James woke up for the first time in his new house. He stretched, then got out of bed. He glanced out the front door, and looked at the eastern wall. Still dark. James guessed he still had an hour or so until sunrise, though it was kind of hard to tell with the wall. He stepped back into the house. He'd looked around the night before, and the shelves were still stocked with food. Old man Dougas had been prepared, there was quite a bit of food that wouldn't spoil for a while. James quickly made a small fire and hung a pot of water over it. He'd just make a simple bowl of porridge for breakfast.

As the water was heating up, James walked out to take care of the animals. There was an extremely convenient well right by the animal pen, so filling the water trough was pretty easy. He threw a few pitchforks of hay over the fence and dumped a bit of grain into the feeding trough. Then he threw a bit of grain to the chickens as well, though they were already pecking around in the dirt. He wasn't sure how much they would find, and he wanted to make sure he didn't lose any animals right at the start of his stay here. He'd gotten far more than he should have for the money he had, and he didn't want to waste any of it.

After the animals were taken care of, he went inside to eat his porridge. After a quick meal and a few minutes cleaning dishes, he was ready to leave. He double checked the animals and realized that two of the cows were milk cows and needed to be milked. He sat down with a stool he'd seen next to the house and a bucket. It took a few minutes for him to get the cows used to him, but they were obviously used to being milked around that time, so it went fairly easily. He poured some of the milk into a bottle and put it in the icebox he'd found, leaving enough to have a nice drink as he watched the sunrise. He was kind of disappointed. The wall didn't make for a very pretty sunrise, it blocked most of the view. Oh well, not a bad trade for such a good defense against the dungeons. He smiled. At least he knew this farm wouldn't have any dungeon monster problems.

After a few more minutes of relaxing on the house's porch he got up and left towards the town. He didn't want to be late to meet Steven. He took a nice relaxed jog towards the city in the cool morning air. The additional hours of shade provided by the wall meant that the fort was slightly cooler than was normal around this time of year. James' jog was pretty quick, due to his dexterity score, and he had definitely noticed a difference in his stamina since getting his compass. Pretty soon he was in front of the big building again. Because he was still about an hour early, James started jogging down some streets, just to see what he would see.

He wasn't really surprised by what he saw. Most people were just getting up, it was only an hour after dawn. Those who were awake were doing their morning routines. A few shops were open for breakfast, and James could see a few that were obviously popular. He'd honestly expected more strange looks, but apparently people running through town was fairly common, so most people didn't give him so much as a second glance. He ran past a number of people doing some kind of stretching exercises in a small park, and he was tempted to stop and join for a little while, but it was getting close to the time he planned to meet Steven. He was still interested though, so he took a note of the streets the park was on. Then he jogged back to the big building and did some stretches to cool down next to the steps.

Soon he felt someone next to him, copying him. "Well well! You getting ready to run on your tour of the city?"

James looked over. As expected, it was Steven. James chuckled. "No, I just finished a nice jog and was cooling down a bit."

Steven smiled. "Well, there's a lot I could show you, so we may have to run anyway!"

James laughed. "Bring it on! I'll outrun you any day!" With James’s higher-than-average dexterity, he was a good bit faster than Steven, although Steven would probably win in anything long-distance, his stamina was insane.

Steven grabbed his chest like he'd been stabbed in the heart. "Oh! The pain! The sheer embarrassment!" They both laughed. Once they were done laughing Steven continued. "But really, I do have a good list of things I might want to show you. We'll have to see how many of them we get through."

James smiled. "I'm excited to get to know my new home!"

They started off down the street. Steven pointed out a few places to eat, but James had the feeling they weren't the reason they were heading this way, Steven had just seen them and was pointing them out. Eventually they got to the place Steven had been walking to. Again Steven handed a few coins to the person at the entrance.

"I can pay for myself, too." James said. "I don't want to impose on your hospitality." James was well aware that he'd been the one to suggest this.

Steven chuckled. "Don't worry about it. We aren't going anywhere expensive today, and while I'm not rich, my Dad was fairly successful as an adventurer, so I'm also not worried about spotting you at a few cheap entertainment places. Don't worry about it."

James still felt a bit awkward, but knew better than to keep pushing. "Well, thanks then! What is this place?"

