New World New Life - Chapter 143

“Thank you for your offer, stall keeper. But I’m afraid I will have to”

Dawson shook his head as he leaned in closer to Lycster and whispered to him in a lower voice. But Vy could hear everything loud and clear.

“Look, I can see you’re a nice boy. I am trying to help you here! You see this geode?”

Dawson picked up one of the pieces and brought it closer to Lycster for him to see. He traced his finger between the outer surface and the inner hollow.

“This geode might look great, but it’s actually more hollow than you think. I can tell from my years of experience. Trust me, you would not be able to get a higher price elsewhere,” Dawson continued.

Lycster looked at the geode again, doubting himself. Was what the stall keeper said really true? But aren’t Midnight Swirl Geodes worth at least 1 gold coin? And that’s for a fraction of the size of the one he had found, let alone the fact that it was an unpolished piece!

-Vy, what should I do?-

-It’s your purchase. You make the final call.-

Lycster bit his lip.

With a smile, he replied Dawson, “Thank you very much for your advice, Dawson sir. But I am afraid I would like to keep it.”

For a split second, the stallkeeper’s face changed but he did not show any more emotion than that. He kept on a masked smile.

“Alright then, boy. These rocks are pretty heavy and you’ve only got one hand! Since you’re such a great customer, I’ll have one of my assistants send it to your home in the Alterra Sector, how about that?”

Lycster politely declined, “Oh, there’s no need!”

Dawson’s eyebrow twitched as sweat trickled down his brow, “No no, I insist! Allow”

As he reached his hand out to grab hold of the geode that belonged to Lycster, another hand grabbed hold onto his wrist tightly. Lycster took a step back as Vy came forward and blocked Dawson’s view of him, tightly gripping onto his wrist.

“Thank you so much, Mr Dawson. But my brother is not as weak as you might think. Plus, he has me to help him carry them.” Vy said with a wide smile.

Dawson was shocked by the sudden intrusion and did not know what to say. Vy slowly tightened her grip on his hand. He winced in pain. She released his hand and waved goodbye to him and Naxus. Vy placed all the purchases into her spatial bracelet before ushering Lycster out of the crowd.

“You did really well, Lycster,” Vy said as she ruffled Lycster’s hair.

His eyes lit up with joy.

“Really?”

He thought he had done terribly! After all, only one of the rocks turned out to be a geode. Vy corrected him, stating that he had also found a piece of iron and he should not discredit himself from his achievements.

“As a present, let’s get you a spatial device. You can pick one out, any design you like,” Vy said.

“A spatial device? Aren’t those extremely expensive?! You don’t have to spend so much on me, Vy!” Lycster exclaimed.

Vy laughed, “If I don’t spend this money on you, who else do I spend it on? After all, you’re my lucky little star.”

Lycster blushed as he heard Vy’s praises, resulting in her laughing even harder. They walked down the stalls looking for one that sold magic jewellery. After looking through two lanes, they found an old man selling what they were looking for.

The old man did not look like a human or an elf. He had a grey beard and a stout body. He was even a little shorter than Lycster.

With a deep voice, the old man invited them to take a closer look at the wares he was selling, “Welcome to Dwarven Jewelsmith Guild’s travelling stall! Feel free to take a look. We can customise any of the pieces you see here.”

Dwarven? Does this mean the old man was a dwarf? Thinking back to the details of dwarves Dotty had once explained to Vy in the past, she realised that this man was indeed one! Dwarves were famous for their work with gemstone, rocks and geodes. Not to mention crafting magic imbued jewellery and weaponry.

“Do you happen to have any spatial jewellery pieces, Sir?” Lycster asked.

“We sure do, boy! And you can call me Yudritch. These are the pieces I have for sale at the moment, we do have more stock coming in tomorrow,” Yudritch said as he brought out a wooden tray filled with many glistening pieces of jewellery.

The boy’s eyes lit up as he looked through the options he could choose from. Vy herself was intrigued by the different designs on the jewellery. As she looked through the pieces Yudritch had on offer, he too noticed that she had a spatial beaded bracelet on her wrist.

“Miss, I hope you do not mind me asking. But is that a spatial beaded bracelet?” Yudritch asked Vy.

“Yes, it is.”

“Do you mind if I take a closer look?”

Vy was a little hesitant. After all, she had lots of her possessions in there. Yudritch could see her concerns written on her face. He quickly assured her that he merely wanted to take a closer look at the craftsmanship and would return it to her as soon as he did.

With his assurance, Vy felt a little better so she took it off her wrist and handed it to him. Yudritch adjusted the glasses he wore and switched to a loupe. He brought the bracelet closer to the loupe to help magnify the details of it.

Lycster showed Vy some of the options he was looking at getting and asked for her opinion on which one he should get. He had narrowed it down to three different pieces. The first one was a pair of onyx earrings with one sight having a small dangling piece of onyx.

“But your ears aren’t pierced,” Vy said. After a moment of thought, she asked, “Do you want to get them pierced?”

Lycster nodded. He had been thinking about it for quite some time now. Especially after seeing how some of the children in the Capital City had their ears pierced too. Not to mention, so did Vy.

The second piece he picked out was a pendant that hung on a black leather strap. The pendant was carved out of wood and painted to resemble an owl’s head. The eyes of the owl were made out of tiny pieces of yellow topaz.

The third piece was a plain iron ring with magic symbols engraved on it.

“Miss, it seems to me that your spatial beaded bracelet is damaged,” Yudritch said as he looked up at them after examining the bracelet.

“Damaged?”Vy asked.

Thinking back to the battle in the castle, it might have been damaged in the heat of battle.

“Can it be fixed?” Vy asked.

Yudritch combed his beard with his fingers as he replied, “It can be, but I would recommend you getting one from me instead.”

Vy folded her arms, “And why is that?”

Yudritch realised how he might have sounded and attempted to mediate, “Oh don’t get me wrong, miss. But the damage on this bracelet seems to have been caused by blasts of magic. Hence I would recommend a sturdier spatial device.”

She had not noticed the wear and tear on her bracelet before, but what the dwarf was saying might be right. After all, she had worn it ever since the day she bought it. Through all her travels, training and fights.

The dwarf brought out another tray of spatial device options and picked out a beaded bracelet made out of cat-eye gemstones.

“This one should fit you perfectly. It has protection spells on it to make it extra durable. You can also layer on your own spells.” Yudritch said as he showed it off to Vy.