The streets were bustling but as one might expect of what was obviously a district for the rich the mood was calm and there were no loud street vendors hawking their wares. The only reason it felt rather cramped on the wide streets was due to the immense size of the city.

“There are probably at least a hundred thousand inhabitants here.” I looked around at the mostly light dressed people and headed off towards the butcher. “I wonder how they manage to feed so many people?” From what I read before coming here cities of this size should be highly improbable if not downright impossible. “Maybe it is due to magic? Or maybe something else entirely.” I did a mental shrug off my shoulders. “Comparing the two worlds might be a mistake in and of itself. After all magic, extra dimensional storage and skills are a reality here. So there is no telling if wheat or whatever staple crop is grown here grows the same way.” I pushed these thoughts aside, focusing instead on avoiding walking into other people as the crowds were growing thicker the further away I got from the castle.

“OUCH!” A young boy screamed behind me and I spun around. What I saw was a boy dressed in what can only in the most kind of terms be called clothes. He was looking at me in abject horror and clutching his left hand to his chest, his bloody left hand had what I was sure was a very familiar bite mark on me.

“What the…” I couldn’t see Simon, but I could feel a sense of satisfaction radiate from my pet. Before I could say anything else the boy bolted as one of the guards wandering about shouted about a pickpocket. “Was I just about to get pickpocketed?” I was very surprised when a guard with a scarred face responded.

“Sorry bout dat sir.” He bowed slightly. “Da urchins mostly stay outta the central district.” He shook his head sadly. “Least dis time we stopped it in time.”

“Um, yeah. Thanks.” I answered a bit awkwardly.

It was Simon and not the guards who had stopped the boy so thanking him felt a tad strange. Additionally it was not like there was anything of value to steal. The only thing he could have stolen was the empty pouch.

I had taken to storing the pouch on my person so as to not reveal my Storage skill but since I’m far too paranoid I still keep the gold itself in my storage. It had only taken a handful of attempts to get the hang of retrieving the gold from my storage from the inside of the pouch. This trial and error also taught me that using my Storage costs a tiny bit of mana. I also found out that this skill could not be increased with skill points. But for now, I have way more space than I need so I’m not bothered about it.

I looked into the alley that the boy had run off to and felt sympathetic for the boy. He was bleeding and had the guards chasing him, in my book that’s a pretty shit day. “Not much I can do about it anyway.”

When I eventually found the butcher thanks to my mini map I was starting to feel sweaty again, it was rather hot here. It had been fall back home but I think it is summer here. “Are the seasons even the same in this world?” I wondered and decided to find out later.

“Welcome!” The man in the bloody apron half shouted as I entered the surprisingly small store. I looked around and saw nothing except the counter. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, in a world without electric cooling it is not like you can have massive glass counters to show off your goods in.

“Good day…” Before I could continue speaking the butcher interrupted me.

“It is indeed a good day!” He smiled and leaned far over the counter and smiled widely. It was a bit terrifying with the small droplets of blood that had dried on the man’s bearded face. “Good weather, good business and good news! Couldn’t be more pleased.” The man nodded contentedly before he suddenly remembered himself. “Ah, but where are my manners? Name's Tom, Tom the butcher from Tom’s butchery!” He stretched out a rather unclean hand and smiled.

I looked at the hand and so did Tom, this might have been the first time I have seen a grown man flush like a teenager. He laughed nervously and quickly cleaned off his hand on the bloody apron. Or well he tried, he soon noticed the futility of his actions and he blushed once more.

“Hi, I’m Victor. I’m looking for some meat for my pet.” I got straight to the point to help ‘Tom’ out of the predicament he was getting himself deeper into. Getting to business seemed to help and Tom pulled himself together.

“I see, for a pet you say…” He rubbed his chin, sullying his face further. “I have a couple of things that might be to your liking, but do you want something with high or low essence density?” That took me for a loop and I had to think for a moment.

“What are the benefits of the two?” I had to ask, it might be something that everyone from this world knew but I feel like learning this is more important than not looking stupid.

