DRIFA
I glanced around where we were staying as I walked to my room. It was pretty nice here, all things considered. Especially in contrast to the average hotel room from my own timeline so long as you ignore conveniences like running water. It probably isn’t all too fancy around compared to what I imagined other inns in the future looked like, but it was still plenty nice. Instead of concrete, plastic, and plaster, you had nicely cut rustic-looking wood, stone, and metal. I really liked the aesthetic, it was a nice break from the last… however long we’d been in that dungeon.
Once I arrived at the door and took a few minutes to get the key to work in the lock, I flopped into my small bed. It may’ve been a bit lumpy but I didn’t care.
What am I doing?
I moved my head so I could see around me.
I don’t have much of anything to put away unless I hang up my cloak. Well I guess may as well start with that, I don’t know how long I’ll be here for.
I did just that, putting away my cloak and butter knife, but I kept my stone in my pocket. I’d take some risks, but not that many. It was precious after all.
Thunk!
Thump!
Thunk!
…
I guess Ismunds walking over to his bath.
I looked down at myself.
I should probably do that too… it’s been a while.
After a moment of thought, excitement hit me.
Oh yeah! I can go shopping after this. Ismund’s holding the purse strings but-
I raised a finger as I talked to myself.
-If he tries to find the prices himself before giving me the money he thinks I’ll need, I’ll have plenty to spare.
I made a smug grin.
Just wait and see, I’ll get a lot. I could get some spices,
I looked down at myself.
another shirt or two, and a few other odds and ends.
I tapped my fingers together mischievously. After that, I headed over to the bath room.
* * *
It was lovely and horrifying all at the same time. I really liked getting all the grime off of myself but… the effects it had on the water was concerning. The water had become a dark murky brown laced with
black flakes, ice, and the occasional pieces of dried blood. After a while, I had the water replaced so it was freshened up. How the water looked was just the start of it, the actual cleaning part was the worst. My hair was still frozen solid from when I’d been in that ice sphere and the weight was killing my neck. Thankfully the water was warm and melted it eventually but that was still difficult. On top of that, I didn’t have any soap, just hot water, which made things… difficult. The whole being vulnerable to corrupt energy thing was going so well either… as soon as I got in the bath I could see that I was missing large patches of skin and had what looked like a cross between ash and burnt tree bark.
Once I should’ve finished I got a “bright” Idea too. I thought, ‘Why not wash my clothes too?’ This was a very bad idea. The clothes were clean but they were also very wet, and I had no spares and I couldn’t dry them within a reasonable time. Sooo… I got dressed in my soggy clothes and they started to immediately frost over, joining my re-frozen hiar thanks to my [Snow Affinity]. It was nice that I wasn’t going around wet, but frosty isn’t the best either. My clothes would make concerning ‘cracking’ noises and it was harder to move around.
So, it was a pretty good bath. I was clean and so were my clothes.
I walked back into my room, grabbed my knife and hid it away in my pocket along with my marble before donning my dry and not frozen cloak. Afterwards, I went to look for Ismund.
He’d definitely be done before me. I think I heard him leave the men’s bath, but I couldn’t tell where he went after that…
I Headed over to his room and knocked. Nothing.
He’d probably at least answer, right? Well… maybe not right away.
I stood there for a good 15 minutes knocking, looking around occasionally, feeling awkward, until his neighbour peaked heir head out and scowled in my direction. Before they left their room entirely I left at a brisk pace pursing my lips, fiddling with my crackling sleeve.
I tried the front desk/bar thing next. It went a little better. I clomped down the stairs and greeted the short mustached man tending to the counter. Once they started talking without any noise leaving their lips I realized I’d messed up. My face had already felt warm, it must’ve turned crimson by now.
“Bye!”, I headed right for the exit onto the moss-strewn cobbled street.
I don’t notice the problem of not hearing as much when it’s just Ismund… but, this becoming a larger issue…
I waved the thought from my mind. I was on a mission and I needed to focus. I wasn’t sure where Ismund had gone off to, and I only caught his side of the conversation with that man. I had an idea as to what happened, and it didn’t seem all that bad, but I didn’t have the whole thing. He also didn’t look very happy while they were talking, especially near the end.
