---Maddy---
Maddy allowed Jess to step slightly in front, then followed her out into the alleyway.
The main street wasn’t actually an alleyway, but it certainly felt like it with cramped walls and what could be charitably called an ‘unconventional’ layout.
It was even thinner than Maddy had gotten used to from the last few cities – everyone walked or rode rickshaw-like carriages. Even so, most cities had had a main street or two, large enough for carts or caravans to ride through. This one was immediately small, like a back-road made even thinner by the choice of constant bends and corners.
Tightly packed buildings lined the sides with varying degrees of wear and tear on their marble bricks. The bricks were all a rough but pretty looking marble and nearly all followed an aesthetically pleasing gradient pattern.
It was almost like every layer of bricks was added to all the houses at once. Dark blue, slightly lighter blue, slightly lighter blue…all the way to white roofs and upper stories.
Trailing your eyes downward revealed bricks shifting to black then yellow then the barest tinge of red.
Maddy found her eyes couldn’t roam lower, her head resisted her motion firmly and rolled upwards unconsciously if she tried to shift her eyes downward.
The “law not to look at the ground” seemed to be reinforced by magic. It wasn’t really noticeable, but if you tried to fight it, your head hurt slightly.
…look back up…and it’s gone.
The street itself bent and looped sideways – you couldn’t see more than a dozen or two feet in every direction.
Probably to keep the ground out of sight? Is there anything moving about on the ground? Tiny monsters or something?
It was probably wildly impractical to build. The face of every building was bent somehow – their insides were probably a mess because of the non-straight walls.
Could you look down in buildings? How committed are they to this law? It really feels like the entire city was built with this law in mind – why? Is it something religious? Nefarious? A huge practical joke?
Besides the strange design, the only other point of note was how pretty the bricks were. They looked expensive but neglected – like polished blocks from a bank or hotel that had been scuffed up by sandpaper.
It was probably the other way around – blocks of stone that hadn’t been polished to shiny perfection – but it was still noteworthy.
The group walked slowly down the street – just trying to gather their bearings. It took almost ten minutes of simple walking before Maddy realized they should have an actual goal to work towards.
“Should we find somewhere to stay first?” Maddy asked, turning to look both her friends in the eye.
“Sure, same method we used last time?” Jess asked, glancing back.
Most of the cities they had passed through in the past few weeks had been simple things. They had entered accommodations the caravan set up or slept on the roof. The one time they had been forced to find a place themselves, they had brainstormed a plan for finding a good place.
Step one: determine how friendly the locals are.
…they seem…amicable but distant. Most people seem to be walking around purposefully looking up at the sky even though they are pretty safe with an level gaze…
Step two: Depending on how nice the pedestrians are, switch to merchants.
This city didn’t have random carts all over the street…so they had to start peaking into buildings to find a target...this street should be a main street even if it’s thin right? It came straight off the main gate? Main streets are shop streets aren’t they?
…yep, from what I can tell, this town isn’t breaking that rule as well.
This one seems to be a butcher, but the cashier does not seem friendly. This one is a clothing store…sure. This one might work.
First passing off her scythe to Troy, Maddy spent a second to re adjust her bag then stepped into the store alone. Inside she found a curved room filled with cloth of a hundred shades and variations.
Directly in the center of this room was a large doughnut shaped service desk supported and attached to the ceiling by nine thick pillars. A man sat in the center wearing an incredibly wide hat and an outlandish vest. He spun slightly – as if on a hidden swivel chair – then looked up, smiling as soon as he saw a potential customer.
Not beaming directly towards him, Maddy made her way slowly around the outer loop of the room. She purposefully took the time to look over everything on offer. Out of the corner of her eye, Maddy noted the man’s grin widen ever so slightly.
Should be enough, definitely considers me a potential customer now.
Done with her first move, Maddy made her way over to the desk, activating the group’s shared translator as she did so.
“Hi, I’m new in town and hoping you could answer a few questions for me?” Maddy asked, watching as the man nodded happy to help.
“Thank you! Okay so forgive me if I missed it, but I can’t see any prices listed? How much are the different items you have on display?” Maddy asked – once again cementing her status as a customer willing to buy stuff. It wasn’t even fully a charade – Maddy really was considering the outfits.
“I’m potentially interested in gaining a more comfortable top and bottom for daily wear – as you can see my current outfit was for traveling and has gotten a bit dishevelled on my trip.”