“Well, as you know beast and monsters have a verifying essence density in relation to how strong they are.” It must not have been that weird a question since Tom did not bat an eye at it. “The stronger the beast or monster the higher the mana density is in their body. And as you know the more essence a beast consumes the stronger they get.”

“Yeah I most certainly did not know that…” I thought ruefully as I considered it. Turns out I didn’t have to think too much about it, ‘Stronger’. That was the thought that Simon projected.

“Something with as high essence density as possible I think, but not a lot. My pet is rather small, yousmall you see.” I think I sensed grumpiness from Simon at that, but that surely must have been my imagination.

“All right, I’ll see what I can find for you.” Tom said as he walked off into the back of the building.

I looked around the rather cramped interior as I waited for Tom to come back. The two windows on either side of the door let in some light but even to this world's standard they must have been or rather poor quality. “Then again, I have only seen the windows of shops on the central street of the central section, the obviously luxurious inn and the castle. For all I know this might be standard.” As I stood there thinking about how I had read that windows in the middle ages had once been made by stretching out and drying intestines, Tom returned.

“So I have these two cuts.” He unwrapped two very dark and juicy looking steaks. “The right one is from a Thunder wolf that I got from the guild this morning. I have about 4 cuts of this size left.” He put that cut down on the table and showed the darker and slightly older one. “This is from a lesser wyvern.” Tom grinned. “Takes some real skill not to spoil all meat with the wyvern’s venom when butchering it.” He smiled proudly. “Unfortunately it is quite rare and I don’t have very much left, the only reason I have it at all is that this youngling came too close to the city and the guard captain took it down.” Tom was really pushing the sale but Simon did not seem at all interested in the wyvern meat.

“I’ll take some of the Thunder wolf then, would you mind cutting it into half palm sized pieces?” Tom looked a bit disappointed as I said this but readily agreed.

“How much would you like then?” Tom asked as he pulled out a knife from gods know where and began cutting the pieces to the size I’d requested.

That was a good question, initially I only wanted a single piece but I doubted that Tom would sell me such a small amount. Then something occurred to me and I suddenly felt the urge to test the functionality of my Storage further. As I thought about it Tom handed me one of the finished pieces for my inspection but as I went to grab it a scaly head poked out of my sleeve. What happened next was what one would expect from a hungry snake, only far faster than should be possible.

“What in the name of Amoria is that and where did it come from?!” Tom had jumped back to the wall and was brandishing his knife with a terrified look in his eyes.

“Wohwohwoh! Calm down, this is just my pet snake. He is not at all dangerous!” I took a step back from the counter and raised my hand placatingly. This moved Simon further away from the rest of the meat and he looked at me in annoyance.

“Is that a snake?” Tom said, lowering his knife cautiously and swallowing hard. “And wait, you say pet… but is that perhaps a, f-familiar? A-Are you, mage?” Tom paled and looked rather afraid.

“No I’m not a mage, this is Simon.” I gestured at Simon. “He is a Ringneck snake, he is harmless.” It felt like Simon objected to being called harmless but I ignored him. “Simon was, well he was a gift.” It wasn’t a lie as Simon really had been given to me. It might not have happened in this world but that still counted.

“I-is that so?” Tom took a deep calming breath. “Had no idea familiars could be given…” Tom looked at Simon who for his part was eyeing the rest of the wolf meat hungrily. “No, when I look at him it doesn’t look that dangerous.” Tom took a step closer but kept a respectful distance as he observed the hungry Simon.

“No you don’t have to worry, as I said he is completely harmless…” I trailed off and looked down at the transfixed snake with a frown. “Although I have never seen him this hungry, that amount of food normally lasts him at least 2 weeks…”

“I see, that might be because of the essence.” Tom said thoughtfully as he carefully grabbed another piece of meat and stretched it out to Simon who gladly took it. Tom smiled at Simon, his fear must have given away to curiosity.

“What do you mean?” I asked Tom as Simon rested his head on the back of my hand while radiating content.

“Um, so as I said before most beasts have the ability to absorb essence and since essence is absorbed by the body way faster than flesh, which means beasts can eat significantly more if the meat is rich in essence.” Tom scratched his head as he watched the now sleeping Simon. “Also, I am hardly an expert but from what I have heard, familiars can absorb even more essence than other creatures due to the nature of the bond or something. Thought if that is true or not I couldn’t tell you since I haven’t ever run into any mages with familiars.”

