Elemental Cats

The receptionist of Dexter's Den, the grimoire-selling tent, had to accept and realize that Toz wasn't some ordinary bottom-rung combatant of the war that had stumbled into the tent by accident and started looking around. The customer in front of him was a little weird, very annoying. But seemingly just as capable as he seemed to be eccentric.

The precision with which Toz pointed at the token hanging at his waist alarmed the receptionist, which lessened his frustration toward Toz, though he felt a little fear instead. But it didn't make him any more willing to accept his request and show him the back room. Both out of unwillingness to give in to Toz and because he dreaded all the ridiculous questions that would come pouring in as soon as Toz laid eyes on the stacks of grimoires.

However, the receptionist was a proud employee of Dexter's Den. And he couldn't refuse to accept a customer's request as long as it was reasonable. Looking or asking for permission to look in the back where the older grimoires were stored was a perfectly reasonable request.

It was so reasonable of a request that the receptionist would almost jump for joy whenever someone else asked for it since it usually meant that they would be able to decrease the ever-increasing number of grimoires stored there.

But the one who had made that request this time was a customer who asked the most annoying and nonsensical questions a still sane person could understand. And the customer always asked those questions when he found the odder grimoires.

The back room was filled with grimoires who had ended up there because no one had bought them. And grimoires were left unpurchased because no one could find a use for them, which meant they were certainly worthy of the title oddities.

It was like paradise for Toz, who appeared to be looking for stranger grimoires. But since he was always asked those strange questions, it was like being repeatedly tapped on the head as soon as he was on the verge of falling asleep for the receptionist.

The receptionist wavered between refusing Toz's request and hoping it wouldn't lead to trouble further down the line or accepting the request and hoping his sanity would remain intact at the end of the day.

Sweat beaded on the receptionist's forehead as Toz continued staring at him with a piercing gaze.

Eventually, it became too much for the poor receptionist. His mind was already weary from holding back all the frustration he had built up during Toz's browsing and curious questioning. Toz's gaze and his pride as Dexter's employee made the receptionist cave, and he sighed heavily before guiding Toz to the tent flap that led to the back room where the unsold grimoires were stored.

Such a heavy sigh would have been enough to get most people to gape at the impoliteness. But Toz was too excited to see all the grimoires that everyone else had decided they didn't want. Even if he had paid attention to the receptionist's behavior, he wouldn't have cared too much about his rudeness.

Toz wasn't much of a stickler for manners and proper etiquette. Not to mention how he was the one responsible for making the receptionist sigh. He couldn't really make a comment on it.

After finally making the decision to lead Toz to the back room, the receptionist didn't waste time intentionally dawdling. The quicker Toz could finish, the quicker the receptionist could take medicine for his headache and go lay down on a soft bed. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any nightmares. But with the day he had had, the receptionist wasn't so sure he would be able to sleep well. Maybe he should add a sleeping potion to the headache medicine.

The receptionist led Toz through the tent flap and into the back room without exchanging even the slightest small talk. Toz's voice had already done enough. And the receptionist wanted to rest his ears as much as possible.

Thankfully, it seemed like Toz wasn't planning on being annoying from the get-go.

Toz stopped at the entrance. It had barely been noticeable in the previous part of the tent. But it became a lot more obvious in the back room how extravagant the tent was.

The main tent itself was slightly bigger on the inside than on the outside. Considering how most tents didn't clearly separate themselves from the outside world in the same way, for example, rooms did, it was definitely harder to incorporate spatial expansion enchantments.

But the back room, which was its own room inside the tent, didn't suffer the same limitations, and it took up more space than there should logically be inside the tent when based on how it appeared from the outside.

The back room wasn't that much bigger than the official shop, but it was more densely packed with shelves. And the grimoires and manuals on the shelves weren't laid face up with the names on full display. They were crammed in next to each other, like books in a bookstore, not valuables in showcases.

The shelves and the room weren't as brightly lit as the other part of the tent, and the room felt like it was dusty and old, without there actually being any dust or dirt around due to self-cleaning enchantments in the tent.

The receptionist waved Toz into the room before sitting down at a desk right next to the entrance, already rubbing his temples.

Toz spent a few more moments admiring the rows upon rows of unwanted grimoires, just waiting for someone to pick them up and be confused about why someone would want such a grimoire.

That wasn't the only thing Toz admired. Upon seeing the collection, Toz also began admiring Dexter. While others were struggling to even find and sell the most basic grimoires, Dexter had an entire shop full of grimoires that ranged from weird and mostly useless to nearly priceless treasures. And behind that, he had another collection of grimoires that, while probably mostly weird, were still complete grimoires containing actual spells.

In order to be capable of such a feat, Dexter was surely an amazing person in at least one way.

When he was finished with his admiring, Toz began looking through the shelves.