I felt like I was coming down with a headache.
No, I’m not. I’ve had a real headache, not the same. Those are much worse. That wa- No, stop Drifa. You need to focus, not reminisce on headaches.
I tsked myself and looked around. From what I could tell, I was in the area of the town where the housing was.
He probably went to either the doctors or some of the stores. If he went to the stores then he could find a price range. I think anyways… I’m not too sure.
Since I didn’t know the layout of the town and I couldn’t exactly talk to people and ask for directions I headed off in a random direction and hoped for the best. It wasn’t the best plan, sure, but it’s what I had.
* * *
After walking around the peaceful streets for a while, I finally came across a large crowed of people walking too and fro.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
This’s got to be it, the shopping area!
It boded well for buying things later today, but I wasn’t sure where to start if I was going to find Ismund.
Well I can either go to the doctors, or look at the shops first. I think I’ll look around the different shops first. If he’s already with the doctor, I’ll have enough time to look around for him. if he isn’t at the doctors yet and I show up that won’t work well. And, really, I want to see whats around as well.
I paced around the streets looking all around me, but I couldn’t find him. I had mistaken a few old men with shaggy white hair for him though.
My idea of him dressing up should work then.
I didn’t find Ismund in the streets, but I did find the clothes people were wearing pretty interesting. It looked like a cross between what you’d expect a Viking to wear and traditional Korean clothes from the Joseon period. There were plenty of leather elements such as vests, boots, gloves, hats, and belts. In the other town it seemed to be whatever people could scrounge together, it was all mismatched, but over here it was cohesive. There was some bits of metal mixed in, but not much.
It’d be pretty hard to find that around here. The ground’s frozen solid.
Their sleeves and pants, like mine, gathered around their wrists and ankles while the sleeves and pants themselves were roomy and neutral. In summary, it was different and I liked it. Although, it makes me wonder what happened to all the continents if these different clothing styles were mixed. Maybe-
Stop. Focus Drifa.
I looked over the crowd again and I didn’t find anything so I started popping my head into stores. By the looks of it, they’ll be fun to look around in once I get there. Eventually, I found the tall grizzled-looking man from earlier standing heads and shoulders above the crowd. His face was plastered against glass that would’ve let someone view the products inside.
May as well give it a shot. I think we’re supposed to be working with him, right?
[Affirmative. Ismund made a deal with Abs. User Drifa was not included in this deal. You are working with Abs due to association.]
Oh… okay! I guess I wasn’t that far off. Hopefully, he’s better company on trips than Ismund.
I gave myself a small smile at the thought.
I’ll give it a shot.
I walked right up to the man and tapped his shoulder lightly. His head whipped around towards me with intensity, quick as a whip. He didn’t seem to mean any harm by it… he was just very… focused.
With the mask he was wearing I couldn’t even tell if he was talking or not. So, I crossed my arms against each other so they made an ‘x’ in a ‘stop’ gesture. My hands weren’t very steady, they were, they were shaking. I supposed that I did care about this quite a bit, and uh, offending this man would go poorly.
I hope this goes better than the other two times…
“I ah…” I wrung my hands and looked down, then back up at his towering figure, “I can’t hear you, I can only hear Ismund. So don’t bother with talking.”, I waved my hands in front of me in a placating gesture, “But that’s not the point. I was wondering if you could help me find Ismund. I’ve been looking all over for him. Do you know where he is?”
Abs tilted his head (mustache braids swooshing sideways), crossed his arms and stroked his beard. After another moment or two he nodded and waved me over to follow him. He went straight into the liquor store.
I didn’t think that Ismund was having that hard of a time.
As soon as I walked into the store I realized that I should’ve expected the man who smelled like alcohol to come in for alcohol. Ismund wasn’t anywhere in the store. But there was the bottle Abs had been staring at earlier. He snatched it right up and examined it in several different ways: he shook it, stared at the colour of the drink with light shining behind it and looked at the amount of air in the bottle. After nodding happily with himself he placed the 62.5% ABV bottle on the counter. As an afterthought, he also placed some really strong vodka on the desk.
