He saw a small wooden building sandwiched between other buildings. The only thing hinting that it was the inn he was looking for was the sign with the symbol of the sun and snowflake. That made him realize that normal citizens were probably illiterate and were using these kinds of images to get by.

‘However, I still need to relearn the Vanaras letters as soon as possible.’

While you could get by without learning how to read and write, you wouldn’t get far in life. Fortunately, Illyan didn’t need to learn from scratch as he once learned the letters in granny’s house.

Now that he had her books, he would read through them, trying to figure out all the letters.

‘I will need to keep close to those kids for now. Since there is such a good opportunity to blend with people and even get some initial position in society, I will not let it pass. Academics. I think that will suit me.’

Satisfied, he opened the doors to the inn and looked around. There were only a few people, as it wasn’t time for dinner yet, nor time to get drunk, as everyone needed to work hard.

Only a few people who seemed to be wasted looked at him with slightly wary eyes before turning them away. Illyan ignored it as he walked up to the counter where the middle-aged man with sideburns stood with a bored expression as he washed the wooden tankard.

“How much for the night?” Illyan asked immediately as he stared at the man.

“Two bronzes. Three if you want warm food twice a day,” the man replied without even looking at Illyan as he boredly stared into the tankard he held.

Illyan took his pouch out and put 3 bronzes on the counter.

“I will take a room for one night for now.”

Hearing this, the man finally looked at Illyan. Seeing that Illyan was quite tall, he didn’t dawdle as he took out from under the counter a small key with a sign.

“The sign is the same as the one on the doors of the room. The room is on the second floor. You can come down two hours later for dinner. The dinner isn’t served after the tenth hour but you can still buy drinks. The first meal of the day is served from dawn to midday. The restroom is at the end of the second floor’s corridor,” the barman said with eloquence as if he had said the same things a hundred times already.

“Alright. I will be here in two hours,” Illyan nodded as he went up the stairs.

However, he frowned when he hefted the pouch and noticed how much lighter it was.

‘I found only 23 coins in the village. Now I have only 20 of them left… That means that I have 7 śeven days to find a way to make money. With my capabilities that shouldn’t be a problem, but I can’t be too conspicuous. Especially after seeing that weird robed guy. I will need to investigate it a bit before considering showing my capabilities.’

Illyan knew that meaninglessly hiding yourself wouldn't get you anywhere, but at the same time, you couldn’t just venture into new territory while showing all your cards.

He always thought that the Vanaras Kingdom was harmless. But that was out of his ignorance. Now that he knew there was a guy like this the moment he reunited with humans, he knew that hiding was the right choice at this moment.

Especially because of his gift. Kaoran always said that his ability was unique. And what was unique was also feared and exploited. The northerners didn’t care as it matched their warrior's soul, but not everyone was so open-minded.

That’s why it was a godsend that he already found a place where he could go without even doing anything. He didn’t know much about that place yet, but from what he heard from the kids, he could go there to take some sort of test and if he passed he could start as an academic apprentice, which would help him to cover all his living costs while giving him access to the library…

‘Terren said that you would live poor as an academic, while Nord said it depends on the contributions. That probably means that the majority won’t achieve success and only a few will be competent enough to make big money. I should have no problem with it as I should be considered a competent physician as of now so making some extra money should be easy.’

He came up the stairs and went down the long corridor as he watched the door symbols for match. The doors looked shabby and were useless if there was any kind of intruder, but Illyan could guess that this wasn’t something considered. Most travelers would put their fate in the hands of guards and just enjoy that they could sleep under the roof.

He passed over half of the corridor and still didn’t find his door. What he realized, though, was the fact that there was some kind of systematic progression of the symbols. At that moment, vague memories flooded his mind.

‘Are those numbers?’

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

When he realized that, he started to deduce the numbers on each door. With the help of the old memories and his newfound ability to remember whatever he saw, it was much easier.

‘There should be ten symbols. From zero to nine. The larger numbers are the combination of these… So the number on my keys is… 16’

Satisfied that he could derive this, he skipped the next door and just counted. When he counted the number 16, he stopped and looked at the door on his right.

‘Match.’

Sliding the key into the keyhole, he opened the door and entered the room. What he found inside was a narrow space with a small bed and little table for storing some belongings.

There was dust and webs everywhere but Illyan didn’t care for the moment as he closed the doors behind him, put his bag on the table and sat down on the bed.

He closed his eyes for a moment, resting his mind and putting his thoughts in order. After all, being in the close proximity of utter strangers wasn’t something Illyan would enjoy. No matter how much time passed or how much he got close to someone, he always enjoyed the sessions of solitude.

