Abstiance brewery will supply the Laughter’s medicine with the alcoholic beverage that matches the quality of tier one beer.

The beverage must come within three days if requested.

Standing order to fill up to three large barrels every two days to a week, depending on Laughter’s medicine requests.

In turn, Laughter’s medicine will pay twenty copper for every ten litres of tier one beer.

Both parties, Abstinence and Arlina Medina reserve the right to restart negotiations at any time, with a week’s notice at the latest.

In general, taverns will sell their beer in two hundred milliliters, five hundred milliliters or in a large two litre pitcher. In Laughters medicine, two hundred milliliters sell for two coppers, five hundred for five coppers and two litres pitch for ten. This outside any special additions from the herb garden.

Originally they would purchase ten litre of sub quality tier one beer for twenty eight to thirty coppers. Approximately forty to fifty percentage more expensive than Rak’s deal. He can do this because of the quantity he’s selling and the short shipping distance and he's not trying to make profit yet.

“That should settle it.”

Arlina was more than satisfied with the deal, and while her previous actions with the young Rak were rather extreme it did not show on her face currently. Similarly, Rak was the picture of professionalism.

It was only Savan who had endured for some time who had a weird expression. It was even worse when she had to deliver cold drinks to her mother and Rak. She didn’t dare make eye contact with anyone and quickly disappeared behind the bar’s back door after putting down the refreshments.

“With this, Laughter’s medicine and Abstinence brewery official start their business.”

Arlina jotted down some notes on a piece of parchments before giving Rak a knowing smile. She stood up and went to the back where Savan had disappeared to, to her office.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then, I’m excited to see what you bring me.”

“Tomorrow then.”

After stepping out of the Laughter’s medicine tavern, Rak felt like chains were let loose. Never in his life had he experienced anything like this.

“That woman is a devil in disguise.”

He is a scion of a wealthy family, he had created a few lucrative startups. Although none of his projects amounted to much they all returned considerable profit. Nothing in comparison to the Devion family businesses, but enough to be considered successful. And in spite of all this, he was played with like a naive little boy with no understanding of the world.

Rak drove his thoughts away and took a look at the time. While it was still early he headed towards the bakery, even walking there should take him twenty to thirty minutes depending on his pace.

“Looks like I need to spend some on my meal.”

Like the drink Rak had earlier, food can give various increase to attributes or affect status. Most food increase the hunger status, while a few only slow down the steady decline of hunger points.

Character

Status

Constitution: 87/100%

Fatigue: 68/100%

Hunger: 35/100%

Clarity: 91/100%

Abilities

Inventory

“My fatigue is already at sixty eight percent?”

Feeling confused Rak brought up his notification log, ignoring the sizeable five hundred increase in experience he closed the window. He didn’t bother checking his combat log he has yet to even enter a combat state, making him completely ignore the combat log.

“Don’t tell me having sex has this dramatic effect on fatigue? It seems I have to be careful.”

Any young man would spew out blood and curse Rak hearing his worried thoughts. Many could only dream for such a passionate encounter, yet here he was preparing to guard against tigers and cougars.

“Just walking to the bakery has me at sixty seven percent.”

If Rak concentrated on the fatigue bar, he could make it reveal his numerical fatigue points, it just so happened that it was nearing the turning point to sixty seven from sixty eight. It would be absurd for him to lose a single percent of fatigue just from a brisk walk.

“I should get something substantial to eat.”

“Good morning, baker.”

“Mister Abstinence! Good to see you. I hear my mother has been tasked to help out at the brewery, how is it coming along?”

Bart, Hilde’s son is genuinely pleased to see Rak, his mother doesn't have many opportunities to help out these days, especially since most of the bakers duties went to himself. Most days she would find chores to do, from weeding out small tufts of grass between stone paths to dusting unreachable locations within the house.

“It’s going well, your mother has been an invaluable asset. She sent me here to grab some lunch for us all.”

“Good good. I´ll get something good together. On the house of course.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Forget it, treat it as a downpayment, when will I get to taste your beer?”

“Ah, how can I say no? I’ll bring some over tomorrow.”

“I’ll drop by the Weaving cross in and get something to satae me there.”

