“All this time her name was Huntress. Seriously!” Xane complained. Xane had been talking to them for a good three days during the ride here and was having a hard time with it.

“Calm down, it was only fun. We have a lot of bets.” Hatchet lackadaisical replied.

“Fine. Well hello Huntress. Nice to finally and actually meet you.” A slight smile grew on her scarred lips, that of which he couldn’t see due to the ever present mask. She bore most of the weight of Calrin in his armor. There were steps leading up to the next level. Surprisingly Calrin didn’t wake up when they ‘accidentally’ bumped his head against the door frame.

“Oooo that’s got to hurt. Definitely going to wake up with a headache.” Hatchet laughed out. “The man sure can drink himself out cold after a successful job.”

Huntress laid him on the rough bed and lightly tossed over a blanket. Giving a thumbs up they left. Xane was shown to his room. It was small, cramped, and only had a single small bed and a passable table. The outside looked great but clearly the inside of buildings had to be furnished by the owners and quality went down a bit. The bed was coarse and rough yet oddly comfy in its own way. He was also afraid of getting lice or bed bugs. Tired as he was though he went to bed worries melting away as his head hit the pillow.

Xane woke up to prodding. Looking around bleary eyed he saw a figure jabbing something at him. As his vision cleared he saw Calrin a smirk on his mouth sword and scabbard in hand. “Time to wake up kid we got places to be.”

“Fine, just stop poking me with that. Anyway, how did you get in?” Xane said, pulling himself together, ”I locked the door.”

“Oh that thing can’t stop the likes of me.” He said this flexing a bit,” And also I have keys. This is my family's inn. Now get ready and be down in two, food is waiting.”

Xane didn’t need much time to get ready. He slept in his armor. It was really uncomfortable and his muscles argued, however he still didn’t fully trust this place. “You know you snore really loudly in your sleep. Really surprised a noise complaint wasn’t filed.” Said the voice in his mind.

“I don’t.” Xane paused for a moment. “Shut up.” Lyenn just laughed in his mind.

Heading down the smell hit him. It didn’t smell amazing or awful but different than he had ever smelled before. The food was a weird mix of savory stew and sweet syrupy breakfast. Somehow it tasted good. Not the best thing he ever had but better than what he’d been eating. Had a tangy aftertaste. Xane also got a buff from eating it.

Davip’s Hearty Breakfast:

+2% Health, Stamina Regeneration

+2% Health, Stamina Pool

Time Remaining: 12 hours

It wasn’t a huge amount but every bit helped. Also 12 hours was a long time to have those buffs. He remembered the energy drink he took early on and how little time it had. Then again it did regen his stamina very quickly.

“How about we start off with what I promised you. Her shop is a goods way in the main district. Then we grab a new contract and/or a few jobs and head out again. After a short break that is.” He said this, getting up quickly, all sense of having drunk too much was gone.

They left the inn as a group heading inward. There was another checkpoint they had to go through to get to the inner city. “Papers.” A guard said to the group as they got close. This time it was easy to take out the parchments and they were allowed in. It cost more to get to this point but it was where the library and all the good stuff was so Xane spent the gold. There were stores filled with magical objects. Forges pumping out powerful swords and armor. Smoke stacks quickly fading as it rises from the buildings. If one wanted something, main cities like Zakor were the place to get it.

The inner city had less people milling about and their clothing was more ostentatious. The inner city was temp controlled so people wore dresses and thin garments even though it was starting to get cold out as winter was setting in. Guards wore matching attire of bronze colored metal breastplates. They wielded a shield and spear with a smaller blade at their hip. Xane morbidly thought about how he could probably take on a few of them. That was until Lyenn dispelled any notion of that. “Most guards have the guard class which means they are level 25 and above. That is a scale way above what you can handle right now. Which is why I’m telling you to first get your own class before going after any of my pieces. You think you are strong now, wait till you start getting class attribute points and skills.”

Stolen story; please report.

The building they were going to was odd looking. It was an average building. The roof was unlike the other pointier ones, this one with a curved rounded top. A lopsided sign that glowed slightly saying ‘Warrens Wares House’. At least that is what it translated to. Truly the sign was the only interesting part of the building. There were no windows, just a flat surface. He brought it up with Calrin. “This is really it? Seems a bit…unappealing. No pazazz like you insinuated when talking about this place. Said it is and I quote “...the best place in the world”.

