Alvaro has finished checking his statistics, he knows what he wants to do, his obsession with luck is unmatched, he wants to see how far it can go. He stood there at the alley, the crook that tried to mug him is still unconscious on the ground. Alvaro had an excellent physical structure that he maintained for years by exercising and eating properly. His diet consisted of mostly meat and grains because he claimed that's what he needed for the gains. Pasta, rice, and chicken in different forms, fried, roasted and in chicken nuggets. Alvaro had his mind focused on how to build up his muscle mass and he figured that chicken contains a lot of protein. Also having a couple of protein shakes a day helped a lot. Due to this routine, his physical strength was enough to knock down a normal person. He spent a couple of seconds going through the crook's stuff to see if he can get anything but he didn't find anything valuable apart from the knife he had.

"Hm...No loot? I guess that's what I get for a small fry like him."

He was disappointed that he didn't find anything but that didn't stop him from venturing forward, he walked back to the main trade street where every merchant was yelling advertising their merchandise. Without any information, he wanted to find out more about the place that he was at the moment. He knows that there is magic in this world but how to learn to use it is another task. For now he decided to pick up the knife and hide it in his belt. He saw many people walking around carrying weapons but he didn't really want to make it obvious he was armed.

"What's the next step? If I am not mistaken, I should try to find an adventurer's guild. Places like that will provide a lot of information about this new world. Who am I kidding? Why would I go to such a place? I need money. I am sure there must be some kind of game to play for money around here. I'll try asking around."

Alvaro started to ask the same question to every person he saw at the market, he asked a couple of elderly merchants if there is some kind of gambling place he could go to play and earn some money. He also stopped some people walking around in their tracks to ask them. They all seemed to give off the same answer though.

"You shouldn't do anything like that."

After getting such an answer from everyone, he came to the conclusion that gambling is viewed very negatively by the people of this town, as such he decided to move to another town. Alvaro didn't want to stay to this place if things are like that. These people know what he is asking them about but they are denying to give him any information. They all seem to be a bit scared to the idea of gambling.

Alvaro left the market and walked towards the tallest building he could see, he figured that the biggest building would be someplace to find a guard to confirm his theory. He did find 2 guards standing watch outside the building that from up close seemed to be some kind of library. From what he could see through the front door were some selves and bookcases filled with books. He didn't bother going in though, instead, he walked up to one of the guards and asked him,

"Good morning, can you tell me about gambling in this town?"

The guard seemed confused, Alvaro thought that he might not know the term gambling so he rephrased his question,

"What I want to know is if I can play some games to earn money in this town."

The guard finally understood what Alvaro was asking him. He looked at him weirdly and he answered his question,

"I don't know where you are from, sir. In this town of Drenoah we won't tolerate any such business. It is illegal to bet money on anything and I would recommend you to stay away from such things. I have seen many people lose their entire fortunes and wealth in a single night. Lord Dreno has banned all such games in this town. You would do good to remember that."

Alvaro was disappointed once again, people can walk around carrying knives and swords but gambling is strictly banned? What kind of joke is that? He left the presence of the guard and walked to another part of the town that he hasn't seen yet. While walking in an almost empty street he kind of lost track of time, it was sundown, he looked around and he saw the sun setting ever so slowly. That's when he realized something, he needed a place to spend the night, the only thing he has on him is a knife, a gold coin and some dice that he had on him at all times for gambling. Before the sun was completely set, he walked back to the busy street to find a place to sleep, he came across a couple of people that pointed towards an inn, Black Shroud Inn. A place that's supposed to have affordable accommodation and good food. Alvaro walked inside and the first thing he noticed was that the place was filled with shady characters. All of them were dark capes and one person was sitting at each table, silently drinking some local wine and ale.

"Are you kidding me? What kind of cliche scene is this? What's going to happen now? Are they all gonna turn around and look at me like they want to kill me? Maybe one of them is going to put his leg in my way for me to bump into it and cause a scene for no apparent reason."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

That was the first thought that Alvaro had. Without hesitation, he walked to the bar, there a middle-aged man asked him politely,

"Good afternoon, what can I do for you? Are you a traveling merchant? Do you need a place to stay or maybe a drink?"

The bartender seemed very kind, not fitting with the whole scene, all the other men in their robes didn't pay attention to Alvaro at all, that picked his interest a bit so he asked the bartender what this whole thing was about.

"Why is everyone wearing capes? Is there some sort of dress code in this place?"

The bartender was wiping dry some freshly washed glasses as he answered Alvaro's question.

