"We aren't too particular about the coin since it's easy to come by. But gear related to summoned creatures damage, healing on hit, or any Skill Book is in particular demand among our Guild. We have a rather varied membership, so the exact details and levels aren't the most important part, and we can accept a good bit of it and not suffer." Cain explains to the Blacksmith's representative.
"You are easy to please. I like that. Why are you so fixated on damage by Summons, though?" The elf questions, not understanding why such a niche ability would be in demand.
"Our Guild has a skill that allows every member to call for a small group of summoned creatures to assist them during a Guild-only dungeon run, so extra damage for them is useful to every single member," Cain explains. The [Lesser Demon Army] Guild Skill might not get as much love now as it once did, but it is still an extra bunch of summons for Guild groups to use.
"Well, if that is the case, I'm certain we can help out. The attribute isn't entirely uncommon on equipment, it just isn't in high demand, so if it is interfering with the overall balance the item is often reworked." The smith nods and Cain sees his eyes go a bit vague as he starts going through either his inventory or their Guild Bank.
The pure volume of ore that they brought with them will be an issue for the Guild, who doesn't have enough suitable gear to cover what amounts to half a year's work worth of ore. For them, the big question will be the amount of additional money owed and the discount that both sides will be willing to accept. At wholesale, it won't be terribly unbalanced, but the smiths are loathe to part with Mythril bars.
"You said you were willing to accept Skill books, correct? The Inscriptionists are willing to cut you a deal for some of those materials as well." Comes a voice from the door of the warehouse, and the Elves inside give the new arrival a dirty look.
"Come to claim all the good stuff for yourself have you? We won't be giving the gems up without a fight this time old man." The head negotiator informs the equally youthful looking Youkai outside.
Both species live an exceptionally long time though, and a few hundred years old is still well within what would be considered youthful to either of them, so the whole thing might be an inside joke between two locals born at nearly the same time.
"Fine, I won't try to take all the gems this time, but I do want a lot of them, and some of that shadow ore as well, it is exceptionally useful for binding priest skill books to balance out the light energy they emit."
Cain lets the two locals bicker for a while before they come to an agreement about distribution.
"Name your opening price and we will see what we have to offer." The inscriptionist suggests, taking the lead in the negotiation.
"Wholesale price straight across. Epic or greater quality gear and no F or D ranked skill books unless they are class-specific and particularly useful." Cain offers, knowing they won't have much reason to turn him down.
The two negotiators nod and start pulling items from their inventories.
As expected of a higher level area, they have quite the selection of high quality skill books, with an Ancient Quality Priest subclass specific skill book of [Mass Resurrect] making up the majority of the value of the trade goods from the inscription side.
That will come in incredibly useful for any and every Priest in the Guild, and it looks freshly written, so the Guild likely just finished making it. Sure enough, the Youkai negotiating with them knows the skill, and Cain happily records his form and that of everyone else in the room. With both [Spell Crafting] and inscription, Cain is certain that he will be able to record copies of the book as well, given a bit of time.
Of course, it might be in the Spell Crafting training book that he is still slowly working his way through, but he hasn't gotten nearly that far yet. Healing skills are mostly in a later section of the book and will be among the last ones Cain records before the final training on creating more niche and extremely powerful combat skills.
The Smiths haven't disappointed either, coming up with a wide variety of high-quality armors and weapons over level 350 that have summon damage bonuses on them. Some of them also have other very desirable qualities as well. One of the spears not only has attack damage that scales with strength and dexterity combined, but it also has an additional effect called [Piercing Fires] that burns enemies behind the target on a successful attack.
That's enough to actually replace the Five Tigers Spear that Cain has been using for such a long time. It might feel strange to start using a new weapon after so long, but the damage is simply so high that there is no good excuse not to switch. His old one can go back to the Guild Bank once he returns to the Central Continent.
There are also enough armor pieces for an entirely upgraded suit for Cain, totaling an even 2000% damage when paired with his existing jewelry. It will also add 60 percent of his damage as area damage, which seems to be a favorite skill among the items made here in Musashi.
"Are there a lot of monsters that travel in hordes or packs in this region?" Cain asks, looking over all the items with area damage.
"Honestly, not really. Almost all of the wild monsters of Awakened quality are solitary creatures. The area damage is more for the Battle Royale phase of the Beast Class in the tournaments." The Blacksmith's negotiator explains.
Cain's eyes light up with enthusiasm, and he can see that both Vala and Laura feel the same way. Challenges against others with intelligence are much better than halfwit ogres or dungeon-crazed opponents. If they can get in on these tournaments the risk of boredom and monotony during this trip will be very low.
"Can you tell me more about these tournaments? Are they individual combat? Or perhaps between pets or summons of Awakened Quality?" Cain asks, and a tall, slender Youkai among the Smiths runs up eagerly. They have clearly turned the conversation to this young woman's obsession, the look she has is exactly like the one that Cyrene gets when Cain calls her a good girl and pats her head.
