Dreamer's Throne

“What if we make the back wheel a bit smaller?”

Two weeks had passed since the gang had successfully relocated the four warehouses full of goods, and Garrett had settled into his life as a member of the Ghoul’s Tooth gang. He still had no idea why the gang had that name, but honestly he didn’t care enough to find out. During the day he spent his time handling the gang’s finances, advising Henrick on the issues facing the gang, and helping the individual members solve random problems.

“I really think it just looks funny with wheels that are so big,” Ryn complained, pointing at the wheelchair that Garrett was pushing down the hall.

It had taken a few iterations to get a wheelchair that suited Garrett, specifically because he wanted both the ability to push himself, and the ability to use his wheels to steer. Since he was limited to one arm to propel himself along, a chair with independent wheels would just go around in a circle. However, when the wheels locked together it became impossible to turn. This had required designing a mechanism that Garret could engage to lock the wheels together and disengage to move them independently.

Using the mechanism was slow, and occasionally it stuck, but it was much better than being carried everywhere. Thanks to his new chair, Garrett had much more freedom than before, and his orbit, which had largely been between his bedroom and the office, was suddenly able to accommodate the great room and the kitchen as well. It was hard for his somewhat cold attitude to stay frozen once he was able to be out and about on his own, and Garrett finally got a chance to see the outside of the inn in the real world.

For the last two weeks he’d been venturing out of the inn every night to map the surrounding neighborhoods in the Dream, and he’d developed a pretty clear sense of what was around the inn, despite never actually seeing the area in the real world. The Dream could only be accessed at night, so he spent most of his days waiting eagerly until the sun dipped below the horizon. As soon as it did, he would creep out into the Dream, inching his way through the thick fog until he had mapped a section of a nearby neighborhood. Always careful to preserve at least half the energy in his soul spark just in case, he would return to the inn and inject his excess energy into the Dream Flowers. Though they would absorb anything he gave them, the energy went into spreading out their roots and starting new clusters of flowers.

During this process, Garrett found he actually had some control over where the plant spread, and his current focus was on taking over the hall that led to his room. There were dozens of flowers by this point, though none of them grew into clumps of greater than three, making him wonder if that was a cap set by his skill level. He had picked up a few experience points here and there as he explored, but had still only managed to get to seven out of the forty he needed. With thirty-three experience points left to go before he hit level three, Garrett was starting to feel the strain of earning experience as a Watcher.

Still, he didn’t doubt the system when it said that the path of the Watcher was one with a high growth potential. He just hadn’t yet figured out how to achieve it. At this point, it appeared that the only way for him to gain experience was to explore ever wider areas and step into more dangerous situations. That didn’t, however, suit his desires in the least. Maybe if he had picked the path of the Blade, or the path of the Ghost, he might have felt comfortable venturing far into the unknown, but without any way to keep himself safe, Garrett wasn’t about to leave the range of the Dreamer’s Throne.

“Garrett! Didn’t you want to go check out the market?”

Shaken from his thoughts by Ryn, Garrett nodded his head.

“Sure, but only if you push me. It’s too far to wheel myself.”

Running over, Ryn grabbed the back of Garrett’s wheelchair and spun him around. Taking the corner like a race car driver, she barreled down the passage into the great room, nearly running over one of the waitresses.

“Hey!”

“Sorry, sorry!”

Not sounding sorry at all, Ryn wove through the tables, forcing people to hurry out of the way. Gripping the side of his chair to avoid being thrown out as Ryn violently shifted him this way and that, an apologetic smile was the best Garrett could do before they left the inn. Once they were outside, he breathed a sigh of relief as Ryn slowed down, her laughter so infectious he found himself unable to keep the smile from his own lips.

The city was bustling, with people nearly everywhere. Though this part of the city could hardly be considered the slums, it was certainly the heart of where the city’s main workforce lived, and the buildings were both shabby and packed together. Many of the streets led to buildings where the citizens worked, and the sides of the streets boasted homes that were stacked on top of one another, sometimes rising a full four stories into the air.

