Standing outside once again, Avan and Yue glanced at each other and without further need to talk, they turned around to walk to their next target of the day.

They strolled to the nearest store while looking at the crowd of people scurrying around the square, most likely going about their day's shopping.

People of different skin colors, proportions, and even races were everywhere. Exotic vendors with even more exotic goods and colors, residents haggling with them, and parents with their children staring wide-eyed at the displays as they were dragged along by the hand. Patrols marched through the crowds, who made way for them with reverence and respect, while guards could be seen stationed all around the marketplace. Private guards and bodyguards also protected the market stalls and their employers. The square was crowded, but the different races got along without any significant trouble, it seemed.

Yue tugged on his arm to bring his attention back to her real target. Without realizing it, he had lost himself in observing the surroundings, and they were already facing their last travel point for the day before heading to the meeting at the adventurers' guild. A large sign with a hammer and an anvil swayed above the rustic door, and the store's façade was slightly peeling and could use a new coat of paint. To the right of the door was a drinking pen, probably for horses, and next to it a bench.

From inside the forge, a crash sounded and something broke, while a loud bass voice hurled wild curses. A slightly nasal and perhaps aristocratic voice discussed with this person.

Looking at each other at the same time, Yue and Avan smiled mischievously at each other and shrugged their shoulders as they made themselves comfortable on the bench.

She, with legs crossed and one of the drawn daggers playing in her hand, and he, with another glance, wandering around the square. Without comment and with a quick rummage through his backpack, which he had placed on the floor between his legs, he retrieved two handfuls of berries from his celestial stash and handed her half of one.

Yue chewed on the berries with relish and a satisfied expression on her face as she continued to perform tricks with the dagger in her right hand, moving the dagger with practiced fingers.

Avan also threw the handful of berries into his mouth, chewed, and leaned against the wall of the house to get a better impression of Cyntha. He hadn't spent much effort looking at his current surroundings since entering the city.

The townspeople seemed to live together in relative harmony, and the guards made a competent and watchful impression, if the reactions of the residents were to be believed. Cyntha seemed, Avan believed, to be a rather interesting frontier town with many different trading opportunities. This was indicated by the different goods on offer and the different races that could be seen here at every glance. If he could believe the map in one of the books he had found in the small bilbiotheque of the healer's order, Cyntha was the next and last city before it passed into elven territory. Interestingly, he did not find a single elf or dwarf in front of him, which at least gave some credence to the descriptions of the Order of Healers. He had read in the books that elves were proud of their nature and punished transgressions with a heavy hand, while the dwarves were found further north and beyond the elven forest.

Avan, absorbed in his reflections and observations, put his head on the back of his neck to better support it against the facade of the house. With a glance at the sky, he let his journey so far pass in review.

When I think about it, I've been damn lucky since I was literally spat into this world. Sure, the wolf wasn't exactly my highlight, but otherwise I've been immensely lucky. And someone or something is probably watching over me, almost like a guardian angel. Otherwise, I can not explain it to me ... Especially not that I show up here with a unique passive skill called "potential". Ominous sounding and even stranger to explain. Then I stumble across these white, dilapidated temple ruins, which mysteriously until now NATURALLY none of the local inhabitants in the last decades or even centuries had found and entered. Some kind of aura I had felt, yes, but that still does not explain it... Then I find a garden with a legendary fruit in front of me, which gives me one of the two mystical elements. Totally understandable! And not at all coincidental... I wonder if, as Yue suspects, it has something to do with the "potential" skill? Probably...

Well, and then the altar, which I still want to decipher! Runes, magic, enchantments! The sheer number of possibilities. THAT is what I want to learn.

And of course, not to forget, that ominous sphere floating on top of a damn well. I idiot, of course, thought it had been a good idea to just touch strange objects in a foreign world. Genius. Pah! At least I didn't become one myself.... static and dull dungeon. I don't want to imagine how boring it would be now to be trapped on the spot. Thank God. Then rather like this... Whereas the dungeon class has not really given me anything breathtaking so far. The benefit is so far very limited. I just hope that the bookworm can tell me more when I have reconciled with him. If... Or if necessary I find deeper in the dungeon, which is named exactly the same, a few answers. Hopefully at least that. Avan mused to himself, his gaze still directed toward the sky.

Suddenly, they both jerked up and looked intently at the door of the forge, from which increasingly loud noises and chatter could be heard. The participants in the heated debate were finally moving toward the door, if the noise level was to be believed.

With a jerk and a loud bang that nearly knocked the door off its hinges, an enraged odd man stumbled backwards out of the door frame. Directly followed by a broadly built, moderately tall man. The beau, who was so rudely asked to leave the store, was covered in posh and hideously colorful clothes that screamed nobility. He had a moustache with twisted ends sticking up in his red face, and was shouting all sorts of imprecations in the direction of the extremely annoyed looking blacksmith.

