The Outlands

When Tess and Ellie got back to the main room, Gramps was waiting with a human man in a large coat that was absolutely brimming with pockets. “Ah, good, you’re here.” Gramps said. “I need to go back to helping set up, I’m trusting you can take it from here, Kane?”

“Of course.” The man, Kane, replied. As Gramps left the room, Kane turned to Ellie. “Nice to meet you, Ellie. I’m Kane Io, Artifice’s Appointed.” He said, sticking his hand out.

Ellie shook the offered hand. “Um, guess I’m Ellie, Life and Death’s Appointed. I’ve…heard the name Io before, could you remind me?”

Kane smiled. “I own something of a chain of workshops, and the bag you’re using was made by me. You’ve probably either seen the shops or someone mentioned my name in regard to your bag.”

Right, that was where she had heard the name. “Yeah, I got my armor and weapon from one of your stores.” She confirmed. “So…Grandpa says you have something for us?”

Kane nodded. “That I do. Unfortunately, I only have something for Tess right now, but if you want, I can help get something together for you, we can talk about it later if you would like.”

Ellie waved a hand dismissively. “I’m not particularly fussed about that, can we see it?” She said excitedly.

“You seem to be getting…weirdly excited about this.” Tess said. “Does this have to do with the surprise Gramps was talking about yesterday?”

Ellie nodded eagerly. “Yup! I’ve been waiting for this for a while!”

Kane raised an eyebrow. “Seems like you have an idea of what’s coming.” He said. “Humor me for a moment while I explain what this is for, alright?”

Ellie nodded, and Kane continued. “So, Fortune wanted you to have…” He paused, clearly searching for the right word. “I guess we’ll call it a uniform, for lack of a better term. There’s a lot of money in gambling, and over time it’s become expected for people involved with it to be dressed sharply. As such, having Fortune’s Appointed running around in just…random armor would end up subtracting from her influence.

“With that in mind, she and Evan asked me for help in making something that you could use for this purpose, something we wouldn’t have to replace as you grew stronger. He took care of the materials for me, and so, I made you this.” he said, reaching into one of his coat’s many pockets and pulling out a sharply-tailored dark black suit, complete with socks, shoes, gloves, a tie, and what appeared to be a simple black masquerade mask. “Rachel did all the sewing, since she still has your measurements, but I put together all the effects.”

He handed the suit to Tess, smiling as he passed it off. “This is an item that grows with your abilities, unlocking additional features as you get experience while wearing it. The defense bonuses from it are minimal at best, but between that and the fact that most of its abilities rely on a Luck trigger to activate, I was able to pack a bunch of other stuff in there too.”

He pulled out a list from a different pocket, which he began to read off. “Let’s see here…to begin with, all these clothes can transform to allow for any changes to your body Monster Breeder might make and still keep themselves fitting properly. And if you pour a bit of Mana into it, you can turn this into a more…casual set of clothing, in case you don’t want to be dressed up like this all the time.

“It cleans itself automatically, and the pockets all double as openings to a shared space that works just like the bag you’re using now, with a slightly higher maximum capacity. Furthermore, once you put it on, it’s going to key itself to you, and if anyone else tries to put it on, its abilities won’t activate. You’ll also be able to call it to you if you draw out a magic circle that Evan will teach you later, so you shouldn’t need to worry about it getting lost.

“And, finally, if you put on that mask, it serves as a powerful recognition scrambler. While it’s on people won’t recognize you unless you want them to. Additionally, you can choose to make them recognize you as Fortune’s Appointed if you want, so think of it as a way to keep your identity private while you’re working out in public.

“That’s all it does at the moment, but once you start unlocking its other abilities you can start getting into the good stuff. The first few should come pretty quickly, but after that it’s going to start taking longer and longer. And all these abilities I’m going to talk about now would have a one percent chance of activating normally, but seeing as how your Blessing effectively makes that a guarantee, I’m going to be talking like they are guaranteed.

“So, in the order you’re going to unlock these abilities, it’s going to double the physical damage you deal, double the effectiveness of ailments you inflict, double the magic damage you deal, reduce the Mana and Stamina cost of abilities by fifty percent, halve the effectiveness of incoming ailments and halve their chance of being inflicted, and, finally, halve the damage of incoming attacks.”

