Chapter 188: Star Robe
“Sir, the Wheel of Fortune Card cannot be used inside Traveler’s Respite. Violators will be severely punished,” the ghostly attendant reminded eerily.
Despite Anse spending nearly five thousand pounds of gold at once, he still had a half-dead look, neither cold nor warm.
Anse’s figure paused. He really did have that intention. He hadn’t expected to be warned the moment the thought arose. It seemed someone had done this before.
Using the Wheel of Fortune Card has a one-third probability of encountering unknown dangers, such as being hunted by devils, avatars of death, or zombies. As long as one stays in Traveler’s Respite, many dangers can be easily resolved.
However, Traveler’s Respite doesn’t want to be the scapegoat, so it plugged the loophole early. This so-called “severe punishment” is definitely not taken lightly.
His heart stirred. He took out the Scepter of Sanctuary, focused his senses, and discovered that the otherworld passage was also sealed off, unable to teleport to the Black Tower.
Delilah’s gaze shifted, vaguely guessing what Anse was thinking. She leaned in and said, “No teleport spells can be used inside Traveler’s Respite. Any lingering methods are useless. When the time comes, you’ll be kicked back home.”
“What if I discard or sell the teleportation medium?” Anse pondered.
“That would be even worse. You’d be directly teleported to some corner of the Astral Sea to swim back yourself,” Delilah said with a light laugh.
“So ruthless.” Anse imagined himself helplessly drifting through the vast astral sea, and a trace of hesitation arose in his heart.
The Astral Sea is the realm of thought and dreams. Travelers can know the direction to any destination like the Astral System or rainbow pools with just a thought, but flying there is fraught with danger.
Traversing the Astral Sea mainly relies on magic ships. Without one, one can only move driven by intent, with flight speed roughly equivalent to five times the intelligence attribute value, easily surpassing air elementals. But this is of little use because the Astral Sea is simply too vast.
“Do you still want to buy things?” Delilah scanned the surroundings. Anse’s lavish spending had attracted a lot of attention, with gazes occasionally shooting over.
However, she wasn’t worried. Here, as long as you keep your mouth shut and hide your teleportation medium well, you can be absolutely safe before leaving.
“Buy.” Anse wouldn’t abandon his plans because of others’ attention.
But bulk procurement of goods had to be given up. With the Scepter of Sanctuary disabled and the dragonhide pouch too small, it couldn’t hold too many things.
He went from display stand to display stand, looking at each one. There were truly many good items, with uncommon quality ones everywhere, though the prices were indeed somewhat inflated.
It made sense. Without the markup, they would probably be bought up the moment they were put out.
Travelers who come here can trade for good things from all planes. Long-term reselling would definitely accumulate considerable wealth.
Anse didn’t skimp on money. Saving it was meaningless; better to turn it into immediate combat power.
He first spent one hundred ninety pounds of platinum ingots to acquire a 「Arcane Cannon」, then used two hundred thirty pounds of platinum ingots to buy a 「Star Robe」, both of uncommon quality.
The 「Arcane Cannon」 is an enchanted magic cannon that requires no conventional ammunition or loading. It can fire arcane attacks, including acid spray, flame spray, poison spray, frost bolt, and lightning bolt.
Acid spray and flame spray cover a 300-foot（90-meter） long, 5-foot（1.5-meter） wide line area. Poison spray attacks a 60（18-meter） foot conical area ahead, while frost bolt and lightning bolt have an attack range of 1200 feet（360 meters）.
The highest damage is from the lightning bolt, a full 6d10（6-60） lightning damage, more powerful than fireball.
The Arcane Cannon’s only drawback is its slow energy gathering speed; it takes five minutes to fire once, making it more of a deterrent.
The 「Star Robe」 is a long robe with a base of black and deep blue, dotted with white or silver stars. When worn, it grants +1 to saving throws.
Six larger stars are distributed on the front of the robe, and one can be consumed to cast a 5th-level magic missile. At dusk each day, consumed stars reappear on the robe.
