I woke up from my peaceful slumber to a loud knocking on my door. 

 

“Steven? Hey, Steven?” 

 

It was the sound of Catherine’s voice. I slowly sat up in bed, confused for a second, until I realized that I had overslept.

 

I quickly scrambled to the door, nearly falling on my face, and opened it as quickly as I could. 

 

“Sorry, Catherine! I didn’t realize I overslept; I’ll just get ready real qui–” 

 

Catherine sighed and put her finger to her lips, signaling for me to be silent. When she did this, I shut my fat mouth instantly. 

 

“Don’t worry, Steven, I’m not here for that. I’m here to tell you that there’s been a small change of plans. You’ve been wanting to see the capital for a while, isn’t that right? Well, it just so happens that I have business to attend there. Father wants you to come along,” 

 

She was right. Seeing the capital was something I was interested in, especially after all of the things that Catherine told me about it. It would be a well-deserved break away from the village, although I enjoyed it here quite a lot. 

 

“Yeah, that’s right. I’d love to go,” I agree, a smile creeping up on my face. 

 

“Alright, sounds good. We’re going to be leaving at our earliest convenience, since it’s a lengthy journey. Please get ready as soon as you can while I prepare the wagon,” 

 

I nod to her and head back into my room to make preparations. If it really was going to be a long journey, I had to make sure that I had all the supplies that I needed. 

 

This past month, I’ve really felt improvements to myself, both physically and mentally. The training with Catherine was difficult, but I had gotten used to it being part of my daily routine. I have done many different kinds of warm-ups and practice exercises, and I feel a lot stronger than I used to. It was only the beginning though, because even though I felt a little stronger, at the same time, I still felt like a complete weakling. 

 

My studying has also been going smoothly. I’m able to speak complete sentences in the Elven tongue now, and I’ve also gotten better at Orc and Dragon, although those are still pretty difficult to practice. I ended up extending my rental at the library for the five books, because I was going to need them for quite a while before I was ready to return them. I’ve especially been keeping my nose into the history book, and I continue to learn more and more things every day. 

 

One of the new sections that I have been studying is the economics section. Basically, it told how currency and trade worked in this world. Speaking of currency, I ended up getting a raise in my salary a week or so ago. Arthur noticed that I have been taking both my training with Catherine and my job seriously, so he felt that I deserved more. 

 

Instead of making twenty copper pieces per hour of work, I was now making five silver pieces per hour. I understand the currency system of this world now, and there were four types of pieces that people used to purchase goods: 

 

Copper: It was the most inexpensive of all of the pieces and had the least value. It was the most commonly used out of all of the pieces, though, particularly farmers and other lower-class workers, because they made up the majority. 

 

Silver: Silver pieces were the second cheapest of the pieces, having a lot more value than copper. Typically, those in the middle-class used silver, but they would also use copper as well. It all really depended. Artisans and shop owners typically fit this criterion. Essentially, fifty copper pieces was equal to one silver piece.

 

Gold: Gold was an expensive piece, much more valuable than both copper and silver. It was worth a lot, and typically harder to get your hands on. This was the currency that most of the highest-class of citizens used.  Fifty silver pieces was equal to one gold piece.

 

Platinum: The most valuable form of currency in the world. It was an extremely expensive and rare form of currency, and only the richest and most powerful people in the world had a bunch of it. The beings who possessed the most platinum pieces were nobles, aristocrats, and above all, the kings of each kingdom in the world.  Fifty gold pieces was equal to one platinum piece.

 

I haven’t spent too much of my money, only spending it when I felt it was absolutely necessary. I grabbed my satchel from the bedside and expected it thoroughly, making sure that I had everything that I needed for the trip. 

 

I probably didn’t need to pack too much, because Catherine was already busy loading things into the wagon. A couple of the notable things that I had in my possession now was a leather belt that I kept along my waist, along with a small, pointed dagger. 

 

Catherine told me that I needed to have a weapon in case I had to protect myself, and the smallest and cheapest thing that the village blacksmith had to offer was an iron dagger. It wasn’t the most durable, but it was lightweight, sharp, and would definitely come in handy. I kept it attached to my belt at all times. So far, I haven’t had the need to use it. The dagger cost twenty-five silver pieces, which I thought was a fair price compared to the other larger weapons, which was worth gold. 

