Walking back onto the road from the museum, or perhaps art studio would be a better term, Victor had already put the scroll into his card. He didn’t realize that something was slightly different this time as he looked at the other two members of his group.

Victor felt a bit calmer now that he had a job request to work on and had left the building. While it was true the pay wasn’t as good as the one he went there for, he imagined that he might gain some goodwill from the woman for helping her like this. Sure she seemed a bit odd, but she was friendly enough. Even if she was a bit of a motor mouth at times, he dismissed that as a side effect of an artist’s personality.

“She seemed nice right? A bit odd but nice.”

Dorun shrugged his shoulders as Alena turned to look at the building.

“Maybe, or maybe she had work to do and thought it was the fastest way to get rid of us. Especially given she didn’t want us to do the request.”

Victor couldn’t deny that it was a possibility. Especially if the woman, Xelebre if he remembered right, was someone with a lot of work piling up. He remembered there was something mentioned about the other artist being busy as well.

He wasn’t sure if the effects that he saw were because of the material or magic, but thought it was amazing regardless of the reason and hoped he would get to see more later.

Trusting Alena to lead the way, since she was the one who both took charge and was able to read, Victor soon found himself at the intended store. It appeared to be a shop dealing with basic arts and crafts supplies. It had blocks of both wood and stone in various sizes. There was paint, brushes, canvases, and various other tools that he didn’t recognize.

The shop’s sign had an engraving of a statue on it that seemed to shift as the light hit it from different angles. It was called the Artist’s Delight and apparently one of only two places that supplied this level of merchandise. It was also the only one that supplied the higher quality supplies for the more demanding clients.

Victor was more than a little confused about how he knew the latter part when he turned and saw a rugged beastkin male who, based on the small horns and fur coloring, reminded him of the beasts who nearly killed him all that time ago when he was saved by Elya, back before he had found a place to start getting some semblance of a life figured out.

“My apologies if I was a bit suppressed in my approach, but when I got someone new coming into my establishment I like to tell them about the quality they can expect. I do sell the same items as the other art shops, but I also deal with specialty items like heat stone.”

Making an educated guess on what a heat stone was, Victor pictured something akin to a furnace, but likely less powerful. Something that, if carved right would make for a conversation piece while keeping the room heated. He wondered if the way that it was carved would determine which direction or how intensely the heat would radiate from it.

“Oh, no need to be sorry. We actually came here on a delivery request for miss Xel… Xela...”

“I see. Xelebre must be working hard if she needs to make a request so soon after her last one. Tell me what she needs and I will probably already have it for her.”

From the beastkins muscular and rugged body came a voice more attuned to that of a singer. Despite his fangs and jagged horns that went up from just over his eyes, he seemed to be someone with a lot of heart to him.

Sure Victor had known of athletes who did things like gardening and painting, but somehow it seemed even odder with someone who was so much larger and jagged in their appearance. Especially since in his case it seemed to be more literal.

Reaching behind his back, Victor pulled out the paper from his card as he spoke.

“She didn’t actually tell me what she wanted but gave me a paper to deliver. I’m sure the note has everything on it.”

Moving his hand from behind his back Victor’s hand fumbled with the paper as he tried to keep where the paper had come from hidden. When it slipped from his hand it started to unroll a bit in the air before landing.

Before Victor could turn and grab it, Dorun had already picked it up and folded it in half before handing it over without a word.

Opening the paper that he had been given, the shopkeeper continued to chatter lightly as he read. The conversation was mostly about art and supplies for it, but at one point he did get to the topic of construction and how some of the art supplies he sold here were usually saved for that. Something about structural integrity despite visual oddities and heating and cooling control.

After several minutes had passed the man stopped and tapped on the paper, peeking up from it to look at Victor.

“Did she give you anything else or tell you anything more to tell me? I just get the feeling that something is lacking based on the note I’m seeing. Was there anything else at all?.”

The trio exchanged glances a moment before Victor shook his head.

