It took about 10 minutes to run to and I easily managed to slip into one of the houses through an open window. Immediately I froze as I heard the sounds of moans coming from the room next to this one, I thought that a woman was hurt and needed help for a moment before I realised what it was. I would have blushed if I could but instead just decided to look around. This house was only a single floor and I seemed to be in some kind of kitchen. A cauldron sat on a pile of embers and seemed to be full of some sort of stew. There were utensils and jars on shelves dotting the walls and a cabinet was up against one wall.

It looked quite cosy and the furniture was much better than I had expected it to be, not the same perfect replicas of modern furniture but every piece was still well made. I gave mental props to the maker of it all when the noises from the bedroom suddenly stopped soon followed by the sounds of footsteps. I scuttled over to a chair and hung to the underside, out of site. The woman and the man came out of the room... followed by two more men. I gave mental props to this woman as well.

They were talking but not in a language that I could speak. What were the odds that that wizard from before happened to speak the only language I knew? Maybe it wasn't that and I could just understand the first language I heard. Fuck that wizard, he was not only incompetent apparently he also fucked up my ability to speak with people. That would be a fantastic way of stopping your golem minions from being able to communicate with the general populous and maybe get ideas on rebelling but still, very inconvenient to me.

I watched the four sets of legs move around the room for a while before three of them left and it was just me and the woman left. She sat down on the chair I was on which nearly made me lost my grip, there were now several gouge marks in the wood from where my legs were stuck into it. She was talking to herself and I had absolutely no idea what she was saying but her voice was high and melodic and I couldn't help but think that she would make an incredible singer.

Eventually, she left and returned to bed for good this time and I returned to my scuttling around but didn't really find much. A cupboard that had a broom and some odds and ends inside and a small room with a toilet. That room was actually quite interesting because it seemed to just drop down into a pit but I could not detect any smell coming from it at all. Magic if I had ever seen it and maybe if it was common enough for people's toilets there would be more interesting magic around.

I made my way around several more houses and didn't have any more interesting episodes. Most houses were very similar with the only differences being decorations and personal affairs. I wasn't entirely sure what I had been expecting to find, to be honest with you. Some big clue as to the ways of this world would probably be too much to ask. By the time that people were starting to wake up, I found myself at what looked like an empty market. I had lodged myself on the underside of a cart, out of sight but close enough to several stalls that I was sure I could overhear people talking.

A couple of hours later there were some vendors set up on the stalls. They all emerged from nearby buildings with arms full of goods. There was a baker and someone selling fresh vegetables, of which I recognised none. There was a vaguely carrot shaped vegetable that was purple, several different types of squash that ranged from a deep blood red to light green in colour. Then what seemed to be a butcher of some sort came out, he had some kind of boxes that were misting with cold but I couldn't tell if they were full of ice or if they were magic. I had no idea where they would get ice out here though if not magic so I would bet on the latter.

People began to come to the stalls and barter, the butcher seemed to be buying the kills of some of the huntsmen, women came carrying small game and birds on strings that were exchanged for meat of coins. The coins that they were using seemed to be made of a bronze metal that was either copper or actual bronze and the occasional silver piece though I didn't see many of those.

I spent the day under that cart, I was pretty sure I had worked out the words for meat bread and most of the vegetable on sale, as well as the numbers 1-5 and a few general greetings and responses. I was pretty proud of that, I had no way of checking if I was correct but it felt right. Maybe this wouldn't take that long after all.

I was wrong, this was taking forever. I had been hanging around houses, under carts, in stalls and on rooves for nearly 3 days now and I could barely understand anything, I was picking up words for objects here and there but it was much more difficult than I had expected this to be. I don't know why I thought it would be easy, I had barely been able to manage french in school and I was being carefully taught how to speak that. Patience is a virtue I guess.

It was another two days later that something interesting happened, I got a window.

Language proficiency reached intelligence threshold to learn language "Common", you already know language "Sylvarian", you will be able to learn 3 more languages with your current intelligence. Would you like to learn "Common"?

Yes, yes I would.