Entering the inn he was tasked to clean, Alan once again saw the disheveled hair and piercing eyes of the owner Martha, as he walked to the counter the woman yelled to him.
“About time for you to get here, I was worried for you. Failing a task this early in your adventuring career would not be good. Glad you could finally make it!”
“I am here and ready to help! Where should I start?” Alan replied ignoring the woman's statement
This place still looks so clean! I bet this fifteen copper will be easier than the ten I just earned from Mr. Jacobs, I'll be done in no time!
—------
Alan greatly underestimated how dirty Martha believed the room to be. The woman had given him a stick with a brush the size of the tip of his finger and a bucket of water that smelled of some sort of cleaner then she had instructed him to get scrubbing. Underneath the tables, where patrons had potentially touched their grimy hands. Each of the chairs, for there may be some debris dragged in from the dirty folks who sat in them. In the small cracks of the wooden floorboards, as perhaps there was a crumb dropped as someone was eating. Alan believed the woman to be mad, the dining room looked to Alan to be clean but to her piercing gray eyes it was disgusting.
He had thought Mr. Jacobs hovering over him and instructing him on the placement of his wares was oppressive, however the owner of the Laughing Donkey was leagues more controlling than the old man, inspecting each inch of his work with her discerning eye. She must have a skill for this, he thought, no normal citizen would notice the small speck of dirt he had missed on the foot of the table he had started with, but Martha did. Each time he overlooked any iota of uncleanliness the woman found it instantaneously, pointing it out to him and forcing him to clean it to her standards, which Alan believed to be perfection. As the bell tower sounded four times Alan felt ragged, despite only being here for an hour the work was substantially more intensive than the old man’s shop. Thirty six, that is how many times Alan was forced to go back and redo his cleaning of an area to make sure it appeased the woman. Due to his intense cleaning the [System] had been benevolent enough to reward Alan with a skill [Cleaning - Common - Level 1 : Increases Cleaning speed by 0.5% per skill level.] The notification appeared and Alan happily accepted the skill after his thirty third reclean of an area Martha informed him he had missed, it seemed that the rigorous work had greatly increased the speed at which Alan had received his new [General Skill]. Despite his new skill his excitement was muted, quite tired after such a detailed hour of work, and only halfway finished with the dining room, he hoped to be complete at or before the bell rang five times, but it was going to be close.
Firmly scrubbing the last chair with this tiny brush Alan was exhausted, never before had he thought such a task could fatigue him as much as Martha’s dining room and domineering direction had. He of course had cleaned the large dining room and kitchen area at the orphanage hundreds of times as he had grown up but never had Mistress Gloria hounded him to be so thorough. Grateful he was finished he approached the diminutive yet intimidating woman.
“I believe I have completely finished cleaning the dining room Martha.”
“I believe so as well son, only forty eight times I had to tell you to go back, I should hire you right now! I make most of you sloppy adventurers go back at least seventy times, it seems you have an eye for details, young man.”
“Thank you Martha, I was also wondering if I could rent a room for the night and buy myself dinner.”
Reaching into his pocket he pulled out six coins and began to hand them to Martha.
“You did a great job, boy, I'll give you dinner on me this one time, just so you can enjoy your handiwork. If you want, I can remove my recurring task at the guild and hire you to be my full time cleaner? You show some promise.”
“Thank you for the food and, that's quite alright Martha, I will be sure to accept it again but I'm not sure what exactly I want to do as a job so I wouldn't want to take your opening and leave you behind if I changed my mind.”
I could not do that every day! Especially if I would have to clean other areas of the inn as well, it might help my skill level but do I really want to be employed by that cleanliness crazed woman?
“Alright boy, here is the key to your room, it is the fifth room on the right side of the second floor, if you wait a minute I'll be right out with your stew.”
