Second Chance

Chapter: 5

Len moved to the side, allowing people out of the main door leading into Tyk's General Wares. He slipped in past them, joining the two lines that constantly moved towards the counter. Behind the counter, dozens of men and women could be seen moving among shelves, gathering the items requested by those at the counter. It seemed that anything and everything one could want was held within the large building. From fire starters to cooking pots, even nails and hammers of various kinds. Len reviewed his list in his head as those ahead of him were served.

“How can I help you today?” the man behind the counter asked. Blinking and moving back.

Still need to clean the stink off of me from those impurities.

"Hi, I would like to buy backpacks, two of them, largest you possibly have, similar to those used by the military?” Len asked.

“We have something that should serve.” The man nodded, waiting. “I need two canteens and a sewing kit if possible."

"Yes, we have one of those, lengths of material as well as patches and needles.” The man started writing on paper.

“Two of those please. Do you have boots?"

"We have several kinds. Are you looking for working boots?" he asked, glancing at Len's attire.

"The sturdiest you have, with thick soles and leather. And I know it might be a long shot, but clothing?"

“I can think of boots that should work.” The man glanced over the counter and squinted at Len’s feet. Len held up his boot for him to better see. He made a note on his paper. “We have hardy clothes, coveralls, pants and shirts for the hard-working man that you can repair over time. As well as general sundries."

"Great, that'll be perfect," Len said. “Do you have empty cans?”

“Yes for canning.”

“I’ll take four of those, do you have any food items?"

"Unfortunately, no, but you could go to Raolin Traders. They have a variety of provisions that might interest you."

"Where are they?" Len asked.

“Down the street three blocks you’ll see them,” The man pointed with the back of his pencil.

“Thanks, do you have sleeping bags or blankets?” Len asked.

“Blankets is the best we have.”

“How large?”

The man paused, reviewing something. “Two meters by one.”

“Six of those then. How much will that run me?”

"That will come to a grand total of twenty-eight silver and forty-seven coppers. Is there anything else we can help you with?”

Len took out his coin purse, putting coins on the counter.

The man behind it ripped up the list he’d made, passing it to three runners behind him. They ran off down the aisles to gather the gear as Len finished putting the last coins on the table.

The man counted them out, sweeping them to his side.

"Thank you very much, sir. If you could wait over there." He pointed to an area off to the side where others were collecting their goods.

===

Skill: Trading

===

Level: Novice (1/60)

===

===

You have earned 10 EXP for reaching novice

===

"Thank you," Len said, moving away, distracted. "Oh, um, before I forget, do you know anywhere that might have places to stay?"

"Uh, the... nearest place I can think of... are you looking for standard accommodation or something to sleep, drink?"

"Just somewhere that's quiet, away from everything, but near to the market district to get back and forth."

"Right. Then I would say the... Slumbering Willow." He leaned over the counter. "If you go down that street, two blocks on the left-hand side, go up another block or so, you should see it, has a willow on the signboard. It's nothing much, but it's clean, quiet, and out of the way. Just don't be making a noise after the sun’s down."

"Thank you very much." Len shared a smile with the man, moving off to the side. The next customer moved up to the counter as Len leaned against the wall, bringing up his stats again.

===

Len

===

Level: 0

===

Body: 8

Mana: 1/1

Experience: 10

===

He thought on what to use his experience for.

Need twenty to get level two in cultivation, ninety to get level nine in body and I only have the one skill right now.

He closed his stat screen, watching the comings and goings through Tykes, General Wares.

For the majority of his life, he'd been scavenging clothes, repairing them where he could. Buying new items, and seeing so many of them in one place, it seemed extravagant. A crazy luxury and half forgotten memory.

“Backpack order?” an attendant said.

“Right here." Len raised his hand, moving towards the counter. The man looked over to the other that had sold it to Len. He gave a subtle nod.

“Here you are sir.” He handed the backpacks over, the items he’d bought inside.

Len checked their contents, finding everything he’d ordered within. “All good, thanks.”

He threw the familiar pack on his back. Just like the one I was issued. He adjusted the straps, they felt new. He secured the other closed, tucking it under his arm and headed out of the store.

Going to have to repack everything to make it take up less space.

