The few nights that Davin has had with his sleep uninterrupted have been few and far between, Largely he didn’t mind having his mind dropped in on, but the occasional night that passes without incident was a treat. When his eyes peeled open and Jes was piled on top of him, her hair draped partly on his face, holding back a chuckle was harder than ever since he didn’t want to wake her. How she ended up on top of him was hard to imagine, it seemed that ever since she got a larger bed she was far more prone to clinging to him while they slept, he didn't mind, there were far worse things that he could imagine.

Davin was starting to feel that the time that Compass was a bit much, especially since the week here was ten days. Today Davin was planning to try and track down the market that is supposed to be in the bastion, every time that he asked Jes and Gale about it they were always rather vague, suggesting that it wasn't worth his time, and knowing his friends, they had different priorities than he did, since neither of them was much interested in adventuring anymore. Racking his mind for anything that he would consider even remotely useful, one of the biggest stops was the lack of bulk funds, which should be solved as they explore more.

With everything that had happened, Davin hadn’t had much of a chance to just explore the city, it was big, dense, and so full of life. Sadly the layout of the city didn’t follow most that he was familiar with. Each of the patrons seemed to stake a claim in a part of the city, all of the parts mixing together in a tangled weave, the one thing that made navigating the city remotely tolerable was that the city's colors worked like a road sign, leading you from one area to the next, as if you were following the directions on a map app. They reminded Davin of hospitals from when he was a kid, the lines leading to different areas of the hospital without the need for signs, a large part of him still wishing that they had some kind of directory for the city.

Wandering the city was surreal, as if he was walking through a dream, the different elements that he had seen as they walked to the strange building from outside of the city on his first day were nowhere to be seen, having spent a good hour trying to find it. Even backtracking through Big Green's back room and following the path back, only finding a strange archway that leads to nowhere. Making his way to the center of the city, following a red path that seemed to be etched with what he could only call demonic runes and the hints of sulfur.

The heart of the city was a busy place, far busier than anything that he had experienced so far, now that he was thinking about it, today was tenth day, so it was the day that most everyone actually took off, usually only a few shops and vendors would be open and available, so the likely hood of him finding a hidden market for magical goods was going to be nearly impossible. It was weird that Jes didn’t have the day off, but she had taken the first day that he was back in town as a day off, so she likely swapped it.

The ten-day work week was still strange to Davin, especially since most only really took the one day off, but except for his first few days of training that were back to back, it seemed that most of the people that worked seemed to do so in shorter times than he was used to, the idea of a forty hour work week would likely seem as though it was some form of torture. With everything that was going on Davin was thinking that lingering in the city was wasting time, but he knew that leaving sooner would take him away from Jes sooner and he didn’t know how long that he would be gone so he wanted to enjoy all the time that he had. Squeezing the whisper stone that he was carrying.

"Tomorrow is first day, when did we want to set out to head south?" Talking into the small stone, moments later he heard Hugh's voice.

"I still have a few things to get set up, so what do you think about heading out on second or thirds day?"

"Thirds day would work better for me as the soonest that we can leave, I am getting fitted for new armor tomorrow, and the craftsman said that that would likely be the soonest that I could do," Cadence stated in their quiet tone.

"Thirds day it is, I'll talk to Jes and we can get a party set before we go."

Thirds day, Thursday… some of the overlaps seemed too uncanny, as if there were some things that were just meant to be. Davin spent the rest of the morning just casually looking around, as he made his way around he found a few more of the artisans like Fizz and Rune, most of them absolute masters of their crafts, since time wasn't an issue, many of them have been practicing for what would have been thousands of years by Davin's perspective. All of them that he talked to were all focused on the beauty of the craft, like true artisans from his world. The mages stuck to their tower, seemingly that few were dedicated enchanters.

