Inns will offer you a comfortable place to stay while you are traveling. They also serve as a sort of ‘safe location’ that will allow you to return from death to the location with exceptionally low chance of coming into danger. Remember the locations of Inns to make your life- and death- easier. – DIO Pamphlet

It took another three days to cross the border into Solom. We had a few different monster battles, one including a hedgehog monster that I jokingly called Sonic. No one else got the joke, Jonar just asked questions and Empress looked at me impassively. The day before the border crossing, Jonar earned enough XP to buy Spectral bow, and unlocked two more Archery Knacks- Spectral Arrows and Imbue Arrows. Once he spent the point of Zeal, his bow appeared. It was a rather interesting bow. It kind of glowed (not enough to see in the dark, however) and was the perfect size and strength for Jonar. It stayed with him until lost or destroyed, and then he could spend another Zeal to bring it back at full durability.

Our tactics switched after this. I would engage the enemy like a tank, taking the brunt of all damage. Empress would harass the enemy and provide a bit of distraction from me, and Jonar would do ranged damage. His arrows hit with deadly accuracy, and, overall, it was an upgrade. To survive as a tank I spent 60 XP on getting all my Brawn stats to 2, raising my health to 7. I wasn’t really meant to be the tank, but we had to do what we had to do. I was saving up for Battle Cry or to get Against All Odds to level 2 next.

Most of the kills gave very little XP- whether that was because our party had three members or because the enemies were weaker here (analyze proved it) I was unsure- maybe it was both. We would net 1-5 XP per kill, and we fought 2 – 3 times a day. I raised my Against All Odds to level 2 for 30 XP. It now gave me between 2% and 50% increase to Morale, speed and combat healing. It also added a boost to courage as well, now. I was a little worried that when fighting an enemy that was much harder, we would get a false sense of courage, but I would have to wait and see.

Jonar bought Spectral Arrow next and could see 2 new powers on the Archery list: Split arrow which made one arrow turn into two in the air, and Poison Arrow. A willpower point would last an hour on the spectral arrows, and his quiver would never empty. His handmade arrows dealt .05 damage on their own, while the spectral arrow did .15 damage. After the hour, all the arrows would simply disappear.

Even Empress got a new Instinct- piercing cry. When she screamed, the enemy was distracted for 1 second, and any attack on the enemy during the time they were distracted allowed the attack to partially have piercing damage, ignoring armor.

With all the new XP spent, we were even more dangerous. Animals and lesser monsters started to avoid us, and by the time we made it past the border into Solom, which had about as much excitement as passing a state border without the sign alerting that you had entered a new state, the fights were down to 1 a day.

We also got to sleep a little more, as Empress had a night shift as well. She would take middle watch since her eyesight was so sharp. I took first watch and Jonar took the last one. With the extra food that Empress hunted, we also ate well throughout the day.

Once we crossed into Solom, the weather got even colder. Jonar said that the warm months were between April and September whereas the cold months were significantly colder. When he said those months, I heard different months, but they translated in my head quickly. It looked like I wouldn’t have to memorize new names for days and months. The year, Jonar said, was 800.

The Yeshuan language was a harsh language, full of guttural sounds and choppy sentences and words. It was not without its beauty, and I liked how words could be combined for quite a complex concept. Like the word Littopgoghtrumbakak was ‘Bird flying in search for prey’ literally, but it conveyed a sense of being vigilant and watchful, especially for things far away. I wondered if the language was created by the designers or the AIs. I thought it was probably the AIs, as I think once Yeshua and Gar’shan was combined into one language. Now, though, they sounded quite different.

I hadn’t heard the Gar’shan language in practice, but I could think it with a little mental strain. It sounded a lot smoother, but still had some guttural sounds. It a;sp added a lot of clicks and hand motions to convey senses of irony, seriousness, politeness and other emotions.

As cold as it was, spring was still in the air. The snow had largely melted, though at night and early morning there was a frost covering everything. Just like in the real world, somehow spring smelled different than winter, more verdant and full of potential life as opposed to crispness and metallic cold.

We came across our first village a day after entering Solom. Jonar knew it was called Winespring, and he had passed through here a few times, but never really stopped, usually just going straight through. He normally would have everything he needed and did not need to stop in the town for any reason.

