Aleister opened the door. However, he did not expect the body of a man to crash down right in front of him. He smirked and entered through the inn’s door, stepping around the unconscious man on the floor. Rough but polished wooden boards paneled the interior as dark blue tapestries decorated the walls. Inside was quite the contrast to the quiet night streets. In one corner, a party of dwarves and humans were arm wrestling with one another, and in another a band of bards danced and sung, entertaining a crowd of people. This didn’t even include the fight happening in the middle, nor the balconies of the second floor.

He felt a headache arrive from the noisy environment and made his way to the front, wanting to finish what he came here to do as quick as possible. As he sat down, the bartender finished serving the previous customer and walked over to him.

“An unfamiliar face,” the dark-skinned, mustached human man said, in a gravelly voice. His short and unkempt brown hair parted to the right as his sideburns ran straight down to his chin.

After a forced laugh, Aleister said, “Yeah, I’ve been in the city for a while and recently got this place recommended to me, especially the...hmm, what was it again? Ah yes, Ghaergurn’s Golden Ale is what she called it.”

The man walked into the room behind him as Aleister took a brief look at the menu. He still had a little silver and copper coins left, which were only enough for him to purchase some of the cheaper food, especially since most of it went towards his drink. Reading the blurb under the name described some of the history behind it.

Created by the famous Dwarven adventurer, Ghaergurn, around two centuries ago after his retirement. He sold all the treasures he earned and devoted the rest of his life to brewing the best beer, mead, and ale possible. Along with his friends and other investors and supporters, he created multiple award-winning drinks and founded the Twin Barrels Brewing Company. The only common drink they export is their Pink Maggit Mead. He could only find all other offerings at select locations throughout the continent with their most popular and expensive drinks only being served at select pubs and taverns in Kedellgrim.

The clank of a glass tankard gained Aleister’s attention. A translucent brown liquid full of bubbles filled it up, as a thick white foam extruded from the top.

“Anything else?”

After a quick glance at the menu, Aleister said, “I’ll take one cheese and onion soup pie too.” He would have much preferred one of their sandwiches, but they were way out of his price range.

The bartender yanked off a white slip from a slim pad and scribbled down some text. “Name?”

“Aleister.”

“Full name?”

This question put him in an awkward situation. He didn’t want to use Belmont or Crystal for evident reasons. And he couldn’t quite bring himself to say he was from Stillside, especially after its destruction and the events that occurred there. He felt a slight discomfort in his head and instead placed some coins on the counter. “I can just pay you right now so you don’t have to worry about it.”

The man tossed the crumpled paper into the trash and swept the coins into his hands. “Your meal will be ready in twenty minutes.”

In order to pass the time, he entertained himself with the bards’ performance. A male moon elf and a female sun elf danced together as a pair. Behind them, two human males. One sang while strumming his lute. Curiously enough though, he only had three fingers, making him miss some of the notes, but because of the general noise level, it wasn’t noticeable unless Aleister focused on it. The other male played two small drums and occasionally sung random sounds. Adding another dynamic to their performance. The crowd surrounding them didn’t seem to care or pay too much attention to the actual content as they were busy being drunk. He finished watching their performance and walked over to the opposite side.

As he approached, he saw a dwarven woman crush her opponent with no contest. She jumped on the table and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Why dontcha go back to drinkin’ from yer mommy’s teat swine!”

Most of the crowd surrounding her showered her in praise and chanted her name as she downed a tankard four times the normal size. People followed her actions and started to clash their drinks together, making him have to dodge and weave through the spilling liquid.

She slammed her tankard to the ground and said, “Now which one’o’ya sorry bastards is next?”

“I’m going to recommend sitting this one out,” Syn asked.

Aleister let out a sigh. “I don’t know if I’m in the mood for getting my hand crushed tonight either.”

He didn’t expect his competition to be so tough tonight. That made his initial plan much more difficult that anticipated. His secondary plan of making small bets to turn a profit also became impossible now due to the insane skew of the odds.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any other choice.”

“You most definitely have other choices.”

“But I don’t have the time to make any of them.”

“Your goal is to get enough money to hire someone to test your potions, correct? Do you need them to be tested tonight? No. There’s still the entire rest of the week available. Thus, you do, in fact, have the time. Besides, your time limit is an arbitrary deadline you made.”

“But I want to know the results now!”

Syn took in a deep breath as she rubbed her eyes with one hand. “Fine, I’ll just tell you that your potions work, and nothing out of the ordinary will happen.”

“Oh, so now you’re helping me?” he asked. “What happened to you just being an observer?”

With a fake smile, Syn stayed silent and just gave him a thumbs up.

Aleister rolled his eyes and made his way to the front of the crowd where he watched the dwarf crush her next opponent in a similar fashion. This series of actions repeated itself once more before she asked who was next. But no one else wanted to take that opportunity. He could feel his heart palpitate as he swallowed the saliva built up in his mouth and stepped up.