Armoured Up!

The pickpocket boy continues to try and pry his arm out of Michael's grip... It was honestly most difficult to hold onto him than Michael expected, but he put this down to the kid's experience rather than his own weakness...

The surrounding people just keep a wide birth from the duo as they go about their day, deciding to stay out of their business.

Michael glares down at the now teary-eyed boy and scowls, "If you don't want to go with the guards and sit in a prison for however long they keep thieves, you'll tell me why you targeted me... I've only been in this city for a couple hours, I refuse to believe this is just a coincidence." he states, tightening his grip on the boy's arm.

...

"I-I'll tell you! I'll tell you!... The Orphaner! He decides who we go for... N-now please, let me go!" the boy exclaims.

...

"Orphaner?" Michael questions, already knowing that whoever they were had to be evil... Why else would you be called 'Orphaner'? "Who is the Orphaner?"

"I-I can't say, sir! L-Let me go!" the boy shouts, giving one final tug as Michael lets go, causing him to fall to the cobbled road below, scraping his arm and knee before running off into one of the many alleyways.

Michael furrows his brow and decides his first target in this city. The Orphaner had already targeted him, so he'd consider it both payback and public service.

For now though, Michael continues his way to the weapon shop, arriving at the nice-looking building that had many weapons displayed on the walls and on racks set out across the room.

The weapons came in a huge variety, some that Michael hadn't ever seen before, even in the many games he'd played back on Earth. There was some he could recognise though, rapiers, tanto's, claymores, daggers, bastard swords, spears.

They came in every shape and size you could possibly desire, as well as many unique configurations like kris', karambits, sword breakers, spiked bucklers, spiked gauntlets...

There were so many that Michael had no idea what he actually wanted to pick. His Gandalfr runes would make him proficient in any weapon he held, but he knew he could improve his skills further... After all, the runes only improved his proficiency rank by two levels, which means any skills he personally learned would drastically increase how powerful the runes were.

An easy way to look at it would be this... In Skyrim the weakest magic is Novice, but with Gandalfr runes, your Novice level would increase to Adept. But, if you were at Adept anyway, your level would become Master, the highest-ranked magic... Obviously, Gandalfr runes only affected martial abilities, but the concept is the same.

Thus, Michael needed to become proficient with a single weapon to take full advantage of his runes... Considering he was looking to use Derflinger in the future, his best option was to pick a bastard sword-type of weapon.

Bastard swords differed from single and two-handed swords due to the fact you could use it either one-handed or two-handed. Its length was slightly smaller than a typical two-handed sword, but its handle was long enough to comfortably allow you to use two hands.

There were a few swords that matched these requirements, but most of them were far, far out of his price range. There were only five that he could buy and still purchase some kind of armour as well.

A long straight bastard sword, the typical thing you'd see a medieval knight wielding... (Bastard sword : shorturl.at/afsMO)

A single edge curved sabre that seemed well suited to be used by cavalry... (Two handed sabre : shorturl.at/yDFP0)

A shorter double edge, reversed curve-type blade. It was longer than your typical kukri, and looked as if it'd been made from a scythe blade. (Falx : shorturl.at/egxLU)

And a long heavy-looking falchion that seems to have had better days... It was slightly rusty in certain parts, but the owner of the store had scrubbed most of it away, leaving the weather, yet still functional blade. (Two-handed heavy falchion : shorturl.at/aizCJ)

In the end, Michael ends up picking the second option, a two-handed sabre, as it most closely resembled what Derflinger looked like from his memory of the anime. Plus the fact it was cheaper than all but the Falx, only costing two hundred gold... This still brought his total to one hundred and twenty, but at the very least he'd now be able to defend himself.

After giving thanks to the store owner, he straps the weapon to his waist and leaves, heading to the nearest stall selling armour. He'd wanted to try and get some plate mail, or maybe some chainmail, but seeing how little gold he had left, he doubted he'd even be able to buy a gauntlet, let alone a whole suit.

Unfortunately, his suspicions had proven correct, with almost every sturdy-looking piece of armour ranging from five hundred gold to twenty thousand...

Even the leather armour they had for sale was just out of his price range... Forcing him to look at the cheaper options... Upon seeing Michael's despairing expression, the merchant actually offered him a deal, half price on a sleeveless gambeson that'd proven very unpopular among his clientele.

Only fifty gold for it, and while it was missing the rather important padded arms, some armour was better than no armour. The gambeson itself was brown and opened up at the front, with man clasps securing it. (Gambeson : shorturl.at/nzAS0)

With it, Michael also bought some grey padded trousers that might be able to stop a medium level-sword strike. He also purchased some leather boots, as his trainers were started to get a bit frayed due to all the stress they'd been put under. (Padded trousers : shorturl.at/qzJPV), (Leather boots : shorturl.at/uG159)

Michael also wanted to see about enchanted items, but upon asking around, he found out that they were mostly restricted to nobles... And even then, they were far too expensive for him to consider buying... An enchanted ring that provided minimal protection against magical attacks would cost around thirty thousand gold, almost double the price of the most expensive plate armour he'd previously seen.