Chester woke up and got out of bed, rubbing his hands together. More tired than ever, he opened the cobwebby curtains and peered out through the translucent crystal glass. The streets were crowded even though it was early in the morning. It could be assumed that they were on a busy street.

"At last you are awake, sleepy soldier. While you were asleep you were attacked by three hairy half-humanoid assassins, but I managed to protect you as usual."

"Oh yeah? So where are the bodies?"

"I cooked and ate them. The stone gives me energy, which is all well and good, but every once in a while I like a taste of something organic."

After an unnecessary joke session, he returned to the machine they had set up last night.

"If all the information is ready for retrieval, let's get it."

"No need."

"Why not?"

"Because I lied to you. When you were asleep, the information went straight to me, processed and sent to you."

"That would explain why I am still tired."

Chester took the small stone from the machine and placed it in his armor.

"Let's leave it like this. In a few hours there won't even be a trace."

"In the meantime, I have some bad news. I intercepted some conversations at the data station earlier this night. You were identified by some kind of sorcerer. According to my analysis, he can look into the past or has some kind of precognitive ability. A group of city guards will be waiting for you at the guild."

"Then gathering information suddenly become lie. Let's change the shape of the armor. Maybe we can blend in a little more."

"Hmm... Any type of armor on the street won't protect you as effectively as the design you're in now, but suit yourself."

"They say if you're going to die, die in style."

The armor was changing, instead of the light gray angular armor, he now wore black plate armor, the joints opened to prevent restriction of movement. Underneath the armor was an elastic nano-reactive metal coating that looked like a black fabric but was incredibly tough. On his left shoulder was a mechanical protrusion that resembled a strange-looking orange tiger eye.

"What the hell is that on my left shoulder?"

"Ta da! Now I can help you as a third eye without having to share your vision. I can provide more detailed analysis and, if necessary, shooting support."

"What are you going to do, analyze harder?"

"Actually, I'll be a turn into fully automatic 15mm plasma gatling if something goes wrong and provide -a massacre- fire support."

"Sounds good to me. After all, it doesn't stand out too much among these creatures."

"Now. If they're waiting for us in the guild...."

Chester thought for a while and then opened the window of his room.

"New plan. We disappear from here and go somewhere unexpected."

"Like where?"

"The royal palace looks quite beautiful, why don't we take a closer look? We could take a look at their library if they have."

"I have a better idea -TO NOT DIE- why don't we inform the children downstairs and plan accordingly. What do you think? Wouldn't that be easier?"

As he was getting ready, he kept talking.

"It doesn't make sense to trump someone who can somehow see into the past. A better solution would be to disappear without informing them. If they know who I am, they would have seen them with me."

He also took the lightning pistol and put it on the data processing device. After yesterday's various problems, he had come to the conclusion that this weapon was no good. Chester opened his focuser and built a compact submachine gun. He examined it in detail. After checking it, he started loading bullets into the magazine.

"I may have to kill this time."

Mag was rolling her eyes.

"But you were already killing."

He pulled the gun's bolt and, after unlocking the safety, placed it in the holster made by the armor on his back waist.

"Now I'll kill more efficiently."

"Or how about you stop making yourself look like a criminal and surrender? If you don't run, we can solve this problem early. We don't even know what you're wanted for!"

"Calm down, of course we're wanted for killing people, what else?"

"Think about it, you were rescuing three people from a dangerous group that night. It could be something else."

Chester thought for a moment. Mag had a point. Self-defense was usually justified, even in the world. Why should it be any different here?

He closed the room's window back.

"All right, let's be a little friendlier. Put a biometric lock on the guns in case they get confiscated. Just in case."

"How funny it would be if you were cut in half by your own sword."

Chester turned to Mag's stupid eye.

"Okay okay, I get it. I'm on your side."

He turned to the door of the room and went down the stairs after telling the spirit to open the door. The tables were almost empty, no one left except some diners and a few groups from the night before. He went back to the reservation. This time, instead of a fish, a carved wooden doll with blue stony eyes stood in the chair. It was about the height of a child of about ten. On the table he placed the key to the room, or rather the heavy cylinder soul stone.

"I've come to deliver the room."

Chester took an extra five pieces of silver from his pocket and placed them next to the soul stone.

"You didn't see or hear me here."

The wooden doll had no fingers, it couldn't pick up the money on the table, so it dragged it closer to itself. It was quite a funny sight.

"Yes, sir, we value your privacy. Is there anything else you want?"

"I don't want anyone else to come near the room for a while."

"Yes, sir, as you wish."

After Chester had done his business at the reservation, he arrived in front of the shop they had talked about yesterday. Yesterday he hadn't been able to read the sign, but now he could understand its symbols. It was a small building with rather gaudy stonework. The shop's sign read, "Official outlet of the Roancnaizk magic-merchants association. "

There was no one in front of the shop, he had arrived earlier than expected. After watching the passers-by outside for a while, he decided to go inside. Instead of waiting in front of the shop empty, he could kill some time inside until the others arrived. The inside of the shop was full. There were various wands, potions, tools and strange objects in every corner. Even the walls were not empty. There were various cloaks and baskets of herbs.This place was truly a shop of magical ingredients. He must have heard the door open because someone could be heard coming from the back counter. The shopkeeper was a being made of hard crystal. It had a face full of sparkles and bumps, a humanoid body and gaudy clothes. It had no legs and instead of walking, it formed crystals on the ground in the direction he traveled and connected to them, and after a while the crystal structure behind him disappeared. He could hear a crystalline rustling as it spoke.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Welcome to the Roancnaizk magic-merchant guild. How can I help you?"

