It didn’t take long for Alden to fall into a routine. 5 days out of 7 he would work at the supply clinic, before coming back to the tavern and picking up his journal then heading out to the forest. Nearly every day he and Bob would venture out, exploring, doing some physical exercises, or just planning for the future. Alden was incredibly happy that Bob had finally warmed up to him, to the extent that he followed Alden wherever he went. It was a nice feeling, to have such a close companion. On the sixth day he would go to the library to search for more mana techniques or other such knowledge. Much was hidden-and for good reason- but there was still a lot one could learn by reading between the lines. Besides, Alden’s own training had been sufficiently in depth that he didn’t have to worry about his growth for a while even now. Scoping out the library was mostly something he did for fun, at this point. It was fascinating how much you could learn about a people by reading their books and works. For example, the people of Hillak seemed incredibly fascinated with the idea of celestial bodies and rare, mystical realms. There were books after books about different adventures that were supposedly happening at the sun or the moon. Even more the majority of the non-fiction texts- as rare as they were- seemed centered around the Sun and Moon and presented some truly interesting hypotheses. He would call them crazy, but his Master had opened up his eyes to a lot of the truths of this world. Nevertheless he would spend his sixth-day working on various exercises, magical and nonmagical, and working extensively with Bob. After that on the seventh-day he would rest, wandering around the town and merely enjoying the sights and sounds that came with being in such a populous city.

It was third-day before anything changed. They had just received a new shipment of boxes- Hillak served as a major importer and exporter of various goods. Chiefly lumber and food but they were known to dabble in a few other trades. Most imports they received were actually alchemist material- apparently materials that alchemists prized did not exactly play well with normal plant life. In the few cases that it did, it usually became a hotspot for monsters and various powers, so Hillak stayed clear of that. He was working with Harold In the back- after two weeks he had been declared fully trained and allowed to resume his duties without supervision. Normally it was Harold supervising deliveries, but he trusted Alden enough to relax such vigilance. In the back they had a rather large courtyard connected to a stream that ships traveled down to unload their goods. Ships were expensive to build and repair so most ships looked slightly ramshackle, but not this one. It was a lacquered wood, absolutely layered with different runes and glyphs. In fact, if he wasn’t mistaken, there were even a variety of enchantments on it. The men who were unloading the cargo certainly didn’t disappoint either; all of them were large, at least six feet, and absolutely stacked with muscle. Alden had trouble most days finding someone to match his height, let alone his width, but these men made him look like a regular pea in a pod. One of the men spotted him and walked forward. He was dressed in workman clothes, stained with dust and what looked to be mud on his face. His blue eyes locked onto Alden’s and didn’t waver for a second. “Greetings, my name is Joshua. I’m here to deliver the shipment from Ithos. Are you the supervisor here?” Alden just nodded, making a note on his pad to research ‘Ithos’. “I am. Are you one Odyssey?” The man nodded in confirmation. “Very well. Let’s see the merchandise.” The man nodded and led him to where the laborers were unloading the cargo. They were large crates, easily 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. There was already 7 of them in the pile, placed neatly in organized rows. Alden slowly moved between the boxes, reading the item labels, and checking them off from his list one by one. As a standard security precaution there was a predefined label that correlated to various items. This was supposedly to stop bandits or pirates from going after a random cargo traveler. Alden had heard some mixed things about its effectiveness, however. As he checked the boxes, he kept up a stream of conversation with Joshua. “How was the trip? It is storm season I here.” Joshua nodded in agreement. “Ain’t that the truth. Apparently, somethings got all the storm mages in a fuss over on Ithos and so they’ve all started throwing out random stores. We’re lucky to get out when we did, I would not want to be there right now.” Alden just nodded in agreement. Weather mages were nasty pieces of work. Most people underestimated, in his opinion at least, the power that a storm could have. It took roughly another 40 minutes before the ship was fully unloaded, Alden doing his best to keep Joshua talking while keeping track of the boxes. Looking down at his list he double checked his count before asking, “Where is LP-3946-I? We were supposed to receive two boxes of that as well.” The man shook his head. “We can’t get any of that. Its rare stuff even on good days. I did manage to get this small sample however.” He reached in his ropes and took out a small box, handing it over to Alden. Alden just barely managed to keep his face neutral, the potent wards and enchantments radiating off of it a huge cause for concern. “Thank you. Let me talk to my supervisor about payment.” Joshua just waved him off and moved over so he could sit on a chair. Alden strode quickly in, peeking into the inventory room where Harold currently sat, looking over some numbers. “We’ve got the Odyssey here boss. Its all there except the packages of LP-3946-I. He has a small sample but nothing more than that.” Harold just looked at him for a moment before sighing and standing up. “Got it kid. Although next time wait a little longer to tell me about the LP stuff. You can’t just dump that kind of thing on people, they won’t remember it.” Alden blushed slightly and nodded and followed Harold out. Everyone could always learn it seemed.

