"Alright...what do I do now?" Phina sighed as she looked around her.
'What a weird feeling.' Phina thought to herself as she went to sit in front of the old Elven man's shop. 'I always had someone telling me what to do. I have no idea what to do on my own.'
She sighed with loneliness. 'I need to set a plan for myself. I can't just keep blindly exhausting myself trying to learn Bow before the Lord. I guess I'll have to join a strong faction, maybe they can teach me what the thing the Generals had was.'
"W-What are you doing?" the old Elven man stared as he left his shop to attract some customers.
"S-Sorry. I just don't have a place to stay and I thought that maybe sitting down would help me think." Phina smiled apologetically.
"W-Would you like...to come in???" the man invited awkwardly.
"Thanks." Phina bowed her head lightly.
"I'm Tekker. What's your name, girl?" the Elf smiled as he eyed Phina.
"My name is Shira." Phina said through her mask.
"You didn't have the Beast Repellants back when you first asked for the mask, right?" Tekker smiled as he sat on a chair behind his counter while Phina hopped onto the counter.
"I'm gonna be honest, I didn't. I went to the mayor and made a deal with him." Phina sighed.
"I'm impressed!" Tekker laughed. "Mayo doesn't really pay attention to anyone wasting his time!"
"Who said I was wasting his time? It was a bet and he lost." Phina chuckled.
"Seriously? I tried to do that for him to sell me more land, but the bastard kicked me out!!" Tekker was shocked.
"I arm wrestled with him." Phina said as she put her feet up on the counter.
"AND WON?!" Tekker's jaw fell. "Y-You're an Advanced-rank too?!"
"Yeah, what about it?" Phina asked.
"..." Tekker looked Phina's body up and down. "Well, you certainly don't look like it."
"I just recently broke through." Phina scoffed.
"Alright, let's make a deal." Tekker smiled. "You convince the mayor to give me more land for my shop and I'll get you geared up like an actual Advanced-rank. How about it?"
Phina looked down at her torn clothes. "You do have a point...alright! You got it! I'll talk to him when I visit tomorrow."
"Great!" Tekker laughed. 'I can finally start to actually expand into the Dull Dessert!'
"Oh, right! You said that I can pay for some of your stuff with manual labor, right?" Phina realized.
"Yeah. You can do stuff ranging from helping me move some boxes to giving me a Lord's core." Tekker replied.
'Finally! I can get some new clothes!' Phina smiled underneath her mask. "Alright then. I need a backpack, five sets of clothing, a cloak with a hood, two daggers and enough food and water to last me for a month."
"Calm down there." Tekker raised his arms. "I got the backpack, clothing, cloak and daggers, but I don't have food and water. As for payment, just get me three fangs of a Lord, but they need to be at the Beginner-rank."
"The Waves only have Adult-ranks though." Phina tilted her head.
"You think that bastard is telling you the whole truth?" Tekker scoffed. "He said that to get volunteers. He said that because of how unlikely it was for a Beginner-rank Lord to come here. We've only seen one in Lonely Strife Town, but I've got connections and they all say that there's a dozen or so Beginner-rank Elites in the back of the beast army. There's even five Lords and a single Beginner-rank Royal beast!"
"And you want me to go near them?!" Phina shocked. She hadn't understood the importance of a Royal lineage beast before she joined the Exodia, but the Exodia taught her well.
Elites and Lords were generally on the same level of strength, only being separated by the level of intellect. A Lord can better utilize its strength over a humanoid, giving it an advantage. As such, a Beginner-rank Lord can fight a level higher. That means that a Beginner-rank Lord has the ability fight toe-to-toe with an Intermediate-rank humanoid. The scarier part of lineage was the explosive boost at the Royal lineage. A Beginner-rank Royal can not only beat an Advanced-rank with ease, but also fight an Expert-rank with a slight advantage in strength!!
Telling Phina to bring the fangs of a Beginner-rank Lord was the same as telling her to jump into a fight against a five Intermediate-ranks and one Expert-rank, while surrounded by a bunch of Beginner-ranks, not to mention the literal army of Adult-ranks!
While Phina would have no issue demolishing an Adult-rank Beast, even an Advanced-rank like her would succumb to thousands of Adult-ranks.
"Look, Shira. I just need the fangs. I don't need you to get anywhere near the Royal. Just get to the Lords, knock out three fangs, then get the hell out of there!" Tekker said seriously. He really needed those fangs.
"Are you insane?!" Phina looked the man in the eye. She grit her teeth as she growled. "Fine! But you better give me some quality stuff! Also, I want a 40% discount whenever I buy anything from your store! I need the stuff now too."
"20% and you've got yourself a deal." Tekker haggled.
"Don't try me, old man! Either 40 or nothing!" Phina said aggressively.
"Fine! You got it!" Tekker gave up. He then mumbled to himself. "Damn youngsters and their shitty demands."
Phina sighed in frustration, though on the inside, she was ecstatic! 'I finally get to test out my Skills! I'll just beat the Lords and run away using Flashing Steps!'
"By the way, can I use your shower?" Phina asked as she smelled her clothes.
"Yeah, you smell like shit." Tekker sneered. "It's in the back. Clean up while I get you your stuff."
Phina headed into the back of the store where she was absolutely stunned. The space inside the back of the store was larger than the store itself!! The store looked to be a 4 by 5 meters store, but the back was easily over 100 by 100 meters!!!
'A Space Compressor!!' Phina recognized this immediately. Space Compressors were common in the Enforcers, after all, they were used to capture a large amount of nobles at once. 'I heard that only Vice Captains are assigned Space Compressors, and they're only assigned one!! How did he get his hands on one?!'
She then turned to see a door directly to the left her. The door had nothing behind it, yet it said 'House' on the door.
'What the fuck?' Phina was flabbergasted. 'Who is this old man?'
Phina looked at Tekker as he entered the backroom while he looked at Phina. "What are you doing? Go in."
"O-Okay?" Phina raised an eyebrow as she opened the door. To her surprise, a beautifully decorated living room was in front of her! "Okay! What the fuck!?!"
"Never mind that! Go take a shower!" Tekker quickly grabbed Phina's hand dragging her to the bathroom before setting the clothes on the ground. He didn't bother explaining anything at all.
--------------------------------------------------------------
'Who is that old man?' Phina thought to herself as she tried to wash her bald head. 'Right...no hair. It feels weird.'
Phina turned the knob on the shower and stopped the water. 'What a weird shower...'
She then looked at her own scarred face in the mirror. 'It's probably not too late to heal the scar with Life Energy...maybe Holy Devastation can heal it even after some time...'
"I'm a beggar at this point...I can't be a chooser." Phina sighed. "Still though...what if no ones wants to look at me after I leave because of the scar?"
Phina then thought to the only heavily scarred woman she'd seen, Vice Captain Samantha Virgile. Phina chuckled. "Everyone looks at her with awe and respect even with her scarred face. Strength is what demands respect after all. I'll keep it. I'll treat it as a reminder that I had the courage to take the Lord-rank Skill's test!"