The shopkeeper laughed warmly and responded in a friendly tone. “Ahh! Of course. Typically the outfits on our entrance side are priced based on quantity and can be bought as shown. We sell outfits as a whole – most include shoes, shirt and either pants or skirt…some include an overcoat and a few are combined single piece. These are split into limited and full based on the side of the room they are on.” Standing up, the man used his hands to start pointing about the shop.
“From here to here is what we call our limited selection. Simple outfits priced at 100 pearls as a base. From here to here our are full selection, those cost 150 pearls as base. The special part of our business is our bulk offering. We have a longstanding promotion where each additional set comes with a stacking discount of 10% per pair capping off at 9. That means your ninth limited outfit will cost only 10 pearls!”
Maddy nodded and made to ask her next question but the man animatedly continued his description.
"Attempting to remove an item from the set or mix and match breaks the discount and lets me price based on discretion. We try and keep the total costs the same. Some shoes cost more, some outfits have overcoats etc. We really prefer customers buy our full sets.
"Now! I can see the question in your eyes. What about the back half of our store?” Spinning around the shopkeeper continued.
“Everything on this side of the room is shown for reference. If our specially prepared outfits are not to your liking, you may browse our custom offerings. Typically what this option looks like is a simple measurement of your body and a request of materials, style and budget. This is where the majority of our customers come. Custom fit outfits can be made within the day pending certain rare materials or strange requests. We can even stitch arcane threads and clothes for those with the money to spare.
“In terms of casual wear, which of our plans are you leaning towards?” the shopkeeper asked, turning to look at his customer.
Maddy nodded along, only embellishing her interest slightly.
She really did want a clean set of clothes or two. Didn’t have to be fancy, just some clean pairs she could swap to, to make herself feel less homeless. Asking for expensive magical clothes was a trap. Any spell she sewed onto her own clothes would be stronger by far than anything someone else could make her – not because she was better at sewing per se. But because magic worked better being used by the person who created it, and she could more easily activate and push mana through spells using her own concepts.
“I think I’ll stick with the limited sets. My next question was actually about the currency – I’m sorry I’m new in town and don’t know how much pearls are worth. I have these? Are they an option?” Maddy pulled out a handful of pips, then spread her pill-shaped crystals across the table hopefully.
The demeanour of the man didn’t change a fraction when she wasn’t drawn to his upsell, but as soon as she displayed her wealth he noticeably shifted. His smile became strained and a half muttered “adventurer” leaked out of his breath almost imperceptibly.
“I’m sorry miss. We don’t take monstrous currency here. You’ll have to find a ‘loot’ exchanger near the dungeon if you want to deal in real money and store policy is not to deal in loans or tabs to adventurers. I have no clue how much those crystals are worth. Will that be everything?”
“Is there a reason for that policy?” Maddy asked even as she tried to piece together what was happening.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Adventurers are prone to racking up credit and then heading off to die. It’s simple,” the man responded curtly.
Dammit, all my goodwill evaporated somehow. His answer makes sense, but I can tell there’s a lot more to it than that… I guess regular citizens don’t have a favourable view of adventurers here? Good to know at least, I’m so used to being treated like royalty when I enter a place, I didn’t even consider there might be cities where it is seen negatively…
Well, might as well try and squeeze out whatever I have left.
“I’ll go exchange these after a few more quick questions if you have time. Which way should I head to reach the dungeon? And I’m also wondering if you knew any places I might stay the night? I might be back later with pearls for that outfit.”
The shopkeeper seemed to war with himself over maintaining a professional demeanour – vs his obvious dislike for adventurers. He seemed to make up his mind when she mentioned coming back, and responded begrudgingly.
“Adventurer district is center town. Follow main straight about one seventh of a mile and you’ll reach it. Can probably find a sta-motel or something there.”
Maddy nodded, then thanked the man and left.
“Either that shopkeeper has a personal problem, or adventurers aren’t seen kindly here.” Maddy whispered to her friends as soon as she met up with them.
“Try not to let slip you’ve delved a dungeon if you don’t have to…I found if we head straight we can find a dungeon and the typical shops that set up around them. Can exchange money and see if they are more accommodating.” Maddy finished.
“…have you seen us? No one else is scruffy and carrying weapons.” Jess looked pointedly up and down Troy carrying Maddy’s scythe and his own bow.
“Okay, Well. Only have one encounter to go off of but keep it in mind. We can try buying clothing that matches the locals better but I’m not sure I want to use that place.” Maddy sighed.