Davin did find a few nice little things that may be handy once they had the funds for them, but largely the money system seemed strange, since there were so many different artisans that were spread out finding the most exciting pieces was harder to locate. Making mental notes to see about the idea of an auction house like the ones that existed in video games. There were a lot of different things that he thought would do well here, the magic of things hopefully being able to have something that could duplicate the features. Auction houses, mail, guild banks, assuming that the last one didn’t already exist.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Davin did find a market, it was closer to what he would think of as a grocery store, but rather than it being a single store it was akin to a farmer's weekend market, and in the grand scheme of things it made so much sense. He added a few basics to his cooking ingredients, noodles, potatoes, some other vegetables that were the staples of earth cooking, he even found some rice. Having found several of the key ingredients that he had been hoping to find thrilled him. Since Jes ate mostly in the training hall she had very little reason to cook, while she did keep a few basics around, noodles, cheese, and some dried herbs, but nothing too terribly complex. He didn’t find some of the things that he was hoping to find, soy sauce for one, but the others he could start making now that he had some of the basics.

Davin made his way back to The Hall, since Big Green had given him permission to make use of his kitchen, it was going to be an easier place to begin making some of the seasoning that he was missing from back home. Peeling the onions and garlic, and cutting up the piles of herbs that he got from the market, setting them in a cooler oven dry, setting them to dehydrate. Making some rice wanting to test some of the ingredients before he heads to the road. It was a sticky white rice, which made him question if someone at some point in the past came from Asia. Making simple rice balls, filled with some eggs and veggies, wrapped in some of the seaweed that he got from Long Dock.

When Davin finished cooking, he felt exhausted, it had been a long time since he last spent this much time in a single day cooking, but as a result of his efforts he had garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, and some paprika, luckily salt and pepper were fairly common, but there was still a long way to go before he had all the ingredients that he wanted. He had also made some of what he could get to as close to a milk chocolate as he could likely get with what he had at hand. He was kept company through the day by one of the multiple of Big Green's kitchen staff, teaching them all a little something different as they had free time throughout the day. Teaching them some of the few treats that he could make from scratch without needing some of the more complicated ingredients that he was going to need.

Davin's arms were full of an assortment of baked goods when he finally made his way home, knowing that he could have easily just stashed it in his shared space, but a part of him dreaded the idea of Hugh or Cadence finding them and eating them before he was ready. Making him feel bad that he was so guarded about the baked goods, while he had every intention to share them, he wanted to make sure that they were as good as he could get them before then.

Luckily he wasn’t the only one doing the teaching, he learned a few classic techniques that existed long before the industrial age. Classic bread baking was an art, and adding in a few of the things that he knew gave him a variety of treats. Croissants were one of the breakfast staples from back home and now that he had a basket full of them he was going to introduce Jes to one of his favorite breakfast sandwiches. Jes was standing in her small kitchen, eating the last few items that she had stashed away.

"The fact that you still had some of those surprises me," Davin stated as he set the basket on the counter.

"Big Green told me that you were in The Hall most of the day, I needed to make space so that I could have some new ones." Jes popped the last morsel into her mouth.

"When did he tell you?" Davin eyed her suspiciously.

She pulled out a similar stone to the one that he carried. "Oh, a little stone told me."

"You were in a party with Big Green?" Davin asked in surprise.

"Oh yeah, he's one of the better fighters that I know, those weapons on the wall aren't just for show." Jes took a pose as if she was holding a sword.

"Wow, one of these days you'll need to tell me some of the stories." Davin smiled as he passed her a croissant from his stash.

"Oh? What is this?" She asked as she sniffed at the baked good, shortly after a wide smile spread over her face as she bit into its flaky goodness. "Is that chocolate?!" She asked through the mouthful.

"Yes, took all day to make, but they turned out pretty good for a first try." Davin pulled out one for himself, tearing it apart so that the crust crackled.

"MMM" Jes moaned as she practically shoved the treat into her mouth.

"Please remember to breathe, I have both plain and chocolate, was going to make breakfast in the morning." Davin let out a sigh.

Jes looked at him in concern. "You okay?" Resting her hand on his shoulder as she rounded the island that was in the center of her small kitchen.

"I plan on heading out on thirds day, and I wanted to make sure that you know." Davin let it all in a slight rush.

"Oh?! Thirds day? Hmmm, okay, so that only gives me a few days before you set out." A devious look spread across her face as she licked her lips seductively.

"At least let's eat dinner first? If you have in mind what I think you do, I want to make sure I have the energy to hold up." Davin let out a chuckle as he stepped into the kitchen.

"Something light? I only have a few days." Jes let out a menacing laugh as she kissed Davin and walked into the sitting area.

"Something light? Are you planning for a marathon?" Davin mildly feared for his life for a moment, then he remembered that he had already died once.