Sitting at a small table across from the supply building two people sat. One a man, and the other a woman. The man was average in appearance, brown haired and eyed with around 5 ft. tall. The only unaverage thing about him was the fact that he was so average. The woman on the other hand was incredibly striking, with long blond hair grey eyes and a voluptuous body that promoted dirty thoughts. They sat in a tea house, slowly sipping on the fragile porcelain cups. It was the woman who spoke first. “The delivery has arrived Brown. We move when they move. You have the equipment?” The man nodded, still not speaking. “Good. We can move onto the next order of business then. Scales is getting impatient with us. We need to get that package today, Brown.” For the first time since sitting down the man spoke. “Rushed jobs are botched jobs Blond. Botched jobs are how you end up dead. The Hillbillies have been sniffing around. We should delay, wait for another package.” His voice was soft, almost like a whisper against the ears. The woman frowned at him, setting her cup down gently. “We can’t afford delays Brown. Retrieve the package and return to Base. We need this Brown. Don’t fail.” She gracefully stood up before striding out the door, people’s eyes following her movements like moths to a flame. Brown finished up his tea, taking his time before getting up himself and following after her. He hated rush jobs, but he didn’t have many options at this point. Besides, he was confident it would be nothing unusual.

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Alden had just finished loading up the wagon with the laborers by the time Harold had finished figuring out payment with the merchant. Apparently, the missing packages were supposed to be a significant amount of the payment and so arguments about how much the amount they still retrieved was worth had raged on. In the end they came to some sort of agreement before Harold handed him a bank slip. The supply building didn’t carry the gold, but they could issue slips that would be exchanged for gold at the bank. It was a layer of security in the city that Alden thought was absolutely brilliant. He smiled at Fargo, the lead laborer and shook his hand. “It was nice workin’ with you Fargo. You ever need a job you swing by and I’ll get you set.” The man nodded saying, “I appreciate that Alden. Hope you have a better day than our bosses over there. I’ll see you in a month.” Alden grimaced at the reminder. While Harold and Joshua had reached an agreement both had thunderous expressions on their faces. “You too man.” With that Fargo and his crew headed back towards the ship while Alden waited patiently in front of the wagon, Bob perched on his shoulder. Ever since they had gotten closer Bob had taken to riding on his shoulder or his head for the convenience. They still got plenty of exercise of course, but the enhancements Alden had started on had made it hard for him to stand up or move around directly after. Harold came up to him and passed him, heading straight for the front of the wagon. Alden followed behind, climbing up onto the bench behind the horses with Harold. Harold immediately flicked the rains, causing the horses to start to move forward. Alden just stayed quiet for a moment before his curiosity got the better of him. “What’s in the small package?” Harold glanced at him before looking back at the road, navigating them through the busy streets of the city. The surrounding noise quickly turned from an ever-present murmur to a roaring crowd forcing them to shout to hear each other. “DON’T KNOW! ALL I KNOW IS PRODUCT NUMBER AND DESCRIPTION OF THE BOX! QUATERMASTER PROBALLY KNOWS MORE!” They were moving towards the main governmental building of the area, dead center in the city. The supply building was in the inner district, but the roads were congested enough that it took roughly an hour to get through to the building itself even with the cobble roads. Alden just sat back, looking out into the city. Harold, still stewing over the earlier negotiation stayed silent, only broken by the occasional muttering. They were about halfway to the building when it happened. Alden had just adjusted himself on the bench, trying to find a more comfortable angle, when a massive force seemed to grab and chuck him. His vision went haywire and dark spots started appearing before he impacted the stone walls of one of the surrounding buildings with a solid THUNK. He gasped for breath, wheezing out as he desperately tried to control his breathing and body. He shifted and grunted in pain, before a weak croak beside him caused him to look to his side. Bob still lay cuddled in his lap where he had sat after they had started moving. Luckily Alden’s body had shielded him from the worst of the impact. Nevertheless, he still moved gingerly, one of his wings at an awkward angle. Alden groaned before shifting himself up into a sitting position, being careful not to crush Bob. Waves of pain emanated from the entirety of his back and ribs, although the pain was diminished by the adrenaline and magic raging through his veins. He looked blurrily to his side to see Harold, his head at an angle unnatural and his eyes glazed over. His eyes rolled around, while his body sagged, and his ears rang. With a grunt a pulse of mana ran through him from his second reservoir refreshing his concentration long enough to send magic through the tattooed spell forms on his skin. Gold geometric shapes lit up with a brilliant radiance, reinforcing and slowly mending his body. He grunted and staggered up, taking his dislocated and limp shoulder, and popping it back in as a fresh wave of agony washed through him. In front of him the wagon had been flipped, 1 of the horses back broken and the others skull cracked enough to leak fluids. Alden grimaced at the sight, barely holding in his bile. Refocusing two things immediately grasped his attention. One, what appeared to be an incredibly average man stood opposite of what looked to be a Gorgon with massive striped snakes emerging from its head. Two, was the small sample box, blazing with incredible power, in-between them. He looked at Harold, then Bob, and immediately moved to help Bob. As he did so he grasped the small crown that hung around his neck. It was made of wood with metal spikes emerging from it and vines twining around it. He forced himself to release it before running over to Bob. He couldn’t reveal himself, not her and not now. He looked up and saw the Gorgons face shift and knew what was going to happen next. He grabbed Bob and ran a building away, not daring to look bad as collisions rocked the air behind him.