It took us a long, uneventful trip to to to the capital, but we ended up doing it in just under 3 days. We ended up paying a gold out of my pocket to the wagon driver for eating some of their food, which was much more than they would have gotten selling it anyway, and we went off.

I stared in awe at the buildings. Most were made of stone, and were short and stocky, but a select few looked straight ripped from reality, those being the few skyscrapers that were in the city. I had to say, it did not fit the aesthetic at all, but if people wanted to build skyscrapers then, more power to them I guess. Giant metal and glass buildings. I guess the glass-blower and forges of the city got paid a lot for their work, hopefully. Though, knowing some of these people were heavily business-minded, were probably way underpaid versus the materials needed to make that stuff, and enchant it against the elements probably.

“This way, laddie.” Antivitz took the lead through the city.

“Is there a place to stay here?” I asked him.

“Where did you pay to live in Eunuch?” He asked me.

“Eh, some tavern… The Sow I think it was?”

“Ah, we may as well stop there first for a bite to eat and a rest before we head onward. If ye haven’t noticed already as well, your maximum HP and Stamina lower while you’re out and about doing things. It’s very slow and only a couple of points an hour or two depending on your stats, but everything counts, here. When you sit down to rest you can recover your points, or eat cooked food and possibly get stat boosts as well. People prepare giant feasts inside dungeons and large dungeons, or raids as they’re generally called, and buff their teammates up with fresh food. The food’s buffs get weaker as it gets older too, so fresh food is important, and also that it’s well prepared. Cooks are a valuable thing in this game.” We walked down the street as he spoke, Unwog taking in all the sights and sounds around us while I listened to Antivitz drone on about valuable information about the game.

“Huh, thanks Vitz, I didn’t know that about food here. All I knew so far was that I could get some HP and Mana/stamina recover from sitting and eating food.” We discussed other things, mainly how to get more cash for myself, but Antivitz told me he’d buy the Gor artifacts from me and I’d get a lot of gold for those, so I was okay with my 3,000 gold or so right now. We eventually walked up to what looked to be a completely different tavern, but it was unmarked on the front sign and looked empty. There were a ton of people coming in and out though, and people talking to the door before walking in. it was weird.

“Alright laddie, go ahead and walk up to the door and just say what tavern you want.”

“What? That’s not how things are supposed to work. What is this?” Vitz sighed.

“This is a transport tavern. When you start the game, wherever you spawn, you have the option of choosing a tavern. However when you do choose one, you’re able to access it at any time, as long as you’ve paid up on your bill at that tavern. Just walk up to the door and say “The Sow”. Don’t get into people’s ways though.” I nodded, watching the flow of people coming in and out. They just didn’t end. I moved forward and my party of two additionals followed me. We moved into the flow of traffic and eventually we came to the door.

“The Sow, please!” The door opened and I felt like I was being pulled like a magnet into the doorway, like it was trying to speed me along. We all hurried into the door and the door slammed behind us.

“Oh, one more thing, lad.” Antivitz turned to me. “Transport taverns are fast travel spots on your map. Kind of like portals between places, but you have to be at one to get to another one.” That made more sense of why there were so many people coming in and out, and I told Vitz as such. “Ah, yes. Well, taverns are usually pretty busy anyway, but with them functioning as fast travel spots, people tend to use them as rest spots before moving on.” We moved farther into the tavern to prevent blocking new entries. We sat at an empty table and Olga came over.

“Can we get some lamb stew please? For all three of us.” I asked Olga.

“You just want lamb stew? We can make literally anything here.” Olga said. “I forgot to mention that to ye previously as well, I apologize.”

“No need. Uh… actually just the stew is fine for now. You guys should make a menu of what’s most commonly ordered and maybe some specials or something. I’m surprised you guys haven’t already.”

“Is a good idea,” she answered. “And you two?”

“Stamina boost 50%, HP boost 50%.” Vitz answered.

“Same.” Unwog answered.

“Wait, I was supposed to order what I wanted in stats?” I asked.

“I guess I should have mentioned that to ye lad. Yes, typically you eat to fill hunger, but to get stat boosts. So what do you do when you want a stat boost? You order the stat boost since they have to make the food that gives you the stat boost.”

“Uh, I’ll change my order to what they’re having, plus Dexterity boost 50%.” It looked like these orders were being sent to the cooks in the back via the interface.

“Okay. This will be eight-hundred and fifty two gold and seventy two silvers.”

“Jesus christ, what the fuck guys?”

“Well ye want to be prepared for anything don’t ye?” Vitz asked.

“Hell yeah but that’s too much! Make it 20% boost food for us instead, Olga.” I said, glaring at Vitz. Vitz sheepishly twiddled his thumbs and looked at them while Unwog found the ceiling particularly interesting. “What the fuck, you guys. Okay Olga 30% food, that’s it.”

“That will be three hundred gold and seventy-five silvers.” I figured I’d try mentally opening the window for it in the interface and I just went ahead and typed in the amount of gold for the food we were going to get and transferred it to her. She verified in her interface. My bag got a little lighter and I heard the clinking of coins around Olga.

“Thank you. Enjoy your food when it arrives!” She walked back behind the bar and continued wiping down various glasses, which is what she was doing when we got in. Much less of a personal touch but I didn’t really want to advertise that I was holding a bunch of gold. I would have been more than happy to buy the 50% buff food, but I wanted to seem like a pinch-purse, just a little bit.

We sat at the table sipping our beers for a while, not saying anything, just enjoying not sitting in a cart and enjoying the warm fireplace. I decided to take a poke through my inventory and see what I had in there. I had the artifacts, a bunch of food, some water in skins, and that was pretty much it. I discussed a couple more things with Antivitz about artifacts and then had a thought for Unwog.

“Hey, Unwog. I know what Antivitz does, what did you do in your village?” He turned and looked at me with a mouthful of beer.

“Hm?” he gulped it down quickly. “Most of the Orcs who live on the outside of the village are hunters and trappers, well versed in both. It’s a whole community effort really. We hunt and trap food and use the furs for our clothing,” he gestured to himself, “or for furniture covering, or what have you. If we have extras we send trade caravans to one of the cities in Gor to trade pelts and furs for other kinds of food or just sell them off for gold.”

“Sounds like a simple life, pretty much.”

“Yeah, it is. Like I said it’s a community effort, so we don’t really receive a monetary income, it’s basically helping the community to have a place to live in the area and interact with other Orcs or passersby.”

“Yeah, or threaten to chop people’s heads off for digging around in lame dirt…” I muttered under my breath.

“Needless to say it’s a pretty simple life, as you said. My wife and I…” his eyes widened. “I forgot to tell my wife we were leaving to go adventuring. Crap.”

“Eh, she’ll get over it.” I waved my stein dismissively. “You gotta have some fun with your life man.”

“No, you don’t understand. She used to be a spy for the previous leader of our lands, the best of the best.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “She’ll be able to track me anywhere I go.”

“Dude, I doubt it. We traveled so many miles away, there is absolutely no way. I’m sure there’s been like five caravans through the area by now or whatnot.” I shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about it man. Relax, drink, enjoy. If she’s as good of a spy or Rogue if you say she is, she should have no trouble providing the stuff for the village like you both typically do.”

“Well she’s the one who actually does all of the hunting and gathering, I just prepare the carcasses and meat and such.”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.” I took another sip of ale and our food was delivered to us promptly, and we ate. Soon after, we made to exit the tavern to go back to Ushak.

“Alright boy, go ahead and just say “Ushak” to the door and we’ll go through it back to Ushak.” I did as requested and we headed back through to Ushak.