The guards let us in almost too easily. I would have thought that there would've been some more security we'd have to get through or something, but they almost pushed us in after they did a quick once over of the carriage and its contents...and my assumption has been proven correct. They did not want us out there, and neither did they want to stay out there. Once our carriage had passed through the doorway, the two guards had piled in behind us and whoever manned the door, as I didn't see any portcullis to close it, just let the door go, letting it slam upon the packed earth below it. They had also managed to herd our steed behind us, making it push the carriage further inside. After getting him past a second archway, where we were probably within the town proper. Thankfully, it didn't take too long to hook him back up to the carriage and continue to drive further into the first signs of proper civilization I'd seen.

I've got to say, I didn't really expect something like this. Judging from how dilapidated the previous village we were in had been, I expected some kind of widespread economic recession or something, but these people seem to be doing alright for themselves. As we guide our carriage away from the gate, bidding the two guards goodbye, my eyes come to actually study something which caught my attention, that being the uncanniness of the streets. The cobblestones seem to fit together almost seamlessly, and for some reason they're clean...It just doesn't seem right. These people live in the medieval ages don't they? Shouldn't they have poor cleaning facilities? I could just chalk it up to magic and move on...yeah, if I can use it without much issue, I expect others who are properly trained with the specific spells could do significantly better than I can think of. Or at least whoever they hired to make the town.

The buildings also look...good, I guess? I mean, there doesn't really seem to be much in the way of dirt or detritus on them or even around their base. Sure, there's grass and such outside the paths and even some gardens dotted around, but any marks you could find don't really seem to be put there by accident. Everything on the building guides the eye toward either the windows, doors, or a rarity for some, signs hanging off of the doors. Some of them were displaying pictographs, while others had actual words. I mean, they seem to be medieval buildings, but they seem to contain more the essence of Holland than any regular European influence. Yes, I know how weird it is for me to know about buildings, but the truth is that I started college with some classes in architecture. Eugh, I learned from THAT mistake, but I did pick up some odd tidbits of information as well.

The thing that most caught my eye though, was the lack of people in the streets. There was hardly anyone traveling on the streets, other than the various evs, basts, and other things I hadn't seen before rushing to head into buildings, too quickly for me to really get a proper look at them, or a proper [Analyze] I suppose. I couldn't help but pose a question to the carriage.

"Why's everybody rushing around? Shouldn't the walls and guards actually protect them?" While contemplating on this open-ended thought, I notice Kojo escape from the confines of the carriage and look past the curtain, seeming to study the various people outside before I notice his ears were quite attentive.

"Well, monsters are bad." Marwall barks out before nodding once. At that, I hear a snapping of the reins and turn my head towards Marwall, who's currently making Gunvar roll quite a bit faster through the streets, probably more than most people would be comfortable with. I look questioningly at him before snapping my attention back to Kojo.

"Why are monsters so bad anyway? Are they any different from regular animals?" Kojo almost looks...offended at my question. I mean...I think he does. Kind of hard to tell with a muzzle, even if it's smaller than usual. Thankfully though, the eyebrows have gotten a bit bushier than they were before.

"Animals have worldly needs, monsters are more spiritual."...

"What?"

"Monsters feed off of the energy of the soul. Whenever they're around, they try to feed off the emotions of their prey, before trying to consume the rest. They don't really even need to be touching them for it to occur more often than not."...Excuse me, what??? Why is this a thing?

"They...eat emotions?" Kojo nods a bit before falling silent. Well, that's kind of concerning. Then again, how the hell are emotions actually physical, tangible things? How do souls make them when it's brain chemicals that cause them? You know what, maybe I can find a god/goddess of knowledge or something and they can tell me what's what. I'm sure I have some knowledge they'd like in return if they're not willing to just give me the information. Then again...there could be something of a mistranslation going on here. Either way, getting in touch with someone knowledgeable when I can is at the forefront...at least when I take care of the other things.

As we move through the town, I keep my eyes sharp and look around, utterly fascinated with the way that they...uh...I can't bring myself to care all that much. One cobblestone building just looks like the other. However, I do notice coming out of my boredom that we're slowing and we pull over into a somewhat open section just off the street. Oh, wait. I just noticed a sign on a building. It's got a bed on it, so it's probably an inn or something. Nice, I get to see what money's actually worth, except...we aren't stopping and instead just turn into a shaded alley.

"Ummm, Marwall, the inn was back there." He nods before seeming to slow down the carriage to a crawl as he turns down a darkened passage. And proceeds to park the carriage right here?

