The sun shines through the glass window hitting my eyes. I hear people on the first floor all probably eating breakfast. Guess it time to wake up.

As I was sleeping I thought of some things I wanna do, since I'm gonna be here for a while. I thought of starting my own gang, run my own business, doesn't necessarily need to be organized crime. Ill recruit some people own a couple of businesses and run my own area of the city. That'd be nice.

Well that ideas gonna take a bit of time before I can make it happen. So, for now, I'll just save up my money and make some connections.

I put on my now chocolate colored suit and my fedora, I hang my golden BAR on my shoulder exit the room and lock it. Walking down the stairs aroma of different foods hits me. Some breakfast would sound good.

As I seat myself on an empty table one of the waitresses came up to write down my order.

“What would you like today sir?”

“Whatever is good I guess.”

“Alright, sir!”

A minute later the same lord and his group that came yesterday came in today. They ordered the most expensive dishes as always.

I call one of the waitresses over.

“What do you need sir?”

“I wanna know about that guy over there.”

“L-lord Ezekial!?!?”

“Yeah, that guy, he works with the human empire right?”

“I think so.”

“Why doesn't he eat in the inner city? Since he's that important.”

The girl whispered close.

“Well from what I've heard lord or not monsters are still unable to enter the inner city without human supervision, even with permission monsters can't enter unless they have a human with them.”

Seems like a government puppet, the important guy isn't even that important when seeing the bigger picture it seems.

“This is the best place to eat outside the inner city I presume?”

“I guess, it does seem like it.”

Another waitress comes up to my table with a plate full of food.

“Here you go, sir!”

“Thanks.”

I signal the waitress I asked questions to carry on her job. I wonder how much these girls are paid, seeing the outer city is in some kind of poverty I don't think their pay isn't anything special.

What was on my plate were some kind of sausages and blue eggs, seeing as the eggs are blue the sausages might be different from what I'm thinking.

Nonetheless, it tastes great!

The waitresses start putting large plates on the Lord's table. Whole roasted animals on top of vegetable beds.

They look good and very expensive. Knowing him I feel like he isn’t gonna pay, just like last time. Has this establishment been letting him do that? They gotta be strict in everyone, lord or not. If he doesn’t pay don’t let him leave.

The Lord glances over to me, he does this multiple times before stopping to eat his food. Since it was a big group so they ate it pretty quick. And of course, they asked if they could have it on the house.

I quickly ate my food and paid.

The waitresses agreed and the group stood up and started to leave, but before the Lord could leave I stood up and grabbed his shoulder.

Ah, shit, I did that without thinking, I wonder what kind of mess I'm gonna get into, I'm kinda excited to see what will happen.

“Do you need something?”

“I think you should pay.”

The Lord gave me a bad look.

“And who are you?”

“Just a normal customer, that pays for good food. Unlike a certain someone.”

All the other customers and waitresses stare in fear, guess this is the first time they've seen someone stand up to someone like him.

“Oh, I'm sorry ill pay right away! Oh, how can I be so rude!”

He might sound sincere but I don't buy it.

He quickly drops a few gold coins on the table and exits the tavern.

A waitress with long black hair and bat wings comes up to me.

“Thank you so much! We were kind of losing money because of him.”

“No problem, alright ill be going. Oh, yeah do you know anywhere I can get new clothes”

“The building with the sword next door also in addition to rewarding people also sell equipment.”

“Thank you, ill be going now.”

“See ya!.”

I exit the tavern an enter the building next door. I walk up to the girl at the counter.

“You got any gear?’

“We do just step right in!”

She pointed at a door right next to the counter.

In this room was mannequins wearing heavy armor and many weapons, this room also had normal clothing.

“By any chance are you able to repair, or clean what I'm wearing right now?”

The girl examines what I'm wearing, she gives it different looks.

“Yah wanna clean the dried blood stains?”

“Yeah.”

“That doable.”

“So do I need to take this off?”

“No need.”

She brought out a bucket of some kind of red paint, she took a small brush and a small notebook. She opened the notebook to a specific page and she drew whatever was on that page on my suit. It was similar to what that girl in the forest was drawing except it was different line positions were different and had multiple shapes.

Once the image was drawn onto my suit she hovered her hand over the image that was drawn. The drawing lit up red and before I knew it the suit was back to normal, no more dried blood stains and no dirt on it.

“H-How does this work? What even is this?”

“It's magic, it's very rare. I only know a couple of magic symbols but I need to copy it off a book. People who know a lot of magic symbols and can memorize them without books are very valuable. Oh yeah, that'll be 10 gold mecililles.”