It felt so antiquated to be wearing a pack and worrying about how it was organized to fit in more stuff.

His footsteps slowed. There’s not going to be enough room for the food. Need to drop this off first or repack.

Len altered his path for the Slumbering Willow instead.

It didn’t take him long to reach it.

The building was a simple enough building, four stories tall, with wooden slatted windows to allow wind in and out, and close off the street when needed.

He walked up to the front entrance, passing working men leaving for the day or moving through the entrance to the gate and counter beyond. He moved up to the counter.

An older lady sat behind the counter, raising an eyebrow at him. "Looking for a bed?" she asked.

"Looking for a room for two? Just for the night."

"General or private?" she asked.

Len frowned.

“General, you got a bunk, you got to keep your gear to yourself, but you'll get a lower rate with more people in the same room. Private, it's just two beds, and you have a door you can lock," she said.

"Private, please."

"Alright, one private room for a night."

"Alright, one double-bunk, private room, cash up front," she said. "That'll be a silver and half." Len took out the coins, placing them on the counter.

"If you want baths, there's a place three doors down that-a-way." She pointed out the door and to the left. The suggestion was very clear in her expression. “And if you're looking for clothes, they'll wash them there. If you want food, there's a whole bunch of places around here where you can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

"Thank you," Len replied.

She gave him a curt nod, pulling the coins over the counter and storing them away in a box before pulling a key off a nail and handing it to him. "You're in room Three-E. That means it's up on the third level. And room E.”

"Alright," Len said.

"No noise after dark or before sunlight. You start partying, you start drinking, making a ruckus. I don't mind if it's outside, but you don't bring that back here," she said.

"I got it," Len said.

She looked away, sorting out the coin further.

Len moved past her, pushing the gate open and walking into the building. He moved to the side, letting people pass as they exited the building, most of them wearing workers' clothes similar to his own.

They gave him curt nods as they passed. He hurried up the stairs, getting to the third floor and quickly finding his new room.

It was as bare bones as it got. Inside was a bunk bed that took up much of the room, a thin aisle ran from the door to the shuttered window that he could open, staring at the building opposite, just out of arm's reach.

Already better than most places I’ve stayed. Doesn’t stink and there are real sheets on the beds.

He dropped the second pack on the bed hearing the rustle of straw.

“A mattress?” Len threw the pack off and pressed on the bed. “A straw mat mattress holy shit.” He threw off his pack and jumped on the sheets, feeling the mattress under his back.

“Shit I could get used to this.”

He let out a breath and looked at the bottom of the other bunk. “We really are back in time.” His mind started to divert to what would come to pass, the weight of it falling on him. Len breathed in and rolled himself back to his feet.

I’m off to save my family but I can barely remember their faces. It had been so long that they had passed away for him.

He shook his head clear and stood back up. He grabbed a jug on the side counter next to soap and a bowl. He opened it, smelling nothing.

He used a cleanse spell on the jug. Blinking against the mana headache. “Fuck that’s rough.” The simple spell had drained him.

===

Skill: Spell casting

===

Level: Novice (1/60)

===

===

You have earned 10 EXP for reaching Novice

===

===

You have earned 50 EXP for reaching Apprentice

===

He put the jug to on the counter as information flowed through his mind, mana and its corrupting force, the power it held, the iron control one had to wield over it or be controlled. Imagining and effect and empowering it into reality with mana, feeling it, seeing it from the perspective of another person. The ways that one could bend reality itself.

Len opened his eyes as the information slowed.

“That sucked,” Len grunted. “Stat screen.”

===

Len

===

Level: 1

===

Body: 8

Mana: 1/1

Experience: 70

===

He mentally put fifty experience into his mana stat.

===

You have reached level 3 in mana

===

===

You have reached level: 3

===

===

Len

===

Level: 3

===

Body: 8

Mana: 3/3

Experience: 20

===

I was an expert level spell caster. His attention was drawn to his mana. “Its so little that I can only cast low level spells.”

He’d need a lot more mana to be able to cast a journeyman level spell.

He carefully used a low level cleanse spell to remove the impurities that coated him. Too strong and it might trigger a skill grade increase to apprentice.