Calrin gave a cocky grin, “Just follow me you’ll see.” As they went to the door someone left it and Xane could see inside. It was weird. He swore it looked odd. As if it was 2 dimensional instead of 3d. More like a realistic painting instead. He could see people moving around inside. Xane gave it a quick look with his x-ray vision as he was going to call it. And nothing. What? He was so confused on what was happening. It was empty. Nothing inside. Not even a table. Before Xane could bring it up to Calrin he felt himself being picked up. Stunned by the action he didn’t do anything as he was quickly pushed inside. “We’ll get a bucket ready” was all he heard before he entered.

Xane really did need a bucket. The moment he passed the threshold it felt like everything not fully connected to him had lag time. He felt stretched out for mere moments. The worst part of remembering everything was that the mere second that most would forget hung in his mind replaying over and over with phantom pains. He emptied his breakfast. The worst part was losing the buff he had just gained, apparently regurgitating the thing that gave you the buff canceled it. That information was good to know.

After a few moments Xane got his wits back. The bucket he was given magically, magically disappeared. Looking around he could see why it is thought of as a wondrous place. A bit cluttered in his opinion though. There were shelves of random objects from swords to shields to daggers to what looked like twigs to jars of different liquids. The shelves went to absurd heights going almost 2 stories up. Sets of ladders moved about elongating and shrinking to people's needs. The building he had entered was nowhere close to the height he was seeing.

“I see you brought another whelp to follow you around Calrin.” A voice spoke from behind the counter. It was revealed to be a tall, even for high elves, woman with a pitch black dress and a crown of sorts on her head. The crown glowed with power so palpable that Xane could see it. Her face was beautiful with zero imperfections. Her hair seemed to move on its own as it stretched around rearranging objects and writing in a piece of paper. It was one of the weirdest things he had ever seen. Xane felt foolish as Lyenn warned him to stop staring.

“Mrs. Warren, how are you doing on this lovely day?” Calrin asked with charm.

“I’m doing well Calrin. Your order isn’t finished yet. A week or two more.” She said while sifting through papers barely even looking at them.

“I expected much but we are here for this kid.” Calrin said this again pushing Xane forward. Old Xane would have fallen over but with the increased strength and agility he merely stumbled slightly.

“Yeah I have this armor and was hoping to get it enchanted or runed. I also was wanting to get a profession in them both.” Professions were similar to classes. Earn bonuses towards certain things. Like crafting, smithing, alchemists, and cooking. There were broad ones and specific more precise ones that gave higher bonuses to that specific category called Expert Professions. Like bower, armor smiths, poison alchemist, and baker. They barely gave any stat boosts. Most basics gave a single increase to a specific stat per level with a few others giving up to 2. Expert Professions gave up to 4 in many or single stat per level. You could only have 3 professions at a time though so no learning 50 professions to gain absurd stats. However, it was recommended by both Lyenn and Calrin that Xane were to get a profession soon as it would help. Xane decided since his highest stats were going to be intelligence he should do a profession that worked well with that.

Lyenn says that if one chose specific professions they would combine together to create a much stronger variant if one chose too. It isn’t a common thing as that type of information is kept to larger families' and royal's secrets. It isn’t as simple as having the professions they need to be leveled properly as well. As certain milestones needed to be met. The combinations were sometimes self explanatory with the problem being the milestones. Lyenn wouldn’t tell much about hers but said that she needed to do a certain thing at a certain time of day at a one in fifty year thing. Very vague but he got the jist. Hard. To. Do.

The ones he chose were going to be all Expert Profesions. Enchanting, Runesmithing, and hopefully with time make a new one based off of his firearms at least he assumed he would need to make one since he doubted anyone else has. Gunsmithing perhaps? First though was to try and get some basic help from Warren. “We are close Calrin but dropping off your whelp here isn’t going to work. Get rid of him some other way. I don’t need more useless whelps.”

Xane couldn’t help it,”Seriously I’m right here. And I have these books that I found both about enchanting and runesmithing but I was hoping for someone to teach me the bas-”

“You should have taught her whelp manners first.” She said absentmindedly, ignoring Xane.

Before Xane could speak again Calrin tried to smooth things over, “I think he truly doesn’t need your aid. He is quite smart. But if you don’t want to give him a chance you don’t have too. You could however see it as a favor from me.” He said the last part leaning in a bit. It was an odd pose since he had to look straight up to see her face.

“A favor you say? Fine.” She, for the first time, looked at Xane. “You give me permission to look you over?” Truly Xane was surprised the rude lady even asked but acquiesced to the question. He felt like he was naked for all to see for a bare moment before she spoke again, eyebrows raised. “You have respectable stats for your level. High intelligence” She nodded slightly.”Good. Color me surprised.” As quickly as she showed emotion it faded away. “You have a deal Calrin perhaps your whelp will be of some sort of assistance. You can go now Calrin. You whelp come with me.” Xane was starting to see a pattern. No one wanted to call him by his name.