Rak didn’t wanna gouge the baker and leave a bad impression so he decided he’d spend a little more money elsewhere, otherwise the baker might try to offer him too much for free. From experience, Rak understood that taking a gift every once in a while isn´t bad, and in some cases helpful. But to overreach will leave a bad impression and be detrimental in the future.

“This should feed a family of six. Have mother bring the basket when she’s done.”

Rak took the large basket made from thin tree branches. If something is to be said about the townsfolk it’s that they are very thrifty. Everything from a sharp stone to a dead branch was could be used in one way or another.

After a short chat and saying his goodbyes, Rak was on his way to the Weaving cross inn. This place actually serves as the towns only hotel, not only is it big it also has the town’s largest restaurant. Often people from town hall would reserve the restaurant for half a day for various occasions.

Once Rak arrived he ordered from memory, five minutes passed and the entire meal vanished and so did a good ten coppers from his inventory. Ten copper for a meal is no joke. However his hunger has risen to a solid sixty two percent and will rise for another hour before middling out and eventually begin declining again.

With unhurried steps Rak greeted and smiled to all passerbys, as it was nearing noon, more and more people were out and about. Aside from early evening this is the highest volume of people during the day.

“Even simple food taste better than cuisines in real life.”

What people and Rak were slowly learning was that Chaos theory was evolving. Approximately three weeks ago, bread tasted like bland bread. But now even the most basic tier one bread, even failed products, tasted just right. While bread alone is not a grandiose meal, a well cooked meal by an amateur chef has now become a delicacy.

Had Rak had an encounter with a women, like Arlina a few weeks ago he would have not been impressed in the slightest, but now occasionally he would reminisce over the encounter. Even the meal he just had, while the meat was overcooked and the vegetables were rather stale, it tasted like a four star meal.

“The smell of all these pastries are making me hungry again.”

After arriving at the brewery, Rak took a look at this fatigue levels. It was still at sixty seven, he nodded, thinking this was more reasonable.

“If I can’t even walk around town without draining my fatigue, how would i manage all the traveling I have to do tomorrow.”

Normally, at the bare minimum, people spend thirty six hours in Chaos theory. It might be more accurate to say that is the required time. Sleep takes up a portion of that, but if a person’s fatigue drops too low they’ll lose consciousness in the world and if they don’t have a bed to sleep in, they’ll be left to the elements. People may rob them and they may even die in the worst case scenario.

“I got lunch.”

“Oh? You’re back already?”

Olric stretched his back, the sun shining into his eyes. He glanced at the two boys lying asleep next to a bucket of water, he could only shake his head.

“Youngsters these days.”

Hilde didn’t stop, it had been a while since she last felt so useful. In truth, Hilde is only sixty some years old yet has the energy of a forty year old. Her days were rather boring, it didn’t help her husband was very complacent just reading all day. If it wasn’t for uncertain danger, she might start hiking in the nearby woods.

“Your son really filled this basket the brim, I fear he’s losing to much on this. How about this, I’ll bring a keg for your son and husband tomorrow.”

“You shouldn’t.”

Unlike her son, her words were obviously pleasantries, she liked the way Rak spoke to her and she is happy that her son sent so much, it really gave her a lot face. Every bit of pride in a small town like Alp is valuable. At least that’s the mindset around these parts.

“Don’t argue with me, missus Hilde, I won’t be convinced.”

Hilde laughed gently and continued tending the grain, only a couple of hours and they should be done.

“I’ll wake up the boys and we can sit down and eat.”

Out back behind the brewery a small creek flowed and in accordance to the building plans, a small patio was built with chairs and a table, this was all in consideration of Olric and any future workers at the brewery.

Half passed two everything was ready and done, one large barrel container was filled with all the grain they prepared and the water pump just finished meeting the required amount.

“Now it’s all you Olric.”

“I got it.”

In truth, Olric had to little to do, but he couldn’t step away from the containers for too long, occasionally he’d have to check on and even add small amounts of water or a few grains. All in all it was sort of pointless but the results were all the same, a large quantity of tier one beer.

“I’ve got business down at the Withered fox then, and if I can, I’ll head down to Horts and back.”

