## Chapter six, Not a fairytale

After breakfast, Alfred hurried off to his Smitty to start on a Canfee grinder and continue working on the sword he was making for me.

Rondellen and I left the house just after Alfred, heading into the village center. Walking over there I remembered an earlier question I had been wanting to ask. “Rondellen? Will my mana restore faster when I level up? And if I tell you my attributes, can you give me tips on how I should proceed along when leveling?”

Rondellen had a reflective look when he answered me. “I will do my best to help you with this great honor you bestow on me. I have only helped Ragnhild with this, the same as my father helped me. So what you do, is something again you would know if you were past level 15, but it’s better to do it as early as possible. You use the command share status.

Share status

State person to share with:

Rondellen

Share status page with Rondellen Y/N?

Yes

Status shared

### Rondellen ###

See Green Raven’s status page Y/N?

Yes

Status:

Name: Green Raven

Level: 10

Coins: 1795 gold, 35 silver,

8 rusty copper.

Attributes:

Strength 10

Dexterity 10

Endurance 7

Vitality 10

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 30

Available points: 15

Health: 100/100

Stamina: 70/70

Mana: 30/30

Skills:

[Inspect item] level 2/10

[Inspect being] level 1/10

[Telekinesis] level 1

“Well tell you what lad, it could have been a lot worse. You could have been at level 16. You see, at level 15 you get the possibility to reset your attributes and start over. Thing is that I’d probably put all remaining points in Wisdom and thus bring your mana up to 45. It would help you when practicing [Telekinesis]. And then when Alfred is done with your sword you can practice with it together. When you reach level 15 and get your second skill you will hopefully know what way you want to go with your points. Don’t use your points now. Do it before going to sleep, putting 15 points in Wisdom at the same time will make you pass out. Your second question about mana regeneration is also something that will become clearer when reaching level 15. I can tell you that yes you restore mana over time. But there are mana potions so it’s good to always carry a few in your inventory. That is of course if mana is something you use in an amount that will make you deplete it in a fight or when training.“

### Green Raven ###

What Rondellen said made a lot of sense. And what was this I heard, I’d get a second skill at level 15 too? “Thank you Rondellen!”

We’d been walking slowly while talking and I shared my status page after leaving the house and now we were in the center of Ostvik.

“Green Raven, over there is ‘The Happy Clothes Man’, run by Anders.” Rondellen pointed towards a one-story building that was painted in a green color that made me think of the apples I used to bring to school growing up. The color of the house was a great contrast to the rest of the stores and restaurants that lay on the Main Street of Ostvik because they were mainly gray or white.

When we entered the store, it was much the same. Green but with a shade darker in color. It was more like the green any army would be envious of was on all of the walls and ceilings while the floor was wooden and was probably just oiled. There were clothes everywhere hanging and laying folded on tables, more or less looking like any department store back on earth.

A booming high voice all of a sudden was heard from within the store somewhere, “Rondellen! Have you come to fleece me again out of hard-earned gold?” Followed by a burst of raucous laughter.

“Hey, Anders,” Rondellen said with a smile. “No, not this time, I have a young lad with me that wants help with choosing out a few dinner robes and probably some other clothes as well. Just know that he saved my life out on the road, so your regular prices do not apply today.”

Anders's laughing face turned somber and he said, “I told Alfred that he should have gone out and met you at the halfway mark. Did you run into Shadow warriors?”

“Yes, but thank the gods they were all low level, under 30.” He turned towards me and said, “meet Anders, he is Alfred’s little brother all though, as you can see he is almost as big and loud as his brother.”

“Hi, Anders, nice store you’ve got,” I said, turning to the man that looked like a copy of Alfred, only a couple of years younger. “And before it comes up, yes I’m

an offworlder that met Rondellen out on the road to Ostvik. I found out before dinner yesterday I need dinner robes. I was thinking of getting maybe two or three, but I’m open to suggestions. Also, I would like to get a couple of new sets of clothes and shoes if possible,” I said while pointing to the ones I was wearing.

Anders looked from me to Rondellen and then said, “Lad, you probably know by now that telling everyone that you’re an offworlder is not the best way to get friends. Many are resentful of you since you level faster and get more points and have a higher chance of getting better skills.”