Steven smiled. "This is the town menagerie. They have all sorts of animals here. Some of the rarer ones cost additional fees to see, but for just the inexpensive gate fee you can see quite a few impressive animals."

They wandered the streets of the menagerie for a few hours. It was bigger than James had expected. As Steven had explained, there were a few areas curtained off with additional fees to enter, but James was perfectly happy outside. There were all sorts of animals, from common animals like deer and bunnies, to more unusual ones like a few monkeys and a sand lion. James watched the monkeys for a while, they were the most active of the creatures he saw. He also saw a number of creatures he'd never heard of. There was a strange plant that would actually snap shut on pieces of food people placed on its leaves. He saw a small lizard made entirely out of stone. There was a small butterfly that changed colors every time it flapped its wings.

James read the descriptions on the cages, and some of the more boring looking animals became far more impressive. There was a small toad that could teleport short distances through water. When James saw it, it was asleep, but James hoped it would be awake when he came again. There was a small rodent that had long fur. When attached, the fur was soft, but when picked or cut, it quickly hardened. The plaque said it was a favorite of thieves, due to the hair's usefulness at picking locks.

James saw a large snake that it said was extremely venomous, but that it produced an oil to coat its scales that was a very effective ointment for most rashes. There was an animal that looked exactly like a chicken. James almost skipped it, but was glad he hadn't when he read the plaque. Turns out it was actually a carnivorous creature that would infiltrate flocks of chickens before eating them. Its eggs, the sign said, were considered a delicacy, and could actually cure a number of blood borne diseases.

There was another case that seemed to hold nothing at all. James had taken to looking in the case first to see what he could see about the creature before reading the description, but this container just held a thin layer of sand and a pair of identical small rocks. He looked at the sign, and his eyes widened. "This case only holds one rock, on the right side of the tank. It also holds a carnivorous shape-shifting creature that subsists mostly on small insects and other creatures that crawl on it while it appears to be something else. Mostly harmless to anything larger than itself. Can be held for fee."

James looked closer at the two rocks. They were completely identical in every way he could see. He noticed a small beetle, which had probably been placed in the case as food for the shape-shifter. The beetle crawled onto the rock, and as James watched the rock seemed to collapse like quicksand under the beetle, quickly engulfing the little insect.

James also read the descriptions of the creatures you had to pay to see. Most of them were either extremely rare or powerful captured dungeon monsters. There were some impressive descriptions, and there was even a phoenix. James shuddered and didn't read any further on that one. He knew enough about phoenixes to last a lifetime.

By the time James and Steven were out of the menagerie, it was early afternoon. "You were right. That was way impressive."

Steven smiled. "That one I don't go to as often as the shows we went to yesterday, as there isn't too much turnover at the menagerie. Still, they occasionally get some new creatures, and it's always fun to see them. And there's usually something new you see each time. Today was the first time I've seen the shape-shifter eat something."

James nodded. "Yeah, that was way cool. I'll definitely be back sometime. I want to see the frog teleport."

Steven nodded. "Yeah. That's a cool one. It doesn't do it much outside of feeding time, and they switch feeding times every day so you never know when it will happen. I'm sure it's a bit of a pain for them, but it keeps people coming back!"

James nodded. It worked on him, after all! "So now where are we going next?"

Steven smiled and started walking. "Next, I'm hungry. I skipped breakfast, and it's past time for lunch. I'll show you one of the best places to grab a good, cheap meal when you're in a hurry."

James followed Steven down a few streets. Soon they came to a small shop bustling with people. James looked in the back, and saw at least a half dozen people all making food. He looked around, but didn't see anywhere to sit and wait. Steven walked up to a counter and ordered some food, then came back and stood next to James. "They call this place 'To Go' because, well, you get your food and go! The food they serve is all easily eaten while walking, and has minimal trash at the end. The whole thing is designed for people who are in a hurry, and it's pretty cheap as well."

In just a few minutes, Steven was called up, handed two large meat skewers wrapped in bread, and they headed off. As James and Steven both enjoyed their meal, they started walking again. As Steven had explained, the food was pretty easy to eat while walking, and quite delicious. James pulled the bread and meat off of the skewer as he ate until he noticed Steven just biting through the skewer as well. He looked closely at the skewer. It didn't look entirely like wood. He took a tentative bite. It was good! It actually had a bit of spice to it that James thought would go well with the meat and bread! He quickly finished his whole meal, being left with no garbage to try and get rid of. And the bread had left his hands clean, so he didn't even need a napkin. "That's a brilliant idea." James said. "I'm sure they're popular with people who don't have time to sit down and eat a meal."