Additionally, the spellcaster can use the Star Robe to teleport themselves and carried items into the Astral Sea, and return to their original plane at any time.
This last ability was what Anse valued most. Freely traveling to and from the Astral Sea is highly attractive to any spellcaster.
If not for the current spellcaster being in a trough period, it wouldn’t be easy to buy it.
In the entire shop, melee equipment was the scarcest. Good weapons and armor wouldn’t lack buyers even at double the price.
Finally, he bought a batch of magic potions: uncommon vitality potions, rare quality invisibility potions, indestructible potions, health elixirs, and healing potions, two of each, costing gems equivalent to two thousand two hundred forty pounds of gold in total.
Generally, same-quality consumables cost half as much as magical equipment, but now potions were inflated in price—not only expensive, with few varieties, but also limited purchase, two bottles max per person.
Vitality potions remove exhaustion and poisoning status, restoring stamina.
Indestructible potions grant the drinker resistance to all damage for one minute.
Health elixirs cure all magical diseases, while also removing blinded, deafened, paralysis, and poisoning status.
Combining these potions can greatly enhance Anse’s survivability.
‘I’ll give half to Illyas later. Too bad there are no resurrection items.’
He packed away the items and found he still had about thirty percent of the money from selling spells left. He decided to keep it for now and see if there were good things next time.
According to Delilah, the shop’s goods change a lot. Some items seem unsold but are actually already targeted, with people saving up for them.
“Is this what you meant by selling just a little gold?” Delilah finally saw Anse stop his inhuman spending spree and couldn’t help asking.
In this short time, this man had spent over five hundred thousand gold coins without blinking, which made her heart ache.
“Can’t I keep some savings for myself?” Anse said with a smile tugging at his lips.
Spending money felt great. Good things rarely seen normally could be acquired with a wave of the hand, bringing physical and mental pleasure. No wonder so many people in his previous life couldn’t control their spending desires.
He’d seen people who didn’t like earning money, but never anyone who didn’t love spending it.
“You… buying is easy, but reselling will lose money, plus there’s a procedure fee.” Delilah rolled her eyes at him.
“No selling, no loss.” Anse walked toward the exit, raising his hand to signal they should talk outside.
Back in the dining room, the two found a corner and sat facing each other, but ordered nothing.
“You’re leaving? Not staying the night?” Delilah seemed to guess something, suddenly feeling dispirited.
“Don’t you have anything to say?” Anse smiled faintly, implying something.
Delilah reached out to grab Anse’s hand, tears welling up: “Take me with you. I’m being hunted, homeless, so pitiful…”
Anse forcefully pulled his hand away, helpless: “Stop acting. Talk properly.”
Delilah instantly returned to normal, pouting: “Hmph, no sympathy at all. Go ahead. By your next visit, there might be no trace of me in the world.”
“My strength is limited; I can’t help you. Wish you all the best.” Anse stood up to leave, but kept Delilah in the corner of his eye.
But Delilah just leaned back in her chair watching him, her gaze calm, without trying to keep him.
Anse sighed. Delilah was very strong; if she couldn’t solve the problem, he probably had no way either.
Even if there was a way to take her away, he didn’t have the guts. The moment he returned to the Material Plane, his life would be in others’ hands.
Thinking of this, he took out the Traveler’s Badge, activated it instantly, and with a flash, vanished from Traveler’s Respite.
The world spun, senses lost—a bit uncomfortable, but he was already accustomed and not panicked.
At one moment, his body sank, light and shadow shifted before his eyes, and a massive ship resembling a nautilus with several long tentacles floated before him.
‘Magic ship?!’
Anse instinctively thought the mind flayer had reached Dulag. Scanning around, he saw more magic-propelled ships of various sizes and shapes quietly docked at the dock.
His heart jolted. He looked up sharply, taking in the endless void, stars, and surrounding silver mist.
‘Where is this? I’ve been set up…’ His mind was a bit chaotic.
Fortunately, this wasn’t an anti-magic domain. He could hide in the Black Tower anytime, safe and sound.
