We’d mostly recovered from whatever was in the pipe smoke by the time we headed back into the building, this time to the STORE section. The odd thing about the STORE sign over the door that caught our attention, was the candle in an old brass-colored holder after the word STORE, It was the kind of holder with a loop handle. The candlestick was white, but the flickering flame was MANA blue. The pattern continued.

  Inside, it felt artificial to me, like a stage set thrown together too fast. It reminded me more of old-fashioned stores in ghost towns out west than a modern department store. The ceiling wasn’t as high as I expected. Maybe half the height I remembered from the old K-Mart, and I wondered what was up there.

  To our immediate left were sign-boards hung on the gray stone wall under a big sign: ANNOUNCEMENTS. Tags included Looking For, Help Wanted, Guilds, Party Formation, and several blank columns.

  Directly ahead, a long counter had a glowing sign: WE BUY. An open archway to our right had WHAT YOU NEEDabove it, both signs were glowing MANA Blue.

  “Pretty obvious so far,” I said. “If you’ve saved drops you want to sell, do it here. We should find out how this works. This place’s going to get busy.” There was room for five or six people at the counter for selling things and several large, burly green-skinned Orcs, that reminded me of Gar-Kosh, behind it.

  Everyone looked at me like, You go first. I gave them one of my theatrical sighs for effect and stepped up. I found out Crude Swords and Leather Ponchos sold for 10 Copper Shields each, while the Leather Cap went for 15 Shields.

  I pulled two of each from my INVENTORY, selling them for a total of 70 Shields. I wanted to save some gear for new people who’d need equipment to start out. After paying me, the Orcs behind the counter took the items through a leather curtain on the back wall, returning a minute later empty-handed. Each portion of the curtain was sewn together out of three vertical strips of almost matching light brown colors.

  Moving aside, I glanced down the corridor stretching out before ending at a blank wall. The right-hand wall obviously backed the other stores we’d explored, and I guessed the wall at the end hid the tavern. No door to walk straight through. Bhaarrt probably wasn’t going to be happy.

  The first opening to my left had a SALES sign overhead, the walls built from solid stone blocks in varying grays. It reminded me of a castle wall, but with smaller blocks. There were two other openings on the left: one marked SPELLS, the other EQUIPMENT. I checked out the spells first.

  Above the first arched doorway, a sign read 1-10. The next said 11-15, and so on: 15-25, 25-50, 50-75, 75-100, ending at 100+. That meant players could get over level 100…if players could, monsters could too. We were in for a long slog.

  I stepped through the blue field covering the first archway, deciding I’d see what I could find now and test how far ahead I could view later.

  Inside, were shelving on both sides. Thankfully, signs labeled the shelves: Mana Spells, Mage Spells, Psychic Abilities, Skills. They looked like books, turned to show the covers, with only a few on each shelf. I tried to pick up a Level 10 book, but my hand passed through it. Most were improvements or modifications to base spells, which made sense now that I’d noticed the system didn’t list many spells. Most were enhancements.

  When I tried to pick up a REVEAL MAGIC spell I’d been planning on, it turned into a thick card in my hand with details: it identified magical items and their powers, starting up to level 10, with each additional level adding five levels of Reveal. I knew the first part but not the scaling detail. It cost 5 Silver Moons…which would leave me with only 15 Copper Shields.

  It was tempting. I could grind spawns for a few hours, or sell more drops…I need to decide, I told myself. My party will be waiting.

  Leaving the alcove, card in hand, I returned to the counter, placing it in front of a female Elf wearing Viking-era Norse clothing. I recognized the style from my years in the SCA seeing women wearing something like it.

  She wore a long-sleeved light blue tunic with a brown strapped apron over an off-white underdress, held by two bronze turtle brooches and three amber necklaces, one of them heavy with large chunks. A belt knife hung from a red and blue patterned belt.

  “I’ll take this spell, please,” I said, setting the card on the counter below the sign that said, WE SELL.

  “That’ll be five Silver Moons, please,” she said, holding out her hand.

  {5 Silver Moons}, I thought, and the coins appeared in my hand. I dropped them into hers. She smiled. “The Store thanks you for your business and hopes to always be your first choice when you need to buy or sell.”

  My System Interface displayed: [New Spell: REVEAL MAGIC: Level 1], just as it did when I used level points. The card vanished.

  Blaze stepped out of the archway as I looked down the hallway. “Buy anything?”

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  “No.” She didn’t look happy. “I’d have to sell what I’ve been saving for the other agents to get started.”

  “I understand. A Level 1 REVEAL MAGIC was five Silver Moons. Wiped me out. This place is designed to separate players from their money, big time.”

  “Yeah. Why didn’t I see you in there?”

  “The same reason I didn’t see you,” I told her. “I think it’s an instance. Everyone gets their own version of the room when they enter alone. You could have a thousand people in there, and no one would know.” That blue barrier may be a type of portal or it creates the instance tailored to whoever goes in.”

  “More things to warn everyone about.”

  “Everything for sale probably works that way. Makes sense.”

