Heading eastward, Alexandre expected to see many sights. To his dismay, he saw absolutely nothing for miles except for a cobblestone road that he guessed led somewhere and some trees. Nearly dehydrated, Alexandre rested at the stump of one of these trees.

The faint sound of horse hooves abruptly filled Alexandre’s ears and gave him hope. Waving his arms in a signaling pattern, he had hoped to grab the attention of whoever was there. As the sound got closer, Alexandre continued to wave his arms. A carriage was starting to appear into his view.

“Hey! Over here! Please!” Alexandre called out. As the carriage got closer, Alexandre realized it wasn’t slowing down and kept at its speed. “H-hey!” Alexandre called out again. The carriage went past Alexandre, it even sped up when passing him. Alexandre stood there for a while in disbelief.

Looking at the carriage move on, Alexandre got annoyed and his hopeful smile started to turn into a neutral face. Alexandre started to walk towards the carriage, then started to speed walk, and then, finally, ran towards it.

“You bastards! Get your asses back here! You don’t leave a person in need of help out in the open like this!” Alexandre yelled as he chased after the carriage. The carriage sped up, but so did Alexandre.

After an hour of continuous running out of pure determination and rage, the carriage and Alexandre reached the city walls of a decently large city. At least ten times the size of Ixurus. Panting, Alexandre finally slowed down.

[Gained 13 Endurance!]
[Gained 10 Agility!]

“W-who are you? No. What are you?” a voice asked. Looking up, he saw a young boy with dirty blonde hair at least in his teen years. Assuming him to be one of the passengers in the carriage he was chasing, Alexandre answered.

“First… tell me why you didn’t tell the driver to stop the damned carriage!”

“W-well that’s because we thought you were a crazy man. You waved at the Royal Carriage to give you a lift. You running straight at us for an hour straight didn’t help either.” the young boy answered.

“Huh? Royal Carriage?” Alexandre asked.

Suddenly, an older woman came out of the carriage followed by a slightly younger woman.

“You ran so fast! How can I get as fast as you?” the younger woman asked, filled with excitement.

“Uhh. I don’t know.” Alexandre claimed. “What city is this anyway?”

“You don’t know? This is the royal capital!” explained the young boy.

“Come on children, we needn’t talk to this man further. Get back in the carriage.” the older woman commanded. “I’m sure he’s already reached his destination anyways.” she smirked as she said this.

They all went back in the carriage and into the city. Alexandre was far too out of breath to continue running after the carriage as his adrenaline and rage ran completely out. Alexandre found that he didn’t even care anymore. Deciding to go into the city, Alexandre continued to walk on the cobblestone road into the city walls.

“Halt! We must check your status to make sure you are not of demonic descent.” a guard said, blocking Alexandre’s path.

“How are you going to do that?” Alexandre questioned.

“Checking for demonic wings or horns.” the guard responded.

After thorough examination, Alexandre was free to go through the city gates. Even though he felt slightly violated by the procedure, Alexandre knew this would be a good city this time.

This was, in fact, not true. As soon as Alexandre went inside the city, he was ganged up on by homeless people. The guards paid no attention to this at all.

"Give us your money!" one of the homeless screamed.

"Drop everything you have!" another yelled.

"Back away! I really don't want to hurt anyone unless it's necessary!" Alexandre exclaimed at the homeless. Drawing his sword, Alexandre was fully ready to prepare himself if need be. Suddenly, one of the homeless ran up to Alexandre - knife in hand - and tried to stab him. Alexandre proceedingly cut this man's fingers off. 

[Skill "Casual Sworduser" upgraded into skill "Beginner Sworduser"!]

Scared, the homeless backed off slowly and ran away. 

"Thank god they didn't attack me all at once afterwards." Alexandre sighed.

Walking through the streets after the incident, Alexandre became lost in the architecture and almost accidentally went into the red-light district. Thankfully, he started to pay more attention to signs and symbols and got out of there quickly. With some luck, Alexandre was able to find a map telling him where he could go. Dusk fell upon the world.

"Where to go... where to go... ah! A tavern!" Alexandre thought. Walking towards the general direction, Alexandre knew he was hungry and dehydrated. He hadn't paid attention to his headache until now. Sometimes, he wonders how that doctor in Ixurus City healed his hunger and thirst that easily. Finding the tavern, he opened the door.

"Welcome! Welcome!" the barkeeper exclaimed with joy. Walking up to the bar, Alexandre sat down. "What would you like to get today, sir?"

"What's on the menu first?" Alexandre asked

"Well, I recommend our steak and cabbage, are you sure you still want the menu?" 

"Yes, I still want the menu."

"Well, uhh, here you go." the barkeeper responded, seemingly nervous.

Looking closely at the menu, Alexandre was at first excited to finally get some food. Then, he looked closer and realized something - every single item was a variation of steak and cabbage.

"Steak and cabbage, beef tips and collards... what the hell?" Alexandre said to himself. Turning around he noticed that everyone had anything other than what was on the menu. They weren't even eating, just talking and putting the smallest bite of food in their mouth and dropping the rest on the floor. In the corner, he saw a group of people deep sleeping. These people were soon taken by a group claiming to be friends, but they went through the back door instead of the front.

Watching as they did so, Alexandre heard a scream which was quickly muffled from the back door. Alexandre was hit with realization. This was, without a doubt, a trafficking operation.