Alice and Grimmy made their way back to Ambar City in a couple of hours. They passed through the north gate where the usual guards stood guard, one on each side of the gate.

“Permit?” asked the guard as Alice got near the gate.

“Yes sir, here you go,” said Alice as she gave him the permit she got when she initially entered the city.

“Is that your familiar there?” The guard pointed at Grimmy.

“Yes sir.”

“You will need to add him to your permit before you leave town again. All familiars need to be properly registered if you want them to accompany you inside city walls.”

“Yes sir, will do,” said Alice. Grimmy had already warned her that Ambar City and various other cities required familiars to be registered before proper authorities if they were to let into the city so this was no surprise to her.

Alice and Grimmy entered the city and made their way to ‘Brews and Potions by Hanz’ to complete her quest. It did not take long before they reached their destination. They entered the store and immediately noticed potions of all different colors along with an immense variety of alchemical ingredients. Alice walked straight to the front desk.

“I am here for the Gladulus flower quest,” said Alice. The man on the other side of the counter was a tall, skinny human man with blonde spiked short hair. He had a pair of goggles on his forehead, and was dressed in, what Alice now knew as, common merchant attire.

“Yes! Finally… That quest has been posted at the guild for ages… Thank you very much… Were you able to get all 10?” replied the tall skinny blonde man.

“I got quite a bit more than just the 10,” said Alice, opening her satchel. She had at least 50 flowers in there. The man’s eyes went wide. “How… they are so rare? For so many of them to grow at the same time, there must have been an incredibly strong monster with death affinity there.”

“Something like that…” said Alice nervously.

“Does not matter, my name is Hanz, I am the owner and operator of this establishment. I would like to purchase all of your flowers at the agreed price of 20 gold per 10 flowers,” said Hanz.

“Umm are you sure… I have a lot,” replied Alice.

“Yes, of course I am sure… Do you know how rare these flowers are?!”

“Umm yeah okay.” Alice threw all the flowers in the counter and Hanz started to count them.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“77 flowers. I will give you 154 gold for them,” said Hanz eagerly.

Alice glanced quickly at Grimmy looking for approval that it was the right move. Grimmy nodded and Alice said, “You got a deal, good sir.”

“Marvelous, thank you so much! Please do bring more if you ever have the luck of finding them.”

“Sure, I’ll keep you in mind,” said Alice as she realized that her economic wellbeing in Sfiraz would not be something that she would have to worry about anytime soon.

Alice bought a few mana potions and health potions that Grimmy recommended before leaving, and headed to their next destination. Grimmy had mentioned that a necessity for all adventurers was a dimensional storage device. They were basically satchels or backpacks with an enchantment that would allow more things to be placed inside. Alice and Grimmy went back to the store where she bought her current set of clothes. They entered the store and walked up to the elf.

“Oh... back already, and with a new familiar! Congrats!” said the elf.

“Thanks! His name is Grimmy.”

“Hi Grimmy! Nice to meet you! You are so cute!” said the elf the same way a high school girl would when looking at a puppy.

“He is indeed!” said Alice, matching the elf’s tone and emotion.

“Ahem… Yes, nice to meet you. We are looking for a dimensional storage device,” said Grimmy, somewhat embarrassed.

“Ahh... yes... a dimensional storage device please,” said Alice.

“Of course! Right this way,” replied the elf. “My name is Fawny by the way. We did not properly introduce each other last time.”

“My name is Alice, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, Alice. I am glad you came back. Returning customers are always welcome at my store,” said the elf. “Here they are, dimensional storage units in all sizes and colors… The brown ones here would go great with your boots.”

Grimmy did a quick identify on all of them, and said, “That one, the red one.”

“The red one!” said both the elf and Alice in shock at the same time.

Grimmy floated back from Alice’s shoulder in surprise.

“The red one doesn’t go with my outfit, Grimmy,” said Alice.

“Yeah!” said the elf, wholeheartedly agreeing.

“That one is the one with the best enchantment, Ms. Alice... I mean Alice...” said Grimmy.

“Mmm… he is not wrong you know,” said Fawny. “That one does have the best enchantment.”

“Ughh… Fine, Grimmy… We’ll take the red one,” finally agreed Alice.

“Being the one with the best enchantment, I will charge 20 gold for it.”

“Yeah, but it’s red, Fawny... blood red... you know how hard it's going to be to match that tone of red to any outfit? No one's going to buy that satchel any time soon. I’ll give you 12 gold for it,” countered Alice.

“Mmm...15 gold and not a single gold coin less,” replied Fawny, acknowledging the fact that blood red was a hard color to match outfits to.

Alice made a quick glance towards Grimmy for confirmation, and he nodded. “You have yourself a deal, Fawny.”

“That was some fine negotiating, Alice,” said Grimmy as they left the store.

“Thanks, Grimmy, Tim always said that I should always negotiate a lower price at least once before buying.”

“Tim must be a wise man.”

“Nah, he just has good ideas here and there,” replied Alice, chuckling. “Alright where to next?”

“The rest of your equipment is fine for now, so let’s head to the adventurer’s guild to pick up a few quests, and then we can get going.”

They made their way to the Adventurer’s Guild and walked straight to the quest board. Grimmy stared at the different quests trying to decide which ones to take, and Alice decided to take a seat at a nearby table letting Grimmy make the decisions.

She noticed that there was a bar on the other side of the room and decided that she could really use a drink right now. A lot had happened since that last beer in the tavern.

She had registered as an adventurer, got her first quest, killed a troll, fell through a giant hole, met Death and beat him in blackjack, and she got Grimmy, a miniature grim reaper lookalike about 1 feet tall that floated next to you at shoulder height. That was a lot to process.

Before going to the bar, she approached Grimmy. “Hey Grimmy, do you know what a Margarita is?"

“Sure,” Grimmy replied. “One part lime juice, one part orange liquor, three parts tequila.”

“You are a wealth of information, Grimmy. What’s the equivalent of that here in Sfiraz?”

“Mmm the closest thing you could find to a Margarita would be a Sour Pearl. It has the fruit equivalents of lime and orange and alcohol distilled from a plant,” said Grimmy, still looking at the quest board. “What do you think of this one, Alice, are you up for some goblin hunting? Or maybe we should collect more herbs? No, I think it’s best if we prioritize leveling you up first... Alice?”

Alice was already gone and at the bar ordering her first Sour Pearl ever.