Steven nodded, smiling. "Yeah. There are a number of those throughout the town, and all of them are super popular. They are owned by a retired adventurer who discovered he didn't enjoy adventuring, but he loved to cook. Most of the recipes were designed by him, then he just taught the workers how to make them quickly and safely. Those skewers are a specialty, the adventurer makes all of them himself, no one's ever figured out what they're made of."

James was definitely discovering some great places here in the town. "Where are we heading now?" He asked.

Steven smiled. "We're heading to the academy. The academy is where all of the new adventurers train, but it's a little known fact that entrance isn't restricted to adventurers. There are a number of different things to do there even if you aren't an adventurer."

James followed Steven down a few more streets. He was getting more familiar with the address system as he walked down the streets and saw the signs on corners. They made it to somewhere around the center of the town, and as they walked around a corner, James’ mouth hit the floor.

The entrance to the academy was huge! Not nearly as big as the wall, but there was a secondary wall around the academy. It was only about fifteen feet tall, but the entire thing was decorated with carvings of adventurers fighting monsters. It was so detailed, James almost expected them to come to life and keep fighting! They had come towards the academy from a corner, so James could see down both walls. It was massive! It stretched probably a thousand feet in each direction!

Steven chucked at James’s reaction. "Yep! Welcome to the academy. It's the biggest thing in the entire town, spans 8 blocks. They went all out with the carvings on the walls, though if something were to actually get in here past the outer wall, this thing wouldn't really do much."

He started walking down one of the roads by the wall, James assumed towards the entrance. As they walked, James admired the artwork on the walls. While adventurers fighting monsters comprised most of the art, there were also people crafting different things, a few with people tending gardens or plants, and some that James couldn't quite figure out what they were. Pretty soon they reached the entrance. After the wall, the entrance was a bit underwhelming, it was just a simple wooden gate.

Steven gestured to the gate. "May not look like much, but that's because they decided it wasn't worth the effort of carving it. This is actually a gate they pulled out of a high ranked dungeon and built the wall around. It's practically indestructible, totally fireproof, harder than most stone, yet still relatively lightweight. At first they were planning on adding carvings, but it was so hard to carve that they decided to leave it as it was."

That definitely improved James' opinion of the door. They walked through and James looked around at the large buildings. Steven started giving James the tour. The first building they skipped. "That's just the building with classrooms and administrative offices. Not much to see in there." They moved to the next building, which was the largest James could see. It filled the space of over three city blocks!

As they walked in, James’s first impression was of noise. He was pretty sure there was an enchantment on this building as well to keep the noise from reaching outside. The people who'd designed the town had obviously liked those, and James had to agree that they were very nice. Inside the building there was constant noise. Weapons smashing, people shouting, explosions, and cries of pain all crashed into James like a wave, so much so that he took a step backwards.

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"THIS BUILDING IS THE TRAINING HALL!" Steven shouted. "THIS FIRST ROOM'S THE LOUDEST!"

They walked around the edge of the room. James could see dozens of fights happening. Some were one-on-one duels between two people of the same class. Others were fights between groups of five adventurers, clearly groups intending on being a dungeon crew. There were a number of people watching, and whenever there was a blow that was going to be deadly, they stopped it and declared a winner. We walked through a door and the noise dropped significantly. It wasn't as sudden as the outer door, but it still was far quieter.

"Sorry, I forgot how loud that room is. When you're actually fighting it just kind of blends into the background. Anywho, that is the main training room for tanks, although there are some weights elsewhere for strength training. This room here's for training archery skills and practicing control with getting spells further."

James looked over. The room was long and narrow. There were a number of narrow tunnels, and before them stood people holding either bows or spell books. As James looked at the far end of the tunnels, he saw targets. He noticed one person who finished firing all of her arrows hit a button on the wall beside her. The target at the end of her tunnel came shooting down the tunnel, stopping a few feet down from where she was standing. This made collecting the arrows take only a few seconds, then she sent the target shooting back out to range with a few more button presses. James could see how this could drastically increase efficiency of practicing, especially at some of the distances he saw these people shooting at. Although, he supposed, if you missed the target you would still have to go get the arrows, but James didn't see that happen in the few minutes he was standing there.

