It was almost noon, the sun was blazing and Arata lazed under a weird, cartoonishly spherical tree discussing his next move with his only companion/homicider.

"We could just wander around and explore, try to scavenge some stuff, how bout that?" He Pondered.

"Sounds boring, what's the first thing people usually do in a d&d session?"Jazz yawned.

In Arata's mind immediately plopped into existence his friends, who were almost all self-proclaimed 'men of culture', which basically meant that they were all perverted degenerates.

"I guess they usually try to seduce the first living female they stumbled upon."

"Tempting, but not what I had in mind."

"..."

"Hey, ask me what I have in mind, you jerk."

"Ugh fine, what do you have in mind, my hooved astral master?"

"Rampant alcohol abuse in the nearest tavern."

"I'm 17."

"Who gives a fuck, no one cares about that here, it's literally safer to drink beer than water in this world! Geez what a buzz kill. Don't be such a Mr. Goody two-shoes and get your ass to the town!"

Arata had to admit that mild poisoning sounded much better than water induced dysentery.

"Wait, will I understand the language?"

"Although my previous proxies didn't survive the landing or died gruesome deaths soon after, I managed to gather enough information about the most basic and common language. I've already injected it into your brain."

"Would you maybe ask first, you know, before you do some weird shit to my brain from now on? Anyway care to tell me the side effects of that?"

"Nothing important, just a minor damage to a few unimportant childhood memories."

To tell the truth, Arata was pleasantly surprised by the miniscule amount of brain injury caused by the psychic injection. Which was bit unsettling in its own right.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Eh It could be worse, let's go."

The town was surrounded by a shabby stone wall. Two guards who couldn't care less about Arata's existence stood at the gate. Light acrobatics and a fine body-coordination was the bare minimum for navigating the treacherous stone-paved streets which reeked of manure. This settlement clearly wasn't blessed with the wonders of canalisation and underground plumbing. Some people peeked at him, mainly because of his unfamiliar clothes, but no one payed attention to him for a prolonged period of time. After all, Cerebil, which was the only significant settlement for a lot of days on the trade route, already seen all sorts of people.

Few minutes passed and Arata found himself standing before his goal. He thought that The Limping Hippo was a pretty odd name, but he understood, why the pub had such a peculiar name, as soon as he stepped inside. The innkeeper was a burly man with a peg leg, mono-eyebrow, big curly mustache and, deducing from the name of the establishment, a very keen sense of humour.

"What would you like, young lad?"

So what's our plan?

Act naturally and hope he doesn't ask for money upfront.

Alright, I'm engaging plan A, the Dine n' dash

"A beer and some food please."

"Tankard of beer with bread it is, that'll be four copper coins."

Fuck

What will we do now Jazz?

Egh I don't know, don't push me! Use your charisma and smooth talk us out of this situation!

"I'm sorry, I am dirt poor, I don't have a single coin."

...If I had a physical body here, I would slap you right now.

Hey, It's not my fault, it was your stupid plan!

OUR plan, you AGREED to it!

I didn't exactly had a choice, did I?

"Oh don't worry boy, we can always strike a deal that's favorable for both parties. After all, there are - other - ways of payment."

Hey, it looks like your bewitching charm worked. Now you'll just have to sell your body and everything will be swell!

What part of THAT is 'swell'?! If I'll ever see a unicorn, I'll gut it right in front of you!

Ah, No, you wouldn't!

Oh, I WILL.

"No need to look so startled like that, young man. Just bring me some specific flower species and we'll call it a deal. I'll even throw in three nights in the stables."

That's the deal of a century! Maybe your charisma IS indeed better than that of a potato!

"Thanks, I'll take the errand."

"Wonderful, here's a rough location of the plants."

He took out a piece of pergamen and sketched with a quill a small map.

Arata had to admit that the map looked pretty solid to his untrained eye.

"And that's the beauty that I need."

The Innkeeper brought to life a top notch botanical drawing with just a few strokes.

"It's called blunderdruff, bring it with sufficient amount of roots."

"You know, the inn is my job but uncovering the mysteries of nature is my true passion."

Arata's mind was completely derailed by the dissonance between that big guy's looks and hobies. In the end, it could be very well said that the pub didn't appear to be the highest priority within the Innkeeper's heart.

"The name's Wilbur, by the way."Said the mustachioed entrepreneur as he offered to shook hands.

"I'm Arata" The nearly-attempted dine-n'-dasher gladly accepted.