When Zach had written his fanfiction, travelling was always easy, or if it wasn’t easy at least it was fun. Plot hooks like stumbling onto a den of thieves or being ambushed were staples of any good story and there was a reason why they were pretty much constant, because no one wanted to hear how hiking through a forest and eventually on a path to a road was exhausting and boring.

So as Zach, Alexa and Andy stood in a line waiting to go into the dungeon town, Alexa placed her hands on the small of her back and stretched. Looking over at Zach, she smiled, and said. “It will be nice to sleep in a bed again.” Laughing, Zach thought he couldn’t agree more, for the past three weeks they had been travelling from their small hamlet to a couple of villages and finally on this road. Most of the villages had a tavern, but it was mainly for the locals to drink at and not really setup for guests or adventurers as the village didn’t want or need them. So instead they negotiated with farmers to use their barns, and were left sleeping with the musky smell of animals and manure while staying dry and warm on a pile of hay.

“Personally, I am looking forward to a bath and some washed clothes. I feel like my entire body is caked in an inch-thick layer of dirt and grime.” Zach said, as he looked down at his muddy trousers and blackened hands. Zach had never realized how scarce water was when following a path or road. From Schoner’s Creek to Willsden, it had been a narrow dirt path through the woods with no break in the underbrush until their first stop. The campsite was nothing more than a small glade that had been created by the dead fall of a giant tree.

The next day, they finally crossed slow moving stream, and since Zach had the Clean water spell, he filled up his water skins and used the spell to remove everything that wasn’t sweet water. The third day started with rain that lasted for close to four days. Finally coming out of the forest, they found the small village of Willsden, and spent a day in the village to trade some of their rabbit hides and extra crops for little bit of money before moving on. During their time their, Andy had told Zach not to expect much in trade as they headed to the Bellmare, the dungeon town. After all, most of their trade goods were food stores that they could give up. The hare hides and alchemy components would be sold in town as they had the classes to process the items reasonably quickly. No the stop was to talked with farmers and village elders to see what they might need from Bellmare and to ask if any families wanted to move out to Schoner’s Creeks. Andy had some luck and found out that iron tools, salt, and cloth were needed supplies and even had found two families willing to pick up and head out to the Hamlet when they came back.

After Willsden, they headed onward to Woodpine, Dewborne, and Holton. Each village getting slightly bigger and each path become more defined and used. At each stop Andy was able to secure a family or two to head towards the Hamlet when returning, but the list of goods became less as each village was closer to the town. During each of their stops, children and adults came out to watch Zach’s bronze golem. Zach let the children swing on the golems arms, or even let everyone watch as Zach had the Golem Analyze him using his spear skill. It wasn’t until later on the road to Holton that Grim told Zach that Hayze was probably the first golem villagers had ever seen. Whereas Holton had a few grain golems and one constructor in the village.

Finally, walking out of Holton they were officially on their first gravel road heading to Bellmare, and though they picked up speed by hitching a ride on the back of a wagon. It still took several days to travel as the donkey seemed to kick up dust and dirt as it marched on. It was midmorning when the town of Bellmare appeared over the horizon. The town had a large brown stone wall that encompassed a heavily built populace. Off to the east, Zach saw two massive obelisks as wagons rolled out of a large teleportation gateway. Surround the gateway, were farms with warded fencing preventing mana beasts from approaching the gateway. Slowly the road merged with the one connecting the gateway to the town and lines of merchants and farmers stood outside the gates, as guardsmen walked up and down the road.

Once the merchant in front of them cleared the checkpoint at the Gatehouse, a large peppered haired Guard waved them forward. “Place your hand on the crystal, and state your business.” The guard said in deep voice. Andy, Alexa, and Zach each took their turn at the crystal and stated that they were here to trade and do a couple of runs in the dungeon.

A blue screen appeared in front of the guard each time one of their hands touched the crystal. Quickly looking over it, the guard waited for Zach to remove his hand before speaking. “Alright, here’s Bellmare’s rules. Outside of the dungeon it’s illegal to have Auto-loot on, if your caught with it on the guards will assume you are stealing. No destructive spells are allowed outside of dueling circles, if caught using a destructive spell you will be expected to pay for all damages and serve as hard labor to the city. You have general access to the merchant and dungeon quarters, therefore do not cross the inner wall for any reason. The Bellmare’s Adventurer Guild runs the dungeon, go there to buy your entrance passes and to find any information about the dungeon. To get to the Guild just follow the red signs. Inns closer to the gate and to dungeon rent for more. Based on your total trade goods, two silver will cover the trade tax.” The Guard said as he patted a steel box that he was sitting next to him. Andy pulled out the silver and dropped it in the box, signaling for Zach and Alexa to come along, they entered the crowded streets of Bellmare.

As soon as they entered the city, a wave of stink and decay hit them. Butcher shops, Tanners, and Livery stables were all located next to wall. Stuck in the enclosed space the smell had no place to go even with the Clean Air wards sparkled above the shops and corrals. As they went further down the street the smell lessen, shops gave way to warehouses and several lots for parking wagons. Vocal tradesmen and women were yelling out prices for storage of goods and repairs to wagons. At the entrance to the warehouses, strong men loaded and unloaded the long line of wagons, while bulk traders dickered over prices for their goods. As Andy, Alexa, Zach and his golem broke through the warehouse block, the crowds thinned out and inns could finally be seen in between general stores and several brothels. Perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised Zach as much as it did, but the men and women out on balconies displaying flesh with fake smiles that never quite made it up to their eyes, made Zach lose the hope with magic in this world, humanity would somehow be uplifted instead of falling for their old vices.

