbed it and she lifted me up.

  "Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "That guy just irritates me."

  "Yeah," she said, "I didn't like him too much either. Seems like he has a stick up his ass."

  "I wouldn't be surprised," I said. "Since you didn't speak up, I assume you don't have an adventurer's license either?"

  People with an adventurer's license were allowed to bring a porter into the dungeon with them without breaking any laws.

  "Nope," she said.

  "I wish I had known that earlier," I said. "Before, I displayed evidence of my crimes in front of the whole world, but it is what it is. I'll forgive you for keeping that a secret, since you were in such a desperate position, but a little heads up next time would be nice."

  She saluted me again.

  "Yes, sir," she said.

  "You don't have to salute me," I said. "I'm not your boss. Wait, I am your boss. Still, you don't have to salute me."

  "I like it, sir," she said.

  "Please stop calling me sir," I said. "You're clearly older than me. How old are you anyway?"

  "Twenty-one," she said.

  "Oh, ok," I said. "Not too much older than me."

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  I went into what I began thinking of as my lab and grabbed the cauldron. I looked inside and saw the brew was just the right color green. I poured it through a filter to remove all the solids.

  Then I began filling test tubes with the green liquid. I was able to fill about thirty tubes. I placed them in a special sack that had little pockets specifically designed to hold potions. The test tubes fit perfectly into the holes.

  "Before we go, I'd like to finish brewing some potions for our next expedition," I said. "So sit tight."

  She pulled up a chair and watched me work. The health potions were much the same as the stamina potions. All I had to do was brew all the ingredients in a cauldron, filter out the solids, and pour them into test tubes. Luckily I had a glass container with a spigot, so that part wasn't difficult.

  The mana potion would take some more finesse. And some enchantment. I would need to brew each ingredient into the brew successively. Each ingredient was a different kind of magical mushroom.

  So in each bottle was a different colored mushroom paste. I connected the bottles with tubes that would feed into each other when I decided it was time.

  The problem was I needed a delicate amount of heat under each bottle during each phase. For that, I took a pencil and paper and drew three magical circles filled with symbols that would create and regulate the flame.

  Placing the pieces of paper under each bottle, I fed some of the mana in my body into the first circle and added water. A blue flame sprang to life from the paper. The flame didn't burn the paper. It just heated the bottle it was under.

  Through a series of processes, such as stirring and waiting, I transferred the brew to each next bottle and brought their flames to life. When I was done, I had a glowing blue mana potion.

  Well, it was a total of many potions. I filled another thirty test tubes and placed them in hole pockets in my pack.

  I made the dark sight potions from the carapaces of the midnight beetles and filled thirty more test tubes. I had a lot of leftover ingredients, but I was confident that thirty of each potion would be enough for one more trip.

  Looking at the bag of dead oil slimes, I realized I had the equipment and expertise to turn them into gasoline and other products, but I didn't have much of a use for that right now, since skeletons weren't easily harmed by fire. So I let them sit.

  I had one last task. Make an infinity bag. Unfortunately, only having an apprentice level of expertise in enchantment meant that I could make one, but one of the most important aspects of its function would be left out. The weightlessness.

  So my bag would be able to hold infinite items and it wouldn't take up much space and it wouldn't rip from the weight, but it would weigh as much as the items it carried. Which sounded like a huge pain in the ass, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

  I drew the circle and the symbols on the bag and poured mana into it, but it kept taking more and more of my mana, until I had none left. And my maximum mana capacity was 140 points now after raising my intelligence to 7.

  Damn. I didn't expect it to completely drain my reserves. It would take at least an hour to get that back. Oh well. What better time to do something else?

  "Let's get adventurer's licenses," I said.

  "Finally!" Valda said.

  I brought everything I thought we needed so we could go to the dungeon right after.

  "So where is this adventurer's guild?" I asked.

  I should've known where it was. I should've known a lot more about this town, if I was trying to game the crap out of my reincarnation, but I frankly hadn't even considered it until my father passed. So I was playing catch up.

  "You don't know?" she asked.

  "No. That's why I asked," I said.

  "Right," she said. "Well, it's a few streets down and across."

  We walked to the Adventurer's Guild and entered. A man stood just inside the door. He put his hand out, gesturing for us to stop.

  "Who goes there?" he said.

  What? "Who goes there?" Who says that?

  "Harold! Stop bothering customers!" an older woman behind a counter said.

  The man stepped aside, hanging his head.

  "Yes, mother," he said.

  We walked up to the counter.

  "Sorry about him," she said. "He's been so uppity since I made him a guard."

  "That's ok," I said. "I wasn't in a hurry or anything."

  I was being genuine, but I could see how that might seem sarcastic.

  "Oh, good," she said. "Well, what can I help you two with?"

