Tower Story -- Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The gate guards gave Bax a look as he passed through, but again, they didn’t stop him.  He halfway expected to be picked up again by more town guards when he entered, but thankfully there was no one waiting for him just past the walls, so he was free to explore in peace.  Or in as much peace as he could get, as his state of undress was still an attraction as he walked through a wide street that he could see also led toward the Adventurer’s Guild building in the center.

It really is one of the main focal points here, isn’t it?

He passed what appeared to be many residents as he made his way toward the Guild building, as well as some more stores that seemed to cater to the residents of the town rather than Adventurers, but the large structure in the center of town wasn’t his destination quite yet.  Instead, he turned before he got to it, making his way through a side street that led right to the main thoroughfare that he’d first seen.  It took him only a few minutes to walk the length of the large street, eventually arriving at the area where the temporary stalls were set up.  Theoretically, he could’ve walked into any of the other stores along the way, but he felt entirely too underdressed for them; they might or might not have a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policy, but he didn’t feel like enduring the stares of shopkeepers at the moment.  What he needed was fairly simple clothing, after all, and so he made his way to the stall he’d seen earlier when he first arrived.

The Human man behind it looked at him with disinterest, as if not expecting him to come talk to him.  A quick Identification told him that the man’s name was Burl and was Level 5; he hoped that meant that he had a Class that could use Conversion. 

“Hello, Burl!  I was hoping that I could purchase some clothing from you,” Bax said as he walked up.  He gestured to his body before saying, “As you can see, I’m desperately in need of something to cover myself up.”

Leaning forward with at least a little more visible interest on his face, Burl nodded.  “I can see that.  You have Magems?”

“Actually, that’s something I need a little help with—"

Burl held up his hand with a disgusted look on his face.  “I don’t deal in charity here.  I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“No, wait, I have something that I’d either like to trade or have Converted, if you can do that?  I just don’t have any Magems at the moment, which was what I meant about needing help,” Bax explained.

Fortunately, Burl’s face lost its disgusted expression, though now it was tinged with visible disbelief.  “What exactly do you have?”

That was a good question.  Bax hadn’t actually looked at what he’d received from the Bugeels that he’d killed in the river, so he figured he might as well peer inside of his internal inventory space and look now.

Bugeel Carapace

Uses: Material used for creating highly durable armor plating

Value: Unknown

Flexible Bugeel Blubber

Uses: Material used for enhancing physical force absorption in armor

Value: Unknown

Ah, I should’ve figured it would be something like this.

In all, Bax had a dozen of the Bugeel Carapaces and two dozen of the Blubber, which he thought would be more than enough to get himself some clothes – and a bit extra.  However, he also didn’t know the local market conditions, so “trade” might not be the right choice for a transaction; it could be that the market – being positioned right next to the river – might be flooded with this type of material, so they wouldn’t be worth as much by themselves.  If that was the case, it would simply be better to use Conversion on it to turn it into Magems.

Pulling out one of the Flexible Bugeel Blubbers, he handed it to Burl, who’d eyes widened so much that he half-expected them to pop out of the man’s head.  However, the clothing seller quickly schooled his expression to one of curiosity as he looked at the surprisingly dry and springy hunk of blubber in his hand, which Bax thought looked like a hunk of transparent blue gel approximately the size of a loaf of bread. 

“This is… this is from a Bugeel!” Burl exclaimed after he likely used Identification on it.  “How did you get something like this?” the clothing seller suddenly asked him suspiciously.  “Did you steal it?”

Bax immediately shook his head, even as he scrambled to come up with a plausible answer.  For some reason, he hadn’t even considered that his having something from a Bugeel, which was typically found in much higher Levels than his own apparent Level, would be a cause for suspicion.  All of that learning in the Archives, and yet none of it covered much of what I’ve encountered since I’ve gotten here. 

“No, I didn’t steal anything,” he said after a few seconds of thought.  “It was just something I picked up on my way to town.”

That answer didn’t seem to satisfy him.  “And I’m just supposed to believe you found this somewhere?  What, did it wash up on shore or something?”

