As I am about to walk through the door, Jim shouts, “Wait Rordon, don’t go yet!”
“I haven’t fully explained everything to you, I still need to give you some proof that your family is alright. I also meant to ask, you’ve been relatively complacent through all of this, why is that?” Jim asks, tilting his head slightly.
“To answer the question about me being complacent, it’s because I’ve mentally prepared myself for a situation akin to this. Although to be honest, I’m quite scared on the inside, and worried about my wife and children.” Rordon replies, his legs slightly shaking.
“Well, good thing I have an answer to the problem of the well-being of your wife and kids.” He pulls up a screen, showing a small video of my wife and children.
“It’s actually a timelapse of their lives, it shows their peaceful lives after your death. Your wife eventually moves on after a year and find a great person who would support her and the kids. The kids all grow up, go to college, and find great partners for themselves too.”
I look at the video, a small clip plays of my wife and children grieving, bringing tears to my eyes. It quickly switches from them grieving, to my wife meeting another man. I feel slightly jealous, but it is completely acceptable. This video continues on until my kids grow old, and it ends there.
“You can keep the video on you, for assurance that they will be alright. Also, about the fact of me contacting you periodically. Time, that’s what I think you call it, will pause, enabling me to visit you whenever without revealing myself. I’ll contact you about once a year, anyways, it’s about time you got along on your journey!”
Jim wraps his arm around me, leading to the door. “Oh, by the way, you’ll start off with some basic equipment and such, have fun!” The door quickly opens, revealing a grassy hill, and Jim pushes me through. I fall onto the hill, the impact hurting my legs. I quickly twist my body to look behind me. I see Jim waving as the door closes and eventually disappears, leaving me alone in an unknown world. I look around, the calm breeze sending a small shiver down my spine. I spot a wooden wall off in the distance, and I begin to head that way.
After a bit of a walk, I arrive at the entrance to the town, it is bustling with activity, the smell of street foods and various spices fill my nose. I walk over the uneven bridge over the large moat, the sounds of people nestle in my ears. As I aimlessly wander around, I find myself walking into an alley to get away from the crowd and get somewhere quieter. There, I have my first potentially dangerous encounter.
“Hee hee! Looks like someone wandered into my trap!”, someone behind me says, sending a chill down my spine and reminding me of my encounter back on Earth. This time however, I’m a bit more prepared than I was before. I spin around quickly to face my attacker, a flash slightly blinds me, and my arm buries itself into the unknown attacker. Instead of nothing good happening, he blasts off into the wall of a building, leaving only a stinging sensation on my hand and a fairly wounded man. A trail of smoke is left drifting from my arm as the town guard comes rushing into the alley to check the source of the noise. Two armored men rush in to grab me before they take a look at the man and let me go.
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“Sorry sir, we didn’t realize you were the one being attacked! This man is a local troublemaker, the wounds he has received might set him straight. Thanks for helping out!” The town guardsman says, light reflecting off his surprisingly shiny armor.
“No it’s fine, I just have two questions. Where exactly is this town, and where is the nearest inn?”
“To answer your odd first question, This is the town of Hafeld, located within the Kingdom of Hombarion incase you didn’t know. Also, the nearest inn is The Spear of Fire, just down the street.”
“Thanks for helping me, also, why are there so many people in town today?”
“That’s because this is the week we open our gates to people from all around Beauchorus, various traders and such come from everywhere to our town to trade goods and the like.”
“Well, that was very useful information, thank you, sir!”
With that, I head off to The Spear of Fire.
After a brief walk, I find myself in front of a set of doors, above is a sign that reads “The Spear of Fire” describing the picture below it. I push open the doors and walk into the cozy and warm inn. A slightly overweight dwarf mans the counter and practically yells to me, “Hello there young traveler! Might you be looking for a place to rest for a while?”
“I am searching for a place to settle down for a bit miss,” I reply while the sound of a crackling fire grabs my attention.
“Feel free to call me Gwali my boy! How long do you plan on staying?” She still yells, but this time closer to my face, I feel her booming voice slightly shaking me.
“I don’t really know right now, but potentially a week or two for now. How much will that be?”
“Should cost roughly 55 stone denarus, or 5 bronze and 5 stone denarus. This includes lodging, free meals at the kitchen, and a ticket for unlimited trips to the bathhouse in the price.”
“Sounds good to me, let me check if I have it” Shit, I never learned how to access any of my statuses and such. I feel around my body until I touch what seems to be a coin purse. I pull it off, and a window pops up in front of me with text that says, “Select amount to withdraw”. I push the amounts up to 5 bronze and 5 stone denarus, and in the bag, the coins appear. I slowly open the bag dump the coins into my hand, and I hand them over to Gwali.
“You’re all set, my boy! The room is upstairs, third door on the left!”
“Thanks, Gwali!” I say with a smile as I walk up the stairs and to my room. I open the door to a decent sized room with a desk, a chest for storage, and a sizeable bed. It seems the inskeep has kept good care of her rooms as mine is almost pristine. I take off my shoes, plop onto the bed, and stare at the ceiling.
“This is an unfamiliar ceiling isn’t it.” I think to myself as I slowly drift off to sleep.
Somewhere in the town jail…
“Stupid cunt thinks he can put me in jail eh? Well, we’ll see about that when he comes under attack from our cult!” Says the beaten thief, laughing maniacally in his cold cell.
“Pipe down in there you dickwit!” says a guard.
“Yes sir…” the thief says, with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.