“She just said come here and pick up what’s on the note. I didn’t even get to look at it so I have no clue what it says.”

With a deep sigh, that was as close to a growl as Victor thought was possible without being one, the beastkin went behind the counter. Once there he took out some papers that were bound together with metal rings and began to flick through them repeatedly, swapping between a second and third rings stack of paper before putting them all back.

“Do you happen to know what she was working on before she sent you here? Was there fresh paint or stone debris on her? Possibly something like wood shavings?”

Trying to think back on the conversation, Victor told the salesman what he could recall. The paint spatterings and the visual effects that stuck out to him enough to remember. He also informed him of how she did seem in a rush as they talked and kept pacing. While he knew it could be something that meant nothing, he thought if the two were close it might tell the beastkin what he needed to know.

After a series of back and forths, as well as an interruption from another customer who needed to buy some paint that would produce a localized mist, the merchant, who Victor learned was named Blaze, seemed satisfied.

In the end, the trio had an assortment of products to carry. A stack of canvas, multiple frames of various sizes, a collection of paintbrushes, and some paint that was type forty-eight, whatever that meant.

Between the three of them, although Dorun insisted on carrying most of the load, it was pretty easy to get everything back to where they had to go despite the size of some of the items.

Although opening the door did create a bit of a struggle with how much they had carried.

Even if Victor had decided to use his cards for it, there wouldn’t have been enough reduction to make it noticeably easier. Especially considering the fact that anything big enough to help with the load would be harder to explain away as suddenly reappearing was a big concern the more he thought about it, mostly because of what Doliy had told him during his time with her.

Seeing them all struggle out front, it was the elf who worked in the building who let them in. She even took a few of the items from Dorun who was carrying the most as everyone entered.

“I see you’re back.”

Putting down the items she had taken, the elven woman moved behind the counter and took out a small bag and a paper.

“This will explain to the guild what you did as well as inform them that we are paying you directly and will send the guild their cut during the next few days. While not a common way of doing things it has been done before so you shouldn’t have anything on your end to worry about.”

Taking the offered items, Victor heard it jingle with the sound of coins. With an entrance fee of a large copper coin, he assumed that was what it would primarily be with possibly a few small silver or small copper ones mixed in.

Giving the paper to Alena, Victor peeked in the pouch to see that he was right on his assumption before looking back at the elf. Maybe he was getting more used to the fantasy aspect that the world seemed to have, or maybe imagination can’t live up to reality, but he didn’t find her as flawless as the first elf he had met, even if he didn’t like how things ended up with her.

“Is there anything else? Xelebre seemed to talk a lot and I just thought maybe there was something else she wanted to say or ask.”

Looking at Victor for a short moment, the elf turned around and left into the hallway that the trio had been lead through earlier. After a bit of time passed she returned with a small box, placing it on the counter before nodding at it.

“She said that you could have this as a bonus. It’s a demo statue she made using pokre wood. I trust you know what that means and accommodate it accordingly when you set it out.”

Rather than answering the implied question, Victor smiled as he picked up the small wooden box. It looked slightly shorter than a new pencil and was slightly thicker than a water bottle, except in a square shape.

A bonus of some sort wasn’t what Victor had been getting at, but it made him feel like he had done a good job for the customer and hoped that it meant he would be able to do more work for her in the future. With a quick thanks and telling the elf where he would be staying in case, they wanted to contact him the trio left with payment in hand.

“A demo statue,” Victor said mostly to himself as he turned the box over, “Do either of you know what that is exactly? I mean is it just a sort of example of how the statue will look like?”

Alena and Dorun weren’t completely sure but thought that Victor was likely to be right. It made a lot more sense to bring small examples of furniture and oversized statues to a person rather than hauling them around town or expecting high paying clients to visit you.

It was a little odd, in Victor's mind at least, that the statue was being demoed. Furniture or things like pianos made sense, but he assumed a statue would be more of a custom order. All that he could think of was that the statue was of someone famous or that mass production was a thing in this world.