Sat at the bar he heard the village bell ring five times, signaling the coming of five hours past noon and the end of the work day or so Martha told him. With that the rush of patrons started just minutes later. They all came to the inn for Martha's dinner service. The stew was brilliant, chunks of meat so tender they almost melted in his mouth, with a thick hearty broth that made his mouth almost ache for more, potatoes and carrots seasoned with spices he had never tasted before, that came out to perfection. The combination made for a meal that Alan would say was the best he had ever had, simple as it was. With his meal he chose a flagon of water, he had tried ale in the past when some of the older children at the orphanage had somehow acquired a batch but he never enjoyed the taste or felt that it was refreshing as some thought it was. Tired from his lack of food during the day his meal rejuvenated him tempering his sleepiness, allowing him to listen in on the conversations of the patrons in the inn. It was soothing, reminding him of the other orphans conversing about their days and what they would do the next. Through his listening he learned that the day of the week was Tuesday, he also learned that just as it was on his home world there was a seven day week. With the names of the days being the same as his home, it felt awfully strange to him. How? Through who knows how much space and time the measurement of days and weeks was exactly the same, another thing for him to discover if he got powerful enough.
Alan sat and listened well into the night, focusing on specific conversations if he felt them to be interesting enough, not learning much of anything as most were very mundane. Sitting at the bar while Martha worked behind it and two servers delivered food and ale to the other occupants he observed the dining room to the best of his ability, it seemed that the split of men and women in the inn was very even, whereas back home mostly men would have done more laborious jobs while women would tend to take care of the children and be employed in less physical jobs, it appeared that was not the case here, at the time he made the observation there was actually more women in the dining room who looked to have come from a more, dirty, physical job. Ripped and dirty clothes made the more physical workers stand out from the cleaner patrons.
It must be because of the [System],with the ability to level up. I would think it would prevent any one group from controlling the way things are, one's merits are the basis of society keeping everything very orderly. I would not want to get into an argument only to be absolutely crushed simply because of another person’s level. That [Guard] Rupert at the northern gate said he could see my level was zero, I wonder how I get that skill? It would be very helpful to not offend someone of a much higher level.
As the sun set Alan grew tired, the bells rang signaling eight hours had passed into the evening, he made his way up the stairs and to his room. Entering his room it was larger than any he had been in before, a bed large enough to three comfortably sat in the middle of the left wall, a small dark wood table on either side of the bed matched the frame, across from the bed a large matching wooden wardrobe. To his immediate left as he entered was another door which when opened led to a small room with a tub full of water. As soon as he saw it he began discarding his clothing, Alan entered the tub that was somewhat chilly yet very refreshing after his first day on his new world. He and the other orphans had bathed once or twice a week after the larger boys had carried water to fill the tubs, Alan being one of the largest for multiple years always had to carry the water for the baths so not having to do anything for this one was a luxury. After bathing Alan washed his rough tunic and pants, hung them to dry in the wardrobe, leaving the doors open to allow the moisture to escape, and laid in bed. Thinking of his [Status] it appeared before him.
Status
Name : Alan
Age : 16
Race : Human
Level : 0
Class : N/A
Health : 60/60
Mana : 60/60
Health Regeneration : 2 Health / Hour
Mana Regeneration : 18 Mana / Hour
Strength : 7
Dexterity : 5
Vitality : 6
Endurance : 8
Intelligence : 6
Wisdom : 9
Free points : 0
Class Skills : N/A
General Skills : 2 / 10
Cleaning Level 1
Organization Level 1
Spells : N/A
Staring at it for a moment he wondered to himself just how strong someone on this world could become, one must be able to increase the numbers other than just their levels, what was health? Would it go down if he was injured, or sick, and with his regeneration would he even be able to get and stay sick? What was mana, and what were spells? Were they a different form of skills? It seemed that his Wisdom was linked to his Mana Regeneration, maybe he could ask around and see if he could learn more about them, maybe he would ask Martha, or Richard at the Adventurer’s Guild. Alan felt so excited at the prospect of getting levels, something about it scratched an itch he had never felt before, satiating a desire to become better that existed within him. For now he closed his status and decided to go to sleep, he dreamt of becoming a Hero with extreme levels and Strength saving people from the monsters and dungeons Richard had told him about that morning.
Just as the sun began to rise due to his time spent in the orphanage he woke up. Alan had a plan, clean the apothecary’s shop, and return to the adventurers guild to accept more quests so he could secure his room and meals at the inn for the foreseeable future. His tunic was not quite dry but it would have to do as it was his only outfit. He left the inn and Martha was the only person up and about, he asked her to keep his room for him as he was going to make some money, and inquired about where the apothecary was so he could get on his way.