“About that, are mages really that rare?” I asked, thinking about the 20 skill points I could use to acquire Space attribute magic.

“You must not be from around here.” Tom unknowingly made the understatement of the century. “Yeah, there are very few mages in the kingdom, even fewer in the Duchy as mana concentration in this part of the world is very low.”

“I see. And yeah I’m quite far from home.” I moved the sleeping Simon back into my sleeve and as soon he was lost from sight his weight vanished as well. “That’s a bit creepy.”

“Now how much do you want? I will be charging you for what your familiar ate by the way.” Tom repacked the wyvern meat with a regretful look.

“I admit that I’m not sure how I will keep it fresh. But I can take the rest of that cut and one more like it perhaps.” At this moment I realized that I had absolutely no idea how much that would cost me.

“Alright, I presume you would like it cut in ‘bite’ sized pieces as well?” Tom responded with a grin.

“Yes that would be nice, by the way how much will that set me back?”

“Set you back?” Tom stopped repacking the cut pieces.

“Sorry, it’s a saying from back home. It means ‘how much is this going to cost me’”

“Ah, I see. It will be about.” Tom tilted his head back and forth as he considered. “Let’s say, 25 silver per cut so 50 for the two cuts.” Tom suddenly looked concerned, probably wondering if I could afford it. I calmed him down by placing 1 gold on the counter. “I’ll go get your change.” Tom said as he walked into the back and returned with a small pouch with 50 silver. “Happy to be doing business with you, may Amoria always be with you.”

“Umm… The same to you as well?” I was unsure how to respond. But that seemed to do the trick and I walked out of the shop with my cloth wrapped cuts of meat.

When I exited the butcher I looked around and when I was sure that no one was paying any attention to me I put the meat into my storage. “Damn useful skill that one.” I chuckled. All of my skills were useful. Even Simon had protected me from a pickpocket. “But still I really should get myself a bag so I don’t have to do all this cloak and dagger stuff every time I need to use Storage.”

What to do now?” I looked around at the crowd and looked down at my white, sweat stained shirt and similarly dirty pants. “I guess I should do something about my clothing…” The people on the street all wore clothing similar to what I’d seen in history books depicting the medieval era in Europe. “I had thought that a whith shirt and ‘plain’ dress pants would not be that out of place but…” I had to sigh, people were giving me odd looks every once in a while and I knew why. “It my white shirt…” My shirt was a simple white that could be found in any store on earth. But here it was simply too white. The colour of the clothing people wore here were mostly muted, the only expectations were the clothing of the nobility and the merchants. The colours they wore, especially the latter group, were quite garish and eye-catching. Made specifically to flaunt their wealth. So what the passers-by were probably thinking as they gave me their odd looks was likely ‘Why would you spend such a fortune on a white styleless shirt?’

“Well, clothing can come later, even if those looks that seem to deem me an idiot hurt a bit but I have more important things to attend to….” Namely, I had to use my skill points! A smile spread across my lips as I meandered through the city. Fiddling with my Interface as I walked about might sound like a stupid idea but I saw it as training. After all, there might come a time when I have to use my Interface on the fly.

First thing I did was try and figure out what the system behind the skill point costs was. This was a bit hard considering that I only had 4 skills that could be increased with skill points. None of my special skills nor Storage could be improved by investing skill points. This along with the fact that Telekinesis appeared to be a complete outlier made my investigation quite hard.

“So, to upgrade Mind to 3 it costs 3 skill points. That together with the cost of 2 that I had taken to upgrade it to level 2 indicted that its cost equals the new level. This is the same for Mind palace which costs 2 to upgrade to level 2, but…” I ‘looked’ unhappily at Soul weapon, my highest levelled skill. It cost a staggering 45 skill points to increase to 9! “Damn it!” I swore quietly and looked up.

