Adam was scrambling to find a solution as the young woman was dragged further away from him. Wait. She was a slave he realized. Slaves had value, meaning they could be bought. Adam began creating gold coins in his hand, surprised that they only cost him four more mana than silver did. Forming nine gold coins, he used up all his mana, leaving him with one point left. He quickly put all the money he had into a single pouch, ten gold and the many silver coins made the pouch weigh a noticeable amount on his waist. He ran after them.

“Wait.” he yelled as he approached the man.

  When the man turned to face him, Adam realized this could be a mistake. What if this man was there that night. What if he recognized Adam and made him a slave. Well, it was too late now.

“What do you want?” The man asked him annoyed at being interrupted. 

 “I want your slave.”  Adam spoke up as confidently as he could, with only a slight hesitation.

  The man laughed, a long laugh that Adam was beginning to think wouldn't stop. 

“As if you could afford her,” he continued to chuckle to himself.

“How much?” Adam held up the pouch, sticking his hand in. 

“Ten gold.” He told Adam a huge smirk on his face. 

  Adam did not doubt it was an amount much more than she would be sold anywhere else, but Adam was pleased, it was an amount he had. An amount he considered nothing over the value of a person's life. Adam took his hand out of the pouch and tied it up. The man laughed again and began to turn away, assuming Adam obviously didn't have such a sum. 

  Adam tossed the pouch towards the man, it being snatched out of the air with ease. Feeling the weight he pulled the bag open and looked inside. With a grunt the man seemed happy yet disappointed to be proven wrong. Removing the Chain from his waist he simply dropped it on the ground and snatched the package from her arms and walked away, muttering ‘fool’.

  The girl dropped to the ground and began crying. Adam wanted to go up to comfort her, but never felt comfortable with contact with people, especially strangers. Yet he just wanted to hold her and hug her, tell her everything was alright now. He didn't though, with her cuts and bruises all over her body he thought he would just cause her more suffering. So he just stood near her awkwardly, and waited, letting her cry as much as she needed. After a long while, he saw her wiping away her tears and began to stand on shaky legs.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” She told him, looking into his eyes with a fierce expression. 

“I thought…” She paused, barely able to hold back from breaking down into tears again.

“It’s ok now.” Adam told her. “Come with me. I promise I won't do anything to you. I can help get you more.... situated.”

Adam paused. ‘Not that I probably know much more than you do.’ he thought. At least he had access to money, and money seemed to be just as important here as it was on Earth. 

“What's your name?” he asked her.

“Lianna.” she told him with a nod. 

“My name is Adam. let's make a quick stop, then we’ll go get you some clothes and food.” 

  She nodded again and waited for him. While she had been crying, Adam had been focusing on absorbing more mana. He had gotten up to thirty in the time she was sobbing on the ground. Adam took the empty pouch he had in his pocket and formed one gold coin inside it. Leaving himself with twenty mana. He didn't see the point in materializing silver any more as one gold was worth one hundred silver, yet the cost only went from six to ten mana per coin. A completely unfair difference he thought. Before Adam began heading to the bank to exchange the gold coin for silver, he paused.

“Wait. Can you understand the language of the people around here?” he wondered.

“No,” she said hesitantly. 

“Right,” Adam said, turning back to the shop he had just come from.

“Back alrea...” Evond started seeing him enter, but stopped upon seeing Lianna.

“This is Lianna” Adam told him. “She cannot speak the language around here either so I thought I would change that for her.”

“Also if you know how I can get the collar removed it would be much appreciated.” he said after looking at the metal collar and chain hanging from her neck.

“Of course. Of course.” Evond told him with a wave of his hand as if it were no matter. 

  He walked over to the Language Skill Coins and brought one back to the counter. Adam placed the gold coin in front of it and received his fifty silver in change. Then handed the black coin to Lianna telling her how it worked and which language to choose. He also warned her hesitantly of the head pain that would last a few seconds. He didn't want her to go through any more pain but thought it necessary, but she deserved to make the choice herself.

  After exhaling a breath she had held for a couple seconds, the coin began to shine and disappear from her hand. Just as Adam had, she fell to the ground with a scream as she clutched her head. After the few seconds passed she got back to her feet and looked at them. 