Thinking of the two possibilities he hoped it was just someone who was well known and beloved in this world.

Unless it was magic that allowed it. Somehow he felt that mass production was only alright if magic was involved.

With the delivery over the rest of the day felt like it was pretty quick to end.

The statue was left in the box at the inn for the time being.

The money from the delivery was enough to cover multiple days' worth of expenses, even after giving Dorun and Alena some of the coins.

Drelt had finished all of his woodworking in the time that they were out. While the chess pieces weren’t what Victor would call perfect, they were close enough to be distinct and prevent confusing one piece for another.

Victor did realize that the chess pieces, while two complete sets, didn’t have a way to know one from the other like back home. He needed to have them different colors for the demonstration.

Because of this, he sent Dorun out to get two colors of paint so they could color the chess and checker pieces, as well as the board where needed. He figured that if he had a slave get two colors, one for one set of game pieces and the other for every other square on the board. Not really caring what color they were he told Dorun to get the cheapest two colors of paint he could find.

Everyone relaxed in their room until Dorun returned with some blue and purple paint as instructed. One set of pieces for chess and checkers were painted blue while the other stayed unpainted. The board that would be used for both chess and checkers had every other square painted purple making it pop a bit more than Victor thought it would.

During the painting, Victor noticed that Dorun was wearing some bracers that he didn’t have equipped before and assumed he decided to spend some money on armor. He made a mental note to think about armor in the future, if not for everyone's survival at least so they didn’t have to waste their chance to buy freedom on something like that.

The rest of the day and night went by pretty easily for everyone and they found themselves sleeping in the same room as Victor as they had since coming to the capital. A night filled with nothing but the minor sounds of the hustle and bustle outside the window, someone in a room down the hall indulging in carnal recreation, and someone outside yelling for a moment before passing out drunk.

When daybreak finally arrived, emphasized by the light filling the room from the window, Drelt was the first one awake.

He had collected all of the game pieces and both of the boards, making sure the pieces were all in the proper pouches while both of the boards were stacked as they needed to be. Drelt wanted to get this done as soon as possible, but at the same time didn't wish to disturb Victor’s rest. With the conflicting desires he simply waited with all of the pouches and the boards ready so they could go at a moment's notice.

Upon waking up, however, Victor decided that they would all start with a quick breakfast and a trip to the guild to check on any jobs that Alena and Dorun could manage in the meantime. He wasn't sure how long he would be with Drelt so he wanted to make sure that the others were busy doing something but not overwhelmed with expectations in case it didn't take too long.

By the time everyone was settled, a fair amount of time had passed. A quick look between Victor to Drelt was all that was needed before they went on.

"I hope she likes games enough that this will cover the knowledge exchange. You put a lot of work into it so I'm just hoping that it doesn't turn out to be fruitless. You deserve to have help with...... that."

Victor pointed at Drelts disfigured body parts as he spoke.

Drelt didn't respond except with a nod, not that he could have anyway, but Victor thought he saw a bit of excitement and hope in the man’s eyes as they walked through the roads.

This time there wasn't as much talk about the pair as they walked, in part because Drelt was carrying what they had brought with them showing a more typical owner-slave dynamic. In fact, the only noticeable reaction was from another person using her dwarven slave to carry a large number of items. The weight was likely great since Victor noticed the dwarf was sweating noticeably.

The woman made a slight comment on how he should upgrade to something stronger if he planned to keep the slave long term.

Only the feeling that he should be careful of what he said to people in the capital prevented Victor from trying to explain that Drelt wasn't a something but a someone. Instead, he simply nodded and smiled, commenting on how it was the best he could do with his current funds.

"Yes, sometimes what you want and what you can afford are two dramatically different things. My husband would only allow me to have one personal slave so I had to pick between useful and attractive. In the end, I wanted something with more uses so I picked him."

