I was woken by a soft breeze drifting across my face, and looked through the open window to see that it was already morning. I walked over to close it, then made to leave to the ground floor before I remembered my pack in the trunk and grabbed the bundled fangs that were still at the top of it.
As I stepped off the last step into the ground floor, I noticed that the Innkeeper was behind the same desk as last night studying a strange white stone. I walked up to him and realised that now was the perfect time to actually ask for his name.
“Hey, I didn’t end up getting your name last night, mine’s Rob Zeneki,”
“Call me Finch,” He seemed more interested in the stone than me, but it was a pretty interesting stone so I guessed that made sense.
“Do you happen to know where I can go to sell these?” I unwrapped the teeth and laid them on the desk, and Finch seemed to instantly become interested in the conversation.
“Monster parts? They don’t seem to ‘ave anythin’ strange on ‘em. What affinity?” It may have been my imagination, but he seemed to be looking at the fangs with anticipation. I didn’t think that Innkeepers had any need for monster parts, but then again I didn’t know anything about being an Innkeeper, so that makes sense.
“I’m not sure, they just glowed when the wolf attacked me and didn’t seem to do much else. Is there a light affinity?”
“Hah! No boy, what you’ve got ‘ere are a pair of unaffinitied monster parts. They’re almost useless to most craftsmen, but they could be useful for a… personal project o’ mine. I’ll take ‘em off yer ‘ands fer an extra 3 days free o’ charge, and free dinners too.”
Hmm, I’d never heard of monster parts not having an affinity before, I thought that was kind of a requirement for being monster parts, but this guy probably wouldn’t lie to a customer when his reputation is honestly not that great to begin with.
“Alright, sure. But is there any chance I could get some pieces too? I’m gonna need to start saving if I want to get a more permanent place to stay anytime soon.”
“I’m afraid I was already rather generous with me offer. But ye can try the Job Hall, it’s where most adventurers find work ‘round ‘ere,” I wasn’t an adventurer, but maybe it would be a good idea to give it a shot anyway. I didn’t exactly know where to start looking for a job and this might be a good way to start looking for options.”
“Alright, that’s fine I guess. Where is it?” Finch explains simply that it’s right next to the Centre, where the statue is, and that you can’t miss it. My 4 wisdom would disagree, though it is probably above average for a child at this point so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
After that, Finch sits me down and heads to the kitchen to prepare the free breakfast that I forgot I was entitled to. Once it’s placed in front of me I chow down (It was actually much better than expected, definitely an improvement over the weird biscuit like things I’d been eating over the last few days) and then leave for the job hall, though not before I grab my coin pouch and securely tie it to my side under the cloak.
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After exploring the city for an hour, I could soundly say that I was lost. Well, I’d managed to figure out a couple things about the layout at least, but I was certainly not particularly close to the centre.
For the first 40 minutes I was making no progress, but then I ended up randomly wandering into a part of the city that was much more organised and had buildings that, whilst well maintained, were definitely older than those that I’d been walking around so far.
For the next 20 minutes I wandered a different section of the city, also completely randomly, until I finally began to notice a pattern. Well, if you could call it that. This part of the city seemed to be designed more purposefully than the outer edges, by which I mean it was designed with any purpose at all, since almost all of the streets were either straight or slightly curved lines. In fact, if I kept walking down one street whilst ignoring any side paths I would eventually end up back in the same place. It was on the third go round such a street that I realised something.
Wait, if this is a circle, then what’s in the centre? Oh, probably the Centre. Right.
At 8 points around the circle there are roads that are much larger than the regular streets, which I can only assume means they’re the roads that the rest of them branched off of at some point, so if I follow them then I’m sure to reach the Centre.
At the next one I reach I look around to try and figure out which way to go, though I don’t need to look for long. Not too far to my right the road is abruptly terminated by a general goods store, so the only way to go is left. As I turn to do so I finally get a chance to look further down the road, only to realise that a large statue was clearly visible the whole time.
… ok
I try not to think about the fact that I never thought to actually look down these clearly important streets and walk to the centre, reaching the statue within a few minutes. Instead of immediately looking for the Job Hall, I admire the statue for a moment.
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It depicts a man, or I assumed they were a man at least, wearing full plate armour and raising their hands as though to cast a mighty spell. I could only assume that the man would have worn iron armour when he was alive if he was at all related to this place, but the statue was made of stone so it’s hard to tell.
The plaque at the base of the statue reads
‘Lord Andrew Ironhold
the great founder of our great city
May God rest his soul’
I stared at the plaque for a few minutes, lost in thought, before I heard the voice of an old man behind me.
“He was a great man, or so my grandpappy told me before he passed. I can tell you a lot about him if you want, but you needn’t humour an old man if you’re too busy,” There was one thing in particular that I was curious about…
Eh, why not?
“Sure, I have time,” I turned to face the old man, just in time to see a smile form on his face. I guess he doesn’t get to talk about this too often, huh?