“Horts? You got a carriage?”

“I’ll stop by town hall and see if one theirs is available.”

While there are carriage services to help people travel between villages, towns and cities, they are on a semi-fixed schedule and in a town like Alp only Town hall has their own carriage for business purposes. Lending them out for a period is also a way to make some coins.

“Town hall will rip you off.”

“I’m sure they will, but time is coin.”

“Time is coin. huh, that’s a clever saying.”

Rak laughed and shook his head, it was easy to forget he was in a simulated world. However, pain, pleasures and time, they are all very real in this world. Even quests were nothing but simple contracts in real life, though much safer. As general contracts in real life cannot be enforced my an all powerful General Artificial Intelligence.

After rubbing his calves Rak went out for another walk. It should take him forty some minutes to make it to town hall with his leisurely pace, but he was heading to the Withered Fox, which is on the other side of town. It should take him about an hour and half.

“It won’t be long until I can afford a horse a carriage and even a driver.”

Although Rak was already used to walking everywhere and his stamina had increased, he still felt his muscles ache with every step. As his intentions weren’t simple, Rak was constantly going from one place to another.

Halfway through his brisk walk, he was forced to a stop, his notification log was blinking. Majority of the time this meant he completed a quest or gained some experience for completing some event or achievement.

Gained Basic stamina

Nothing else appeared on screen. Rak was more than a little confused, he had never gained an ability like this, in fact he wasn’t sure how to even get an ability. He knew there are a bunch of people out there hunting monsters with magic abilities. Swords that extended for a brief moment or gales so sharp it cut into the thick skins of beasts.

Rak navigated to his ability menu, which was usually empty and saw a new passive ability. He further concentrated on it to view its description.

Character

Status

Abilities

Active

Passive

Basic stamina

Increases base stamina by: 98 points

Increases stamina recovery by: 4%

Inventory

“Is this how you gain abilities? Just walking around is good enough?”

Thinking back, Rak had never even tried to go out and fight beasts or what have you, the only reason he even left the village he spawned in, was to go to the town Alp.

Some towns have things like beast hunting lodges, large butcher’s that need a lot of meat, adventure locations and some towns even have to routinely fight off nearby pests. But all of Rak’s quests have been mundane to the point of trivial.

“I might have to ask around about this.”

Had Rak spent some time in taverns and talked to the more rugged men and women there, he might have gotten an opportunity to join them on a combat oriented quest. While some towns and villages would have issues with the local wildlife or some pests, Alp did not.

For Rak to get any combat related quests, he would have to talk to the kinds of people that actively seek that out. He could also try to get introduced to some of the local wild game hunters, but those usually keep to themselves. Talking to Alp’s butcher might lead to such an introduction for example, but the butcher himself will not issue any hunting quests.

Ignoring quests, even just walking outside of town, one would find critters, and while small critters like squirrels and rabbits are not much, they can still be hunted for their meat, skins and experience. Of course, this will not gain any reputation within the town, which has always been Rak’s goal.

“The Withered fox.”

Outside of Laughter’s medicine, the Withered fox is the most popular place to drink and eat. The Withered fox stands on the outskirts of town, just beside a cross road leading through the village Cal to Jurne town, which leads to the city Hampter, these are down south.

The other two roads from east and west, to the east the village Inte that’s close to a mountain range, a rather dangerous one, but this village would be isolated if not for the only road in and out from it to Alp. the west leads to the village Often which is then connected to the town Yr.

As a general rule, no town leads directly to another town, while there are exceptions, there are non around Alp. In addition to this, all towns lead to multiple villages, and all cities leads to multiple towns. Looking at it from a birds eye view, it is a messy net of villages, towns and cities.

When taking things like kingdoms and empires into consideration, those are still just a conglomeration of villages, towns and cities. The only exception to this all is the places where the Chaos theory system holds absolute law, in those places there is no government, making it a unique existent.

“Even during the day this place is busy.”

One of the reasons why the Withered fox can contend with the Laughter’s medicine is because of stranger’s traffic. Most merchant, vagrants and any sort of traveller upon entering Alp will at least drop by the Withered fox for a drink and something to eat.

