Chapter 5

About mid-morning Kasric worked through what she needed to and their question and answer session started back up with her just jumping back in without any preamble. “How did you learn about mana if you come from this Earth place? Those three back there have no knowledge on anything.” Tyriel thought for a minute and decided on limiting what he said “When I got here I was told about it and given a book that got me started as I told you earlier though I did not know there was a difference between races till you said something. As for the others, I guess they were not given the same information.”

When it looked like she accepted that he went on “How do skills exactly work?” She thought for a bit “okay you gain skills through either gaining enough information over repeated use during challenging actions, learning from a master, or through a Skill Book. Then to level them you must keep challenging yourself, though even then there is still only a chance it will increase, it takes many years to get a skill to a high level. Though if you use the Skill book it can go faster as you have all the knowledge of the one who made it, so it comes easier to level. Skill books are very expensive with the price being based on the level of the person whose knowledge is in it.”

“As you level skills can sometimes give you special abilities, like powers, maneuvers, magical attacks and such. They range from common to unique depending on the individual. Unique abilities are heavily sought for as they can earn the most money. Finally, you can only gain 10 skill levels for every main level you have, just like you can't progress your skills past level 1 because you haven't earned your first main level yet.” she paused seeing if she missed anything then nodded her head.

“You mentioned you were given quests. What were they?” He rattled off the three he was given “I was to find civilization, achieve level 1, then a world quest to discover the cause of a future crisis. I was hoping when I found this caravan it would qualify for one of them but I guess I have to wait to get to the village or city for it to count.”

He opened his canteen offering it to her, then taking a sip when she declined, capping it he went on “Are there classes or something people have to qualify for or is it just whatever you can learn?”She took a moment before answering, “If I understand what you are asking. No, at least not how you mean. It has been divided up by us not the system into roles based on what someone can achieve. They are Mage, Fighter, and Crafter with the majority being crafters attaining only level 5 at the most. Mage and Fighter need better physical or mental stats, with which stats are better determining which one they take allowing them maybe to get up to level twenty, and needing extraordinary stats to take on more than one role achieving higher levels than twenty.”

She gazed at him steadily with the next question “you have swords and a bow. Do you have the combat skills to go with them?” he nodded “Yes. I have archery level one, swordsman level one with the last coming from previous knowledge. Since I can't raise them above that till after I achieve my main level, I just keep practicing them to get muscle memory so I will be fluid in performing with them.”

Their talk kept going with her asking questions about his journey and him asking more questions on fighting and the world in general. They stopped when it was close to noon to let the horses rest and everyone could eat lunch, so they tabled their talk till they were back on the road. Kasric introduced him to the Lupin, he already knew Rory’s name from earlier the others were Phoebus, Cerble, and Garris. Since he was with Kasric they seemed to warm up to him and they discussed dungeon running while they ate.

He learned that adventurers grouped together in squads of eight to twelve at the most as dungeons tended to get harder if you went over that amount. Most groups were composed of mostly fighters with at least one porter. Mages were sought after but were expensive as well as rare as most did not have high enough stats to perform the magic. Based on this plus how much benefit they brought to the dive, they demanded bigger shares plus payment. The most sought-after mage though was a Healer, you had to go through a church to get one and they charged a lot for the privilege to use one. When he asked why they were the only ones who could heal, he learned about the affinities.

There are 13 of them in all, the first is spirit which everyone gets to some degree. Then there are the elements fire, air, water, earth, life, and death, everyone has a chance to get a connection to one or more of these with how powerful that connection is determining what they can accomplish. Those with more than one affinity are heavily sought after. The last six are considered the Divine powers, they are Holy, Profane, Light, Dark, Space, and Time. Only a binding with a god can allow you to channel one of these powers, to try without this bond would severely damage or even kill someone.

