The cobbled street was full of people, some dressed finely in intricately designed cotton tunics, vests, blouses, skirts, and pants, while others were dressed in faded, homespun wools or linen. But they were all going about their business, entering, exiting, and browsing the stone and wooden buildings lining the street. Dozens of signs hung along the roadside with pictures of everything from vegetables to weapons. Though the contents varied, most of the buildings and their owners had one thing in common: they all had some kind of connection to the huge structure looming in the distance. To them, it was the Guard Fortress, the symbol and source of their livelihood.

However, to Richard it was a prison he had finally gotten away from… at least for a while. Dressed in his original clothes, he was relaxing near the Guard Fortress exit, leaning on a stone railing that lined the moat surrounding the fortress walls. To a passerby, it would have seemed like he was staring at the disgusting sludge floating by in the moat or even like was analyzing the fortress walls that stood across the moat. But, in reality, Richard was too busy to care about such mundane things. His eyes darted this way and that, looking like he was schizing out or something, but there was a reason for it.

It was one of those things he had discovered while playing around with his new skills and trying to understand them. He could control the core interface by just using thoughts and using his eyes as pointers. If he had been looking at all the nice people passing by, he might have been treated as some crazy person. So, he took what he thought was a cool pose contemplating the intricacies of the crumbling fortress wall and the divine nature of the gloop in the moat.

His mood, however, didn’t match his cool pose. At first, he had been thrilled. He had gotten five different s skills all at once, including one which he had a suspicion was a ‘Unique’ or ‘Legendary’ skill. It was even more amazing since his ‘Mimic Skill’ had succeeded even at such a low level.

At least, that’s what he thought until he tried to figure out how to equip the skills. The first thing he learned was that he only had four skill slots available, and to make things worse, the help guide didn’t explain how to gain more skill slots. The second thing he found out was that the Critical Luck skill couldn’t be unequipped. When he tried, he just kept getting a message that said, “Option not available.”

To make matters worse, the skill suddenly seemed a whole lot subjective. What did the Gods consider amusing? What did they consider desperate? His own experiences with all the crazy monsters had definitely been desperate in his opinion, but as for funny… Richard didn’t see what was amusing about the hell he had been through. Not everyone shared his opinion of course. By the afternoon, the stable hands and some of the guards had started snickering when he walked by with the words ‘Shit Slayer’ being whispered.

He had felt pissed off initially, but gradually the anger had turned to a dull frustration. He came to the realization that one little slip up at any time in the last four days, and he would have died a half a dozen times already. And the Gods of Luck considered that to be funny? That’s when he realized something: as amazing as the skill sounded, to use it, he was going to have to put himself in some crazy, dangerous situations. Thinking about it gave him a headache.

Even with all that, he had held out hope for his four, new skills. However, even those ended confusing and disappointing him. He was able to equip the Skills Elemental Earth and Toxic Domination in the available slots, but in reality, he was forced to equip the sub-skills as the actual skills he could use. It was like Elemental Earth was a chosen category, and the sub-skill was the actual item in that category that you picked to use. So, in the end, he ended up with two actual skills, two categories, and one very fishy skill/curse. At least that’s how he thought of them.

That disappointment had been appeased just a bit by the elf captain’s reward. Richard’s debt had been reduced by a third. Of course, he was also told that he would have to vacate his stall the next day and to make sure to clean up after himself before leaving… As annoying as that last part sounded, Richard had realized he had been premature in telling the stable master he was going to quit just like that. Thankfully, the stable master had invited him to a night out in the city to celebrate his victory and to put him in touch with someone particular… To say Richard wasn’t suspicious would be downright stupid, but he had agreed to the suggestion, mainly since he didn’t have any plans other than wandering around the city, gawking.

“Hey, hero of the shovel… wake up!” The loud, gruff voice put a spike in Richard’s contemplation, and he turned to the side to find the gray haired stable master walking down the cobbled street with a cheery expression on his craggy face. It didn’t help that the man’s black eyes’ were positively twinkling.

“Who’re you calling hero, old man? And don’t be talkin’ about things that shouldn’t be mentioned!” So far, no one out here had called him any weird names, but Richard knew it was just a matter of time until rumors spread. However, he didn’t really care as long as people didn’t match his face to his name or the nicknames that were spreading around.