“Something like that,” Bax responded.  He didn’t outright lie, as he’d technically found it at the bottom of the river; he just didn’t explain that they had appeared after he’d killed a bunch of monsters.  “If you don’t want it, or even to use Conversion and take a fee for the service, then I’ll take it somewhere else,” he added, holding out his hand for the Blubber. 

“Oh, it’s not a matter if I want it or not; it’s a matter of whether or not you stole this from someone.  I can’t be caught dealing with stolen goods, after all, so I fear that we’re going to have to determine on whether you’re telling the truth or not.”

Great, not this crap again.

Unfortunately, Burl had already signaled to someone over Bax’s shoulder, and the next moment a Fae town guard that he’d seen earlier stationed near the entrance of the temporary marketplace fluttered over, looking the near-naked Human over with the same sort of suspicion and derision that he was finding to be quite commonplace.  I can’t wait until I can actually clothe myself and hopefully reduce that sort of thing significantly.  Not much I can do about my visible Level, but not being essentially naked will probably go a long way towards being seen as more reputable.

“What’s the issue, Burl?” the male Fae asked, looking at the clothing seller.

Burl held out the Blubber toward the guard, who took it, as he said, “I just want to ensure that this wasn’t stolen from someone—”

“Surprisingly, it wasn’t.”  The guard handed it back, as he explained.  “My Evidence Investigation Ability says that it’s clean.  Anything else?”

Burl appeared shocked at that revelation even as he shook his head.  “No; thank you—" he began to say, but the guard was already flying back to where he’d been stationed near the entrance of the temporary marketplace.

Thankful for the surprisingly easy confrontation with the guard, Bax smiled at the clothing seller.  “So, what do you think?  Would this be better used as a trade item, or should it be Converted into Magems first?” he asked, though he could already tell which way the man was going to go just by the way he’d reacted when he saw it.

The greed on the man’s face only reinforced his original assumption.  “Oh, I think I can take this as a trade, if that’s acceptable?”  At Bax’s nod, the negotiation began.

A little over 10 minutes later, Bax was wearing a simple linen shirt and pants, some softer underwear and socks, along with some basic leather boots that were just slightly too small for him – but he was pretty sure they would stretch a little if given enough time and use.  He also had two full sets of extra clothing in his internal inventory space, which he thought was good to have, given that he tended to mess his clothing up quite a bit.

In the end, he knew that he’d been royally screwed over based on how much he suspected the Blubber was worth, but he really didn’t care.  Especially since he was planning on speaking to some other shopkeepers in just a little bit, where he was planning on trading some more Blubber and potentially some of the Carapaces; if the clothing seller had been planning on making a killing by selling it to an armor crafter or someone else, then he would find that he market had been saturated by such items already.  He didn’t deliberately want to screw the man over, but he also didn’t appreciate being accused of stealing something, nor did he like the way he’d been unjustifiably judged based on his half-naked state.  Granted, he probably would’ve judged someone half-naked if they’d come into a store he ran back on Earth, but he thought that this current world would’ve been at least a little more lenient.

Fully clothed and not standing out as much, other than when someone looked at his low Level, he started visiting the permanent shops and had a much more pleasant experience with them.  Most of them were Human, though there were a few Gnomes, Dwarves, Elves, and even a Vaneshta, and while not all of them were necessarily “polite,” he didn’t have any guards called on him to confirm that his good weren’t stolen. 

Approximately an hour later, he’d traded or Converted all of the Carapaces and Blubber that he’d had in his inventory, even though he had originally only intended to sell some of them.  The value he got for them was, as he expected, much more than he got from the clothing seller, but he also concluded that he probably wouldn’t have received that much if he hadn’t been clothed properly in the first place.  So, in the end, while he’d been taken advantage of by Burl, it had been a necessary loss in order to come out ahead on his other transactions.

Now, in addition to his extra clothing, he now had the monetary equivalent of 12,363 Magems in his internal inventory.  By glancing at some of the prices of normal supplies in one of the shops, he mentally equated each of his Magems to be the equivalent of approximately a dollar back in the US on Earth – before his home had been essentially destroyed by the System when it introduced monsters into what was likely an apocalyptic event.  Therefore, his 12,000-plus Magems were about equal to $12,000-plus dollars; it wasn’t a huge amount, but it was more than enough to finance him for a short while, at least.

