"Yeah, she seemed bothered by the price even at half a Crown, so a Crown's gotta be at least 240 Chips," Zach said to no one in particular, between bites of apple. The apple was fresh and sweet and really quite delicious. If he ever saw that woman again, he wanted to give her a Chip or two, assuming he could get any. He still had no idea how to earn money in this world.
He added 'repay the apple lady' to his growing list of goals. Then he went ahead and added 'figure out how to earn money' above that.
Zach's attempts to ponder out the dream land's economy from such limited information served to pass the time quite well. Before he knew it, he had reached the massive wall, and he marveled at it in awe. It was definitely made of white marble, and at over 100 feet tall it was far too large to have been constructed by human hands. Yeah, this place is totally a dream, he thought with a bit of disappointment.
The dirt road changed to cobblestone as it passed through an arch in the wall. Guards stood to each side of the path, but they made no attempt to stop or search the people that entered. Zach thought he remembered monsters in his recurring dreams, so maybe the guards were just there to keep monsters out. He hoped there weren't many monsters outside the wall, for that kind apple woman's sake.
As he emerged on the other side of the 30-foot-thick wall, he noticed a large wooden sign with English text on it. It said, "Gwendolyn Wall. Built in the year two thousand and five by King Gildahart's creation magic, this wall stands as proof of his commitment to protecting the people of his kingdom and as a dedication to his fallen wife, Queen Gwendolyn. May mana protect her forevermore."
"Okay… Not only was it built by humans, it was built by one guy?" Zach mumbled. "I guess he deserves to be king with magic that strong." The year mentioned on the sign didn't escape Zach's attention either. It suggested that this world had a very similar, if not identical, calendar to his own. The weather felt reasonable for early September in Colorado, so he decided to assume the date was the same: September 5th, 2018.
Zach was wishing that 'figure out the date' had been an item on his objective list, because he was worried about his ability to check off the other entries. He turned and looked at the city spreading out before him. People shuffled past him in all directions, carrying bags of goods, pushing carts, and in some cases, holding bladed weapons.
Most of the passersby were dressed in plain clothes like his. He assumed that they were farmers and other workers. There were also some people in colorful and ornate outfits who were almost certainly merchants and a few people in simple robes reminiscent of monks or priests. Finally, there were occasional soldiers in steel helmets carrying swords or pikes. The soldiers all wore a green tabard over their armor with the same symbol painted on it in gold: a deer with broad antlers.
To Zach's left was a large marketplace of tents and merchant stands, almost certainly the market the woman had mentioned. A big part of him wanted to go investigate, but he knew that wouldn't prove very useful to someone with literally no money. To his right, a road ran along the base of the wall and appeared to lead to residential housing, judging by the unmarked buildings with multiple entrances. Straight ahead was a bustling thoroughfare that lead deeper into the sprawling city, with tall stone and wood buildings on both sides.
Zach looked down that intimidating path and thought, If I was in a fantasy kingdom, which I am, where would I go to make money?
Zach's first thought was to find a day labor job, but he was still shoeless and didn't like the idea of doing hard labor in a dream. His next idea was to find some sort of adventurer's guild. If this was anything like the worlds of the role playing games he had played as a kid, there would be some sort of basic quest that even a pitiful new player could do. Again, mundane work didn't sound like a fun way to spend a dream, but every fantasy hero had to start somewhere.
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He walked for what felt like an hour looking for a building that could be an adventurer's guild. Judging by the sun's position in the sky and his hunger, it was nearly noon. As he walked, he cursed the city's painful cobblestone road. Getting some shoes was definitely the top of Zach's priorities as soon as he got his first Chip or Crown or whatever.
There's gotta be a currency between those two, he thought. I can't imagine there's just a 240 magnitude gap between their only currencies. Even US dollars and cents have coins and bills representing various amounts. I would ask someone to show me some money, but that sounds like the start of a particularly stupid robbery attempt.
Zach had to put his economic ponderings on hold because he spotted a rather promising sign on the front of a three-story building. It featured a sword and horseshoe and the words 'Hard Fought Rest'. While it wasn't an adventurer's guild, it definitely seemed to be an inn for adventurers and weary travelers.
He steeled himself and strode up to the heavy wood door, then pushed it open. He had thought the city had been loud and hectic outside, but that was nothing compared to the noise inside the building.
"Bring me another beer!"
"I don't believe that story fer a minute!"
"Get your own woman. Can't you see this lady's into me?"
"Into your money, you mean!"
Loud conversations slammed in on Zach from all sides. For a place with 'rest' in the name, this inn was not very restful.
He peered around, trying to get his bearings. A single room occupied the full width of the building, with a staircase in the back right corner. A polished wood bar ran the remaining length of the back wall, with a wide door into a kitchen behind that. The rest of the large space was filled with tables and chairs and booths built into the walls.
Less than half of the seats were filled, so he couldn't even imagine how loud the place would get when full. Several of the customers were clearly city guards, though their weapons and helmets were put away. Other customers included some peasants, a few well-dressed merchants, and a beautiful woman in tight clothing that really showed off her impressive 'assets'. From the way she was hanging on and flirting with one of the merchants, Zach guessed that she was a prostitute.
Now that Zach could see the guards' faces, he realized that about half of them were female. He also noted that the inn's wait staff included both men and women. Whatever problems this fantasy world had, it didn't seem gender-equality was among them, at least not to the extent he'd expected after seeing the prostitute.
In fact, he started to doubt his assessment of her until she pocketed a coin from the man she'd been clinging to and followed him upstairs. Since she operated so brazenly in the middle of the day and in front of city guards, Zach could only assume that prostitution was legal in this kingdom.
Zach had been standing near the door for a while and it started to feel awkward, so he took a seat off to the side where he could watch the room. It was very interesting to observe people from all walks of life interacting in such a new and exciting setting. He saw a woman leave the building in a huff after some sort of argument and then watched a man spill his beer all over himself and get cut off of any more alcohol. It seemed people here weren't all that different from back home.
After about a minute, a waitress arrived at his table. "Welcome to the Hard Fought Rest. We're serving lunch right now. Would you like to hear today's menu?" she said, smiling in a professional and half-sincere way.
Given Zach's plain clothes, she likely assumed he wasn't going to be a big spender, but she couldn't have known how broke he truly was. Zach frowned and said, "Not right now. I don't feel very well and was hoping to rest here a bit. Is that alright?"
She raised an eyebrow. She clearly thought he was crazy for choosing the loudest place around to rest. But to Zach's surprise, she said, "That's fine. I'll bring you some complimentary water, but do note that if we fill up and a paying customer needs your seat, I'll have to ask you to leave."
He smiled and said, "Thank you very much." He made a mental note that clean water was free in this world, suggesting some pretty major advancement over its medieval appearance. He also checked off 'fresh water' from his list of objectives, but he was pretty sure it was the last thing on his list that he'd be getting for free.