“And sometime between the doubled magic and reduced ability cost, it gets another non-combat effect that will essentially provide you with a space suit, which will keep you at a comfortable temperature in almost all situations, provided you’re not like…stepping in lava or something, and will provide air for you to breathe if there isn’t any and regulate the pressure of the surrounding area so you don’t get crushed.”

He scratched his cheek awkwardly. “I tried to work that into the effects that you don’t have to unlock, but even with Artifice’s help I was pushing it almost as far as it could go, so I had to make it something gated behind an unlock, sorry.”

Tess blinked, looking down at the clothing. “No, that’s…honestly way more than I expected. I mean, I wasn’t expecting anything, but certainly not something like this. This sounds…super amazing, thank you!”

Kane shrugged. “It’s my job. Just make sure to keep a bit of a lid on the full extent of its effects to people who don’t know you’re Appointed, alright? I had to Descend to get this finished, so it’s far beyond the quality that the majority of people have access to.”

“I’m…going to go put it on.” Tess said. “Excuse me for a minute.” She slipped away towards the bathroom, leaving Ellie alone with Kane.

Kane watched Tess go, a faint smile on his face as he did. Then, once she was out of sight, he turned to Ellie. “So, just so you’re aware, I do help out when it comes to gear for Appointed. If it’s something that needs to be made to accommodate for your Blessings or your Descent abilities, I make it for free, though I might ask for help in gathering materials.

“For anything else I’ll give you a pretty hefty discount, but I think that might be out of your price range for a while, I’m guessing you and Tess aren’t exactly raking in enough money to afford that yet. Give it some time for your level to go up, and you’ll get there, though. So, just…come see me when you have something you’re interested in and need custom-made.”

Ellie nodded. “I’ll be sure to do that. Um…probably won’t be for a while, though. Like you said, we don’t make enough to afford even some of the nicer stuff in your shops, and I’m guessing those aren’t anywhere near the quality you put out yourself.”

Kane laughed. “Yeah, most of the good stuff is custom made by myself or some of the other people who I have on staff. If you don’t mind my asking, though, what would be your dream set of equipment? I like to think about how I would go about making equipment, so it would be nice to know what you’re looking for right now.”

Ellie shrugged. “Um, armor that’s defensive would be nice. I want to be a tank for Tess, so I need to be able to soak hits. The weapon isn’t too important, since I have a bunch of nice ones thanks to Death’s Blessing, but I can only have those out part of the time, so it needs to be…well, useable, I guess?

“Beyond that the only thing I really want is increased regeneration for Mana and Stamina. Switching between Life and Death’s Blessings costs a bunch if I want to do it fast, so being able to actually afford to do that seems like it would be important.”

Kane nodded. “I see. Thank you, I’ll be thinking about that for when you decide you’re ready to order from me.”

There was a short silence, and then Ellie heard the click of a door opening and shutting from the hallway.

Tess walked into the room, and anything else Ellie had been thinking about was immediately put on hold as she took in the vision in front of her. She had known Tess would look good in a suit, but this good? She hadn’t been prepared for that.

The suit fit Tess perfectly, and its simple yet elegant design lent a sort of…powerful air to her, like she was the CEO of a company and she knew she was the most important person in the room. She gave off an almost untouchable feel, like no matter how much Ellie tried, she could never even approach the level Tess was on.

And then, Tess gave a sort of worried smile, that untouchable air vanishing as she looked to Ellie. “How do I look?” She asked. “It feels nice, and I thought it looked OK in the mirror, but…”

Ellie let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Her eyes are up there. She mentally chided herself, tearing her eyes away from the feast in front of her to focus on Tess’s face. “Um…like…good. Uh…r-really good. Um…really really good.” Ellie felt her face grow red as the words fell out of her mouth. “Like…like…”

Kane chuckled, and Ellie silently thanked him for stopping her from making more of a fool of herself. “You look great. If you ever find that it needs to be refit, go find Rachel, she knows how to deal with this sort of stuff without breaking it.”

“Um…I thought it magically refits itself?” Tess said.

“It does, but that enchantment works better if the clothes fit well in the first place. Just the enchantment is enough to make things passable for most people, but Fortune wanted you to look sharp, and so we need the clothes to fit you well without the enchantment.”

