Zach people-watched for another half hour or so, then he was thinking about leaving. Contrary to his assumption that there would be adventurers there, he hadn't seen anyone equipped for combat other than the guardsmen. Maybe this world isn't as fantastical as I thought?

Just then, the front door slammed open and a tall man stomped in. He wore a heavy bear-fur cape over very fine silk clothes and he had wild red hair and a full beard that put Zach's father's to shame. The man didn't even have time to speak before the waitress that had served Zach literally sprinted up to him.

"Shen! How wonderful it is to see you again!" she cheered, practically bowing before the man as if he was a nobleman or something.

"I'm happy to be back. Three weeks I was on the road, and I only have two days before I leave again," he said loud enough for the whole room to hear. What he said next proved that the volume had been intentional. "I plan to make it count. I'm buying the whole room a round!"

The cheer that erupted was painfully loud, even to Zach's noise-acclimated ears.

The waitress seemed to have expected the turn of events. She said, "I'll get that going right away, Shen. In the meantime, please take a seat anywhere." Then she ran back to the kitchen to begin the impressive task of serving over 50 beers. Fortunately for her, the other waitstaff appeared in full force to help her out.

After delivering a few armloads of mugs to other patrons, Zach's waitress returned to his table. She wore a genuinely concerned smile and said, "Are you feeling any better? Do you want this free beer?"

While she'd been serving the others, Zach had already come up with a plan for this. He said, "I am feeling better, but I don't know if I my empty stomach could handle that. Is there any chance I could swap it for some food of even half the value?"

The waitress shrugged. "That's fine by me. How about some beef on toast? It should be easy to keep down."

"That sounds great," Zach said. He didn't know whether to cheer his great luck, or curse how mundane this dream's successes had been. Free water and beef on toast did not a grand adventurer make.

The waitress quickly delivered that beer to another customer, then swung by the kitchen to give Zach's order.

A few minutes later, a delicious smelling plate arrived at Zach's table and he checked off another of his objectives from his mental list. He also had a good feeling about some of the other objectives, thanks to the unusual man that bought everyone's beer. Zach wanted to learn everything about how the man named Shen made his money, and it looked like he was going to get his wish because Shen was sharing some very interesting stories at a volume meant to be heard by the entire room.

"And then our caravan was attacked by wolves," he said, kicking off his third story of being attacked by monsters while traveling. "Not just any wolves, though. Regular wolves are nothing. These were dire wolves!" He stood up and gestured above his head, suggesting that the creatures had been over seven feet tall.

The gathered crowd gasped and one woman screamed. Whether or not dire wolves were actually that big, the name certainly carried some impact.

"Now I'm no Mage, but I know a spell or two. I threw a light spell into the air to help our soldiers see the terrible monsters, and then I used my special technique. Who here's heard about my special technique?" He looked around the room, clearly expecting someone to answer in the affirmative.

Finally, one of the guardsmen called out, "You bolster your horses, right?"

Shen smiled broadly, showing a couple missing teeth. "Oh, I do more than that. My horses are my life. Without them, a Rider is nothing. So I've been developing magic that lets them take on monsters and live. I'm not gonna give away the secret details that keep me in high demand, but I'll just tell you that when Sarah and Jane get empowered, they can put a hoof right through a dire wolf's face and out its ass."

He sat down and kicked back in his chair, putting his hefty boots up on the table. The look that appeared on the waitress's face suggested that such a thing wouldn't fly for anyone else. Then Shen said, "It didn't take long after that. We mopped up the rest of the wolf pack, I healed up my darlings, and we got moving again. Didn't even lose a full hour. And that's why I'm always booked solid and rolling in coin."

From what Zach had overheard, Shen was something called a Rider. They apparently used magic to let their horses travel long distances at high speed, and in Shen's case, even go toe to toe with dangerous monsters. The high pay and limited time in civilization meant that Riders tended to spend extravagantly during their off time. Like a truck driver with an offshore driller's pay, Zach thought.

Zach had finished his beef on toast and was secretly hoping Shen would buy another round so he could try this world's beer. He wasn't old enough to legally drink in real life, but he'd had some beer at parties. Judging by how tipsy everyone in the room looked off just one, this place's beer was stronger.

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Instead, Shen stood up and turned on the spot, casting his gaze on everyone in the room. "Alright. I told you a few tales, now I want to hear some from you. If one of them is real good, and if it's one I've never heard before, I'll make it worth your while." With that, he dropped a leather pouch on the table from a few feet up. It hit the table with enough force to topple someone's half-full flagon of beer.

The whole room gasped, not at the spilled drink, but at how much money must have been in that bag.