Cleaning the apothecary’s shop was much easier than cleaning the Laughing Donkey, the apothecary was a young woman who created all sorts of natural cures and fixes for ailments with herbs, and made dyes for the tailors in the village, a quite novel occupation to Alan as he had only ever heard of the apothecaries in his old world.
During his cleaning he learned about the skill [Identify] asking the apothecary how she knew what plants were safe to consume and which were not. She was extremely forthcoming with information for him and told him more about skills and their thresholds, informing him that at level 15, 30, 60, and 120 the skill would reach a bottleneck where it took new and potentially expensive scenarios to level the skill beyond that threshold. Once it leveled up past that threshold it unlocked a new effect for the skill, she told him that just because two people may have a skill that has the same name that after passing the first threshold at level 15 those skill would most likely start to diverge from each other and have much different benefits for each person. Such as her [Identify] skill having the ability to provide more in depth information on plants, whereas some people like a [Merchant] may be able to identify items and their relative worth or a [Guard] may focus on identifying people and their version of the skill would allow them to [Identify] higher level individuals than would they would from the basic version of the skill.
Just minutes after he started Alan received a notification from the [System]
*Ding*
[Skill - Cleaning - Leveled Up!]
[Cleaning - Common - Level 2]
I must have been close to leveling it up yesterday working for that perfectionist. Maybe I will be able to feel a real difference now that it's at level two.
When he finished his task the forthcoming apothecary paid him, he thanked her, took his leave to make his way back to the Adventurer’s Guild. Ready to accept and complete as many tasks as he could determined to make enough money to thrive. Once again Richard occupied the desk in the solid stone building, he welcomed Alan and asked him if he was back for more tasks already. Being as it had just passed eight hours since midnight and Alan still had a full day ahead of him he told Richard that he was planning on accepting any cleaning tasks available. Having the foresight that today he would just accept one task so he could finish it and return to the guild, as he didn’t want to take on too many at once and not complete them before they were due. The first task he accepted of the day was to clean a blacksmith's shop while the man was healing from an injury paying a whopping 40 copper. Alan correctly inferred that with the inflated reward must be a large or difficult job.
Eight hours later Alan finished the blacksmiths shop, it was not perfect, the smith told him that it had not been given a complete clean like he had hired Alan to do in a few years. Lots of stuck on soot, worked deep into every surface was now stuck to Alan, his tunic an entirely different color, closer to gray than the tan it had started as. Back at the Adventurer’s Guild Richard laughed at him.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Alan my boy, you are a mess! Your face is completely covered and those clothes are surely ruined! If you need, I will take them out to the training yard and burn them just to prevent you from spreading that muck!”
No wonder people were looking at me so strangely on the street, soot on my face explains it, I can't believe that blacksmith let me leave like this. I need new clothing and these ones need a better wash than I can give.
“Hey Richard, can you point me to somewhere I can buy some clothes and somewhere to get these ones washed? You said it yourself, I am filthy.”
Richard gave Alan directions to both places, luckily near each other he first made his way to the shop that sold clothing. From the Adventurer’s Guild that was situated near the center of the town close to the large building that he had learned served as a village hall, and the mayor’s residence, he made his way to the far west side of the village where he noticed the loudness level was much lower than close to the apothecary’s shop or blacksmith that were close together on the other side of town. When he entered the tailor he was directed to he was met by a gasp.
“You boy, stay away from my products, dirty as you are, you are liable to ruin them. What do you need, new clothes obviously but what is your budget?” The man that looked to be running the store confronted him.
“I’m sorry sir, I really wouldn't want to ruin anything, as to my budget, I have to ask, what do you have that would fit me and how much would it cost?”
“Well I may have a couple of things that travelers have ordered over the years and forgotten to pick up that may work, however you are quite large so it may not fit as well as I would normally like, I would prefer to measure you and make something that fits you properly but not while you are in those dirty rags. Let me go see what I have that might fit, you wait right there, and don't touch anything!”