“Ahh, they say he founded this city as a mining camp, back when there were still rich iron veins underground,” He taps his cane on the ground a couple times to emphasise his point,” hence the name, and the armour. Many people think he was some kind of warrior because of that, but at first he was just a regular Miner. Until one day when he went into the mines alone, and came out with a completely new path, one that gave him incredible magical Affinities.
After that he began to take charge of the camp and make it independent enough to survive alone, and once the mines dried up he got people to set up farms and, eventually, became recognised as an official Lord,” That was all very interesting, but there was one thing that I hoping to hear the answer to.
“Was his name Ironhold before he named the city, or did he change his name after so that he’d match?” The old man chuckled before he replied.
“I believe that once someone is named a Lord they change both their name and the name of the lands they rule over. So I’d imagine they were named at the same time,”
“Ah, gotcha,” Well, I’d delayed long enough, so I should find the Job Hall, “Do you happen to know where the Job Hall is?”
“It’s just over there, on the right of the street,” He pointed to a street on the other side of the statue, where I could see a large marble building on the right.
“Thanks, I gotta go then. See ya.”
“Goodbye, young man.”
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The inside of the Job Hall is much as you’d expect from the outside. That is, a large marble space full of adventurers. I didn’t know how else they would have done it, but I was still surprised by the boards covered in miscellaneous papers that lined nearly every wall. The only wall that was spared was the one at the back, directly opposite the entrance, that had a door with the words ‘Staff Only’ written in blocky letters and a receptionist at a desk embedded in the wall.
They seem to notice the fact that I have no idea what’s going on and wave me over as our eyes meet. Seeing no reason to be rude, I comply and go to introduce myself.
Before I can get a word in he begins speaking, “Are you here to register with the city?”
I don’t happen to know what that means, so I respond, “Do I need to if I want to take jobs?”
“Yes, unfortunately. Lord Ironhold likes to keep track of the general strength of the adventurers that come here for work. Plus, it makes it easier to keep track of anyone that we might want for specialty missions,” That guy’s still alive? Wait, Ironhold was his second name, wasn’t it?
“I guess I have no choice then, I’ll register.” I’ll just pretend I know what a specialty mission is.
“Great! I just need your name, Path, and level,” I thought your level was supposed to be somewhat personal, but I guess it’s different outside of the village.
“My name is Robert Zeneki, my Path is Lightning Adept, and my level is 4,” Something about what I say causes him to pause, in the middle of writing down my name for some reason. Weird.
“Just to clarify, you mean Lightning Adept and not Lightning Mage?” There’s a difference?
“That’s what the status says.”
“Huh, we don’t get many new classes, would you mind sharing how you got it?” At this I blanch and quickly decline.
“Ah well, I’d rather not, if that’s okay?” What was meant to be a statement turns out to be more of a question, but it seems to be an okay answer to the receptionist.
“That’s okay, no need to make more future competition for your skills, eh?” Yes, that was totally why I declined. Not because the circumstances feel strangely embarrassing when I think back on them. “Well, that’s all we needed from you. You can take any of the jobs on the boards that you feel you can handle, though I’d recommend you stick to the one closest to the door. It’s where we put all of the safest options,” He points to the board with the fewest people at it, about as close to the door as it could get without being literally nailed on top of it.
I walk over to it and begin considering my options, thinking that it would be too hard to find something that pays well whilst also being decently easy to do.
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As it turns out, it was too hard to find something decent. Most of these asked for people to give help with mundane tasks that I had just about no confidence in my ability to do. Especially since a lot of these required help with heavy lifting that I was frankly not equipped to handle, and probably wouldn’t be any time soon.
“Having trouble finding something?” A dark skinned man in orangish-brown robes asked. He looked like an experienced adventurer, probably a mage going by the robes, but there was something about him that seemed unusual and I just couldn’t quite figure out how.
I spent a moment staring at him trying to figure it out before it hit me. I didn’t realise at first because it seemed so common in my Dreams, but it wasn’t nearly so common in real life, “Why’s your skin a different colour to everyone else?” It was only after I asked that I realised it might not be particularly polite.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be upset. In fact, if I judged based on how loudly he was laughing, he found it funny for some reason. Eventually, after he managed to calm down, he was able to explain, “Most people I meet want to ask that same question, but no one’s ever just asked it outright! You’re a funny guy, I like you, so I’ll answer it. I come from Bandora, to the south of Dillak. We’ve only recently started to explore past the Barren Lands, as you call them, so there are few people that have even heard of us. Now, will you answer my question?”
I’d actually completely forgot about that, so it was good that he reminded me because I could really use some help, “I’ve never been here before, so I don’t know what job would be good for me,”
“Well, what’s your Path?”
“Lightning Adept,” What is with people in this city wanting to know everyone’s Path? It’s starting to get annoying.
“If that’s a mage variant then you’d probably be best suited for a job with something you can zap. Try this one,” He says as he hands me a piece of paper with a few lines of text on it.
‘Rat infestation in my basement.
Paying 10 copper to anyone that clears them out.
Come to Pill’s Alchemy Supplies on 3rd street if interested’
“Where’s 3rd street?”
“The streets have signs at every possible entrance,” Oh
“Oh.”
As the man laughs I leave without saying another word.