Chapter 7 I Break the Law
I could smell the town before I could see it. Sulfur, most likely from the hot springs. It wasn't very strong. I could still smell the manure that had been left by the passing animals on the road, but it was a very distinctive scent. The residents of the town probably became nose blind to it after a while.
The wall was made of wood and had a walk where I could see people in uniforms keeping watch. There were towers placed in intervals to either side of the gate. They probably had towers going all the way around the town.
The town was far bigger than I was expecting. If the size of the outer walls were any indication it was huge. I would dare to call it a small city rather than a town. It was possibly bigger than the town I grew up in back home.
There was some minor activity at the gate. I stood in line and waited while a man with a string of cows talked with the guard. The last cow in line flicked its tail at my face and I backed up. Perhaps queuing up behind a 1600lb beast with unknown temperament wasn't wise.
A second guard came out of a room to the side of the gate. She had her blonde hair braided and pinned on top of her head in a bun. Her skin was slightly on the tanned side. Her build was delicate, and she was on the shorter side of average. Her uniform hid her chest, but you could still see the slight curve that let you know something was there.
She wore the same blue and gray uniform as the other guard, but she wore a loose flowing, blue, knee-length skirt instead of pants. There was a poofy garment that made the skirt stand up a bit, were those called petticoats? Whatever they were called, the underlayer of the skirt fell a bit further than the blue upper layer and was trimmed in a gray lace to match the rest of the blue and gray uniform. Black boots similar to my own were worn. She had the same matching short sword as the other guard but also had an unstrung bow and quiver slung over her shoulder.
We made eye contact, she had stormy grey eyes. I didn't blush. Thank you Poker Face. Her eyes got a bit wide when she took in my appearance. To be fair I had washed the dirt and blood off myself, but I probably still looked like a walking triage case. It wasn't like I had anything to bind the wounds with, that wasn't my underwear, and they were still dripping blood. It was only my lower half that had been damaged. My upper body was still intact.
"Are you OK?" she asked walking up to me concern written on her face.
*Name- Lotte Lanister
Level- 19
1750/1750
Human- Female
Age- 18
Yellow Springs Guard~
"I was attacked by a Red Wolf on the way here." I tried to smile in a reassuring way.
"I see," she tilted her head in thought, "are you new to Yellow Springs? Here for vacation, work, or would you like to file for residency?"
"Work first, I do plan on living here while working."
"If you plan on living inside the town for longer than a month you will need to fill out the forms for residency." She nodded crossing her arms. "Do you have your identification card on you? You don't look to be carrying anything." Then she frowned, "Will you be able to pay the town tax?"
"There's a tax?" I asked dismayed.
"Hum, yes, but as long as you pay the tax before you leave the town, it's fine. If you are unable to pay the tax you will be forced to work for the town until the debt is repaid." She looked me up and down again. "Please follow me. We can get the paperwork started and check your identification." She held out her hand leading me to the room she had just come from.
"Can I get a new card here? I currently don't have one."
"Yes you can, but the cost of the card will be added to your debt. Will that be fine with you?"
"It shouldn't be an issue," I said sitting at a rough wooden table she directed me to. She picked up a large flat circular stone off a shelf and placed it in the middle of the table. Then she put a piece of paper and a blank card under it.
"Put your hands here and here," she placed both her hands on either side of a small magic circle etched into the stone. She lifted her hands and I placed mine where hers had been. She put her finger in the middle of the stone circle.
"All Seer sees all. Identification required," She said and the stone glowed with a golden light, then stopped. A small piece of paper and what was obviously an ID card, because of the intricate seal in the corner, lay under her finger. She handed me the card and read the paper.
Eri Veritas
Level- 11
Human- Male
Age- 18
Occupation- Unemployed
Residency- Yellow Springs
Debt- 43 copper to be paid by 10.10
43 copper, I wonder if that was a lot. I still didn't know how the currency worked here. There wasn't any information on it in my map or in the books in my inventory.
"This looks good," she said placing the paper on the table and putting the stone back on its shelf. While she was digging through a drawer I looked at the paper upside down. It was the same information that was on my card but with a few more lines.
Status Anomaly- None
Titles- Devotee of Amoris
Oracle of Amoris
Grateful Petitioner
Enemy of Apes
For a second I wondered if those titles were normal. Then I wondered how my nickname became my first name and my real name my last name.
"Um, this isn't quite right," I said holding up the card. She placed the papers and a metal stick on the table.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"My true name is Veritas, but I go by the name Eri." I handed her the card. She frowned and glanced back at the paper on the table.
"You're not a noble?" She muttered to herself. "I should have caught that." She stood up and went to the door calling for the other guard. She showed him the paper. He nodded and ran off somewhere into the town.
