As Edward was drawing closer, he was able to notice more details about the city. Agripin was a village, with buildings made mostly out of wood, in comparison Gobéliard was a proper medieval city. Its murals were made out of actual stones, covered with some kind of binding to increase their cohesion. They were reaching a good ten meters in height, with bright and colorful banners hanging from the different towers standing tall and installed at a regular interval. The banners were showing off the symbol of the city, a sea conch on a yellow and blue background. The entry facing the forest was opened, but for a city, there weren’t that many people flowing in and out.

With a coastal city, I suppose most of the activity must be on the ocean’s side. Especially when all you have on the other side is a monster-infested forest leading to a village and then to barren wilds. Still, I can see they do have some fields as well. I guess they can’t gamble everything on the sea, and they have to diversify their food source.

Edward reached the opened gate to enter the city, passersby were entering in front of him without problem, the guards only standing lazily at the side without paying much attention. However, when they saw him come over from the forest, they immediately regained their focus.

“Hey, you!! Come over there. Did you just come from the Vipin Forest? Stand your business.” One of the guards shouted while pointing at him.

To his surprise, Edward discovered that both guards were at the awaken level. The standards were clearly different from Agripin, even if thanks to him, this gap had decreased a lot.

“Good day to you. Yes, I’m a humble traveler wishing to visit this city and the rest of the world.” Edward answered, being careful not to antagonize the guards.

“Travelers crossing over the forest are scarce. Especially lately, you are the first in over a month. Did anything happen in there?”

“I’m coming from Agripin, we did have a monster problem but it is solved now. The path is safe again.”

“I see, we will report this matter. Monster activities are increasing lately. You wouldn’t have met anyone from the Vega family on your way?”

“The Vega family?" Edward asked confused. "No, why?”

“Never mind then. One of them left for an expedition in search of some ruins or whatever. The Vega family is starting to discuss sending an expedition after him since he hasn’t given back any news. I bet they would have given me a nice reward if I had fresh news to give them.”

An expedition in search of ruins. Are they talking about Marc? Now that I think back about it, his family name was indeed Vega. Anyway, it’s probably in my best interest to feign innocence. If I tell them their precious son is dead, I doubt they will take it happily. It’s better not to say anything, it will save me the trouble to defend myself from having any implications in his death. And it’s not like anybody else from Agripin will come too. Unless they really send people to Agripin to ask for him, I should be safe. And if they do, I will have the time to prepare before they come back.

The guards let him enter after warning him not to cause any troubles. Edward walked in the city’s streets, staring at everything. The streets were busy with bystanders walking quickly to accomplish their tasks, stalls overflowing the alley, and buyers stopping to glance at different products. The buildings were made either entirely of stone, or with a mix of plaster and wood. Most of them were two or three stories tall. People were wearing colorful clothes with lots of vibrant colors clashing together.

Edward took his time exploring the city, noticing areas that were quite remarkable compared to the surroundings. He stopped in front of a villa that took as much place as ten normal houses put together. The villa was surrounded by a tall wall protecting an inner court so that one couldn’t peer inside. However, the wall did nothing to hide the overlooking edifice inside of it. Not only was its size contrasting with the nearby houses, but so was its style.

The rest of the town looked like a medieval town just like on earth, but Edward could see evidence of magic in this building. The architecture choices were too bold, balconies seemingly supported by nothing, complex ornamentations, and towers arising from surprising places. It made Edward thinks back to The Lord of the rings. The elves' mansions in Rivendell were of a similar build.

This villa didn’t seem like an official building, but more like a private mansion. It even had its own flag floating over the roof depicting a giant squid on deep blue background. Such a view was a perfect demonstration of the blatant inequalities in resources and power in this city. This could have looked cool if it was an isolated complex but the fact that it stands in the middle of a city is spoiling its charm. It makes me think of the separation between slums and luxurious hotels.

Edward continued his way, the streets growing even more busier as he was getting nearer to the sea and the docks. He had to stop to let a chariot carrying ores drive through. Access to the sea meant access to food with fishes and crustacea, but as importantly it was also a way into maritime trade routes.

