Eugene slept like a log. The room they rented had all four of them together, but at this point it saved them money. One room cost 300 gold coins, and they altogether possessed over 6000 gold pieces. There was no point in spending extra money for rooms for the male and females. He awoke with the sun, despite only having a few hours of sleep, and felt revitalized.

Alex awoke before him, attending to his equipment and cleaning the string on his bow. “You up?”

“Yeah. How long?” Eugene inquired the time which Alex immediately understood his context. The constant hours gaming between each other remained evident even when they hung out in real life.

“About three hours. Girls are still out cold.”

Eugene looked over to the curled up ball of Cassidy wrapped in her blanket, and then over to Magnolia who clenched her pillow to her body. She laid on her side, her back facing the entry of the room. He stretched his arms up over his head, feeling the crisp cool air touch his scaled skin. His clothes had been in tatters after the fights, so he threw them away and called it a night. The only thing that he deemed necessary to keep were the pants and underwear.

“Suppose I should go clothes shopping.” He mumbled and Alex chuckled. Unlike the dragonborne with onyx eyes, the elf ranger escaped with his clothes intact. Cassidy’s clothes had some rips, but nothing that crazy to merit them in getting thrown away.

“I’ll keep watch if you want to go. You can borrow my mantle by the door to cover up.” Alex suggested, and Eugene nodded.

“I’m taking the funds with me. I won’t use more than 1000 gold.”

“Do what you need to do.” Alex commented and waved him goodbye. “I’ll hold the fort.”

The trip to the clothing store wasn’t terrible. He found some decent shirts with an additional defense stat boost worth less than 500 gold. When he looked at his pants, he figured they would be fine and went to make his purchase. He brought the shirt up to the front clerk who smiled at him.

“Welcome, what can I get for you?”

“This shirt.”

“That’ll be 450 gold.”

Eugene procured the pieces of gold and gave it to the lady. She counted the coins happily and then offered him a spare room. “If you’d like to change your clothes in the back, you’re more than welcome.”

The onyx-eyed male nodded his thanks. He entered the space and started to put on the shirt. There were no tags to take off, so he just had to put it on. When he was finished, he picked up the dropped mantle, and repositioned it back onto his shoulders.

The shop bell jingled, indicating another person had come into the shop. The woman up front said: “Welcome, what can I get for you?” and effectively stopped when the other voice interrupted her.

“Poison resistance armor?”

Eugene could hear the shop owner quibble through her voice. “Uh—n-no sir I don’t have those goods here. Maybe in the next village over?”

Nothing more was spoken before the chime of the door and then silence. Eugene opened the back curtain to see the shop clerk shaking in fear. “Are you alright?”

The shop clerk stopped her quaking when she was reminded of her previous customer. He could see she tried to force a smile back. “Y-yes, how does the shirt fit? Too tight, not too loose?”

“It’s good.” Eugene agreed that it fit fine, before directing the conversation over to the mysterious stranger. “Who was that person?”

The woman waved off his concern. “Oh—nothing, it was just another adventurer, like yourselves… ah but you’re not like him at all. He—he has some business with Vormud. Should be concluded in two more days or so.” The shop clerk merely smiled as if everything would solve itself. “Don’t mind me, just a bit tired. Enjoy your day sir!”

Eugene quirked an eye, but the shop keeper did not seem inclined to get into it further. Still, it didn’t sit right with him. And it involved Vormud of all people. Something did not sit right with him, actually nothing about the situation seemed right.

Where were the other groups in their beta testing group? Why hadn’t they crossed them yet. And also, why were the NPC’s acting the way they were. He brushed off Mags earlier about it, but this rubbed him the wrong way.

“Right—have a good day.” He remarked and left the shop. He ooked up and down the main street to see if that stranger was nearby still, but only he was present in town. “Strange.”

It was then that he remembered about all those side quests Cassidy and Alex picked up. “Might as well do those quests while everyone’s still sleeping.”