Continuing with the commerce, they visited the jeweller next.

She was a Blue Elf of average high with medium blue hair and violet eyes and a darker shade of creole as skin colour. She looked somewhat uncanny, Prof got the feeling that her arms and legs were a bit longer than they should have been, her eyes a bit larger than normal, and something wasn’t “right” with her face too. Alien would be probably the right term. She also paid a little less than the “list-price” Prof got as return from his Skill for the crystals, that is, only the equivalent of forty silver.

Prof guessed that for the full shopping spree he had planned, he will have to go back to the dungeon and even so needed to make money from somewhere else on top of that.

The visit to the local blacksmith (another Yellow) was a short one: he just shook his head at the sight of the Dire Bear’s skull. In his opinion, a better armour-smith could make a durable helmet out of it, but he was just a simple, general blacksmith, so Prof would have to look around a larger settlement.

In exchange, the furrier and tanner – korcs, or as Foxy referred to them “Grey Elf” brothers – discussed the bearskin for a long time. In the end, Prof had to decide if he wanted a nice suba from his home on Earth, or a leather armour (which could be developed into an armour similar to what Prof already had by a better blacksmith). After giving some thought, Prof opted for the suba, as he already had armour and the suba could be put over it and provide additional protection.

In this way, he would have had his winter clothes with only one purchase. After the decision was made, the furrier escorted them to the tailor (who, by the way, was his cousin), where after another meeting Prof received a quote, from which he almost fainted. Preparing the fur, the lining and the tailor’s charge came to a whopping total of eighty silvers! In return, his new suba would give an Armor Rate of six plus a 15% bonus to [Intimidation], as well as a full air conditioning between minus thirty and plus thirty degrees, all without any deductions for Agility and Dexterity.

Prof immediately applied [Commerce] and began to haggle with the two craftsmen. In the end, it was agreed that Prof would pay seventy-five silver for the finished work, which the masters would distribute among themselves at their discretion, and they would also bear the risk: if they could not deliver, they would receive nothing. His new piece of clothing, on the other hand, seriously set Prof back financially.

Finally, as he was already with the tailor anyway, he ordered two similar trousers as he had previously as replacement, which reduced his fortune by five more silvers. Leaving the horse-seller for the time, they finally visited the chief's office.

According to the steward, there were not many public tasks currently available, Prof could choose from only two:

Bring at least above average quality food to the chief’s kitchen, payment was five silvers for ten portions.

Destroy a pack of Gyors Rabló in the Southern Forest. Payment was a hundred and fifty silvers, plus fifteen silvers for each pair of claws.

Prof was able to complete the first task at once, they handed over the Dire Bear’s remaining meat from Foxy’s Belly-bag of Holding, and Prof also surrendered the herbs he had acquired in the dungeon. Thus, only four more portions were missing to solve the task a second time, which, in Prof’s opinion, could be collected without much of a problem. He had to go back to the dungeon anyway, the spice collected there, for example, would have been just enough.

Regarding the second task, Prof had no idea what a Gyors Rabló might even be, and Foxy wasn’t sure either with her too low Skills in the regard. If she remembered correctly, it was probably a two-legged, lizard-like beast that was either waist-high or taller than a human, and much more intelligent compared to a normal animal. She wasn’t even sure if it had feathers or had a smooth greenish-brown skin, and the steward refused to give more information than where the nest was around approximately.

In his opinion, whoever accepts the task knows what he is undertaking. As the easiest way, Prof wanted to go to the local hunter, forester or ranger first, but according to Foxy, there were zoological books and one of that would be of greater use in the future. Because Prof intended to look around the local book market in the first place, they asked around a bit and were directed to a convenience store-like institution that also sold books.

Although no zoological books were to be found, Prof obtained a not-too-thick collection of alchemical recipes and a cook-book for Elven specialties, both written in Bergian for just one silver. Every other book (half a dozen) was in a language Prof did not understand. The owner of the convenience store was at least able to direct them to a local hunter who might be able to help them find out what kind of monster they had to hunt.

The hunter – a green elf of average height with blonde hair with greenish streaks and green eyes – was fortunately easy to find and was willing to help after Prof politely outlined the situation.