"Is there an actual reason that we're stopping in the ass end of an alley?" He nods before just jumping out of the driver's seat. He motions for me to get off, so I grab Kojo by the mossy scruff from behind me and jump off too.

"Hey! That hurts, you know." Kojo's exclamation almost made me trip on my way off the carriage. Thankfully, besides the spare bit of trash pileups around here, there's not much in the way to actually trip on.

"Sorry Kojo, figured it'd be better for me to carry you now for awhile considering." Kojo seems to ponder my statement for awhile before relaxing himself and letting the scruff become rather untensed in my hands.

"Alright. Guess it's your turn to carry me anyway. Onward!" No...Dave, don't, don't squee. It's not adorable. Oh, who am I kidding, he looks like a puppy superman, just don't draw attention to it. I bring him up to my shoulders so he can find a good seat for awhile. After I manage to make sure that he gets a comfortable position and grip upon me, I turn towards Marwall, and...

"Marwall, what is that?" He looks to be holding something...rather weird. Weird in the sense that I had not seen it before, and it doesn't look like anything that was on the carriage, or even go along with any of the items in there. I mean, it's a slate, but it's...green and glowing and it's got something etched onto it. It looks like a language, but it isn't translating. Guess it's not common tongue then, but I might as well put it to memory. 'ᛈᚱᛟᛏᛖᚲᛏ ᛗᚤ ᛒᛖᛚᛟᚾᚷᛁᚾᚷᛋ ᚨᚾᛞ ᚺᛁᛞᛖ ᛏᚺᛖᛗ ᚠᚱᛟᛗ ᚨᛚᛚ ᛖᛚᛋᛖ ᚹᚺᛟ ᛋᛖᛖᚴ ᛏᚺᛖᛗ' Kind of...wait. No. Why would...runes? I mean...it looks like runes. Like...nordic. I mean, I can't speak that, but...why is that a thing here?

"So, are you going to tell-" My question dies in my throat as a sudden intense green light fills up the alley, and as it slowly fades, I notice that the slate has disappeared from his paws. Umm...well, that was-Wait! The carriage is gone!!

"Marwall, where the hell is the carriage!?!?" He pulls out a little slate from his bag, which says 'Don't worry about it'?

"Why the hell shouldn't I worry about it? You don't have anyway to actually leave now, plus there was all of your stuff in there!" He seems to sigh and does a little twinkly motion in the air. Ahh, the magic hand sign. Alright. So, he knows where it went. Alright. Just...got to destress myself a bit.

We're in a town. We're no longer in danger of any unknown bandits with mystical powers. Just breathe in deeply, and focus on the now.

"So, we heading to that inn up front?" I question. He nods before taking his satchel, grabbing me by the arm, and sprinting off out of the darkened alley. I am barely able to support the pup sitting atop my head, as his grip tightens even further. As we come back out into the unshaded parts of the main street, I notice that even the sun has decided to hide itself away among the clouds. However, it is only partway covered, so I use my other hand to block out some of the incoming light from directly hitting my eyes, as I have yet managed to acclimate towards the change in brightness. While my eyes adjust, I notice that we are currently heading around to the front of the inn I had barely seen inside the carriage. Getting a closer look, I could see why I had dismissed this almost entirely. If it wasn't for the sign out front depicting a bed eclipsing a fireplace, I would've assumed that this place had been abandoned. The windows outside had been either barred, or boarded up by something all the way up to the third story with the doors to the front having been shut completely some time in the past. I half expected it to be either locked or just full of vagrants as we approached the door.

Marwall begins to pound on the door before a terrified and somewhat gruff voice speaks up. "Who's there?" Seeing as Marwall can't really talk, I'll just speak up for him.

"It's some travelers hoping for a room to spend the night." There is a moment of silence and a pause, until I hear the sounds of several locks being undone, as well as something heavy being moved. The door finally swings open and... damn, that's a really tall bast. They seem to be almost six and a half feet tall, and judging by the 4 foot company I keep, that's outright abnormal. Its fur, unlike Marwall's, was almost jet black. In fact, it was so black, that if it weren't for the brown shearling jacket covering its frame and the rough pants it wore, I wouldn't be able to actually tell where the edges of their body would be. And out of all of that, a speckled pair of glasses was donned upon their snout, framing amber eyes and sitting behind whiskers. Also...I couldn't be absolutely sure, but the mana sight granted by meditation...he has a lot of different things surrounding him. However, a shout tore me out of my inspections.