  "Adventurers' licenses ma'am," Valda said. "We need them."

  "I see," she said. She handed us a stack of papers each. "Fill these out and come back."

  We did as she said and brought them back. They asked basic questions like what are your approximate skill levels. Have your stats ever been evaluated? What are your classes and abilities?

  She looked through the papers and made a noise. She looked at me.

  "Son, do you have any combat skills at all?" she asked. "The class you listed is considered a non-combatant class and looking at your skill levels you indicated, you don't have the ability to fight on even an apprentice level unarmed or armed."

  "No ma'am, I don't," I said. "I chose the class, thinking it would be helpful to running my adventuring gear shop, but I didn't realize I would need loot from the dungeon to do anything with it."

  "Well, that's not entirely true," she said. "You could purchase loot from adventurers or even us. We buy loot adventurers can't use from them in bulk."

  "How much does that cost, though?" I asked. "I don't have much money left on hand. I have about twenty gold left in my savings."

  "I see," she said. "Well, common ingredients like giant rat pelts and herbs will run you between ten and thirty copper, but uncommon ingredients like midnight beetle carapaces can run you one to five silver each, depending on weight."

  "See," I said, "that would be great if I had much money to spare, but I really don't have a lot. At most, I'll buy a few batches of herbs off you for common potions."

  "Ok, that'll be thirty copper," she said. "Three batches of herbs, all common varieties!"

  A girl hurried out of the back and handed me three bags of herbs. I placed them in my infinity bag and the bulk of the herbs disappeared. The weight was still pulling the bag down, but the size didn't change.

  "Hold on!" she said. "Is that an endless bag?"

  I winced. "Sort of," I said. "It does everything except eliminate the weight of the objects inside. So twenty pounds is still twenty pounds."

  "Oh, darn," she said, "because a true endless bag would sell for five hundred gold easy, but your partial bag would probably only sell for twenty."

  "That's nice, but it took all my mana to make this," I said. "I can't part with it today. Maybe tomorrow."

  "Oh, well," she said. "Either way, you're not going into a dungeon unless you're a porter for a licensed adventurer. Which you may be in luck. Once we prove that your friend's skills are what she says they are, she'll be getting a license."

  "Oh, nice," I said.

  It was a consolation prize, but at least I'd be able to legally go back in the dungeons and be able to explain the Delphian steel in my stock.

  "Here's a porter badge," she said. She handed me a small brown pin that looked like a bag. How condescending. I pinned it to my chest, regardless. Didn't want to lose that.

  "Now, if you'll follow Harold," she said, "he'll show you to the testing grounds, which coincidentally are also the training grounds."

  We followed Harold out the back of the guild into a wide open area with a ton of different training equipment on display. A broad shouldered, muscular man came up to us.

  "I will be your testing official for today!" he said. "My name is Glint Tuckenstuff. Are you both being tested?"

  "No, just me," Valda stepped up.

  "Ok," he said. He handed her a wooden sword. "Let's see if you can hit me."

  Stats:

  Strength: 5

  Dexterity: 4

  Constitution: 3

  Wisdom: 4

  Intelligence: 7

  Charisma: 2

  Resources:

  HP: 70 hit points

  MP: 140 mana points

  Stamina: 70 stamina points

  Proficiencies:

  Bartering: Apprentice (3)

  Appraisal: Apprentice (3)

  Repair: Apprentice (3)

  Alchemy: Expert (5)

  Blacksmithing: Journeyman (4)

  Enchanting: Apprentice (3)

  Tinkering: Apprentice (3)

  Artifice: Apprentice (3)

  Woodworking: Apprentice (3)

  Leatherworking: Apprentice (3)

  Stoneworking: Apprentice (3)

  Glassblowing: Apprentice (3)

  Textiles: Apprentice (3)

  Papermaking: Apprentice (3)

  Pottery/Ceramics: Apprentice (3)

  Jewelcrafting: Apprentice (3)

  Inscription: Apprentice (3)

  Brewing: Apprentice (3)

  Cooking: Apprentice (3)

  Herbalism: Apprentice (3)

  Architecture: Apprentice (3)

  Engineering: Apprentice (3)

  Shipbuilding: Apprentice (3)

  Cartography: Apprentice (3)

  Ritual Magic: Apprentice (3)

  Calligraphy: Apprentice (3)

  Painting: Apprentice (3)

  Sculpture: Apprentice (3)

  Spellcrafting: Apprentice (3)

  (And More)(Far too many to fully list)(Will come up in the story as they become relevant)

  Abilities/Spells:

  Analyze: Ability to analyse people, objects, and creatures, and learn information about them, such as identification, classification, level, abilities, health, etc.

  Design: Create 3 and 2 dimensional designs, plans, and schematics in your mind and holographically in front of your eyes. Can only be seen by the user.