Octer looked at Zhaine, clearly confused about what he meant, “A ridiculous..? I just… it’s a family inheritance.” He replied, although with too little confidence to make it appear as the truth, or at least not the full truth. It did not seem like Zhaine was going to try and pry the truth out of him, however.

“Ya got one hell of a family then, boy. That ‘shield’… is not a shield at all. Or at least, it was never supposed to be..” Zhaine explained, “I can recognize the material. The techniques are even older than the ones taught to me. And after a bit of research… I found what it is, or was.”

Confused about what he meant, Octer stared at the dwarf. Even if he didn’t seem to want to reveal everything about where he got the shield, it seemed like he didn’t know much about the shield’s origin either. But what Zhaine did then did not help him figure much out either. The dwarf slowly tapped the outside of his lower arm.

“What? It was an arm?” Kyla asked with her head slightly tilted to the side, as Zhaine let out a deep sigh, “No, lass. A bracer. This shield was a Giant’s bracer.” He explained, “The patterns on here are that of the army of the ancient giants. Most of them died by now, but some still wander these lands.” Zhaine explained to them. Octer looked quite perplexed. He didn’t expect that. So what he was using was never a tower shield after all?

“But… how does that make sense?” Octer asked, “It doesn’t look like a bracer at all…” 

Zhaine quickly nodded as he made his way to the back of the shop to go and get the shield, “Yer right. The bracer was changed so that it could be used as a tower shield. Quite skillfully so. But the traces of when it was a bracer are still there.” 

Octer was speechless, not having expected something like that. Zhaine raised a brow, since he wasn’t sure why this was shocking him so much. Before the conversation continued down that road, Foster asked something that he himself was curious about. He accepted the fact that beings like Giants obviously must exist in this world, so he didn’t even bat an eye in regard to that. Rather, he was curious about what Zhaine had said earlier, “Then… how was it a pain in the ass? Did you have to work with it in a different way to a normal shield or something?”

“Of course I did.” Zhaine replied immediately, “I could remove the dents pretty easily, but when I realized what it was, I didn’t just want to leave it in the state it was in.” He explained, “So, I did a little more work on it. And hell, it was fuckin’ tough to be able to match those old techniques.” Zhaine said, finally bringing the shield back to the front of the shop. Until a few days ago, it looked like nothing but a scratched up metal slab. It did have some decorative patterns carved into it, but they couldn’t rely shine in the face of how old and used the shield clearly was.

But now? That was different. It looked like the shield was completely new. It was practically impossible to see even a single scratch, and it had a new layer of paint covering it. Before, only traces of its black surface could be pointed out here and there, since it had mostly been removed through repeated impacts during combat. It even had a ring of leather right around the central area, inbetween that and the thicker rim on the outside of the shield.

Octer looked at it perplexed, and slowly grabbed it from the Dwarf, “You… did that this quickly? How did you get this done, on top of the sword and new armor for Lynol? That’s just… insane.” He pointed out, and Zhaine couldn’t help but feel sort of smug after hearing that remark. With a grin on his face, he looked at the man standing in front of him excitedly. He was about to say something, but before he could, Foster spoke up, “Ooh, did you do something cool with my armor as well?” He asked, and Zhaine’s smug grin immediately disappeared, and was replaced with an expression that one could only describe as filled with contempt or disgust.

Zhaine slowly pulled something out from under the table, and pushed the small crate into Foster’s arms, “If I ever see ya coming back with yer armor in that state, I’m kicking yer ass, ya hear me?” He said furiously, and Foster couldn’t help himself but smile wrily, “R-Right… sorry ’bout that…” 

“Now, I properly sorted everythin’ back into the shelves, so if ya want anything, you can have a look around. Ya need some armor too, remember, lassie?” Zhaine changed the topic, slowly looking at Kyla. As the cleric got sort of excited about finally getting some armor for herself, Zhaine glanced at Rae, “And I don’t think we’ve met. But if yer gonna fight together with these guys, I suggest ya get some armor as well.” He pointed out, but Rae immediately shook her head, surprising Zhaine. She had been looking around the shop for a while now, so he thought she was interesting in buying something.

However, she quickly stepped in front of him, “For the time being, I’m their handler, Rachel. I came with them to see where they were getting their equipment from, so that we could work together more closely.”

“Ah, right, right. And how’d you imagine that?”

“Basically, when they have something they would like you to make or repair, but you don’t have all the materials you need. Especially when it comes to making items from monster parts, I heard that the synergy between the ingredients is important. If you need some sort of other special material that you can’t buy here, I will speak to my contacts and figure it out, or have these guys retrieve the material themselves somehow.” She explained briefly, and it seemed like Zhaine was anything but against the idea, “Interesting. Back in the day, people would just never understand the nuances of creating such items. It seems like times have finally changed. Alright, then I look forward to working with ya.” The Dwarf said, stretching out his hand. Rae seemed a bit surprised for some reason, but quickly shook Zhaine’s hand as well.

And then, everyone became busy. Zhaine walked around the shop with Kyla to see if there was anything he would recommend for her, while Octer looked at his fully repaired shield and Lynol tried on his new bone armor. Foster also looked around a bit, but he was mostly just thinking about something while looking at a specific piece of armor. Slowly approaching him, Rae whispered to him, “What… what did you guys do to make Zhaine act like this? I heard his business was going under because he scared away all his customers… this doesn’t look like someone that would do it… He also doesn’t seem like the drunkard I heard he is.” 

Foster slightly turned his head and scoffed, “He still drinks, trust me. Haven’t seen him fully sober yet either. But yeah, we just figured something out, I guess. I don’t know why he acted the way he did before either, so I’ve got no clue what part of it made him… better, I guess?” He pointed out. Rae let out a deep sigh, “Right, thanks.” She said somewhat annoyed, although she was clearly still curious, “So… What was it that you did that might’ve done it?” She finally asked, and Foster smiled at her, starting to tell her the story of what happened with Zhaine thus far.