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Yes Votes: 20 100.0%
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No Votes: 0 0.0%
Five days after the ambush along the road, our caravan reached the town of Jericho. The town stood near the large Skamander river where the first major battle of the war against Ahriman took place around a year and a half ago.
Since Jericho had escaped much of the war’s devastation, it is now a hub for business. More importantly, the Iasor Labor Bureau had set up a major operation center in this city so jobs were easy to find.
Most freelancers ,like me, find employers through middlemen such as the Labor Bureau. These organizations are quite similar to the ancient adventurers guild, which came into existence during the age of colonization around five thousand years ago. It was in this era that humans were recovering lost land while the three newly awakened races sought to expand their territory. Because the wilds were infested with monsters, pioneers often hired guards to protect them and scout out new land. These guards became known as adventurers and monster hunting has been attributed with the name ever since.
Nowadays, most of the world has been mapped out and monsters are far less common than before. So the adventurer guilds had been transformed into labor guilds that connect people to skilled and unskilled workers. More importantly, government restriction of these businesses occurred following numerous incidents of labor guilds manipulating monster activity to increase business.
It took a few hours for the merchant to sell enough of his wares to repay me. I was given a payment of 12 denarii for serving as a guard. In addition, the loot I got from the bandits and the prisoner I turned into the guards netted me 65 denarii. Since I had spent 8 denarii for quality camping equipment, I currently have 161 denarii. For the sake of convenience, I converted 120 denarii into 10 solidi and 1 denarii into 20 nummi.
The currency I'm using is that of the Iasor empire, which holds a strong purchasing power in the eastern part of the world. Foremost among Iasor currency is the solidus, a high purity medium sized gold coin. The more standard denarius, which is 1/12 of a solidus' value, is a high purity medium sized silver coin. Meanwhile, the nummus, which is 1/20 of a denarius, is a small silver coin with slightly lower purity than the denarius.
Compared to other mercenaries, I’m definitely on the wealthier side. If my equipment is factored in, I’m top class. The equipment I got from Emperor Alexios consisted of a mail hauberk and lamellar cuirass both of which were made of mythril, riding boots with steel shin guards, a high quality gambeson, and an open faced mythril helmet with cheek guards, a neck guard and a black plume. Apart from the armor, I have a well bred courser, a packhorse, an arming sword, a dagger, a composite bow with quiver and sheath, and the divine arm that was part of my hero’s pension from the gods. A very rough estimate of the cost of my equipment would be around 28 solidi, not considering the divine arm. Simply put, I’m an ideal target for thieves.
This pretty much forces me to stay at an expensive inn in the nice part of the city. It’s virtually impossible for me to go around with my luggage all the time. Therefore, it would be more comfortable and safer to leave most of my stuff in my room.
In addition, my retirement pension I got from the benevolent gods for doing the hero’s quest might even be better than what I wormed out of Alexios. I got to keep a portion of the enhanced physical abilities I had as a hero as well as a toned down version of the divine arms given to heroes.
Since I’m the hero of the spear, naturally my divine weapon would be a polearm. It seems any long stick with a sharp point qualifies as a spear to the gods. It comes complete with the ability to change forms after a ten minute wait and I can adjust the material composition of the weapon. I already have quite a few forms registered to use as well as the option of using plenty of hardwoods along with iron and steel for the killing part. The current form is a versatile steel glaive with a dangling white tassel and oak shaft.
After taking inventory to make sure everything was in order, I headed towards the northeastern part of the city. This part of the city lay beside the Skamander river, which flows from north to south of the city. Up here the water is the cleanest, while the water got progressively dirtier as one went south. This made it the prime location for the wealthy.
Compared to the earthen roads with only a gravel surface, the roads in this area were made of cobblestone. Likewise, many houses were built from stone with timber frames, mostly hardwoods such as ash and oak. Their roofs were constructed from colorful baked clay tiles and the denizens were wearing jewelry and expensive clothes.
I found a suitable inn that was near the river. It was a wide three story building constructed in a fashion similar to the other buildings. It was accompanied by a large stable that could fit a few dozen horses, as well as a patio next to the river. When I entered I was greeted by a young brown haired man.
“Welcome to the Silverstream Inn, would you like a room?” the man said as he bowed.
“How much would it cost for one room and stable spots for two horses?” I asked.
“If we include meals, that would be 18 nummi a night.”
“Are there any restrictions on meals? I eat a lot.”
The unfortunate downside of the physical boost is that I have a bigger appetite. The problem even gets exacerbated if I put myself under enough physical strain.
“Well there is a time limit for when you can order food,” he informed me. “We also don’t provide alcohol with meals, you’ll have to purchase it as a side.”
“What a shame,” I sighed.
Compared to other places this inn is quite pricey. Normally a cheap inn would cost around 6 nummi and a decent one around 12 nummi. This is with meals and the stable factored in too.
“How good is security at this inn?” I asked. “I have some expensive cargo that I’m loath to part with.”
The man put on a confident look, most likely an attempt to get into my coin purse. "Don't worry, you won’t find a safer inn anywhere else in this city.”