I couldn’t quite tell what was happening, but Abs leaned in and the other man grinned while rolling his eyes. The taller man lifted his hammer necklace and bonked the other man on the head after he nodded. He didn’t seem all that worse for wear, but his cheeks were noticeably more flushed and he seemed more relaxed.
Huh?
He walked back in my direction, I’d been wandering around aimlessly in the store.
“So, do you know where he is?”
Abs just gave me a shrug. As any reasonable person would do, I ran a hand over my face.
I think Ismund’s influencing me too much. I should be friendlier.
I cut it short with an understanding nod.
“Okay, well… what do you want to do instead then?”
He tapped his foot for a moment, looked longingly at his new drinks and shook his head at himself. After stroking his chin he pointed in the direction of the store’s exit.
That’s a start!
I gave him a thumbs-up and followed him out the door.
Thankfully, It didn’t take us very long to run into Ismund. He was, unsurprisingly, looking at different jerkies. There was a nervous-looking girl behind the counter with short brown hair.
We found him! I’m really glad he didn’t take off or something. It wouldn’t be all that surprising honestly.
I tugged on Abs’ disgusting sleave and gave him a wide grin and thumbs up. Abs then headed straight back to the liquor store, probably to talk with the guy behind the counter. They seemed to have a history.
“Why is this meat less expensive when that one’s common?” Ismund asked as he pointed between two different low-quality jerkies.
The girl said something back.
“Salt?” he squinted his eyes and nodded, before leaving. He seemed quite oblivious to her distress, her yelling lost in the crowd.
I’ll probably have a lot more money than I’ll actually need if that’s how he’s gathering his information.
I gave myself an evil grin.
Perfect!
I walked right up to him causing him to widen his eyes and frown in surprise.
“Do you have the budget ready for me?”
He started to shake his head before I cut him off.
“You can give me the price for only buying beef jerky. You were just talking to that lady over there about the price, right? I’ll only buy the jerky and you can get whatever else.”
His eyes seemed to lose their harsh edge.
“Okay.”
Ismund handed me 40 copper-looking coins. I hadn’t seen this timeline’s currency yet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that interesting, it was just disks with numbers printed on one side and symbols on the other. As I looked closer I could see that ‘System Units’ was printed along the edge of the coins.
I could probably use that analyse skill or whatever it was that came with completing that dungeon!
[That is one copper (C), 100 units.]
What?
[This is a currency created by the System as a reward for completing dungeons. This is the only viable currency. Printed paper no longer holds value and, if needed, these coins can be used to create weapons, buttons and more. These metals conduct energy well and are easier to turn into magical objects.]
[The base coin is Aluminum (A) which is worth 1 Unit, simmular to the ancient penny. Large Aluminum (LA) is 10 units. On Copper (C) is 100 units…]
I took a moment looking over all of the information the System was giving me so I could make good deals.
I would make the best deals.
“Okay, I’m ready!” I looked up at him eagerly. He seemed unfazed and walked back to the booth. I stopped moving before we got there.“Wait stop!”
Ismund turned back in my direction skeptically.
“I thought you wanted to buy it.”
“I do! I just, I can’t talk to them.”, I tugged on the red bandana around my neck, “Could we buy me a flat piece of stone?”
He turned towards me with his features all screwed up.
“Why?”
“That way I can use charcoal, which we don’t have to buy, to write on the stone so I can talk to people. What do you think?”I thought it was a pretty clever idea.
“I can tell you what they’re saying. Thats a lot easier.”
I tilted my head skeptically.
“Do you really want to tell me an entire half of a conversation when you could be doing other things? This way it’s easier for you, right?”
I looked up at him eagerly.
“I’ll look at the prices.”
I clenched my fists together and shook them in victory.
It was pretty hard to find someone who was selling flat rocks, but after some digging, we found a nice one in a scrap pile of a stone mason’s shop. It was worth ten of our 200 coppers. The price wasn’t too bad so Ismund conceded and also grabbed some charcoal from the furnace so I could write. After all that, we arrived back at the jerky shop.
