Infinite Mana - Chapter 221: Interesting Merchandise (Thank you for your support, Kris Helzer!) (Patreon)

The next morning, Sieghart moved through the town’s shopping district with a considerably clearer objective than the previous night. He had things to sell, quite a lot of things, and carrying all of them around indefinitely was becoming increasingly annoying.

Selling everything should have been simple. The problem was that distributing weapons, armor pieces, monster materials, and modified goblin equipment across several specialized shops would take hours, perhaps longer if every merchant decided bargaining needed to become a personal contest.

Sieghart therefore changed the order. Rather than searching for the best buyers first, he would find shops selling interesting enchanted or runic equipment, purchase anything worth studying, learn from the construction, and sell some of his own inventory during the same transaction.

That sounded considerably more efficient. It also gave him an excuse to browse magical weapons before doing something boring like calculating which merchant offered three additional silver for reinforced goblin spearheads. The shopping district occupied several crowded streets near the eastern wall, where smithies, weapon stores, armorers, rune workshops, potion sellers, and supply merchants competed loudly enough that simply walking through the area felt like participating in an auction.

Sieghart ignored the ordinary stores at first. Basic swords, shields, bows, leather armor, and military equipment were useful, but none offered anything he could not already reproduce, improve, or purchase later if his custom equipment required conventional components.

The first place that genuinely stopped him had several unusual weapons displayed behind reinforced glass. One looked vaguely like a firearm, though the resemblance disappeared completely once Sieghart noticed that the barrel contained no opening for bullets. Instead, a circular bladed weapon rested along a mechanical guide above the frame. The metal disk resembled a chakram with several sharpened outer sections, while compact runic patterns covered both the launcher and the central ring of the weapon.

Sieghart entered almost immediately.

The shop smelled of oil, polished metal, leather, and faint ozone from activated enchantments. Several expensive-looking weapons hung along the walls, each positioned far enough apart that customers could examine them without accidentally grabbing two magical devices at once.

The shopkeeper looked up from behind the counter. He was a broad middle-aged man with short gray hair, thick forearms, and the expression of someone accustomed to watching customers touch objects after being explicitly told not to. Sieghart pointed toward the strange launcher before approaching too closely. The weapon was far more interesting than another sword, particularly because Magic Vision revealed a continuous mana connection between the circular blade and the runes built into the frame.

“What do you call that thing? It looks like someone decided a crossbow wasn’t complicated enough and attached a chakram to it just to make the repair bill more interesting.”

The shopkeeper followed his gaze and immediately smiled with the pride of someone whose merchandise had successfully confused a potential customer. He stepped around the counter and unlocked the display without handing the weapon over yet.

“That is a Recall Disc Launcher. The launcher accelerates the disc, the runes stabilize its rotation, and once it strikes or reaches its maximum range, the Recall enchantment draws it back toward the firing rail.”

Sieghart leaned closer. Recall Disc Launcher. The name was disappointingly practical. The mechanism was not.

According to Magic Vision, the returning effect came from two related runic structures. One occupied the disc itself, while the other surrounded a crystal embedded near the rear of the launcher.

Sieghart immediately wondered whether the principle resembled magnetism. Perhaps the weapon created opposing and attractive magical fields, allowing the launcher to repel the disc during firing before switching polarity and pulling it back afterward.

Or perhaps the rune did something completely different. Magic did enjoy producing familiar results through unnecessarily unfamiliar principles.

“How hard does the return pull? Enough to drag the weapon from someone’s hand if the disc gets stuck inside a target, or does the enchantment release before that happens?”

The shopkeeper’s smile widened slightly. Most customers probably asked whether the weapon looked impressive or how many people it could cut through. Sieghart asking about failure conditions apparently earned him a different category of attention.

“The binding breaks if resistance exceeds the safety threshold. Otherwise, yes, an early model nearly dislocated somebody’s shoulder when the disc buried itself inside a tree. The current design is less enthusiastic.”

Sieghart nodded slowly. Definitely interesting.

He could already imagine adapting something similar to Telekinesis-controlled projectiles, returning tools, detachable armor plates, or even a weapon that automatically returned to a carriage-mounted storage position after being thrown. The shop contained another weapon strange enough to compete for his attention. It occupied an entire reinforced rack because calling it a sword felt technically correct but deeply incomplete.

The central weapon was an enormous greatsword nearly as tall as Sieghart’s disguised body. Its blade contained several visible seams, while additional grips, locking mechanisms, and runic connection points ran along both sides.

Sieghart approached.

Magic Vision immediately revealed that the seams were functional. The massive sword was actually several weapons attached together.

The upper blade could detach into a spearhead mounted on an internal shaft. Side sections separated into shorter swords, while another segment could rotate outward and lock into something resembling an axe. Sieghart stared longer than he intended.

