Chapter 95, Crystallization of Memories

Translator: Barnnn

 

The door creaked open with a clack, and as the three stepped inside, a man greeted them with a warm smile.

 

“Welcome. It’s good to see you again.”

 

The man who bowed with casual grace was Joe, the proprietor of the equipment shop known as Origin of Thievery.

 

“It’s been a while, Joe,” Hal said with a small nod.

“Apologies for summoning you on such short notice, Master Hal,” Joe replied, straightening. “There’s something I very much wanted you to see today. I’d be grateful if you’d take a look.”

“Of course. Ize, come on.”

“Sure thing,” Ize called cheerfully.

 

She had been browsing the shelves, but now stepped forward. As her eyes met Joe’s, they exchanged silent, feline smiles — wide, toothy, and just a little mischievous.

Over the past six months, the two had developed a strange sort of rivalry — one neither of them could quite explain.

Ize would bring in ingredients from Mystic Plants Joe had never dealt with before. Joe, in turn, would distribute those ingredients to local shops and sell the resulting products back into the market.

Ize was acting not on her own, but as a member of her party. Joe, meanwhile, was ostensibly running a shop for equipment, prompting many to ask, “Wait, aren’t you supposed to sell gear?”

Yet somehow, the two recognized one another as worthy competitors. Or so Ize claimed, anyway.

Now, with their departure imminent, it seemed Joe had finally crafted something that allowed him to preserve the dignity of being an equipment merchant. That was why the three of them had come — to see his handiwork for themselves.

 

“The equipment I’ve prepared today can be used by all three of you,” Joe said.

“All of us?” Hal asked, raising a brow.

 

Given their differing skills and body types, it was rare to find gear that could suit them all.

 

“Right this way.”

 

Joe reached for a tray on the counter and carefully laid out three polished ornaments, each about the size of a golf ball.

 

“Magicite? No… there’s a clasp. Are these charms?” Hal asked.

“They’re amulets,” Joe explained. “Traditionally used for warding off evil.”

“If you’re making them, Joe, they’re not just ordinary charms, are they?” Hal asked, eyeing the man with a smirk.

 

Joe’s thin lips curved into an indulgent grin.

 

“Hearing that from you, Master Hal, is a true compliment.”

“So? What exactly do they do?” Fieda prompted.

“Well,” Joe began, slipping into his usual habit of offering background before the point, “since both Master Hal and Miss Ize are already wearing bangles, I wanted something that wouldn’t get in the way. Hence, these.”

 

Hal tapped his fingers impatiently on his folded arms as Joe picked up one of the amulets and continued, unfazed.

 

“The front is rounded, but the back is flat. It won’t shift or interfere with movement.”

 

Tap, tap, tap.

 

“This one is a defensive shield,” Joe said, lifting the amulet for them to see. “It’s made from a Giant Turtle Magicite and the hide of a Bambush.”

“Defensive?” Hal parroted.

“A shield?” Fieda asked incredulously, leaning in. “That little thing?”

 

As jewelry, it was large. As a shield, it was minuscule.

 

“I get the Giant Turtle part,” Hal said. “They’re known for their defense.”

[And we have someone here who wiped out a pond of them,] Ize thought dryly, side-eyeing Hal. She mouthed the word “King” at him without speaking.

“Pfft–!?” Hal spluttered.

“Is something the matter?” Joe asked.

“No, nothing at all,” Ize replied, rubbing her head sheepishly. “Why use Bambush, though?”

“Ah, an excellent question,” Joe said, brightening. He leaned over the counter, clearly pleased.  “Thanks to you all, I was able to acquire a good quantity of Bambush. I’d been meaning to find a way to put it to use, but nothing suitable came to mind…”

 

His expression suddenly shifted into theatrical despair. He shut his eyes, placed one hand dramatically on his chest, and flung the other toward the ceiling like an actor on stage.

 

“Alas! I was at my wit’s end — until, quite suddenly, a large quantity of Giant Turtle Magicite appeared on the market.”

 

All three of them flinched. They knew exactly why that had happened.

 

“I took it as a sign and bought up what I could,” Joe went on. “And as I pondered how best to use it, a thought occurred — what if I paired it with Bambush?” He turned back toward the three, his eyes and smile both curving like crescent moons, and lowered his voice as if confiding a secret. “Now, as you know, Mystic Plants don’t contain Magicite. Bambush, once harvested, is completely docile. But when I wrapped Magicite in fibers extracted from Bambush…” He paused for effect. “It reacted. Violently.”