We had collected furs and some herbs along the way and hoped to sell them for some comfort items. As we entered the village of maybe 200 people, including the farmlands around the village, I could hear Gar’shan and Yeshuan language being spoken simultaneously, sometimes being mixed and mingled in interesting ways.

We went into a building called ‘The Come On Inn”. The joke made sense in English and Gar’shan but not in Yeshuan. We entered and looked around. The bottom floor was a bar/restaurant with maybe 15 bar stools, 10 tables for 5 and a stage. No one was on the stage currently, but the bar was about half full of patrons. It was early in the day, around 10 am, and I was surprised to see that it was even that full. I had assumed everyone would be working, but obviously I was wrong.

The bartender welcomed us. “Hello, travelers.”

“Good Morning! We are just passing through, and while we would like some food and maybe a room for a night, we would first need to see about selling some furs and leathers. Do you know where that might be done?”

“Yes, go down the street until the crossroad. Turn left and about a half mile down the road until you will find a tanner. He might be interested and will offer you a better price than if you were to sell at the general store. Tell the tanner, whose name is Micah, that Gin sent you, he might give you a good price. Be ready for the smells, of course- its why it is so far out of town.

I already knew this would be the case from my studies of history. Of course, I had never experienced it in real life before- and when we got there, I was almost floored by the smell. Urine and shit were the predominant smell and it was so bad it made my eyes water. Jonar seemed to handle it better than I did- maybe he was used to it since he did leather work himself.

I let Jonar take the lead- Jonar seemed to handle people better than I did. Jonar called out for Micah.

“Hello! hw can I help you, travelers?” He said when we finally found him. He was kneeling over a pit that was the source of the smell for feces, it had piles of shit in it, watered down. There were pieces of leather floating in the hellish stew,

“Good Morning, sir. Gin told us to find you, said you might have a good price for the hides and furs we have.”

Micah stood up and smiled. “I can always use more hides and furs! My name is Micah.” He took off a thick glove and extended his hand. Jonar accepted it and they shook. I nodded, and Micah nodded back.

“My name is Jonar and this is Seth.,” Jonar said. “Shall I show you what we have?”

“Sure, what do you have?” Jonar and I started unpacking the skins we had. I had the sloth’s skin and it was massive. Jonar had packed it tightly, so it took me a little while to get it all out. Jonar took all the smaller skins and furs out. Micah whistled at the sloth’s skin.

“That will cost me a pretty copper, and well skinned too.” He started looking at it closely and finally stood up. “I can give you 30 silver for all of this.”

“30 maybe just for the sloth skin, but what about the other skins and furs, surely you can go 45.”

“I can’t go more than 35 silver all together, and that is a steal.”

“Make it 40 and we got a deal,” Jonar countered.

“38”

Jonar nodded, “deal.” They shook again and Micah got out some coins and gave it to Jonar.

After we left Micah, we made our way to the general store. We looked around and found some rope, a backpack for Jonar, and a change of clothes for him. That cost 12 and 4 copper silver. The General Store owner was a man named Alkor, and his prices were fixed- he refused to haggle.

We went back to The Come On Inn and paid room and board from Gin. We learned that Gin was not the owner of the Inn, but his aunt was. Her name was Lenora and when we met her, I liked her instantly. She was Gar’shan and knew how to entertain the guests of her Inn. She could take up the air in the bar and had a voice that commanded respect and attention. Her laugh was hearty and contagious, and anyone who chatted with her left with a smile.

It was her that suggested we look at the request board. The request board had requests from the townsfolk for help and others posted advertising their services. We had the whole day ahead of us, and we could use the extra coins. Jonar and I looked at the board, which was at the corner of the Inn.

There were dozens of request. Most were either too simple, like fetch quests for very little money, or too complex like protecting a caravan for a number of nights. We didn’t take those, but one request did stand out:

Bandits have taken over the rubble of the Old Fort and made the passage into northern Solom dangerous. Clear them out and the Mayor will pay you 1 gold. Go see Teacher Morris for details.

I recognized a quest when I saw one. We went off immediately to search for Teacher Morris.