The guard looked at Richard and lowered his spear, grinding the butt of it into the ground. He shook his head and sighed.

"By the gods, Nalgaet! It's barely midday, and you're already too drunk to stand."

For the second time, Richard stood speechless. He was able to understand the human. Nalgaet replied to the guard, saying something that Richard still didn't understand. Then what the other guard had said clicked. It wasn't that Richard couldn't understand this worlds language. Nalgaet was just drunk with a thick Dwarven accent. A wave of relief rushed through him. He wasn't in as much trouble as he had thought.

"I'm so sorry." The guard was addressing Richard now. "I had to step away to take care of a disturbance, and it seems Nalgaet took that as an opportunity to try and beg booze money off whoever he managed to catch coming through."

Richard couldn't help but laugh. So that's what the Dwarf had wanted. Thinking back, he could now make some sense of what the Dwarf had said. "No harm done. But is he usually this drunk while on duty?"

"Oh, he's not a guard. He's just a local drunk." The guard scratched the back of his head. "Look, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this. I'm not supposed to leave the gate unguarded. A fight broke out just around the corner, and it would have taken longer to call the city watch than to just take care of it. I didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt."

Richard nodded. "You were trying to protect people. No one's going to hear anything from me."

A tenseness left the guard in front of him. "Thank you. I could get have gotten in serious trouble." Nalgaet snored loudly, the sound echoing off the sides of the walls. "Ugh. He's going to be out for a while." The guard leaned the spear against the wall and moved to Nalgaets feet before looking up at Richard. "I don't suppose I could convince you to help me move him out of the middle of the road? You know how heavy Dwarves are."

Richard wanted to make a good impression as he had questions about the town, so he would help the guard and ask what he could while they moved Nalgaet. "Sure thing."

He moved to the opposite side of the guard, and together they lifted the Dwarf off the road. He was surprisingly heavy. Even between the two of them, it was a serious effort to move Nalgaet. Unfortunately, that meant that Richard didn't get to ask his questions. They got Nalgaet moved to the side of the gate where they sat him down, and he immediately slumped back over.

"Thanks again... I'm sorry I never even asked your name."

Richard stuck out his hand. "I'm Richard."

The guard clasped Richards forearm in greeting. "It's nice to meet you, Richard. I'm Leven."

Richard smiled. "Nice to meet you too, Leven." As they unclasped hands, Richard figured now to be as good a time to ask his questions as any. "Hey Leven, it's my first time in town and, I was wondering if you could answer a question or two for me." Leven nodded. "Awesome. So as I said, I'm new in town, is there a good place to stay or find quick work?"

Leven thought for a minute. "Wel,l for us there's not really much, of course. If you follow pretty much any road through town towards The Gray Pinnacle, you'll come to the main barracks for the city guard. The pay's not great. But, you get a bunk, and your meals are provided for you. Right next to them is the main headquarters for the Explorers of the Gray. That's the local adventurers guild that explores the mine systems through The Gray Pinnacle, clearing out any monsters, making sure things are safe for the miners, stuff like that. They're always looking for new members. Monsters reproduce faster than they can keep up with, so they're not normally too picky about who joins. The pay's better, depending on what jobs you take or what monster parts you bring back. Some lucky bastards even manage to stumble on treasures from back when this was just a Dwarven city. Just know that you're taking your life into your own hands if you work with them. As far as places to stay? Not a lot of Human-friendly places here, even though they're not supposed to discriminate. Your best bet there would be to find a human-run Inn."

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Richard was trying to take in all the information Leven was providing him. At the last couple of lines, though, he had a new question. "They discriminate against humans here?"

Leven looked at him as if he had asked if water was wet. "I mean, it's supposed to be better here than other places; The free city of Bolgarum and what not. I was born here. So if this is better than other places, I don't want to go anywhere else."

"But you're one of the city guards. They even have you protecting one of the entrances to the city. Surely that means humans are treated better here than elsewhere, right?"

Leven barked a bitter laugh. "I'm only trusted here because I'm expendable, and it's the least traveled road in the kingdom. It goes through the Yavisi Forrest, to a town whose only purpose is to top off your supplies before you cross The Painted Desert. And only merchants looking to trade with the lizards are crazy enough to go out there." His expression changed to a curious one. "If you're coming through here, though, you should know that."

Richard tried to quickly think of an excuse. He didn't want to go around claiming he was from another world after all. "I'm from someplace very, very far away. I managed to get myself lost and happened to find this road not too long ago." He hoped that was vague enough to work.

Leven shrugged. "Well, I'm not sure how you managed to wind up here. Hopefully, you get back on track soon." He was pensive for a moment before asking, "Is it really that bad for us other places?"

"I guess it's not too bad where I'm from. Not that discrimination doesn't exist there or anything."

Leven nodded. "I guess it really is the same everywhere, huh?" Richard made a non-committal noise in his throat that he hoped Leven took as agreement.

'Where did that god creature send me?! Humans are some kind of second-class citizens here or something?' Richard thought. 'I didn't expect to be heralded as a hero or anything. I just wanted a chance for a fun adventure after a boring life behind a desk.' He sighed internally. 'I'll just have to make the best of it.'

Outloud he said, "Thank you for all the information Leven, I appreciate it. I'll leave you to focus on your job. I don't want you getting in trouble if they think you're just goofing off and talking."

"You're very welcome, Richard. It really was nice to meet someone who doesn't look at me like I'm something on the bottom of their shoe." Leven smiled and slid his hand under his leather chest piece. Pulling it back out, he tossed something towards Richard. Richard instinctively snagged it out of the air and looked at it. It was a silver coin. Richard looked back at Leven who winked.

Richard realized that he hadn't even considered money while checking what he had on him. He didn't even know how much a silver piece was worth."Are you sure?" That was all he could manage to think to say.

Leven nodded. "You promised not to say anything about me leaving my post. You helped me move Nalgaet when there was no way I could have done it myself. And more importantly. Humans need to take care of each other."

Richard smiled and closed his fist around the coin, turning to enter the city proper.