“That is either incredibly useful or somebody became physically incapable of choosing one weapon and decided the correct answer was all of them.”

The shopkeeper laughed and unlocked that display as well. He separated one short blade from the greatsword, stepped backward, and tossed it lightly toward an empty section of the shop.

The blade traveled several meters before curving.

Then it returned.

The shopkeeper caught it easily and locked it back into the larger weapon.

“The Bonded Arsenal Greatblade. Five configurations, seven detachable components, and every primary piece carries a paired Recall enchantment. They return to the central frame unless the wielder deliberately cancels the bond.”

Sieghart narrowed his eyes.

Again.

Another returning weapon. He studied the runes and confirmed that the principle looked related to the Recall Disc Launcher, though the greatblade used multiple paired anchors instead of a single returning projectile.

Apparently, magically attracting weapons back toward their owners was currently fashionable.

Sieghart could understand why.

Losing an enchanted weapon during combat was expensive.

Throwing one deliberately became considerably more practical if it came back afterward. Still, seeing two examples inside the same shop felt suspiciously like discovering whatever magical engineering trend had become popular among border craftsmen.

“Is this kind of enchantment the latest obsession around here, or did I accidentally walk into the town’s specialist shop for people terrified their weapons might develop independence?”

The shopkeeper folded his arms proudly.

“Recall work is popular near the border. Fallen raids, monster attacks, mud, broken terrain, battlefield confusion. People lose expensive weapons. People dislike losing expensive weapons. Craftsmen notice.”

Sieghart could not argue with that.

A returning effect also complemented several ideas he had already considered for himself. Throwing weapons became much safer, and detachable components could return automatically without forcing him to maintain Telekinesis on everything simultaneously.

His attention shifted toward a third display.

This one looked considerably smaller and therefore immediately suspicious.

A dark metal gauntlet rested on a padded stand, covering the hand and forearm with overlapping plates. A pale crystal sat on the back of the hand inside a circular runic housing.

Sieghart examined it through Magic Vision. The structure was surprisingly dense.

Mana entered through several contact points along the palm and wrist, moved toward the crystal, compressed, and then traveled through a narrow channel aligned with the wearer’s knuckles.

He pointed toward it.

“And that?”

The shopkeeper lifted the gauntlet carefully.

“Mana Bolt Gauntlet. Feed mana into the crystal, aim with your hand, and it forms a condensed magical arrow. No ammunition required as long as the wearer has mana.”

That immediately became more relevant. Sieghart held out his right hand when the shopkeeper offered it. The gauntlet was heavier than expected, though not enough to interfere badly with normal movement once properly fitted.

He supplied only a trace of mana.

The crystal brightened.

A narrow point of pale energy formed above the knuckles. Sieghart stopped feeding it before the projectile released.

Interesting. Very interesting.

The enchantment handled most of the shaping automatically. The wearer only provided mana, direction, and activation, which meant even someone without proper offensive magic could repeatedly fire magical projectiles.

For Sieghart, the mana requirement was meaningless. The physical limitations were not. How quickly could the crystal cycle? How much heat accumulated? Could the arrow structure accept elemental mana? Could several crystals fire alternately? Could the mechanism become the foundation for the Gatling weapon he had already been considering?

Sieghart slowly smiled. The shopkeeper noticed. That was probably unfortunate for both of them.

“How quickly can it fire before the crystal overheats? And has anyone tried running Fire Mana through the shaping circuit instead of ordinary mana?”

The man stared at him for a second before answering.

“Three shots in quick succession safely. Five if you enjoy replacing crystals. As for elemental mana, yes. Also yes, it damages the housing unless the runes are modified first.”

Sieghart nodded. So someone else had already made the obvious mistake. Useful information.

The gauntlet was not powerful enough to replace his own spells, but that was not the point. Sieghart wanted the runic logic responsible for converting supplied mana into repeated shaped projectiles.

He placed it back on the display.

“You have some interesting items.”

The shopkeeper’s chest practically expanded.

“I have good contacts.”

He said it with enough pride that Sieghart suspected those contacts were either talented craftsmen, smugglers, military suppliers, dungeon explorers, or some combination that became legally complicated if anyone asked too many questions.

Sieghart looked between the Recall Disc Launcher, Bonded Arsenal Greatblade, and Mana Bolt Gauntlet again. Buying all three would be expensive, but studying their runic structures could save him months of independent experimentation.

Fortunately, he had brought merchandise.

A lot of merchandise.

Sieghart rested one hand on the counter.

“That’s convenient. I happen to have enough weapons outside to make your inventory problem significantly worse, assuming you’re interested in buying before I start asking how much all three of these cost.”

The shopkeeper’s smile changed immediately.

Now they were negotiating.