Leor had been drawn to the powerful looking crossbow almost immediately. It was smaller than an average crossbow, almost dainty looking with its polished red wood body, filled with elven inscriptions. The shining mid grade crystals studding its surface were proof at first glance that it was a powerful item, but the information Leor received when he stared at it made it much more useful than he expected.
"Alina, look at this!" Leor displayed the lightweight crossbow in his hands, motioning for her to come over and see. "Its Willpower storage mechanism could be really useful for me. I'd never be able to fill both the mid grade crystals, but I could store up enough Will to make me useful when we encounter something truly strong!" He explained.
Alina stared at the item for a few seconds, letting the information from her ability fill her mind. She seemed intrigued for a moment, before gently shaking her head. "Try to load it."
Leor furrowed his brows as he looked down at the shining red crossbow. He quickly found the mechanism to draw the string into place, and attempted to pull it back and lock it in a firing position.
The furrow on his face deepened as he struggled to pull the mechanism back even an inch, his forehead turning red from the exertion. After a few seconds of pulling with all his might, he relaxed his arms in defeat.
"Damn. If I can't even load a shot, I would be more than useless in combat." Leor admitted reluctantly, as he returned the crossbow to the weapon rack.
"Come back and claim it after you've drunk the world tree potion, I'm sure you'll have the strength to draw it then!" Alina added cheerfully.
Leor nodded with a disappointed frown as he continued to search through the weapons on display. A few minutes later Alina called him over to her, pushing a long handled weapon into his hands, "Have a look. It's not as fancy as the crossbow, but this could also make your talent a bit more useful in combat!"
Leor took the item into his hands with curiosity. It was a spear-like polearm a bit longer than his own body. It was crafted from a lightweight wood that looked quite similar to the wood used to craft the crossbow, with a heavy metal tip that consisted of one long sharp spike at the center and two shorter spikes forking out at the base of the head. A much more simple set of inscriptions ran down the body of the weapon, with a single low grade spirit stone embedded in the shaft near the handle at the center.
Leor gripped the weapon in his hands, feeling the weight of the polearm as he moved it back and forth across the air. "Hmm. It's more useful than an initiate's blade, that's for sure." Leor kept the weapon as he moved towards the sets of armor near the far wall. As he was walking over, he saw Alina lay down her initiates blade on the weapon rack as she strapped a gorgeous elven rapier around her waist. The weapon was long and thin, with a dark metal exterior. The guard that wrapped around the weapon's grip was decorated with thorn-like branches, making for an interesting dark elven design. Leor couldn't help himself, he focused on her new weapon right away to understand its attributes.
Leor watched as Alina drew the slender blade out of its sheath, waving it around in the air a few times as she got used to the lightweight nature of the sword. It was a good weapon, much more potent than the initiate's blade she had wielded. Matching the rapier with her newfound Beastly strength and speed, Alina would be a deadly force on the battlefield. Leor did not look forward to sparring with her anytime soon.
The delicate nature of the weapon seemed to match nicely with Alina's slender body and small stature, Leor couldn't help but steal an extra glance as he watched her practice with the weapon, before turning his attention back toward his task. If he wanted to survive the dangerous trip up the mountain, he would need as much protection as he could get.
Before even checking the details of any of the armors, Leor began to measure them for size. Afterall, it didn't matter what the details of an item were if he couldn't use it. He moved from one set of armor to the next, starting with the light leather sets. He wasn't having much luck so far, because the frames of dark elves tended to be much slimmer than humans, so Leor was too large for most of these armors.
His brow began to furrow as he realized that he might not find a single piece of suitable armor. Eventually he settled on the single solid steel chestpiece resting at the end of the long row of armor. He had avoided that piece of armor until last, much preferring to find a suitable leather armor instead.
It appeared larger than the others at a glance, so Leor hefted it off the ground. He nearly stumbled as the armor quickly lifted off the ground with much less strength than he assumed, a look of confusion covering his face at how unusually light it was for plate armor. Nevertheless, he quickly attempted to pull it on over his head. It took him a few moments of struggling, but he finally pulled the item over his chest.
The fit wasn't perfect, there was a tiny amount of space between his chest and interior cushion of the chestpiece, but he knew he could fix that by adding an additional layer of padding inside the armor.
Leor moved his arms around in wide circles, bending his body back and forth to get a feel for the maneuverability of the armor. It was surprisingly good. The shoulder plates were connected by a series of interlocking pieces of metal that had free range of motion in almost every direction; they didn't restrict his arm movements at all.
The chestpiece had a metal skirt that dropped down to cover the top of his legs and his groin around, but the skirt portion was connected in the same fashion as the shoulder plates, allowing them to move freely when he bent down or stepped forward.
"I prefer leather armor, but I don't have much of a choice." Leor muttered softly. Then focused on the dark red chestpiece he was wearing, allowing his natural curiosity to trigger Alina's prophetic talent.
"Jackpot!" Leor loudly exclaimed, before excitedly running his fingers down the beautiful metal engravings that filled the red armor.
Most items required inscriptions and spirit crystals to generate any sort of special attribute, but there was a big exception to this rule. That exception was enchantment. Enchantment was incredibly expensive, as it could only be done by high tiered Willpower users who had spent their life studying the art. To find an enchanted piece of armor here was a lucky thing indeed, and the fact that it fit Leor was even more fortunate.
It made sense now why Leor was able to wear the armor so casually, the powerful enchantment had reduced its weight to such an extent that the armor felt like light leather! This was truly a special piece of equipment. The entire reason Leor had decided to search for a set of leather armor first was because of the weight and maneuverability. He had ignored the lonely red chestpiece at first because he was well aware of how difficult it would be to climb a mountain wearing a piece of heavy plate armor.
Now he found that those worries had been misplaced. Leor turned back to face Alina, his chest covered in the dark red draconic steel armor, with his new elven polearm held beside him. The young man looked almost ready to face the deadly trails that surely awaited him.
Alina had finished combing through the armor long before Leor. Her armor was already of equal quality to the leather armors in this place, and it had the added benefit of being made to fit her personally. So she had no need to look for a new set.
"Well well, how fancy!" She joked as she observed Leor's new look.