 

The other things that I have been carrying around with me were potions. When I used to play Fantasy-RPG games, potions were by far one of the most useful items. The ones that I was most familiar with were health potions, which you could use for a variety of uses, for example, restoring your VIT stat whenever it was low and removing harmful debuffs, such as poison. The other potion that was the most helpful was the Stamina potion, which would keep your character’s stamina bar filled. In the games that I played, stamina was used to perform special attacks, and every time that your stamina got low, you had to use a potion on your character to refill it. Those were the two main ones, but there were many other potions that your character could brew by collecting various herbs and other ingredients around the game world. These potions would be used to increase one or more of your character’s in-game stats, but only for a temporary time. 

 

I basically lived off of those, though. My character was  a spellsword. I could cast a variety of powerful spells while also excelling in close combat with the various enemies I encountered in the game. I used to spend so much time away from questing and just filling up my inventory more and more with potions. They were so useful. Sometimes I miss playing those games, but it doesn’t really matter now, because I’m literally in a world that was just like the ones in the games I played.

 

But anyways, I made my first visit to the village apothecary a couple of weeks ago and bought my first potions, a mix of both Health and Stamina.  They weren’t very expensive either, only costing around ten pieces of silver for each one. I made sure to stock up on plenty, and I kept them in my satchel. 

 

The potions were kept in small glass bottles with corks, and they were of a thick liquid, similar to that of cough medicine in my world. The health potions were green in color, and it was helpful in many ways. It could be used as a medicine, but what it excelled the most in was healing injuries and removing poison, similar to that in the game I used to play. 

 

Stamina potions were what I like to call “mini energy drinks” except these ones were ten times as efficient. If you were ever tired, especially in crucial times such as combat, consuming a stamina potion would help you regain your energy over a short period of time. They were helpful during endurance exercises as well, and I’ve been using quite a bit of them during training. Honestly, if I didn’t use them, sometimes I doubt whether or not I would be able to make it through. 

 

In the end, the things that I had stored in my satchel were as follows: My one history book, my four language books, four health potions and four stamina potions, and two hundred silver pieces, which was equal to four gold pieces. 

 

After double-checking my items, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be, I headed into the bathroom and took off my baseball cap, and proceeded to wash my face and hair. It was refreshing. After doing so, I adjusted the sleeves of work overalls into a more comfortable fashion and headed out into the main room. 

 

I decided that it was a good idea to eat a little something before we took off on the journey to the capital. I definitely didn’t want to go hungry later on, so it was my chance. I grabbed a shiny green apple out of the fruit bowl on the counter, and I grabbed two more and slipped them into my satchel. They would be emergency food for later if I needed a quick snack later in the day. 

 

Nobody else was around, so I helped myself to the ale. I always had to have a mug of ale to start off my day. It helped me feel relaxed and refreshed. After I finished my drink, I made my way outside of the tavern, where I notice Catherine finishing up her packing. 

 

I walked over to her and noticed the different things that she had inside of the wagon. I noticed the two practice swords that we had been using. So, it was obvious to me that we’d still continue to train, despite being on a trip. I didn’t mind though, because I was used to doing it every single day. There were also a few large crates in the back, which I assumed were cases of food and drinks. 

 

I also noticed a couple of old sleeping rolls as well. Apparently, it meant that we were going to be camping outside at night. I haven’t been on a camping trip since I was a young boy, so it’s going to feel weird to get used to. 

 

I patiently stay in the background, waiting for Catherine to finish her preparations. Shortly after, she lets out a sigh and turns to me, clearly already sensing my presence. 

 

“Are you ready, Steven?” she asks me directly. 

 

“Yes, Catherine, I have everything that I need. Ready when you are,” 

 

Catherine smiles, but not as bright or as wide as usual. I don’t know why but, today she seems a little bit off. Not as chipper as she usually is. 

 

When the two of us are ready we hop onto the wagon, and Catherine grabs the reins. I’ve tried driving the wagon once or twice, but I usually end up getting anxious and relinquish the reins, giving them back to Catherine. She was a much better wagon driver than I was, anyways. She had a firm control over the two horses that pulled the vehicle. 

 

Catherine whistles lowly, and the two large, white-coated horses respond instantly, their hooves clopping across the cobblestone. Slowly, we make our way out of the village. I was super excited for two reasons: I was finally going to be able to see the capital city of the Human Kingdom like I had been hoping, and two, I’ll have more time to spend time with and bond with Catherine. I had really high hopes. 

 

This was just the beginning of our journey to the Human Kingdom’s Capital.