Chapter 10:

I awoke to quite the ugly face, “Alex what are you doing?”  He is currently standing right next to my bed and way too close to my face.  “Waiting, Boss!”  Waiting for what?  Whatever we have a lot to do today so it’s good that he is up already.  “Ok Alex, first thing, do you know what a shower is?”  “I pour water on top of head.”  He mimics dumping a container of water over his head.  “Close, but a bit different.  In that room you will find a square shaped object hanging from the ceiling, move your element around inside of it, and water will come out.  I want you to wash as much dirt as possible away from your body.”  I didn’t realize it last night because I was so tired, but Alex is still covered in dirt from living in the cave, I need to clean out the sleeping bag now.  “Will do!”  Alex runs off to the bathroom.  I turnover to see Robin staring at me and holding meat tightly, “Good morning Robin.”  “Good morning John, how do you feel?”  Sitting up and stretching a bit, I can still feel a general soreness all over, but it's a lot better compared to yesterday.  “A lot better thank you.”  “Good”  I get out of bed and finish my stretches, and realize I have nothing to do til Alex is out of the bathroom.  “Robin after we deal with the guild stuff what do you want to do?  I am thinking we get our armor’s fixed and get Alex some clothes.”  “We should rest today, no element practice.  Maybe we can learn more about our elements?”  A library!  This city should definitely have a library, with that we can learn more about our elements and if we need information on certain creatures.  “Robin your genius, I don’t know why I never thought to go to a library.”  Robin gives me a look of confusion,  “What is a library?”  “A library is a place with lots of books, that usually contain information on a wide variety of things.  In other words, a place that may have books on our elements.”  “That sounds nice.”  “Indeed it is.”  

The door to the bathroom opened up and out came a sopping wet Alex.  It seems I forgot to mention drying off with a towel.  I grabbed a towel from the bathroom and handed it to him, “Alex when you are done using the shower, use a towel to dry off.”  Alex takes the towel and starts to strip, “Wait, do that in the bathroom.”  After a couple minutes a now dry Alex comes back out.  “Ok, I’ll go then Robin can go.”  I quickly took my shower, and let Robin go next.  While Robin was in the shower I told Alex our plans for today, including the library.  He seemed really excited about being able to read more books.  Once Robin got out we had a quick breakfast, Alex was surprised by the fact that he got to eat meat, not once, but twice a day.  

Making our way to the guild, I noticed the same stares as yesterday.  While I don’t want to make Alex feel alienated, I think it might be a good idea to get a hood or something to hide the fact he is a goblin.  If he is ok with it, we will do that, since it might help us avoid trouble.  Once we arrived at the guild we quickly spotted the twins, there was an exchange of good mornings as we got in a line for the counter.  The wait was a bit longer this time as we were in the middle of primetime for quest sign up.  After about twenty minutes of waiting it was finally our turn.  “Hello how may I help you.”  I am starting to think this woman lives here.  The dog kin gives us her usual line, and we remind her that we came in yesterday with a quest that need to be looked at.  “Yes, the quest has been changed.  All participants of the quest will be rewarded with the completion of an E ranked quest and a D ranked quest.  Along with that the reward has increased by one gold.  Based on the agreed reward split both teams will receive one gold and five silver.  Also congratulations to Emily and Cef you are both now D ranked adventurers.”  “Congrats Cef and Emily.”  “Congrats”  “Congratulations, Boss friends.”  “Hehe, thanks guys, I didn’t think we would get that much of an increase for the quest.  Emily has a huge grin on her face.  “Ya to think we ranked up on what was supposed to be our last E ranked quest.”  While Cef didn’t have the same grin as Emily you could tell he was pretty happy.  “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”  “Ah yes, is there a library in this city?”  “Yes there is, but if you are looking for techniques then you will only find one.  The library is located on the same strip as this guild, but it is closer towards the castle.”  “Thank you.”  We leave the counter area and start walking towards the door.  Even if there is only one technique I think it will be better to have more knowledge.  Emily and Cef stop part the way towards the door, “So what are you guys going to do, now that we are D ranks were going to check out the quests we can do.”  Seems like they are pretty anxious to see their new opportunities.  “We decided to take it easy today, probably some clothes shopping then head to the library.”  “Ok have fun, but try to get to D rank soon so we can do some quest together again.”  “Will do goodbye.” After a group goodbye we started heading towards the market district, specifically the Maceface shop.  “Hey Alex would you be ok wearing something with a hood?”  “Hm?  Hood is good, blocks the sun.”  Wow didn’t think it would be that easy to get him to agree, but I wonder why he doesn’t like the sun.  Maybe something to do with him having the darkness element.  