“Thank you sir, I won't sir.” Alan gave a weak reply
The man disappeared for a few minutes, Alan could hear him rustling around the racks of clothes in the store and by the time the man returned he had selected five sets of clothing and was pulling an empty rack behind him.
“Here young man, I will hang these up one at a time, they look to be large enough for you.”
The first outfit was nice, nicer than any set of clothes Alan had ever seen, the man told him that the set was three silver but came with a pair of boots as well, however the boots would not fit Alan as they were too small, not that he could afford such a hefty cost for such a set of clothing. The second and third outfits were nicer than any attire Alan himself had ever owned but much lower quality than the first set, they were fifty and sixty copper respectively. While the final two sets were once again less quality looking than the ones before them however they were still each much nicer than the clothes he currently wore, and the clothier wanted twenty silver for each outfit.
“I really would like to purchase two sets of clothes, however the forty copper is just outside of my price range, is there any way you can part with them for thirty five?”
“I’m sorry, but I must stick to my prices, otherwise I would go out of business! If I gave you such a discount I would have to give one to every poor miser who claimed they didn't have enough coin for my products, and surely that would destroy the amount of profit I can earn to keep my shop open!” The man retorted
“You did say that these outfits were abandoned and that you have had them for years and that you don't see many people my size, who knows how long before someone else comes to buy them! I would just be helping you clear the space on your racks!” Alan tried to persuade the man
The man deliberated on Alan’s statement for a few seconds “I suppose you are right, fine boy I will sell them to you for thirty five. Now, go clean yourself and then come back for your new clothes. I will not sell them to anyone else. I will not have you dirty my beautiful work so quickly so go.”
Alan was very embarrassed he didn't think about his room at the inn and the bath inside it, he hurried back to the Laughing Donkey. The moment he entered Martha began to yell at him.
“Alan! Get that soot out of my inn! Who do you think you are?”
“I’m sorry Martha! I just need to clean myself up in my room! Here is the coin I owe you for tonight!” He said exasperated as he set the fifteen coins he owed the woman on the bar hoping that it would appease her.
Twenty to thirty minutes later thoroughly scrubbed, clothes washed and dried to the best of his ability still damp, Alan reentered the common area of the inn, Martha scrunched her nose at him and claimed he had dirtied the space tremendously with his walk through. Not able to see anything dirty, Alan promised to accept her task for the day to clean the space. Feeling much cleaner and still slightly embarrassed he meandered to the tailor’s shop, promising himself that tomorrow after he made some more coin he would have his original tunic and breeches cleaned by the launderer nearby. After claiming his clothes and returning to the Guild he accepted Martha’s task and went back to the inn to clean it once again.
—------
Alan continued going to the Adventurer’s Guild and picking one task at a time to fill his days so he would be able to fund his meals and stay at the Laughing Donkey. After his second day of cleaning the inn Martha informed him that if he was able to pay for a week all at once she would charge him only ninety copper for his stay and fifty for his two meals a day and she would allow him to pay at the end of his each week instead of every day like he had been doing.
Alan worked, at what felt like every shop and house in the small village over the following week, cleaning, from small spaces that the owner would rather pay someone to clean than clean themselves, to large spaces with owners overcome by their dirtiness hiring multiple adventurers to clean. The cleaning tasks he had accepted over the week increased his [Cleaning] skill to level three supplying a much appreciated if miniscule bump to his cleaning capabilities.
Delivering messages from crafters working together and from young lovers separated from seeing each other by their parents. Helping unload shipments from merchants to crafters containing the resources for their crafts, and he helped load and unload some of the trade that was either sent from the village out or to the village from elsewhere. He even had help to move an extremely heavy bed frame, owned by the mayor of Haltir, that had been molded together and strengthened by a mage that had the ability to control the wood, which Alan found fascinating. The bed was too unwieldy for a single person to lift no matter how strong so the mayor had hired an adventurer to assist a member of his staff moving it. During his week of work he made tremendous gains in his [General Skills] gaining the skill [Exercise - Level 1 - Common - Increases natural physical stat gain by 0.5% per skill level] from his physical exertion during the week, along with a single point in his strength stat. Accompanying the changes to his [Status] Alan had also earned himself a hefty bounty, three and a half silver, it seemed that working from dawn till dusk had its merits even though he was dead tired as the village bell announced that it was six hours after noon on Sunday. Sadly he handed over a huge portion of his monetary gains to Martha, one silver and forty copper, leaving him with what was around the monthly salary of most lower wage workers.