"Get in, right quick now! Hurry!!" The tall bast sweeps all of us into his inn, with a motion of his long arm. I almost fall onto the hardwood floor as I manage to clip my heel upon one of the chairs that were stacked towards the side of the door. The inside...kind of looks like an old irish tavern I went to a long time back. All curvy wood pieces, elegantly carved chairs, a fireplace off to the side opposite the stairs, and a little window showing where all the alcohol…is. Goddamn, I finally have access to alcohol. I can get drunk off my ass!!! How long has it-No. No. Not worth it. There's a monster attack coming anyway.

Looking around, I also find some other people sitting at tables drinking, eating, and some heading up a flight of stairs to the side looking exhausted. I'm guessing that the second and third floors are mainly housing then? And then I notice the thing in the corner. It's not a bast, nor is it an ev. It isn't even like that one orc I...helped kill. It's almost like a lizard, or maybe a more apt description would be a raptor? They got the same sort of face like one at least, it's just taller, has a more straightened back, and their hand has more digits...claws...fingies? Fingies. It's got a nice old-style trench coat, and some good slacks, with its forest green scales peeking through. It's got a kind of spiked crest going from its head downwards along its tail, which pokes out from its stool and lays lazily along the floor in a slightly different variant of green than its regular scales. I can't really tell what it's feet look like though, with those weird shoes on them. Wait...shoes! Dear god have I missed shoes. Please let their be a shoemaker nearby. Wait, I think I haven't been paying attention, those two are talking about something.

"-don't see why not? It's not going to scratch or break anything, right?" The tall lumbering leopard seemed to growl, while Marwall shakes his head.

"Alright then, so 20 for two beds, and then the 10 for tomorrow's breakfast, if the supply lines aren't broken by then." Marwall nods handing over a couple silver pieces. Ok, so. 3 silver is equal to 30...something else. Probably bronze, or copper maybe.

"HEY!" I turn my attention to the man who towers over me who managed to get in my face without my notice.

"Marwall says you can talk and listen, so here it is. Don't break anything. It's expensive to replace things after monster attacks." I nod frantically and take a step backward to get away from this guy's toothy maw. His frown is rapidly replaced with the gleaming teeth of a sharp-toothed smile.

"Good. Now, do you want anything before I get back to helping the bar?"

"Uhh...no, I'm good, unless you got some-"Wait, if I say a brand-name would they even have it? How would it translate? Maybe they'd give me a local equivalent. Just to be safe, I'll use something that's basically 100 percent not able to be mistranslated anyway. "..beer and maybe some soup."

He raises an eyebrow before replying, "Yeah, special of the day is vegetable, and are you sure you want alcohol? It isn't even nighttime yet."

"Yeah, if we're all going to die anyway, I'd like at least to be drunk while it happens." He stares at me for a second, before chuckling.

"You and I are gonna be fast friends. The name's Berach. I'll get right to it." He turns away and seemingly wills away a part of the wall to look into the kitchen. While that happens, I quickly [Analyze] him to see what exactly he has going on.

Name: Berach Walend Race: Bast (Bebir) Affinity: None

Class :

Inn Keeper, Lv47

Barbarian, Lv30

Level: 87 Titles: Filial Husband Broken Warrior Shrewd Eye HP: -/- MP: -/- AP: -/-

Alright, so he IS a bast. Just a different subspecies? At least, I think that's what the parenthetical's about. Also...a bit worrying that I can't see how much health and stuff that he has. Also...his titles are...quite interesting. His first two are probably just designations. A little weird that just being married would give you a title, but I guess that would make a sort of sense. Probably makes infidelity a bit easier to just...not fall into. [Broken Warrior]...that doesn't bode well here. However, [Shrewd Eye] kind of seems like an actual effect that happens, although I don't really know what it would do. Plus, two classes...that's certainly interesting. He's the first one I've seen around here with that kind of thing. Well...I guess it would make a sort of sense. The previous village was just full of plenty of [Farmers] and types of [Craftsmen]. None of this explains how he was able to just shift the wall, or even why magic seems to-

"Oi!!! Anise!!! We got a soup special!" I'm pulled from my thoughts quite suddenly as I realize that Berach was ordering stuff for me. I tried to peek through the hole, but all I could see was a vague haze of stonework. Then a rather feminine voice rings out from further in, a little on the shrill side.

"Yeah, I'll get on it. Keep your pants on." With that Berach huffs before seeming to pull down the wall. While Marwall walks up the stairs that are set to the side of the building, and Kojo pounces off my head to follow him, I get a hold of my senses, and walk up to the still panther behind the bar.

