Gra’loch’s Covenant Shop (Pt. 1)- A Maddening Set of Choices

A/N: I only meant to chip away at this… I did not mean to write this in one sitting… What made me write this in one sitting?!!

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Gra’loch’s Covenant Shop (Pt. 1)- A Maddening Set of Choices

--- Jon ---

Walking through the darkness of the pit tunnels he found his headache slowly fading as he walked away from the (annoyance and the) lights from the fight club’s arena.

Pix flew around him letting out a few chirps of concern as she picked up on his poor mood and the fading pain of his migraine.

“I’m alright…” He sighed. “This trip just… didn’t turn out how I was hoping…”

His little light patted his cheek in understanding as she let out a sad trill.

“It’s fine… If I’m lucky this shop will have something to make that beating worth it.” He tried to console her as much as himself, the phantom ache of having half his rib cage caved in still clinging to his chest. “Can’t say I’m not curious what the ‘magical blackmarket’ might have…”

“Lots of interesting things.” An almost hissing voice promised from the shadows.

He frowned as he made out a chest high figure waiting for him a bit further in.

“Ah, no need to fear.” The figure assured him, raising their hands in peace before waving a phone about. “Tru messaged me you were coming… Said to give you anything in the shop on his tab… You must be special to gain that much of the Mad Dog’s favor.”

“Not his favor, but definitely his interest.” He couldn’t help but scoff, being nowhere near naive enough to believe Tru had a purely altruistic reason for keeping him around the pit. Especially when offering him a ‘gift’ to indebt him into sticking around. (Shame Miss Edna and my Ma both taught me gifts come with no strings attached. And anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.)

“Still a rare thing given just how much is on offer.” The figure shrugged, before motioning him to follow through a nearby doorway.

“Pix you mind?” He asked, his little fairy before getting a nod as she brightened her natural light enough to see the shelves lining either side of the otherwise spacious room.

“Ah, apologies… My species isn’t exactly fond of the light.” The -(clearly non-human)- figure told him before flicking a nearby light and filling the room with a dim blue light, and revealing themselves to be some kind of bipedal catfish with teeth wearing a vest and tailcoat.

“Gra’loch, I’m guessing?”

The catfish nodded. “Yes, and you are… The Huntsman, yes?”

“In here I guess… Though now I’m curious if Gra’loch’s your actual name…” He admitted, eyeing the contents of the shelves and (honestly, I’ve got no idea what any of this is beyond.)

He thought he recognized a couple things from DeSade’s workshop, but nothing he could make a concrete guess about.

“It roughly means Merchant in my native tongue, I simply weaken my translator spell for it to come out in your species’s vocal range.” The magical merchant explained. “And don’t bother wasting your time on the floor items, these would all be a waste of a free gift. Instead I’ve pulled some… select stock based on what I saw from your fight with the Mad Dog.”

“You saw my fight?” He frowned, not having noticed any spectators beyond Ms. Leed.

“There’s a camera connected to every major workspace in the club, and all of them have a connection to the arena’s feed.” Gra’loch explained, putting on a pair of black glasses before flicking another switch and turning on a proper light above a counter in the back with a number of boxes and cases on top of it. “Come, come, I believe these are what would most interest you.”

Walking over, the merchant popped a small wooden case open with his four fingered hands, revealing a knife and what he was pretty sure were a trio of Conceptual Crystals like what Miss Edna had taught him to make.

“Now first, we’ll start off with the weapons given your clear preference for melee combat. Here we have a beautiful knife with a Warp Recall enchantment, a partial side grade over your current recall method if at the trade of your recall path for an instantaneous return. And of course this can be synchronized to any existing recall point such as those bracelets you wear.” Gra’loch explained.

The merchant then picked up one of the crystals and slotted it into the hilt of the knife before pressing a thumb to the side and causing the whole thing to begin glowing with a red heat. “What really makes this item valuable to you is the fact that you can slot Conceptual Crystals into the hilt so that with a flick of the trigger the knife conducts a constant stream of elemental magic. Powered purely by the crystal -fire, frost, and electricity coming with the package deal- thus saving a practitioner the power cost of said magic.”

“Interesting.” He admitted, wondering how hard it would be for him to set up something similar on his own. (I could probably manage the individual elements easy, but the new warp recall and the modularity would be tricky if Miss Edna doesn’t know how to do them.) And while he was sure she knew the enchantments, he wasn’t so sure she knew how to physically make the knife’s hilt herself.