“That bad?” Jess asked as they started to walk.
“Not really…Do think he almost offered us a stable when I said we needed a place to sleep.”
“Dick.”
“What are our goals besides room and board? Should we hit up the dungeon here? Try and see if there are caravans here?” Maddy asked glancing back to make sure Troy felt included.
It was a good question. For the past day or two getting here had been the goal. They didn’t want to sleep outdoors without supplies if they could help it. Every part of the outdoor experience sucked.
From reliving themselves in the woods to a constant need to be vigilant against surprise attacks. Most of the wild monsters seemed weaker than those In monster nests but they could still die to them if they were completely unprepared.
Less important but still sneaking up was the need to bathe. Maddy would not consider herself a clean freak – nor did she require or even care for luxurious accommodations…but that didn’t mean she found roughing it fun. It didn’t make the forced camping experience far from a shower comfortable.
That was all just a short term goal of course. What was their plan for the future?
The only real long term goal they had was advancement. They, as a group but also individually needed to grow stronger. More achievements. More concepts. More stats…
And besides that major ongoing quest there was a more pressing one hidden deep beneath the surface. The same goal but for a more important reason.
They needed to advance to continue existing. It might not be that bad…but there was a dark trend Maddy hadn’t had time to dwell on up till now.
The tutorial had an average time to beat of a day or two with a hidden time limit for the food to run out and make living there a starvation hell. Because of how much everything liked the number three, she’d say it had a safe range of 3 days to beat with most people leaving around day 2.
The first zone had an average time of a few weeks – she wanted to guess it was an estimated 3 weeks to beat and continue on.
Jess had explained there was a hidden time limit on terms of the nests. At some point the badlands would break – whatever natural force keeping the line of super nests contained would break. The danger pushed in a specific part of the world would fail and the zone would slowly fill with high leveled monsters forcing people to advance…or enter a hell of constant death to monsters and repeated resurrection.
There’s no reason to believe this zone was any different.
That meant they had a time limit. It went from around 3 days to 3 weeks for the last two areas…would the new safe time be 3 months? Or the difference between days and weeks…7x3 weeks would be 21 weeks so around 4-5 months? That’s the time when the zone will start to become hostile?
This zone switching into a mode that was actively pushing them to advance or fail was also worse than the previous areas. Maddy had somehow managed not to die a single time, yet, but unlimited revivals were a thing of the past. The necromancer in charge of that service seemed to want to finish his community service as soon as possible.
Maddy thought back to her experience with the necromancer and tried to figure out how to deal with that situation.
“Don’t die” was the obvious solution to that issue but “figure out how to use magic to revive myself’ could be a hidden second goal.
If the powerful people I’ve talked to are to be believed, self revival is easier than reviving others…
I can and should spend some more time building my healing spells. Put some more research into keeping my spells from degrading after a few minutes – figure out how to make a healing spell that can be cast beforehand and used if we are hurt. Making it permanent basically requires creation magic…but if the time limit is long enough to be convenient, that won’t be needed?
In terms of resurrection itself…well I have a life and death affinity which is the starting point for a lot of necromancers. It's the only reason I’m even considering it a possibility…but based on what the necromancer was saying life mana isn’t enough I need soul mana…or something?
He gave me a hint to self revival by saying I should build a phylactery.
Think I read about those in fantasy? An urn or something that brings a litch back or contains a backup body or something?
Except that same media always talks about litchood being a cursed existence. It’s not called life, it’s called undeath. Rotting undead bodies fuelled by their own magic.
Not something I want to try unless I would die otherwise and not something I want to try without more information.
I’m also not drawn to the idea of necromancy in general. I just want to survive…immortality might be a nice personal goal as well?
The group finally reached the adventurer’s district. A part of Maddy continued to think about personal goals and how she might go about shifting her magic. But the majority refocused on her surroundings.
Right in the middle of the street was a large carcass of a strange beast. The creature was covered in a unique mix of hairy scales…like curved and flattened quills that covered its entire body in reds and purples. What looked like a young boy not much older then ten or so, sat on top of it. His cross legged position putting him at eye height with the people who passed and he was animatedly talking to a man in robes of gold.
His eyes flickered to Maddy’s group and then returned to the man in front of him.