“Reacted?” Ize asked warily.

“Oh yes. It went — boom!” Joe said, miming an explosion with his hands. “Punched a hole clean through the workshop ceiling.”

 

He pointed upward as if the damage were still there, his tone disturbingly casual.

 

“You… you’re giving that to us?” Fieda asked, stunned.

“Of course not,” Joe chuckled. “Not in that form. I tested it extensively to find the triggering conditions, and refined it into something useful for both defense and offense.”

“You said ‘defensive shield’ earlier,” Hal noted. “But it can attack, too?”

“Indeed. With that level of force, it would be a waste not to use it offensively.”

 

Ize took an instinctive step back from the counter. She didn’t want anything that explosive anywhere near her.

 

“No need to worry, Miss Ize,” Joe said with a reassuring smile. “The amulet only activates when it receives a certain level of impact — and then it responds with equal force in the opposite direction.” He gestured to the fiber-wrapped surface. “Bambush reacts to movement within its domain. But once you channel magic into the Magicite and wear the amulet, the Bambush recognizes you as part of itself.”

 

He turned the amulet over to reveal the smooth, flattened back.

 

“Thanks to this processing, the recoil won’t harm you. Your body absorbs no damage — only your attacker will feel the force.”

Hal nodded thoughtfully. “Where’s the best place to wear it?”

“Preferably on the breastplates you already wear,” Joe answered. “The leather ones that protect your chests. Attaching it to the belts that secure them should offer both stability and coverage.”

 

The three looked down at their chest guards in unison. That spot would allow the amulet to function well, and wouldn’t interfere with their movement.

 

“Can we see how it works before we attach it?” Fieda asked.

 

Hal and Ize nodded repeatedly in agreement. They definitely wanted to see it in action before strapping it to their bodies.

 

“Of course. Right this way.”

 

Carrying the tray, Joe led them to a room at the back of the shop — a familiar space, used many times before to test new equipment.

 

“Is this place really big enough for a proper test?” Hal asked, glancing around the cramped room.

“I’m not planning to push it that hard,” Joe replied with a calm smile. “There are three prototypes — any preference on which one we test?”

 

At a glance, the three amulets looked nearly identical. The only distinction lay in the threads wrapped around the base of each: pale blue, forest green, and violet.

 

“Which one do you want, Ize?” Hal asked, turning to her.

“I can choose first?” she said, surprised.

 

When she looked up at the others, both Hal and Fieda gave small nods. Without hesitation, she pointed to the pale blue one.

 

“I’ll take blue.”

“Then I’ll go with green,” said Hal.

“And that leaves me with purple, huh,” Fieda added, already handing his choice to Joe. “Let’s test this one.”

“Understood,” Joe said, accepting the amulet with a courteous nod.

 

He stepped to the corner of the room, where a human-sized training dummy stood. With practiced movements, he strapped a leather cuirass onto the dummy’s torso, then fastened the amulet to the metal clasp over the chest.

 

“Since I can’t use offensive magic, I’ll be testing with these throwing knives,” he explained. “Please step back, just in case.”

 

After securing the amulet, he turned to don his own metal breastplate, the pieces clanking as he fastened them around his torso.

 

“Wait, is it really that dangerous?” Ize asked, brows raised.

“This is only a precaution,” Joe assured. “The amulet returns any attack it registers directly back at the source.”

“I see…”

 

Determined to heal him with light magic if anything went wrong, Ize watched closely as Joe readied himself.

 

“Here I go.”

 

His usually narrowed eyes sharpened as he focused on the target. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the knife flew toward the dummy.

 

Snap!

 

The knife, which should have sailed from right to left across the room, reversed in midair as if rewinding through time. It whipped back toward Joe, who twisted his body aside just in time. The blade flew past him and struck the wall with a sharp clang before dropping to the floor.

 

“Phew…” Joe exhaled lightly. “That’s the general idea.”

“Damn…” Hal murmured, eyes wide.

“Impressive,” said Fieda, stepping forward.

“Is it safe to actually wear something like that?” Hal asked.

“It is. I’ve tuned the response based on interviews with adventurers. Right now, it only reacts to impacts greater than body weight, or sharp attacks — knives, claws, that sort of thing. Since it’s on a dummy, the reaction was more sensitive. When worn by someone like, say, Master Fieda, it’ll probably be a bit more subdued due to weight distribution.”

 

That explanation helped ease their tension. While it was reassuring that the amulet would fight back, they didn’t want something so sensitive it might react to a teammate’s tap on the shoulder.

