S5, Lizard Skewers

Clink! Clank!

Thud!

“Ouch!”

“Oh, sorry Falnid,” Bolton apologized after knocking the skinny Vesturke.

“You hit too hard, why don’t you go train with Terence or Simon?”

Clank!

“Well, I can’t use a sword like that.”

It was mid-morning and we were on the training grounds. I was having an energetic bout with Terence using blunted swords. I was beginning to worry that the sword skills my father had taught me would get rusty without a good practice partner, but Terence had proven to be a challenging opponent.

Clink!

I was using a heavy two-handed broadsword. Meanwhile, Terence wielded a lighter bastard sword, changing from a one-hand style to a two hands one depending on the situation.

Clink!

Terence deflected my downward strike and moved to my left. I promptly stepped to my right and took some distance from him, gaining enough time to get my sword into position to stop his horizontal slash.

Clank!

Terence stepped back and I advanced forward unleashing an upwards swing.

Swoosh.

At the last moment, Terence evaded my blade by tilting back and bending one of his knees, but the movement cost him his balance and I took advantage of it to rush ahead and hit his chest with the pommel of my sword.

“Ugh.”

Terence completely lost his balance and fell backwards.

“I guess I win this time, nice fight,” I said while helping him get up.

“It was really intense, I haven’t had such a good sparring partner in a while.” Terence complimented me with a bright smile.

“My father insisted I should learn to wield a sword. You are also very talented.”

“I have just trained hard for a long time, my talent with the sword isn’t that great.” Terence’s smile seemed to spoil a bit.

“My father always says that effort is half of one’s talent.”

Hearing my words Terence chuckled. "I guess your father isn’t wrong.”

“What about we take a rest?”

I was sweating quite profusely after having a few rounds against Terence, so I sat down on a log and refreshed myself with a waterskin. Falnid and Bolton were already laying against a couple of training posts.

“So, did you know Bolton before coming here?” I asked Terence passing him the waterskin.

“No, I didn’t, Flodbred is quite a big city.”

“I also didn’t leave Taluherri much either,” Bolton added. “Flodbred is two days away, I only visited the city about a couple of times a year.”

“I see, my house is also quite far from the nearest town. It takes most of a day to travel there, so we don’t go more than one or two times each moon to barter hides and meat for grain and other stuff.”

“Most people in Vesturkal live in one of the clans’ cities,” Falnid chimed in. “We only rarely go into the badlands to hunt. Actually, most people go into the dungeon, there is a lot more prey in there.”

"So, how did you end up here, Falnid? Did you want to get a card and plate from the guild?" Terence asked.

“Nah, I know many Vesturke come to the south to get dungeon passes, but that’s not my case, dad told me to stay here for some time. What about you?”

“I want to make connections with the adventurers. Hopefully, I will have a chance to work for a big guild in the future,” Terence answered.

“And you two?” Falnid looked at Bolton and me.

“My father told me I should experience the world outside the mountains and sent me with Uncle.”

“My old man has a mill, but my older brother will inherit it. Since I don’t want to work for him I convinced my father to send me to train as an adventurer.”

“I see, I was sent here because the Irumar clan is choosing a new chief, and one of my uncles is a strong candidate, so I was told to stay here to avoid trouble,” Falnid explained.

“Oh, then your uncle is passing the trials now? I have heard about them, but never had the opportunity to ask a Vesturke, how do they work?” Terence asked curiously.

“The trials… they are quite simple, there are three of them. The trial of strength is a combat tournament where the candidates fight unarmed. Then the trial of hunting, where the candidates have to hunt specific monsters. My uncle will surely do well in those,” Falnid explained. “After that, the candidates that were remarkable in both trials have a month to prepare for the trial of knowledge, where the council of elders asks them questions about the clan’s history and how would they deal with certain situations.”

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“Um, then how do you determine who gets to be the chief?” Terence encouraged Falnid to keep talking.

“The council of elders decides who will be the chief from the candidates that reach the third trial.”

“Hmm, it sounds like the elders are the ones truly ruling the clan, not so different from the nobles here.”

“No, it's different! The candidates have to raise their popularity in the month before the third trial, and the elders will take into account the people’s opinions. Also, everyone can be a chief candidate, even women. In fact, once my cousin is older she will probably participate in them, she is already stronger than most adults in our family.”

“Then how do you choose your elders?” Terence seemed unconvinced.

“Uh… I don’t know, I’m sure some of them are the previous chiefs, but I don’t remember much about the others…”

“Hey! You four, if you are not going to train, go somewhere else,” an annoyed instructor cut our chat.

“Ugh, I guess we should go back to practice,” Terence said, stretching his body.

…

“Oh! that dagger is so cool!” Falnid exclaimed looking at the exposed merchandise in the back.

It was late in the afternoon and we were sightseeing in Algus. There were quite a lot of shops that sold adventurer gear. Like the one we were in, run by a weapon smith.

Behind the counter all kinds of weapons could be seen, from small knives to a big claymore, there were also battle axes, double-headed axes, spears, curved swords, maces, and many more.

“That will be seven tiny silvers and fifteen coppers,” the shopkeeper told me.

