Chapter 11 - City of Prosper

As the walls of the [City of Prosper] were getting closer and closer, my excitement and anticipation was growing bigger and bigger.

When I finally reached the great, white blockage, my eyes were fixated on the big, pearly gates that led to the insides of the city and I walked straight into them.

There were two guards in front of the gates, checking who can enter the city and who can not. Not everyone was welcome in the [City of Prosper].

When they saw me, they immediately raised their weapons and were prepared for a potential fight.

The weapons were long spears, longer than the guards' height. They were made out of what seemed like marbled wood, but they were painted in a dark blue color, like the sea during a storm. At both ends, there were golden details decorating the staff and two equally golden handles were attached in proper distance. A small golden ball on the back side of the staff and a sharp, shining blade at the front.

I was wondering why they were looking at me like that. But when I thought about it, it made perfect sense. I did not notice at first, but I was smiling like a lunatic from all the excitement I had.

Furthermore, I was holding a bloody bloody branch like a sword on my right hand. And finally, the crazy lady that was driving the carriage earlier was now following me and yelling at me, which did not help either.

I walked towards the guards as peacefully as I could. I put my 'sword' in my imaginary scabbard on my left hip and it naturally fell on the ground.

"Why do I keep doing this?"

Things were not getting better.

One of the guards loosened up a bit, while the other one tightened even more, both because they were starting to think I was just some crazy dude.

"Who be you, stranger?" asked the tense guard, taking a reluctant step forward.

"My name is Jinden and I am an Anthir," I responded, lifting my arms in the air to show that I meant no harm. "I just came from the forest dungeon right there and would like to enter the City of Prosper," I said while I turned to point at the woods.

"Who do you answer to?" he immediately continued with the next question. And this question really confused me at that moment - the answer seemed a bit... obvious.

"Uhhm... to you? You are the one asking questions"

The looser guard chuckled.

"Ha, you should have expected that. Just talk like a normal person, won't you?" he said to the other guard.

"Name your commander! And who was with you during the dungeon crawl?" The tense guard said, trying to make his demand as clear as possible.

"I don't have a commander. And no one was with me in the woods. I was solo." The whole interrogation was starting to get annoying, but I had to go through it.

"You beat it solo?" I felt him using his [Identify] skill on me. "But your level is neigh higher than 8," he said. "Even if you were of adequate level, forming parties is the conventional way to dungeon crawl."

"Well, I just spawned a few days ago, right on the other side of the dungeon - I did not have much of a choice," I explained, and suddenly everything clicked inside the guards' heads.

"Very well, you shall proceed into the [City of Prosper], technically infant traveler," said the tense guard and hit the back of his spear on the ground.

The moment he did, the ground started shaking, like a weak earthquake, and the pearly gates started slowly opening, revealing the [City of Prosper] in all of its magnificence. Looking at the city from this close, it looked even better than before - I was in awe. I slowly walked inside, trying to absorb all of the city's beauty with my eyes.

"Can I go in too?" asked the lady that fell from the carriage.

"Who be you, stranger!?"

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The city looked like a giant piece of art. Every single detail of every single building was added with beauty and elegance in mind. With purpose and intent.

White and gold were the main colors of the city, and everything I saw had a combination of the two. Mostly white buildings, with golden abstract details that almost looked like flowers climbing up the walls.

Even the cobblestone roads were made with so much care that they felt almost completely smooth; great to walk on without tiring oneself and perfect for the many passing carriages.

The only thing that broke the white-gold pattern was right in the center of the city. At the junction of four roads that led to each of the city's borders, there was an enormous circular fountain. Its walls were tall enough to reach my waist and wide enough for someone to sit on them and admire the fountain, or even the city itself.

In the middle of the fountain, there was a gigantic statue of what seemed to be a mighty warrior. He was wearing full armor, covering his entire body. He was not wearing his helmet, which revealed the calm, but steadfast look on his face. His hair straight and falling on his forehead, almost hiding his eyes.

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On his left hand, a triangular shield. Well-crafted, seemed like a shield of the highest quality. And yet, myriads of dents and scratches betrayed the countless battles the hero had gone through.

On his right, a sword. With a handle so beautiful and detailed, it must have taken years to create this part alone. The blade broad and long, fit to cut through any enemy. It was held high by the mighty warrior, pointing towards the sky. And from the blade's edge, water was emerging and falling inside the fountain underneath.

There was a small part in the two sides of the fountain, where it was not closed. Instead, the fountain's walls lowered until they were almost one with the road and extended all the way to the city's edges, creating a small river that flowed and covered the whole length of the city. It was beautiful, and at the same time short and thin enough to allow the citizens to walk over it without sacrificing convenience.

The city was very lively, brimmed with people walking around in all sorts of directions, their voices blending with the rest of the crowd. It made sense; it was the city of prosper after all. Who in their right mind would not want to live here?

As I was wandering around, I found myself in the middle of the city market. It was a road with stands on both sides and people walking in the middle. All sorts of sellers occupied these stands, selling all sorts of things.

There were timid sellers I could barely hear that were offering really well-made weapons, there were aggressive sellers barking at me until I paid attention to them so they could attempt to sell me a fish the size of my torso, and there were appropriately loud sellers selling items of adequate quality. I could pretty much find everything I would ever need here.