"I've requested for my supervisor, I've never come across this issue before," she said. "It's odd that the All Seer would give you a last name and you not to have a noble title."
"Do all nobles have last names?" I asked.
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She paused, looked at me oddly. "Of course. It's against the law for a commoner to carry a last name."
"Am I in trouble?" I didn't want to be arrested for something that was most likely Amoris' fault.
"It is illegal to have a last name without a noble title, so technically yes. We sometimes get people who try to pass as nobles. Merchant sons with too much money taking a last name. They think that if they are noble they can get away with all sorts of misconduct. That doesn't seem to be the case here though. You don't have any Status Anomaly, and from what you said one name is a nickname and the other your true name. It doesn't work that way for people faking nobility. So you shouldn't be in trouble. Maybe the All Seer is malfunctioning. I've never heard of it doing so, but there are always firsts for everything. By the way, my name is Lotte, it's short for Charlotte." She held out her hand.
I noticed how she kept the fact that she did have a last name quiet. She probably had her reasons, but I had to remember not to mention it by accident.
"Nice to meet you, Lotte. I hope we can get this straightened out. Would a Blessing mess with the All Seer's readings?" That's right, set up the groundwork to blame it all on Amoris.
"You have a Blessing?" She shook her head and sighed. "It's possible, I mean us mortals can never really predict what kind of gifts that gods will give us. Normally, it's not standard to ask, but when my supervisor gets here you should tell him about this Blessing. In the meantime, I've filled out your residency forms and you just need to sign here. When you find a place to stay you will need to fill this form out and return it here, or at city hall."
She handed me a small stack of papers and had me read and sign. I got to keep a condensed copy just for myself.
"Now to do something about that. I'm not a temple healer, but even I can fix something like that." She pointed at my leg.
"You can fix it?"
"I was hired by the guard partly due to the healing skill." She smiled and knelt by my leg.
A golden light surrounded both her hands. As she touched my leg I could see the bite mark close and heal, not even leaving a scar.
*Skill Gain- Healing Hands~
I activated that right away with the 10 Exp I got from gaining the skill.
"Thank you"
"No problem just treat me to a meal sometime and we'll be even."
"Of course," I agreed. It would be fun and slightly nerve-wracking to have dinner with this girl.
"Out of curiosity, what are your immediate plans for employment? It's not often you see an Oracle not being a priest. It does happen, I guess." She pulled out a metal pot and a metal tin from a shelf. She placed the pot on a cast-iron tripod with a large red stone underneath the pot. She lifted the lid of the pot and took a blue stone from the same shelf. Suddenly, water poured out of the blue stone like a faucet. She added leaves from the tin, then the red stone caught on fire. That was really cool. "Don't misunderstand, with all the gods there are more than a few Oracles in this town, but most of them are priests. Do you plan to enter the priesthood?" She asked as she brewed a pot of tea.
"No, becoming a priest isn't high on my list of career choices. I was hoping to sell some things. I've got several Green Tailed Apes and two Red Wolves carcasses I was hoping someone would buy. I also have some Strawberries I could sell. I've also been informed that I should find a priest of Amoris, that they would be willing to buy some items from me. After that, I'm open for suggestions."
The tea she handed me was amazing. The scent alone was heavenly. I was never a tea drinker back home, but if the tea was this good here consider me converted. It didn't even need sugar.
*Title Gain-Lover of Leaves~
Perhaps I should stop being surprised anymore. What kind of dumb title was that?
"Did you leave them outside? I didn't see any baggage?"
What? Oh, I really should pay more attention to my conversation partner.
"I have a Blessing from Amoris," I explained the Inventory Bracelet to her and even produced some strawberries and a chocolate bar for us to enjoy with our tea.
"You will be able to sell the monsters at the Adventurers Guild. Even if they aren't dismantled someone there should be able to do it for you for part of the profit. There is currently a quest out for Red Wolves so they should be selling at a higher than normal price. You should be able to make enough money to be able to get a room for a week, pay off your debt, and have a little left over to spare if you sell this many.
"You should consider registering with the Guild. You can do quests for them as long as you are registered. I'm a member myself; you can have your main job and do Guild quests in your spare time.
"You'll need some better equipment though. You can get some cheap gear at the guild, but for the better quality stuff you will want to go to the marketplace." She bit into the chocolate and it was as if everything stopped. Her face froze up for a second and then a huge smile.
"This stuff is amazing!" Lotte gushed biting into the chocolate. She was rushing through the first milk chocolate bar.
"I can give you a few of them, but if you eat too many you will get fat," I warned producing a few more bars of each type.
"We wouldn't want that now would we?" A deep baritone voice said from the door. Lotte stood up quickly and saluted with the chocolate still in her hand. "Sit down girl," the man said dragging a chair from the desk in the corner.
