"Are we not returning home creator?" Splinter asked following Kyle as they went passed the edge of the village rather than into it.
"No, we're currently headed to the boarder market to sell this stuff, the fresher it is the better price my friend should be able to give us for it, the fur and other parts are all from something really dangerous so it should fetch a good price that can then be used for a lot of things, like some better materials for you, cores and magic stones to create more golems and so on." He told her.
"But do you not require some rest? You did a lot of work and pushed yourself quite a bit earlier."
"Nope, funny enough that weird level up thing helped refresh me so I'm back at 100%. But thanks for the concern. I'm glad the upgrades also made such big changes to you, you definitely seem a lot stronger than you were before. Speaking of which sorry for not making you better at the start though, it was my first time and admittedly I had no idea what I was doing, I was going on pure instinct at the time, I would have used better materials and made you a lot better if I could have though. Even now I can't manage without you and I regret not trying harder or doing more in regards to your creation in general." He admitted, his mind wondering to how strong Splinter could have been if he had better materials and parts at the start, if he could have used more magic in its creation, it would no doubt have been able to carry a lot more materials as well, how much more could it have done had he made her better, al the well though he was unaware of the further misunderstanding his words had actually caused or the look that had developed in Splinters eyes.
'Yes! I was his first and he even admitted he tried his hardest with all he had pushing himself to the edge just to create my first body. My creator is truly the best! Even admitting he couldn't manage without me!!!'
"It's fine creator, you did the best you could and brought me into this world, I will make sure to keep you safe and do whatever I need to do for you no matter what!"
With a small chuckle and smile he thanked Splinter again for all it was doing for him, his mind on what kind of golems to create next and how to use them best, either something for hunting beasts or maybe one that he could use to try and create a farm for rare and difficult plants. The last thought causing him to sour visibly, remembering how he was cheated and almost killed recently.
It was an hour of further walking before they reached the border town, it's thick stone walls and wooden gate where both visibly worn by the winds giving it a strange beautiful and natural pattern. After passing through the check point and explaining away Splinter as a special kind of puppet the pair made their way to his friend's store where he had bought all kinds of supplies and goods since settling in the desert area.
The shop itself was rather small, tucked away at the entrance of a dark alley, it's sign dirty and faded.
"Hey Jack, it's me! I got some major stuff to sell to ya so open up!" He yelled well pounding on the door, not a care for those who may be asleep in the area around him.
A few moments later the sound of various locks sliding open could be heard before the door opened to reveal, the face of a rather annoyed, bald headed and big nosed green skin goblin, his eyes red and clearly having just woken up.
"Do you have any bloody idea of what time it is you God's damned bastard? Couldn't it have waited for morning? Tsk whatever, I'm wake now so just get the hell in and show me whatcha got. But if you're wasting my time I will be giving you the lowest I can fairly give you for it!" He warned and grumbled shuffling over and sitting behind the counter.
The shop itself was spotless, a stark contrast to the entrance and outside. There where various tools, weapons, gems and even materials and clothes all over the store sorted nearly and easy to examine, placed in a way that seemed to draw your focus form one item to the next. Beside the counter a strange weigh scale with a few different blank stone plates above it and various weights around its shaft, its base seemed to be bolted to the ground.
"I remember last time we spoke you where ranting about some kind of 'gem berries' or something, but unless you somehow struck gold and they became giant or multiplied to the extend you couldn't carry them in a pouch I doubt that's what that puppet of yours is carrying."
"Please don't mention that, the bastard I bought the seeds from almost killed me and stole the berries and even destroyed the bushes so I couldn't try growing more even if I wanted to. Thankfully I had a fortunate event happen because of it and got some really good stuff that's possibly much better than the berries ever could have been." Kyle told him, refusing to go into too much detail.
"Feh, as long as it ain't stolen goods I'll buy it, and if it is stolen go to 'Stoles' down at the end of the alley. I don't touch that kinda stuff but his a decent enough fence."