He wouldn’t be able to see his until he activated his status, which was making him want to get it, as the more he learned he felt more disadvantaged without it. They let him know dungeons were where the most money was earned as the treasures and materials brought out of them were the most sought after. All city-states were built around a dungeon as a resource, while villages and towns tended to be near one or near a high mana node to make the village or town profitable, till they grew powerful enough to encompass the area. Once they could contain the place, they would build around it and charge a tax for people to enter which would allow them to eventually grow into their own city-state.

After lunch, the caravan got started again and their conversation was continued. He asked about money and pulled out the three different coins he had, she eyed them then gave him an explanation of their worth. The copper one was called a Knut, then breaking it apart she told him that these small pieces were Shekels, they were the base coin, with four of them joining to make a copper Knut. Fifty Knuts make a silver Laurel the diamond-shaped coin, twenty Laurels make a silver Stater the thicker round coin with the city design. Five Staters make a Gold Ducat, twenty Ducats made a gold Noble, and then finally one hundred Nobles made a Gold Sovereign.

The average citizen earned between four to eight Knuts a day, there were six days to the week, six weeks to a month, fifteen months to a year. Meaning the average person made almost three Laurels a month give or take based on their actual wage. Doing the math in his head Tyriel realized he was holding a small fortune in his pack, this really became clear when she gave him an example by telling him the inn at the town they were going to would charge him five knuts for a common room with a meal for the night. The more amenities or better quality he wanted the higher the cost. Just a full meal would be one to two knuts compared to a food-cart costing one to three shekels.

He also realized how far in-debt Kasric and the Lupin were, he was nowhere near being able to help them. The basic necessities seemed to be reasonable, but equipment, training, plus resources were going to be expensive so he would need to invest his funds wisely. With that in mind, he asked her about his equipment that he was given, to see if he needed to upgrade any of it. While his bow and armor were just standard fare, they would work for now till he tried harder encounters and decided what type of position he wanted to be in. If he was going to be a defender he needed heavier armor, or light armor if he was going for evasion and finesse.

If he goes solo he would need a combination of both to give him a wider range of movement but still be able to take hits. As for his swords, she practically drooled over them, saying they were a rare form of sword called Ormrvigtonn translated Dragon fang. They were associated with his race with the metal they were made from being highly strong and light, they could also accept enchantments real easily. He should not show them too often as stronger people would try and take them from him, they could sell for a fortune.

She asked him a lot about his old world but it was hard to describe some of the stuff where she could grasp what he meant. After a while, she had to jump out and go check the other wagons and also ask Kraim when he wanted to stop for the day, if they went further today than normal they could reach the town tomorrow while the light was still in the sky. After she left he went over the stuff they talked about, he needed to make some decisions on what his path would be.

He didn’t know enough to start his own guild, so he would pretty much have to go it alone at first, or he could use his funds to start up a caravan like Kraim did, hiring drivers, guards, and wagons then go back and salvage that wreck for an easy profit. Then again he could try getting on with a guild using his map as a bargaining chip, all that could wait till he got to the city. Kasric was right though he needed to decide on what type of combat person he wanted to be.

Contemplating different aspects of what he learned from her, he decided his best course, for now, would to be a type of spell sword, so he would need versatility and moderate damage absorption for armor as well as finding spells he could learn after he sees what affinities he has. Kasric came back to the wagon with news they were traveling till midnight so that they could get to the town with enough daylight to do business. Which meant a cold supper and no time for weapons training, so he didn’t bring up the possibility of sparring with her later so he could get her to assess his fighting capabilities.

With nothing else to do he got into his meditation posture and practiced his mana manipulation technique, when he finally entered into the trance he got a surprise, thoughts entered into his mind letting him know he was ready to learn mana strengthening. This was a process of saturating different aspects of your body with mana to either strengthen them or to make them tougher. If he did his skin, he would be more resistant to being cut or poked, if he did his muscles he could boost his speed or strength. The effects varied based on what he was hoping to achieve, it would also be different later on once he could add affinity mana to it such as fire affinity could make his skin heat resistant.

