More character development~
Also, thank you very much to Sedactive for helping me figure out a money system~
If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment it, and also, read comments for some extra information that I might have given as answers, if I don't answer, then the answer you seek may just be in the next chapter. Fumu, and may I just add that comments/ratings = More chapters.
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"Let's go." He spoke, stretching lazily as he walked out of our small house, turning back to shout towards the kitchen.
"We'll be back in a month or two, have fun!"
The girl who lived with us was a human we found wandering with her Mother at the outskirts of the Kleane city, rejected due to their weak nature.
Her Mother worked in a bigger household, the two of them meeting each other whenever they could, despite living in different houses.
"Are we going to hunt the deers or the city first?" I asked, quickly putting down the utensils in my hand as I chased after him and out of the door.
"City? Now that I think about it, it'll be better if I I'll ask old man Faren to send some people there." He shrugged before quickening his pace, "If we get some interesting stuff in the city, it'll be nice."
"You don't want to get that city?"
"It's okay, Faren will take care of it." He said as he flashed a lazy smirk.
As Faren's house was only a few houses away, courtesy of the man himself, we quickly reached. Knocking on the door loudly, Todd shouted annoying, "Old man, open up!"
With a few grunts and crashes in the background, the old man at his early fifties opened the door, his Wife shouting behind him.
"Watch your step you old fogey!"
"Yes yes." He replied with an annoyed expression before glancing at us.
"What?" He asked, squinting his eyes, knowing we were up to no good.
"Old man, the red eyes herd, get someone to lead them to Kleane, the two of us are going to Bariso."
"Kleane? That's a good idea…" He muttered as his hand rubbed his Chin, weaving through his prickly beard, and after a moment, he looked up again, "Also, stop calling me old man!"
"But you're just like one."
"…to think you'd be more respectful, considering that I saved your ass four years ago." He grumbled, pulling the same line he had used for four years now.
"Yes yes, I'm touched. Anyways, bye." He smirked before grabbing my hand, "Let's go at full speed."
With a strong throw, I was flung into the air.
"Oi!"
Ignoring my annoyed shout, he cracked his knuckles and started chasing behind me who had decided to go forwards, towards the city.
As I flew pass our peaceful town, many townsfolk looked up and gave a little smile. When we were first rescued, we came to the small area Faren had secured for his Wife, settling down in their house as nightmares plagued both of us.
I remember how the first week was complete hell, Todd would wake up in cold sweat, his eyes burning with hate while I had terrible dreams of a ruined country, men eaten alive as others preyed on each other.
Humans and monsters had both lost their humanity, humans too scared to spare consideration to others while monsters too mad to stop.
At that time, I was devoid of memories, only knowledge, and perhaps my brain was only trying to fill my empty memory storage, it gave me vivid dreams.
Thinking back, when we ate meat, he even vomited after finding out that it was from red eyes, we were eating evolved human meat.
Until now, there has been people abstaining from eating meat, their minds filled with fear as they thought about how any meat they consume came from, or was a human.
Luckily, there was another alternative, though it's rarer and significantly less delicious then beast meat, there was the animals we reared before the apocalypse. It was extremely rare to find such stores and the price was similarly extremely high, being that rarely any livestock was saved from the apocalypse.
Either you eat the meat you find in the forests, or you eat vegetables and fruits.
One more interesting thing that happened was also the mutation of the plants, some brand new plants had emerged during the apocalypse, and after trial and error, we managed to procure many sources of food and find interesting uses of them.
The most famous one being the Wether pills, originating from the herd we come to call the Wether Plant, it is dried, crushed and made into pills.
And as for its purpose—
"Are you on it?"
"No."
"Then, before you enter the city, please eat the pills." A security guard at the entrance of the city called out. We had been Travelling for two days, hunting casually as we went, though we failed to meet any red or pinks.
"Identity card?" He asked, taking out slips of paper to document our arrival.
Passing him our cards, we were quickly given five pills, two for me and three for Todd.
Swallowing it with water provided by the guard, I received our cards back and passed the entrance.
And within seconds, the similar numbing feeling came over us.
The Wether pills' purpose was to numb our emotion. To stop any transformations.
"Let's go to the guild." He muttered, pushing amongst the crowd.
This city only had about a hundred thousand citizens, while the rest where adventurers or people seeking permit to stay here.