They soon moved on to the next room. This one was almost pitch black. There were people walking around with lamps and dogs. At first James wasn't sure what was going on until he noticed someone jump quietly over a wall to avoid a man with a lamp. He noticed a small river flowing through the middle, and whenever he saw the dogs get on someone's trail they either went over a wall or moved to the river. Eventually, though, people made mistakes and got caught. Whenever the people with the lamps saw them they would call out and the person who'd been seen would walk out of the area and sit on the side. As James watched, the pursuit got harder and harder to evade. First, more searchers were added. Then they brightened their lamps, giving bigger danger zones. People started getting taken out like crazy. Soon the number getting caught slacked off again and the difficulty began increasing again. They released a few birds, clearly trained to fly above people. James realized why there were a few tunnels that most people hadn't been using up until now. They weren't helpful against the people and dogs, but were one of the only ways to get rid of the birds. Again, people started getting caught very quickly, until the last few people were clearly using skills to avoid the pursuit.

Still, the birds were proving too much, and people were still getting out. A bird's eye view like James had just made it too easy to find the people, as long as they weren't currently using a skill, and James could tell that they were running out of time that they could use said skills. Steven leaned over and whispered to him. James hadn't noticed how quiet this room was. "At this point it kind of becomes a challenge of who has more mana and who is more efficient in its usage."

James watched as more and more people eventually ran out of mana and got caught. Soon the lights switched on and James could see that the last person had just been caught. Everyone was patting that person on the back, congratulating him. Steven spoke again. "This room is for practicing hiding. Mostly the rogues use this room, but it's open for anyone." He looked at James. "Wanna try? They'll start the next round in probably five minutes. The only catch is it's considered impolite to leave before the round you participated in finishes, people usually congratulate the winner. But it looked like you enjoyed watching, so I don't think that'll be a problem."

James thought about it for just a second. "Why not! Never hurts to try!" They went over to the group getting ready to go in, and James congratulated the previous victor. "Nice job! You were practically invisible that whole time!" James didn't even remember seeing the man the whole time he'd been watching until he'd been caught.

The man smiled. "Thanks! I used a lot of skills, I probably won't do nearly as well this time, I'm basically out of mana. But that's another good skill to train, hiding without using mana. You two going to join this next round?" He glanced at Steven's large, obviously non-rogue build. Steven chuckled. "James here is going to try. He's new to the town, and I'm showing him some of the sights. I figure I'll get removed pretty quickly, but if I'm going to watch the whole thing, I might as well participate at first."

The victor smiled and patted James on the back. "Well, welcome to the town! I hope you do well. One tip, the tunnels aren't super useful at first, but they can act as a platform to help you get over the walls if you aren't able to just jump."

James had noticed that while watching from above, so he smiled and thanked the man for the tip.

"No problem. One more, if you're in a tunnel and it hasn't had any searchers come through in a while, you should probably get out. They don't leave any path unchecked for long."

James had also noticed this from above. "Thanks. Anything else?"

The man smiled. "Have fun. If you aren't an adventurer you won't have skills, so you effectively have no chance of winning. That means you can just focus on doing your best and having some fun!"

James smiled. "Sounds like a great idea. Thanks …?"

The man chuckled. "Forgot to introduce myself. The name's Fredrick. Pleased to meet you."

James smiled back. "And you as well." Suddenly the door in front of them opened and there was a quiet rush for the opening. James went through as well, and so started the game.

Some people split off to the left or right, but a lot continued forward. James thought about what he'd seen from above. There were some paths near the middle that were only accessible by hopping over a wall, and that's where James wanted to go. He imagined there would be less people in such a hard to reach location. Fortunately he was pretty good at remembering paths, so he soon arrived at his destination. He looked at the wall. The wall that had seemed so short from above was probably 12 or 15 feet high. Suddenly he wasn't so sure he could make it over. He knew there should be a tunnel somewhere near there, so he looked off to either side. A tunnel! As he started towards it, he heard an announcement. "Pursuit has begun."