He practiced this till they finally stopped for the evening, he wasn’t very successful at it as the knowledge said he needed to make sure it was done equally over his whole body or he could damage himself. Say if he strengthened his legs but not any other parts he could damage himself since his body wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of keeping up with his legs. He would just have to keep at it as he did before, it was just mind over matter.

They had a cold camp that night as Kraim wanted to get going right before first light, they mainly stopped to rest the horses and give everyone a little sleep. Tyriel just stayed in the wagon not waking up till he felt the wagon lurch as they got back on the road again. Tyriel asked what country they were in with her letting him know that countries no longer existed. There were only city-states ruled by individuals or councils, depending on how strong the city was determined how big of an area they controlled. No one city-state got along with another except if one looked to be getting too strong the others would band together and wage war on it to keep the status quo.

As an example she said Telenburg only controlled an area 3 days travel by wagon around it, meaning they wouldn’t be in its territory until a day after leaving Welby. Tyriel asked her then who keeps up the roads and built that bridge over the river, she told him the merchants kept up everything so they could trade with the various towns and other city-states. While the elites loved their power guarding it jealously, merchants loved money and would stop at nothing to make it.

He couldn’t talk to her long as she had to go from wagon to wagon and organize what they needed to deliver to Welby plus the extra stuff that Kraim wanted to try and sell. So he switched back and forth between meditating and dozing till Kasric came back and touched his shoulder then motioned him to look out the front. Looking out he saw a large rock wall towering about 50 feet off the ground, with watchtowers built on it at regular intervals. The wall was made from a dark gray granite with crystalline deposits running through it similar to a geode, that gave off a bue glow.

The road went right up to a massive black metal gate where a line of people and wagons waited to get in, the road also turned and followed the wall around the city. When asked about it Rory said those who weren’t going to Welby would go around the city instead of paying the tax to go in. Tyriel was impressed by the size of the town which from his view appeared to be the size of an average city on Earth possibly holding a population in the hundred thousands, if this was a town how big was the city-state.

He was surprised when their caravan didn’t stop but went by everyone in line straight up to the gates, when the guards started over towards them Kasric showed them a badge she pulled out of her pouch which the guard took one look then waved them through. Looking at her she told him Kraim belonged to a merchant guild that paid for privileges with certain towns and cities, one of those was not waiting in line or being searched.

As they made their way through town Tyriel saw it was just as huge as he believed, the streets were jammed with the mass of people of mixed races. Nearing the center, they came to a massive caravan market about the size of four sports stadiums. Here they were directed to a plot of land to park at, the wagons were quickly arranged then the horses unhitched and taken off somewhere by the lupins, while Kasric directed the elves in unloading the wagons and setting up a large tent which they then set up displays of all Kraims wares in.

When the Lupins came back Kraim had them grab several crates and bags then left to make some kind of delivery run. When he asked Kasric what he should do she told him he could go look around if he was careful, also he needed to decide if he was staying here tonight or getting an inn. If he did the latter he was to be back here at the crack of dawn so he wouldn’t get left behind. When asked if there was a place to take a bath she directed him to an inn that was close by and was trustworthy so a good place to eat and stay if he decided to.

Thanking her he grabbed his pack and bow, then headed out to find the inn as he so desperately wanted a bath. As he left he heard the female elf shout out “Where the hell is he going? We have to slave away in this heat and he gets to gallivant off. What the hell?” “Shut the fuck up Karen! I don’t want to get hit again so move your ass!” came from the light elf male. “Fuck you Dale! You and Cal have been kissing ass since we got here you little cowards! Real men would have done something by now. I don’t care what that bastard calls it this is plain slavery what he’s doing to us!”