I had been quite lost in thought and simply let myself be guided by the crowd. This had surprisingly led me to a rather large park with a far calmer atmosphere and a significantly less dense crowd. The green lawn and large trees offered a comfortable rest spot for the citizens. I felt a strong desire to lay down and take a nap in the shade.

“That might not be very surprising, a lot has happened today…” I spoke softly to no one in particular. This was something that made the people around me look at me even more strangely and hurry along on their way. “I should probably stop talking to myself all the time…” Embarrassed, I walked over to an empty spot under a tree and lay down on my back. As I stared up at the canopy I felt more like myself than I had in quite a while.

“I’m telling you that’s the guy!” The hushed whisper of a boy woke me up as the sun began its slow descent towards the horizon. “I must have fallen asleep.” I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I looked over at the familiar boy.

The boy with the dirty brown hair and tattered clothes froze as my eyes looked onto his. His mud cake coloured eyes widened and for a moment I imagined that I could see a pair of dark blue eyes reflected in them. “Was my eye colour that blue before?” Before I could take my musings any further a large boy with slightly better clothing stepped forward and puffed out his chest trying to look intimidating.

“I heard you attacked my brother!” The boy glared at me and I noticed that his aura was a hostile ‘orange’.

“That so?” I asked as I stood up and brushed the grass of my pants. This paled the young man and he involuntarily took a step back. I hasten to add that I in no way tried to intimidate the boy who was probably around 12-14 years old. However I might not be the most fit person ever but I do look after myself. Also even on earth I had been on the taller side, here that meant that I towered over most people. This is what has allowed me to see so much of the city despite the throng of people. I had simply looked over the other pedestrians’ heads.

“Yeah!...” The boy gulped and glared up at me. He was obviously afraid of me but still stood his ground, if barely. I simply shrugged.

“I did no such thing. My pet just did not enjoy how handsy your ‘brother’ over there was.” The smaller boy hid behind his ‘brother’ as I looked at him. I did however manage to catch a glimpse of the dirty rags the boy was using as a bandaged for his hand. “Christ on a bike.” I uttered exasperated, I didn't even have to check the medical knowledge in my head to know that such a treatment of a wound would easily lead to an infection.

My exclamation made the boys take a step back and I could feel that they were about to bolt. So I had to act fast.

“If you run, that bite is going to kill you.” My voice was harsher than I had intended and the boy froze in fear. I could literally see how their auras were slowly turning red. “Now come over here so I can treat it properly.” Shit they were going to run!

I could see that the two boys were about to bolt so I had to scramble to find a solution. What I ended up doing was using the only skill I had properly tested.

“Ouch,ouch ouch!!!” The smaller boy screamed as he clapped his hands over his right ear, the ear I was twisting with all my insignificant telekinetic power. I walked towards the boy and the taller boy threw himself at me.

Still handling a malnourished 13ish year old was not hard. I slapped away his hand and grabbed his left ear in my hand and twisted while lifting the boy enough that he had to tiptoe as I walked over to the other boy. As I reached the smaller boy that had both tears and fear in his eyes I grabbed his bandaged hand in my free hand and spoke firmly.

“If you don’t try to run I will not hurt you.” I looked into the boy’s eyes until he nodded and I released my telekinetic grip that had burned through almost all my will at this point. I gave the still squirming and whining bigger boy a sharp look and he quieted down so I released him too. “Now let me look at the bite mark.” I spoke as kindly as I could and the boys quivering subsided.

As I unwrapped the bandage I saw that the wound was a bit swollen already. This was likely due to the sceptic nature of snake bites and simple fact that the wound had not been washed properly. I could not suppress a sigh.

“Boys.” I spoke harshly enough that the boys straightened and they looked like they wanted to bolt once more. Alas I was holding one of them and the other was unwilling to leave his ‘brother’ behind. “All wounds, especially animal bites need to be cleaned properly.” I made sure to look into both of their eyes before resuming. “If you don’t there is a very big risk that the wound turns bad and if you are unlucky you might lose a limb or even your life.” I took out one of the small shampoo bottles filled with concentrated vodka from my storage and the jaws’ of the boys dropped. “Now to clean a wound you must either wash it thoroughly as soon as possible with clean water or with highly concentrated alcohol.” I shook the shampoo bottle for effect. “Now since you failed to do the first option I will have to use this.” The boys gulped heavily. “Maybe they have washed their wounds with alcohol before and know that it stings like a bitch…” I cut my internal monologue short and continued. “Now, as you know this will sting but bear with it.” Before the boy could object I poured the vodka on his wound and the boy yelled in pain only for the other boy to clamp his hands over his face. He did so all the while shooting a hateful glare my way.