Immediately he heard people getting caught. He reached the tunnel and took a running leap. He got his hands on the tunnel wall, but then his lower than average strength kicked in. He dropped to the ground. He tried again, running and jumping as high as he could. This time he got his arms over the edge up to the elbows, and he felt a little ridge he could grab ahold of. He heaved himself onto the tunnel ceiling. Suddenly he saw some light coming around one of the corners. He jumped up, grabbing the wall. The wall was far easier to grip than the tunnel ceiling, and James hauled himself over. Just in time, too. Just as his head was going over the wall he saw a lantern come around the corner. He dropped on the far side of the wall.

He knew staying in one place too long was dangerous, so he kept moving. He tried to stay in places with multiple paths, and if he saw a light down any one path he moved down another. If he couldn't find a place with three options, he tried to find somewhere he could get onto a tunnel to give him a third option of going over the wall. Still, jumping over was risky. While watching up above he'd seen a number of people jump over the wall to avoid a follower, just to be caught by someone on the other side. A few times he passed another participant, they would usually both jump, then as they realized they were safe they would wave and head off in different directions.

Pretty soon there was another announcement. "The pursuit now has dogs." James' first instinct was to head to the river. But then he realized all of the other participants had heard that announcement as well, along with the pursuit. He decided to avoid the river, knowing that as a pursuer he would guess people would head to the river after that announcement. James had seen that jumping over a wall was almost as good as using the river, as long as you didn't get too many dogs on your tail. Eventually you had to move through the river to throw off the pursuit, but James had seen people last quite a while without going near the river at all, simply by staying ahead of the dogs chasing them.

A few minutes later, James was waiting at the intersection of three tunnels. He was watching carefully, at the first sign of pursuit he'd head down one of the remaining paths. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. "You're out." James looked at the guy who had grabbed him. He didn't have a lantern, but was dressed in the white clothes of a pursuer. James nodded and started walking towards the exit. He hadn't known the pursuit might not have a lantern, but to be fair he hadn't seen the man approach anyway. As he exited, he saw Steven, along with a bunch of other people. A few of them gave him surprised looks. As he sat down next to Steven, Steven whispered to him. "Nice job! You lasted a long time for not having any skills. You'd make a good rogue!"

James smiled. Lots of practice stalking animals in the woods had taught him how to move quietly, and his higher dexterity meant he could move quickly. Still, he hadn't lasted all that long, but he was satisfied with how he'd done. They watched as the pursuit got harder. As he'd predicted, Frederick didn't last nearly as long this time, but he smiled and waved to James as he exited. Pretty soon the last person was caught, and Frederick walked up to James. "So, how long did you last?"

James had no idea. "Uh, I don't know."

Frederick smiled. "Who caught you?"

James realized that all of the pursuers were out talking to the people who had participated. He looked around until he found the one who'd caught him. He pointed. "It was that guy."

Frederick looked over. "Oh, Samuel. He gets a lot of people with his lack of a lantern." He gestured to James to follow and walked over to Samuel. "Hey Sam! James here says you're the one who got him out. How long did he last?"

Samuel looked at James. "Ah, yes. I got you a bit over twenty minutes in. My recommendation for you would be to always have at least a low level detection skill going. It's worth the slight expenditure of mana, even though you will have a bit less at the end."

James scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I, uh, don't have any skills."

Samuel's eyes widened. "Not an adventurer, eh? In that case, you did quite well. Most non-adventurers get snagged within the first fifteen minutes or so. Quite well done."

James smiled. He was glad he'd done well, although he was still a bit bummed he couldn't become an adventurer. Still, he figured he'd be back again sometime, that was quite fun. Stressful, but fun!

James joined a few more rounds. Steven excused himself, explaining that his build was … "suboptimal" for this training.

After James had done a few more rounds, Steven led him out of the building. It was getting on toward evening, and Steven said he had one last place he wanted to show James for the day. They walked towards a large building with lots of windows.

As they walked in, James gasped again. The whole building was filled with books! James had never seen so many books in his life!

Steven chuckled. "You seemed like the type who would like a good book. Did you have many books in your village?"

