Although he had planned to eat at the guild at first, the sudden crowd and the fact that he didn't want to meet that man in the meantime made him leave quickly and look for dinner somewhere else. Isaiah chose a random direction to go towards as he knew nothing about this town. The town had changed in the time he spent inside, the once heavy traffic of people had all but disappeared as shops around the paths were preparing to close down. The sky had not yet completely darkened but already, it seemed that everyone was preparing to sleep.
'No nightlife.' Isaiah proceeded down the road and turned many times before coincidentally arriving at a plaza where the stalls were preparing to close down, 'Augh, food, where to find...' He looked around and found a stall that had a hung meat displayed. "Can I have one please?"
The man manning the stall nodded silently and began cutting out pieces from the meat, here, Isaiah could smell the aroma of said meat which attracted his stomach as it silently grumbled. The man then struck the meat with a skewer and handed it to Isaiah, "20 marks."
"Ah, right, wait..." Isaiah fished out his pocket and saw that the lady eating beside him looked rather surprised, 'Am I getting scammed?' He asked himself but the man looked too intimidating to try and challenge and thus Isaiah paid for his food and left,
"Mmmm." He took a bite and felt the sweet and salty flavor of the beef, "Good enough, slightly roasted." He took another bite and savored its sauce, "That said, this might not be enough, and I don't want to be scammed." He looked around the plaza and hunted down another stall, many of the stalls sold all kinds of dishes and even other wares but most were getting ready to close, there were restaurants nearby but Isaiah avoided those as he felt like they would cost him too much if he ate there, he took another bite of his meat and found a stall that wasn't closing down yet, he quickly made his way over and found, "Baked potatoes?"
"Yes sir, wanna try some?" The man spoke in a thick Spanish accent and presented to him a steaming hot potato the size of his fist, "five marks each,"
"Five, wait, wait..." Isaiah fished out his cash and handed it to the man before finding an empty seat and ate his dinner. "The potato, hmm, salty and a bit buttery, is all. Five marks though, I should've just eaten potatoes instead." Isaiah soon finished his meal, but he found that his stomach was still hungry,
He fished out his coins and frowned,
"115 marks left... If an inn cost 100... What about tomorrow? This will be difficult huh," Isaiah pondered over his situation for a moment but as he was doing so, he felt the excitement in his heart slowly die down as hunger began to grow stronger and stronger in his stomach, suddenly everything became gray...
Almost as if the joy in his heart had been sucked out, a bitter cold suddenly surrounded him.
As he looked around, he saw the wooden buildings, the people with their weird clothes, the strange language and foreign culture. This was truly another world, yet rather than happiness, like the same emotion he felt a while back, the only thing he felt was this biting pang in his heart, the horrifying loneliness of being in another world, in a foreign place far out of reach from the comforts of familiarity.
One where he had no hopes of finding help.
He suddenly felt terrified, scared...
Isaiah fell back to his seat,
He now wanted to wake up, he wanted to leave this strange dream of his and move back to the old world,
"This is enough... I've had enough,"
He began to pinch his cheek to wake him up but that didn't work. He began to stomp on his foot and slap himself yet,
"Return back, wake up... Wake up you bastard!"
No matter how hard he added physical stimuli to his body, he would still not wake up. Isaiah then stood up, found a tree, and banged his head as hard as he could at its trunk.
"Aagh!"
He fell to the ground,
Many of the passersby noticed him sitting dazed but none offered to help, they simply turned the other cheek and moved on as they hurried to their homes before night came. Isaiah contemplated his situation, he had banged his head onto the tree but he still hadn't woken up,
"This is reality huh... This is like really real, like the truth... Not a dream or some shit..." He held onto his head and looked at the tree, he banged his head once more thinking that he would be removed from this strange place but sadly, the only thing that happened was his head aching even harder... "Fuck... Fine, whatever..." He stood up, "This is the truth then, so what about it? I've been through worse... What about just having 110 marks, that's nothing, I just have to get through this night and everything will be fine, yeah, everything will be fine... I have magic, really strong magic, I just have to go out there and show off my magic and be rich as fuck in a matter of seconds, yeah, I can do that... I just have to live through tonight, I can make sacrifices, yeah... Yeah."
He found himself nodding along to that weird speech he made and though it didn't improve his mood he did feel slightly less terrible.
"What was I doing, just because I have no money doesn't mean it's time to die... Ahahaha..."
He stared at the clouds for a while as his mood mellowed out, and then he took a deep sigh.
"Right, an inn... So what if it costs 100, and I can live with only ten for tomorrow, life aint all sunshine and rainbow. But first, an inn, or should I sleep in the streets instead." He looked around the place and found some spots that might be good to rest,
But he quickly foregone the notion of sleeping in the streets as even in the modern world with all the advanced safety measures, homeless people still get stabbed and robbed, and if slavery existed here then the chances of him waking up in another slave carriage were very high.