Once again hearing the people of this world treated so harshly made Victor angry, but he held it in as he thought of a string of expletives he wanted to say. He had his morals and ideals, but he also knew that without knowing the laws and workings of the society he found himself in, bad things could happen if he spoke up. It wasn't out of the expectations that the royals might end the life of anyone to even question these laws and all of Victor’s goals have stayed the same since he had arrived here. Surviving being the one that was most important to him.

"Alright Drelt, sorry about that, but I wanted to get moving past her and the last thing I wanted to do was get into a conversation about slavery. Stuff like how to manage the slaves you have and what to do, so on and so forth. I'm sure you don't mind that we are going to head back and work on things with that woman, um...."

Getting stuck for a moment, Victor snapped his fingers as they kept walking. A couple of kids looked at him, but the adults thought nothing of it. Eventually, he managed to get where he was trying to get to mentally.

"Elly something, or something like that at least. Elly say.... that sounds right, Elisay. She said today is the earliest that we can go talk with her about this so let's hope that she wasn't doing anything to trick us or anything. If not well I might have to think of something more serious to offer her..... although most of that stuff that I can think of I only half know if I'm honest. If I had known all this would have happened I would have gotten a how to make or do stuff book instead of having the ones I have with me... regardless let's go."

The rest of the trip to the private library was mostly uneventful. Victor hadn't needed much time to adjust to the larger population of non-humans, thanks to the fact he had been able to adjust to them in the more mainly human areas before coming here. He imagined if he had just been found by some beastkins, or dwarfs, or gnolls instead of a human patrol he would have reacted differently. Although imagining that situation, he didn't especially like how he pictured his reaction to any of those, albeit for different reasons.

Opening the door to the library, Victor was greeted by Elioce working on something. As best as he could tell she was transferring the writing from one book onto a scroll. He thought of the printing press, one bit of knowledge he wouldn't mind sharing if the games weren't enough, and pushed the thought away as he stood at the table opposite her.

"I got some stuff ready..."

Victor was cut off before he could finish his thought. Elioce put a finger in his direction as she almost hissed at him.

"I am working. I can't deal with you right now. I only have eight more pages to put onto a scroll then we can talk."

Sitting down at the table, Drelt was about to sit on the floor next to him when Victor told him to use the chair, before watching the woman work.

He noticed her fingers glowing as she wrote as well as the fact that the writing seemed to go from left to right. As she needed space she just unrolled the scroll to create additional room to write and would occasionally mutter something as she did so.

From what he could tell, based on her occasional complaints about the grammar and how certain things seemed to be lacking, Victor assumed she was writing some sort of family history. Either that or some exceptionally bland adventure story.

Regardless of what she was writing the final product was finished before too much time had passed and she put the book aside while leaving the scroll open so its ink could dry.

"Let's see. Why are you.... oh right, you wanted to do an informational exchange. I hope you brought something along that I can find interesting and isn't something I already know about. If it is already in my library it will be as good as if you provided me with nothing. Same with if you give me gossip."

Setting the eight by eight board out first, after taking it from Drelt, Victor smiled a bit, "I highly doubt you know about these games. They are from back home so unless someone else came here already and spread the word I have doubts anyone has ever seen it before."

Turning to look at the bags, Victor hesitated before asking Drelt to give him the checker's bags and handed one over to Elioce.

"This is a game we call checkers. It's the easiest of the three games by far. The other two it depends on who you ask on which is a bigger challenge but this is the easiest."

Setting up the board with his pieces he explained that this was a demo. The checkers would normally be red and black instead of unpainted wood and blue, and that they would normally be in a circular shape instead of a basic square.

Elioce seemed to understand that for demonstration purposes people would often cut some corners. It seemed that so long as the game was interesting, she didn't care if the practical demonstration was a bit clunky and unsightly, so long as its function and rules were understandable.

