CHAPTER 66 - City of Turia

After minutes of waiting, I bet on my current chances of getting through the gates now with the help of this merchant caravan.

‘There are more cities I could search for, yet it would be difficult to bribe more people without any idea of their currency or language.’ I think so as I gently pet Bruma, patting its fluffy now gray hair.

‘Now that I notice it, we should take a bath, it's been a while…’

A few more minutes go by, and our turn to enter the city finally arrives, and thankfully, they just ask questions to the first carriage to the man that I gave the watch to. Trying to not stand out, I keep a calm demeanor as I do my best to cover my suspicious and dirty clothes with the robe, getting a couple of gazes from the woman in front and the rest of the people inside my carriage.

After a quick exchange between both parties, the guards perform a check on all the carts of the convoy just as quickly, barely paying any attention to anything but the goods on both the first one and third carts and enabling my little group to go through the inspection just fine.

After exchanging a few words with the man on the first cart again, we smoothly pass through the checkpoint, entering the city and slithering amongst the stone paved roads till we arrive at the front of the merchant’s storages.

There, I try to get some clothes from the man to whom I gave my watch, but he seems annoyed and sends me on my way, barefoot and in rags, just as I arrived. The only thing covering me and making myself presentable is his robe, which I use to cover myself entirely and make myself somewhat presentable.

I could have used magic or qi to keep my feet clean as I walk down the streets, but I don’t do so, in case I bring too much attention to myself.

With Bruma on my shoulders and bringing the child along, I wander through the city, searching for some kind of building that I can recognize. I don't even know what I am searching for, it could be a place to eat and sleep, it could be the equivalent of a government office where I can get an ID of sorts, or it could be a place that deals with mercenaries.

On our way around the city, I take my time to look at the stalls and shops that dot the streets. It’s around noon right now, and there are a few stalls that sell all kinds of fruits and vegetables that I had never seen, but most of the shops are sheltered under the houses that face the street. Some of the houses have already designated space for them, having small or medium sized protruding wood roofs that cover the products from the sun and rain.

Then, there are the more permanent ones, shops that are built inside the floor level of some of the bigger and better built homes, housing the shop itself at ground level and probably leaving the top floor for living quarters, just like those of Earth.

Those kinds of shops are in most cases, shops that sell things for more of a long term situation, like blacksmiths, clothing, woodwork and so on. I take a look at every single shop that we pass, eyeing the product’s quality and quantities. Sadly, there are no signs of hints that I can use to guess the price. The only thing I can do it’s keep an eye out for every single time that someone buys something, so that I can see which currency they use.

Fortunately for me right now, it seems like a good time to roam the streets as there are a lot of people around, busy buying and carrying things up and down the street. They are mostly farmers, carrying crops and other rarer goods from out of town inside the walls and delivering them to the shops.

They all carried boxes of food directly to the center of the city, most of them bringing two or three boxes at a time with the help of some kind of shoulder yokes. Some of them do use animals to help them with the weight, using the same animals I saw before pushing the carriages as mules to pull small carts filled to the brim with flour. Yes, that thing is flour 100%, it being the only food that I recognize so far, so wheat must be quite popular around here.

With the cover of the bustling streets, I am able to get an overall vision of the situation of the city.

Farmers with outdated equipment and bad conditions fill the road, telling me that the economy must be hanging on their work for the most part. Some merchants ride in between the farmers, bringing a few carriages full of goods just the same as the one I took here, most of them having a small group of people armed with them.

The armed groups vary from one merchant to another, some seem more amateur with some others seem like professionals, but those are far less in number. Most of them are just armed nobodies, and with nobodies I mean that they do not seem to have any training or carry any special weapon or item on themselves. The group that guarded the convoy I came with from my “landing point” in the middle of the jungle at least carried some special manna infused items with them. I don’t sense any type of energy contained inside of them either, telling me that mana users are probably scarcer than I thought too.

To sum up, most of the people guarding the merchants just suck at what they do, at least if I compare them to the ones I came with or the ones that I see on the bigger convoys, but that's only obvious I guess. How do they manage to defend themselves against the monsters roaming the forest that I have seen so far is a mystery to me, but again, I need to get more trustworthy information from someone who actually knows what’s going on around.

In the few hours that I wandered throughout the city, only once have I spotted a magical item, and it was actually a few of them that the guards of a bigger merchant group were carrying on themselves, so I guess it makes sense.

For the most part, it seems like even if it is a whole different world, and that while there are both magic and monsters, most of the people live a normal life, without using or seeing any magic at all.

However, that could be only my initial perspective after arriving in a peaceful city, so it’s still too early to jump to conclusions.

With the amount of information I have gathered so far, I deem it enough for the day as I ask the little guy that accompanies me to translate a handful of signs for me. He is still silent for the most part, but with the help of the mental link, he is at least able to to convey a couple of words, just enough to help me identify a few buildings.

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Not taking into account the obvious blacksmiths or clothing shops that I can easily identify, with his help, I am able to find a few taverns where we can sleep and eat, a building where I can get a traveling license of sorts and lastly a couple of grocery shops. The various merchants' storages/shops are easily identifiable thanks to their big wooden boards decorating their entrances, each one bigger and more styled than the one next door.