The older boy growled at me and the smaller boy cried clutching his wounded hand that I had released. I just shook my head and pulled out a bandage from the small first aid kit that I had bought as a part of the survival kit I had brought with me. As I reached out to the smaller boy's hand he backed off and the large boy reached out for the bandage.

“I will do that.” He growled. I just snorted.

“Like hell you will.” I spoke flatly as I looked down at the stunned boy. “I’m guessing you are the one that tied the other one so I’m not allowing you to do another piss poor job of it.” The boy just gaped at me like a fish out of water unable to find anything to say. “Now give me your hand, you have two ears after all.” I grinned evilly and the two boys clapped their hands over their ‘undamaged’ ears.

It only took a moment for the boy to stretch out his hand to me and I began tying the white bandage over his hand as gently as I could while still maintaining an adequate tightness. The boy sniffled a bit and the larger boy looked between the two of us with worry and distrust. You can imagine who got which look.

“Now evening is approaching so you should run along.” Saying this I handed the two boys a silver coin each and noted how their eyes widened in surprise. What surprised me was how the boys’ auras rapidly shifted before my eyes, from orange to yellow and lastly ended on a very slightly yellow tinged white. “Gods, hasn’t anyone told these children not to be so trusting.” I felt like if I had a wan with some balloons right now the only thing that would prevent a kidnapping was my own morals. I could only shake my head at this and stood to leave. But only a few paces away I heard the younger boy speak for the first time.

“Uh, thank you sir!” He shouted and quickly gave an inelegant bow before running off. His bewildered ‘brother’ gave an even quicker bow and ran after the first boy.

“Would you look at that, he speaks.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh right it was the younger boy that woke me up wasn’t it?”

Looking over his shoulder Daniel ran after his ‘brother’ only after he was sure he hadn’t been followed did he call out to the younger boy.

“Kev wait!” His words made the other boy slow down and Daniel soon caught up. “What was that all about?” His words matched the bewildered look he wore on his face.

“I don’t know bro, that man was strange.” Kev looked back the way they came with an expression similar to Daniel’s own. “Have never been treated nicely by one of those upper crusts before…” He trailed and added in a far softer voice. “even less so by someone I tried to lift from.”

“Yeah I’d know what was going to happen there for a while…” Daniel looked at the silver coin clutched firmly in his hand and then over to the bandage on Kev’s hand. “Kev we should buy some bread for the others.”

“Yes… and some clean water.” Kev added firmly. Daniel made a face.

“Do you really believe that clean water would be worth the price?” Water was free but ‘clean’ water could only be found in the central section of the city and at the churches in the lower section. “We don’t know…” Daniel did not finish his sentence as Kev held up his now cleanly bandaged hand.

“My hand doesn’t hurt anymore.” Kev had complained about a dull ache in his hand since the failed pickpocketing attempt but with the treatment, correction the painful treatment had fixed that.

“But that could have been a potion for all we know and besides we don’t know if clean water has a similar effect to alcohol…” Kev snorted.

“Come on Daniel, we have seen potions before, that clear liquid was surely alcohol. It looks nothing like any potion I have ever seen with their sickly green colour. Besides, no one would ever use such a valuable item on any of us.”

“But I have never seen any alcohol that looked like that either…” Daniel rebutted.

“But it did smell just like the old men back home, just less sour and putrid.” What Kev said was true and Daniel had to agree.

“Fine we can buy some ‘water’ but we are using your money for it.” Kev just nodded and the two ran back towards the lower section.

What neither the boys nor Victor knew was that the ‘Vodka’ Victor had used on the boy’s wound would have sold for significantly more than any low grade green healing potion the boys had seen ever would.