If he was really lonely, then his problem with Zephyr would manifest much more often, making it much harder for his mind to feel alone.

‘Since I already began with the Vanaras numbers, I should review the letters. The sooner I will do so, the better for me.’

He took out the books he got from granny’s house and put them beside himself. One of them stayed in his hand as he carefully opened it.

The characters that were written in order from left to right were different from those of Theras language. Theras language was read from top to bottom and it was completely different. Illyan knew that Theras language was from a different continent altogether, so it wasn’t so surprising.

At first, he couldn’t recognize any of those, but he remembered that he read something like this in the past. As the current memory ability of his eyes didn’t help him with remembering what happened before he got them, he had a hard time remembering such things.

However, his familiarity grew as he browsed through the pages. The biggest help came when he finally found an image of the herb he knew.

‘This is Brahann Herb, isn’t it?’

And

once he realized that, he started to figure out the words on the page.

The title was definitively the name of the herb. Then he deduced other words that were connected to one part of the herb. With this, in no time he deduced the entire alphabet and managed to read the page.

‘Brahann Herb, also known as Mind Relieving Herb, is a type of small bush that grows almost anywhere on the Oberuan continent. When the leaves are used as the tea, it will bring the calming effect while improving the focus. The roots could be also used for…’

After reading the knowledge that he already knew, he was content with his job. While he still read with difficulties, but as time passed he got better at it as he remembered all the characters which made it easy for him.

‘There are 32 letters in the Vanaras language and 10 number signs… With my eyes I should be able to read fluently in a few days…’

Of course, the condition was that he would train every day. Which he planned as the information inside of the books was priceless to him. Not only were there new herbs that didn’t grow in the north that Kaoran never mentioned but there were also many techniques of how to refine those herbs into something useful. Not to mention, there were also some tools that Illyan only vaguely remembered from his childhood.

In the north, the craftsmanship that didn’t include warring was always obsolete. Highest form of tools there were just low-quality mortars, pestles and cauldrons. This made the herbalism overly simplified which was both beneficial and detrimental to Illyan.

Thanks to that, he knew how to make simple solutions, pastes and whatnot with just his hands and some basic tools and heat treatment of the herbs. That was the reason why he managed to poison Thearas clan even though he didn’t have anything on himself.

But because of that, his proficiency in herbalism was also kind of superficial. He knew a lot but only in the theoretical realm. There were many things he couldn’t do as the lack of tools made it difficult to do any detailed work and there was also often loss of medicinal potency because of bad efficiency.

Of course, people like Kaoran could bridge this gap with Spiritual Energy. But how could Illyan when his affinity was at the complete bottom?

Because of that, Illyan was looking forward to getting proper tools and learning the orthodox way that a normal apothecary learned how to concoct medicine.

‘It has been quite some time since I last trained in Spiritual Energy Control… Since my perception got quite good and my [Nature Breath Method] had breakthrough it should be easier for me to progress.’

His lack of control and inability to hold the Spiritual Energy inside of his body bothered him for a long time but now when he stopped to be eager for quick progress he realized that as long as he worked hard enough for a long time there should be some reward at the end of the road. Of course, even if life would give you lemons, in the end, you would just need to make lemonade out of it. If he could not do it with his natural talent and the time then he would use the long time to find another way.

‘After all, the affinity for Spiritual Energy wasn’t set in stone. Originally, I was probably without even a trace of any affinity for it. Without the shock therapy that happened to me I wouldn’t be able to awaken my latent potential.’

Unfortunately, this kind of method couldn’t be artificially created nor be used several times. After that time he went through several other shitty situations but nothing changed.

‘There will always be a way.’

He shook his head as he continued reading the book from the first chapter.

With passage of time he got more and more familiar with words written in Vanaras and his tempo in reading also got quicker. Before he realized the two hours already passed as the small window in his room showed that the sun was already going down.

Because of that, he closed the book, put it into a bag and came to the doors. However, before going out he stopped and turned around to look at the webs and dust.

His eyes twitched thinking about how he was sitting around it. He didn’t like messy environments like this at all so he made sure to get rid of it before leaving.

But when he was leaving he took a look at his bag and pondered.

The bag contained important things that he couldn’t afford to lose. The herbs were just buffers that made it big but the real things were the rods, books and the Firestorm Herbs he took from Thearas Clan village. One of the herbs could be used over 15 times but he didn’t have many of them since it would bring too much attention in that forest.

That’s why he decided that taking the bag with himself would be a better option than believing in the security of this shabby inn.

With that, he took the bag, locked the door and went down to take his first meal in the town…