Status
Name : Alan
Age : 16
Race : Human
Level : 0
Class : N/A
Health : 60/60
Mana : 60/60
Health Regeneration : 2 Health / Hour
Mana Regeneration : 18 Mana / Hour
Strength : 8 (+1)
Dexterity : 5
Vitality : 6
Endurance : 8
Intelligence : 6
Wisdom : 9
Free points : 0
Class Skills : N/A
General Skills : 3 / 10
Cleaning Level 3
Organization Level 1
Exercise Level 1
Spells : N/A
With over two silver to his name and three days of meals and lodging paid for Alan wanted to explore, having been so intently focused on making money for the week he felt burnt out, sore in places he didn't know could get sore, and overall exceptionally fatigued Alan decided to take a day off. For the first time in almost two years Alan did not wake when the sun rose above the horizon, sleeping in until eight in the morning. It was blissful, so used to his routine Alan had briefly woke but closed his eyes and went back to sleep when he remembered that today was for relaxing. After he got out of bed the first thing he did was take a bath, he had yet to take a bath in the morning during his time in Haltir, opting to instead bathe in the evening after he was done working to ensure he wasn't getting his bed dirty and to help him relax after the grueling hours he had been working to complete tasks each day. After his bath he donned what he felt was his best looking outfit as it fit him slightly better than the other, one of the two he had purchased earlier in the week, which was a simple brown tunic and pants made from higher quality materials than the ones he had shown up in. Leaving his room and heading out the door of the Laughing Donkey he bade Martha goodbye and went to peruse some of the merchants and crafters wares whom he had worked for during the week, starting with Mr. Jacobs who was the owner of a general store.
“Hello Mr. Jacobs the store is still looking really good after the break-in, have the militia discovered the culprit?”
“Hello, yes it does look quite nice doesn't it? Thanks to your listening ability! And no, they have yet to catch the heathen who destroyed my wares. Thank you for asking though, boy.”
Alan pretty much knew what all of Mr. Jacobs shelves contained, considering he had placed or handled what felt like every object in the store, so he had a decent idea of where the item that drew his interest sat on its shelf. Going straight to the third row of shelves Alan found it, a coin pouch and belt, large and sturdy enough to hold all the coins he would need at any time, as carrying around anywhere close to one hundred coins in his pockets looked and felt absurd, the weight making his clothes sag and become uncomfortable. Purchasing the items for five copper each and transferring the copper he had brought for his trip into the pouch he instantly felt more comfortable with the security and weight of his coins. After making his purchase he thanked the old man and made his way to the injured blacksmiths shop, as when he had entered something had caught his eye and he wished to see how much the blacksmith wanted for the item.
The general store was near the south gate, on the long side of the oval shaped village, the blacksmiths shop was to the east side of the village where there was a smaller gate made for pedestrians to be able to enter and exit, and was where the smelly professions had been relegated to, the pair of blacksmiths, the tanners, and the apothecary. Walking through the streets he felt as if for the first time he could truly experience the village of Haltir and all it had to offer.
The buildings in Haltir were of much higher quality than the ones in his old town Warnen, the wood used to build them was made to fit together near perfectly and wouldn't allow virtually any wind to blow through them, their shutters and doors fit perfectly into the openings in the walls. Each and every building looked to be built in just the shape the builder had wanted corners square, and walls straight, seeing as he knew of these mages that used mana to work with objects, he assumed they worked on the buildings. Knowing that they had fused wood together like the bed of the mayor, and the Adventurer’s Guild building so it looked as if it was carved from a single block of stone as confirmed by Richard. The people in the village were mostly normal, after working with them all week long he noticed some different things, people moving at a pace much higher than on his old world. Healing much faster in the case of the blacksmith, who had been more or less completely uninjured by the time Alan had left his shop, and being much stronger, in the case of a delivery person asking him if his strength stat was at least twelve before not handing him a crate unloaded from a cart during one of his tasks and Alan attempting to pick it up afterwards and being utterly unable. Their clothing seemed to be of much higher quality as well, almost no one had clothing of any worse quality than the two sets he had purchased from the tailor, except for some children who had holes in the knees of their pants and patches on their elbows.