"How did you do that?" My words seem to pull him from whatever he was about to do, as his body seems to stop in place before he turns his head away from the wall and to my face. I can tell he was a bit confused for a moment before he realized I'm pointing towards the wall.

"Ahh. It's an illusion charm. Had an old friend cast it on the kitchen window and door. Too many patrons complained about the noise when my wife cooks, so I thought I could get his help. Not really adept at geomancy anyhow." Huh...neat. Didn't think illusions could...wait...if illusions exist, can people spoof my [Analyze]?...Something to think on later, I suppose. For now, I got a person I could question.

"Before you go to the bar, I want to ask some questions. Marwall's kind of..." Something seems to glint in his eyes, as he pulls me off my feet towards a stool closer towards the bar.

"Yeah. He's got a way with words that one." Confused, I turn towards him.

"You know he doesn't speak right?" He nods at my words.

"Sure, sure. But that's what [Face Reading] is for. How am I supposed to be an accepting inn if I don't know what people are talking about. Sure, I could learn a language, but most people end up speaking what they want with their faces anyhow." Alright...so, judging from the weird pronunciation of that, [Face Reading] is a skill, and a rather good one at that. Ok. I guess it could be the same as [Lip Reading]. Huh...guess not. He dusts off the area on the bar in front of me, as I sit down. Looking around, I notice that he hasn't really seated me anywhere near somebody. That's a bit odd, but then again, I am probably the first human anyone's ever seen around here. Would want to check out if maybe I was dangerous for people to be around, like allergies or something.

"Alright then. Something's on my mind." I turn towards him, noticing that he's looking through some lower cabinets. His ears seem to flick at my impromptu conversation starter. However, his head doesn't turn around to address me, making his voice come out a bit muffled through the cabinet.

"Well, what is it?"

"Are monster attacks normal around here?" He chuckles a bit as I notice, for the first time, that he has a tail.

"We may be near the Despairing Desert, but we don't actually get all that much around here. Sure, one or two people might go missing due to some monster attacks out in the Willed Woods, but nothing this huge, no." Dang...guess monster's are more wide-spread than I thought. Why didn't we run into any though on the way here? Also, why the hell are their naming conventions so...off? I mean...I don't actually know what the Sahara Desert translates to, but I would for sure not name a biome after an emotion. It would probably cause people who tried to get through there to...well, despair more in their situations.

He retreats from the cabinet, shutting its doors, before turning around and sliding something onto the tabletop in front of me. There, lies a glass of beer. Like an actual glass. Why does that kind of glass exist here though? Shouldn't clear glass require a lot of tech to actually make? Plus, the liquid is clear like vodka, but it's also got a slightly brownish hue to it. Did something get lost in translation? I look up towards him to voice my complaint before he stops it.

"I know. It's not like normal beer. We got it special. Thought you could use a pick me up."...Yeah. Guess he's right, even if alcohol is technically a downer. When was the last time I even had no stress?

"Thanks. How much more does it cost than normal beer?"

"Don't mention it. And for the cost...since it's your first one here, just like a regular one." He turns back towards the bar and starts putting back a lot of bottles that were lying upon the shelves behind him.

"By the way...if it's not too much trouble..." I trail off. Is it insensitive if I ask this?

"Well, what is it? Can't keep my ear all day ya know." He replies.

"Why are you so tall? Most basts I've met have been ungodly short." He stiffens a little bit before letting out a breath.

"That's uh...Well...basts come in three different sizes. You won't really know until you're old enough what size you get though. I got the worst out of the three. Believe me, I wish I was shorter." Huh...nice to know about that. Guess tall guys aren't really that desirable then.

"Well, here's to you finding a shrink spell or something." I reach towards my glass, lift it to the sky, and then bring it down to my lips. The cherry sweet and sour mixture hits my tongue, but as I try to detect what flavors are actually in this, I notice that there's a buzzing sound and it seems to be getting louder.

"What the hell is-" My words are interupted as the entire building shakes, and from the ceiling something crashes down in a wave of wooden shrapnel and dust. Thankfully, it wasn't anywhere close to me, but judging by the pained grunts, someone was caught underneath that. Shit. Did a monster get pass the walls or something. Gotta [Analyze] quick.

Name: Feldur Victaro Race: Ev (Rock) Affinity: Earth, Stone

Class :

Berserker, Lv70

Lord Lv50

Level: 129 Titles: Belun's Loyal Opportunistic Cannibal HP: 92820/92820 MP: 765/765 AP: 50000/50000

Welp...I think we might be fucked if he's angry right about now.