“Thought you’d like that.” Gra’loch smiled before returning the knife and crystal to their case and opening a larger one to reveal an axe within. “This next one is similar but a little different in function. While the modular elements remain, rather than concentrating the magic to the blade this unleashes them into a hazardous region around them or small elemental explosions. Oh, and the recall enchantment on this one can switch between pathed and warp.”

“You mind if I test the weight?” He asked.

“Not at all.” Gra’loch assured him, stepping aside so he could test both the knife and the axe.

“Pretty close to what I’ve already got, though the crystals might offset my throws a bit.” He figured after a couple tosses in his hands. “But that’s a problem I can buffer out with a bit of practice.”

“I’m glad you approve, though I do have a few more items of interest I’d like to show before you make your decision.” Gra’loch told him as he returned the weapons to their cases. “More specifically, given your clear favor towards Contracting I thought you’d enjoy a few rare catalysts.”

“How rare?” He wondered, because while he felt the Traveler wasn’t trying to cheat him -given how he was offering so many options when Jon was clearly interested in the weapons- there was something about this setup still bugging him a bit.

“Mm, not so rare that it’d be impossible to acquire them again but rare enough that you’d have to import it from outside of the city which in itself would cost both time and money.” The merchant shrugged. “I possess them as a… waylay station of sorts, for all of the other Covenant shops working with the Mad Dog.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Alright, so what are we looking at?” He asked, leading the merchant to open a box that seemed to contain a tool box covered in spell script that he couldn’t quite decipher.

“On the seemingly more mundane end of things we have a catalyst for a Goblin, which in itself would not be overly interesting given how a standard catalyst is fairly common for the mercenary race. Even more so should you get the… more savage variants, which personally I do not believe is ever worth the money saved versus damage to the local ecosystem.”

He found it was an interesting thing to watch a human catfish shudder.

The Traveler shook their head before readjusting their glasses. “Anyway, what makes this item unique is that it specifically summons a Tinker Goblin. The… Em.Ah.De. -pardon my accent, we use a different word- variant of the goblin, meaning you can employ them for anything that a more mechanically inclined M.A.D. would be capable of, should you supply them with materials. Though that isn’t to say they won’t have weapons of their own available, I simply believe given your relationship with the young miss you’d prefer their crafting skills over their combat skills.”

“Huh, surprised people aren’t summoning this lot on mass for an M.A.D. factory.” He blinked, looking at the toolbox in a new light as having a support M.A.D. was bound to be valuable.

“Most Arcane civilizations try that once or twice before realizing that while the Arcane Nexus encourages the individual to… game the system, it does not enjoy groups attempting the same and will begin… altering the catalyst conditions if used too frequently to close together.” Gra’loch explained. “Which is why I would recommend using the Catalyst at home and preferably away from any prominent Arcane locations less the Nexus umbrellas you with someone else’s faction.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He nodded, pretty sure Miss Edna could help him figure that out even if Contracting wasn’t her actual forte.

“Good, next up we have any true researcher’s dream Catalyst, an Avarician feather!” Gra’loch exclaimed, opening a box to reveal a glass sphere with a large bluish purple feather within. “The only reason this hasn’t sold out is due to the fact that most of our… club clientele are more interested in combat than research… practically an insult to the Arcane method. Er, no offense.”

“None taken.” He shrugged, not really caring. “Though I am curious as to what an Avarician is?”

“Ah, yes, give me a moment -explaining a sophont species to another is always tricky…” Gra’loch sighed, adjusting their glasses. “I believe the best description would be a highly intelligent Avian-humanoid species, with a cultural interest in magic making them quite powerful as both a support Arcane and research Arcane, if at the price of having them use their summoner’s magic to fuel their spells rather than their own. Which given your status as a Practitioner is something you’ll wish to thoroughly consider before choosing this catalyst in particular. As while their skill and knowledge can be invaluable their combat cost is… not without severity.”

“So better a research buddy than a combat partner.” He figured, hand drifting to his talisman.

“Ah, if you require an upgrade to your talisman-”

“I’d rather not.” He cut in, before grimacing. “Sentimental reasons…” (It would be one thing if I asked Miss Edna to help me upgrade my talisman but outright replacing it with something… bought feels… bad… disrespectful… definitely something bad.)

“I understand.” Gra’loch assured him, raising both hands. “But moving on, this brings us to my third and final catalyst…” The merchant paused before they could open another container. “Actually, before I offer this, what is your stance on… let’s call it mildly dark magic?”

“A tool. A dangerous tool but still a tool.” He answered, pretty sure whatever he was about to be offered was going to be mildly illegal. (Then again I’m pretty sure this whole place is mildly illegal regardless of what they say.)

