On the shopkeeper's chest was a blue-white wooden badge with a symbol of a dagger.

  Evel recalled that Arlo had a silver dagger, and Monique had a bronze book, so he figured the shopkeeper was one or two levels lower than them. However, Evel had yet to be given an explanation on the specifics so he couldn’t be sure.

  “I’m Evel, and I need some help picking out my weapon.”

  Hearing that, the shopkeeper stood up straight, the more weapons he sold the better his pay, so he was happy to help.

  “But first, what rank does your badge represent?” Evel continued, “ I have a few questions and tests I wanna try, and I need someone strong enough to not be hurt.”

  Unbothered by such a simple question, the shopkeeper answered.

  “Well, this here is an icewood badge. It represents the 3rd realm, Weaver.”

  Weaver…

  “I’m at the Core stage, would that put me in the first Realm?”

  The shopkeeper shook his head,

  “Core is the second realm. The first realm is simply called Layman, before you unlock an ability. Anyways, what type of ability do you have? It will help narrow down the options greatly.”

  Evel had been contemplating this a lot. Should he reveal his ability to others?

  It felt very unlikely this random shopkeeper ever became his enemy and ended up telling others, and Evel understood that. He also understood getting help from people with experience could help him save time and avoid unnecessary mistakes.

  In the end, he decided he just didn’t want to.

  However, he also needed the expertise of the experienced, so he came up with a compromise.

  A smooth aura began emanating from Evel.

  A transparent hand appeared just above Evel’s head and quickly moved to a nearby sword and picked it up.

  In the shopkeeper’s eyes, the sword simply floated up on its own.

  “I have a unique form of telekinesis with less power but more precision and control.”

  This was the story Evel had decided on.

  He would still be able to get the advice he needed, albeit worse, and he didn’t have to reveal all his secrets. A magician should always have some secrets.

  “Telekinesis is fairly common, but I can’t say I’ve seen one like yours. For starters, the aura you give off is completely different. What sort of tests did you wanna run?”

  The shopkeeper looked at the floating sword some more. Normally, telekinesis at lower levels lifts an object the entire weight at once, with the force being distributed along equally. However it seemed this customer was only using his ability on the handle.

  Evel nodded, having decided that giving less information was better than trying to defend himself or backtrack.

  “I’m not too familiar with using my ability yet, so I just want to see how it will interact with other people and their defensive abilities.”

  This wasn’t a complete lie.

  The shopkeeper agreed, and made a construct making his skin slightly harder, it wasn’t very strong, but against this weak telekinesis, it wasn’t a problem.

  Evel, finally getting the chance to fully test the limits of his ability on another human gladly took this opportunity.

  First, he dropped the sword and used the illusory hand to punch the shopkeeper in the stomach.

  No reaction.

  This was what Evel had expected from previous experiments.

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  Next, Evel used his core and picked up the sword again, before attempting to swing it in place.

  Vwoom!

  Weapons swinging at air works, but…

  The sword flew through the air towards the shopkeeper.

  Yet right before making contact, the sword stopped.

  Evel increased his effort, pushing the sword harder, but the results didn’t change.

  The sword wouldn’t budge, as if he had lost control of his own power.

  He sighed in disappointment.

  Next, he lifted a bow with his left hand, and used his invisible hand to take a shot at the target across the room.

  PEW!

  The arrow flew through the air, but fell flat on the ground, not even making it to the target.

  Wow…

  Even if that arrow had more power it was completely off!

  He tried the experiment again except he tried aiming it at the shopkeeper's foot, however he couldn’t let go of the string.

  Interesting.

  I’m almost sure I’ll miss regardless of if I shoot the shot or not, but even then, I still can’t let go.

  Is it the intention that matters?

  There was one more thing he wanted to try out.

  His third hand reached into his pouch and grabbed a card from his deck. He floated it close to the shopkeeper, then he threw it at him.

  The card softly hit the shopkeeper's forehead, before swaying in the air while falling down.

  So it has to be the intention to harm.

  He did a few more tests to hide his intentions a bit, then he cleaned up the mess he made.

  “Thank you, I think I’m done with my experiments.”

  Evel politely took off his tophat and bowed his head, after having put the final arrow back.

  “So, get any ideas on what type of weapon you wanted?”

  Evel shook his head, exasperated.

  “Originally I thought a bow would be good, but it seems I lack the skill and strength to pull it off.”

  Evel partially lied, knowing the real bigger reason was that his hand simply couldn’t shoot the bow.

