"It looks quite cool."
Claire, Jaq, and Dahlia all were gathered in a small enclosed room, settled onto wooden chairs as Aaron stood in the room’s center.
In his arms rested a fine piece of craftsmanship, a meter long staff-like handle, built out of light metal and wrapped with thin leather, as it intertwined in a stylish design.
And connected to the staff’s edge was a thin pointed blade, built out of a silver metal and sharpened from both sides.
It was more like a pike with a long blade, rather than an actual sword, however its true capabilities didn’t lie in the blade.
The main advantage of the sword staff was located at the center of the weapon, carved into the weapon to create a small circular shape.
However, the circular cavity was currently empty, simply shaped into a comfortable handle and wrapped with leather.
For finalizing the design and material of the weapon, Dahlia had taken the group into their testing room, where she presented them with a few variations of the swordstaff.
After trying all of them, checking their weight and swinging a couple times to get a feel, Aaron had finalized the current one.
The staff’s furthest end was slightly bulky, designed like a pommel of the sword but according to Dahlia, it could serve as a good source of blunt damage.
Quite useless and impractical, considering the blade was a whole meter long and attacking with a blunt edge would be uncomfortable for Aaron.
Still, Aaron allowed her to keep the design as it is, since it helped balance the weight of the weapon.
He was told once they inscribe the core with his defensive and utility runes, it can be grafted into the center of the weapon, converting it into a magic weapon.
"I like it." Aaron walked back to the sitting ladies, smiling at Dahlia.
"That’s only obvious." Dahlia returned a cheeky smile of her own, "It looks great on you."
Aaron simply nodded gratefully and carefully placed the weapon on a wooden table in front of them.
"So can we have the cold weapon right now, and bring it a week later for the grafting process?" Claire asked.
"Sure. You can also check for any minor changes if any and note them down, during grafting I will see if I can fix those." Dahlia shrugged confidently.
She seemed proud of her craft, and it showed.
"So about the cost." Claire mentioned gently, appearing casual but her eyes were focused.
Her mind was working in overdrive, estimating the price that would be okay to pay for a personalized magic weapon.
She had one of her own, and she knew how expensive they could get.
"Hmm, I have used quite a few rare metals in the frame, so for the cold weapon it would be around..." Dahlia tapped her chin in thought, "11 thousands, but I can round it to 10k for you all."
"That sounds too expensive for a simple weapon." Claire narrowed her eyes, she shifted her gaze to Jaq, to check if she would assist in haggling down the price.
But Jaq quickly broke eye contact and dipped her head lower, burying it in her phone as if she was doing some important work.
"Sorry miss, the lowest I could go is 9,999 Sols." Dahlia shook her head, "I can list you the quality and amount of the materials I have used in the weapon and you can judge the price of it yourself. I am known for my reliable prices and great quality, ask this gal."
She pointed at Jaq, but Jaq simply glanced at her and lowered her back into the phone, mumbling, "My job was only to make you two meet, deal with it yourself. I gotta take a call."
Saying that, she quickly dipped, keeping her phone on her ear and pretending to be on a call.
Dahlia’s smile twitched, clenching her hand before sighing.
Claire wasn’t surprised about Jaq’s behaviour as she was used to it, and thus she steeled her heart and finally asked the most dreaded question.
"What about the cost of core, etching and grafting?"
Dahlia’s smile returned faster than the speed of sound, "Of course, it all depends."
She looked alternatively between Aaron and Claire, "Cost of core depends on whether you want it to be etched with the magic amplifying rune later or not? If so, I would require a 2nd tier core.
For etching, utility will cost around 20k, defense should be around 30k, and extra 5k for the integration between the two.
Since I am really excited to have my weapon be used by a man, I am willing to do the grafting for only 5k sols."
Claire felt her bank shattering in pieces as she heard Dahlia’s pricings with a blank expression.
She already knew it would be expensive, but this weapon had already touched 70k sols, and the core’s price was additional!
She looked at Aaron, who simply gave her a slight smile and shrugged his shoulders, as if gesturing that he was fine with whatever.
Well, of course he was.
He was swinging a 50 sol falcata a couple days ago, and now they are discussing a new magic weapon that may as well cost over 100k.
He had no clue if this was even worth it or not.
Would the raiding and hunting be lucrative enough that he would be able to make up for his costs?
He had no intention of having Claire pay for it, he simply thought of it as a debt he would need to repay.
"Haah..." Claire sighed at Aaron’s ambiguous answer, looking at Dahlia, "Well, care to tell me the costs?"
"30k for tier 3 and 100k for tier 2. Though, I believe the costs for the tier 2 and 3 may fall once the labyrinth outbreaks are cleared up. We can hold off the etching process and you can see if you manage to get lucky with a drop." Dahlia shrugged carelessly, "Not my businesses, I make profit on etching anyway."
Claire hummed in understanding, "Fine, we will be buying the cold weapon first."