“I have just figured that out, but also figured that since you being Alfred’s brother it was safe, to be honest. It saves time, and less chance of both of us becoming confused.”

“Yes that is true,” Anders said with a wink and then just vanished for a few seconds. He appeared loaded with robes. “I think these robes could work for you. If you turn down that aisle, you will find a room for changing,” Anders said and pointed down to the right.

I nodded my thanks, took the robes, and went and tried them on. There were a total of five robes, the first was a pink color that reminded me of Razzmatazz. It was wonderfully woven and the fit was perfect for me. I thought I could wear it at a more informal dinner like the one I was at yesterday. The next one was finely made but in a different color. This was probably Caput Mortuum. Thinking of these crazy names of colors made me smile, a sad smile. The only reason I knew of them was that one of my mates, Robert’s mother, worked as a clothes designer and she always made crazy colorful outfits for him. Damn, I missed them, and my mother.

I heard Anders shouting “How’s it going? Need any help?”

I shouted back, “almost done!” Cutting my trip down memory lane short, I tried on one last robe in the color of Lusty Gallant. The other two were in black, and that was not a color I thought of when thinking of dinner wear.

Bringing back all the robes, I came back to the front of the store where both men stood talking. “Nice colors you picked out. I’ll take these three,” pointing to the three robes I’d chosen as I said to Anders.

“With a name like yours, I thought you’d like colors. I just had these made up a couple of weeks ago.” He said with a smile.

Rondellen just shook his head and muttered something about Anders and crazy colors, just look at the outside of the store.

Anders laughed and said, “Well he didn’t choose the black ones. So maybe he is also crazy according to you?”

Rondellen stopped muttering and looked up with a huge smile, “you know I’m only busting your chops, Anders. I like that you are not just black and white as many here are. And the robes Green Raven took are perfect for a young lad that is on the up and up.”

We all laughed and Anders took all the robes, put them aside, and said, ”Now everyday clothes, is it anything special or specific you are looking for?”

“Not really, but I have found that you can never go wrong with pockets. I want pants with lots of pockets and maybe a jacket with pockets both on the outside and inside. Come to think about it, can I have some pockets on the inside of my robes or the outside, but they must be hidden. I know I have an inventory but sometimes a pocket is what you need.”

Anders just looked at Rondellen and gaping said, “where did you find this lad?”

Rondellen just smiled and said, “that’s what Alfred asked too. Come to dinner tonight, and you will become even more amazed. Green Raven is staying in the guesthouse.”

Anders nodded thoughtfully and just said, “yes it has been a while since I was over for dinner.” He turned to me and said, “I will bring the robes you chose and three sets of outfits with the pockets you asked for when coming to dinner.”

I thanked him and looked at Rondellen, “Is there any place where I can turn my pelts into sleeping bags?”

He told me that it was just down the street and told Anders that we would see him tonight and we left.

On the way over, Rondellen told me that the best way here was to keep everything close to the west. As offworlders like me weren’t popular in Ostvik.

“Why is that, Rondellen?” I asked.

“Like you probably noted when leveling up, you get two extra points as an offworlder. There is thought that the reason is that most of the offworlders come over as adults. You also have a greater chance to get uncommon or epic skills. I’ll talk to a friend of mine and see if he can’t come over to dinner tonight. He can give you the history of how this animosity started. How does that sound? For now, just don’t say anything about your origin or anything that you think might be contrived as unusual or ‘Offwordly’.”

“Sure, thanks Rondellen. It seems that I’m the lucky one to have met you. Helping you on the road you have already paid back and then some!” I said with sincerity.

“Yes maybe, but there is a reason for it too. All will be revealed tonight,” he said with a mysterious smile.

We reached the place called Pelts Are Us, and when we went into the store, it did the name justice. There were pelts, furs, and skins everywhere. On the floor, on the walls, on tables and even hanging from the ceiling.