“So… you ready to see Serenthal?” The stable master didn’t even pause as he walk by Richard, who was forced to play catch up.

“That depends on where you’re taking me. The last time I followed you, I ended up almost dying pitifully. If you have any more of those kind of surprises, I’ll take my chances alone in the city.” Richard knew he shouldn’t be so rude, but then again, the aging stable master seemed to have more than one sneaky bone in his body.

“No lad… Not trying to mess around with you. Just trying to be helpful. Captain Finovin’s a bit of a prig when it comes to properly rewardin’ those that deserve it. Me… well, you took care of one of my problems, so it leaves me grateful. You won’t be regetin’ my gratitude either. Any way… this here is the Guard market district. It’s got all the major merchants, who deal with the Guards….”

Richard listened closely as the stable master explained the intricacies of the City of Serenthal. The city itself was split into dozens of districts, including residential, markets, craft guilds, the guard fortress, and the slums. Though there were class distinctions within the city, it seemed like there was decent social mobility, so there wasn’t any restriction on who could enter where and whatnot. That didn’t mean that there weren’t private security forces or dangerous organizations, many of which had deep connections to the city’s council and liked to lord it over others. Unfortunately, even though the Guard was neutral and well trained, they were also relatively powerless when it came to matters within the city, especially when it dealt with the council. It had something to do with the oath they took as Guardsmen.

The result was heavy corruption and a merchant’s dream, where everything but slavery was legal. Of course, indentured servitude kind of made up for that. The stable master spat in disgust as he mentioned what he thought was the greatest evil in the city: the Indentured Servitude Ordinance, which was passed a dozen years ago with heavy support form a large part of the city council, many of whom owned large tracts of land worked by ‘indentured servants.’

Stable Master Haroken had a sober face as he explained how it changed the city. “Many of the penniless vanished off the streets in the first few weeks… They explained it as making sure those people contributed to the wellbeing of the city. Of course, then the taxes went up, slowly but steadily. Most of the individual crafters and minor merchants were forced out of business as the larger ones consumed them like razor fish shredding a piece of meat in the water. So, the number of poor got larger and larger, and more of ‘em became indentured servants. Of course, the city would have gone belly up if it wasn’t for the wars to the west. The small kingdoms there are busy tearing each other apart, so we get a steady flow of more bodies to fill in all that we lose. Also, we keep gettin’ a steady flow of adventurers and mercenaries, who like using the city to winter in or to spend their loot in. It’s like a vicious cycle.”

Avoiding what looked like a bunch of men carrying a palanquin with some fat, florid looking fellow, Richard asked “Seems like you aren’t too happy with it.”

The stable master stopped and turned around to look at Richard with a glare. “Not too happy? Aye, that’s one way of puttin’ it. But, lad, understand this: this city is my home. Seeing it turned into a abomination makes my blood boil. If I wasn’t a Guardsman and beholden to the oaths I swore, I promise you that I would ‘ave made some of those council bastards pay.”

Almost quivering in rage, the stable master turned around and marched through the cobbled streets without saying much more. Richard… well, he understood that anger. He had felt it more than once too, back on earth… Watching the drug dealers and gangs running roughshod over decent people, while the damn city councilmen did shit to resolve issues. Instead, most of the councilmen kissed rich asses and took payoffs from the drug lords and gangs to keep things broken. Richard felt a spike of irritation rise in him, but after years of keeping his head down, he was well practiced in suppressing that feeling.

Even so... Even so....he didn’t like it.

As he walked down the crowded streets, his eyes briefly met those an emaciated, raggedly dressed boy, maybe eight years old, who had a metal collar around his neck and was busy cleaning the entrance of a large building of some kind. It was just a brief moment in which two strangers, who would never see each other again, shared an unspoken connection that touched their souls.

The boy’s eyes momentarily gained a sparkle of curiosity as his gaze fell on the stranger’s weird clothing, but a second later, the dull, dead eyes returned as the boy bent back down to scrub the stone steps leading to the store.

Richard stood there for a moment, like a rock in the flowing tide of humanity, looking at the boy… no child. “Yep, I don’t like it one bit.”