So Zach averted his eyes from the balconies and saw his first orc in front of the brothel entrance. The orc had grey ashen skin behind primitive hide and fur clothing. The creature carried a large crude metal club that was cradled in its heavily muscled arms, as it leaned its back against the wall next to the entryway. A hood covered the top of its face, but the bottom jaw was so massive that the thick tusks yellowed with age stuck could still be seen. The orc watched the patrons of the brothel, flexing its muscles now and again as shouts came out of the establishment.

Curious Zach began to look at the other bouncers for the brothels, when he saw what had to be beastkin. When Grim first told him that there was a beastkin race on Argos, his imagination thought of big breasted cat women that were mainly human except for little furry ears on their heads, backward legs, and a tail. Instead, what he saw was a Hollywood movie werewolf that was slightly taller than six and half feet. Black, grey, and white fur covered the beastkin’s massive frame, as the only piece of clothing was a kilt covering its lower half. Colorful beads and symbols were interwoven into the beastkin’s kilt, as it hung from a large leather belt. The beastkin had no weapons on him, because his hands ended in inch long claws that reflexed the sunlight.

Just as the beastkin’s eyes met Zach’s, Andy’s hand reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “Come on, boy, never get caught staring at a war dog. They view it as a invitation to duel.” Andy said as he halfway pulled Zach off the street into a side alley with Alexa. The alleyway was far less crowded than the street, with only a few people carrying goods to the back of the shops. Andy checked over Zach and Alexa briefly making sure no harm had befallen them before asking if everyone was alright.

Alexa and Zach nodded as Andy pointed to a pipe that seemed to be draining a dark blue liquid. “Seems like there is an alchemist shop nearby. We will follow the pipe down this group of alleyways, that way neither of you will get lost in the crowd.” As Andy started walking, Zach felt as if this was more dangerous than being out in the main street. Every story he read always had thieves and cutthroats in back alleyways ready to take your money, but as Andy moved on most of the people they met were just average men and women pouring rubbish into the sewer system or taking deliveries. The one time that they did cross someone unsavory was a bunch of people and an orc that looked like giggling anorexic models. As one of them open up his hands to beg, Andy slapped the man’s hands away, saying, “Damn dusters, find your pixie fix from someone else.”

After a few turn, they arrived at the alchemist shop, as a young apprentice was pouring out green frothy liquid from a barrel. “Hello there.” Andy said, as the apprentice looked up. A sour look crossed his face, but he returned the greeting. Smiling Andy continue, “Your master won’t be in would they? We have quite a few herbs and beast ingredients to sale.” The young lad looked at Andy for a moment and then called out for Mistress Rown.

An old woman with sharp eyes came out and she seemed to look them over for a moment before speaking. Turning to Andy, she spoke each word quickly in a high voice, “Alright, you have my attention. I assume from the dirt on your clothes that you want to sell me some ingredients. Depending on what you have, I might be interested but I only buy in the mornings. So just give me a quick list and I will tell you if it’s worth my time.” Andy nodded at the woman and motioned to Zach. Grim loaded up the list of goods on a blue screen of mana paper and had it appear in front of Mistress Rown. A small thoughtful hum came out of the Alchemist as she scrolled down the list, finally she closed the screen. “I assume that you have the ingredients in an extra-dimensional space?” Zach nodded. “Good! I can take perhaps a third of the ingredients tomorrow morning. If you want to get rid of it all, the bulk apothecary is towards the Adventurer’s Guild at the end of the block. They will give you a horrible price, but can buy everything. If the herbs and beast ingredients are decent quality then I will buy up what I can and suggest a couple other shopkeepers who wouldn’t mind cutting out the middle man. If there is nothing else, I have a brew to get back to.”

Andy bowed to the woman, as Alexa and Zach did the same. When she left, Andy looked at the young apprentice and spoke. “I don’t suppose you could tell us what the bulk apothecary prices are, and a decent inn that we can rest in?” The apprentice looked up, as Andy pulled out a silver coin from his pocket.

The apprentice brought the barrel back up and spoke, “There are several decent inns around town, the closest is the Ugly Elemental. If you take the alley way south, you will get to Iron Street, take a left and the Ugly Elemental will be two blocks down on the right. It mainly serves the blacksmiths, but a few iron and coal traders will stay there for a night or two before heading back out. To get back here take Iron Street to Diver’s Row and then right onto Potions Block, but be sure to be here no later than an hour or two after dawn.”

“As for the price for your goods, check with the bulk apothecary down the street. They post their buying prices on a board for all to see. Mistress Rowan is not going to cheat you, but I won’t help you to cheat her.” The apprentice said as he looked at Andy. Andy shrugged and tossed him the coin, he motioned for everyone to follow him as they walked out onto Potions Block. Stepping out into the street was slightly disorienting as stone and wood walls turned into brightly colored store fronts, with small booths manned by young apprentices called out common potions for sale. As Zach looked around he saw several armored individuals with weapons strapped to their sides as they went from booth to booth.

Andy rolled his shoulders and said, “Alright, lets stop at the bulk apothecary figure out the prices for our goods and then we will find the Ugly Elemental.”