“Well hello again Maylin.” The gnome flashed his best smile and hopped up onto the counter at the adventurer’s guild. He made it look like the easiest maneuver in the world despite the counter's height eclipsing his own.

Behind the counter an attractive young woman paled at the sudden arrival of the wizard and nearly fell backwards, stumbling in shock. Despite Alaviv’s best smile, it did nothing to quell the woman’s anxiety and she didn’t even try to compose herself before stuttering a ‘let me go get the manager’ and scurrying off to a back room.

Noone looked on in silence and could only smile wryly. Honestly, he didn’t blame the young woman, Alaviv was not an easy person to deal with.

Very soon after, the well-dressed man with perfectly straight teeth arrived for them. Since they had left a few hours earlier, the man had managed to regain his lost composure.

“Mr. Gnucecak. Noone. If you will follow me so we can discuss a few things.” The man bowed his head respectfully, a gesture which Noone was not used to but the gnome seemed for more comfortable with.

The three left together, leaving the dazed young woman who had followed the manager behind.

Soon they were sitting in the room they had been in before. Now though, it was completely devoid of any remnants of their last visit. The weapons were gone as were the severed heads of an entire bandit camp, even the carpet had been cleaned.

“Well, I must say Mr. Gnucecak, your methods certainly did not give us very much leeway. We, of course, expedited the process, receiving payment guarantees from all the nearby towns so we can fund you up front with your rewards.” The man spoke swiftly, almost rushing to get the troublesome wizard out of his guild as quickly as possible.

The gnome nodded, he expected no less for the only prominent bandit group of the area.

“For this, we can give you one gold piece per head, amounting to 98 gold pieces. After having the weapons appraised, we can do another 80 gold pieces. Some of the weapons were of superior quality, but most were of a general make. And there were a few broken enchanted weapons which we could not do anything with.” As he spoke, the well-dressed man made tallies in a notebook he had been carrying with him.

Alaviv nodded and Noone looked on slack jawed, so much money? Just for collecting heads and weapons? He already had 80-odd gold from Clayton, now closer to 60 after buying the two bottles of liquid fire.

Initially he didn’t know how he could possibly spend that much, but going through twenty gold in one store did help Noone put it into perspective.

While Alaviv talked with the man about some other matters, Noone quietly began calculating prices.

“If a cheap meal cost’s three coppers…. 100 coppers to a silver… ten silvers to a gold… Epoch tribe weapons were around 2 gold, or 2000 coppers. The liquid fire would be 10,000 coppers… or 3000 cheap meals.” He compared the cost of various items he was familiar with, trying to cement his understanding of monetary worth in the common realms.

While Noone considered these things, Alaviv stood up shaking hands with the manager who handed over a hefty sack of gold coins. 50 in total. “And put the rest on Noone’s account.” Alaviv said, catching Noone’s attention.

After practically being rushed out by the manager before Alaviv could come up with anything else, Noone and the gnome wandered through the streets, soon finding themselves in front of a tall well-established restaurant which towered over the nearby buildings.

“Your treat.” Alaviv chuckled, tossing the pouch of gold to Noone and swiftly walking through the doors. Noone was surprised by the suddenness of it but followed closely behind.

“An upstairs room please.” Alaviv said to a hostess stood near the front. The hostess took a long look at the gnome and Noone, she gave a polite ‘follow me’ and led the two upstairs.

“So, Noone. What do you think about everything today?” the gnome asked. They sat upstairs near a window overlooking the shorter buildings across the city.

Alaviv had an expression Noone couldn’t really decipher as he scanned the city. A few streets away the white top of a temple could be seen, along with the stone wall bordering the town.

A few minutes passed before Noone responded, also looking across the town - at the people below who were going about their own lives.

“I don’t know what to think of most of it Al.” Noone said casually. His hand subconsciously moved to fondle the pendant which hung from his neck. So much had happened in just the span of a few hours.

Between the sudden joining of the adventurer’s guild, his recently acquired wealth thanks to the gnome, or everything that was revealed in that odd inn… Noone’s mind was in a tizzy. But despite all of that, one thing was perfectly clear.

“I need to get stronger.” He said quietly, partly to the wizard but mostly for himself. Alaviv glanced at Noone with a somber expression of understanding before turning his eyes back across Creekview.

“We all need to get stronger my boy.” The gnome chortled. “But there’s a lot more to getting stronger than just wishing it. If that were the only necessity, then I am afraid this world would be a much scarier place.”

Noone nodded. He was right of course. But Noone knew something that the gnome did not… he had a lot of advantages. His life so far had been one crazy incidence after the next, most of which he had yet to make any sense of. But Noone knew that if he could use them to their fullest potential, his strength would surely increase.

Noone closed his eyes and began to observe inwardly.

“My meridians are reinforced and even my soul flame is affected and strengthened by the will of that galaxy tree.” In his mind the images of his soul flame appeared, hued pink, green and blue. It wasn’t particularly bright or virulent. But it was steady, burning like a continuous stream without even the slightest flicker.

Noone remembered that day on the cliff face. He had become bound by roots or vines when he used the sun-stone. It wasn’t until he released more of his already feeble life force that he realized what those vines were after – and that he couldn’t escape.

If that day had gone any differently, he most surely would have died. It was only by giving up his entire life energy except for the smallest ember that he was able to fool the plant into releasing him.

After being absorbed into the bulb which hung from the interior cavern, Noone had ‘slumbered’ for a century before finally overtaking the other existence and breaking the stalemate.

And Noone came out of it with new meridians, the old and brittle ones paved over completely by the galaxy tree.

If it hadn’t been for this, Noone would have never been able to accept the Common Heritage of the Ancestor… He would have died down in Tapestry along with everyone else… or even if he had made it to the surface, what then? He would have been useless, captured, and helpless.

Despite only training in the common heritage for around a year, the difference between his strengths is like the difference between heaven and earth. And it would only increase as long as he stayed on the right path.

“That’s the other thing… I need more energy.” Noone’s brows unconsciously furrowed. “I got lucky with those enchanted weapons, and then there was that rogue red thread of energy…” He thought silently for a while.

“Alaviv, how much does it cost to purchase an enchanted weapon?” Noone asked suddenly, eyes bright with the spark of an idea.

“Hmm. It of course depends on the quality of the work and the location.” Alaviv shrugged.

“The location?”

“Mhmm. For instance, in the capital there are no doubt a dozen smiths or enchanters capable of enchanting weapons. This means that they have to keep their prices low to stay competitive.

However, if there is an enchanter in a town like this, he could charge whatever he wanted – as long as it wasn’t so exorbitant that it was impossible for anyone to afford.” He shrugged again. “And there probably won’t be a designated enchanter out here anyways. At most maybe a smith who has a few that he bought further in-country and then returned here to sell them at a profit.”

Noone listened intently, fascinated by the subtle markets at play. This was not something he had to think about back in Tapestry and it felt so alien but interesting.

Soon two plates of steaming food the likes of which Noone had never seen before arrived at their table.

On Noone’s plate a large cut of dark meat sat propped up by a soft white pile of some kind of mash mixed in with various vegetables Noone could only vaguely recognize. Everything was bathed in a burnt orange colored sauce.

Without much ceremony, Noone wasted no time trying the food in front of him. When they arrived, Alaviv ordered for him, leaving him no chance to check what the food was. But in this moment, he honestly didn’t care. The food on his plate was like nothing he had ever tasted before.

Noone shut his eyes, enjoying the mix of flavors and textures which were worlds apart from the dried travel-foods he had grown used to. And even being incomparable to the cheap foods of vendors and road-side stands.