Inside was a nice-looking old lady with gray hair that reached down to her waist. She was clothed all in furs, fur-skirt, fur-sweater. but what made her clothes stand out, at least for me, was the colors of the furs. The hat was in a blue skin that looked like a hat the cowboys wore back on earth. The skirt was orange, and the sweater was a more normal brown color and not Caput Mortuum.

“Welcome to Pelts Are Us, how can I be of service?” She asked us.

“Yes, hello,” I answered, “I have three pelts of Wood Wolf that I’d like to be made into sleeping bags. Is that something you could help out with?” I asked her.

“Wood Wolf? It was a long time ago since I saw pelts from them. But yes of course we can do that. Although, it will take a couple of days for us to make them.”

“Yes, that is no issue. How much will it cost?”

“Since you bring your pelts, we will only charge for the work cost. Let me see the pelts and I’ll give you an estimate.”

I dropped.

3 Wood wolf pelts

And she dropped her jaw.

“This is,” her voice faltered, and she tried again “these are quite the pelts! Where did you say you got them?”

“I didn’t, so what will it cost?”

“Normally when making sleeping bags where the customer brings their pelts we charge 50 % of what the cost of the material is. If the cost of material is 100 gold we charge 50 gold. But your pelts are something else! I will be able to make six sleeping bags out of these. I’d say that if you only sold the pelts to us, you’d be able to get 800 each. That would make the cost 2400 gold for 6 sleeping bags. The retail price of one sleeping bag would normally fetch around 1650 gold, but because the high quality of the pelts and our good reputation for making sleeping bags along with that we can add runes for [Cloaking], [Deep Sleep Alarm], and [Temperature], making the fetching price to land at 2200 gold each. So I have an offer. If you sell one of the pelts to me along with 300 gold, I’ll make five sleeping bags with the aforementioned runes. What do you say?”

Both me and Rondellen had been listening with increasing interest. When she finished talking, I saw Rondellen give me an almost unnoticeable shake of his head. I put the pelts back into my [Inventory] and thanked her and said, “That sounds like a tempting offer. I’ll ask my master and get back to you.” And before she had the chance to say anything more, I and Rondellen did a 360° and left the store.

As soon as we were outside the store, I turned to Rondellen and was just about to ask him what this was all about he said,

“Not here. I understand that you have questions. It was good that your perception was spot on back there. We need to go to Alfred and talk more there.” The rest of the walk back to the blacksmith was done in silence.

When we reached Alfred, he met us with a gigantic smile on his face and was just about to tell us, “Guys, you are coming at exactly the right time, loo…”,

Rondellen interrupted him quite abruptly and said, “Later Alfred, our suspicions about Glenda over at Pelts Are Us were correct.” He looked down at his shoes and after shaking his head, he looked up at me and started speaking. “Green Raven, the pelts you showed us yesterday were nothing like we have ever seen before and both me and Alfred have seen a lot. I wasn’t always an old man, and he wasn’t always a blacksmith.” I was taken aback by his words and quite confused as well.

Alfred looked almost embarrassed, “It’s been such a long time since we have had any problems with Marurade and his followers that I’ve grown complacent. But of course, Userus will not bring a new offworlder to PAERD and bestow a legendary skill at level 10 on him without reason.”

What Alfred told me didn’t ease my confusion, rather it deepened. “Guys, what are you talking about? What does this Marurade have to do with my pelts? And you know about Userus? I think it’s time for you to tell me what’s going on.”

Rondellen and Alfred both looked at me, but it was Rondellen that spoke first. “Yes, you are right, but this is not the place for a discussion like this. Let’s go back to the house, and when we arrive you will add your remaining points into Wisdom while you sleep. I will call on the people that once more are needed to save PAERD. And then at dinner, we will tell you everything that we know about this.”

Alfred had been nodding at Rondellen’s words and then said, “yes, that is the way to go about this. It’s in stress that mistakes happen. I’ll finish up here and after closing the shop, I’ll join you at the house.”

Rondellen put his hands on my shoulders and more or less steered me towards the exit. We walked at a brisk pace to the house. Rondellen told me to go directly to the guesthouse and that he would come to get me when it was time for dinner. There was a rush and stress in his previously very relaxed body language, so I didn’t argue and just did as he told me.