All along the sides of the road were small shops and roadside stalls selling everything from food, to clothing, to weapons, to scraps of monster materials. This close to the swamp that stretched to the southeast of the city, most of the materials were from aquatic beasts, though occasionally Garrett would see something interesting that didn’t look like it had come out of a swamp. He knew next to nothing about the monsters, and had never actually seen a live monster apart from the pets kept in the palace zoo.

Pushing Garrett’s wheelchair along, Ryn took her time, making sure to stay out of the way of both the heavy booted soldiers, who marched past occasionally, their armor clanking, and the heavily armed adventurers covered with grime and sweat. It didn’t take Garrett entering the Dream to be able to tell that every single adventurer he saw was Awakened. From their well-built muscles to the easy way they handled the heavy bags of harvested materials, all of them gave off a distinct sense of danger.

Despite getting the odd glance now and again, Garrett and Ryn didn’t attract much attention, in part thanks to the slow pace Ryn took, which suited Garret just fine. Following the road straight ahead, they eventually arrived at a large building that housed all sorts of monster materials. Beyond the building was a crossroads where two of the city’s main thoroughfares crossed that had been set up as a giant market. Seeing that Ryn was about to take him around the building holding all the high-end monster materials, Garrett stopped her.

“Why not go in?”

“Into the Monster Emporium? Haha, are you kidding? They’d throw us out in a heartbeat. We better go around.”

“Do you need some type of status to go in?” Garrett asked, his forehead furrowing.

“Haha, yeah,” Ryn laughed, pinching her thumb and first two fingers together. “You need the status of money. There’s a one-silver entry fee that isn’t refunded, even if you don’t buy anything. Us poor folk can buy our monster materials from the scrap traders in the general market. If there’s something specific you’re looking for, I can try to help you find it.”

Shaking his head, Garrett only answered once they’d gotten far away enough from the guards that he couldn’t be heard.

“No, I don’t actually know anything about monsters, so I really just wanted to gather some information. Are there bookstores? Or places that sell books?”

“Jeez, your tastes are expensive, though given your secret past I can understand why. But unless you just so happened to find a whole pile of gold in the last few days, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. The cheapest book you could find would probably cost you at least a gold. You can get blank books cheaper, of course, like that account book you use. But no, if you come across a book in good condition it’ll cost a gold or more. Look! That’s the general market. This side is all the leathers, cloth, and other things like that. Food is in the western side and metals and hard materials are up north. Where do you want to go first?”

“I’ll leave it up to you. I’m just here to sightsee,” Garrett said with a shrug. “It’s not like I have any money anyway.”

“Then let’s start with the food and then we’ll go up to the northern side of the market before coming back here.”

“Sounds fine to me.”

Moving slowly to avoid hitting anyone, Ryn carefully wheeled Garrett through the market, pointing out interesting things here and there. She was a bubbly, social girl, and delighted in explaining things he didn’t understand, which, considering how his soul from this world had grown up, was a lot. There were hundreds of merchants, and thousands of people shopping, including the heavily armored adventurers Garrett had seen before. Catching his curious look, one of the adventurers, a powerful-looking woman who carried an axe with a jagged edge on her back, gave him a wink and blew a kiss in his direction. There were three other adventurers with her, and one of them, catching her action, traced her gaze and caught sight of Garrett, his face flushing with anger.

Ryn, who had missed the whole interaction, was already pushing Garrett’s wheelchair away and Garrett had turned his gaze aside, but the damage was done and the adventurer came stomping over, leaving his two male companions completely confused. The woman, who knew exactly what was going on, just smirked and rolled her eyes, trailing the other three slowly. While Garrett was quite frail, he was fairly handsome, and there was a magnetic quality about him that made everyone, male or female, take a second look.

“Those are called golden apples, after the apple of legend, but they’re really just from a monster tree called an apple elder,” Ryn said, introducing a basket of apples that carried a bright yellow tint.

Before she could continue, a big booted foot blocked the wheel of the wheelchair and an angry voice surrounded them.