The one he knows now as Cal quickly looked around looking to see who’s around. “For fuck sakes shut up or I swear I’ll kill you myself you fucking spoiled ass bitch! For the last time, we are in some other world and you better get used to it or do us a favor and go ahead and fucking die! But you're not taking me with you, so say one more thing and I’m telling Kraim about it!” This made the girl go pale then she lashed back “I swear I will get you, you little shit! Just you wait!” Cal turned like he was going to summon Kasric and she turned pale giving a little squeak, quickly going back to work going silent for now.

Tyriel wondered if he should take bets on which ones would make it to Telenburg, laughing as he walked he stopped when he realized he really didn’t feel sorry for them. They naively agreed to pay Kraim two silver Staters for rescuing them, they thought the silver coins they had on them were the same silver coin he was asking for so they agreed. Only realizing later that they had laurels, not Staters but by then it was too late and the contract bound them to indentured servants status. The system wouldn’t let you be duped by trickery but it was their own fault for not qualifying what a Stater was and if they in-fact had the right coin He could have been in the same predicament if he hadn't studied his coins, then when Kraim said Laurel he associated it with the picture on the coin and had luckily been right.

Tyriel shook his head continuing on his way to the inn, he was fascinated by all the people and goods that were neatly organized in the square, he was seeing all kinds of races mixed with one another, some he knew from the standard fantasy set-up races to others that would normally be considered monsters but not here evidently. He was seeing minotaurs, centaurs, lizardmen, and satyrs among others, there was a bird humanoid that had a head similar to a cockatoo with a human torso and large wings on its back.

He had stopped at one booth to stare at a caged bird that was similar to the one he saw in his first days here when it finally sank in that the chirping and growling he was hearing were actually someone trying to get his attention. “Great one! Great one! Please hear this lowly one?” Looking around he spied a little lizard person jumping up and down frantically waving its arms in a cage with 4 other lizard people further back in the booth area. Tyriel walked over to them realizing they must be kobolds wondering why they were in this booth when everything else in here was just animals.

Assessing them as he walked up they looked like miniature versions of his true form only they were mainly cobalt blue with different colors for belly scales and crests ranging from red to a vibrant yellow. It was the yellow one who was trying to get his attention “Thank you great one!” it chirped and all of them bowed to me. Tyriel chirped back at them “HI! You don’t have to do that. What do you want with me?” They stood up and the yellow one addressed him again. “I am T’raim and we wish to serve you as our ancestors did in the past. Please allow us to be apart of your greatness?”

Tyriel blinked at them, they knew what he was, quickly he looked around for the merchant and found him still busy with another customer so probably hadn’t seen what happened yet. Turning back to the group “I’ll ask you to not let anyone know what I truly am?” another kobold with a greenish-blue crest slapped T’raim across the back of his head “You almost got great one in trouble, be discreet!” T’raim rubbed his head and squawked at the offender “K’siss don’t hit me show respect to your leader!” K’siss gave a sound Tyriel could only assume was a laugh. Tyriel looked back at T’raim “So are you slaves is that why you are here?”

T’raim spat on the ground “Not slaves. Stupid human thinks we are semi-intelligent monsters, hoping to sell us for mining. The other races don’t know how intelligent we really are which generally keeps us from being bothered. This idiot caught us mining and thought he could make a profit by selling us, but no one believes him, so we overheard if he doesn’t sell us soon he’ll use us to feed some of the bigger animals.”

“What can you do that would be in my interest to buy you?” Tyriel wasn’t happy about their fate but he couldn’t afford to throw away money for someone that was useless to him, it was a cruel thought but for all that true. T’raim quickly spoke back “We still follow Typhon so he gifts us space affinity to carry large loads. Please buy us? You can probably get us for two Laurels he was asking four yesterday.”

Before he could ask what this meant exactly the merchant walked up. “Good day Sir! Are you interested in these kobolds perchance? I can give you the whole lot for six Laurels.” Tyriel hmmed then turned to the merchant “I was interested in them for a project that they might be useful in, but I’m afraid that is too much. My master only gave me 2 Laurels to spend, do you perhaps have something similar in that price range?”