Not many were close to his height just as it had been before, even the tailor’s closest fitting clothing still left a few inches of his wrists and ankles exposed, thankfully the orphanage had provided boots to all of their children, even if their quality was suspect they had survived all of his ventures in his new village so far.
Arriving at the blacksmith’s shop Alan could hear the pounding of metal on metal, the clangs and clashes, entering the front part of the shop that he hadn't cleaned when he had been there last he began looking though all the items the blacksmith had in stock. From pots and pans, horseshoes and nails, to knives and swords the man had created a diverse set of products to stock his main room. The object he was looking for was still there, he had entered through the front of the building when he had come to clean the work area for the blacksmith, and as he had passed through the front he had seen it.
It was almost like a spear but instead of just a sharp point it had a blade on one side, and was blunt on the other side. Alan wasn't sure what the name of the weapon was, but it called to him, with a length roughly the same height as him, slightly taller even, and the blade composed nearly a quarter of that length, the metal was shaped with the blade curved out in a semi circle until it reached the tip. The back of the blade flared slightly away from the pole it was attached to in a straight line for approximately two thirds of the blade’s length where it then curved the same way as the front meeting it at the tip. To Alan it looked more practical than a simple sword as anything he was to fight could simply be kept at a distance while he stabbed or slashed at it. Alan, originally as he was going to join the militia in Warnen had planned to own a sword, but now that those plans had been thoroughly destroyed he wanted something new, something interesting. His decision has been made, the weapon he had no name for would be the one he purchased, no matter the cost, he would work until he could work no more for this weapon for he wanted it so badly. Staring intently at the weapon looking for any flaws his extremely untrained eye could see there were none, the smith had done an excellent job crafting the weapon, it was beautiful. A few seconds into his intense examination of the weapon he received a notification from the [System]. Which he accepted immediately so he could see what his weapon was called.
*Ding*
[General Skill Unlocked]
[Inspect - Uncommon - Level 1 : Allows for the identification of objects. The user can view up to (Skill Level + Personal Level) of another creature’s level.
[Accept General Skill?] [Yes/No]
As soon as he accepted the skill he used [Identify] on the weapon
[Glaive - Uncommon]
So it is called a glaive.
Alan tried the new word in his mind, walking to the counter of the shop there was a bell for customers to ring to alert the blacksmith. Ringing the bell the noise coming from the back of the shop was reduced to nothing and the now uninjured blacksmith came to the counter.
“Heyyo boy, you're the one who did a mighty fine job cleaning my shop, what can I do ya for?”
“Yes, hello, I was wondering what the price of your Glaive is?”
“Ah yes, that thing, not many people around here who use such a weapon, mostly swords and spears for the militia and adventurers who come through my shop. I learned about those when a traveler came through wielding one and I was lucky enough to do some repairs to it. Hmm, the price… I don't think I can accept less than three silver for the weapon.”
“Can you take two and a half silver and a promise that if I need it repaired in the near future I'll come to you as a paying customer?” Alan haggled
“Hmm, how about two silver and ninety copper, both the blade and shaft are reinforced by mages, that weapon was the one that pushed my blacksmithing level through its second threshold, I have a lot invested in that one.”
“Can we meet in the middle? Two silvers, sixty five copper?”
The man contemplated the offer.
“I suppose that will do, thank you for your business boy, all my weapons come with a sheath, however that one I had to have a harness made for, three buttons holding it tightly on your back, it will take a while to learn how to take the Glaive off of your back properly so I suggest you carry it around and practice in the meantime.”
Handing over the large pile of coins, Alan had yet to combine all his copper into silver, the man asked him why he hadn’t gone down to the adventures guild and combined it all into silver. Alan's lack of knowledge, once again showing, told him that he just hadn’t had the time to do it and made sure to remember next time so he wouldn't have to carry such a heavy amount of coin. After his purchase he went to the Adventurer’s Guild to hopefully receive some training with his new weapon.