Checkers, as it turned out, wasn't especially interesting to her. She said it seemed similar enough to another game she knew of played on a ten by ten board. Apparently, instead of being kinged, in that game once a piece got to another side it would return to any of the first five squares it could be on. Another rule was instead of jumping over the pieces they would land on it and take it with them as a prisoner or proof of a kill, depending on who explained the rules. Upon getting to the end you would claim the other players' pieces as points while discarding any of your own as casualties. While your pieces would still be lost it at least prevented the other player from gaining points from your lost pieces.

Victor wasn't overly surprised that there was something similar to checkers in this world but still didn't like that his first game wasn't worth much as he pushed the pieces aside and placed the chess pieces on the board, this time doing both sides as it required specifics instead of just a general description.

This time the rules took a fair amount longer to explain. He started out with the king and how the king was the most important piece because it would determine who won the game. After that, he explained the queen and its ability to move.

After describing the queen he went from there to explain the bishop, although Elioce said she would suggest calling it the cleric since more people would know what one was, and the rook. She commented on how the clerics’ starting position on the board would limit its ability to get to certain places no matter how it moved.

Victor took that analysis of the game as a good thing since he couldn't imagine someone going into deep details about the game if they weren't curious, at least to a point, about how it was played and done.

The knights gave Elioce pause as she tried to figure them out with more interest than the others. The odd pattern of movement and the limited length was unique to it, at least in this game. She took pieces from one spot on the board and set up a scenario where neither the rook nor bishop could take the knight, but it could take either if protection wasn't available elsewhere. The knight seemed to be the piece that interested her the most

Finally, he got to the pawns and explained how they moved in a very simple and basic pattern. She did see the need for that and started to say she could see this as a way to test if people had basic tactical analysis skills. She stopped when Victor told her what happened if a pawn got to the other side of the board.

"If the pawn can become anything except for the king you need to name the queen something else for this game. It wouldn't do good for them to be able to become royalty just from being able to do their job properly. The queen is powerful, but we can't let pawns become queens so it needs another name."

Looking over the piece a bit and thinking of the proximity to the king, as well as the fact there was only one of it she came up with a few different ideas on what could be used instead of a queen.

General, tactician, advisor, or bodyguard.

Not really caring about the naming convention, Victor said that general would work. While he didn't have a strong like to any of them he did think that it had the most impact on the feel for the promotion from pawn. Especially since in a war survival alone might be enough for a promotion when everyone else is failing to survive.

After that, he explained the only two exceptions to the basic rules of how a piece can move. The fact that a pawn can move two squares instead of just one, but only on its first move, and how the king and the rook can come together as well as swap places, but only so long as neither of them has made a move yet.

With that Elioce demanded that he play a game with her. Since, in Victor’s mind, this meant that she saw value in the game and the knowledge of how it worked, he agreed without any hesitation.

Even though he had experience playing chess, it had been years since he had played and he was nothing even approaching a professional. He got to play a state champ once but lost despite the man playing by removing both of his rooks from the board as a handicap and playing him and three others at the same time.

Sure he was in middle school at the time, but that told him how big of a gap there was and to not bother taking the game seriously. Especially since he suspected that the man was taking it easy on them on top of the handicap provided in the game.

With Elioce, the game was very close. She and Victor ended up playing into something of a stalemate since he had lost all of his pieces while she ended with just a knight and they decided to end it at that point.

The second game, however, was a lot faster than the first. Victor found himself struggling to stay alive and barely able to make any sort of counter-attack. She had even managed to turn two pawns into queens, or as they were going to be called going forward, generals.

She didn't even end the game as soon as she could have, choosing to keep taking out Victor’s pieces until he only had the king left before putting him in checkmate. Normally he would have conceded the game before that, but he wanted her to get more of a taste for the game.

As Elioce looked over the pieces she had captured, Victor couldn't help but be a bit annoyed that he was defeated so easily, but knew that he shouldn't be surprised. He was nothing even close to an expert with years of rust to shake off while she was someone who, he assumed, played tons of games and was an academic.

