The Divine Wolf... or?

In a small shop somewhere in Calmond City, the creaking of an old door signalled the arrival of a few more customers. A calm old man sat behind the counter and was in the middle of inspecting a mana crystal. The magnifying glass in his hand was put down as he raised his head to look at his new customers. He often tried not to judge his customers from their appearance, but he found it hard not to.

Right now for example, 4 customers had walked into his store, and judging from what they were wearing, he could guess that they probably had plenty of money. They all dressed pretty neatly, and Ark, Ephine and Atar seemed like a well-off family, probably from some noble house.

Well, that was until he saw the way they talked and even the way they walked around, there was no way they were from a noble house. At the same time, the old man was sure that they weren't normal, he just wasn't really sure what made them so abnormal except for their clothes.

...

Whilst the old man was busy inspecting them and pondering, Ark and the rest was eagerly walking around the shop, inspecting the various amounts of mana crystals and other mysterious artefacts the shop had to offer. Some mana crystals shone with resplendent light, others radiated an unusual amount of life force, whilst others seemed dim and dark.

The shop naturally sold numerous artefacts of varying levels too, but only a few of them could actually catch Ark's eye.

Most of them were not good enough for him to show any sort of interest, while others could at the very least pique his curiosity. There was one particular pair of boots that stood out a little from the rest of the artefacts. The boots didn't have any sort of strong aura to them, at least not that could be discerned by most.

The reason most people wouldn't be able to sense anything from the boots was because they had no mana in them. Most artefacts were powered by runes or engravings infused with mana, but these boots were different.

The old man could see that Ark was interested in these boots, which only further strengthened his suspicion that these people were a little different from normal. Even the old man himself was unsure of the boots' origins.

Even though that was the case, he still knew the strength of the boots, and there was no way he was going to let anyone swindle him, he knew their true worth better than anyone else. At least that's what he thought.

Even though the main reason they had come here was because of their mana crystal situation, Ark couldn't help but want these boots, not for himself, but for Atar. Ark was confident in his own strength, and he had seen Ephine's enormous growth, and he knew that she was smart enough to be able to defend herself. Atar, on the other hand, was a bit of a different story.

His main strength was his abnormally powerful body, and his one weakness was his lacklustre skillset and underdeveloped intelligence.

As he grew up, the second notion would naturally be taken care of, but the problem was the first part. If he didn't have a way to save himself in a difficult situation, Ark wouldn't be able to rest easy at night. Especially since he knew the events that were coming.

From here on out, their lives were going to get harder, and he needed to grasp every opportunity he could get to not only strengthen himself but also Ephien and Atar, which was why they had made this trip in the first place.

Ark couldn't discern the specifics of the boots from a single glance, but he was able to deduce a few traits with a minimal amount of effort either way. First and foremost, the boots could enhance the user's speed to a certain degree, which was one of the most basic functionalities of most boots that were considered artefacts. Almost anyone would be able to guess this.

What attracted Ark to the boots was another thing he had sensed from the boots.

With his bloodline, he was extremely sensitive to the different elements in the world, and from within these boots, Ark could feel the spatial element. This element was even scarce in nature, and to find an artefact with its attributes was naturally something that most people could only dream about.

Ark wasn't sure what the use of the spatial element was when it came to these boots, but this was the limit of what he was able to see, and just this was good enough for him to want this item. There was one crucial thing though, and the thing that had drawn his attention to these boots in the first place, the faint aura they emitted.

This aura seemed to come from a certain bloodline, and Ark was certain that he knew what kind of animal it was, a wolf. He was extremely sensitive to feeling the bloodlines of his own race, even more so than the elements. He wasn't sure what kind of wold the bloodline aura belonged to, but he was sure it was a wolf when it was alive, which made these boots even more suitable for Atar than before.

"Shopkeeper, how much do you want for these boots?"

The question was rather abrupt, and no one apart from Ark had paid attention to these rather normal boots, which made his question a little puzzling to the rest of his entourage, but he didn't have the time to explain right now.

"I knew there was something different about this kid," the old man thought to himself before he pondered a little bit. He wasn't really sure himself, as he had never thought he would get the chance to sell these boots in the first place. Just naming a price from the top of his head wasn't that easy, as he wasn't sure how much money this youth in front of him had either.

If he had a lot of money then he could naturally set a higher price, but if the youth only had a decent amount of money, then the old man would settle for just selling the boots at all, he wasn't sure if he would ever get the chance to otherwise. Seeing the struggle in the old man's eyes, Ark sighed. It seemed like he might not be able to buy these boots this time.

Since that was the case, he opted to ask another question instead. "Do you buy mana crystals if they are of high quality?"

"Naturally, just show me what you got." Since Ark changed the subject, the old man stopped thinking about the price of the boots for now. That could wait.

Ark himself didn't waste any time and reached into his spatial bag to retrieve a mana crystal. The old man just stood there and waited, not expecting much from the youth, but as Ark pulled out his hand from his spatial bag, a radiant light filled the small shop.

The relaxed expression of the old man quickly changed, as he furrowed his brows.