Most innkeepers I’ve met say this, even if it’s a blatant lie, but this place does cater to nobles. Some of the guests here might even have more valuable luggage than me. So my chances of losing equipment are pretty slim. I just need to hide my things under the bed and lock the door.
After buying a room for a week, I led my horses into the stable and carried my luggage into my room. The room was on the second floor and roughly ten square meters in size. A queen size bed stood by the window. The sheets were clean and smelled as though they are regularly washed and sundried. I could have paid more for a larger room with a private restroom, but I didn’t think an extra denarius a night was worth it.
It was around three hours after noon when I finished unpacking and settling down. I decided against going to the Labor Bureau today, thinking it would be better to spend time exploring the city and gathering information.
This pretty forces me to stay at an expensive in the nice part of the city
This pretty much forces me to stay at an expensive inn on the nice part of the city
Really appreciate your help. Sometimes my eyes just don't catch these mistakes, even after multiple re-reads.
if the world doesn´t have problems with monsters what kind of job he can do? and he is reincarnated hero or a natural born hero?
A couple of things in this one.
The equipment I got from Emperor Alexios consisted of a mail hauberk and lamellar cuirass both of which were made of mythril, riding boots with steel shin guards, a high quality gambeson, and an open faced mythril helmet with cheek guards, a neck guard and a black plume.
What the f*ck kind of set is this? I think you meant he is wearing an arming doublet not gambeson, (hauberk or lamellar armor you can't wear both), greaves not shin guards, gorget and not a neck guard, and finally some bracers and a tasset that you didn't mention. Shouldn't all the metal be mythril, adamantium, or something fantasy like that. Also parts of lamellar is going to be some type of leather and that means you need to come up with where that skin or hide came from. The arming doublet would be made of some textile material. You need to come up with what that is too. Maybe the leather on the grips of his weapons are made of different leathers as well? The wood of his bow, where did it fine from and what kind of tree? These are massive details you f*cked up here.
Compared to the earthen roads with only a gravel surface, the roads in this area were made of stone bricks. Likewise, many houses were built from stone with timber frames. Their roofs were well maintained and the denizens were wearing jewelry and expensive clothes.
Cobled stone* not bricks. What type of stone for these affluent houses? Is it marble or granite? What does the stone look like? How about the timber? What kind of wood? Is it a fantasy wood like ironbark? What about the tiles on the roofs? Are they Roman style? Some red ceramic tiles? Or perhaps you went with something else?
This is me not unkindly trying to show you the holes in just this chapter in terms of world building and character development.
Oh and I forgot to mention this, but two silver isn't as much as you think. There's ancient graffiti in Pompeii about prostitutes just costing two silver and the man being very satisfied. Silver was the most common currency.
A few things to note. I completely f*cked over the economic system here, which you will notice if you have a keen eye. Like it will cause you pain if you pay serious attention to it.
Next, gambesons can be worn under armor just like an arming doublet. However, gambesons are generally thicker than the doublets, at least to my knowledge. The armor set most resembles that of a late roman empire bucellarii. Thus there is no gorget or neck protection, just an open faced helm better suited to archery. As for a hauberk and lamellar, it is possible to wear a breastplate of lamellar over a mail hauberk though it is admittedly quite heavy. There are no specialized bracers or tassets, the hauberk is long enough to cover those areas. As for the leather, it isn't mentioned because it isn't special, just regular cow hide. The shin plates are explicitly not greaves because it is just a pair of boots with pieces of steel on the front shin. Apart from the mythril bits, everything is made of normal materials much akin to our world.
Thanks for the cobled stone part though. I completely forgot that stone bricks aren't a feasible construction material. The stone is mostly limestone and granite, which I'll mention later on. As for the wood, it's just generic hardwood like oak and ash. The roof tiles are made of baked colored clay.
I'll make sure to include all these descriptions in the chapter once I quit being a lazy bum.
@longer
I'm not sure about some of that, doesn't matter I guess, only a history nerd would notice, but greaves and sabaton are two different things for sure. Greaves are shin guards only. 😉
@Ouroboros You seem to be the superior history buff from our conversations. Sabatons are full blow metal legs from what I remember. And greaves cover the shin and sometimes the knee cap and parts of the calf. The reason I went with shin guard is to hammer in how there is just a metal plate strapped to a leather boot. Whether those are classified as greaves or not, I honestly don't know.
Very interesting start. I’m keen to see where it goes from here.
Will the other hero’s pop up on his adventure? Or are they all doing their own thing and this is just solo for him?
I'm still not sure on the exact details, but the other heroes will probably show up but not as major characters.
@longer I mean based on next chapter it would just be the main hero and his wives and I doubt that would be fun for Mc. Especially with how bad he felt about his actions. Plus got not one girl to be interested in him, it's his actions that caused that but still wouldn't feel nice.
Who knows you might have something crazy planned for it.
I just looked at the tags again, the non human relationship does that apply to Mc or the other hero? I'd love for him to end up with a fantasy characters as some of his partners. Cause I can see it includes orcs and elves.