“Ah, the old problem!” He said as Foxy translated for Prof and they shared the information at their disposal. “The whole issue goes back to Master Chwarae Mynydd and his damned book. He mixed up Gyors Rabló with Rettentő Karom. Although they are related, they have completely different habits and abilities. The waist-high, feathered lizards are called Gyors Rabló, and although very intelligent, are not overly dangerous because no more than two or three individuals tend to be in one place and very rarely attack Elves. The Rettentő Karom is much more dangerous, hunts in a packs of at least six to eight, and is also very intelligent. Of the two species mentioned, they are tall and featherless.”

“Thank you for the information!” nodded Prof “Which of the two is causing the problems in the forests? The task is to hunt down the former, but according to the descriptions, I suspect it is the latter.”

“Exactly! However, I must warn you that the two of you will not be enough for the task! The alpha animal is a Level eight or nine elite, with at least six other adults in the herd, all at least Level five. I would think under a full party of five, the task is suicidal at your Level. I don’t know if there are other adventurers or mercenaries in town, maybe you should ask around the guesthouses. Be careful though, if you see a Rettentő Karom, the others will have surrounded you already!”

Prof thanked for the help again (despite being sure, Foxy “forgot” to translate some of the speciesist comments) and then discussed the information with Foxy on their way back to their own guest house. The high reward became understandable, and it was clear that the two of them alone had no chance against the pack.

Another question was how much chance an unfamiliar party would have against relatively high-level, intelligent monsters, even if they found someone who was willing to team up. Eventually, they decided to inform the guest houses that they are looking for party members, and if someone was interested, they should contact them. If they managed to put together a capable seeming party, they would try to kill off the pack.

Unlike Earth and earth games, counter-selection didn’t work much on Arkadia – anyone, who was unviable, a big-mouthed, arrogant nobody, or just an annoying little twerp, could be identified from his Character Parchment and without potential party members disappeared from the global gene pool really fast. According to Caoilfhoinn, no adventurers would come to a Red guest house, and they could forget the Greens and the Blues too, so far from their core area there was almost no traffic, that left the Yellow guest house, and the two institutions frequented by non-elves.

One was frequented by the Grey, the other by everyone else.

Before they set out, Prof asked about the different Elven races.

“Foxy, I now have met a few of the races. Can I hazard the observation that they are named after their hair colour? Are there any other differences besides hair and eyes?”

“No, you are wrong, assigned colour and hair colour have just an accidental connection, there is mystical meaning to the colours, but I think, it’s hard or impossible to understand for non-Elves. Even a lot of Elves don’t know the true meaning – it has to do with the natural order and the cycle of being. I’m also not exactly familiar with the mysticism behind it all, if you are interested in a detailed explanation, you should bring a few of your Skills to around 150% and find a scholar of the matter.”

“As for your other question, I heard that Humans are blind to Elven physiognomy, and obviously it’s true. For example, look at my ears, they are typical Yellow ears, and are obviously of a completely different form than those of Caoilfhoinn, who has typical Red ears, or the Green ears of the Hunter. Do you see the difference?”

Prof did not. They were pointy ears of a slightly different colour with more or less fur or hair on it.

“Look, you probably don’t see it know with how few Elves you met so far, but there are very obvious differences in how the different races look. You will get a hang for it.”

Thinking a bit, Prof realised, the slightly avian features of the Yellows and the uncanny look of the Blues may constitute as such differences.

“Of course, the difference is not just skin deep. While Elves can procreate between the races, it is proven, that we are related but different races. Cousins or sisters, maybe? For example, the Green’s skin is able to provide camouflage, the Blues can breath and see under water, the Yellows have a higher magic affinity and so forth. That is somewhat tied to their mystical colour. Elves can recognize each other’s race just from looking at them, even if we discount hair, eye or skin colour. Was that not something that was common on your world?”

In fact it was. Europeans could with a high rate of success recognize other nations but were helpless with far-easterner. Or anyone non-European. On the flip side it was said a far-eastern not only could not differentiate between European nations but not even between European persons. Probably something like that was at play here too.