“Wow. That is a lot of information,” she said in awe in their new language. 

“Indeed it is young miss,” Evond told her smiling warmly.

“I believe I forgot to mention last time, but in case you didn’t know. The language skill takes up only a single slot. No matter how many languages you decide to learn.” Evond said turning to Adam

“That is good to know. Thank you.”

“Try the blacksmith down the road to get that collar removed,” Evond added.

  Adam thanked him again and placed two silver on the counter in thanks for all the help Evond had been. Then left the shop.

“I've seen how much ‘tall dark and ugly’ spent on food and other items. I know the amount of money you spent on me couldn't have been cheap by the sound of coins in that bag. As well as the gold coin you used to buy me this new language. Yet you’ll pay to get this collar removed as well?.” Lianna spoke up after they began walking to the blacksmith.

“Yes. The bag contained over ten gold and the language coin was fifty silver.” Adam told her. “It doesn't matter. Besides do you really want to leave that chain hanging around your neck?.” 

“Well, obviously not,” she mumbled, “but I can still be curious about how you can afford all this.”

“Don't worry about the money I spend. It is not an issue.”  He wanted to tell her he could literally just create money but kept silent for now, not wanting anyone to overhear him, just in case.

“Why? How did you get so much money after such a short time here?” she asked.

“I'll tell you later,” Adam responded with a cheeky smile and a telling sweep of the other people on the street around them. 

  It wasn't far to the blacksmiths, but it took longer to reach the smithy as Lianna was struggling to walk at a normal pace, limping with each step. Adam offered to help her walk but she refused. Arriving inside, there is no noise apart from two people speaking. Adam and Lianna waited just inside the stone building for their turn. While waiting Adam used his mana absorption skill, something he figured was a good use of his time while waiting around. With his mana hitting thirty five, some coins exchanged hands between the two people and the person left. Adam saw Lianna looking around the shop at the few weapons and single set of armor that were in the shop.

“Welcome to my smithy. What can I do for you.” The man said in a deep yet overly jovial voice. 

  He was heavily muscled as Adam would expect of a smith. Salespeople that oversold their pitch with too much enthusiasm annoyed the hell out of Adam. If he was there, it was for a reason, and he was already going to buy what he came for.

“I wish to have her collar removed,” Adam said motioning to Lianna. 

“Not a problem. No problem at all,” he said without missing a beat. “That’ll cost you one silver. As long as I get to keep the metal from the collar and chain.” 

  Adam tossed him the silver and watched as the smith walked over to Lianna and placed his hand on the collar. He noticed Lianna flinch slightly at his touch but didn't move away. The metal underneath the smiths fingers began to morph and pull apart where he touched, then fell to the ground. A skill that allows him to manipulate metal Adam thought. That would be extremely useful for a smith. Lianna stretched her neck, cracking it one way then the other as she let out a sigh of relief. 

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Thank the heavens,” Lianna said

“The what?” the smith asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Is there a clothing shop around here?” Adam asked cutting in.

“That there is,” the Smith said, smiling a little too much. “My brother Geld has a fine shop, just over in the market district.”

“What about a place to get health capsules?” Lianna asked. 

“The dungeoneers shop would have the best selection, but not the cheapest. Unfortunately you'll have to go to a larger city for that. So you'll have to try the general store.” He said after thinking for a few seconds.

  Waiting until they left the blacksmith behind,  Adam asked Lianna what the health capsules were, to be told that they were health potions in the form of a small capsule. That was something she definitely needed. He wondered how effective they were and the amount of time required to heal. Many of her cuts would likely scar in normal circumstances.

“I don't know how much they cost, but if it's not too unreasonable I would really appreciate if you could get me a decent health capsule. I'll pay you back somehow, I promise.” Lianna told Adam as they were walking. 

“No need,” was all Adam said. 

“I will pay you back anyway,” she said with finality. 

  Going back the way they came, they headed to the general store Adam had seen before. The shop stocked a much larger supply of items than previous shops with an extremely wide variety being sold. 