“Yep, this right here is a krill. Caught it myself – smell it. Can you taste the concept of anger on your tongue just from its decapitated presence? I’ve kept the head in a bag to prevent this whole street from going berserk, but I can sell it to you as well for the right price.” The child crossed his arms confidently.
An unintelligible stream of sounds came out of the golden robed mans mouth. Seemed like he didn’t have or care for a translator?
”Of course it’s worth that much. Every single part of this creature is a potent material. Its personal concept is so strong its entire body can be used. From its armour to its flesh. You could craft or commission someone to create countless artifacts of passion and rage. I dare say there’s probably an intrinsic rune or two intact somewhere deep within. One with an emotion concept and you know how much those can go for!
“You could even use the raw material as a spell catalyst, but burning even bits of a body like this in single use spells would be incredibly wasteful, don’t you say? 39999 pearls seems more than fair for such a bounty.” The kid continued to haggle.
He killed that? Is he really much older than he looks or are kids just built different here?
Maddy continued on until they found a shop.
“I’ll head in and see if I can exchange our money. Keep a look out.” Maddy asked, then ducked in. A long line of characters stood in front of her - the hallway so long it curved. Maddy couldn't see the front of the line.
Immediately ducking back out she spotted her two friends wandering back towards the kid and his 'krill'.
"Hey, lines super long. Going to be a while" Maddy called then returned.
Guess its time to stand here and wait.
----------------------------------------
---Richard---
Richard was having a good time.
It was long into the night and Richard was still fucked from the fizzing metal balls.
Excellent.
If anyone asked, Richard would say he was drug positive. A social consumer in all cases – getting drunk or high alone was sad as shit – but still one who partook of the intoxicating vibes if he had a friend to do it with.
Besides the warm fuzzy feeling from his stomach or the way his limbs felt loose, the main feeling the balls were giving him was curiosity. Curiosity and a happy feeling.
It's why they were exploring so much of the city. The nightlife in this artificial city was wild.
Finally, after hours of trying to find anything and everything they could, the two found themselves back in the adventurer district.
Richard really wanted to run a dungeon with his current intoxicated state - playing video games was so much funner when high and that’s basically what those structured combat arenas were after all. Yo, he should see if he could get a gun with a loud speaker. Play some badass beat as he mowed down the monsters.
Later.
Right now he was more interested in that. What is that?
Suspended in a clear net, a long feathery lizard looking creature bled dark pink blood onto the street below. Once they got a bit closer he saw the feathers were flat and hard. They looked somewhat like long scales? The body was just so vibrant and with how high Richard was right now, the dripping blood was mesmerizing.
Walking up he nodded at the man sitting behind his catch and accepted an information packet that was tossed his way.
Adult Female Krill. Perishing Hash (-/-||/--|)
CM Type Aether warped beast. Contains a large amount of both known and unknown compounds. 40 credits per gram of meat. 100 credits for reactive bladder. 100 credits for deactive bladder. 5000 credits for aether core. Other cuts available upon request.
“Have anything else? I want to know more. Richard sent back a second after reading the sneak peak.
Krill Monster primer. Perishing Hash (-/-||/-|-)
Krills are an uncommon aether warped creature with a unique lifecycle. Technically they fall under the NM classification which separates monstrous aether beasts and non monstrous ones…but due to how dangerous and actively hostile they are, many consider them to have a M classification and no effort is made to limit their hunting.
As you no doubt know, Aether warps matter in unique ways. Those warpings can create specific interactions. In this case, Krills require several chemicals they cannot make themselves notably epinephrine (adrenaline). Female krills also require testosterone to help fertilize their eggs, causing them to seek out males specifically to kill and consume.
Krills aerosolize a series of sweats and secrete special poisons from their fangs and claws all aided by specialized kinetic manipulations and passive penetrating fields. These toxins are designed to help induce the overproduction of their favourite chemicals and cause a myriad of side effects in the common human including anger anxiety and occasionally lust.
To complete their combo these creatures have behavioural patterns specifically designed to frustrate and taunt or torment their prey.
Several behavioural serums from antidepressants to mood enhancers, have been created using krill body parts. Certain aether warped humans have gained skills that interact well with krill body parts.
"Fascinating…" Richard muttered staring the creature over appreciatively. “What do you think? Shit, you don’t have an AI do you? We gotta get you one of those come on. I bought mine this way” Richard grabbed his friend – who was staring at the creature like he wanted to eat it – and dragged him towards the AI shop. The night was still young. Still so much to do.
Richard was having a good night.