We were back in town and Ronia went off to report to the guild about her mission. She said goodbye and then went off with the group. I started walking and checked my inventory. "I'm basically dirt poor. Welp, I guess ima sell some of this iron ore to Dokam for a decent chunk of cash. I'm not going to bother cast this iron into ingots and crud, I barely know any of that. Better for me to just sell it as is."
With that settled I head towards Dokam and arrived. A staff member greeted me and I told them about my iron ore. They smiled and lead me to a warehouse type room with plenty of space and then turned to me. "Please take out all of the iron ore here. Someone will come and inspect it soon." They moved off to the side and waited with their hands behind their back. I simply checked my inventory and started taking all of the iron ore and put it in the warehouse. There was quite a lot since there was over a dozen golems worth of ore. I ended up placing around 21 golems worth of iron ore roughly. I also took out 10 golem cores and placed them next to the iron ore as well. I turned back to the staff and he looked slightly surprised but still professional otherwise.
He coughed and then said "Alright sir, you could wait here, the waiting room, or come back when the evaluation is done. We are rather busy at the moment so the evaluation might take some time." I thought about it and replied with "Can I get the Golem cores sold right away? I'll come back later for the iron ore but I need some money right away."
The man replied with "Yes sir that can be arranged. Please bring the golem cores to the front counter and we will finish the transaction." I brought the cores to the front desk and placed them there where the man used some magic devices to check all sorts of stuff and then when he was finished, looked up at me and said, "I can give you 50 copper per golem core. They seem to be from stone golems hence their price drop. This is the best I can do. In total it will be 5 silver." I was just glad for the money and took out an extra 30 cores to make it 20 silver total and was done with the deal. I had over a hundred stone golem cores left but I was going to be using lot of them for soul caged undead so I didn't want to sell them all.
With my pockets now lined with cash I left for the next store. The assessment was going to be done after 2 hours due to the rush in Dokam's store so I had plenty of time. I walked into my next to stop, a magic tool shop. They sold various magic tools, from stoves that lit themselves with magic to actual combat tools. I perused their stock but didn't buy most of the stuff since it was all rather expensive. '5 silver for the equivalent of magical bugspray?! Thats some expensive bugspray! It even has refills for 1 silver a pop!'. I shook my head at the sheer amount of overpriced crap in this store and just searched for my goal.
After several minutes of searching I found what I was looking for on the 3rd floor of the store. Magical relocation devices. These were devices that most adventurers with a bit of money purchased. Almost anyone with the money bought this over anything else. Sure a better weapon can kill faster and last longer but does it matter when you are going to die anyways? Not really. These devices let you teleport into a prearranged location but cities always forced you to relocate outside the city gates within a designated location. For safety. They couldn't let assassins use magic relocate devices to complete assassinations by teleporting into their targets house now could they?
I looked at the devices and saw that there was the cheap 1 use devices that went for 1 silver and teleported you to outside the city gates and then there were more expensive but multi use versions. I found the one I was looking for, which was the rechargable version with a configurable location. It still didn't let you set it to teleport inside the city but you could decide where to teleport. So you didn't need to buy a new one for every city. I picked this up and went to the front desk. The lady sitting behind the front desk greeted me and told me it was going to cost 13 silver and 50 copper for my purchase. I winced but handed over the money. She tried to get me to buy other random crap but I skedaddled before I got suckered into buying expensive magical bugspray.
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With 6 silver and 50 copper left I went to purchase some refills for my potions. Sure I had my Nercon heard but I wanted something as a backup. I got a bunch of lesser mana and health potions for a total of 3 silver. I left the store and mumbled "I'm just not able to have money am I? I feel like god's playing a prank on me by stealing all of my money the second I earn it...At least I have 3 silver left."
As if god heard me and didn't like the idea of me still owning money I remembered I needed to get my sword repaired because it took quite a beating. I went to a nearby blacksmith and they said it would cost me 1 silver and 25 copper for the repair. I handed the money over and then left to buy some lunch while I wait. I bought some skewers and a drink for 20 coppers and ate them at a table nearby.
I was finishing my meal when I heard someone pass by while talking and say "Did you hear? Now theres a necromancer about and he's kidnapping people! Security is going to get tighter in the city I heard from my friend at the guild!". The person walking with them laughed and replied "Yeah but did you hear they are calling the church to help root out the necromancer? They are sending some priests and even a Retributionist of Light! That scum's so dead! Haha!"
I choked on my water and started coughing after hearing that. I took a minute to collect myself and started thinking in overdrive. The church? That's not good. Shit, didn't the church's Retributionist's have some sort of detection skill to detect evil or some crud? It was in the lore of the game but I didn't see it used ever. I was hoping it wasn't a real skill but I was starting to despair. I then made plans to ditch this city and fast. I wasn't going to stick around for no retributionist and his possy to come hang me, no sir! It was time for the mighty Zane Northwood to make a tactical retreat!
I got up and cleaned myself up and then went back into the store to get my sword. I collected it and then checked the time. It was 4:31pm so the ore should have been evaluated and tallied up with a price. I started walking towards Dokam's store with my mind whirring with thoughts. I was going to talk with Ronia and her group to see if they wanted to leave as well but I was leaving regardless of their decision. "Hmm, whats a good place thats nearby? Nah that village's too small. Hmm...Right! I can head to the dungeon city of Modran! Great place to get cash and exp. I wanted to screw with the Erabalt dude some more but I gotta dip now."
With my plans of heading for the dungeon city of Modran I quickened my pace to Dokam's store. I turned a corner and saw 2 people I didn't expect to see ever again. I freaked for a minute before remembering they didn't see my face.
Up ahead was none other than Jarrl and Berk! They were walking around along with a contigent of other guards that looked like they worked for sir Erabalt. I started to dip into a side street, hoping to not get seen by them ,but not before seeing what they were dragging along as cargo. There was a big cage filled with dozens more slaves. It seemed they had bought out a slave trader of all of their slaves recently. There was also a few familiar faces in the bunch. Some of the escaped slaves had been recaptured and were being taken along. They were heading off back towards the golem dungeon and I saw there was more than double the slaves I saw last time. Along with several adventurers they had hired as guards.
"They really didn't enjoy that attack last time did they? Man they are really upping their game." I took one last look at the slaves but shook my head. I had bigger fish to fry and more important things to do. One of those things involved fleeing this city for my life. I dipped into the side alley after taking one last look at the slaves and guards while some of the slaves looked at me and a few seemed to recognize me, which wasn't good. This city just became a crockpot of trouble real quick and it was time for me to leave.