“Hello I am here to see Dranen.”  The arachne gave me an annoyed look, like I haven’t been here a couple of times already.  He went through the door, which leads to Dranen’s room.  “Hey Robin, Alex, why don’t you go look at the clothes for Alex, he will need two sets.  One for everyday, and one for quests.  He will also need a hood preferable black.”  “Sure Boss.”  “Ok”  Robin leads Alex to the second floor where the men's clothes are.  Maceface also has women's clothes, but I think they are just mens clothes with the chest area stretched.  “Dranen says to go back to see him.”  Woah, geez, this arachne could be an assassin with how quiet he was.  “Ok, thanks.”  Trying to give some annoyed feeling back towards the arachne, but he plays it off like it's nothing.  I walk back through the hallway towards the Dranen’s room.  “Hey Dranen I got some more elemental stones for you.  Though these ones aren’t as nice.”  The dwarf looks up from a sword he was working on.  “Hey boy, more stones, well show them to me, and I’ll see what their worth.”  I open the bag and empty the contents onto the table.  Dranen quickly shifts through the batch, “Ya pretty low quality for most, but ya got enough for me to work with.  I’ll give ya three gold coins for the load.”  That’s a good amount for some extra loot found on our quest.  “Sounds good, but I’ll need you to throw in another leather armor, and we can call it a deal.”  The dwarf gives me a weird look, “Didn’t you buy a leather armor just a couple of days ago?”  “I did but it’s got a pretty big cut in the chest area because of a hobgoblin we faced.”  “Alright, alright, ya can have the leather armor. First the pig, now the armor, next your gonna be asking for my shop.”  “Haha that's for later, but there is another thing I am looking for, do you have any cheap armor for goblins?”  “A goblin? What the fuck do ya need that for?”  “Well a non-savage goblin joined our group, and I want to get him something since he will be fighting on the front lines with me.  But I don’t want it to be too expensive because I still don’t know how well he can fight, and hopefully he won’t be a goblin for too long.”  Dranen starts shaking his head at me, “You're one strange kid ya know that?  Most folks would kick a goblin into the gutter before they even thought about letting one on their team.”  It’s really that bad huh?  “Well I would like to think I am better than that.  There is good and bad in every race, right?”  “You got me there boy, well for your goblin friend I got some stuff, but it's mostly just leather armor.  No metal stuff, how old is he, from my memory savage goblins usually take five years to evolve, but I am guessing your friend got his element?  If he does should take him three years to evolve.”  Shit that’s a lot longer than I thought it would take.  “I don’t know how old he is, but he shouldn’t be too young.  Anyways you can subtract the armor cost from the stones.” “Gotcha, well then here’s your coin, and just tell Chad to give ya the black wolf set, he should know what I mean.”  Fucking Chad, a perfect name for him.  I look at the amount he gave of coins he gave me, and I see two gold and eight silver.  “The set only cost two silver?  Even my leather chest piece cost five.”  “Ya goblins are small so the amount of materials they take is little.”  Makes sense, and with quick goodbye, I head back out to the main store area.  

“Hey Chad, Dranen says to give me the black wolf set, I already paid for it.”  Giving me another annoyed look, Chad reached behind him underneath the counter and pulled out a black leather set.  It’s pretty nice looking also, definitely should cost more than two silver.  I head up to the second floor, and find Robin and Alex with quite a few clothes in hand.  Never really took Alex for a shopper.  “Hey guys looks like you found some good stuff.”  Robin and Alex both jump a little, “John, yes we did, perhaps a bit too much?”  Hm, seems like she thinks I will be mad because they have more than just two outfits.  “Sorry boss, shopping is fun.”  I wave them off trying to make them understand I am not mad, “It’s ok, if you found clothes that you like, just make sure you don’t go too crazy, we still need to watch our money.”  Both Robin and Alex relax a bit knowing that I am not mad.  “Anyways I also got you a nice set of armor, and it should go nicely with the black hood.”  I handed the armor over to Alex, so that he could look at them himself.  “Wow, boss these great.”  “Glad you like them, well if you guys have everything you need let's buy them, and head over to Jane’s store for Robin.”  I start walking towards the stairs when Robin stops me, “Don’t you need to fix your armor?”  “Oh ya I almost forgot to pick up another leather chest piece, I got it in the trade for the elemental stones.”  “Dranen mad?”  Looks like Robin knows that Dranen hates when I do that.  “Haha a bit, but he knows that I will come back here whenever I sell stuff, so it’s all good.”  I got my new leather chest piece, and we brought Alex’s new clothes.  The total came to one gold and five silver, he got four sets of clothes mostly black pants and shirts with a purple set mixed in, one black hood, and a pair of black boots.  With that almost all of the coin we got from the stones is gone.

