"You can have as many swords as you want," he grumbles. He looks at her Extremely Large Pockets.

"Gimme another minute."

And he's gone again.

Two minutes later, he emerges with a small armory strapped to his back and a bundle of dull gold wire, a bundle of copper, a hunk of black crystal, a slate of glass, a piece of greenish-yellow ore, two more bricks of different metal, and a rolled-up tatami mat in his arms.

"Paya, can you—the mat—"

The Sheikah girl tugs the mat out from where it's wedged in his elbow, wincing.

After Paya rolls it out on the ground, the young man dumps his haul on it.

"Get me a piles of these and I'll give you any of these you like."

He removes from his back and presents a fine one-handed sword, a gleaming longblade, a heavy double-edged two-hander, a spear with a broad crescent tip, and a surprisingly light but solid shield.

Zelda is happy to sort through the haul and duplicate everything, methodically piling up two of each thing, then three, then four...

She makes sure to put each thing into her pockets before she pulls it out again, even though it's technically not necessary. It just seems prudent to present a slightly more limited and comprehensible notion of how she's doing this.

Link investigates the weapons while Zelda populates the village stores.

He can't really tell how durable they are like this, though running a finger along their blades tells him that they're sharper than anything else he's picked up so far. The spear looks a bit flimsy on the outside, but the haft when he puts some weight on it doesn't have any give, so he's a bit torn. The big two-hander has a good weight to it and feels more natural to him when he swings it around, but is clearly... degenerate? The two single-edged blades have a clear, intelligent design to them. The big sword has is like someone told the designers of the first to forge something more classical.

The shield is small and light, but it moves well. He hasn't had too much cause to complain about his shields, but he suspects it's only because he hasn't been hit much, and not hard.

"I want all of them." He'll test them out in combat. Surely they can't argue it's not a reasonable trade.

The guy shrugs no objection, though he's eyeing Link's blade form.

"Aren't you supposed to have that something sword to seal the darkness?"

His tone is casual, but his gaze is keen.

"Not at the moment," says Zelda, piling up coils of wire. "Why do you ask?"

"Not every day you get to see a legendary sword. Not see it, in this case."

"Well, I don't doubt we'll be coming back here, so maybe you'll see it someday." Pile pile pile. She is making the same number of each thing because she doesn't know their relative value and also it pleases her.

"I would like to. I can come up with an appropriate favor in exchange." He squints at Link again. "You Hylians like armor, don't you? We don't go for that around here, but I can make an exception." Not like it'll take that much time and steel.

"We do, it's true," she agrees. "Thank you!" Pile pile pile.

"Yeah. Well, I'm Verro. Let me know when I need to warm up the big forges. Claree will take your measurements for me." 

He might do it anyway, just for the novelty of it. Downside is he goes down in history as the guy who forged a shitty pile of steel for the legendary hero.

She gestures to the rather hefty heap of metal in front of her. "Does this seem like enough for now?"

Verro nods. "Thank you."

He goes back into the mountain, leaving the materials outside.

Paya comes away from the wall and bows to the closing door. She turns to Link and Zelda, takes a deep breath, and murmurs carefully, "Next we should see Claree at Enchanted. If you'll follow me?"

"Gladly, thank you!" She gets up from her seat in front of the pile of metal and dusts herself off (once again, completely redundantly), ready to follow.

Paya takes them back down the path, past the houses back where they came from.

As they walk, Link says quietly, "Did I wear armor before?"

"You seemed to have mixed feelings. You'd put on armor when you knew you were about to fight something that warranted it, and otherwise wore something lighter."

Checks out. He... kind of doesn't want to. The idea feels weighing, in more senses than one.

But he's not going to turn down good defense.

The path turns uphill, then it's not long before Paya is knocking twice on the door of a little store on the side of the slope, the sign hanging from the roof indicating its identity. Paya doesn't wait for a response before she slides the door open.

The inside is a dim, but clean and tidy space with mannequins posed in neat rows. They're organized by theme, some of them similar to common Hylian wear but in high quality, others designed for rough weather, some yet in Sheikah styles, and finally to the side but clear on display, outfits catered more for hardy travel and adventuring: silent-suits like the secret service used to wear back in the day, resistant cloaks for deflecting arrows, tough underarmor to wear under your outer layers.

Behind the till is a woman in her twenties, stitching away at a leather piece. When she sees them come in, she puts down her work and waves enthusiastically.

"Hello, customers! Welcome to Enchanted, my high-end boutique! We exclusively stock garments of the best and more glamorous quality! How may I help you today?"

"Lady Impa asked me to speak with the village's craftsmen because I have a trick for saving materials. Is there anything you'd like more of and can I see it for a moment?"

"Of course! I never say no to learning new techniques. As a guru of high fashion, I have to keep on top of..." Eh? That thing on her belt... "...all the newest trends!"

She ducks down behind the counter and rummages, before popping up with a few half-used bolts of cloth and a spool of thread.

"Tada!"

Ker-pocket! (This works out slightly comically with the bolt of cloth she chose.) Un-pocket... un-pocket... un-pocket!

"Aaahh?" The woman clutches her head. "Wait, hold on—"

That's not what "a trick for saving materials" means! She dives under the counter and comes up with a bolt of finger, glossy white fabric.

"Can you do this on—I need to go in the back—"

She vanished into the backroom and emerges a minute later with her arms overflowing with different textiles and spools. they clatter onto the counter.

"Can you do that for anything?"

"Anything I can put in my pocket!" she says cheerfully, pocketing and unpocketing fabrics in a methodical fashion. "It's a little bit like the trick the forest spirits have for putting away a lot of things into a small space, just... with a little extra."