I didn't think they made them bigger than the Viking Gorilla. If you stood this man side by side with the Viking Gorilla, this guy would have been at least three inches taller and about 40 pounds heavier.
Unlike the Viking Gorilla, this guy I liked immediately. Brown hair that looked like he just woke up, blue-gray eyes and a smile fit for a toothpaste commercial. If he had been on Earth he would have been picked up by some 'Smell Like a Man' advertising campaign. He had an amazingly friendly face and a smile that was so welcoming it was infectious. He seemed to be a genuinely happy person and it was nearly impossible not to like the man when he looked you right in the eyes and grinned like a little boy.
"My name is Sturgis, I'm one of the captains in this town." He picked up one of the bars on the table undid the paper and took a big bite. "This stuff is good! You planning on selling this boy?" He took a huge bite and ate with even more enthusiasm than Lotte.
*Name- Sturgis
Level- 28
5232/5232
Human- Male
Age-31
Captain Yellow Springs Guard ~
If that introduction pop up happened every time I met someone I would go nuts. I appreciated the Gamer Glass, I really did. However, I felt like I was being sent pop-ups on my computer and I had to keep tweaking my spam filter. While the Captain was still chewing I located the toggle to turn off automatic introductions and changed the settings so that I only got an introduction pop up when it was requested. It took seconds, but the happy looking Hulk was still waiting for my answer.
"Yes sir, but I've been instructed to let the Priests of Amoris buy some first. It is part of Amoris' Blessing after all."
"Hum, I see here that you are a Devotee of Amoris and her Oracle." He waved the paper with my status on it in the air. "What is this stuff called?"
I explained again about my inventory and about the chocolate. Then Lotte explained the problem with my name.
"This isn't the first time I've seen this happen. It's rare, but it does happen. There was a woman who came here about 7 years ago. We thought the All Seer was broken sent for a magician from the capital to look at it. Turns out the All Seer was fine. The problem was with the woman," he said, pouring himself a cup of tea and eating a strawberry.
"Problem?" Lotte asked. She had slowed down on her bar and was just nibbling at the end between sips of tea.
"Well, not so much a problem. The magician said that it sometimes happens with people who are Devotees of Amoris. The magician didn't know why it happens, most of them think it's a glitch caused by the Goddess. She has a tendency to do that. So, even though it's rare, it's common enough that we have paperwork for it." He stood up and produced some papers from a bag on his hip.
"Don't lose this," He ordered handing me an official-looking document with a silver seal at the bottom. "This makes it official that your name is Eri Veritas. You are granted special dispensation for having a last name without a noble title. As long as you have this, you can't be prosecuted for violating the law. Do not lose it," he emphasized again. "If you do I can't just give you another one. You will have to go to the capital to have your status checked by the Great All Seer at the Magician's College before you can be given a new one."
We enjoyed our tea and I promised I'd stop by to see Lotte by the end of the week to let her know where I was living and how I was doing. Sturgis teased her a bit, but in the end, she made me promise to return my paperwork here at the gate and not at city hall.
She also handed me a map she had sketched by hand showing where the Adventurers Guild, Amoris Temple, and a circle with a star that she said was a local tavern that rented rooms. Sturgis was standing there laughing out right when he saw the map. The map was completely incomprehensible. He was kind enough to offer to take me to the Adventurers Guild himself since it was on the same route as the town jail where the city guard had officer offices. I agreed to follow him and we left Lotte waving to us until we were out of site.
Name- Eri Veritas
HP 1954/2335
Level- 11
Age- 18
Race/Species- (Human) Unknown
Gender- (Male) Unknown
Occupation- Unemployed
Exp- 192
Physical Power- 220
Stamina- 278
Defense- 348
Agility- 489
Intelligence- 84
Magic Power- 8
Metal Rain Lv 1
Healing Hands Lv 1
Paralysis Resistance Lv 3
Skills
Staff Fighting Lv 2
Basic Sword Lv 2
Skull Bashing Lv 2
Martial Arts Lv 2
Spear Lv 1
Stalking Lv 1
Jumping Lv 1
Running Lv 2
Pain Tolerance Lv 3
Deception Lv 2
Poker Face Lv 1
Etiquette Lv 3
Rock Throwing
Dancing
Harvesting
Small Talk
Racial Ability-
Hidden Among the Masses- 20
Stealth- 95
Items Equip
Inventory Bracelet
Debt- 43 copper- Yellow Springs
Blessing 1- All Map Exploration
Blessing 2- Exp Points Required by Level Up / Current Level
Blessing 3-Exp Increase X Current Level
Blessing 4- Item- Gamer Glasses
Titles- Devotee of Amoris
Oracle of Amoris
Grateful Petitioner
Lover of Leaves
Enemy of Apes