The merchant frowned at first when he heard he couldn’t afford it but then perked back up when he mentioned spending two laurels. “Hmm. I’ll tell you what, I need to make room for new stock and these are not selling so I will let you have them for 2 Laurels if you promise to have your master come to do business with me again.”

Tyriel faked thinking about it then smiled and said that it was a deal, reaching out and shaking the merchant's hand. “I will tell Master Kraim all about you. Do we need to do a contract or is just giving you the money good enough?” The merchant shook his hand vigorously “NO need, No need. I’ll just pass on their city papers to you to show ownership and you are good to go. Give me a second and I will get a set of leashes and muzzles for you.”

Tyriel forestalled him and said it wouldn’t be necessary his master had given him something to control them. He dug into his pack and pulled out one of the rings he found at the wreck, putting it on his finger he turned then addressing the Kobolds in their language “Ok I’m buying you so I need you to act like this perfectly controls you so we can get out of here okay? So when I say, line up here by the door.”

As an aside, he told the merchant he just activated the ring which allowed him to tame them giving him complete control over them plus somewhat communicate to them in their primitive language. Then in common he told them to line up and behave, promptly they all hurried over and lined up waiting for another order. The merchant whistled “Cor! I could have used something like that before. Your master must be a great mage and artificer?” Tyriel laughed then fished out two Laurels and paid the merchant then waited for him to release the kobolds and hand him the ownership papers.

Once all was ready he told them to follow him, being careful not to touch anything or bump someone as they made their way across the square, telling T’raim once they got somewhere private they would discuss how things would work. All the Kobolds dutifully walked behind him while they got all kinds of stares at the spectacle. Now that he had the kobolds, Tyriel hurried to the inn instead of looking more as he didn’t want to keep drawing attention. He followed Kasric’s directions and soon arrived at a stone and log building that was five stories tall. A sign hanging above the doorway named it the BLUE WOLFIN with a nice drawing of a large blue wolf humanoid that if real, made the Lupins look small. Chuckling he walked through the door into a medium-sized lobby and right in the middle was a stuffed version of the creature on the sign, it was huge easily topping ten feet with the physique of a weight lifter armed with ten-inch fangs in its mouth while sporting six-inch claws on its hands.

As he was staring at it a young voice spoke up next to his elbow. “Good day sir! Do you wish a room, if so are your pets trained or do you wish to stable them?” Looking down he saw a young brown-haired elven girl looking up at him expectantly. “Sorry. Yes, I wish to get a room for the night with a meal and they are trained. I was also told you have a bath here is that so?” The little girl said yes, it would run him 10 knuts for the room with a bath which would come with a fresh beef stew and a mug of ale. If he wished to upgrade the food another 5 knuts would get him a roast with sides and a bottle of wine or 3 mugs of ale. If he wished to stable his pets it would run another 10 knuts as they were meat-eaters and would require special handling.

He gave 30 knuts saying they would stay with him but to please bring a bucket of water and plenty of meat so he could feed them himself, plus some soft large pillows for them to lay on if it wasn’t enough to let him know and he would pay the difference. The girl happily took the money and then skipped over to a desk where another older female elf was working, to which she gave her the money and received a key back.

The girl gave a happy chirp and skipped back over to him with the older lady staring at him with a puzzled look on her face. The little girl asked him to follow her and went through another door where a set of stairs were going up. “You're on the Fourth floor please watch your step!” then she turned and scampered up the stairs, making him have to hurry to keep up with her. Puffing a bit he asked her why the lady looked at him so funny. “Oh! Felicia couldn’t put your appearance with how much money you showed and the pets your traveling with.”

