Nemu is a cloth wearer, and her debuff abilities use mana, though not much. What Cain has messaged Misha to look for, after explaining his new Companions, is anything with an increased chance for a debuff to take effect. Some creatures have natural resistance to magic, like they do to poison or elemental attacks.
The bards can not only pacify, but use an effect that slows or weakens the targets. It doesn't last long after they stop playing, so in practical use they can only create two effects between them, but the effects are incredible. Their motivational tune adds a third to their allies attack speed, not to be under estimated in this particular group, while the weaken drops enemy armor and strength by 20 percent.
Misha doesn't take long to find a set of clothes for Nemu, though Cain wishes that the base Stat modifiers weren't hidden by the system. It's hard to tell what sort of change they're having, other than the listed secondary bonuses.
No matter what items they change on Nemu, it only adds varying colors of metal bangles at her wrists, without any change to her actual outfit. The same sort of thing happened with Vala, gear appearance was gear appearance. Though he did expect it to change the actual default outfit to a new one, not just add a single set of accessories.
The three of them head out into the city for a quick exploration while the others sleep. The copies of the companions will keep the girls safe and let them know when they wake up.
The friendly greetings of the patrons from the speakeasy are helping to break the ice, cutting down the number of suspicious looks they're receiving compared to yesterday. Cain finds the city is actually very warm and welcoming once you get past that hardened exterior.
They find the trade hall within twenty minutes and step into line to trade some of yesterday's leather drops that nobody had a recipe for, leaving a small stack of them in the now crowded Guild Bank. Cain gets a couple kegs of local mead and a small one of whiskey in exchange, along with a collection of smithy, alchemy and Tailoring tools. Such items wear out with use, so they might as well stock up while spending time in the city that specializes in them.
Misha and Lickity demand more of the Tailoring tools the moment he adds them to the Guild bank, saying they're much higher quality than the ones available locally. The Elven craftsmen only sell the good stuff to Elven nobles. The counter staff have no problem with this, happily asking him to browse the goods on display while they go fetch the items.
Off in a corner, buried among the mining equipment, the bonus on a set of legendary Brigandine pants catches Cain's eye.
[Earth Movers Boon] doubles construct damage when underground or in a dungeon.
"They catch your eye? They're popular with the Earth Mages, we keep a good stock of lower quality ones too if you like. A local Smith got a lucky roll and these came out with the legendary quality upgrade and perfect construct damage added. Only, with the blockade, none of the miners are willing to spend so much on equipment to help their Earth Golems dig." The clerk tells him, coming back with his order.
"Are there more pieces to the set? Maybe chest boots and gloves?" Cain says hopefully.
"It's a two piece set, pants and boots, as that's all miners usually wear at work. But we've got some quality boots too, and more affordable pants." The Dwarf informs him.
"How much for the pants, and the highest bonus boots you've got? My class uses summons for combat you see, and those stacking bonuses are amazing for me."
The man with his tangled black beard whoops in joy. "I'll bring you the best of the best a Dwarf can make if you've got the coin." He declares running into the back room.
Cain sorts through his items, seeing that most of the expendable items are already gone. He sends a Guild message asking for high quality and magical cloth, any sort will do, explaining he needs it to trade for new equipment here and will reimburse the cost. Looking at their listed prices, it's best to trade. The price of quality cloth is ten times as high here as it is in Sunnybrook, which has a large number of textile mills.
If his goal was to get rich, simply standing here and trading items back and forth would do it in a day. Why nobody else is doing it baffles Cain, at least until he realizes he hasn't seen a single other transfer anywhere in this city. He asks about it and finds out that Dark Dwarves, like the Dark Elves, aren't a transfer race, all the ones you see with an interface were born here. So without transfers in the city, they truly are embargoed.
They also caution him to be discrete trading foreign goods, as the Light Fae forces might attack him, or flag his Guild as enemies if they find out, which would be very bad for the members home in Sunnybrook on the other side of the beginners valley. That in mind, Cain asks for a private room to trade in goods that didn't come from the local dungeon, away from any potential informants and prying eyes who might cause trouble over his new gear.
"Here you go sir. The Legendary pants, as well as a pair of epic boots with a near perfect roll for construct damage as well as casting cost reduction." The clerk says returning with his manager just after Cixelcid transfers twenty bolts of high end Elven Spell Silk into the Guild bank.
"So, what might an adventurer such as yourself have in his inventory that would call for a private room, even after trading so much to us?" The manager asks intrigued.
Cain sets a bolt of Spell Silk on the table between them with a smile and the man gasps. This material is ridiculously expensive even in Sunnybrook, but Lickity can create it out of standard silk with a few materials and time.
"I've got a few more of them to make up the total cost of the items, but I thought it would be best if the rest of the building didn't see this." Cain explains.
"Wise choice, if the embargo knew you had brought this to the city they would declare war on both you and your Guild. Many of our Tailoring recipes require enchanted Silk, but we have no Silk at all. The silk worms live in the forest below the mountain and they block us from getting anywhere near them."
"How many bolts of the silk for the two items?" Cain asks, getting down to business.
"Three will do, but we can work a deal if you've got more." The merchant smiles, stroking his prodigious beard.
