Chapter 82 Repairs

The next morning.

Xia Nan stood beside the busy street and took a deep breath through his nose.

A warm breeze brushed across his face, carrying away the faint, sweet scent of herbs clinging to his clothes.

Behind him hung a wooden shop sign.

Verdant Crucible.

He had just sold the Deformed Hand Bone he obtained from the cemetery, a concentration of undead aura, to Miss Edwina.

Twenty gold.

The price had been far higher than Xia Nan expected.

According to the gentle shopkeeper with long, smooth curls, the hand bone was both larger than average and of unusually good quality.

If Xia Nan had left it on consignment and waited until a customer desperately needed one, the final price might even have doubled after private negotiation.

But when he first hacked the bone off the Skeleton, Alton had warned him not to get too involved with the sort of people who bought such things.

Xia Nan had listened.

He sold it directly to the herb shop.

Alton was favored by the Goddess of Fortune, and he was also a bard who had spent years traveling across the continent.

Taking some of his advice certainly would not hurt.

Xia Nan lowered his right hand and felt the reassuring weight of the bulging coin pouch at his waist.

His gaze drifted slightly as he mentally counted his gains.

The loot from the cemetery Skeleton had sold for twenty gold.

The pouch he took from Ingram contained a little over twelve.

Add the bounties for the Goblins killed along the road, which Jeff had made up for, as well as the labor fee waived by the blacksmith shop…

His total monetary profit from the mission was only around sixty or seventy gold.

On paper, that seemed much worse than his first two missions.

But Xia Nan did not see it that way at all.

Over the past week or so, the things he had truly gained were worth far more.

Gold was almost the least important part.

Through a completely ordinary guard assignment, he had met Alton, someone suspected of being god-touched.

By extension, Xia Nan might even have brushed against Tymora, the Goddess of Fortune herself.

He had also expanded his mental map a little and spent several days in Kalanfor near Rivervale Town.

Most importantly, he had obtained the [Coin of Fate], a consumable item that could perfectly trigger the damage immunity of [Bronze Sinews and Iron Bones].

And then there was the [Light-Bathed One] feat.

Xia Nan still had no idea what magic items normally cost in this world.

But he did not need a price list to know that an Epic (Pink) item like the [Coin of Fate] was far beyond the reach of someone whose entire fortune amounted to only a little over a hundred gold.

As for a “feat” that permanently strengthened the body?

That was even harder to measure in money.

The mission had been messy.

Dangerous, too.

But when Xia Nan looked at the final gains, he could not have been more satisfied.

[Now that the loot is handled…]

He stood beside the road, glanced left and right to get his bearings, then headed east.

One more stop.

The blacksmith shop.

…

…

“What? It’s broken again!?”

Barn’s eyes widened.

The reddish-brown beard braids inherited from his Dwarven bloodline practically puffed outward along with his shock.

“Well, there was a small accident during the mission.”

Xia Nan laughed awkwardly and handed over the damaged chain shirt.

“Thanks to this armor, I didn’t suffer any serious injuries.”

At that, Barn’s expression softened.

He accepted the chain shirt with both hands and studied the melted marks across its surface.

“Good grief.”

He turned it over.

“Did you take a walk through a bonfire?”

Barn glanced up at Xia Nan again.

Of course he was relieved that the armor had taken the damage instead of its wearer.

That was what armor was for.

Still…

Xia Nan’s habit of ruining one suit of armor every few days was getting ridiculous.

And this was not cheap junk.

It was fine-quality medium armor.

If Barn had not been completely confident in his own craftsmanship, he might have started wondering whether something was wrong with Rockhammer’s quality control.

“At the rate you’re destroying one every seven or eight days, you can skip the maintenance entirely.”

Barn snorted.

“Just buy a new suit every time.”

“I’m supporting your business.”

Xia Nan scratched his head with a grin.

“So? Can you fix it?”

According to the [Adventurer’s Handbook], battered equipment like this was normally best sold to Hickory Forge next door.

That place offered slightly better prices for secondhand gear.

But Xia Nan had paid a full fifty gold for the chain shirt in the first place.

Throwing it away after such a short time still hurt.

So he had come to Rockhammer to see if Barn could salvage it.

If the armor could be repaired properly, he might save quite a bit of money.

Then Xia Nan remembered something and quickly added,

“If it can’t be repaired properly, or if the repair will weaken it too much, then forget it.”

“I’ll buy a new one.”

Saving money was good.

Saving a few dozen gold at the cost of his armor failing when it mattered was stupid.

Barn shook his head thoughtfully and laid the chain shirt across the receptionist’s counter.

“The surface looks bad, but the internal structure is still mostly intact.”

He tapped one of the damaged sections with a thick finger.

“The armor as a whole hasn’t been affected much.”

“I’ll replace the melted links. Its defensive strength won’t drop by much.”

He gave a firm nod.

“It can be repaired.”

Xia Nan quietly let out a breath.

Then came the important question.

“How much?”

A brand-new chain shirt cost fifty gold.

If Barn wanted more than forty for repairs, Xia Nan might as well replace the whole thing.

“Not much. It’s mostly time.”

Barn thought for a moment.

“Ten gold.”

Then his expression changed slightly.

He looked across the counter at Xia Nan.

“But I’m not charging you this time.”

“…What?”

Xia Nan blinked.

Barn raised one hand and pointed behind him.

On the workbench lay a half-finished prosthetic made mostly from dark brown oak, with thin pieces of metal fitted over several key points.

“Jeff and I go back a long way.”

Barn’s voice turned quieter.

“When we were younger, we drank together all the time.”

“I thought this was just another ordinary caravan trip. Never expected it to turn into something like that…”

He picked up the chain shirt and placed it on the wooden rack behind him.

“Jeff told me what happened.”

“Without you, he wouldn’t have made it back.”

Barn patted the armor once.

“So forget the ten gold.”

“Consider it my thanks for making sure I’ll still have an old drinking buddy to find whenever I visit Neum.”

Then he sighed.

“Retired, huh…”

A trace of envy crossed the enormous man’s face.

“Damn. Lucky bastard.”

An old friend had managed to leave this line of work alive and return to his family.

That alone was worth celebrating.

For a moment, Barn’s rugged face turned unusually thoughtful.

Then he slapped his forehead.

“Oh, right. Almost forgot.”

“The arm shield you commissioned last week is finished.”

He jerked his chin toward the back.

“Want to take it with you now?”