Pondering about the best way to let the child get a good night sleep and dinner, I kind of steal a little bit. Scanning the few shops that I pass, I learn that behind the counter, most of them have a small box or pouch with a small amount of coins make of stone, yes stone, at least the coins with the smaller value, the bigger ones do seem to be made of some kind of metal, but the cheaper coins are all made of stone.

Cautious to not get discovered, I steal the pouch of a clothing shop nearby before entering one of the inns that I saw on passing. The whole stealing process goes smoothly as I use mana to open one of the windows from the inside, manipulating the wood that it is made from.

Once that’s done I simply grab the pouch from behind the counter at the first opportunity that arises, quickly and silently stealing it from behind the counter before bringing both my companions inside the inn.

I know that those coins may have been incredibly important to the owner of the shop, so I take a mental note to repay the guy some time down the road.

Entering the inn, I draw a few suspicious gazes and an annoying one from the woman that seems to be the owner as I enter barefoot, my feet leaving a few dirt stains on my way to the counter.

The woman is sitting behind the counter, simply eyeing me as I get closer. Once I get to the counter she quickly tells me something that I obviously don't understand. Not wanting to create a link with her and put a target on myself, I instead do so with the child that I rescued, telling him to ask for a room.

‘Ask her for a room for two.’

He probably delivers the message clearly, as the woman looks at the stains and Bruma on my shoulder and shows me three fingers instead of two.

Not keen on making a scene, I take out “my” pouch from behind the robes, opening it and slowly taking coin after coin and sliding them on the counter in her direction. I do so slowly and with a look devoid of anxiety of any emotion at all, waiting for a reaction.

Once the twelfth coin is laid on the counter and a small smile starts to creep on her face I decisively close the pouch and hide it below my robe.

She instantly shows a look of regret, probably thinking that she could have asked for more, but takes the coins, decisively hiding them under the counter. Afterwards, she opens a small drawer and retrieves a worn-out key, moving her pouch filled with money to another drawer and locking it. Then she stands up and gestures for me to follow her to our room, one of four on the upper floor.

I awkwardly stare at her, waiting for her to hand me the key at the entrance, but instead she shows me inside and closes the door behind, locking us three inside the room until the next day.

I do expend a bit of my mana to do a quick scan to see if the situation in the other rooms is the same, but it is still early to sleep, so there is no one else yet in the inn.

‘Hmm, so that's how it is, I guess people are that trustworthy here after all. Even less with my current looks…’ Looking around, I accept the fact that the woman just locked us three here till tomorrow and I tell the child to sleep as I leave him here.

I have no idea what to do with the child, but knowing he is currently alone and that I am lost on this planet and probably being chased down, I will have to choose what to do with him soon enough.

My plan of going out hunting is still a priority, but maybe leaving him here would be for the best. Thinking along those lines, I leave jumping out of the window at midnight to start the hunt, but not before leaving the pouch with all the coins on the bed with the child… just in case I don’t come back for him.

…

…

…

*rummage*

*rummage*

???

The shadows of the room squirmed as the child opened his eyes, awakened by the disturbances its master had caused. He was ready to stand up and follow its orders-

‘Shush my child.’ The entity told him through the bond they shared. Ordering him not to move a single hair.

‘Just keep sleeping… He will come back, they always do.’ The shadows whispered on the boy’s ears as they followed their prey’s presence as it fled, jumping from one roof to another.

This city was so full of life… It was the perfect scenario to see the real extent of his prey’s capabilities.

‘Yes, this city will do, there isn’t anyone worth mentioning. Show me what you can do.’ The shadow murmured as it dissipated into the shadows of the room again, but not before sending a small pulse of will that traveled for miles.

The pulse traveled through the city and went into the forest, following a straight path, crossing the distance in seconds and passing through a few small villages before arriving at its destination, in the middle of a rainforest.

There, a huge circle made out of totems laid, a place that for years have been intentionally avoided by humans.

Once the intent of the entity arrived there, it entered one of the totems, which reinforced the small strand of will and sent it to the two closest ones, soon flooding the whole inside of the area with it.

One last pulse of it sent all the intent into the ground, digging a few meters deep before it dissipated, expreading through the ground, sending huge ripples of mana throughout the land and creating a rumbling sound that extended for miles.

Then, silence.

…

…

*crack*

*crack*

*crack*

*crack*

Small cracks were heard all around, before the first one of them stepped out of their rocky prison for the first time in years.

*Crack*

The first one broke through the dirt, grasping for a place to hold and pull itself out of the ground. It tumbled out of the dirt after staying still so much time, nearly having forgotten its master instructions on how to walk or run, but not long enough it was swinging his old rusty sword the same way it had years prior.

Its ivory white color would soon cover the land that its master told them to conquer, it would take a while for some of its comrades in arms to awaken, but it could wait, they could wait, soon enough they would march towards their lord.

They had no haste, after all, time was on their side.It always had been and would soon be again, for death always arrived.