Tess twisted from side to side, examining the suit more closely. “What’s this made out of?” She asked. “It’s way easier to move around in than most formal clothes I’ve worn, and is just…I dunno, more comfortable too?”

Kane shrugged. “Materials from a few very high level monsters, as well as Rachel’s silk. You’d have to ask her for the exact details, as she was the one who actually made all of that into the clothes, but I believe one of the bigger names on that list is the wool of a Tectonic Ram.”

“Well, um…thanks. Like…a lot.” Tess said. “I’m honestly kind of at a loss for words, this is insanely generous.”

Kane waved a hand dismissively. “If you want to thank anyone, thank your grandfather and Rachel. They did all the heavy lifting of getting the materials and making the clothes, I just put on the enchantments. And that’s well within my duties as Artifice’s Appointed, so it’s really not that big a deal.”

He gave Ellie a look, smiled slightly, then turned back to Tess. “That’s all, though, I gotta go help get things ready now. Nice talking with you, Ellie.” He gave Ellie a nod and a wink, then left.

“Ellie, Tess, what do you think?” Gramps said, walking into the room.

Ellie tore her attention away from the gods’ conversation to look at her grandfather. “It um…I like it. It looks…uh, nice…um, yeah.” She babbled. Apparently, she wasn’t quite as mentally recovered as she thought she had been.

“It feels really nice, and I wasn’t expecting something this…strong.” Tess said. “Thanks a lot, I heard that you did a lot of the work in getting materials.”

Gramps laughed. “Not a big deal, the guild had most of it just lying around collecting dust. I just had to swing a few favors and pay a small amount of money to get it, didn’t take long at all.”

“How…much did it cost?” Tess asked tentatively.

“Less than you’ll make the guild in return.” Gramps said firmly. “Seriously, don’t worry about it, it really wasn’t a big deal.”

There was a flash of light and the portal they had come in through sprung up. After a moment, Rachel walked through, and the portal closed behind her. “Ah, Tess, you’re wearing the suit!” She said cheerfully. “Looks great on you! How does it feel?”

“Feels great, thanks, Rachel.”

“My pleasure!” She replied. “It’s always fun to work with the really nice stuff, so it was a fun exercise. And seeing the end result, it really makes me happy to see that it works so well!”

She turned to look over at Gramps, saw Ellie, then paused. “Ellie? I assume this means you accepted Life and Death’s offer?”

Ellie nodded. “Um…yeah. You’re…an Appointed too?”

Rachel smiled. “Yup! Hearth’s Appointed, to be exact.” She looked back to Gramps. “I’m guessing this means I’m not late this time?”

“Nope. We still have a couple minutes before we’re ready to start.” Gramps replied.

“Awesome, I’ll go set this stuff down, then!” Rachel said, motioning to a box on her abdomen and scuttling out of the room.

Tess walked over to Ellie, grabbing her hand gently. “Are you alright?” She asked. “You seem a little…overwhelmed right now.”

“Fine!” Ellie said quickly. “It’s just…”

“Just…?” Tess prompted.

“Um…you look so good in that you kind of short-circuited my brain.” Ellie said, blushing. “I wasn’t ready for it.”

Tess froze, facing growing red as she processed what Ellie said.

Gramps laughed. “Alright, I’ll leave you two to it, then. I’ll come get you when it’s time for the meeting, alright?”

“Um…yeah, thanks, Gramps.” Tess said.

Gramps gave them a nod and exited the room, leaving the two very red girls alone.

“Uh…maybe we should head somewhere else, so our conversation isn’t interrupted by people coming in?” Tess suggested.

“Yeah, I…uh, yeah.” Ellie replied. “Let’s do that.”

And so, the two left for a more private room, where they whiled away the time before the meeting just enjoying each other’s company. And soon, Gramps was knocking on the door, telling them it was almost time for the meeting to start.

Ellie stood up, holding Tess’s hand. She had, thankfully, mostly recovered and was able to speak properly now, but she couldn’t help but be a little nervous. These people were important, and it didn’t quite feel like she deserved to be on the same level as them.

Tess gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “It’ll be fine, they’re nice people.” She said. “You’ll do great.”

Ellie smiled, feeling more than a bit better. “Alright, let’s do this.”