"It'd offend my professional pride to make a basic size-changing enchantment so inefficient. It'll absorb the stone whole if it's a low-grade one, or just draw from it until it's full. Okay, I think I have a reasonable picture of your needs, here. Just remember that this is no heavens-shattering blade. It's going to be a good foundation level blade, but still foundation level."

"Of course." She nods respectfully.

"Then, return tomorrow evening, young Daoist, and your new blade shall surely be ready for you by then. Thank you for your patronage."

Small bow, and she will be off.

Once she's back in the villa, she'll have to check if she can Dressing Room that fanciest glaive onto her belt. Not now, though. What else is on the queue? Cosmetics, Beast Cores, the fighting arena. She'll drop by the fancy clothing and jewellery places to get inspiration for Dressing Room, and then go check out the Beast Cores first.

How does this work, exactly? Are they on display racks, are they labeled with grade and where they came from?

The wholesaler keeps a few on display behind locked cases, but much of the room is empty. There's a purchasing desk and a noticeboard of bounties- Wood type cores are in particular demand for the brewing of gardening potions, apparently.

Oh, it's also a place to sell. That's interesting, but not that useful. Maybe it'll be less conspicuous if she trades one core for another here. She could go to the purchasing desk, but she doesn't know what to ask for, and doesn't have any objective to accomplish, so she's going to skip it for now.

What's going on at the fighting arena, then? Does she need tickets, or is it walk-in? The viewing, that is, not the fighting.

General seating is free- There's smiling attendants cheerfully offering amenities like box seats, wine, so on, so forth.

The current fight is a bunch of martial artists, rather than proper qi cultivators, hitting each other with wooden weapons, fists, and feet. They mostly seem decidedly mediocre- Competent training, but no stunning talent- And are barely using qi. The attendant hovering near her in case an important-seeming person needs anything apologizes and informs her that more exciting fights tend to happen in evenings.

She'll watch a little longer, try some wine, and leave.

You know what? She'll go check out the armory. They might have magic armor which does something for her. And while she's going, is there anywhere which looks like it might sell talismans?

The wine is intense. It's like hard liquor masquerading as wine, almost. And there is an unusual depth of flavor to it despite the shock of alcohol too, though it's hard to say what exactly that flavor is. Plum, perhaps?

The armory mostly has various shields, and pieces made of light leather or thin metal. Heavy armor is frowned upon, as is anything that restricts movement too much. The armors are designed around high durability above anything else, and most of them have some kind of spirituality to them that makes them tougher, or resist qi attacks of specific aspects. The armory also has a small collection of 'life saving treasures' that turn out to be talismans- One that creates an immense cloud of utterly putrid smelling smoke, one that creates a tall stone wall where you point it, and one that is basically an overpowered magic flashbang. Additionally, there's an auction house down the street that advertises its partnership with Three Jades Sect.

Neat. Alcohol did work on her a bit, before, very slightly, but she's... going to decide that Immunity System gets rid of anything that's in this drink right now. She's not going to take her chances. She can still experiment with the taste, though.

Looks like she made the right choice with the armory. She'll get to the talismans in a second, though she's very interested; what do they have for qi attack protection? Is it generic anti-elemental stuff, or is there anything marketed as being geared towards resisting esoteric effects, like the blood claw technique the Blood Tree Sect leader used on her? Do they only protect if the attack hits the armor, or is it more video game logic than that?

"I'm afraid that protection from spiritual techniques- That is, ones that attack the mind and spirit, rather than the body, such as the terror of a Grave Spider or the strength-sapping of Consuming Shadows- Is a bit beyond the scope of what this humble establishment is capable of. Soul-shielding treasures and techniques are the domain of the experts. The best defense against such things at our level is a strong will for those that may be powered through, and forewarning so you might avoid them for those that may not."

Then it's down to the more difficult question of whether there are body-attacking qi techniques that will harm her through her invincibility.

"Very well. What do you have for protection against fire attacks?" Which in theory are strong against her metal affinity.

Why, a variety of options mostly made from fire-aligned spirit beasts! The affinity for fire remains in the skin and scales and whatnot, absorbing and slowly dissipating it, generally.

What's the price range look like? Do they vary against any axes other than coverage and efficacy of fire qi absorption?

For ones with magic to them? Dozens to hundreds of spirit stones. This armorer is clearly used talking up his own products, though. Qi absorption and dissipation is best paired with actual physical toughness, so how about these fire drake scales over a metal shield of Fire-Refined Coppery Sinter? (It's very orangey-red, almost seeming to glow. Quite pretty.)

Does he have bucklers? She might go for a shield and armor, now that she thinks about it, but maybe not fire protection for both. If he has them, she'll try on bucklers of different sizes and elemental resistances to get a feel for them.

(If she can hot-swap different types of magic-resistance bucklers on the fly in combat... she probably wants equipment better than simple elemental protection. Nonetheless, she'll sample them.)

Eh... Of course. Here, she can try a variety. (He seems a bit nervous she's going to damage or run off with the stock now and is kind of hovering.)

She makes no sudden movements and gives them back after she's done, tapping her chin as she thinks.

She's going to buy a set of middle-range fire protection armor first, up to 100 spirit stones per piece, first. Hopefully that will appease the shopkeeper. Then she'll take a closer look at the talismans.

"I'll come back to the shields at the end," she adds.

He's perfectly obsequious now, and hopes his humble wares will serve her well. She can even fire off one of the talismans, if she prefers.

(She can overhear the rumors now spreading outside about a wealthy young mistress shopping around, at this point.)

It's a bit of a lost cause, isn't it. If you want to buy things, you need to spend money. Still, she didn't think that was too outrageous—the books were a few dozen per—maybe she's undervaluing the books. The merchant didn't seem excessively impressed, but his standards might be different from the civilians. Wen did say it's hard to get ahold of a manual.

How much do the talismans cost?

The talismans are three spirit stones each.

She'll take one of the smoke ones, one of the wall ones and one of the flashbangs, no need to test them out. (She can also produce actual flashbangs herself, but something local will be less attention-getting, and she should be able to duplicate these.)

The Silversteel Armory is ever grateful for her patronage and wishes her the best of luck. 

Now to skeddadle. She'll head back to where they're staying first to drop off her new equipment, test Dressing Room interactions, and let any rumors cool off. Does she have any trouble?

She has: A bunch of lower level cultivators hanging around suspiciously and glancing at each other in a silent standoff to be the first to speak to her.

Then one goes forward, and another group comes up too, and they start verbally sniping at each other, which allows a more sneaky one that the others don't seem to notice to approach her.

A thoroughly forgettable black haired woman with a polite mask of a smile who simply asks: "It's always entertaining to watch the peacocks squabble, is it not?"