Hm, that's pretty expensive I think. But I have the money.

“Thanks for the repair, here you go.”

I hand the girl the 10 gold mecililles.

As I walk out of the building an old man with a scroll comes up to me. He started to speak in a really slow manner.

“You are the man who killed the monster in the forest I presume.”

“Yeah, you got the right guy.”

“And your name is?”

“Antonio, Antonio Alvichi.”

“Quite an unusual name but that is no problem. I'm here to recruit you to a group organized by the lord, I am gathering the finest fighters in the city so we can enter the Wamerith manor. The Wamerith manor is full of monsters and traps too much for the army to handle, you will be paid for your work once the manor has been cleared out, 50 gold mecililles for each person.”

The lord, I don't like him but if I'm being paid ill do it.

“Sure I'm in.”

“This is good news, here is a tabard, we gather at the entrance of the city, be there as soon as you can.”

“I'll be heading over there now.”

“Alright, we will be starting soon.”

Walking to the entrances big wooden doors I see others in the same yellow and blue tabards, they look really tough, some looked like ogres from fantasy story books but instead of being brainless brutes they looked very civilized, one even had glasses. There must be a difference between these monsters and the monsters similar to the one in the forest.

Guys with maces, swords, bows, staffs all types of weapons. After a bit, Lord Ezekiel Shows up on horseback. He looks like he's joining the fight but I fucking doubt he gonna do anything, doubt he's even gonna be joining.

The lord starts a speech.

“You all have been specially picked for this job! You all are the best, the strongest and most fearsome warriors this city has to offer! Once this job is finished you all will be honored and remembered throughout history!”

He’s really hyping this up isn’t he, calling It right now he’s gonna be taking all the credit.

“Your guide will be this man, he will also be leading the group. You are setting off right now get ready.”

The guide was a tall man in a full suit of armor.

There were multiple horse-driven wagons, there were 100 or so people and 25 or so wagons, so 4 people in each.

People were already going into the wagons, I’m not sure if everyone is a complete stranger or if people have already made groups beforehand.

I manage to spot an empty wagon, I get in it. Every wagon had someone driving it. 3 other people join my wagon, from the looks of it I don’t think they know each other as their not talking to each other, one of them is even trying to avoid eye contact.

The wagon starts to move, must be time to go.

In this wagon there were bags of food and other supplies, each person in the wagon with me also seem to have brought supplies, guess I’m the only person not prepared. Oh whatever all I need is my BAR.

There were 2 females and 1 male, the male had a pitch black skin color and horns protruding out on each side of his head. He was some kind of magical demon. The first girl was some kind of animal, she had fur, a tail, and animal ears although I can’t quite tell what animal she is, maybe a cross between a raccoon and a bear?

And the second girl had goat legs kind of like a satyr. Of course, she was wearing armor and her choice of weapon was a spear with all kinds of ornaments and designs.

Suddenly the ride became a bit rough and bumpy, I took a peek outside and saw that the road had many bumps and rocks everywhere, weeds were rampant and some of the stones had moss growing, this road has clearly not been in maintenance or in use for years. This road connected to the one that leads to the city and yet they disregard it entirely.

The ride continued to be bumpy, sometimes we’d hit a rock and I’d be lifted an inch off the seat. Sometimes the wagons would sway left and right, sometimes the wooden wheels would break and it would take almost an hour to repair it so the journey to the manor was quite rough.

After several hours of sitting in one position in a wagon, we finally arrived at our destination, the sun started to set and people gathered around to come up with a plan. People chose groups, partners, and some planned to go in alone which was the choice I picked.

The manor looked a lot bigger than normal manors, it was castle/ fortress-like. The manor was all black with 4 large black statues in front, they were statues of empty armor each one having their own unique weapon. The manor had stone gargoyles that peered the ground from above, they would insight fear to those dated to enter.

The lord didn’t tell us what exactly could be found inside this place, his commands were to clear it but not knowing what needs to be cleared will come up to be a big concern.

All the groups and people who are going in solo all approach the manors large doors, the large doors started to move on its own once the groups came in closer and inside was pitch black, nothing to be seen.

I don't know what's gonna be in there and I don't think anyone else knows too, we're gonna have to find out once we enter.

I have a suspicious feeling about this manor……...something about it is just strange. As I and the other groups enter the pitch black manor torches start to light up by themselves.

Seems they were expecting us, the only way to know is if we walk down the what seemed to be a never-ending hallway. The doors behind us close shut.

Guess there's only one way out!