The traffic between a town to a village isn’t much, the traffic between a town and another town isn´t to much either, even between city to a town isn’t much, but all put together added to the random travellers with no general purpose or some obscure objective, the total becomes respectable.

“Abstinence! You’re here already?”

“If I don’t come now, when will I get my meal?”

“What to you take me for? I, Tril, am a respectable Tavern co-owner.”

If there is anyone that has managed to get under Rak’s skin in this town, it is this Tril. She and her friend Kodre own this Tavern together, though it can be said that Tril runs it alone. Kodre spends his time writing poems and songs, some of which he forces onto the customers virgin ears.

“Enough of the stare Abs, find a seat, I’ll bring you something.”

With a strong exhalation through the nose, a ‘hmph’ sound and a fierce glare Rak finally sits down, the tiniest of pout on his lips. Even Rak hasn’t realized how he is acting, just like how he doesn’t notice how polite he becomes when he enters Chaos theory. One has to remember that Rak is anything but a nice person in real life. While not twisted or a degenerate, he can still be somewhat depraved, especially in his pursuit of women.

“I really can’t stand the woman.”

Like a wronged little boy, Rak pouted, using his time to complete the draft of the contract. He is thinking about just giving her thirty percent rather than the forty five he gave Laughter’s medicine. He didn’t. Almost entirely because his favorability within the town keeps growing and has plans to build more production related things.

Villages, towns and cities all have their own rules and regulations, these rules are then enforced by various officials. Aside from their own set of rules, there lies the fundamental part of Chaos theory, like why Rak has to earn favorability with the town. He’s not gaining favorability with the people, at least in a way that can be viewed numerically, but the part of the town that is actually a small subset of Chaos theory.

Essentially, every action Rak takes can influence his standing in the town. A positive action increases his reputation, a negative decreases it. Then there is the individual reputation, being polite to someone or even bribing them can induce quests that then in turn reward positive reputation with the local town.

“Here you go, as promised, on the house of course.”

“Wait, wait. Where are you going? Aren’t we going to finalize the deal?”

“In a moment, I’m busy unlike a little vagrant like yourself.”

“This god damn bitch.”

Everything from the tone to the disdaining tone in her voice cuts Rak to the bone. He knows she is messing with him, and that she herself is enjoying it. Even though Rak understands she isjust messing about and not being serious he can’t help but feel frustrated. Perhaps if he could see himself and their interaction he’d laugh at himself.

“So you’re the aspiring brewer?”

Majority of the tavern is locals but with so many strangers, it is common for people to be talkative. Rak’s eyes meet with a rather unsavory looking person, even from a table away the stench of alcohol wafts across to Rak.

“Brewery owner, I don’t do much of the brewing if any. Got Olric for that.”

Clearly the person talking to Rak has no idea who Olric is, which isn’t too surprising this is a rather sizeable town and you can’t know everyone by name alone.

“Oh. Well Owner or brewer, it’s all the same. I’m something of a connoisseur of the drink.”

“I bet.”

The alcohol smell seems to be intensified but it still not enough to cause Rak to feel disgusted, if anything, in a tavern it is expected.

“A connoisseur you say? Huh.”

“That’s right. I’ve been traveling from city to city, town to town even from village to village and I don’t leave until I’ve had a least a drink.”

Smacking his chest the man looks into air to the ceiling and begins reminiscing of good times.

“Oh? I don’t suppose you got a map with you then?”

One of the most difficult things to aquire in Chaos theory is a map, for some bizarre reason, all maps are only large enough to fit in one or two towns and whatever was between. Even if one is lucky enough to find such a map, it wouldn’t hold much descriptive detail.

“Of course, how can a man travel without a map?”

In reality, just moving about filled in a blank slate of a map. Rak’s map is sad to view, other than being a bit detailed around Alp, it was essentially one small circle, a line directly to a larger circle. The smaller circle being the town he spawned in Alp being the larger circle.

“Mind if I take a look?”

“Sure thing, if you let have a taste of that beer of yours.”

Give anonymous tavern dweller a taste of Abstinence brewery’s beer.

Reward: Map information.