James shook his head, still slightly stunned by the sheer number of books. "We had six. I've read them each multiple times. Two were about history, one was a book of short stories, two more were the stories of someone's life, and the last one was a made up story called 'Dillard's adventurers in the Southern Isles.' That one was my favorite, although I didn't really like how it ended. It was such an intense moment, and I felt like it never shared how his travels ended."

Steven smiled and walked over to a lady at a desk. He talked quietly with her for a second, before gesturing to James to follow. They both followed the lady as she led them to the second floor and to a shelf of books, before heading back downstairs. Steven looked at the shelf for a moment before pulling down a book. "Was this the book?"

The title was the same, although the cover looked different than what James remembered. He opened it gingerly and read a few sentences. "Yep. This is the same book." It was the same story he'd read so many times back in his village.

Steven smiled and pulled down another book. "Well, here's book two in the series. It continues the story from that first book."

James stared at it. There were stories that took more than one book? No wonder the story had felt unfinished! James suddenly had a burning desire to know what happened next to Dillard, his childhood hero. Still, he knew books were expensive, there was a reason his village only had six. But he had to know. "How much does the book cost?" He didn't have a lot of money, but maybe he'd have enough leftover for the one book.

Steven chuckled. "This place is called the library. The books are free to borrow for a short time, you only have to pay if you damage them or don't return them on time."

James’s eyes widened. "But then, why are there so many bookstores? If someone can just come here to get the book for free?"

Steven smiled. "First, you can only borrow the books here for so long at once, and can usually only have one out at a time. Second, many of the stores are actually selling magic books, which can teach you how to cast a spell. Finally, the library only has so many copies of each book. If you want a book that someone else is currently borrowing, you can get put on a waiting list, and when they return it they'll save it for you for a few days. Problem is, if a book is super popular, the waiting list can grow very long, so sometimes people would rather just buy a copy instead of waiting."

James understood, but fortunately it appeared Dillard wasn't too popular. "So, how do I borrow this book?" He was definitely going to enjoy reading what happened next. He remembered being so frustrated that the book ended right after Dillard discovered that the king of the Southern Isles was actually a vampire. Especially since he still hadn't found Jane or Hal.

Steven nodded. "It's pretty easy. First you have to make an account here so they know who has what books. That normally takes a little while, but with me to vouch for you it will be pretty quick. I'm a frequent patron here." He smiled slightly. "I may look like just a hunk of muscle, but I enjoy a good book once in a while."

James laughed. He'd talked enough with Steven to know he was more than just muscle, he was quite intelligent and a quick thinker. As they started heading back downstairs, Steven continued. "Then you have to prove you have enough money to pay for the book if you were to ruin it. They want to provide books to everyone, but they also don't want people to create an account just to get a book to sell to get some quick cash. With your new farm, you'll be just fine, and I'll vouch for you as well. This should be pretty quick." James had already told Steven everything that had happened as far as the farm went.

James was glad Steven was being such a good friend, and like he'd said, getting the book took only a few minutes. The lady told James to make sure he brought the book back in good condition within 3 weeks or he'd start to get fines, but James was sure he'd finish reading it far sooner than three weeks. He thanked her and they walked out. It was now getting late, and James knew he needed to get back to the farm to take care of the animals for the evening. "Well, today's been great, but I need to get going. If we want to do this again, how can I get ahold of you?"

Steven smiled. "I'm usually here at the training building, either practicing or doing weights. If I'm not here, you could leave a message for me at the front desk. If I'm not here and you really need me, you could check my house. I live on 15th and 9th, in house number 10. It's tall and green. But other than at night, I'm not there very often. This is definitely the best place to find me."

James nodded. He was glad he'd be able to find Steven again, he'd really enjoyed today. "Sweet, well, I'll probably be at my farm. If I'm not there, you probably showed me the place I'd be at, so there's only so many options. See you around!"

Steven waved and headed towards the training building. James shook his head. Apparently Steven meant it when he said he spent most of his time there, James had assumed Steven would head home. James started towards his farm at a quick jog. It wasn't too long before he was back. He threw some more hay to the animals in the pen, counted the chickens (all still there), and milked the cows for the evening. He would need to figure out what to do with all of this milk. After only one day he had close to six gallons of extra milk.

He made himself a quick dinner of fried eggs, drank a few glasses of warm milk, cleaned the dishes, and headed to bed. Today was a great day.