Chapter 14: an exploration trip in the city

Once I woke up the following day I ordered breakfast in my room which was quickly brought by a maid working here. The breakfast itself was pretty good, eggs, some sort of meat and all that served on top of some form of bread. It was nutritious and tasted good which made me glad that I chose this inn to stay at. I said goodbye to the person behind the bar and left. I still had to buy my cauldrons so that was next. The issue with this was that I needed metal ones which would be quite expensive although I should be able to pay for it. The main issue however was where to find them? Cauldrons are used to mass produce food but that’s not done by your average citizen. I could look for a more business oriented smith but I’d imagine that those are within the inner wall which seemed to have better guards and stricter control of who enters. I could see if I could find some government office to gain entrance to the inner city but I’d prefer not being noted down anywhere. I’d have to scour the city to see if I could find something and maybe even enter the slums although I would prefer to not go there.

I went to and from smithy shop but couldn’t find any cauldron. Most of the people I spoke to looked at me weirdly, likely due to my clothes and request, both something you’d see within the inner walls and not the outer walls. I walked along and saw an interesting little store: ‘Albert’s Antiques’ deciding that it was worth a try I entered and looked around. The store itself was a quaint little store with a lot of variation in its items. I saw some books, a lot of furniture and in the corner I saw what I was looking for. Cauldrons. They looked to be in good condition and were made of metal so they would be perfect for my alchemical studies. I looked around the shop a bit more but couldn’t find anything interesting so I just went up to the counter and placed the two cauldrons on top of it. The man behind it was an old man with a kind smile on his face. “How much will the two of these be?” I asked the old man. His eyes twinkled for a moment before responding “30 gold will be enough young master.” I knew he was ripping me off but quite frankly, I didn’t care. Money was nice but I lived in the woods so I really didn’t need it. Having a bit of gold (because yes they were made of real gold, I checked) for experiments could be useful but not a necessity and the amount I would have left would be plenty. I handed over the gold and the man had a bright smile on his face. He thanked me and I left with the cauldrons. I placed them on top of my cart since they were heavy and I decided to explore the city just a little bit. It was quite the beautiful city and behind the inner walls I could see a gigantic, pyramid formed, building looming over everything. I assumed it was some form of palace for the king of this nation but I wasn’t sure, I didn’t even know how this country was ruled after all. I assumed it was some form of monarchy since that was what most countries in this time period on Earth were but I could never be fully certain.

Exploring the city further I found the slums but gave them a wide berth, no need to invite trouble after all. I did walk quite close to it however and what I see was something that I expected to see but still hated and it was the sight of countless beggars living in their own squalor. The living conditions were quite simply rancid but there was very little I could do and these were just some of the side alleys, I didn’t want to know how it was within the actual slums. I walked by them a bit quicker since while their situation was sad, I knew that these weren’t morally perfect people.

I passed by one alley in which I saw a man on the ground, profusely bleeding from something that appeared to be a stab to the chest. I wanted to keep moving and hope that someone else would help but I knew no one would so I myself stepped in. I quickly scanned around me and didn’t see anything that could be an immediate threat so I moved quickly and got one of the bottles of the purple potion. The man appeared unconscious so I quickly moved up to him and fed him the potion. The wound on his chest quickly started to heal and I started to leave again, not wanting to be seen administering something that could very well be seen as witchcraft and land me on the stake. Man doesn’t like what it doesn’t understand after all. At this time I didn’t realise that this action had greater consequences than I could have foreseen.

After my business exploring the city was done I left the city with the cauldrons on my little cart. The journey back was mostly uneventful but once I got close to the clearing where my house was I noticed some big footprints so a new big predator might have moved in, it would provide excellent research material. I put the cauldrons away and put the purple potion that I dubbed ‘health potion’ for now in some of the glass vials that I had bought. This should keep them from being contaminated by being improperly kept so that was good. The potion itself seemed to work very well even on dying people so I was glad I had it and could make more, never know when it could come in handy. The one issue that I would face was the fact that I didn’t know its exact limits but I hoped I would never find out. The cauldrons should facilitate me making even better potions though, especially after I add some runes. Since water was probably going to be an important part of every potion, I was going to make full use of my apparent talent with water magic. Having everything done for the day, I decided to go to sleep.