Chapter 13: ‘civilisation’

The first stop was to go to the village to see if there is anything left there and if there isn’t, see if there is anything that can point me to whatever city the soldiers came from. No sooner said than done, I arrived at the site of the battle and what I saw there did silence me for a moment since this was where I lived for a decent couple of years. Everything had been burned down. It has been years since it was burnt down, that much was clear but there were still blackened patches on the ground with broken clay. I didn’t see any corpses but that much was to be expected, they would’ve mostly rotten away by now or they would’ve been buried. With a less excited mood I looked around to see if I could find any place which could lead me to civilisation. While I could use some magic for this, I would prefer it if I didn’t have to. I seemed to have no luck however and needed to use magic ‘an arrow will point me towards the place that has sent soldiers to burn down this village’ an arrow appeared pointing me north, north-west and so I walked towards where the arrow pointed. I used such a long written cast to save on Mana since I would need to use some to be able to speak their language.

I continued my short journey and quickly came upon a road which I followed although I remained hidden in the bushes next to the road. Eventually the road split and to the left I could see a city in the distance so I went that way. I slowed my pace to do my very best to remain hidden. I couldn’t get too close since it was clear that they cut down part of the forest next to the city to prevent unseen attacks. I hid in the bushes and used some magic to enhance my eyesight so I could see what was happening at the gate. Nothing much was happening at that very moment so I waited for a while and after about a minute or two a caravan arrived. It was quite a big caravan with quite a lot of guards which led me to believe that the roads were unsafe. While it was possible that there was one single rich trader who hired the guards out of paranoia, the fact that they grouped up told otherwise.

They arrived near the main gate and I could see a couple of guards check their goods before letting them in. From what I could observe there were no checks for identification nor did there seem to be a toll. All that was left now was to get in myself. ‘I can speak and understand every language that guard over there is speaking’ I felt the Mana consolidate in my brain and it formed a small bead that stored the languages. If the magic were to run out, the bead would harmlessly disappear. The intense Mana usage is a bit of an issue but I had trained a lot the recent years and my Mana pool was quite big currently.

My clothes might be a bit of an issue since they are simple pelts and not really clothing but from what I could see the caravan also had a number of people dressed like me so it should be fine. I walked to the gate and one of the guards stopped me “Halt! What is your business here?” I responded “I wish to enter the city, I am trying to visit my family” I hoped there wasn’t some strict protocol that I didn’t know. The guard looked at me with a scrutinizing look for a moment and I did my best impression to seem like a young child. Luckily the guard seemed to buy it and ushered me in, not even checking my cart. “Go on in, you seem like a good kid” I thanked him and moved into the city. The architecture reminded me of ancient Egypt. It was mostly made out of sand stone but the city seemed to be quite large for such an old city, if I had to guess this city might be nearing 100.000 people.  The streets were bustling and what surprised me was the large amount of guards. Nearly everywhere I could see armed guards on the street, I wondered why? No matter, I needed to look for a shop that would buy the bones and hide. I had to avoid many a person and it didn’t help that I was dragging a cart but luckily there were a lot of shops. I picked out the most luxurious looking smiths shop and entered. “Good day dear custo-“ he looked up from the counter but his voice trailed off when he saw it was just a child that entered the shop. “How can I help you little boy? Are you perhaps lost?”  not wanting to be seen as a child that shouldn’t be taken seriously I quickly fixed my posture and took on an authoritative tone “Yes you can in fact help me, I have come to sell materials from a beast that I recently hunted and I think you will be interested in it, my cart is right outside, perhaps you could come with me to see for yourself?” the man looked befuddled for a moment before regaining his professionalism “Ah uhm yes of course, lead the way” I led him outside to my cart which still had all of the items I brought with me since it was right next to a guard. I showed the man the items and instantly he became a lot more analytical “Hmm the hide and bones of a Baragdar, are these of the same Monster?” I quickly answered him “Yes, they a-” but before I could even speak my full sentence he already continued “Excellent, excellent. The hide and bones are in good condition, I can give you a good price for these due to the rarity and strength of the specimen, does 100 gold pieces sound appropriate to you?” I had no idea how much it was but since this was a reputable shop as evident by its appearance, I could assume that it was a fair price so I accepted.

We finished our business and I could now try to find some supplies that I needed. The coins I had gotten had the head of some exquisite looking person whom I assumed was the ruler of this nation. He was wearing a turban and had a sharp gaze in his eyes. I looked at the coins for a moment before putting them back and continuing too look for a store that sold glass bottles. A bit of walking later I found a store that seemed to be selling glassware so I entered and looked around for a bit. The man behind the counter finished up with a customer that he was helping and walked up to me, seemingly not caring about my young age “Hello there young sir, how can I help you today? Anything in particular you are looking for?” I asked him whether or not they had any vials and he responded positively and took me towards the shelves that had glass vials. What surprised me was how he treated me almost with a form of reverence instead of with the usual demeanour a person has towards a child. I didn’t think much of it and bought 30 glass vials for 10 gold pieces. They also came in a nice engraved wooden box so I could carry them quite easily. I didn’t have much use for my cart currently but I still needed a cauldron although since it was getting late, I just went to find an inn. I found a rather high class one but was instantly thrown out “We don’t want you rabble here!” at first I wondered what made him think so but then I realised, I was walking around in glorified animal hides and looked like I had been living in the woods for 10 years. It wasn’t incorrect but still… I quickly fixed that by visiting some shops to buy clothes and get my hair fixed. A thing I noticed was that shops didn’t seem to close early, probably because this made more profit.

I went to a different inn that was also high class and ordered some food. It was served to me by a middle aged woman who if I had to guess was the wife of the owner. “Here you go sweetie, make sure to eat enough, you need good food to grow after all.” I thanked her and smelled the food for a moment, it smelled delicious. It was a pork roast served with a type of vegetable that I wasn’t familiar with but it looked tasty. If I had to compare, it looked a bit like an orange lettuce. I took a small bite and the flavours were so good, I didn’t even realise I missed proper food like this. So far my trip has been quite a success although I still required a cauldron, preferably two so I had one I could experiment on.

I retired to my room and it was quite a neat and tidy room. It was made of sand stone just like the rest of the building and the bed seemed to be made of some kind of feather with an animal hide drawn over it. Plopping myself down on it, I went to sleep.