"No no, this stuff is definitely not stolen, rather I harvested all of it earlier and rushed over with them to sell to you. Since I'm such a great friend I know you like the more rare and exotic stuff since you make your money in the capitals with whatever rare or interesting items you get from people out here rather than using this stall as a means of profit, so I had us rush right over so we could sell it all to you, since I know you wouldn't cheat me." Kyle told him with a smile trying to lay it on thick well signaling Splinter to begin laying things out onto the counter.
"Yeah yeah, I'll be the judge of that kid so enough with the ass kissing. Hmm, claws, fur, 2 kinds of scales, a bit of meat and some horns. Quite the variety of different parts and they seem quite decent quality at that, how'd ya manage to beast so many different kinds of beasts and harvest them all earlier in the day? This is all really fresh and the beasts aren't native to this area." He said with a frown as he finished giving them a look over. "Tsk, kid if you're going to bloody bullshit then learn to at least make it believable." The goblin finally said crossing his arms unimpressed.
"Maybe if they were from different beasts, you would be right but it's all from the same one creature. I found it fighting a half dragon and took advantage of its weakened state to give the half dragon an opening and the beast was finished off. The half dragon was too weak to stop us so we took what we could and brought its materials to you after harvesting what we could before leaving when we saw the half dragon recovering not wanting to stay around and be put on the menu. Oh, the yellow scales are what were lodged in the creature's eye and are from the half dragon, that's the only ones not from the beast." Kyle said smugly seeing the goblin frown deeply.
"Place them all on the scale, I'll deduct the cost of its use from the total value of the materials. If they really do come from the same beast I'll give ya a proper price and maybe even a bit better than what's proper, if your trying to scam me I will under pay ya as punishment. Understand?" Jack ground out both annoyed and somewhat disbelieving that Kyle of all people was here trying to scam him.
Without needing prompting Splinter moved the items to one side of the scale, the fur down first, the meat on top and then the claws, horns and scales all neatly around them as the scale somehow seemed to swell to fit it all.
Speaking something in an unknown tongue they a circle formed on Jack's hand that he placed on the bottom of the scale where it steadily moved from his hand onto scale, the blank stone slabs staring to have words etched into them as the weights floated over onto the tray with a purple glow before everything seemed to calm down.
"Shouldn't have doubted ya kid, it's from an adaptive absorption chimera of all things, only ever read about them, chimeras are bad enough but beasts with both the adaptive and absorption mutation?" He seemed to shiver and a flicker of fear crossed his eyes. "Ya got damn lucky for sure. How far away was it from here? If the damn thing was only injured or pretending to be dead it will come back. You might not know it but beasts with an absorption mutation are already considered a national crisis, add the adaptive? That's a nightmare in the making but also a goldmine." Jack Told him with more seriousness than he had ever seen on the small goblin.
"Just over an hour and a half or so away, why? And is it really that valuable?"
"Valuable he asks, kid if ya could have brought the entire damn thing ya could have bought the entire town from the current mayor and still have change to build a mansion! Every part is useful and valuable due to how dangerous and rare these blighters are! But no, I see that look, I didn't ask how far it was so I could rush out and get the rest for myself, I asked ya because it's a danger to the town and ya gotta report it to the mayor. Doesn't mean I ain't gonna buy the materials though, profit is profit and this is nice, clean and big profit! But keep a claw as proof and in the morning when his office to the mayor's hall opens go report it and they will send one of their fancy mages to confirm its death and that it existed. Last time a baby chimera was seen and not reported an entire town got wiped out, so ya can imagine the danger something like this could have caused."
Nodding in understanding he watched as the goblin began to remove and place everything onto his counter in a neatly organized way. "I can't pay ya all at once, the value is far too high for a small shop like this and I don't keep that kind of coin on hand for obvious reasons, especially with those annoying immortals around. so I gotta give ya an I.O.U along with what gold i can give." He told Kyle well doing calculations on a piece of paper.