"No, they are all merchants, Black Shroud Inn takes its name from the usual traveling merchant attire, every human merchant dresses like that so that they can be recognized by the guards at the front gate. Funny that you would mention their attire though."

Alvaro was confused by that remark,

"Why is it funny, old man?"

The bartender was a bit offended by Alvaro's tone and for calling him old but he swallowed the comment and replied to his question.

"The fabric of your clothing and the fine threads holding it together, I have never seen such masterfully crafted clothing. If you are some sort of aristocrat that I don't know, my apologies."

"Masterfully crafted? Of course, to chimps like you that live in this middle age time, machine crafted clothes would seem like masterpieces. I can pull of some serious bullshit with  my school uniform it seems."

Thought Alvaro as he tossed the gold coin at the bartender,

"I want a room."

The bartender looked at the coin and he put it in his pocket, that was the only money Alvaro had and he decided to spend it at this inn, the bartender walked around the bar to escort Alvaro to the room that he rented.

"This is the room, it's yours for a day."

Alvaro was shocked, that gold coin gave him just one day at the inn. He suspected that for a whole gold coin he could get a lot more days worth of accommodation. Since he already acted with arrogance, he can't take back the coin and refuse to take the room. That would compromise his bullshit of acting like an important person. He decided to go to the room and spend some time there. Before leaving, the bartender also informed Alvaro,

"With the room, you can get 2 free drinks. Whenever you are ready, sir."

Alvaro wanted to smack that guy in the face. There was no indication of the price for the room and also there was no price tag anywhere, how is someone supposed to find a good bargain if you don't tell them the prices? He also mentioned 'human' merchants, implying that there are other races in this world. That's what Alvaro found out. There are probably different races, what happens when an outsider comes to this town and he wants to compare prices with different inns? He wanted to beat the bartender for ignoring that part of the deal but he couldn't really cause a ruckus at the inn unless he wanted to get in trouble.

That's when he had an idea, he walked back to the bar and immediately walked outside, it was now dark. The sun had already set and in its place now was the moon, shining ever so slightly making the streets barely visible. He walked towards an alley when he heard some noise. Alvaro didn't really have a sense of danger and thus he walked to the place where he heard the strange noise. There he saw 2 men hassling a pair of 2 girls, one girl had red hair and she was wearing a very fine scarlet dress. The other was blonde and had pointy ears,

"Hm, no I refuse. What kind of world is this with such bullshit? I REFUSE TO TAKE PART IN THAT CLICHE. On the other hand..."

Alvaro had an idea, he walked towards the harassers who at this point turned to face him,

"What are you scum doing in my town?"

Said Alvaro while looking menacingly at the 2 men. They were confused, they didn't understand what he meant by saying my town. They noticed his clothing and also got the idea that he must be some sort of important person, with that mindset, they abandoned their plan walked away afraid they might get in trouble for that. Then Alvaro approached the girls and saw exactly how cute both of them were. They looked at Alvaro and then the girl with the scarlet dress talked with the sweetest voice possible,

"Thank you. You saved us. I don't know what we could have done if you hadn't shown up."

She said with a charming smile on her lips, the other girl seemed to be a little shy and didn't talk at all. That's when the red-haired girl pushed her gently and prompted her to talk,

"Come on, Megan, don't be shy. This man just saved us, at least thank him. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Ester and this girl is Megan. She is a half-elf and she doesn't really have a lot of social skills when she talks to huma..."

Alvaro then interrupted her and pulled out his knife.

"Who gives a crap about your backstories. Hand over your money."

The girls were shocked, he was mugging them, they were now scared beyond belief as Alvaro had pointed the knife at them, they emptied everything they had in their pouches. Alvaro then counted the amount he managed to get. 18 gold coins and 25 silver coins. That should cover some more expenses for the time being but Alvaro had a different idea about where he wanted to spend the night and probably the coming days as well.

"Go on, get out of here."

He said to the girls who were even more confused at this point,

"You are letting us go? What if we report you for this?"

Said the girl with the red hair. Alvaro sighed and replied.

"You'd better report this, the is a guard over there, tell him to come and arrest me."

The girls hesitated a bit to move but after a couple of seconds they walked towards where Alvaro pointed the guard would be, meanwhile, he hid the pouch with the gold in a safe place nearby, the guard didn't take long to arrive there and he pointed his spear towards Alvaro.

"You are under arrest, you have been committing crimes against this town and her people. What say you in your defense?"

Alvaro sighed once again,

"Nothing, take me to jail."