While walking on the crowded street, a hooded young Dwarf bumped into me, shoulder to shoulder. I would not have thought anything of it if the man did not start running immediately afterwards. This made it obvious that something was off. But I did not know what. I held my weapon tightly just in case I needed to use it, but then decided against it. There was little space to use my wooden stick freely, and I could potentially hurt someone by accident.

I still decided to use one of the violet balls before going after him, just to be safe, since I had more than enough to spare. I did not know what people here were capable of doing and I did not want to take unnecessary risks.

Except there was an issue. My pouch was missing. And with it, all my items were missing too, including the violet balls and my [Cool Staff].

Without really thinking about it, I picked up an apple from the stand that was right next to me, on my left. I held it to the height of my face, looked at it and then looked at the Dwarf running away.

Planting my foot to the ground, I transferred as much energy as I could to the apple and used [Item Throw], aiming for the thief.

My throw was a complete success, hitting him right at the back of his head and knocking him down. The apple hit him so hard it got distorted and juices flew everywhere around. Then, the messed up apple fell on the road next to the fallen Dwarf.

This gave me enough time to run and catch up to him. I crouched to reach his level and grabbed him from the back of his cloak. He lifted his head up and looked at me.

"Hey buddy, whatcha doin'?" I said.

"Wh-what do you mean?" he asked.

"My pouch"

"Your pouch?"

"Yes, my pouch - I know you took it. Now, if you were so kind as to return it to me, I would be much grateful."

He seemed very surprised by my words.

"H-How did you know?"

"At first I didn't. And even if I hadn't realized until now, your response told me everything. But when you started running away, I knew something was fishy, other than the seller at the start of the street. I was not born yesterday, you know? It's already been four days now. So, to help me catch you, I thought of using a really bad tasting violet bead. And guess where I keep those; in my fucking pouch"

The Dwarf sighed and gave me back my pouch, looking dissapointed by how this all turned out.

I decided to not do anything and let him go, mostly because I did not know how law enforcement worked here.

He ran away, fading into the distance, while I walked back and approached the seller of the stand where I got my apple from.

"Sorry for taking the apple without asking. I was going to pay for but I don't have any money. Do you even use money? You can have this, instead," I said and pulled out of my pouch the smelly, old piece of [Odd Meat] I had. I placed it on top of the seller's stack of apples and some unpleasant juices started flowing onto the rest of the fruit.

"Have a good day," I said, nodding to the seller as I walked away. He was too confused to react to this and thus remained silent.

Before I was able to walk more than a couple of kilometers, I heard the voice of a man behind me calling for someone.

"Hey, mister!"

I ignored the call and kept going my merry way, as it was probably not referring to me. But then he called again.

"Hey, you! The blue-haired Anthir!"

At that point, I realized he was indeed referring to me after all - the description was too specific. I turned around to face a man, probably of Human origin—I could not be certain as I could not see his ears—wearing a blue uniform with golden buttons and details. On the left side, right above the chest, it wrote "Police of Prosper."

Great, I thought. Not even an hour here and I am already in trouble.

But in reality, I shouldn't be - I did not do anything wrong. I it would be fine, so I was able to remain calm.

"Hello, officer! How can I help you?" I asked politely.

"You can start by wearing these, thank you very much," he said and lifted a pair of handcuffs at chest height to show them to me.

"Uhhm.. I don't understand," I said, but it was clear from my expression that I did actually understand.

"Look, sir, there have been reports that you committed a crime. You will have to wear these and follow me to the police station while we investigate."

"You don't understand. I was just getting back what was mine - the Dwarf stole my pouch," I tried to explain, as it seemed that he was the one that did not understand all along. I was starting to get anxious about what was going to happen. I was innocent. I hadn't done anything wrong.

The officer was getting more annoyed with every minute that passed. "I know sir, we caught the Dwarven man, too. Now. please, wear these and follow me," he said trying to put an end to this.

"But, let me explain..." I started saying, but the officer cut me off with a sigh before I was able to explain.

"Why do they always ask how they can help me if they are not willing to help in the first place?" he asked himself.

Suddenly, a lasso made of fire appeared in the officer's hands. He swinged it and threw it towards me. The loop landed perfectly around me and a second later was tight enough to make me unable to move my hands and torso.

Thankfully, although the lasso was made of fire, I was not getting burnt for some reason. It was acting just like a normal rope.

"Come on, let's go," the police officer said and pulled me slightly. This caused my wooden weapon to fall from my hands to the ground and I was unable to reach it in my current state.

"Wait, help me get my... weapon," I said, realizing at the last second that the words that came out of my mouth were far from helping my case.

"Uhhh... fine," he said. He picked up the branch and stuck it between me and the fiery lasso. Somehow, even the piece of wood remained completely intact.

We walked for a few kilometers towards the police station. On our way there, everyone was looking at me and for good reason - I looked like a damn criminal, which I wasn't! This made me mad and put a big frown on my face, which made me look even more sinister and deserving of being in this situation.

We finally reached the police station and the officer took me straight downstairs, putting me inside a temporary jail cell until everything was cleared out.

He closed the door and I looked at the ground, mad and defeated. I let out a sad sigh and sat on the floor.

"Hey, look! A new cellmate," said a voice behind me.