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Making our way to Jane’s store, the stares we received was reduced a lot with Alex wearing the hood and black clothing.  Probably is nice for him also getting out of the dirty potato sack he was wearing for clothes before.   We were entering the store, but right before I took a look at the name on the outside, Beauty of Thread, is the name of the store.  Once inside we explained to Jane what happened, and that we needed the robe and possible the water bag fixed also.  “I can fix the robe easily, but the bag will take some special thread, and it will cost quite a bit more.  You ok with that boyfriend?”  That’s jane’s particular way of addressing me after the first time we came here.  “Yes that is fine, and thank you Jane for your help.”  Even if she pokes fun at me, she has been a huge help with multiple things.  “Thank you, Jane.”  “No problem sweetie, why don’t you look around see if you find anything you like while I get these fixed up.”  For the next fifteen minutes we all were looking at clothes for Robin, in the end she only found one that she liked.  It was a plain sleeveless white dress that went down to her ankles.  “Hey John come here.”  Seems like Jane finished with our stuff.  “Done already?”  “Yes, but I seemed to have missed your new friend when I was talking to you earlier.  Kind of short, didn’t think Robin would have competition so soon?”  Jane gives me a smile while trying to tease me.  “I have already told you me and Robin are not in a relationship, and that is Alex a male goblin that joined our group recently.”  Jane seems surprised, but I am not sure if it's that Alex is a goblin or that he is a he.  For some reason she has it that I am some sort of player.  “If you say so, but seems like a nice fellow if Robin is acting normally around him.  Anyways he is your stuff just come to the counter when you're all ready and I will add it to your total.”  She is right, I am also a little surprised at how easily Robin took to having Alex around.  Even I am still getting used to it.  I take the robe and bag that are now nicely patched up and call Robin and Alex over to the counter.  We pay for the fixes and Robin’s new dress.  Total it cost two gold, seems like the thread Jane used for the water bag cost quite a bit.

With our errands all done, we headed straight for the library, and it didn’t take long to find it.  A building just as big as the guild was only a couple feet from the inner city wall.  The outside of the building looked amazing as there were tons of statues, probably all very famous people.  There were polished stone stairs leading up to the front doors of the library that only added to the grand feeling of it.  When we stepped inside a cold breeze rushed at us, inside you could see a huge amount of bookcases, and directly in front was a large half circle table.  I was about to greet the librarian, but all I found was a child where the librarian should be.  “Hello little boy would you happen to know where the librarian is?”  Maybe the kid was left here just for a bit to watch over the desk while the librarian was gone.  “Little boy? It has been a while since I was called that, you must not be familiar with gnomes.”  A voice fit for someone in their mid forties came from the little boy and as he looked up from the table I could see that he was not some kid.  “Oh I am very sorry, I am a traveler and I have never seen a gnome before.”  “Hm so you're the new traveler I have heard about, killed a hobgoblin on his first quest is what I have heard.  And his companion the lizard sic witch variant, ah but I don’t think I have heard of your new companion.”  Huh how does he know all this?  “Travelers aren’t that rare, but a special traveler will be watched, maybe you shouldn’t tell everyone you meet what you are?”  Wait people have been watching me?  I mean I have been telling people that I am a traveller, but I didn’t think it would have negative effects.  “Why would people care about me?”  The gnome gives me a look like I am stupid.  “As I said special travelers are different, they have a habit of becoming very important people.  I would be more careful.”  He is kind of scaring me know, but point taken I won’t tell everyone I meet I am a traveler.  “Thank you for your advice, also we are looking to gain information on elements, where would we find that.”  “If you are looking to read book then you will need to pay a fee or become a member, five silver for membership, or one silver for the fee.”  I am sure we will come here more than five time so the membership if better.  “Three memberships please.”  I handed over the one gold and five silver to the gnome.  Who then took out a stamp, “Show me your guild cards, I will stamp them, and that will be your proof of membership.”  As he said we all took out our cards and he stamped them, when I got mine back there was a engraving of a book on the bottom right of the card.  “The books you are looking for will be on the second floor under the sign that reads elements.”  With a quick thank you, we followed the gnomes instructions and found the area as he said.  I started reading through the titles, til I found what I was looking for.  Guide to the elements, hopefully this is exactly what I am looking for.  