Joe carefully removed the amulet from the dummy, wiped it clean with a handkerchief from his breast pocket, and placed it gently back on a tray.

 

“Well then,” he said, folding his hands. “I believe this piece turned out rather well — but if you decide it’s not something you want, I won’t press the matter.”

 

Ize’s gaze lingered on the amulets. It had been crafted from the Bambush they’d gathered on the eighteenth floor, and Magicite from the Giant Turtles Hal had felled with a thunder spell on the forty-sixth. Memories of their time in the Jasted Dungeon were embedded in its form.

 

“…Hell yeah.” The words slipped out before she could stop them. Embarrassed, she added quickly, “Ah, I — I mean, I’d like to have this amulet.”

 

She looked up and met Joe’s gaze directly. This time, she didn’t flinch or stammer. Joe returned her look with a rare, heartfelt smile.

 

“I’m honored. And you two?” he asked, turning to Hal and Fieda.

“I want mine too,” said Hal.

“I’ll wear mine,” Fieda confirmed.

“Very well. Thank you all. Would you like to wear them out, or shall I wrap them for you?”

 

The three glanced instinctively toward their own chest plates, each imagining the amulet fixed just below their collarbone.

 

“What do you think?” Hal asked, smirking.

“Hmm, I’m not sure,” Ize replied coyly.

Fieda sighed. “You both know the answer.”

 

Even though they’d clearly made up their minds, they still left the final word to him. With a quiet sigh, Fieda turned back to Joe.

 

“We’ll wear them now.”

 

Joe nodded gently, his smile soft.

Though they’d expected to simply attach the amulets to their existing armor, Joe asked them to remove their breastplates. He accepted each one with a formal air, then disappeared into the workshop behind the counter.

 

“Maybe he’s adding some kind of mount?” Ize guessed.

“Could be. Probably stitching it down so it doesn’t swing around,” Hal said.

 

As they waited for Joe to return, the three browsed the shop, double-checking for anything they might have forgotten. This would be their last visit before leaving town.

Soon, Joe returned and laid their armor out one by one on the counter. The amulets were now sewn directly into the fabric near the chest straps — right where the heart would be. Each was bound with thread matching the color of their chosen amulet.

And beside each one–

 

“…Wait, is this…?”

 

Ize ran her fingers over the engraving just beside her amulet.

 

“I took the liberty,” Joe said with a slight bow, “of inscribing each of your initials beside the amulet.”

 

The letters were subtle, barely visible — but unmistakably carved in the English alphabet.

Ize stared at it, half expecting the cosmic translation to flicker and shift the letters into unfamiliar characters. But it didn’t. Which meant…

 

“What are… these…?” she asked, turning to Joe.

“They are characters said to be used by many of the Sages. There are several theories on which letters match each name, but I chose the closest equivalents for each of you.”

 

That made sense. Some of the Sages had written exclusively in their own native languages. There was no guarantee every word they left behind would be in a tongue modern Earthlings understood. Still, something about that choice made her heart quiet.

 

“…Thank you,” Fieda said first, accepting his armor. He slipped it on in practiced motions and fastened the straps. The Magicite glinting at his chest caught the light like a badge of honor.

 

“Whoa, you look even more rugged now,” Ize teased.

“Shut it. Get yours on already,” Fieda shot back.

 

Ize and Hal laughed and donned their own gear. When they turned to face each other, their eyes were drawn to the matching stones, and a sheepish grin tugged at both their lips.

 

“You look cool,” Ize said.

“You too,” Hal replied.

“I’m glad it suits you all,” Joe said from behind the counter, smiling.

 

The three of them turned and bowed in unison, offering their gratitude once more. At first, the amulet had caught them off guard — but it was a fine piece of equipment, and more than that, it held a part of their journey.

True to its name, it felt like it would guard them from danger.

 

“Thank you, Joe. We’ll take good care of them,” Fieda said.

“The pleasure has been mine,” Joe replied. “This winter has been filled with joy thanks to your visits. If you ever find yourselves back in Jasted, I do hope you’ll stop by again.”

“I’ll definitely come see you,” said Hal.

“I’ll bring something so delicious it makes you burst out laughing again… like those nuts!” Ize added with a grin.

 

At that, Joe froze — eyes wide in surprise.

And a few seconds later, the shopkeeper’s usual composed demeanor crumbled. With a roar of laughter, he broke into the ridiculous guffaw the three of them had come to know so well.