After another fun night that included aura training, another smattering of parkour, good food, and great company, the three Starborn went for another quick run around the city to warm up.

  They decided that they would head to Yuro's shop tomorrow after they acquired some materials to play with. Today, they would make do with what Miasma’s armory had to take.

  As the city of Foruta was waking up, Arden, Vera, and Sya were already cleaned up and enjoying another breakfast in Miasma’s mess hall.

  “What time are we meeting Savish?” Arden asked in between bites of smoked sausage.

  “10,” Vera said. “We'll meet her over at her place then head to the wilds together.”

  “Three hours until then,” Sya said. “That's enough time, right?”

  “It won't be a problem. We'll be ready to roll out by 8:30. Getting stuff from the armory takes a half hour at most. Do you have an idea of what you'll be taking?”

  Sya shrugged.

  “Guandao or sword, and light armor.”

  “Oh that reminds me,” Arden said.

  Arden summoned Rogier’s Tree in a haze of red sparks and offered it to Sya. A Status prompt appeared in front of the Blight Walker.

  Red-tier protostar Arden has transferred ownership of red-tier main sequence Satellite, Rogier’s Tree to you.

  “Take it,” Arden said. “You’ll get more use out of a spear than I will. You can change its shape, so if you want to make it a gaundao, you can.”

  “You’re just giving this to me?” Sya asked, hesitantly reaching out towards the spear. “What for?”

  “To keep us alive, obviously,” Arden said. “You liked the feeling of a guandao, so take it. I’ll take it back if you prefer the one that Loyid is working on, but until then, you need a Satellite weapon.”

  There was a brief pause before Sya accepted the satellite.

  You have obtained a red-tier main sequence Satellite, Rogier’s Tree.

  “I guess I have no choice but to accept the offer with that reasoning,” she said, grinning.

  *****

  It wasn’t Arden’s first time visiting the armory, and neither was it for Vera. They both gathered some equipment before they headed out to the restricted zone to find Sya. This was the first time for Sya to come here though. And she was thinking the same thing that Arden and Vera consistently thought.

  “Why does this place look so…drab?” she asked, finding the right words.

  As opposed to everywhere else in Miamsa, there was no personality on show. The armory was across from the training facilities in a move that aimed to increase training with the supplies on hand. It had the unmistakable grey lack of personality coupled with reliability that let everyone know that it was one of two things: an overworked salaryman, or celestinite.

  The gray roll up garage door was raised halfway up, and even that was more than enough to allow people to stand under it without hitting it. Proving that fact was the morning shift armory operator, leaning on a crate.

  Despite Arden’s misgivings of the armory itself, he was pleased with the proprietor, despite him being another addition of staleness to the place. He was a completely average brown haired guy, despite being a Starborn. Arden felt a small kinship with the man.

  Garrel looked on with a bored expression on his face until he saw Vera leading the group over to his place of employment.

  “Ah! Finally some customers!” he said.

  “Hello again, Garrel,” Vera said, looking into the empty armory. “Slow day?”

  “For now. It’s standard knowledge for anyone in a retail-esque or hospitality-esque job to know that a slow start means that it will only get worse. Unfortunately, the opposite is not true. If it’s busy, that means it will stay busy.”

  “You have my condolences.”

  As they had pleasantries, a young Starborn ran up, causing Garrel to sigh.

  “We still don’t have scythes.”

  The Starborn sighed and walked away.

  “Everyday with that kid, I swear,” Garrel said, shaking his head. “I’m going to assume that because you brought your crew here, you aren’t looking for training armaments this time.”

  “We’ll be doing some practical training out in the wilds,” Vera said. “Fancy sticks won’t help us much out there.”

  “Ain’t that the truth. Well you’re in luck. So long as you’re not renting out our entire inventory again, I can give you whatever you want. Come with me.”

  Garrel led the trio deeper into the armory. They ignored the wooden and bamboo training weapons and stopped in front of a wall of weapons, all of them forged in either celestinite or refined Celestial parts.

  “Aw, there’s no scythes,” Arden said with fake sadness.

  “And there never will be,” Garrel said testily. “What’ll it be instead?”

  “Four celestinite straight swords,” Vera said.

  “We’ve got plenty of those,” Garrel said.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He wasn’t kidding. Garrel led them to a large chest against the wall and opened it, revealing what looked to be at least 50 identical celestinite straight swords, all of them in basic leather scabbards.

  “I know it's kind of redundant to have scabbards when the inventory exists,” Garrel said. “Its just a formality.”

  Arden and Sya each grabbed one while Vera grabbed two. After unsheathing, they could say with certainty that the weapons were completely identical. Even the scratches on the blade that came from parrying looked similar. They were essentially just a dark gray version of the swords found in the Mausoleum of the Maverick

  “U-shaped guard,” Vera observed. “Good shape for the guard.”

  Garrel wrote on a piece of paper that was attached to the wall above the chest, detailing the amount of swords taken, and when they were taken.

  “Anything else?” he asked. “Or am I banished back to my crate?”

  “Not yet,” Vera said. “Sya and I need some armor as well.”

  “Armor might be too strong a word for what we’re looking for,” Sya said. “We don’t want anything that restricts our movement, but we still need protection.”

  “Lighter-than-light armor, then,” Garrel said. “I have some stuff that might work.”