Mag stared at the creature in front of her, her eye was uncomfortably focused.

"What can you tell me about this shop?"

"A history lesson? Well, I've only just started, sir, but I think I can tell you a few things."

"This company was founded by the wandering wizard Mr. Gvellnick Roancnaizk over 100 years ago and has been actively distributing ever since. What is unrivaled about our company is that we have a system that can transport a wide range of products instantly from our local warehouse."

"What exactly is this system?"

"Before Mr. Roancnaizk founded this company, he discovered a region where magic essence spontaneously mixes with the air and Mr. Roancnaizk decided to transport his products there. He managed to create a gateway by tracing this magic to the places he went, thus creating a huge trade network branching out from a common warehouse. Unfortunately, during his gate experiments, he was accidentally sucked into the condensed extract gate and died. The gateway method disappeared with him. Since the last time he set the gate only for inanimate objects, we have been unable to change it because we do not know the method. The location of the warehouse is unknown, and the internal staff cannot tell us where it is because they are just simple golems."

As Chester listened to this story, just when he thought he had a clue to get back, he was suddenly back at a dead end. According to the story, a passage that could only lead to one point only worked for inanimate objects. As the story goes, the poor man was sucked into an unknown portal and lost his life, wasn't so different from himself. He was of no use to Chester.

"So, how do you communicate with golems? How do they know what you want?

"I'm afraid I can't say. It's company policy. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I'm just going to look through the stuff for now, I'll let you know if there's anything I like."

Crystal gestured for them to look at the items and then went back to sorting the crates in the back room. Mag talked to herself as Chester held the items one by one and examined them in detail. Her processors were warming up with joy as she was surrounded by the unknown.

"Look at the objects around! From a flower with its own gravitational field to a cloak that can change its physical attribute. They all violate the laws of physics, they're all anomalies!"

"What about the crystal man?"

"According to my analysis, he is a silicon-based life form. The theory of non-carbon-based life was correct! When we get back, someone's going to win a Nobel Prize."

Mag looked at Chester like a begging dog.

"I wish we could 'borrow' him it and experiment on it."

"I'm not going to kidnap a walking stone with citizenship just because you want to do crazy experiments on that thing."

After arguing with Mag for a while, he went back to examining the items. At every opportunity he would ask what the items were for and he and Mag would record them in detail in the database. Then he could design replicas of these things and try to use them. After handling almost everything, he could see that the shopkeeper was starting to get annoyed. Chester decided to get out of the shop before he caused trouble. He could see Yigmir in front of the shop. Eela and Rim were still nowhere to be seen. After a few seconds of confusion, Yigmir realized it was Chester approaching.

"Your new armor looks pretty good, I almost didn't recognize you."

"Good morning. Where are the others?"

"They're taking the potions and some documents they need to deliver to the healer just a block away. I've already made my delivery elsewhere, so I'll escort you back to the guild as promised until they're done."

Chester nodded and they started down the street. Yigmir asked out of curiosity.

"What is that eye on your left shoulder, Mr. Vegner?"

It was normal to be curious. It was not like he could grow a limb in a day. He could have just said it straight out, he didn't need to make up a cover.

"This is my assistant Mag. She helps me to observe."

Mag looked at Yigmir without speaking. Even though it was only one eye, she could give him a 'nice to meet you' expression.

"Quite an impressive magical object. They provide really good equipment to the intelligence guilds."

After walking in silence for a while longer, Chester had to tell Yigmir about their encounter.

"We need to talk about what happened yesterday."

"I'm listening."

"When we enter the guild, there will be a horde of soldiers ready to catch us. Apparently-"

"We were spotted by an event scout, damn it. One of those damn wizards, of which there are three in the city, must have gotten us. Fortunately, we've completed our deliveries, so we won't be charged a late fee by the guild. "

After listening to what Yigmir said, Chester added

"Will they give us any trouble?"

"We were defending ourselves against bandits, I don't think anything will happen. Instead, we'll be questioned for a long time and then released."

Chester was a little more relaxed. But interrogation meant he would be questioned about his identity. He was a ghost in the city, he had never been in or out, he had no identification or papers.

"Is there anything required to enter the city?

"You are asking strange questions again, Mr. Chester. Citizens of the city have a spirit ring and foreigners have a asfiliz card. For busybodies, they have a necklace to pass in the name of the guild."

Yigmir paused for a moment and then continued.

"Speaking of necklaces, Rim must have dropped it in the argument yesterday. He will have to pay half of the money he earned. Silly boy."

Mag was speaking into Chester's mind,

"If you manage to get a necklace from the guild before you get caught, you can technically show it."

What Mag suggested was complete nonsense. How could he get it when they were already waiting there? And even if he had somehow managed to go unnoticed, would they just hand it out to anyone who came along? Chester wanted to talk, but he didn't want to discuss with Yigmir how to make his illegal entry legal. Another solution he could think of was to make a copy of it in the focuser, but that wouldn't be possible either, because every identity substitute contained either a soul or magic. Chester couldn't fake it.He thought about what Mag had said again. Actually, it could be done. His armor was quite different from yesterday's. It would take time to notice. He could try. If he failed, he could escape from where he was being held, as he wanted to anyway.

Eventually they arrived in front of the guild gate.