"Could I maybe buy a few things first and then we work out the difference? Pulling the cost from what you owe me?"
"Suite ya self-kid, that works out better for me anyway." Jack replied taking a claw and putting it one side, Splinter keeping their focus on him and clearly not entirely trusting him like Kyle did.
"Splinter, look around for anything you think would be suitable to be used for upgrades or can be added to improve yourself, even if you see something and just like let me know, okay? I'm going to check the cores and materials that I might be able to use for the new ones I want to make."
"Heh, quite a fancy puppet ya got, wouldn't mind buying it, you just need ta give me a price." Jack said looking over Splinter as she nodded to him, giving Jack one last narrowed gaze before looking around.
"Not for sale, Splinter is one of a kind and I wouldn't sell them for an entire town or even a capital city. It's my absolute pride and proof of my first steps on taking a path all my own, my symbol of determina-"
"Yeah yeah I get it kid, things not for sale. Ya could have just said that not give a life story." Jack replied with an eye roll much to Splinters annoyance but she remained silent as she proceeded to look through all the materials available, taking only 1 or 2 that she felt could be useful.
Laying out a total of 8 magic stones, 6 small and 2 medium sized along with some metals, food packs and a couple tools and items that he planned to try and either use for his golems or to break down for their magic stones where all spread out on the counter, each looked over by jack. "This really all kid? Ya could buy alot more ya know."
"Nothing else caught our eyes unless you have some stuff not on show. Didn't really see any monster cores after all." Kyle prodded, hoping the goblin was up to his usual antics and did, In fact have some good stuff tucked away.
"I got these, if ya want them, I can sell them to ya at a fair price." The goblin finally said bringing out a few rocks, a stone like root and a velvet covered draw with 3 finger nail sized gems of different colors.
"The rocks are some kind of metal I can't make out and don't want to take to a capital, they would take me for a ride or confiscate it, the root is still alive even if it looks like a stone but nothing works to revive it and the gems? well there crystallized elemental mana, beyond rare out here. Originally, I planned to test my luck with them in the capital but if you're interested, I can sell them to ya for old times sake." He told them with a large toothy grin.
"If I take all of them how much will I have left?" Kyle asked looking over each of the 'items' presented to him.
Scribbling on the paper and muttering numbers he turned back to Kyle. "Well giving ya a discount you would walk out of here with around 57 gold in hand? But since I'm such a great friend and ya brought me such great stuff I'll round it off for ya and give ya 60 gold coin even. No I.O.U though but I will give a small portion of what I sell all this for. And ya can take everything else ya want, I'll even throw in 2 extra food packs, a new preserver and even my old food cooler system ta sweeten the pot. How's that sound to ya?"
Seeing the large toothy smile Kyle knew the goblin was getting a much better deal than he was saying, clear from the way his eye its eye twitched, he also knew if he accepted this deal he could use it to leverage better deals down the line and he would be getting some extra gold later which would be safer than walking around with so much coin. "Alright, it's less than I thought but I know my great friend wouldn't cheat me, after all your one of the few honest goblins around." Kyle said with a smile shaking hands and sealing the deal.
"Haha indeed I am, I'll even throw in this fancy storage bag, now it's a bit old and warn so it's space inside is greatly reduced but it's still got at least a few more years in it! and it's got the safety feature of dumping its contents when it does one day break rather than causing it to be lost to the void. If ya can get it fixed up the space should greatly expand and if ya can find the right person, ya can probably upgrade it." He said happy clearly just trying to get rid of it as he packed everything into it.
"And that's why I always come to you, your truly my trusted friend who would give me the best deal." Kyle laughed, Splinter not understanding why her creator was not just calm from this deal but rather allowing himself to be taken advantage of.
Taking his purchase and his separate bag of gold, all counted out carefully in front of him he made his way to a tavern, his desire for a good meal now his main focus as Splinter slowly followed behind watching her creator with curiosity.