  They found a single Moderate Health Capsule for nine silver, and three Weak Health Capsule's for one silver each. They walked out of the shop each holding a decently sized leather bag with various pockets. The bags contained an additional set of clothing for Adam, and two sets of clothes for Lianna. She had chosen two shirts with decently soft material along with a pair of pants and shorts. Adam had wanted to purchase the last Weak Health Capsule for sale, but was informed a capsule pouch was required to store it safely, since it was likely to burst with little protection inside someone's pocket or bag. Unfortunately they didn't have any for sale. A sizable blanket, metal canteen, and a few useful items were purchased for each of them as well, leaving Adam with ten silver. 

  Once outside the store, Lianna popped each of the capsules in her mouth, and to Adam’s amazement all her injuries quickly began to heal, appearing to never have been there in the first place after a short time. He was staring at her body seeing absolutely no cuts, scars or injuries remaining. He was more impressed than he expected to be when hearing about the health capsules. He had inspected the Moderate Health Capsule closely before giving it to Lianna, the red liquid inside simply looking like dyed water with a glow to it. 

Suddenly Lianna covered her body where Adam was staring, anger and embarrassment obvious in her face.  

“Sorry, sorry, I um didn't mean to look, I mean I did cause that's what I was doing, but I didn't mean to look, and I…” Adam trailed off realizing his hands had been flailing in his embarrassed stupor. Coughing and looking away politely he tried again. “I was just impressed with how well you healed from the capsule. This world keeps showing me things that would be considered impossible back on Earth.” he said as he further averted his gaze. 

“It's alright, but let's get somewhere I can change right away. And thank you again. I feel so much better now.” she responded, feeling safer in his presence after his reaction. 

“How about we get rooms at the Inn there?” he said pointing.

“Don't you already have a room?” 

“Not exactly, I slept in the hole I was thrown in the first night, then in a large tree outside the town after that.” he explained. 

“Bummer. Well let's go then,” she began heading towards the inn. 

  The inn and tavern was spacious inside, with a stone fireplace and chimney on one side surrounded by wooden tables and chairs. The place was nearly empty with two people sitting at separate tables, each with a mug in front on them. Adam was beginning to wonder why all the places he went were so lacking of people. He knew the town was quite large, as he had walked around the perimeter of the wall a long ways. A woman standing behind the counter greets them as they approached. 

  The rooms cost one copper a night each, with no food provided. Handing over his remaining ten silver gave them a decent number of days. The rooms contained a bed, with a small wooden chest at the bottom as well as a small wooden table and two chairs in the corner.

  After Lianna got dressed she came over to Adam's room as he requested. Sitting at the table across from Lianna, hr drew out ten of his fifty five mana and after some swirling around formed the golden mana into a gold coin.

“No way! How did you do that?” she exclaimed nearly yelling at Adam.

  He told her about his materialization skill, along with the limitations after she asked what the point of creating money was if he could just create what he wanted in the first place.  

“That's so OP,” she told him. “Wait, can you make health capsules then? They're not much larger than a coin.”

“I'm not sure, but I have been wondering that as well.” Withdrawing thirty Mana, he pictured the capsule in his mind and the golden mana swirled around then simply dispersed. 

“Guess not.” Adam sighed

“Well maybe it's not completely OP.” Lianna stated

  Grunting in confirmation, he couldn't believe it had just caused his mana to disappear. It was a complete waste of thirty mana. He would have to be careful in the future. He used ten more mana to create another gold coin, giving it to Lianna. 

  Adam and Lianna chatted about their time since being brought to this world. Discussing what they understood about the new aspects of their lives, their level and skills. They agreed on how useless attribute points were when they seemingly couldn't be used in anything but health, stamina and mana right now. Both of them are surprised by how the other unlocked their skills, Adam figuring out how to use the skill while Lianna used experience. One large difference Adam was disappointed with is that Lianna could manipulate her entire one hundred mana outside her body almost instinctively while he could manage thirty with great concentration required for each mana. At least he didn't have to risk his life killing creatures to get experience.

***

  Hours later they are getting hungry and returned to the market area around the bank. Adam saw the fruit salesman at his stall with two additional people along with his stall now having thrice the amount of fruit. Adam approached the smiling man who was now watching him. 