"For the last time, YOUR LORDSHIP! I won't do shit for you, no matter how and what you threaten me with. Now get the fuck off my property or I'll call the guards!" The brawny blacksmith shouted to the nobleman through clenched teeth as he loomed menacingly into the man's personal space.

The man gritted his teeth, took a quick glance at the growing crowd of spectators who were not about to miss the spectacle, and angrily stomped off into the crowd.

The middle-sized man turned to the gawking people and made an obscene gesture in their direction. "And you! Get the fuck out of here too, this show is over!"

With a deep and booming sigh, the broadly built man was about to turn around and disappear back into his forge when he saw the two guests sitting in front of his store. With a furrowed brow and still not completely calmed down, he stared first at Yue and then at Avan, with a puzzled look at the latter person. Yue looked over her left shoulder at Avan with a suppressed laugh and a seemingly familiar manner, grinning broadly at him as if to tell him how normal this was by now.

The man tugged thoughtfully at his long, braided beard with one hand, while his other hand moved to his hip to imitate a perfectly pensive pose. You could literally see the orange-haired blacksmith's face change from puzzled to curious as he looked at him like a puzzle to be solved.

"Oy, buddy, what did you do to your aura?" He asked Avan directly and without exchanging any formalities.

Slightly taken off guard and not quite sure how to deal with the guy who had also ignored his companion, he was about to give an angry answer when Yue quickly whispered something to him.

"Shh, everything's fine! Don't get excited! That's a dwarf! I've heard formalities aren't their strong suit, but I guess the fun is supposed to stop when it comes to traditions."

Somewhat confused by the new information but enlightened, he gave Yue a quick glance and nod before turning to the supposed dwarf. "Yourself oy! I'm not really here to talk about private things, especially not in the open! We actually just wanted to stop by the local blacksmith. Is that you, buddy?" He partly imitated the brawny man.

The dwarf, still tugging at his braided beard, clapped his other hand with full force in front of his forehead as if a light had gone on. With an inviting wave and a "Just follow me" in their direction, he turned and stomped back through the doorway into the interior of his forge.

Avan stood up and shouldered his backpack, still pondering the encounter somewhat caught off guard. With Yue quietly following behind him as usual, he crossed the slightly elevated entrance area of the door and entered the loaded interior as well.

As soon as they entered the front room of the store, they were met by a dry and stuffy heat wave, which clearly indicated the dwarf's craft. Avan had to blink a few times to get used to the dim light and took a closer look at his host. The dwarf, who was waiting for them leaning against his sales counter and giving them an impatient look, had a loosely braided beard thirty centimeters long, consisting of orange and well-groomed hair. A bald hemisphere adorned his head and his eyes had a penetrating look.

The store's interior was littered with racks of armor and weapons, and the walls were overflowing with shelves and crates containing various mechanical devices, equipment, and items. Behind the counter, as was common in the other stores, there was no back wall and instead one could look directly into a large forge and behind it into a courtyard.

With a loud and still ungrudging clearing of his throat, the dwarf and merchant drew attention to himself. "Yo, kids, enough gawking. It was enough for me that all these idiots outside watched the idiot-in-chief have to pull off with his tail between his legs. By the way, my name is Balgur Sledgehammer. I'm a regular blacksmith and the only damn dwarf in all of Cyntha." The grumpy dwarf introduced himself and held out his hand to Yue and then to Avan, taking a few steps toward them. "And you, lass? You're a fox person, aren't you? Judging by your hair and fur colors, a fire fox? Interesting!" He remarked, addressing her, and then clapped his hands together with a firm slap.

With a jerk and a penetrating look, as if he were aiming at his prey, he stared at Avan again, who clearly felt uncomfortable in his skin.

"Sooo, let's get back to you, my best! What the hell have you done to your aura? And how in the name of my deceased great-grandfather did you survive that?! Your aura is flickering, glowing and has as many cracks as a lava lizard egg about to hatch!" He says into his face, while his voice rises further and further until he literally screams into his face with his arms thrown up. Or against his chest, because Balgur as a dwarf with his head only reached up to his chest.

Visibly and clearly overwhelmed, the man being yelled at took a step backwards and tried to understand what the dwarf was actually trying to say. With a click and an "Aha!" moment, Avan realized what the blacksmith could mean. A quick sideways glance at Yue, who just grinned relentlessly again and seemed to be having the time of her life, he asked the only reasonable question that just popped into his head. "How?"