Shen looked down at the spilled beer and said, "That won't do. Another round, please. For everyone!"

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Over the next couple hours, more and more people arrived at the Hard Fought Rest, but no one was leaving. Even the merchant and prostitute came back downstairs to see what all the noise was about.

As the seats filled up, Zach tried very hard to look like a paying customer so he wouldn't get kicked out. In a way, every person in the room was earning the inn money every time Shen ordered a round, but Zach didn't want to chance it. He moved to a table with several people and tried to get friendly with them, but none of them really cared about meeting each other. They were all there to listen to some tales and maybe win that massive bag of money.

Zach had finished his first free beer and was slowly working his way through the second. It was strong and hit him harder than he'd expected, and he wasn't the only one in that situation. A man to Zach's left was bemoaning the fact that he was supposed to go back to work but he was too drunk now.

The man's friend slapped him on the back and said, "Forget work. Tell a good enough story and you won't have to work."

"Tssh, as if I have any exciting stories. I'm a cobbler! Making shoes is damn near the most boring job in the kingdom."

That got Zach's attention. He turned to the man and said, "I'm actually in need of shoes. Where do you work? I'd like to buy from you."

The man tuned out the rather mediocre story that a young woman was telling and focused on Zach. He told him exactly how to get to his business from the inn and Zach committed it to memory. The man also asked that Zach not tell his boss about them drinking here when he should have been at work.

"Of course," Zach answered, then he downed the last of his second beer. He was feeling really comfortable and ready to take a big chance. It was just a dream, so he didn't care if he made a fool of himself. The instant the young woman was done telling her story about falling in love with a wall guard, Zach jumped to his feet with one fist in the air.

Several people jolted at the sudden movement and Shen gave Zach an approving look. "Oh, we've got an eager one over here. What's your name?"

Zach powered through the anxiety that was creeping up his throat. He didn't like having this many eyes on him. "It's Zach."

Shen tilted his head, as did several of the people in the room. It was clear that Zach was not a name anyone had heard before. "Alright, Zach," Shen said, putting way too much emphasis on the K sound, "Tell me a story."

Zach took a deep breath, thanked the university for making him take that public speaking class last semester, and began, "My story isn't about a person, or about an event. It's about a place, a place like this kingdom, but without any magic."

A few people gasped and a man grumbled, "How awful." It seemed they didn't even want to consider the possibility of such a place.

Zach quickly recovered. "They don't have magic, at least not in the way we do. They have something they call technology, and technology is just as powerful." He paused and swept his eyes around the room, then added, "If not more powerful."

He needed his story to be relatable to these people, so he built on what he'd learned over the last few hours. "They have horses in that world, but no Riders, so they had to create machines to fill that need. They need to heal severe wounds, but have no magic, so they invented intricate devices and medicines to do it."

For the next fifteen minutes, Zach told his audience about a world filled with machines that carried people and goods across the ground at speeds five times faster than horses. He mentioned city-block-sized structures that flew through the air, capable of carrying hundreds of people across entire continents in mere hours, and he spoke in hushed tones of weapons capable of destroying the entire world, should they ever be reckless and foolish enough to use them again.

Almost everything he said sounded totally impossible to everyone listening, but it didn't sound false either. He included so many specifics and so much of what he said rang true; no one could dismiss it as something he'd made up on the spot. When he finished, he flopped back into his seat feeling socially exhausted.

The inn went silent and everyone looked to Shen for his reaction. After a moment that felt like an hour, Shen stood and said, "Well, I won't say I believe that crazy story, but I think it's fair to say that your story was the most entertaining by a longshot. Zach, you earned this."

The large man pressed the heavy bag of gold into Zach's hands in a way that made it clear that his decision was final. A few people let out exasperated sighs, but no one argued. After all, it was Shen's money to do with as he wanted, and they all wanted to stay in his good graces for the next time he visited.

Shen waved to the room and shouted, "It's been fun, but my mother always said not to spend all my money in one place." Then he stomped out of the inn with his bear-fur cloak trailing behind him.

It was quickly evident that Shen had been the only reason so many people were at an inn in the middle of the afternoon. They finished off their free beers, paid for their meals, and left in a steady trickle.

As the room slowly emptied, the cobbler from earlier put a hand on Zach's shoulder. "Hey, I've got to get going, but if you come by today, I'll get you measured for the best-fitting pair of shoes you've ever owned." His drunkenness from earlier had faded a bit and he seemed genuinely eager to land a sale.

"Yeah, for sure," Zach said, still a little dumbstruck that he actually won. He watched as the man stood up and started for the door, then Zach got lost in thought. Before he could go shoe shopping, Zach needed to learn how much money he actually had, preferably without revealing how clueless he really was.