  He wasn't sure how to talk to the man after using only gestures until then. So Adam decided to give him a gold coin with a nod. After the shock of so much money entering his hands, the salesman began his new routine, bringing the many baskets of fruit to the people that needed it in the square.  

  Lianna just watched on already having been told of the many starving people Adam had seen living on the streets. The group was now much larger, exceeding four hundred people. The spacious area around the bank didn't seem nearly as large with such a crowd gathered. Adam and Lianna watched the line of people accepting the fruit and eventually a large amount of grilled meat made it's way over. 

  Suddenly Lianna stepped behind Adam as she pointed at a group of guards wearing full plate armor holding a variety of swords, spears, axes and other weapons. They followed in four lines of five guards behind the large man who had ‘sold’ Lianna to him. With a shout from their leader, the guards began spreading out stabbing, slashing, and killing any of the people who had been receiving free food as Adam and Lianna watch in shocked horror. 

  Screaming and running in every direction, the people fled for their lives. Dozens are already killed by the time Adam snapped out of his daze when Lianna slapped him across the face, struggling to push him away from the slaughter. Away from the commander who was heading directly for them. 

  Adam quickly turned to run, barely taking a few steps before the large man was past them, grabbing them around their throats with a single large hand each. They were lifted in the air for a short adrenaline filled moment before being slammed into the ground as immense pain shot through their bodies, causing them to black out.  

  Water gushed over Adam as he was abruptly woken up. The back of his head throbbed as he opened his eyes. Adam had never hated anyone in his life, disliked of course but never hated. This now changed with the man in front of him staring calmly, holding a now empty bucket over his head. Adams hands were chained over his head, holding him just high enough to reach the floor with his toes.

“My name is Gerald Enalt, the owner of Enalt City,” he told Adam in a commanding voice after dropping the bucket on the stone floor. 

“What I want to know, is who you are? And where did you steal the money?” Gerald continued.  

  A few seconds passed without Adam responding.

“Well? I'm waiting. I do not like to be kept waiting. No commoner could be walking around with a pouch of freshly acquired gold. Not a peasant as weak as you, not without stealing it. So I ask one last time. Where did you steal the money?” Anger broke into his voice by the end.

“I didn't steal it,” Adam told him through clenched teeth.

“Of course not. You know I did some asking around and I heard you recently appeared outside the city, covered in filth with absolutely nothing in your possession. Then shortly after my wife gives you a single silver coin, you enter my city. Once inside you somehow acquire more money, enough to give it away feeding the rats in the street. No, noone who would give away money like it was worthless could have possibly stolen it.”  

  Adam could do nothing but curse to himself as he knew that was exactly what it would look like. He would have to be more careful in the future. If he somehow got out of this. He just wanted to help, how could he not.

“Where is the girl that was with me?” Adam asked a question instead. 

  This got him a punch to the face followed by two to the stomach in rapid succession, causing him to vomit, the stomach acid burning his throat and splattering to the floor. He could only think about how much he hated pain as he cursed himself for getting in this situation.

HP - 4

HP - 2

HP - 2

  Time passed while Adam continued to expel the contents of his stomach as Gerald threw punches, hitting him in the gut and face, effortlessly avoiding any puke that came his way. The punches kept coming causing the damage notifications to pile up, no questions asked, nothing more being said until unconsciousness took him once more. 

  Waking up this time on his own, Adam gasped, his ribs burning with pain. After getting himself to focus, he looked around the room. Lianna hung from chains from the ceiling by her wrists to his left. She was awake looking his way. 

“Morning sleepy head,” she said sarcastically with pain audible in her voice. She looked just as bad as he felt.  

“I'm... sorry. This is all my fault.” Adam said as tears began falling down his face.  

“No, its …” she began

“So many dead. So many people killed because of me. So many … children … for nothing,” he continued through his sobbing. 

“You were trying to help, you couldn't have known...” she told him. Knowing no matter what she said it wouldn't make him feel any better. 

  He continued to cry until he couldn't any longer, finally resolving himself. He would fix this, he would make it up to the people that lost their lives. They had to escape. He couldn't die here. He would not let Lianna die because of him.  

“So, how do we get out of here?” Adam asked quietly.