When he reached the docks, Edward was able to gaze at all kinds of ships. There were big caravel ships, that were used for trading and transporting goods, small fishing boats used by the locals, but also sailing boats that stood in between in terms of size. Those ships were currently docked and looked like pleasure boats used by rich families to entertain themselves.

Edward enjoyed the view of the ocean, stretching into the distance until it was blending with the horizon. The sun was reflecting on the, for now, calm sea. Birds could be heard squeaking and flying around. Some islands could be seen into the distance, although too far to make out any details.

Once Edward had his fill of the view, he went back to the city to find a pace to stay. I can allow myself to visit the city freely for some time but at one point I will need to find a way to make money. I got a nice nest egg from Marc’s money, but it won’t last forever. With the size of this town, I hope they have something equivalent to an adventurer guild. This would be the ideal job, being able to explore the world while still making money and without anyone supervising you and yelling at you.

Edward didn’t notice that if most people weren’t choosing this job in this world, it was because of the very real risk of dying. Sure, others jobs could be less interesting or rewarding, but at least you were still alive at the end of the day. Adventurers were having a passionate but risky life. On top of that, the main problem was how to become an adventurer.

Adventurers made their livings by killing monsters, and one had to be strong enough to kill said monsters. There were two main ways to become stronger. One by killing monsters and absorbing their power, which was difficult to do when you were weaker than the monsters. And the other one was to buy potions made by Alchemist from monsters’ ingredients. So, to begin on this path you either had to be already strong or have someone taking care of you, or you needed to be rich. This severely limited the entry of outsiders into this kind of job.

Edward managed to find an inn soon enough. He hadn’t explored the whole city yet, but he had already been walking for the whole day, and he wouldn’t say no to a nice comfy bed. That would be a nice change from sleeping in a tree for fear of monsters eating him in his sleep. The inn was named the golden pie, with an appetizing smell coming out of it. Edward followed his instinct, and not at all his stomach, and walked in.

Several clients were sitting at the different tables, either drinking or eating a meal, the establishment had nothing fancy but it seemed decent enough. Edward ordered the inn's specialty which had given its name to the tavern, and he reserved a room for the night. It cost him a few silvers but he had more than enough money right now. After his meal, before going to sleep, he asked the innkeeper about any points of interest in the city. The innkeeper wasn’t particularly surprised that Edward was new in the city, they did get quite a few travelers coming from the sea, he just didn’t know that Edward was coming from the Vipin Forest and not from the sea.

“So, you are telling me there is an arena in this city?” Edward asked the bartender as they were discussing.

“Yes, they organize tournaments from time to time. When it’s not in use you can rent it to spar or to settle a grudge. Lots of people like to watch and bet on the fights too. Since you are new in town, you should definitely try it, if you are lucky, you will even be able to see adventurers fighting monsters. Although it is quite rare since they first need to capture the monsters alive to fight in the arena.”

“It does seem interesting.” This would be a good way to see how the people from here are fighting. I only fought monsters until now, and I want to see what kind of techniques fighters from this world use against each other. “Do you know where someone adventurous could earn some money?”

“Well, you could try to fight in the arena as a professional fighter or just for some bets. Otherwise, your best shot will be the adventurer guild, they do have a lot of requests lately due to an increase in monsters activities. And if you plan to settle in this town, you could also try to get hired as a guard for a noble family. They are picky about who they hire, but once you are in, you get good pay from what I heard.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Edward answered. He gave him twenty copper coins as a tip, before walking upstairs to his room.

Becoming a guard for an uptight arrogant noble. No thank you, I’ll pass. The adventurer guild seems interesting though. I will see what kind of job I will find over there. As for fighting, I don’t know, once or twice could be fun, but I don’t want to become a professional fighter. One day or the other I would just get trampled by some new guys who studied my tactics. And I don’t even know how far they push the fights. I hope there is no fighting to the death, that would be sickening.