Tyriel sighed, he forgot he was in common dirty clothes with a battered pack, he sure didn’t look like he could afford much. He would have to remedy that after he bathed and ate, also figure out how the kobolds were going to work. They arrived at his room which was one big room composed of a sitting area with a fireplace surrounded by two overstuffed chairs and a long couch, then a large canopy bed with a nightstand and chest of drawers and closet, then there was a large table with 6 chairs in the middle of the room for eating or working at.

There was a second door that led into a bathroom with a large copper tub and a wooden chair with a copper pail fastened under the seat. He realized the chair was their version of a toilet, the girl showed him how to fill the tub using two crystals attached to it the blue one filled it with cold water and the orange one heated the water. This room also had some soft fluffy towels beside the tub and some wash clothes by the toilet seat, which he then realized weren't wash clothes but their version of toilet paper, he guessed they were collected then washed to use over again. He laughed, boy would he hate to have that job.

Thanking her he gave her a knut and asked when food could be brought, she giggled loudly at the tip and said she could have them bring the food when he rang his bell which she showed him was a red pull cord hanging behind the entrance door. With that, she bowed and shut the door behind her as she left.

With a sigh, he threw his pack over by the bed and motioned for the kobolds to follow him over to the sitting area, they dutifully followed him then looking at the couch for a minute curled their tails around their waist then hopped up onto them. Tyriel took one of the overstuffed chairs, “Okay so let's get names for all of you then we can talk okay? I know your T’raim and your K’siss what are the rest of you known as?”

First, there was S’tor a male who had a brown color with white speckles, followed by Sk’irre a female with light purple, leaving K’rick a male with yellow and black patches. Once they were done he asked what he really wanted to know “How did you know what I am? Was it how I smelled or something else?” he figured it was smell like the beast-kin but he wanted to be sure.

T’raim was the one to speak up leading Tyriel to believe he really was their leader. “No. Your masking doesn’t work with us, in fact, if we could increase our mana levels we could gain the Mask ability to appear as gnomes.” K’siss hissed and spoke out “Tell him the truth we haven’t been able to do that for ages it was lost with the ancients!” T’raim shook his head “Only because we were not strong enough on our own to advance high enough to earn it. Now that they are back we can achieve it again.” he ended with a happy chirp.

Tyriel found that interesting but it led to other questions “How intelligent and advance are you really compared to the other races?” T’raim looked over at K’rick and gave him the go-on sign with his hands, causing K’rick to huff a little. “We do not let on to the other races how intelligent we are or what we can actually do. Back in our warrens though we have a thriving society as you find here, we just keep it hidden because we can’t compete with the other races.”

“In the past, our race formed a dependence on your race, together we grew and became powerful but this symbiosis also caused our downfall when your race went extinct or so we thought.” Tyriel blinked with his mouth open at how all their communication got better and the simple-mindedness disappeared. Snapping out of it “So you use to serve my race in the past for mutual benefits?” “Yes, in the past we would bond with individuals which would grant us powers, the Khoth would be the rulers and fighters while we were the crafters, priests, and historians.”

Tyriel waved for him to stop a moment “You said mutual. Why did they need you?” K’rick looked at him a minute looking like he was trying to find a way to say something “Our races are descended from dragons, yours more so than ours which gives you certain tendencies that are not conducive for what we do.” Tyriel sighed “You're saying we were arrogant?” K’rick coughed “Not exactly. Dragons are independent constantly seeking challenges to their power and don’t take being humble to authority very well or patients for crafting. So we were their means of worshiping and contacting Typhon to know what his wishes were as well as making the necessities for everyday life, while they protected the territory and sought out fame and power.”

“Now that you are back we can take you to the warren then you can show us where you are all hiding and we can rebuild our nation again.” with that they all chirped happily looking at him. Tyriel was the one to cough this time “Um yeah. Sorry I’m the only one and to tell the truth I’m from another world and the gods gave me this body when they brought me here. So there’s not going to be a great rebuilding anytime soon.” Now they were all staring at him with their mouths open, he nodded his head “I know where you're coming from, I feel like that a lot lately!”