Looking at the quest, Rak sighed inwardly, while it looked like a quest, all in all it was just a request and who knew if this person would hold up his end of the deal? Thinking back, Rak has on numerous occasions gotten a different reward than the one ‘promised’ on the quest.

“Alright, I’ll be delivering some here tomorrow, I’ll let you drink it right out of the barrel.”

“Out of the barrel?”

The man’s eyes are shining, he never thought of drinking beer straight from a barrel, how extravagant. In his heart, this anonymous traveller decided he’d not doctor any of his map information. Even though he is drunk he understands the value of a good map.

“You’re not eating?”

Looking down at the meal on the table and smelling the strong scent of alcohol, Rak lost all his appetite.

“No.”

“I don’t suppose…”

The man did not finishing his sentence to help Rak offer him the meal, this way he wasn’t a beggar, at least in his heart.

“Oh, go right ahead, it would be a shame to see it go to waste.”

“Right, a shame. A damn shame!”

Without any politeness or hesitation the man began devouring the meat and vegetables. In a flash it was all gone and the plate returned.

“Ah! I haven’t had a meal like that in a good while now.”

“Oh? You short on coin?”

“Of course not, I’m a veteran herbalist and general know-it-all. How could I lack coin?”

“But, you just said, actually nevermind.”

Feeling that it wasn’t worth chasing after this man's thoughts, Rak put it away and looked towards the bar area, at the moment Tril was talking to two of her employees. As if knowing Rak was looking at her she turned her gaze towards him and smiled a rather mysterious smile.

“God damnit, she’s doing this on purpose.”

“Oh? You fancy the owner? Aie, give it up lad, that women is just trouble.”

With the voice that can cause rust to appear wood, the anonymous traveller pats Rak on the shoulder and gives him a long sigh.

“Let this old man help you, let’s see.”

Rak felt even more helpless at the situation, but he didn’t correct the man, he felt like any word would be misunderstood and any question would go unanswered.

“Look there, that’s a gal for you. She can definitely hold her drink but look at her swaying and the spit when she talks, that’s an easy catch.”

To say that Rak’s standards for women were high is an understatement and the ‘woman’ he was being matched with was not only in her fifties, she was almost two time his size in every direction.

“I don’t think I can handle someone like her, sir why don’t you snag her up?”

“Oh? You don’t mind? I never knew such a generous soul.”

In all honesty, Rak didn’t know what to make of the situation, if the man’s words and expressions weren’t so sincere, he’d think this travelling vagrant was being sarcastic and joking around.

This was not the first time Rak met someone eccentric, even just in this small town of Alp there are numerous weird people acting strange. This is strange as in odd or weird not as in suspicious.

“When will that little witch come over, I should go over there myself.”

Tapping his fingers on the semi-dry table Rak stared daggers are Tril, who in turn lifted up one finger as if to say ‘one moment’. This only served to irritate Rak more. One should know that Rak is a patient man but not necessarily wise or well learned in various social battles.

What Rak learned when he was growing up was how to be proper and study to become a business mogul like his father and mother. Of course with wealth he couldn’t help but become a bit perverted and enjoy the power that came with it all.

“So sorry to keep you waiting all this time, Abs, I just have really important things going on.”

“I’m sure.”

“Finally we can get this over with.”

“You see, Kath over there? Katerine, you know Katherine right? See Kath has a little brother whose birthday is in a week and we’ve just been knocking our brains of how to celebrate it.”

Turning a bit pale, Rak looked into the woman's eyes, he saw genuine worry and struggle. Never in his life has he been played like this, yet somehow he wasn’t angry only exasperated.

“Oh, I see. Well”

Giving it a moment, Tril watched for Rak’s reaction and saw he was only a bit annoyed and disinterested. Suddenly she huffed and put her hands beneath chest and sat down pouting.

“What is with this woman.”

“I’ve drafted up the contract.”

Rak lifted up his hand and pushed it forward lightly in the direction of Tril, the screen holding the contract’s information minimized and sped up towards her. This took less than half a second to occur.

“Look it through and let me know if there is any problem.”

After giving it a cursory glance, still with a rather unsatisfied look, Tril’s eyes suddenly enlarged.