  They walked through the armory to get to the armor as Garrel explained what he still had in stock.

  “I wouldn’t really classify this as armor in the classical sense. Armor means bulky, heavy. This is more like heavy clothing. Not heavy enough to impede the movement of a trained Starborn, like I imagine you guys are in the process of becoming, but they are strong enough to tank some hits for you. Bear in mind, this stuff is basically made of tougher cloth, but it is still cloth. It will take some cuts alright, but blunt damage can ruin your day.”

  They stopped in front of the armor, which appealed to Arden from an appearance standpoint. It reminded him of his Stoneflesh Shroud without some of the extra bits. There were no plates of stoneflesh attached to the robes, only layered cloth. They did however come with hoods and cloaks.

  The girls added the armor to their inventory then pulled them back out, automatically equipping them over their clothes while Garrel continued his narration.

  “The tailor who made these made sure to make this as light and breathable as possible. He knew that energy retention was a trouble among early Starborn who needed this armor more than anyone else. If you guys get stronger, it’d be worth your while to head over to the tailor, a guy named Yuro who works in the inner part of Ring 4.”

  “We actually have his details already,” Arden said, looking at the girls. They looked closer to thieves rather than the assassin that he looked like while in his armor.

  Garrel looked at him.

  “Do you perhaps need armor too?”

  “Nah, I’ve got that covered. I got a Satellite from my trial that suits me just fine.”

  The girls did some simple movements, happy to find that the armor was as light as advertised. They had no trouble at all moving in the robes.

  Arden grinned at them and clapped excitedly.

  While it was true that the party now looked like an assassin troupe, there was another comparison floating around in Arden’s mind.

  “You guys look like my backup dancers.”

  They ignored Arden’s remark as Garrel went and updated the inventory and led them back to the front.

  “I’m sure you know the rules, Vera, but do they?” Garrel said, looking at the pair of siblings engaged in some light hearted bickering about who was who’s backup dancer.

  “They know,” Vera nodded. “They have three days to return the equipment or reregister it. It doesn’t matter if the stuff gets damaged, so long as it's not fully destroyed. If it is, it comes out of our pocket.”

  “Fortuantely, the rate for produced items is cheaper than that of a Satellite,” Garrel said. “If the swords or the armor is destroyed, it won’t cost much, but it'll still cost.”

  “Why does it not matter if the stuff is damaged?” Arden asked.

  Garrel threw a thumb back over his shoulder.

  “There’s a restorative field in the armory. The equipment self-repairs in here.”

  “Got it. It's just like me.”

  “Every Starborn self-repairs.”

  “Not like I can.”

  *****

  It was now 10 in the morning, and the trio of newly born Starborn were excited. Arden's and Sya’s excitement was to be expected. But Vera didn't expect her heart to start pounding as they got closer to Savish’s restaurant. She was as giddy as the other two.

  Everyone was properly equipped now. With celestinite swords and cloth armor for the less fortunate, along with the Satellites that had been collected between the three of them, they were as well equipped as they could be before heading out into dangerous territory.

  It would be some time before they got their forged Satellites from Loyid, so they would have to make do with the mass produced stuff from Miasma’s armory. If they were lucky, they would end up with another Satellite or two between now and the field assessment.

  They needed all the practice with their abilities that they could get, so they knew that they would have more than just one trip into the wilds. There probably wouldn't be many with Savish, as she had her own stuff to do, namely her restaurant and Cayde, so they needed to show that they could survive out there.

  They rolled up to the restaurant with smiles on their faces and songs in their hearts. Savish was inside sitting at a booth across from Cayde before the lunch rush. She was dressed casually, as was the rest of the group.

  She stood up from her seat with a wave.

  “And here they are,” she said. “Are you guys ready to hunt some Celestials? I know I am. I can use more meat.”

  “Same,” Arden said.

  “Are you referring to your ability or Savish’s food?” Sya asked.

  “Both.”

  “Oh, I thought Arden was craving another type of meat,” Cayde said.

  Savish bent over and planted a kiss on her husband's cheek and made farewell.

  “Bring me a souvenir!” Cayde said as the party of four left the restaurant.

  “So how do we get to the wilds?” Arden asked as they walked. “Do we just go through the tunnel again and walk until we stop seeing concrete?”

  “That's the loser's way,” Vera said. “Its perfectly functional, but boring and slow.”

  “So what's the cool person way?”

  “Warp stations.”

  “Warp stations?”

  “Warp stations.”

  “What's a warp station?”

  “A warp station is like a fancy bus station, except instead of queuing for a bus, you queue for a teleporter.”

  “So can we warp anywhere from the warp station?”

  “Only to other warp stations. There are a few warp stations out in the wilds because a fair bit of Starborn go out there to hunt. Supply and demand.”

  “Sounds efficient,” Arden said. “And expensive.”

  “Warp stations are pretty cheap actually," Vera explained. “Especially if we travel with Savish, I'm guessing.”

  “You're guessing correctly,” Savish said.

  “There’s a premium program for those who come and go through the warp stations often,” Vera went on. “After a large amount of repeated uses, they get a free pass. We're with her, so we'll get to go for free through the warp station.”

  Sya groaned.

  “The next person who says warp station is getting punched in the mouth.”