Balgur Sledgehammer, visibly irritated, just looked at him with a scowl that marked him out as crazy. "What HOW? Are you one of the poor devils, who is not completely dense in his upper mind, or what? Are you slow on the uptake? Lift your leg, lad!" The angry dwarf answered him.

With even more confusion than before, Avan lifted his right leg and looked at his feet to see if he had missed anything.

"Now dance! By my beard! Are you really that naive, or are you missing a few loose screws?" The dwarf asked him with wide eyes, and suddenly laughed out loud while slapping his rather short thighs with glee. The booming and bellowing laughter echoed through the open interior and Avan listened in disbelief as even Yue began to laugh along.

Somewhat embarrassed, he gathered himself a bit and grinned at the two of them somewhat inanely. "It's okay! Calm down, I got it! Yeah, ha ha ha, thank you very much." He said with a glance at Yue and then to Balgur holding both his hands up as if giving up. "Now maybe someone can explain to me what the heck you mean and better yet HOW you can see this?"

Still visibly amused, the dwarfsmith rubbed his hands together and tapped his left palm loudly on his chest, just above his heart. "I can SEE your messed up aura! I'm a fucking runesmith, boy! Didn't you even know whose forge you were entering?" With a mischievous grin, he turned to Yue. "Where did you pick that one up, tell me?"

She giggled and threw an apologetic yet very laughing look in the direction of her companion.

Throwing both arms in the air, Avan sighed loudly and theatrically grabbed his heart with both hands. "Oh, good gods, this mockery and ridicule! This shame!" He exclaimed loudly as he gestured wildly with his hands in the air.

With a second loud sigh and a serious look again, and with both hands on his hips, he looked first at Yue and then at Balgur. "But seriously now. I'm not from here, and where I come from, you didn't know such a thing! So could we just skip this part and get to the purpose of our visit? Or if one would be so kind as to explain to me if whatever is going on with my aura is dangerous to me?"

Yue immediately calmed down and murmured a soft apology in his direction, which earned her an understanding look from Avan. He had never had a problem with people making a few jokes at his expense.

Balgur had also calmed down and was staring at him again, but this time with a slightly tilted head and an understanding look on his face.

"Oy, sorry, buddy. We dwarves are very direct, which usually doesn't go down so well with you little humans. I can see your aura. Which, by the way, seems to be pretty strong and far-reaching. That would have to be... easily be ten meters. But it's cracked and your mana is leaking out into the world. I don't know how you got such a strong and wide aura, but you really need to learn how to handle it better." he told him, his left hand again tugging and stroking his beard. "However, you don't have to worry about anyone else sensing it. There will be maybe a handful of people, if any, in all of Cyntha who can read your aura this way."

"I could help you, if you can pay for it, with a rune on your equipment until you learn to keep your aura under control. A containment rune should work wonders for you here. It would help you avoid collapsing just because your aura has developed cracks that could release a flood of mana. However, you still urgently need to find someone to help you. However, not my humble self! I don't have time and we dwarves have... other ways. Besides, it would be a crime to entrust you with dwarven secrets. For that, you would have to be a dwarf yourself." He explained to Avan and grinned at him with a big smile. With a tap on the counter, he continued.

"But now to the business part. I have enough to do without being robbed of my time all day long by some snobs. Or giving free explanations to you! What can I do for you?"

Brought back to the here and now, Avan briefly glanced over at Yue and then fixed his gaze on the blacksmith. "My companion here needs better daggers, and I myself actually fight unarmed, though I thought it couldn't hurt to check with a master blacksmith." He gestured with a wave of his hand to the fox girl. "The daggers are just very worn iron and prey to goblins. Maybe we can at least do business here."

With a finger pointing to himself, he continued. "And for yours truly, I was thinking of something like mana-permeable gauntlets? Or a fighting staff. The main thing is that it can channel my mana."

Avan had also learned poses for the fighting staff thanks to the fighting postures and exercises of the Order of Akkalon.

With a thoughtful expression on his face, he decided to throw another question after it. "And... I would like to learn the basics of forging, and maybe even the use of runes. For a fee, of course..."

Balgur looked at him, and various expressions passed fleetingly over his face. Shaking his head, he answered the question. "With the daggers, it's very easy to help out, it's more than easy. Mana channeling weapons, however, are expensive. The material I need is quite rare in Cyntha. Not excessively, but we don't have much of it anymore, and the last caravan from the Void Sands arrived here last month without another shipment. Apparently a shortage of arcanemn silver, I'm told." He seriously explained the situation with the materials and then continued. "Depending on the quantity I have to use, a fighting staff would cost you easily five to fifteen gold coins. Flexible and mana channeling gauntlets would require more arcane silver than traditional materials, which increases flexibility but makes the gauntlets less stable. It also comes to eight to fifteen gold coins for the gauntlets."

