Regrettably, but not surprisingly the magic store failed to impress. The shelves were stuffed with cheap Magic Council approved trinkets and nearly all the books were either poorly written teach-yourself-magic texts or gossip magazines. Lucy had just made a mental note to grab a Sorcerer Weekly when the store keeper welcomed her.
He was an elderly man with stiff white hair, his nose was sort of pig shaped and he had a silly pointed hat with a poof ball at the end.
"Good day," she chirped in response.
"Have you seen anything you like?"
"Well, there seems to be a lot of beginner stuff here…" She took another glance around, "is there another shop for more advanced mages or something?"
"No, I'm afraid Hargeon only has this one shop."
"Eeeh? There's only one magic store in this town?" Lucy had been sure that with a town the size of Hargeon there would have been more than one place for selling magical items. Some smaller towns that she'd been to had had more than one shop.
"Well…Yes… This town is more prosperous in fishing than magic to begin with. More than that, less than 10% of the townspeople can use magic. So this store mostly caters to beginning magic users, people with magic who don't want to go into the fishing trade. But there are some things for travelers, as you can see!" He gestured to some of the swords displayed on a wall. "Those there are great for fending off monsters!"
Lucy didn't know much about swords, but they looked sharp and impressive; in the hands of someone who could use them they'd probably be quite formidable. The rest of the items in the store, however, were simply trinkets and a serious mage wouldn't look twice at them.
She sighed. "That's not really the sort of thing I'm looking for…"
"Oh well, I suppose I can understand that. Please keep looking around, we have plenty of other items too. For instance," he dug around behind the counter before pulling up a spell book. "This 'Colors' magic is probably the most popular one amongst girls." Lucy was familiar with the spell book, she'd gotten one so that she could give the illusion that she had more than three outfits. She regretted wasting that money.
However the store keeper kept saying his sales pitch, even when her attention wandered to more trinkets around the shop. "Depending on your daily mood, you can change the color of your outfit!" With a flourish his shirt suddenly became purple.
"I already have it." Lucy assured him as she picked up the most recent copy of Sorcerer Weekly. She half hoped the man wasn't too attached to that shirt.
Colors was the sort of spell that had to be used daily on the same clothes. That sort of thing might not be so bad, but it was horrendously limited. Its color pallet only had strong simple colors; nine colors to be specific. The colors couldn't be mixed or faded, it was only those nine colors. It couldn't do patterns either, so any pattern that was previously there was magically dyed over to the color of the casters choice, leaving them with plain solid color clothing. Lastly the color faded to a murky dull brown color when the spell wore off. The clothes couldn't be fixed or returned to their original color. The only thing that could be done with it would be to keep casting the spell. More than that, after too many castings the unfortunate piece of clothing would start to disintegrate from the abuse.
"I'm looking for Keys," she informed him as she wandered over to a display case. A hint of silver had caught her eye. "Celestial Gate Keys."
"Gates huh? That's something uncommon." She could see he hadn't had much demand for them; there were only three keys in the case.
One of the shiny silver keys was a bird; it was either Cygnus or Grus. She couldn't tell which. Lucy had heard that Cygnus's swans could be difficult to work with and that most cranes summoned by the Grus Key were unpleasant to be around. While having the Gate of Cygnus to work with might be nice, it probably wasn't worth the risk of it being a Gate of Grus instead.
Another one had a gleaming anchor symbol on it. The Key to the Gate of Carina; the keel of the legendary ship Argo. While it had potential, the key was utterly useless without the Key's to the Gates of both Puppis and Vela; the poop deck and the sail respectively. The Keys of Argo weren't rare, but they were fairly uncommon. Obtaining all three was nearly unheard of. Even then being able to use the Argo was a trial in itself. The three Keys together were said to be the same as opening a Golden Key, and all of them would have to be maintained for the ship to stay in Earthland. Depending on the journey, it meant the mage would have to keep the Gates open for days or even weeks. Lucy couldn't imagine keeping a Golden Gate open for even half an hour, much less a day.
A serious collector would jump at the chance to buy either one of those Keys, especially Carina. However, Lucy wasn't all that interest in collecting Keys and it was the duller, less noticeable, one between the other two Keys that held her attention and made her gasp in affection.
It didn't shine like the other two. The silver was dull and worn looking. That Key hadn't been used in a long time. The round cartoonish, almost snowman like creature on the bow told her everything she needed to know about the Key.
"Canis Minor!" While there wasn't a hint of tarnish on the dulled silver yet, it wouldn't be long before even the most diligent of polishing wouldn't be enough to keep it clean looking. She had to buy it. To be honest, if she had more money, she would have seriously considered getting the other two as well, however, the more unwanted Key was her priority.
"Ah, that one? It's a really weak summon, however it's a good companion for children and decent practice for beginners."
"How much is it?"
"20,000 Jewels."
That was actually a decent price, but Lucy was fairly sure she could get it for cheaper and every penny counted. The main question was what strategy she should use to bring the price down. Flirting worked best on younger men, though there were a select few older men that fell for it as well. Haggling, however was much more useful on women and the majority of older male shopkeepers. Unfortunately, starting out with one made it difficult to switch to the other. Haggle with someone she should flirt with and it'd come across as far too desperate for it to work; flirt with someone she should've haggled and they wouldn't take her seriously.
With a deep breath, she made her choice. "I wonder how much it is."
"I said 20,000 Jewels."
Lucy leaned forward, her arms came under her chest, pushing her breasts up, emphasizing them and causing her zipper to pull down from the pressure it found itself under. The man probably had a wonderful view of them now. He blushed, his eyes were drawn to her chest and he swallowed thickly.
"I wonder how much it really is," Lucy cooed, inwardly berating herself for not getting his name earlier. "Dandy mister." She drew out the syllables. Hopefully it'd be enough.
In the end, it was difficult to say if she succeeded or not. She'd only gotten a 1,000 Jewel discount. However money was money and she'd take what she could get. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt a bit; her sex appeal was only worth 1,000 Jewels. To that guy at least. She was wearing her most attractive top too; the dark cross emphasized her breast size while making her waist seem slim.
"I really should have bargained." She huffed to herself. Lucy could practically hear Cancer grumbling about how if she had stayed blonde, it would have been better. Flirting did usually work better with her natural hair color.
However, Lucy really couldn't argue with the results. She had a new Key. They'd have to be summoned soon to set up a contract, but now wasn't the time. All the same, she could be content for now with the knowledge that the Canis Minor had a master now, even if it wasn't official yet.
She held it up, looking at the Key closely. Already it seemed to be a bit brighter than it had been in the store. Most would dismiss that as a trick of the light. Lucy knew better.
She smiled at it. "Don't worry, I'll take care of you, for as long as I can." She clipped it onto her key ring with the rest of her Keys. "Even after…I'll find someone to love you. I promise."