The necklace was constantly bouncing around in my mind as I tried to imagine what it would even do if I found the rest of the set; this was a sort of mythical level item with an unknown set and unknown number of pieces.
I mean, I wasn't even really aware of what the set bonuses could even be since I only had two of four pieces for a single set, and just to ease my own curiosity I tried to wear both at the same time to see if anything changed... and nothing did.
So it was all or nothing with these sorts of things, apparently, but that just meant that the bonus just had to be absolutely worthwhile if it was going to have that stingy of a restriction... right..?
I would eventually find out, but for now I slipped these important things into my inventory again and smiled wryly when I saw that my money situation was back to being incredibly terrible; that small pouch I had gotten alongside the medallion boosted me up to 45 Crowns but now I was down to 18 Crowns and a handful of Diadems.
Still enough to do some shopping if I needed to pick up an item here or there, but definitely in the range of needing to save as much as I possibly could lest I end up broke; that was still something I was afraid of since the Academy only provided so much, and while I wouldn't go hungry thanks to the free meals I definitely could fall behind if I relied on only the provided equipment that was at the bare minimum.
It was possible but it was definitely not the ideal way to go through the Academy, namely because the practical exams began to get a little more intense the longer we were here, as well as the expectations that were placed on us beginning to grow the better we performed.
I could play the long game and try and find someone outside of the Academy to sponsor me, during which I would need to reach certain Academic goals to retain the sponsorship before eventually needing to work for them to pay it off; not a terrible deal all things considered, and even less so if I finally overcame my... 'inhibition' of this world and how it functioned.
There were some 'fun' sponsors that I could look for, ones that paid a lot more for me to do a lot less to maintain the sponsorship, but those were still a little ways away from where I was at right this very moment.
Until I could get a decent sponsor though I would need to make my own money, which was just as 'complicated' as it had been in my previous world as well; I could get a part time job while I studied at the Academy, I could pick up a trade and try and sell whatever I make, or I could delve into any of the Dungeons available to students and hunt down monsters for their parts.
That was the only way to make money normally, and then there were all of those not so 'typical' way of making money... like having sex with someone for some Crowns, selling drugs on the black market, or selling your power to someone to do some sort of 'activity'.
What I was willing to do would definitely change the longer I was here, but for the here and now I was planning on picking up a part time job somewhere... at least, depending on how strenuous the Academy's curriculum was and how much time and effort I needed to put forwards for both that and for my own personal growth.
My legs were still just carrying me through the city, so when I paused my thinking and realized that I was just walking I also paused my movements and peeled off to the side of the road, looking around and trying to orient myself if it was possible.
There were parts of the city that I should recognize since they were in the game, but whether or not I was near them was unknown to me at this time; thankfully there was the gigantic landmarks at each cardinal point of the city to help orient myself, so I wasn't lost.
The street I was on was still a market street, though where the square had been an open market with everyone peddling their wares however they could, this was a more stereotypical street where everything was brick and mortar with tall windows displaying their wares for them.
I was currently stood in front of a blacksmithing store of some kind, and since I wanted to keep distracting myself and also think some more on what I wanted to do going forwards, I got a little closer to the glass and began to inspect what was on display.
Front and center was this utterly magnificent and regal two handed sword, standing tall and proud against the glass; its golden blade reflected any and all light pointed at it while the pristine white handle was carved to fit someone's hand snugly.
The pommel had a heavy orb grasped by four smooth claws, filled with magic and radiating power even through the glass; meanwhile the guard was a gorgeous set of golden wings unfurled out to help protect the wielder while also leaning even more into that divine aura surrounding it.
By far worth almost an entire years salary of someone's job, the blade was stunning yet also... kind of gaudy and definitely not meant for prolonged combat use, at least not visually; meanwhile the spread around the blade was more practical and 'trusted'.
All sorts of swords, daggers, maces and axes rested on sleek velvet cushions, displayed to lure people in with some better and more practical designs; seeing each kind of weapon reminded me that I needed to pick one of them sometime soon to use during the combat classes...
And so that I could figure out how to best defend myself in this new, dangerous world... because the last thing I wanted was to die thanks to someone else's accident yet again, even if I had been 'scheduled' to die in my previous life.