"That's everything," Liora says as she dropped one last scroll onto the counter. This one, unlike the previous ten that Thariel bought, was unenchanted and mundane.

It was still just as important as the rest however, as it held a lot of useful information that Thariel thought would be vital when learning more about the local area.

The paragraphs the scroll held about the locations in the nearby forest are the real prize however.

Together with a map, she had what could only be considered a primitive Atlas, one of those exploration books that detailed the various locations all across Earth.

The people of her previous planet had made something of an explorer's encyclopedia and that, on its own, would have taken a lot of time to make so her imitation of it couldn't be compared to the real thing.

Hers wasn't as detailed as an actual Atlas but it would do since she only needed to figure out a way into the Silent Shrine using the available information.

Really, her knowledge related to Tainted Orchids was the larger variable here, but she couldn't really use that without a map nor the information of the local area.

The flashbacks related to Thariel's past didn't really show any of these places properly, just the bare minimum. She knew the shrine existed and that by the time canon started, it had relocated someplace else.

Whatever happened in the next few months caused the shrine to be displaced, unsurprising given that the Ytallotiks would have taken over everything around here a year from now.

She'd do something to prevent that in this reality though and to do that, she needed to find the Silent Shrine.

Making a connection with the blind saint was probably going to be harder than pinpointing the location of the shrine itself but Thariel was willing to do and offer a lot to earn his graces.

After all, the only place where she can get spirit water from is the Silent Shrine.

And spirit water is one of the only things that could push back the taint that the Ytallotiks bring with them wherever they go. Spirit water can also be used to cure any disease, albeit at a cost to the soul.

After getting access to the Silent Shrine, she'll try to prevent the biggest events that caused the Ytallotiks to get a foothold on the area and hopefully, with her efforts, things wouldn't be as bad as they were in canon.

That would mean that the main character wouldn't grow as well as she did in Tainted Orchids though, but that was a sacrifice Thariel was willingly going to make.

Personally, Thariel considered that kind of consequence as nothing compared to the suffering everyone would be under when the Ytallotiks officially start invading and the three kingdoms go to war.

"Thank you," Thariel says as she put the items into a recently purchased leather bag, "by the way, I also want to buy a few pounds of meat,"

"I'll give it to you when you're about to leave," Liora casually replied, "what are they for?"

"Hm? Nothing," Thariel shook her head, "I'm being trained by someone I know so I need to eat a lot, of meat,"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Just meat?" Liora asks.

"Yes," the Damphir shrugged, meat was the only thing she needed to buy, as they already had crop plots growing vegetables back at home.

"I also want to make jerky," Thariel elaborated, "at some point, she'll probably tell me to go into the forest, I want to be prepared before it happens,"

And it's not like she's lying, Clyra would probably make her go into the forest at some point, that is, if Thariel didn't plan on going there on her own in the first place.

She's sure that her mother would understand that finding a shrine on the back of a turtle was a good idea. Or something.

On that note, she should probably also prepare some other things, like a basic survival kit, "maybe also buying a fire starter wouldn't be so bad," Thariel sheepishly added, "and also a tinder box, and uh,"

"You want a survival kit?" Liora cut to the chase.

Thariel smiled then nodded, guess the merchant would know more about this kind of thing than she would, "yeah,"

"Then wait here," Liora left and came back a few minutes later carrying a sack, she dropped it on the counter, "this has rope and a hiking axe for fire wood and scaling, a waxed pouch for food, a fire starter that uses rubies for ignition, and an enchanted drinking set that cleanses liquid stored inside of it, I recommend you also buy a lot of cotton, make yourself a water purifier since the canister only cleans water, it doesn't remove debris and particles."

"Water purifier?" Thariel asked about the last part, everything else seemed self explanatory, it was buying cotton that confused her the most.

"Trust me, even if you're a Damphir, it'll help, you don't want to eat sand while drinking water do you?" Liora retorted with a question of her own.