“What were you looking at, weakling?”

Though Ryn was completely taken aback, Garrett was not. He had seen the adventurer coming and hoped, vainly, that pretending nothing had happened would cause the problem to go away. This world, however, wasn’t so kind.

“What?”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” the adventurer said, shoving Ryn back. “I was talking to Mr. Cripple here. What were you looking at?”

Punctuating his question with a hard poke, the adventurer, who had a tightly trimmed black beard, glared at Garrett but only got a blank look in return.

“Umm, golden apples?” Garrett said, his expression the very picture of confusion.

Freezing, the adventurer found himself at a loss. He had stomped over to punish the young man for the kiss his companion had blown, but if the cripple never admitted it, how embarrassing would it be if he brought it up? His loud voice and aggressive attitude were already earning him unfriendly looks from the surroundings, but his embarrassment soon fed into his anger again. Eyes narrowing, he was about to speak when a voice sounded from behind him.

“Kolz, what are you doing?”

“Seriously, what are you wasting time on now?”

The two other male adventurers arrived behind Kolz, their faces showing their displeasure. Following a few steps further back was the female adventurer, her lips curled in an amused smile. About to respond to the questions, Kolz saw the smile on her face and his anger flared once again. He spun around, kicking Garrett’s wheel. With a sharp crack, the wooden wheel snapped and the whole wheelchair flipped around, dumping Garrett onto the ground with a painful thump.

Shaken from the fall, Garrett couldn’t help but groan as his shoulder bruised, but before he could get his bearings Kolz had reached down to grab him by the collar. Lifting Garrett up into the air as if he weighed nothing, the adventurer flashed the knife he had pulled from his belt, tapping Garrett on the cheek.

“Next time you better watch where you put your eyes, or I’ll cut them out.”

“Hey! What are you doing?!”

Enraged, Ryn, who had just managed to get up, charged over, only to be kicked away by the black-bearded adventurer. Sneering at the sight of her rolling on the ground, Kolz was going to kick her again, but the murmurs of the surrounding merchants were getting too loud for his friends’ comfort. One of them, a man with a long red braid, tapped on his shoulder.

“Come on, stop picking on weaklings and let’s go. We still have to sell our extra goods and get back to report about the mission.”

“Hmph, fine,” Kolz said, tossing Garrett onto the ruins of his wheelchair, smashing it further and bruising his back.

Turning away, he ignored the looks he was getting from the crowd and sheathed his dagger. The four of them turned to go, returning to what they’d been doing before. Just as they left, however, the man with the long braid glanced back at where Ryn staggering over to the ruined remains of the wooden wheelchair, holding her side. What caught his attention, however, was Garrett. The young man had lifted his chest from the ground, blood staining his shirt where a splinter of wood had stabbed into him. Yet, despite his precarious situation, he was staring after them, his eyes so terribly calm that a shiver passed down the braided man’s back.

Nearly stumbling as the unfamiliar feeling passed over him, the braided adventurer saw the others staring at him in confusion. Glancing back at Garrett once more, his words died in his throat as he saw that Garrett wasn’t even looking at him. Still, the feeling of danger wouldn’t shake loose, and finally he turned to Kolz crossly.

“What sort of foolishness was that, Kolz?”

“What are you talking about, Amer? What, you’re worried those two weaklings will come after us? Seriously? Come on.”

“You don’t know what sort of connections they have,” the man who hadn’t yet spoken said, shrugging. “That kid wasn’t dressed well, but he has the look of a noble. You’re lucky you didn’t take it any further.”

Paling slightly at the thought that he might have gotten himself into trouble, Kolz just grunted, still too annoyed to back down.

“Relax. They’re weak as worms. There’s no way they’ll be able to do anything to us. And even if they do have connections, we can just head into the wilderness until things blow over. No need to get worked up.”

“Hmph. You better hope that’s true, because I’m tired of cleaning up after you. If anyone does come after us, you’ll be heading to the forests by yourself, so I would suggest you start being a bit more careful,” Amer said with a snort.