After examining the plain knife one last time I gave him eight tiny silver coins, they were small, not even half the length of my pinkie, and really thin. This was the most common currency after copper coins.

The man gave me back a few different coppers, unlike tiny silvers they came in various values.

“Anyway, why do you want a knife, Simon? Didn’t the guild lend you one?” Falnid asked.

“Yes, but it’s no good, this one is made to skin animals, it will come in handy when we find some prey in the dungeon, I heard that they pay more if you butcher the monsters beforehand.”

I was missing my hunting tools, I hoped I would have enough money to buy a few more tools in the near future.

As we were leaving the shop I found a strange copper coin mixed in with the rest. It had the face of a man I didn’t recognize on one side and a long serpent on the other.

“Uh? What’s this?” I stopped confused.

“Let me see,” Terence opened his palm and I handed him the coin.

“Oh, this one was minted in Lindriik, you can see their silver wyrm stretching to the left in the reverse. It symbolizes the Lanjoki river crossing the country from east to west. You don’t need to worry, currency from Lindriik is worth practically the same as the one from Perendin or Suidberg. Everyone treats them as if they were equivalent.”

I knew coins from Suidberg had the same value as the ones from Perendin. Our kingdom was a sort of unofficial vassal of Suidberg, but this was my first time seeing a coin from a third country.

“But that wyrm isn’t silver,” Falnid pointed at the copper.

“Well, that’s obvious, it’s a copper coin,” Terence stated.

“Ugh, you complicate things too much. In Vesturkal we just barter most of the time, only merchants like using money.”

“It isn’t complicated, their value is easy to tell.”

“That’s not true, there are a lot of coins, and all are different, they make my head ache.”

“Huff, you can tell the value of copper coins just by looking at the number, look, this one is worth five coppers.”

Falnid took his purse and began inspecting the coins.

“Uh, alright, then how much are the silver ones worth? They don’t have a number.”

“Tiny silvers are worth a hundred copper coins.”

“I see… they should put a number on them too…”

“Also, above tiny silvers, there are silver coins, gold coins, and crystal silver coins. Each of them is worth twenty times more than the previous one,” Terence kept explaining.

“Agh, stop! You are really giving me a headache.”

“Ha ha, don’t worry, you only need to remember coppers and tiny silvers for now.”

Although none of us had much money left we kept wandering the town. There were quite a lot of stores that took my attention, one that sold armor, another that showed traps, a third that had bows on display… Once I had made enough money I would be sure to visit all of them.

After a while, the scent of food reached our noses. We were in the southern part of the town, where a couple of inns were located. There was also a tavern that didn’t offer lodgings.

Falnid inhaled deeply. "Oh! That smells so good, how about we dine here today?"

“Uh, I don’t have much money,” Bolton said dispiritedly. “I will dine in the guild.”

“We can get some refreshments, there is a stall selling them over there,” Terence suggested.

“That sounds good, I don’t have much money either,” I was excited at the thought of eating something not cooked in the dining hall.

We approached the booth that Terence pointed out. It was selling a couple of different meat skewers.

“Welcome, what can I offer you, young adventurers?” The stall’s seller greeted us with a smile.

“Um, what’s the meat in the skewers?” Terence asked.

“These are dungeon lizard, and these are wild hare, the lizard ones are three coppers and the hare are nine.”

“Give me one of each, I have never tasted dungeon lizard.” Terence asked the seller.

“I want two lizard skewers, by the way, they taste like chicken,” Falnid explained while counting the coins.

“I will also take two lizard skewers.”

“Me too, please.”

All of us got our snacks and roamed away from the stall, back to the guild quarters. The dungeon lizard tasted the same as the wild lizards in the mountains, if something, this one seemed softer

As we kept walking I bumped into a lone adventurer.

“Hey, you. Look where you are going!”

I had been distracted eating the food and watching my feet so as not to step on a muddy puddle. “Sorry, Mister.” I humbly apologized.

“My shirt is all stained!”

I examined the rough-looking adventurer. His clothes were indeed full of filth, but the stains had been there for a long time.

“I’m sorry, I will be more careful.” I bowed my head, not wanting to get into trouble with a stranger.

“And what about my shirt?” The man asked for money like a street thug in Father’s stories.

“Uh…” In those stories, the protagonist would either cleverly avoid trouble or beat the shit out of the thugs.

‘Father’s advice in this situation would be to avoid trouble… Should I keep apologizing?’

“My friend will surely compensate you for the stains, but we don’t have enough money with us. If you could accompany us to our quarters we will get some coins,” Terence quickly came to my help and reasoned with the adventurer while keeping a polite smile.

“Ah, forget it, not worth my time!” The annoyed man walked away.

“Who was that imbecile?” Falnid muttered.

“Probably an adventurer from the Grey Hounds, I haven’t seen him before.” Terence watched as the rude man strolled down the street.

The Grey Hounds was the name of the other adventurers’ guild in Algus. Unlike the Calpavaros’ Bears, which had only trainees and instructors, their adventurers earned a living exploring and hunting in the dungeon.

“Those guys have quite a bad reputation. It’s better if we avoid trouble with them,” Terence warned.

After the unpleasant incident, the four of us began walking towards our quarters while munching on our meat skewers.