"I like this game."

Elioce was looking over the pieces a bit, holding one of the pawns that she had taken from Victor. She tapped her finger against it as she turned it around.

"I like this piece the best. It starts out unassuming, but if it is able to prove itself it can become whatever it wants, except the king. Although in this game having a second king wouldn’t be beneficial."

She carefully put down the piece on the board with a smile.

"When I have a child I might name him Pawn. It seems like a name with a lot of potential. It fights hard and while it is easy to destroy, if it survives it can become a knight, a cleric, a general. It's a good and strong name filled to the brim with potential."

Setting the pieces up again in their starting position, Elioce stared at it, "This alone is nearly enough, but not quite. I do think that if they were black and white they would look better than the blue and colorless you provided."

Victor was glad that she liked this game and took out the last one, setting out the nineteen by nineteen board.

"It is a great game. I'll even let you keep the board and such if you at least pay for what it cost to make it."

"I'll do that," Elioce said and took out some coins, putting down enough silver to pay for everything he spent and then some.

"You said there were three games. This last one looks to be very involved. I don't think I have seen many boards this big before. What is it called?"

"Go," Victor replied.

Elioce waited for a short moment before responding, "That's the name? Just go?"

Victor told her that was all the name was. A simple short word that might have a meaning to the ones who made it, but for him was just a word to say which game was being talked about.

This last game took longer than chess to explain, but only because Victor remembered the handicap system that was used to help equalize the players to make the game more even.

Elioce found this aspect especially interesting as it would allow weaker players to have more of an even footing against someone with more experience. She wondered how many people would need less than nine stones to have a fair game with her.

He also told her that he didn't have the time or skill to make nice smooth stones or wood for the two sides before starting on the game itself, saying that some people would use a nine by nine or thirteen by thirteen board if they didn't want to play a full-length game. This was because, as far as he knew, two good players could make a game that lasted for days. He didn't know firsthand that it was true but could see it being true.

The basics of the rules were easy enough to explain. One stone placed at a time, fully surround pieces or groups to capture them, the five and a half points given to the person who went second, and various other rules that he could remember were explained in as much detail as he could provide.

Elioce wanted to play this game with Victor as well, but since the late-day bell had just rung, he said no to her despite her insistence. He explained that he only knew the rules and never played it once his cousin lost his interest in the game. This meant that he had played about ten or fifteen games total in his life.

If it wasn't for her stomach growling, Victor imagined that Elioce would have pushed harder that he play the game with her.

"I didn't realize it was that late," Elioce admitted as she looked out the window.

Turning back to Victor, Elioce had a wide smile on her face, "You gave me plenty. Return here tomorrow and I will provide you with all the information about your slave’s poisoning that you want as well as information on the creature that did it to him. I need to talk to someone after that so try to come in early. If I get them made fast enough I can sell these games."

"Can I at least get a cut of the profits if you do that?"

Elioce looked at him a bit, "That wasn't part of the deal."

Victor was quiet as he looked at her for a long moment, "If you're going to be making money from making copies of the games, that's more than just information that I provided you. It means that you got a flow of income because of me. I think a small cut is fair. Let's say five percent of the profits? And I mean profit not sales. I don’t want to cut into the cost of production."

Elioce thought for a moment then smirked, "Tell you what. I want to see if I can figure out your written language a bit. If you got a book or are willing to write me a story, I'll give you three percent of the profits. Take the night to think on it. We can decide tomorrow."

A short back and forth happened between Victor and Elioce before he left followed closely by Drelt.

They had only gotten about half a block when Victor felt Drelt suddenly hugging him from the side tightly. He looked at the slave and couldn't help but feel like he was finally doing something good as he put one arm over the man's shoulder.

"We'll be back here tomorrow. With any luck, we can take care of this soon."

Victor let Drelt hug him a long time before they returned back to the inn, ready to have dinner and relax for the rest of the day before calling it a night.