With a very thoughtful look, the dwarf explained further. "And about the runes... We dwarves guard our secrets like our eyeballs. Even though we don't see as well above ground as we do underground.... Never mind. To be allowed to be apprenticed to a runesmith, the apprentice must bring a valuable rune, unknown to the runesmith, as payment. Or several small, insignificant and unknown runes... If you can show some of them, I will teach you dwarven runesmithing."

Avan nodded thoughtfully at the explanation the dwarf had just given him. "That sounds... fair. Agreed. I don't have any runes with me, but I might know a place where I could find such a rune.... I'll bring you some the next time I visit and we'll see." He mumbles half to himself and half to the dwarf.

Avan turned to Yue and asked her to draw the daggers and show them to Balgur. With practiced movements, she took both daggers from their sheaths and presented them to the blacksmith, who accepted them without comment and with a vague hum.

The dwarf, with both weapons in one of his large and calloused hands, ran off to the back of the forge and returned shortly with a small rune-embellished hammer. Placing both daggers on the counter, he tested the blades with the rune tool, humming here and there to himself.

After less than a minute, he looked up and turned to his two customers. "Oy, not the best blades in town, but not bad at all. No runes or other magical properties, but the iron is sturdy and pure. I'd buy the daggers for a total of twenty silver, and I could sell you two rune daggers that I have in the back warehouse. Simple enchantment with a sharpness rune on each blade. After subtracting these daggers here, I would charge an additional fifty silver."

Avan looked over at Yue for a moment, seeing her wide eyes, and nodded at the blacksmith. "That sounds okay, I guess. As long as you don't cross me here, Balgur?"

With an almost hurt expression on his face and an angry look, the blacksmith suddenly waved his index finger in front of Avan's face. "I love my craft, lad, and I neither haggle nor cheat! Don't you dare accuse me of such a thing! Most dwarves would see such an accusation as an insult of the highest order, since you are attacking our work! We are craftsmen with a passion! Not like all these beginners who run around everywhere and think they know their craft. All beginners I tell you! And remember that for the future, if you should ever have to do with a dwarf! NO. HAGGLING!"

Apologizing with both hands raised, they finally closed the sale. The blacksmith took the two daggers to the back, where he unceremoniously tossed them into a barrel full of other iron weapons, and stomped on into a side room that could not be seen from the front of the sales room behind the huge forge furnace. After a short cursing and metallic noises, the dwarf came back and put two shiny silver daggers on the counter. Both daggers were simply made, but had not a single scratch to show and but a deep, elongated rune on each blade, which shimmered slightly bluish.

With an affirmative grin and nod to Yue, she immediately rushed forward and looked at her new toys with bright eyes and childlike joy.

Avan pulled the money, which he had of course summoned again, from his backpack and they said goodbye to the dwarf blacksmith with the promise that he would return the next time he had the runes with him.

Yue, with both daggers proudly pressed to her chest, followed him quietly but happily out of the forge.

With a glance at his character interface and inventory, Yue and Avan once again found themselves in the marketplace.

Avan Leaf

Level: 53

Free Stat Points: 0

Element: Celestial

Class: Healing Dungeonheart [Human]

Subclass: [Bronze] Healer of Akkalon

Stats

Strength: 75

Dexterity: 130

Vitality: 95

Intelligence: 110

Wisdom: 75

Spirit: 105

Active Skills [3/8]

[Bronze] Akkalons Touch

[Bronze] Akkalons Sphere

[Bronze] Celestial Storage

Passive Skills

Pain Resistance: [Bronze] 3

Steady: 8

Potential: [Unlocked]

Celestial Affinity: [Bronze] 5

Identify: [Bronze] 6

Celestial Sphere: 1

First Aid: 1

Tracking: [Bronze] 7

Meditation: [Bronze] 8

Pain Expert: 7

Primary Resources

Health: 525

Stamina: 525

Ambient Mana: 825

Celestial Storage

[Bronze Coin]: 36

[Silver Coin]: 7

[Gold Coin]: 1

10 [Golden Meaples]

1 [well-used Spear]

3 [Water Flask]

1 [short sword]

3 [blanket]

1 [Tent]

1 [short ax]

1 [Bow]

3 [wooden iron-tipped arrow]

79 stacks of [Berries]

11 dry [Roots]

2 [Lymia Herbs]

113 [Hound Fangs]

13 [small Stones]

3 [Wooden Logs]

11 [Wooden sticks]

Debts

Luria Squidchaser: 37 Gold, 50 Silver

Ohhhh, neat! Yeah, of course. It´s me and my mana! So of course my character interface knows the money I owe someone or someone owes me. Thank god for magic. He mused to himself after noticing the new "Debts" section.