The way I was dropped off was a lot less inconspicuous than I thought. Upon arriving at my apparent destination, the sack was removed from my head and I was thrown out of the carriage and into an alleyway, but not before I was threatened to not to try to leave the slums as they’d be patrolling the borders for the next 20 years

To their credit, the alleyway was empty and my vision was blocked so I wasn’t able to tell if they took any precautions to avoid detection on the way here.

Anyhow, that's not what's important right now. One of the warriors Lucia was with was pretty sloppy. I honestly thought it would result in me getting caught and beaten or maybe something worse, but it seems the tricks I learned in the slums back on Earth served me well.

By diverting attention to my thrashing legs when they were throwing me out, I was able to grab the satchel placed near where Lucia was seated and slide it under my shirt without anyone noticing. I guess the lethargic act during the months leading up to it was also a good investment.

Well it's a stroke of luck I won't turn down…or at least it’ll be a stroke of luck if I find anything useful inside.

—-

—-

It seems that like the books said, this place was a maze. Honestly my limited knowledge could only take me so far.

I wasn’t necessarily able to read all the material on the Southern Slums since who would’ve known something like this in particular would happen to me. Even if I did, not a lot is known about this place, probably deliberately given what the nobles use this place for.

In short, I was completely out of my element.

The alleyways I was dropped into seemed like a never ending maze. I’d reach the end and turn the corner only to be greeted with the exact same, narrow and dirty corridor.

I guess that's not completely accurate. Each new corridor did have variety, with differing amounts of beggars sleeping on cardboard slabs or different varieties of small stalls selling everything from tattered rags that I could only assume were clothes to different varieties of goop that I could only assume was food.

Through the variety though everything was strangely uniform, that's what made it disorienting. The stalls and the people were new but it was like slapping a new color on the same wall, or in this case, the same long winding alleyway.

Eventually after what was probably around an hour I found an empty corridor that led to a dead end. It seemed like a secure enough place to take a break and gather myself, given I only needed to be wary of one point of entry, so I settled at the far end and took a seat on the dirt covered ground.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I used this time to take a look at what I was working with.

With the wear and tear from the journey, my clothes were pretty dirtied and tattered. Thanks to this, as long as I removed my upper coat, I didn’t look too out of place with the tunic and shorts I had on. Of course some would probably still recognize it as clothing belonging to nobility but in the garbage dump of the continent where everything thrown away is repurposed, it isn’t too out of place to see a child sporting half destroyed noble’s clothes.

Moving onto the satchel, the things I found inside proved quite useful.

There was around 600 grams of preserved fruit and meat. If I rationed this, it could probably last me two to 4 days if I got really desperate. Though in this unfamiliar environment, eating a good amount to stay aware and energized would be preferred.

There was also a small steel dagger that came along with a leather scabbard, likely the warrior’s emergency sidearm. The reason why it was in his satchel instead of somewhere easier to access like his belt is beyond me, but I’ll take what I can get. Rest assured I won’t make the same mistake as mister warrior, this will stay in my pocket at all times.

Aside from that there were 15 gold coins in the satchel, placed in a small pouch. This was no small amount of money, in fact it was a whole lot. This could have been the poor guy’s living expenses for his whole twenty year stay at the border, assuming they weren’t bluffing.

In this continent, money was divided into gold, silver and bronze coins. A gold coin would be equivalent to a thousand silver coins, while a hundred silver coins would be equivalent to a bronze coin. As for the worth of a bronze coin, I’d say its purchasing power is quite similar to around 50 American cents, though with how people value certain goods and services, pricing from what I’ve seen so far can be quite different from Earth.

Honestly, this would have been enough for me to live off of for a while, the problem is the “size of the bill” so to speak. Using a gold coin to pay for something would be akin to waving a million dollar bill around, something I wouldn’t want to do for obvious reasons, so for now this money is useless until I can find a way to use it.

On another note, the last notable thing I found in the satchel was the warrior’s training journal.

Its worth to me as of now is quite ambiguous.

On one hand this could be priceless. In this primitive dog eat dog world, might still be made right, especially so in these slums. If I want to eventually fix my situation, what I need first and foremost is strength. The wisdom and business acumen from my previous life will help, yes but in a world of superhumans that can level cities with a flick of their finger, the only true way to get your way is to hit harder than your opponent.

To increase my strength I need a mana arts tome, but the journal is the next best thing.

That being said, considering the level of the warrior and my cluelessness about how mana works beyond the bare basics, it's akin to giving a college student’s notebook to a preschooler.

It will be in a note taking style of the writer, making it hard to understand from an outsider’s point of view, and even with that aside the notebook won't contain the “main lesson material”, only whatever reflections the writer has. For these reasons, it’ll probably be hard to gain nearly anything from it. Ultimately though, It’ll be up to how much is inside, as well as how it's written.

All things considered I guess my starting point could be worse, but where to go from here?

Everything is just way too uncertain, and one can’t plan without background knowledge.

As these thoughts were going through my mind, I heard an out of breath but firm voice from the open end of the corridor.

“Finally I caught up to you, you runt! How could you make an old man chase after ye for an hour!”