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The leaders here were a family as well, consisting of three children, a Wife and a Husband. Normally, the cities and towns are formed by families, as an individual would get challenged and defeated by a group. Only by sticking to family will one be able to sleep with their eyes closed, at this point, friends might even stab you in your sleep.
The eldest child was about twenty, while the parents was in their early forties, all of them fit and able to deter possible challengers.
Not only that, they also created legion of people willing to follow and protect them, by tightening the regulations regarding permanent residence, citizenship became a privilege to have and appreciate.
The city was relatively tranquil, the humans living here peacefully cohabiting with the changed, though disputes used to happen, it was fine now.
Walking over to the guild, the two of us looked around, the stores and houses roughly the same before winter.
"Daggers made of fangs from poisonous snakes! Selling sets for only one pink coin!" A vendor shouted, competing in volume with the other sellers.
"Cheap durable armors made from metal and leathers! Come and check out my goods!" Another shouted.
It was an extremely lively street, with humans clamouring everywhere, children running around and adventurers dragging beast corpses around, shoring could be heard from every corner. As the day was still young, the Rays of the bright sun penetrating our vision, we entered the guild.
Immediately as we entered, a wooden board came into our view as requests hung on it, from subjugations to escort, all kinds of jobs could be found.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Hmm? A escort?" He casually mentioned, squinting at one of the papers pinned at the top right of the board.
Ripping it off, he shook it in front of my face, "This looks fine, the town is only a week away, it seems to be small but the people there are all strong."
"How'd you know?" I asked, scanning the contents. It was a request to escort a young lady, her parents and their servants to a town named Hedlis.
"I got rumours Hedlis's leader is crazy strong, a girl, a teenaged girl." He smirked, "Isn't that amazing?"
Certainly, it was. Hedlis was a town for only the strong, though it was dubious why this family was intending to head there, it was none of our concern.
"Not only that, it's worth four pinks." He smirked, "Anything we kill is ours to take." He added after a moment, shaking the paper in my face.
Turning around abruptly, he walked to the counter and slammed the paper onto the table, taking out his identification card as he quickly exchanged a few sentences with the man at the counter.
After a few more small talk, he turned around and walked towards me, "Done, let's go eat lunch. We're leaving tomorrow morning."
From the moment we accepted the request, there was already men headed there to inform the family, and if there were no delays, normally we would leave the morning the day after.
For lodging, it was conveniently provided by the guild, though it was small and cramped, adventurers without permanent housing could not be contacted if there was a discrepancy.
Though there was an option to stay at an inn, it was free at the guild.
"What do you want to eat?" He asked, asking for my opinion, strangely.
"Erm…" Thrown off by his sudden question, I randomly answered, "Raw?"
"Bah, boring, if we're here, we should just go for something nice." He spoke, shooting down my opinion.
Heaving a sigh of relief, I followed him, glancing at the stalls placed at the sides of the roads. Certainly, there were no working cars now, but it was somehow an unspoken rule that the middle of the road must be cleared for pedestrians.
Suddenly, I noticed a proper shop in a building, with a sign that said [Limited stock of Magic Stones available here!] plastered on the display window that had been somehow kept in pristine condition since the apocalypse.
Noticing how I stopped, perhaps by intuition or the lack of the sound of my footsteps, Todd turned around and glanced at where I was staring at.
"You want that?" He asked with an incredulous tone.
"No, I was just shocked to see it." I quickly dismissed. Certainly, it was rare to suddenly see magic stones for sale, considering that it grew mostly on humans. Of course, there were exceptions where it grew on the changed or beasts, but considering how rare it was to find it on beasts, to even have limited stock instead of one, it must've been either an extremely lucky hunter or a extremely evil one.
Magic stones were a tool that anyone could use to procure magic. An incredibly useful item for normal humans.
"Then let's go." He said, grabbing my wrist and walking forwards, "I remember there was a steakhouse around here…" He muttered, looking around interest.
Quickly, locating his favourite store he frequented every time he was here, he entered with smiles from the employees.
"One Super Large steak and a…medium steak for you?" The waitress asked, "Medium rare for both?"
Nodding, I turned to Todd, seeing if he wanted to change anything.
"Add more spices on mine." He spoke, staring out of the window absentmindedly.