I start reading through and find most of the information I already know.  Six elements, elements affect evolutions, and elements change you, but the book goes more indepth.  It says that each element not only affects you physically it also affects you mentally.  Fire element increases strength, but also causes you to be more aggressive.  Earth increases defense, but also causes you to be more stubborn.  Air increases your speed and reflexes, but also increases the need for stimulus.  Water increases intelligence, but decreases your ability to express emotions.  Light and darkness are newer elements and are still being researched, but the belief is that they increases everything across the board more.  Light focuses slight more on intelligence, while darkness focuses slight on strength.  If you were to put it into numbers, every element increases everything by one, except for their focus goes up by two.  While with light and darkness, everything goes up by one and a quarter with their focus going up by one and a half.  The downside to light is that it increases the person’s need for justice, which doesn’t sound bad, but can interfere with the job of an adventurer.  Darkness’ downside is that they prefer to be alone, and don’t like working with others.  The book continues to say that while even though the effects of each element are known, if the personality of a person it in contrast of the element it will not affect them as much, but someone with the same personality as the element will be affected more.  

It is good that the author of the book added that last part, because while I can see the effects of the element on Robin, and on Emily.  I don’t think it has affected me or Alex much at all.  Though I have been easy going my whole life, so I guess I am in contrast with my element.  Unfortunately the book does not add much more that I didn’t already know.  Done with the book I put it back where I found it.  “Boss, can read this?  To hard to understand.”  Alex holds up a black book with the title, Darkness Technique: Storage.  Isn’t that the ability to store items in smaller space?  I take the book from Alex and start reading it aloud.  “The darkness technique storage is the only technique that is generally available to the public.  The reason for this is that one the technique was originally created by a traveller, he spread the technique to the two main families, one of the families sought to be the sole owner of the technique and tried to destroy the other family.  To try and stop this the other family spread the technique even further.  The family that wanted to covet the technique began to kill anyone that new the technique.  The King decided that the family had gone too far, and decreed that the technique will be know to all so there will be no more fighting, and that the family in the wrong will lose part of their land in the city.  The storage technique can only be done by those of the darkness element.  It is done by using the shadow of the element user.  By targeting their own shadow specifically they can create a realm that exists inside of it.  By following enough darkness element through their shadow the realm will expand.  To grow the realm large enough will usually take a year.”  Wow a pretty violent history to this ability.  “Boss what’s a technique?”  “Um, you know how I make my earth element shape into a staff or shield?  Well that is a technique I use to harden the earth into something I can use.  This technique lets you create a space so that you can store things inside without having to carry it.”  “Boss I want to do that!”  Alex’s enthusiasm shot up once he knew he could learn to do something new.  Deciding to help him I read through the book a few more times, just to make sure I understood it all.  After a couple of hours, I finished reading my fifth book.  Overall most books said the same information about each element, but with a slight variation.  The later books I read were about the different races and variants each one had.  It also talked about the common evolutions, such as for goblins, the common evolution is a hobgoblin.  But in some cases they can evolve into a race called leafling or an imp.  I really hope Alex won’t turn into an imp.  For humans their evolutions have the most variety, vampire, elf, saint, djinn, or nymph just to name a few of the rarer ones.  The common evolution for human is being touched by your element, it doesn’t change your physical appearance much, but it does add a lot of benefits.  Anyways when I finally put the last book down I saw Alex asleep on the table and Robin looking at me.  Looks like I read for a bit too long, from the window I can tell it is already almost dark outside.  “Sorry Robin looks like I got too wrapped up in reading, let's head back to the inn.”  Waking up Alex we headed back.  Over dinner we decided that for the next couple of days we will spend training again.  Alex was really excited to practice the storage ability, and I was knew that I needed to train even harder than before.  I don’t want to get that close to failure again.  I was going to ask Maria if there was an open room so Alex didn’t have to sleep on the floor, but he stopped me, apparently the sleeping bag was more than enough for him.  With the plan set, we all headed to bed making sure we got a good rest, so we can go full speed tomorrow.