“This is forty five percent cheaper than what we currently pay!”

The look in Tril’s eyes softened and she tapped into the air, this should signify her agreeing to the conditions. And sure enough Rak got a notification saying it was all alright.

“Good. then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You’re leaving already?”

Despite everything, Rak was thrilled having the contract signed, in addition he didn’t need to suffer this woman’s antics anymore. While in some ways he was interested in Tril, he couldn’t find it in him to pursue it, it was too strange for him to be in this position.

On the way back to the brewery, Rak couldn’t help but think about tomorrow. He suddenly realized he didn’t have any way to actually transport his beer. He could have someone carry it but that would be a bit absurd.

Thinking this far, Rak began making his way to town hall, he couldn’t help but scold himself for being unprepared. To Rak’s defence, he had no idea that it would take so little time to produce such great quantities of beer.

Even if town hall and the Withered fox were so far apart, he had to walk quite the distance back to the brewery anyway. In addition, he had to see if he could book one of town halls carriages for the day.

“Mister Abstinence?”

“Oh! Just the person I was looking for, Mister town planner Ung.”

“I thought you’d be overseeing the brewery.”

“I’ve been dealing with the taverns.”

“Oh? Ah, of course, with your brewery I’m sure they’ll all want a little piece.”

Rak laughed slightly and shook his head.

“It’s them doing me a favor, without customers, what will I do? Drink it all myself?”

Town planner Ung chuckled and waved his and, indicating Rak to follow him inside. Once inside, they navigated to a Ung’s office. While being the town’s planner gave Ung certain powers, due to the unique Chaos theory universe interfering in things, it was still limited.

“So what can I help you with, Abstinence. Don’t tell me you’re building something else?”

“Not yet, I came to town hall to looking to rent a carriage, I need one for at least a day, even getting one today as well would be great.”

“A carriage. Hmm.”

“Right. I need to do some deliveries tomorrow and I’m also planning to visit the local villages.”

At this point in time Ung put on thoughtful expression. This is one of those situations where indeed he has the power to loan one of the Town’s properties. Not only that, he could loan Rak the carriage driver.

One thing Rak hadn’t thought of, was that driving carriage is no easy job, and frankly impossible for him. He could pick it up in a day or two, but for his purposes he’d be best to hire an experienced driver.

If this was real life, perhaps he could make due winging it. But this being Chaos theory, abritiratly limitations are everywhere. With these limitations come an advantage as well, to be able to excel at something. For example getting abilities that increase speed, the carry load and other things that would never work in reality.

“I suppose we could get this done, but it’ll be costly.”

“How much are we talking here? I’ve got to make a living, you know.”

The conversation was still rather light and they were half playing around, but there was still some seriousness in it. After all, Ung couldn’t loan Town’s property for nothing. This is a limitation set by the town´s government. Though exception can be made, in general they are kept to.

“Seeing as your in a tough spot and you’ve been helping out so much lately I’ll let you have it for ten coppers a day. But unless you’ve got driving carriage experience you’ll have to hire a driver.”

“Hoh? Do I need an ability to drive a carriage?”

“Not exactly, but you can also be considered practically useless without it.”

Ung shook his head, he himself had to move the carriage once and ended up wasting his lunch break. This was three years ago and it still stayed with him, his launch breaks were paid for, he essentially worked through his launch, it was no joke for a government official.

“What’s that going to cost me, you reckon?”

“Shesh. Well, you’ll have to take that up with one of the drivers. I think Forl is out on a job to Hampter so it's only Iter and Url you can talk to. Url should be in his stables up north, but Iter will probably be at the Laughter’s medicine.”

Rak felt a cold shiver when the name Laughter’s medicine came up and he resolved to make the trip up north to Url’s house, which is where Url’s stables are built. It is also where the largest flatlands around Alp is located, perfect for keeping horses.

“Will I have to fetch Url over then?”

“Url should have one of the Carriages. We do have three after all and they are of no use without a driver and horse.”

Ung shook his head thinking about it. This policy of leaving the carriages with the drivers came exactly from that incident three years ago when Ung lost out on his lunch break.

“Guess I’m going on another walk.”