Chapter 28
Aurora corrected Rita’s path for the third time by placing her hand on the younger’s back. She was sure Rita was not clumsy enough to barge into everyone she came across.
“Rita, behave. And don’t fight with the shopkeeper. Her attitude can be a bit ‘questionable’ for her profession, but don’t mind it.” Aurora advised Rita.
Aurora eyes a dejected first-time adventurer walking away from the shop with almost tears in his eyes and she felt bad for him. Those shopkeepers were ruthless in words and actions.
She shivered as her eyes met the shopkeeper’s cold ones. They belonged to a mercenary more than they did to a shopkeeper.
“What’s your deal? Hurry, we don’t have the whole day with us.” If the eyes were cold, the voices were deadly. It was easy to see why the kid before had almost cried.
“Here to buy first-time supplies for her. We have the money” Aurora upper her charm. She had experience dealing with the Tower shopkeepers.
They would only respect you if you seemed important enough. Not appearing nervous was the first step.
“Of course you have money. Would a moneyless person come to a shop and waste their time? Now give me a list and I’ll get the things for you.” Aurora handed the list over.
She had already made the list beforehand, knowing that it would smooth things over for her. The shopkeeper took the list with a raised eyebrow, her eyes gleaming in recognition.
Only a high-level Abyss worker knew to prepare a list of needed items they would need on lower floors.
“Here you go. Being rich must be nice. Though, I don’t know why you decided to buy from us.” The shopkeeper handed Aurora the bag of supplies.
Of course, the rate of such goods decreased the deeper you headed into the abyss. The starter kit was practically a free item after floor 5.
“Thanks.” Aurora decided not to engage the shopkeepers in a conversation. As good as a gossip source they were, Aurora did not want them to have an impression of her any more than they already did.
“Here. Check the material and hold on to it tightly.” Aurora pushed the bag into Rita’s eager hands.
Rita looked excited to have the bag but her excitement dimmed as soon as she picked out the clothes from the bag.
“It’s just an old cloak and some common items. And here I thought this starter kit was really special” Rita sounded disappointed. It often happened to first-time adventurers.
They made a mountain out of a molehill and got excited about anything.
“Well, this is the first floor after all. And all those items are important to have until you learn to navigate the Abyss properly.” Aurora was gentle in her scolding.
A shadow dashed through the periphery of her vision and Aurora knew their bag was about to be stolen.
She did debate about warning Rita but stopped at the last second. Rita needed to learn to be vigilant in the Abyss. Even the humans could turn out to be enemies here.
“Still, can’t they include a lacrima or even magic stone in this kit? What if we ran out of magic? And – hey! Give it back here.” The thief snooped and took off with the bag.
Aurora managed to tag them with a mark at the last second before she lost sight of the person.
“-can’t believe the audacity of that thief. Did you see that, Aurora? Someone stole our stuff.” Rita was angry.
“I saw them coming from a mile away. You need to train your situational awareness more before you are ready for the lower floors.” Aurora explained.
Rita looked even more downhearted than before. The lack of awareness and the loss of items was going to cost them crucial time. But Aurora was willing to take this trade. It would help Rita out in the future.
And if Aurora took this opportunity to help Rita learn to navigate the Abyss, no one needed to know about it.
“You could have told me that. I could have stopped them. Now, what should we do? I don’t want to waste funds by rebuying our stuff.” Rita complained.
Aurora tapped her wrist that held the metallic band of the system. Having a physical tie made it easier to be able to use the system.
The current exercise had two purposes – to help train Rita and to find out how well the system held on to in the abyss.
“I placed a tracker inside our stuff before the thief took it. You can access it using the system mainframe. It will teach how to use tracking magic. I would expect you to mark your stuff from now on and keep an eye on it.” Aurora commented.
Rita opened her system panel with doubt-filled eyes. But the bright red spot that indicated their target was visible on the screen.
The only problem with the system’s current map was its lack of detail. It did not show any distinction between mountain or valley. In other words, you could not rely on it forever.
“Nice. So, how do you use it?” Rita asked.
Aurora shook her head at the teen’s actions but did help her out. Since she had programmed the system, she had a vague idea about its usage.
With the help of the system and Aurora’s experience, the pair tracked their mark down. Or, they tried to but hit a dead end pretty soon.
Their path led them toward a small cave with no exit. But the mark was still shining brightly on top of them.
To find out the location of their mark was not a problem for Aurora. She had marked the thief with her personal mark which indicated his location to her at all times.
Rita would have the real problem since she lacked the mark. She also did not have experience with the abyss to make an accurate guess.
“I hate it here. Why is the mark blinking this brightly? It cannot be a hidden passage since the location indicated is right on top of us.” Rita complained but Aurora did not help her.
Rita needed to figure it out on her own. There will be many similar situations in the future.
“Man, where did the thief disappear? It couldn’t have been down, but I cannot see it being up either. I give up.” Rita complained and Aurora finally felt like it was time to step in.
“Just because the Abyss heads deeper and deeper doesn’t mean the floors are aligned linearly with each other. This cave’s location may also be part of the first floor.” Aurora informed.
Recognition flashed across Rita’s features before she fanned her hands.
The next thing Aurora knew, she was falling down as the cave floor broke into pieces.