Kingdom Of The Weak

The phrase "Mindy said she"ll pay for whatever" was as good as gold at Dragon Lake. Gary found that he could pick up just about anything he wanted without taking out his own coin even once, all at Mindy"s expense. So far, since arriving here, he"d only been sending Mindy the bills for food, lodging and medicine, but now, he was going to get serious.

"I want eight Armored Frames." Gary told Arnold. "The very biggest and best you have!"

"You mean, the kind George uses?"

"Yes, exactly!"

Arnold stared. "Can you guys even manage that kind of Frame?"

Well, it wasn"t hard, really, but to be honest, Gary felt rather uncomfortable with the lunkering, heavy movements of the Armored Frames. The kind of Light Frame that Remian and many Adventurers took up was much more comfortable, easier to use and nowhere near as hot and stuffy.

"Isn"t there some way you can combine them?" Gary asked, exasperated. "Make it so that the Armored Frames are as easy to use as the Light Frame?"

"I"ve been working on that, but I have a lot of demands and very little time. Plus, I have a budget, and the purchase of the required materials and parts themselves are expensive enough that I really can"t spare much for experimental designs…"

"We"ll fund it! Put it on Mindy"s tab!" Gary lunged at the opportunity to spend Mindy"s money on a productive and worthwhile cause. Even she couldn"t complain about that, right?

"Even so, it"s going to take some time, days, or weeks, even…"

"That"s fine!"

Until then, they bought Frames for themselves, Light Frames for most of them and Tang Yin, with the exception being Juni, who opted for an Armored Frame.

"I thought we weren"t going on the Raid." Siti whispered to Gary.

"We"re not. But we should at least gear up so that we"re not completely helpless here at the warfront." Gary said.

"Didn"t we already buy weapons and armor?"

"Frames are different." Gary hesitated. "And the only weapons we have are magic wands."

It would be somewhat reasonable to claim that Frames were more like vehicles. They were means of mobility, and most Adventurers in Three Pines wouldn"t dream of taking a long trip outdoors without wearing one. Climbing a tree the size of the Pines was near-impossible for most of them without a Frame. Most Adventurers had Frames as well as light armor.

Together with the leather armor from Sacred Sigil that they bought earlier, the Magic Academy Squad basically had the same set-up as the vast majority of Three Pines Adventurers; light armor and Frames. The difference was in their weaponry.

The only "weapons" they bought were magic wands and staves. These were limited-use items, eventually to be spent and discarded. Each of them, including Tang Yin, had Tier 3 Fireball wands and Mana Shield projectors. There was also a shared armory of Tier 4 staves; three of Fire Wind, three of Lightning Bolt, and three of Glacial Spike.

All these weapons were suited for students of the magic academy and given the low rate of conflicts requiring the use of deadly spells, usually lasted students their entire academic lives. But here on the war front, wands and staves like theirs could be used up in a single day, possibly even a single hour. Such expensive magic tools were usually kept for contingencies, and not everyone"s day-to-day implements.

Which was why they started buying crossbows. They were the easiest long-range weapons to use, and word was that the Spectres were weak against wood, so wooden quarrels were all the rage for the beginning crossbowman around here. Gary especially liked the popular Ebony Bolts, heavy black wood with barbed heads. He was tempted by the more expensive Violet Kingswood and Camelthorn Bolts, but the shopkeepers refused to sell such precious ammunition to amateurs like them.

"Actually, I think Ebony is harder than Kingswood. It just doesn"t have that nice purple color." Juni mentioned as they were turned away.

"What about Camelthorn?"

"That… should be about the same as Ebony. Maybe just a little tougher." Juni shrugged. "Actually, I think we should go to that stall. The one specializing in verawood."

"Verawood?"

"It"s as tough as Ebony or Camelthorn, but a bit lighter." Juni said. "Most importantly, it"s a lot cheaper."

"Cheaper" wasn"t what Gary was looking for, but though verawood looked much more common, in terms of performance and hardness, a quick test proved its toughness was as Juni described. Accordingly, they bought crossbows from that stall for Isabelle, Siti, Karen, Tamera and Loh, dividing two hundred bolts between the five.

Jamie, unlike the other girls, picked up a staff-mace and Juni almost went and bought an oar. Gary managed to dissuade him and pointed out a big wooden two-handed greatsword instead. It was originally meant to be a practice weapon for greatsword users, but as far as Spectres were concerned, its wood was deadlier to them than metal.

As for Gary… he went for knives, imagining a cool looking image of himself dual-wielding knives backhanded. A full set of twelve went for only 50 lir, even with the prices of wood weaponry inflating rapidly due to sudden demand.

Then they went to the practice field and started to take lessons from grizzled, half-crippled veterans…

***

Meanwhile, Mindy had a full raid on her hands. Compared to the bills for the wooden ammunition and weaponry for the Adventurers on her raid, Gary"s spending went almost unnoticed.

It wasn"t just weapons. A lot of the Adventurers needed armor repaired or replaced. Mindy also had Arnold prioritize Light Frames and Armored Frames for her raid members before starting his research. Since she was the one really paying for it, Arnold was quick to comply and promised the Frames ready by the next day. This was possible mainly because more than half the Adventurers already had their own Frames and just needed repairs or maintenance done on them.

Rations, medicine, camping equipment, strong drink… the Adventurers had a lot of requests and Mindy didn"t hesitate to fulfill most of them.

As one day pa.s.sed and the next dawned, Tim"s crystals arrived on rushed delivery. Raven"s crew had forwarded their supply run and brought the Red Fang all the way from Fal"Herim with the goods two whole days before schedule. They even bought crystal dust fuel to speed their journey south. All of this rushing was costly, but again, Mindy didn"t even blink at the cost.

"Is this enough?" Mindy asked Tang Yin, as Raven and her siblings all but collapsed from exhaustion around her.

"I think so. Probably." Tang Yin surmised, eyeing the bag.

George took out another two purple crystals he"d been holding in reserve for an emergency. "Now?"

"Yeah. We should make it. Barely."

Darian pulled out another purple crystal. "Now?"

"Definitely." Tang Yin nodded. "All of this together is more than two red crystals can offer."

Tim shook his head, wearied after yesterday"s battle. "There were hundreds of blue, green and yellow crystals in the bag."

"The green and yellow ones hardly amount to much." Tang Yin snorted. "Just one purple crystal is worth a hundred green ones combined. In fact, I could basically leave the hundreds of yellow crystals untouched and it wouldn"t make any difference. One purple crystal is worth a thousand of those."

"Then leave us the yellow crystals. We could use them for water scrolls." George decided. "Let"s see if we can make it rain."

"Even if it rains the Spectres are simply going to raise aura barriers, you know."

"I know, but it should be enough to keep them off our backs for some time." George glanced at Tang Yin. "I"m hoping it would be enough to keep them off yours too."

Yours and Mindy"s. But again, he didn"t voice that last bit out loud.

"So… are we ready?" Mindy asked around.

"I think so, yes." Tang Yin answered. Other Adventurers voiced their a.s.sent.

��Then let"s go." Mindy stood up. "Recon teams, move out! Everyone else, get into formation."

Five teams of Adventurers headed south at her direction, bringing Tang Yin, the crystals and the best hope of mankind to seal the Rift with them.