Ismund stayed behind and I walked up to the counter with bounce in my step and a smile.
“Hello! How are you doing?” Before the girl could start talking I held up a finger, “Just so you know, I can’t hear all that well. Do you mind writing on this?”
I offered her my brand-new writing tablet with the charcoal. She seemed flustered at first, but after a few seconds she decided to write on it.
“Sure?”
“Thank you, I know it’s a hassle.”
I quirked my lips to the side as I looked at all of their dried meats. Some of them looked, really, really good. But I knew that Ismund wouldn’t let me get them. So I took a look at the options available, rabbit was probably affordable. They didn’t exactly have a price tag on them so I figured I could try some haggling.
“Makes sense that you carry rabbit jerky. There’s a lot in the area.”
She smiled politely and nodded.
“Yes, the rabbits are doing well. But it’s hard to get your hands on them, they’re so fast!”,
I grabbed a few small pieces and placed them on the counter.
“How much would you say this is?”
She paused, looked me up and down, and wrote.
“About 20 coppers.”
My eyes widened and I let out a low whistle.
"Wow... Is there something that sets it apart? This is what, one rabbit’s worth of meat?”
“Well, like I said, they’re difficult to catch. There isn’t a whole lot on them either.”
I pursed my lips seriously.
“Do you have any cheaper options? I need to get a lot.”
She wrote on the tablet again and leaned in as she spun it around for me to read.
“How much we talkin’?”
I tilted my hand back and forth in an unsure motion, “Oh, maybe like a months worth?”
The brown-haired girl looked at me horrified.
“I don’t think we carry that much quality jerky, and if we did, there’s not that many people who could afford to buy that much at once.”
I frowned and nodded.
“Well, do you have any meat that’s about to expire?”
She tilted her head in confusion and wrote again.
“We do. But I’m not sure that you’ll have enough time to use it all, it's raw.”
Why do they have so much meat that's about to go bad? Well, that's their problem, not mine. Something to think about on the walk to the next dungeon, those take a while.
I waved her off.
“I don’t care about that, so long as it won’t make me sick today.”
She looked quite concerned but conceded nonetheless.
She waved me forward.
“Hold on one moment!" I raised a finger, "I’ll be right back, I just need to grab something to carry it all.”
I darted over to Ismund.
“Come with me, no time to explain!”
He didn’t move.
“Please! I think that I’m about to get a great deal and I need that box of yours to carry it all.”
He nodded and followed me, walking briskly.
“Okay, I’m back!”
The girl looked over at Ismund before quickly glancing away, she was clearly very unhappy but was trying to hide it. She led us into the back where a lot of bad-smelling meat was.
“How much could I buy this for?”
She wrote on the rock again.
* * *
After negotiating and making sure Ismund was as neutral as Ismund could be I eventually got a month’s worth of almost spoiled pig for both of us (176 lb) at an 80% discount due to how rank it was. It was 197 copper and 14 aluminum, or 19,714 system units. We only had a little more than two copper left, and I’d found that one copper was close to about one dollar. We’d used almost all of our money, but it was a great price. Ismund could store it in his box and it would keep as long as we needed. It might not taste as great, sure, but it worked. During the process I ended up trying to convince both the shopkeeper and Ismund to let me buy it, it was a whole process. unfortunately, didn’t get to keep some leftover money to shop for what I’d like as I’d hoped, but I was able to snag a great deal and Ismund seemed impressed… I think.
I’ll be able to shop again I think! Also, now that I think about it, how much did Ismund think I’d buy with the amount of money he gave me? Two handfuls of jerky?
I turned towards Ismund as we walked away from the store.
“So, good thing we got this rock, right?”
“Mhm.”
My eyes sparkled.
That might be the most enthusiastic response he’s given me! I’m making progress. Now I just need to find a way to get seasonings… we have a lot of scraps from the boss so long as Ismund harvested it’s corpse, and I’m sure he did. We can do that next, selling pieces.