"No, I meant-" Thariel paused, oh. She gets it now. "Well I guess you already explained what it was... yeah, I'll do that, maybe I can even add sand and gravel?" the Damphir hummed in thought, "do you have those here?"

"Just find them outside," Liora replied flatly, "there's a lot of sand by the docks,"

"Right," Thariel nods, she headed for the door, "thanks by the way,"

"Don't mind it, I also want to help out," Liora smiled.

It was only when the Damphir was near the river bank that she realized that she didn't have anything to store the sand in, let alone collect it!

And this was when she saw a few street urchins carrying wooden bowls while asking for money, the sight gave her an idea.

"Hey," Thariel called out to the street rats, "I'll buy you all lunch in exchange for giving me two of your bowls, how does that sound?"

The urchins naturally became suspicious of Thariel's presence and they backed off.

"No," one of them said defensively.

"Why not?" Thariel actually had to pause at the rebuttal, these kids should know how to carve wood so a bowl made out of it shouldn't even be a loss to them, they can just make another one!

"Because you're obviously only planning to kidnap us and turn us into a monster!" Yelled another urchin, this time a young girl.

What did she mean by this?

"I don't get you?" Thariel tilted her head.

"Alchemists kidnap young kids to do bad things to them!" Said another urchin, much to the nod of every other kid around him, "you think we're stupid? Huh?"

Thariel sighed, well, if verbal stuff won't work then how about this- she flashed a gold coin and smiled, "we can eat at the place you all usually eat in, how's that sound?"

The urchins stared at the coin.

"And you only want our bowls?" Skeptically responded one urchin.

"Yes," god these kids were so hard to convince weren't they? Why are they so suspicious of her?

"Okay..." The one at the lead nodded and stepped forward, "but try anything funny and you'll regret it!"

"I won't, I won't," Thariel grinned, "lead the way,"

Surprisingly, the place that they brought Thariel in wasn't rundown or some stall on the street, but rather a church. Hm, that was expected, she supposed, guess urchins would eat at a place like this.

Still, she could feel her skin burning from being so near a blessed site of the Sun Goddess, it was uncomfortable and itchy, she didn't think she could last any longer so regrettably, after only a few minutes of accompanying the kids, Thariel decided to leave.

"I need to go," Thariel said, cutting her conversation with the priest who had come to greet her, "I'll just take the two bowls and leave,"

"Of course, I won't take any more of your time, thank you for your patronage, a few gold coins means a lot to these kids," says the middle-aged man with a smile, "I hope to see you again,"

Thariel only laughed awkwardly in response to that last sentence, she hoped that she didn't have to go to another church for the foreseeable future.

With her two bowls, she went to the river bank and started to gather sand and gravel.

It was a bit embarrassing scooping it with her hand like some child and plunging her entire arm into the river to collect gravel felt a bit demeaning in her opinion but she pushed through it.

Thariel came back to Liora's shop and told the merchant of the good news, "the ship's about to dock,"

She had seen it back on the river bank and it seemed to have been a merchant vessel so things were looking up!

"I am aware," replied Liora, "do you know how to make a purifier?"

"Kinda?" Thariel answered, she was aware what a strainer was and how it worked, and she's seen videos about this kind of thing while browsing through the internet in the past so she was confident about making one.

"I see, let me do a small explanation before I leave anyhow," Liora grabbed a flat piece of wood from the counter, "put a hole at the center of this then place them on top of your cotton, sand, gravel, or whatever else,"

Liora grabbed a cylindrical wooden cup, "stack them together inside another container with the exact opposite order I just mentioned, gravel goes to the top, sand at the center, and cotton is on the bottom."

"I think I get it," Thariel nodded in thanks, "I can make it easily enough, do you have scissors?"

"I do yes," Liora placed said scissors on the counter, "well, I better get going, I need to talk to the captain to sell your potions, I'll see you soon,"

"See you," Thariel waved as the merchant left.