  He recalled Arlo’s advice of using throwing knives or darts, but it was completely useless to him. No matter what he thought of, he couldn’t think of a fitting weapon that his hand could use. How was he supposed to win a fight without harming them? Should he really just give up? Was there no hope?

  “I know you’re keeping some secrets of your ability from me, as you should, but I think I can still provide some good general advice.”

  Out of ideas, Evel wholeheartedly accepted the offer.

  “One mistake many people make early in their journey is trying to serve their ability rather than letting their ability serve them.”

  Seeing Evel’s confused face, he continued,

  “Imagine someone who has an avian summon. They may try to strengthen it as much as possible, and use their time, energy, and money on making the bird as strong as possible. Alternatively a different person with an avian ability decides to learn how to use a long distance bow, and focuses their time on getting faster and more nimble, then uses their summon as a scout, who do you think would win in a fight?”

  Evel opened his eyes in shock at this simple idea. He had been completely tunnel visioned in using his power as his main weapon, but he had other options too!

  The shopkeeper, seeing that Evel understood this point, didn't wait for a reply.

  “Now, for your telekinesis, I’d maybe use some throwing knives, and even if you can’t generate the speed to harm your opponent, you can still use it as crowd control, then force them into your main weapon for the kill. “

  Evel, shook his head. He couldn’t use knives effectively since he couldn’t cause harm, and had already come up with a better idea.

  “Do you have some strong wire?”

  “Ah! That’s not bad either, since it’s lighter it’ll also be easier on your Energy, and you’d be able to make use of your control better that way as well! They’re back there!”

  Evel walked to the back of the store, where the shopkeeper had pointed him to, and saw four types of wire, with descriptive signs below.

  [Ferrum Coil] High-tensile refined ferrum, durable and elastic. The standard for binding and snaring. | 5 Credits

  [Barbed Coil] Spurred Ferrum wire, designed to grip and lacerate. Causes persistent bleeding and pain. | 10 Credits

  [Electric Coil] High-purity conduit metal, pliable and highly conductive. Delivers disruptive electrical surges. | 15 Credits

  [Crystal Coil] Complex crystalline metal, pliable, elastic, and difficult to spot. Premium product for traps and overall flexibility. | 25 Credits

  Evel noted the prices, not willing to spend his credits yet. He was planning on spending every credit he had to fully prepare, and he had to properly budget.

  Since Evel had broadened his mindset, he had many ideas for what his main weapon should be, but still wanted to hear other possibilities, so he walked back to the shopkeeper.

  “Is there a suitable weapon as a finisher? Assuming I can snare them, or find an opportunity, of course.”

  The shopkeeper thought for a moment before answering,

  “A spear would probably suit your needs.”

  Evel considered it, a spear didn’t need as much power to swing as a sword, and he could simply thrust it whenever his opponent was incapable of moving. It was honestly a good choice.

  However, he liked his own idea better.

  “Do you have any crossbows?”

  The shopkeeper raised his chin, trying to confirm.

  “The ones that shoot for you?”

  Evel nodded, they were a fairly common weapon among game ‘laymen’ hunters in Yosten.

  The shopkeeper looked around while replying.

  “Ah yes, I’m sure we have a few in the storage but I doubt we have any out on display. People usually prefer regular bows since they can continue to increase their physical strength far higher than the given strength of a crossbow, unless you get an enchanted one of course, but that type of expense is not something I can even dream of.”

  Evel waited as the shopkeeper searched a bit more, before he came back empty handed.

  “I’ll have to go to the warehouse since it’s not in storage either, so come back tomorrow morning. Do you want to buy the wire now?”

  Evel shook his head.

  He still had to plan out his spending.

  Next, I should have lunch. I'm not hungry yet but I need to get back into proper shape.

  “Could you point me into the direction of the cafeteria?”

  After getting directions and thanking the shopkeeper for his help, Evel walked out of the building, the soft chimes on the door sounding again.

  He activated his ability again.

  The hand danced around in the air, grabbing heavy objects and placing them back down. Doing this quickly drained him of his Energy and he let it recover again.

  He had been doing this as much as possible, since he found frequently using his ability, he was able to maintain it for longer. However, the progress was slow, but Evel wasn’t disheartened.

  When he initially got his power, at his desperate moment 1 year ago, he could activate and leave his hand stationary for about 10 minutes, any actions or strain on the hand reducing that time. He hadn’t practiced a whole lot since then since it was extremely draining each time your Energy levels hit zero.

  He had only recently started training it more frequently. However, with his continued efforts, he was now able to get it to 12 minutes.

  Basking in the addictive feeling of progress, Evel entered the cafeteria.