"But where to find an inn." There were plenty of inns at the plaza itself, just beside the restaurants many would display cozy signs with beds and the word inn gets thrown around many times, but he knew they would be very expensive, well beyond the 100 mark Ephillus told him, and considering the cost he may incur for the job tomorrow, Isaiah wanted to save up as much money as he possibly could,
And so he began moving away from the plaza, he wasn't familiar with the place and he was too scared to ask the people for directions as they looked like they were in a hurry so Isaiah simply moved on and on until he found himself in a rather dark and unremarkable street near the harbor, inns were abundant as was obvious by the amount of signage displaying their names right above the houses and they looked cheap too, marketed towards your average man who earned well below a living wage and needed a cheap place to rest.
Isaiah felt enthusiastic about being able to find a cheap place to stay here and only felt even happier when he overheard some of the chatter confirming his theory that this place hosted some cheap inn,
One in particular caught his ears.
"The inns here are pretty cheap, that blue one at the corner costs only 50 marks a day!"
After overhearing their conversation Isaiah quickly scanned the street and found a blue building not too far from him, he quickly made his way over and found that it was an inn. It was quite large, extending all the way to the back of the many inns here, and stood three stories tall. That said, it did look old and decrepit but its tavern was filled with so many people eating and drinking.
Isaiah quickly made his way inside and found a lady standing behind a counter, serving beers.
"Are there any beds available?"
"Yes, you here to stay?" The lady asked in a manner as if she had other more important things to do, "50 marks a day for the shared room, 150 for the solo ones."
"I'd like the shared one thank you."
"I see..." The lady scanned him up and down and reached her hand out, Isaiah gave her a silver coin and she gave him five larger bronze coins, "Up the stairs to your left, there is a room there,"
"Do I need a key?"
"What key? It's a shared room."
"I see... Thank you,"
The lady then shooed him away and Isaiah made his way over the stairs, there were two rooms from where he stood, one to his right and to his left whilst behind were more stairs. As he made his way over to the left room, it was here that his stomach churned,
"Ugh... When she said shared room I thought there would be only two or four of us..."
The place was dark and stank of sweat, and despite the five large windows that breathed air into the room it was quite hot inside. Isaiah moved in and saw three rows of beds placed, the beds being simple mattresses of some kind of stalk. There were ten in each row for a total of thirty, and of the thirty, sixteen were occupied with men sleeping, some snoring, all sweaty and almost naked.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Isaiah felt like he would be violated if he slept here but he had already paid for the inn and the lady downstairs was too intimidating to ask for a refund and so he resigned himself and took the corner most bed on the other side, he laid himself down with his butt pressed against the wall and used his hand as pillow, but try as he might he could not sleep.
The heat of the area made him want to remove his clothes but he feared that they might see the branding on his chest, not just that three guys were singing a chorus of snores loud enough to cause tiny vibrations around, and it was terrible, there was also the fact that he was still hungry, but he ignored all those and concentrated on being able to sleep.
Soon enough, some of the men from downstairs began to arrive in droves and the room became filled in no time at all raising the temperature up by a few degrees. What's worse is that Isaiah's neighbor was this fat middle-aged uncle who stank so much of sweat and alcohol that it made his head ache, the uncle lurched around and even used Isaiah as some sort of body pillow. Isaiah pushed him out causing him to burp an ungodly smell, he covered his nose with his clothes
'To think this is how I would spend my first night at a different place, no wait perhaps its the second...'
It was difficult to fall asleep, especially with all these things violating his nose, but after counting down 392 sheep he had finally drifted into dreamland.
* * *
The inn had an unkept yard that hosted a bathe from behind, the service was free and so the bathe was rather crowded early in the morning. Isaiah waited until the patrons had dispersed before he made his way over, warry of the mark on his chest he even faced the other way. The night before was unbearable, the heat of thirty bodies raised the temperature to uncomfortable levels, but as the day began to rise the cold began to bite.
His body felt flaky and dry from last night and being able to drouse himself in cool water felt refreshing...
'Hah... I wonder how long I have been without a bath.'
As he poured the last bucket of water over his head, he looked around. The bath was free so no amenities were offered, that he could make do, but what he couldn't however was the fact that he had nothing to wipe himself dry with. He only had one shirt and trousers with him as his old rag was thrown off, he scanned his entire surroundings, trying to figure out how to dry himself when he felt the cold morning breeze brush past his body,
He looked up and a thought popped out of his head. He reached up into the sky and pulled his hands down, at once the air above followed after his gestures, wrapping themselves around Isaiah's body they soon blew him dry. Isaiah touched his body, it was perfect. A smile crossed his face as he reached out for his clothes this time, at once his trousers came flying straight to his hands,
'Ah convenience...' Feeling the rough texture of his clothes he nodded, 'That said, I would need new ones...'