After he finished with the shops, he eyed the Adventurer’s Guild and thought about going there, but the darkness of night was already spreading across the sky, so he figured it would be better if he did anything with the Guild – or really, anything related to his overall plans – in the morning.  His exploration of the marketplace had revealed a tavern or an Inn of sorts near the dock entrance, as it was meant for traveling merchants on the river, so he made his way there to find somewhere to eat and spend the night.  The hunger had gradually increased over the day, as while it had been satiated somewhat while he’d been held by the guards before, he was now starving enough to want to eat a meal that would be enough for 10 people.

The Lazy Shipman was the tavern-slash-Inn near the docks, and while he somewhat expected it to be filled with drunken sailors and raucous fights in a dark and seedy atmosphere, it was actually a fairly nice, clean establishment with ample magical lighting and no sign of anyone getting drunk or starting fights.  In fact, when he walked in, there were only about a dozen people sitting relatively quietly around some well-crafted circular wooden tables, with half of them being Human, while the rest were a mixture of races – though the Humans and the other races didn’t really mix together.  A few looked up when he came in, but no one seemed particularly interested in him.

“What will it be?” a young Human woman by the name of Adrelle asked as soon as he sat himself down at an empty table.

Smiling up at her, as it felt good to finally be sitting down somewhere that was at least somewhat familiar to a few of the restaurants he’d been to back on Earth, he said, “I’ll take whatever you have on the menu today.  Actually, I’ll take three helpings of whatever you have on the menu – I’m practically starving tonight.”  That’s not far from the truth.  “Also, do you have any rooms available to rent for the night?”

Adrelle looked at him with incredulity in her eyes, but she still nodded.  “We do.  The room will cost you 40 Magems for the night, and it comes with one meal tonight, as well as a meal in the morning.  If you’re serious about three meals tonight, the extra two meals will cost you 5 Magems each.”  She said it all with the air of someone who wasn’t sure if he’d be able to pay or not, but giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Bax immediately pulled out 50 Magems from his inventory and placed them on the table; he figured he might as well pre-pay to assuage her doubt.  If she was surprised, she didn’t say anything as she smiled back at him, picked up the Magems – which disappeared into her own internal inventory, most likely – and then headed toward the bar to talk to someone behind the counter.  She then went into the back, where he could smell food cooking, and his stomach rumbled in response.

A trio bowls of thick, hearty fish stew and 3 loaves of bread accompanied 3 mugs of what appeared to be foamy ale, all delivered with a room key minutes later.  He barely had a chance to thank Adrelle for it all before he was quickly stuffing his face with the food, which—while not exactly the best he’d ever tasted—it was still divinely satisfying for his empty stomach.  He also drank all of the watery ale without even tasting it, as it was a poor substitute for the beer he’d had back on Earth, but it was still better than nothing.  Soon enough, he’d eaten everything that had been brought to him, and while he thought he could’ve put down another entire meal or two, he was satisfied enough with what he’d consumed that it would tie him over for a while.

He looked up to see the amused or disgusted expressions on some of the other patrons of the tavern, as he realized he’d just eaten like a glutton in front of an audience.  Yet, he didn’t really care, because it felt amazing to finally be relatively full after being kicked out of the Co-op.  Leaving a 5-Magem tip on the table for his server, Adrelle, he made his way to the back stairs where she’d told him his room was located.

No more than a minute later, he found his designated room, inserted the key into the lock, and then found himself looking at a fairly barebones hotel room with a bed, a side table, and—thankfully—a toilet in a separate space.  There was no bath or shower, so he figured that there was either a separate space for that in the Inn for that, or there might even be public bathhouses, for all he knew. 

Regardless of the lack of bath or a shower, he didn’t even bother to take his clothes off before he collapsed into the bed, finding himself extremely tired for once.  His Endurance was usually high enough to stave off sleep for long periods of time, but he concluded that his long stint in the final Floor of the Keepers’ Tower, the Stasis he’d been put in for thousands of years, followed by his transition to a brand-new world had coalesced into a his body really needing some sleep to recover from it all.

It only took him a few seconds to fall into a relatively dreamless slumber.