  “And we can’t tell if it’s high tech or real magic.”

  “Does it matter?” I shrugged. “That answer’s way over our level and pay grade. Maybe someday we’ll find out.”

  She nodded. “Now what?”

  “Quick look down this hallway, then the next one.” The other side had signs for Weapons, Armor, Equipment, and a skull and crossbones at the end. One look at the sign and both of us knew we wanted to visit that one.

  Wanting to test something when we got there, I held Blaze’s hand as we stepped through together. “It worked!” I said as we appeared inside what looked like a cave entrance. At the back stood a classic Halloween witch, pointy hat, black robes, green skin, big curving nose, and warts. A broom leaned against the wall.

  “Ye don’t look the type to be needin’ me wares, deerie. Ye have the stink of good about ye. Why do ye want to poison someone? What evil deed do ye want done?”

  Blaze and I exchanged a look, half shock, half amusement.

  “Uh, no one at the moment,” I told her. “But when I do, we’ll be back.”

  “Shure ye will, dearie. Shure ye will.” She cackled like a cartoon witch.

  We beat a hasty retreat, still holding hands, and started laughing the moment we were outside. When I looked up, Ingrid, Shadow, and Bhaarrt were standing outside the door, watching us.

  “They just met the witch,” Shadow told them. “Poisons and traps. Looks like something you’d put on your lawn for Halloween. Talks like it too.”

  “She does. Everyone needs to see her at least once,” I said. “It’s like a haunted house…you don’t warn people in advance.”

  “The stuff’s expensive,” Shadow said.

  “Yeah. Real expensive,” Bhaarrt added.

  “It keeps surprising me when she talks without the heavy accent. I wonder why she’s doing it now?”

  “Just you wait. Some rich guy’s gonna try to buy coins so he can start with all the good stuff,” Shadow added. We all nodded.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “Next aisle so we can get through and hit the tavern,” Bhaarrt replied.

  “Anyone object to letting others in? I haven’t seen anything dangerous, just expensive.” Everyone shook their heads, so we moved on.

  Next in the other corridor was the BANK. It was straightforward: teller windows with female dwarves where you could store game items and money, and access the Irregulars GUILD BANK. No need to hold hands for this one.

  Further down was the AUCTION room, reminding me of a WoW auction house. You could put things up for sale, and others could buy without direct trades. There were already drops for sale, priced a few coppers higher than the store’s buy price.

  Let them do it, I thought. Someone will buy.

  Since no locals had gone in before us, I figured the auctions connected globally, like in World of Warcraft.

  The last hallway was shorter, with a single store on the right marked INFORMATION and a closed double door at the end with no sign. This time, we all held hands and went in together.

  Inside, it felt like an Edwardian library, smelling of old books and paper, lit by candles that cast blue light across shelves packed with books, scrolls, and unidentifiable objects. A large stone fireplace at the far end burned with a normal flame. It was flanked by two dark brown, leather wingback chairs. The fireplace looked about four feet long and three deep. A chair with a small table next to it was on each side of the fireplace.

  It gave me a warm, comforting feeling. I loved the smell of old books.

  In the right-hand chair, sat a portly man in a white shirt, purple waistcoat, and dark blue striped pants, reading a book. A small table next to him held a partially full glass of something that matched the stoppered, half full, cut-glass decanter of an amber liquid sitting next to it.

  Bhaarrt started laughing. “My, Mycrof, Mycroft Holmes, I presume?”

  “Why no, my good sir,” he said, looking up. “I’m Mycroft’s smarter brother, Albert. What information can I provide for the appropriate remuneration? I do hope you’ve come decently supplied with gold.”

  “Gold?” I gulped.

  “Indeed. My wares are not for the common folk, only those refined enough…or who have refined enough gold to meet my price.” He took a sip, then waved his hand. “Since your reaction was insufficiently remunerative, begone until you have the wherewithal.”

  We were back in the hallway before I could blink.

  Bhaarrt was still laughing, so I asked, “I didn’t think Sherlock Holmes had two brothers.”

  “He didn’t.” Blaze answered for him. “Just the one. The System’s choosing interesting archetypes…or modifying them.”

  “Details for the convention center folks to dissect. I was never that type of player. At least now we know you need a lot of gold to get answers from him.”

  “He’s tempting us to hoard money we can’t spend,” Ingrid said. “It slows us down, or we ignore him and learn the hard way.”

  “We never had that kind of money anyway,” Shadow said. “We do it our way.”

  We all agreed. A few minutes later, we were outside with the Sheriff, Chief Brown, Matt, and others in the parking lot.

  “Chief,” I said, “we’re all agreed it’s safe for people to go into the STORE. The only danger is to their wallets. Tell them to check the other stores before the TAVERN.”

  “That’ll give us time to see if there’s a problem.” I added. “I doubt there is. Unless someone starts a bar fight. Then who knows? They might have bouncers, or maybe Bhaarrt could get a job as a bouncer?”

  “Nope.” Bhaarrt said. “Did that once when I got out of the army. Don’t ever want to do it again.”

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