The clothes given to him were alright, but it was old and looked like it would soon break, it also didn't help that Isaiah hadn't washed them yet and he could smell a tiny waft of sweat lingering within the backside of his shirt. He raised his trousers into the air and cheered himself, "Here's to finding a good job today."
He left the inn with an empty stomach, the inn only sold food at night and he also didn't want to buy any for now as he had only 60 marks left. He soon arrived at the adventuring guild, at first he was cautious he looked around but didn't find that strange man from yesternight so he went straight for the quest board,
'GG...' [1] A quick glance would show that the quest being offered hadn't changed, long menial jobs with low pay. 'Should I just work on the pier then?' His eyes hovered over to one job in particular which offered 100 marks alongside free lunch as a bonus, it was tempting but it wasn't the type of job he would like, he didn't want to waste away in some wooden pier, sure he could earn money a lot quicker here but he wanted to move around and see the world and above all else be able to level up and get stronger. Unless the kraken kept attacking the pier then there was no hope of him gaining levels.
He moved his eyes even further and saw a listing for the capture of slaves that had escaped the mansion. No rank requirements and at 500 marks per slave it was a rather tempting offer, but Isaiah wasn't going to trade his ethics for money, well not yet anyway. Isaiah waited, looking at the quest being offered when an employee came over and posted a dozen new quests, all of which were ranked bronze.
Isaiah came to examine what was offered and found one in particular that was promising.
***
"So this is the place..." Isaiah looked up and read the wooden sign from above, 'Mercury Potions' and looked back at the quest paper, "Yep it is... Okay," He took a deep breath and entered the small building, he was instantly greeted with the smell of books and wood as plenty of trinkets littered the sides. From glass vials filled with wriggling animals and still plants to books and pungent potions of all kinds of colors, the place was filled with the strangest of things, they were arranged in a way that looked convoluted which made the building resemble more of a teenager's room rather than a shop,
Isaiah continued to walk inside as quietly as he could for no reason, looking at the various paraphernalia around him when he found himself in front of the store owner, but it seemed she was busy pondering over a glass vial,
The middle-aged lady with dark skin spun the vial around and around whilst squinting her eyes, "What is wrong with this? It... It doesn't?" She took a whiff of the potion before placing it down, then from her drawer, she took out a small knife and slightly cut her index finger, allowing blood to gather and drop onto the table before taking a swing at her potion, "Like really, there is nothing wrong he-!" She gagged, her one hand holding her stomach, "Ugh... That, that, ugh." She shook her head and only then did she discover Isaiah staring at her from a distance,
She wiped her face and gave a presentable look but upon seeing the bronze tag on his neck, the smile disappeared,
"So what are you here for?"
"Ohh... I was... This," Isaiah handed her the quest paper, and her brows raised,
"I see..." She took one more look at him, "Are you sure about this?"
"Yep, I am... I can find those leaves for you madam."
"Leaves, those are not just leaves, but whatever..." She handed the paper back to him and looked around, "So where is your troupe?"
"Troupe?"
"Uhh, don't tell me you don't have one."
"Yes, madam, I don't have one."
"Okay..." She nodded slowly,
"But wait, madam, wait, just because I don't have a team doesn't mean I can't complete the task anyway."
"Right," She sounded unconvinced, "Get out, now."
"But wait madam, please, I really need this job,"
"Yeah I know, but tough luck, go look for another,"
"Wait, how can I convince you otherwise?"
"Hmm... Either you go find yourself a troupe or you have a skill or something,"
"A skill, yes, yes, I have a skill..."
"Really?"
"Yes, a, a searching skill... It allows me to find what I need as long as it's near me." Isaiah grinned nervously whilst nodding, "I can do that..."
The lady looked suspicious, "You do huh,"
"Yes."
"Then..." She reached for underneath her desk and pulled out a jar containing a dried-up leaf, "Get me this,"
"Inside here right?"
"Yes, get me this..."
"Okay." Isaiah looked back and reached his hand out, taking a massive gulp he randomly chose a jar from the many jars littered on the shelves and by pure chance got the right one, he was just as surprised as she was when he presented the jar over to the lady, "Oh, ah, s-see it works..."
The lady couldn't even utter a word as she looked at the jar, she wasn't surprised at Isaiah finding the leaf from the many bottles, rather she was surprised at the fact that he could control the bottle itself.
"I told you so, madam... So, about the job?"