“Very good.” Gra’loch nodded as they opened another container and revealed what looked to be a glass skull filled with (I’m pretty sure that’s blood… Meaning this isn’t another confidant catalyst.) “I offer you… a Cambion Catalyst.”

Given how the mildly awed and fearful tone the merchant used, he was fairly sure this was something that summoned rare, powerful, and dangerous. (Like all dark magic.) “Cambion… that’s familiar but I can’t quite place where… something to do with Demons…”

“Ah, yes… a Cambion is a half-Demon, with the catalyst guaranteeing that what you summon is in themselves half of the summoner’s race. A status granting them a portion of their Demonic parent’s power while also giving them a mind far more… human in your case mind than a true Demon.” Gra’loch explained.

“A half Demon.” He repeated, giving the glass skull far more consideration. “And what kind of half Demon would it summon?”

“That is entirely dependent on you, as the blood within the skull is a diluted blending of several Demons. Which when combined with several high level Spell Codes that I myself do not fully understand grants the catalyst a more focused variant of the more common Confidant Catalyst.” Gra’loch continued. “Meaning that the ‘Demonic’ half of the Cambion you summon is whatever most resonates with you.”

As he considered that, he also found himself considering the Horror’s arm he and the girls were working on. “Even if they’re a half Demon, this seems like something that should cost… more than is worth offering here.”

“You… are not incorrect.” Gra’loch admitted with a hesitant nod. “Truthfully, it being worth so much is part of the reason I haven’t been able to find a buyer for this particular piece. But you’re not the one footing the bill here, so…”

“I’m guessing everything on this table is both extremely expensive and with very little demand.” He pieced together based on what the merchant had let slip thus far.

“You… are correct.” Gra’loch sighed.

Now knowing this was the case he figured he should have the merchant bring out some of their regular stock for him to go through rather than simply ripping Tru Grit off like this.

“In that case what’s the most expensive thing you’ve got.” Because his Ma Miss Edna would both be deeply disappointed if he didn’t rip off the rich guy. (And Tru would agree I can’t go disappointing my Ma like that.)

Gra’loch gave a fang filled smile. “One moment please.”

He patiently waited as the merchant ran into the backroom, watching as Pix flitted between the various revealed treasures, before Gra’loch came back with a chest covered in padlocks and chains.

“I’ve been trying to get rid of this thing for years but at the same time I know it’s worth so much money I can’t just give it away without giving myself a dozen blood ulcers.” The merchant explained slowly undoing the various chains. “And given your… views on dark magic I don’t think you’ll be overly disappointed with this particular item.”

With the last of the security eventually removed, Gra’loch opened the chest to reveal a ?%#$!*.

He shook his head, feeling a faint ache in his head as he looked at the pulsating sphere of shadows in front of him.

“What. Is. This?” He frowned, feeling something crawling over his mind. Not invasively like with the Beast of Blackwell, but with a sort of curiosity. “This thing is wreathing in Madness.”

“Yes, the fact that you recognize that means you might just be the best person to take this off of my hands.” The merchant nodded. “This rare find is a Void Creep Core… One that’s been… gestating for a fairly long time. I… truthfully have no idea what to do with it, but perhaps you do?”

“I… maybe?” He swallowed, feeling a familiarity in the Core’s reaching fingers, almost like they’d reached for him before and would continue to do so until he took them in hand.

(“Is the third time the charm? Will you take me now, my dear Huntsman? I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to embrace my Madness…”)

“It’s whispering to me…” He hissed, before snapping his hand out and preventing Pix from touching (the clearly sapient orb.)

Gra’loch slammed the chest shut and began redoing the locks, the presence immediately disappearing. “Yes, that is why I locked it up. I didn’t even need the locks until a month or two ago, but it’s been… responding to something. I’ve had to add more chains twice now to keep it quiet.”

“That’s… concerning…” He admitted, wiping the blood from beneath his nose.

The merchant nodded, before licking their lips and giving him a (concerned(?)) look, “I… won’t blame you if you want to leave this here. Even if you can recognize Madness, this… I shouldn’t have offered this… why did I offer this to you?... Oh, lord! I offered this to a child!!!”

Gra’loch seemed to panic at that particular revelation.

He put a hand on the merchant’s head. “Don’t. Think. About. It. Madness will make you spiral.”

Gra’loch stilled for a moment, before eventually nodding, “R-right… Right, just… just forget I offered the mind raping Void Core. Just… just pick one of the other items I’ve left out and… and let’s forget this little episode happened…”

“Right, yeah, just… just give me a second…” He told the merchant.

“I, I think we both need one…”