Ludo waited by the entrance of the market district, Althea and it seemed as if she was not going to come. To Ludo’s luck, she appeared a few minutes later. She ran up to him, and was completely out of breath.

“Its almost noon, what happened?” Ludo asked.

“This city’s a maze!” She exclaimed as she caught her breath. “I ended up on the other side of the city!”

“That usually happens” Ludo chuckled

Both then entered the market district. A year ago when Ludo had arrived, it was nothing but a wasteland with multiple worn down stalls and abandoned plots of land with Auria and Galti’s shop being the only two buildings in somewhat good conditions. Now, however, a colorful throng of shops had sprang from the once empty lots, decorating the streets with an assortment of colorful awnings.

“Where are we going? Althea asked, her eyes bounced at every direction as they passed by the diverse stores.

“From where are you from?” Ludo ignored Althea’s question.

“From Rivermouth, two towns over.”

“Rivermouth?” Ludo had heard of the city but this was his first time meeting a local. “Isn’t that far away?”

“It is. Father was against Walter’s decision to come here, but this is a dungeon city and he wanted to make his money back as quickly as possible.” Althea shrugged.

“I’m sorry that you have to live all of this.”

“It’s not your fault.” Althea added rather quickly.

Ludo’s fist stop was a shop selling tents, torches, knives, surcoats and anything else vital to surviving in the forest. Afterall, the giant dwelled in the most remote areas, far away from any city or town. A vulpini with a disquieting stare came to greet them, his eyes seemed to bulge out of his small face and his ears, sharp and large, slightly twitched at any sound, as if eager not to miss any possible gossip happening around him.

The vulpini bowed “What brings you two young adventurers to my shop?” He said

“Two tents and two sleeping bags.” Ludo said crudely.

The vulpini looked at him and at Althea. “… two it is.”

The vulpini made a gesture with his right hand and another one appeared from within the shop carrying the items Ludo had requested and laid them over a table beside them before disappearing back into the shop.

“So… where up to?” The vulpini asked.

“We are—“

“None of your business!” Ludo barked and Althea gasped in disbelieve.

The vulpini seemed unmoved by Ludo’s brash response, chuckling to himself as he determined the price of the items.

“Four hundred bronze coins in total.” The vulpini said with a sly smile.

Ludo paid for it at once and they were in they left the shop as quickly as they had arrived. Althea kept looking at him with an annoyed look. Ludo tried to ignore it at first but finally spoke up.

“First rule!” Ludo said without looking back at here. “Don’t trust people within the business. You don’t want him to send his men to snatch our objective.”

“But—“

“No buts.”

Althea tried to continue the conversation but Ludo didn’t reply to anything she said until they arrived at their next stop. Galti’s shop. Bigger than before, the shelves and stands seemed endless and the room was gigantic compared to when Ludo had first entered. It didn’t take long for Galti to noticed them and scream his name before walking up to him with a beaming smile.

“You being on my shop only means one thing! You’re back in the game!” Galti exclaimed.

“Not exactly, I want to help her.” Ludo pointed at Althea who waved at Galti shyly. “She was being mistreated by her own party and owes them a hefty debt.”

“That so…? What a shame. I was more than happy to see you try my new wares.”

Galti gestured pointed towards a part of the shop that less than a year ago had been an empty wall. Now, said wall had been removed for a large hall with various stockpiles of equipment used in all matter of adventuring.

“Gotta keep up with the competition!” Galti chuckled and patted Ludo on the back.

Ludo and Althea walked through the aisles, which sported helmets, cuirasses and weapons large and small. As they looked through the wares, Althea tried on multiple armors and and helmets and was more than ready to try out the different armors that Galti handed to her. Galti also gave her various weapons to try. As Althea dropped a battle axe to heavy for her on the floor (To Galti’s dismay), Ludo was looking around at how much the store had changed ever since he arrived.

“It sure became bigger.” Ludo said.

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“Sure it did.” Galti replied, picking up the battle axe with little effort in front of an astonished Althea. “You only saw the start of it before… you know.”

“Before what?” Althea asked.

Ludo stared daggers at Galti while the dwarf mumbled something and stroked his beard. The sudden and awkward silence was, thankfully, short lived by a new voice that Ludo hadn’t heard before.

“Father!” The voice yelled from the other side of the store. “If ye had clients, you should’ve told me!”

Ludo looked at where the voice was coming from and saw no one, just the unending shelves being pushed while something moved towards their location. It didn’t take long for that thing to emerge from behind the shelves. Another dwarf, sporting a beard as magnanimous as Galti’s, but unlike Galti’s rough clothes, the new dwarf was dressed in such vibrant purples that Ludo could have mistaken him for a dwarven king.

“No need to worry, boy! This one’s an old friend of mine.”

“Emmer?” The second dwarf asked.

Galti led out a long howling laugh. “That old man is too happy being playin’ hermit in his hamlet.” Galti pointed at Ludo. “This one’s Ludo!”

“Ah, this is the Ludo you’ve been talking of!” Galti’s son walked closer to Ludo. “Regardless of what my father might say, I can help you chose any weapon or armor fit for you better and faster than my father.”

“Anundir you have always had that arrogant nature in you despite not being able to tell the difference between a rock and a dragon!”

While father and son bickered, Ludo backed away slowly towards Althea. She was away from the group, looking at a small brimmed helmet.

“Found something you like?” Ludo asked.

