The skill bookshop was close to the home for their biggest customers, the adventurer’s guild, with four different potions shops within three blocks of the adventurer’s guild as well. They walked into the guild shop, there was a human male, approximately five feet eight inches tall right inside the door to greet them and some more sitting at a table off to the side. There were multiple bookshelves around the large shop. How this shop works is a little different than other shops due to the nature of skill books. They have multiple shopkeepers who show you around the shop to the different skill books you may be interested in, the shelves are sorted by multiple different things, and you just tell them what you’re looking for and they show you the skill books in question.

  “Welcome to Angie’s Skills, my name is Tyler, what type of skills are you interested in today?”

  “Hey Tyler, I just had my first weapon commissioned and I’m looking for skills for a glaive, and possibly a haste skill as well if you’ve got it.”

  “We do have some stat boosting skills, slashing skills and mastery skills, which would you like to look at first.”

  “Let’s save the fun skills for last, how about we look at boosting skills.”

  “Certainly, right this way,” he led them down the second bookshelf on the right and showed them a set of skill books at the end. “Aside from agility, are you interested in boosting any of your other stats?”

  “Maybe my toughness, I’m relying on my speed to protect me, but I need to be able to take a hit in case I’m not fast enough.”

  He pulled down two skill books and held them out so she could identify them. “Here we have haste and stone skin.” She used identify on them one by one:

  Skill Book of Haste: Grants the user the Haste skill. This skill increases the agility of the user by a set percentage for a set time and has a cool down.

  Skill Book of Stone Skin: Grants the user the Stone Skin skill. This skill increases the toughness of the user by a set percentage for a set time and has a cool down.

  “These are both good, I’ll take both of them, what about mastery skills now?”

  The books disappeared into a storage device. “Absolutely, this was.” He led them to the other side of the shop and over one shelf, they stopped halfway down the shelf. “So, polearm mastery is obvious, what type of armor will you be using?”

  She was unsure because she didn’t know the type of materials being used on her armor, so she gave her father an inquisitory look.

  “She will be using a medium armor; it gives added protection from the light armor while still allowing the agility of a speed focused fighting style.”

  “Certainly, so my lord,” he pulled down two more books and held them out for identification, she used identify on them one by one as well:

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  Skill Book of Polearm Mastery: Grants the user the passive skill Polearm Mastery. This skill increases their understanding of fighting with a polearm. It also gives a minor boost to strength and agility while fighting with a polearm, boost is dependent on level of skill.

  Skill Book of Medium Armor Mastery: Grants the user the passive skill Medium Armor Mastery. This skill provides a minor increase to the durability of any medium armor worn by the user. It also slightly reduces damage taken by the user when struck where they are wearing medium armor.

  “Both of those too, not let’s get to the weapons skills.”

  Both books disappeared again. “Right this way my lady.” He led them to a bookshelf at the back of the shop that spanned the entire back wall. “Here are all of our weapon skills, there are a lot here, I’m assuming you want some slashing skills, what about elemental?”

  “I already have a channeling skill, I don’t think there is much else that can be learned.”

  “Alright, I recommend sweeping slash, whirlwind slash, reinforced edge to protect it’s durability, and severing strike,” as he listed off each skill, he grabbed corresponding book off the shelf. He laid them out on the long table across from the bookshelf. I used identify on them:

  Skill Book of Sweeping Slash: Grants the user the skill Sweeping Slash. This is a skill that causes a slashing wave to protrude from the blade when slashed. Has a cool down.

  Skill Book of Whirlwind Slash: Grants the user the skill Whirlwind Slash. This skill spins the user 360 degrees in a slashing motion, causes a slashing wave to protrude from the blade when slashed. Has a cool down.

  “Seems like whirlwind slash is better than Sweeping slash, what’s the difference?”

  “Sweeping slash is more focused and thus has a larger wave produced than the whirlwind slash, it’s much better when your enemies are in front of you, especially when fighting in a party it will be easier to avoid hurting your party members, whereas whirlwind slash is great when surrounded by enemies.”

  She used identify on the other two books:

  Skill Book of Reinforced Edge: Grants the user the passive skill Reinforced Edge. This skill reinforces any bladed weapon the user uses, making it harder for the weapon to lose durability.

  Skill Book of Severing Strike: Grants the user the skill Severing Strike. This skill increases the sharpness of the user's blade and strength of their strike. Has a cool down.

  “These all seem good to me, what do you think father?”

  “I think they are all needed skills for anyone using a bladed weapon. We’ll take all of them.”

  Excellent choice, my lord. Now do you need any lightning skills or do you think you have all you need for now?”

  “I had all she needs in the family vault. How much for the lot of them?”

  He laid the other books out on the table. “These master skills are pretty basic, they’re only twenty gold each. The boosting skills are a little rarer, haste is fifty gold and stone skin is eighty, sweeping and whirlwind slash are both a hundred gold each, reinforced edge is basic, it is thirty gold, and severing strike is rare, its one hundred and fifty, bringing your total to five-hundred and fifty gold, seeing as you’re buying eight books I can knock off fifty gold meaning you just owe me five-hundred gold.”

  Beldroth pulled out a black card. “You do have a business card, right? I only have three-hundred gold on me and would hate to have to run back to the manor to complete the purchase.”

  A black card appeared in Gabriel's hand as well. “Absolutely, ready whenever you are.” He held out the card, Beldroth put his card over top of the other one and five seconds later both cards vanished. “Pleasure doing business with you. Once you store your purchases I’ll escort you back to the exit.”

  Elora touched the books one by one, storing them in her necklace. “Thank you sir.”

  Gabriel led them back to the exit and they walked out of the shop.

  “Which potion shop should we head for father?”