"Did you just-" She placed her hand on her forehead, "Hold on, let me get this straight, you have a searching skill and the magic to move things?"
"Err yes... So, about the job?"
"Well, why didn't you say so!" The lady gave a courteous smile as she took out another glass bottle from underneath, "This here, see this, this here is an herb called Pornicous, it's used mostly for potions and stuff,"
"I see..." Isaiah held the bottle over and examined the leaf inside, it had the shape of a maple leaf but was far smaller and had a bluish color with green edges. "How many of this do I have to bring over? 10, 15?"
"15!" She recoiled her head in shock, "I would just buy them in the store if all I need is fifteen, no, I need about 8 stones worth."
"8 stones?"
It was here she took out a polished round stone the size of his fist, she offered it to Isaiah who found it heavier than what he had expected, "As heavy as eight of that should suffice."
"I see..." Isaiah tested the weight out multiple times before handing it back, "So about the pay?"
"Well, hmm... 150 marks per stone is the usual price, add in another 200 for the trouble, so..." She took out her abacus and began her calculations,
"1,200 for the stones and 200 so 1,400," Isaiah commented before she could finish her calculations, prompting her to stop and look at him with a weird eye. Isaiah smiled as she returned back to her calculations but later found that he was, in fact, correct.
"Ohh..." She tilted her head, but shrugged her shoulders, "1,200 indeed, all for eight stones, plus 200, 1,400 in total." She returned the abacus to its place before presenting him the bottle with a Pornicous leaf, "So, do we have a deal? Thats more pay for a bronze ranker you would say?"
"Indeed so, we have a deal." Isaiah reached his hand out but the lady only looked at it with a confused face, prompting Isaiah to retreat his arm, "So when do I start the quest?"
"Now would be good," She then took out a paper and began writing something, "You must be new to this quest thing eh, I'll tell you what, you will need to hand me your bronze plate, in exchange you present this to the guards..." Having stamped the paper she then gave it to Isaiah who then gave her his bronze plate, "I'll return it to you upon completion, and oh, sign here, or just write your name..."
"So, where do I find this pornicopous thingy?"
"As expected," She sighed, "Well, there is a forest near the abandoned mine of Tubeck that has plenty of wild pornicopous, you could start there, but the journey would take days as Tubeck is rather far."
'Wait days?' Isaiah wanted to ask but didn't as he nodded, "I see... I shall get going then?"
"Yeah, there is a wagon station not too far from the eastern gate, there should be a wagon that passes through Tubeck from there,"
'Wa... Ah...'
He was suddenly worried as he might not have enough for the fare. "Thank you very much, and oh, can I have those bags over there?" Isaiah pointed over to a pile of unused sacks near the end of the counter, the lady simply nodded before returning back to her potions.
"Alright..." Isaiah tied one sack around his waist before shoving the other nine inside alongside the letter as he made his way outside, "First quest. So excited!" He then looked around, "East gate, east gate... This is it, I guess."
Surrounded by a three-foot brick wall on all sides, the wagon station was built right next to a large flea market. It was chaos, not like the more modern stations he had seen, here, there was no organization, no lines, and no clear routes for carriages to drive on, it was largely a free-for-all. The voices of drivers singing their chants to attract customers were mixed in while others argued with their neighbors about who gets to ride what, serve which customer, or park in the spot.
Goods, smaller animals, and even slaves exited the carriages to be replaced by other cargo and passengers, the carriages themselves were extremely barebone, with not even a proper seat and sometimes no shade for the scorching sun above. Only once filled to the brim would these carriages leave and head for their destinations, some in groups others by themselves, and most with adventurers in tow...
Isaiah approached one man who was supervising the loading of grains into his carriage,
"Excuse me sir,"
"What?" The man spoke with a thick accent.
"Is this going to Tubeck?"
"Tubeck?"
"Yes... The forest nearby, I mean."
"Yes, yes... You alone?"
"Yes, ah how much?"
"100 marks my friend, nothing cheaper than that."
"100!" Isaiah gasped out loud in shock. He could feel the 60 marks he had on his pocket and felt his heart drop,
"Ah, no, no, sorry," The man grinned, "I thought you meant Gebelt, you meant Tubeck, right, right, 70 marks sir, 70 marks."
Even with the 'generous discount' 70 marks was well off his budget.
"I... I am an adventurer sir, do you need escort service?"
"Escort, no, no escort!" The man's voice changed upon realizing that Isaiah had no money, "70 marks is already good, if you can't pay then look for someone else."
"No wait, how long before you leave?"
"Hmm?" He looked back, "A few minutes, then I leave."
"I see, I shall be back, I'll get the money, just wait." Isaiah quickly ran back,