Althea nodded.

“I can ask Galti to open up holes for… you know.” Ludo placed his hands on the sides of his head and used his fingers to imitated Althea’s ears.

“Don’t worry about that! They… ehm.” Althea grabbed one of her ears and pulled it flat above her head. “It doesn’t bother me.”

“I see you found a piece you like, now all you’re missing is a weapon.” Galti yelled from the other side of the room and continued debating whether a soldier would prefer a basic cuirass or more intricate armor and something more Ludo could not bother to pay attention to.

“That won’t be necessary. I’ve got a spare.” Ludo yelled back.

“That so?” Galti sighed.

The two left the store soon after and as Althea was busy fitting her new helmet on her head, she still glared a bit at Ludo.

“I hope the weapon you have is better than those Galati had.” Althea said while adjusting her helmet.

“Galti! And yes, its better… I think.”

Their next stop was at Auria’s shop. Bustling with life, both the rich and poor alike searched could be seen searching for a potion to help them alleviate whatever was bothering them. Some wanted to be stronger or cure their ailments or others simply searched for a replacement for alcohol to satiate their hardened livers or to season their love life.

Ludo headed straight to Auria. The old wizard was busy at the counter, receiving money and handing potions to her customers. Ludo dragged his feet a little, took a deep breath and walked towards her. Asking her to lend him some potions for the trip.

“No.” Auria said coldly.

“Come on, Auria, just this once.” Ludo pleaded.

Auria shook her head. “After your little stunt yesterday, I’m not in the mood to gift you anything!”

“But I work for you!”

“No excuse!” Auria crossed her arms.

Seeing as she wouldn’t budge and that people were yelling that he was stalling the line, Ludo agreed to pay her for the potions. Even if he lost money now, the potions he had acquired, mostly healing ones, were a must that guaranteed his and Althea’s survival deep in the forest.

“What now?” Althea asked as they left the shop.

“We need to practice first!”

The two quickly stopped at the adventurer’s guild, Ludo and Althea left Balessia and arrived at the plains a few minutes south of the walls. Ludo was surprised to see how peaceful everything seemed, as he saw no monsters while they walked to their destination. The adventurers had done a fine job in driving them to extinction ever since they began to arrive in mass.

“Where did Walter and you go?” Ludo asked after much silence.

“We usually did very short quests not to far from the wall.” Althea said.

“And what exactly did he had you do during those quests? Did you do a lot?” So where did you sleep when you went to do quests with Walter?” Ludo asked as the attendant reached for a tent that Althea picked.

“Of course! I helped him collect anything he missed when he slew the monsters!”

“Anything else?”

“Scouted!”

“And?”

“And… ehm..?” Althea scratched her head.

“Of course.” Ludo pointed at the plane ahead of them, it was populated by nothing but slimes, jumping around and seemingly never ending. They were, however, ignorant of Ludo’s or Althea’s presence.

“See those slimes. I want you to kill ten of them.” Ludo said.

“I am supposed to kill them!? Aren’t they dangerous monsters!?”

“They are slimes. They are as dangerous as my pillow! I’ll give you the sword I promised.” Ludo searched for his inventory and took out the sword and gave it to Althea.

Althea grabbed the sword with great care, she seemed mesmerized by it for a few seconds.

“Can I really use this?”

“Sure, now go!”

Althea slowly slowly descended onto the hill. She had a tight clasp on the sword as she approached a slime. Once she was close enough, she tapped the slime with the tip of the sword. The slime wobbled and turned to face her. Althea jumped back, using the sword as a stick between her and the monster, as she stood there, trembling, she looked back at Ludo who gave her a thumbs up.

“Alright” Althea gasped. Raising the sword and letting it fall down on the slime with all the strength she could muster, almost cutting the slime in half. The wounded slime jiggled and green blood oozed from its wounded body. Ludo observed as Althea was frozen in the spot, after a whole tense minute she turned around as if expecting his orders.

“Hit it again!” Ludo yelled and Althea raised the sword for a second time, cutting the wounded monster in half and causing it to explode into a purple cloud. To Ludo’s surprise, she froze up again and for a second it looked like he might have to go down there to help her when she suddenly leapt for the nearest slime.

Ludo observed as Althea seemingly released all the pent up stress from her situation on the poor monsters, creating a green river out of slime blood. Althea returned many minutes later covered from head to toe on the green blood. She handed the sword back to Ludo.

“That was fun!” Althea exclaimed while doing a little jump and her tailed wagged from right to left. “Is this what adventuring is usually like!?”

“Yeah, but we usually don’t bathe in the blood of monsters.” Ludo threw a towel at her.

“Usually!?” Althea said as she wiped the green ooze from her face.

The two returned to town once Althea had finished wiping the green blood from her face, hands and clothes. Ludo helped Althea back to the inn she was staying at before going their separate ways.

“Ludo!” Althea called back at him as he took his leave. Lido looked back. “Thanks for today and for wanting to help me repay my father’s debt!” She waved one last time and disappeared within the from Ludo’s view.

As Ludo returned to Auria’s shop he felt a spark rekindle within him that had been missing since the debacle inside the dungeon. A sense of wonder that made him want to go out and explore the world and go on adventure again. He couldn’t sleep as his mind swam on these thoughts. Was that what Ben had originally meant with his dying words? Ludo didn’t really know but one thing was for certain. Tomorrow couldn’t arrive soon enough.