He grabbed jug and drank deep, gasping as he finished up. Gonna have to see just how many skills we can increase tonight..

He glanced at the door and listened. There were no alarmed noises or people moving closer. He took time to study the door The lock was simplistic in design. Just need a knife and a bit of fiddling around with a latch for a few seconds to throw it.

He looked around the room and spotted a doorstop with a rope drilled through it. Perfect.

Len put it underneath the door, kicking it into place.

Using the bowl, soap a bit of the water to wet a thin cloth he washed himself up. Rick the lucky bastard got to wash properly before Len found him.

Len dumped out one pack, dressing in new clothes, and replacing his shoes with new boots, lacing them up tight.

He looped his new utility knife into his belt, then hid the spare dagger he’d taken from Dominus.

He closed up the backpack and put it back on before he removed the doorstep, walking out into the corridor and then kneeling down as he closed the door, he reached inside, putting the door stop in the path of the door. If someone tried opening it they’d jam it into the doorstop and find it hard to keep going.

He closed the door all the way and locked it.

That done he hurried downstairs, through the gate and onto the street, following the directions he got at Tyk’s to the south and the outskirts of the lower market district.

It didn’t take long for him to reach his destination.

The railroad had a stop at the Raolin trader’s compound. Grain silos, warehouses and a butchers took in food from the trains out back. Carts moved out of gates, carrying food across the city.

There were various stores selling smaller quantities of food. Vegetables, meats, spices. His eyes stopped on a building near the end holding preserved goods.

With the spring passing and summer in full swing there was plenty of fresh food to be found.

It was the quietest of all the stores and Len’s target.

He opened the door to shouting coming from the hallway down the side of the store leading to offices.

"What do you mean you're not taking any more trash? We've had a long-standing agreement between your company and ours for nigh on twenty years," a man said, chasing another out of the office corridor.

"I'm telling you what I'm telling you. We can't keep on dumping this stuff. None of my lads are even heading out to the dump anymore. I'm about near closed down," the man exiting yelled back, smacking his hat on his hip. "Them beasts and creatures, they be coming out of the forest now. Had three of my lads mauled by them going into work early one morning.” He turned on the man that must have been from Raolin Traders.

“Ever since, we've had to put up protections to try and keep them away.” He threw up his hands in frustration. “At this point, we're going to have to have guards watching over the damn dump to keep the beasts out from him. How the heck am I going to make my money then?" The man slapped his hat against his leg in anger.

"They're just a few beasts," the Raolin man said.

"A few beasts?" The hat-wielding man moved a half-step towards the other fellow. "A few beasts, you say? Beasts with eyes that glow about a wolf the size of a damn horse. Some say they even got magic. The occult, I hear. I've been out there. I thought my lads were lying!” He shook his head, the anger fleeing him. “But I saw it. I saw it with my own damn eyes. One of them beasts got into a fight with others and started breathing fire. Fire, I say, like one of them furnaces. Exhaling it like it was a damn chimney gone burning up."

"You can't be serious!” the Raolin man scoffed.

“Look, here's the way it is. I ain't taking none of your waste no more, and you can't pay me enough to do it. Any that are willing to take it I wish them luck and mercy upon them," the other man said.

He affixed his hat on his head. “The forest ain't safe no more. Damn old industrial district's gone to shit, and people are feeling scared in their homes down in the lower district. Won't be long till they start coming up this way and get it right from the source. I wish you all the best, but I ain't hiring guards to watch over no damn dump. Not going to be the one apologizing to their widows when some hungry beast kills ‘em. Good day." He turned, moving around Len and out the door.

The other man let out a sigh of frustration, running his hands through his hair before heading back to the offices.

He hadn't even left before the people who were inside the store started chattering to one another.

Beasts that were as big as a horse, glowing eyes, breathing fire. Definitely mana-mutated. And they were already starting to leave the forest.

Beast population starting to break up territories and push into human areas? Or just hungry and there’s no one willing to defend a dump?

Len winced at the thought of people dumping food, even bad food, with the right enchantments he could use that to make a field grow endlessly. He silently shook his head and moved towards the counter while there was no one in front of it.

"Hi, sir, how can I help you?" the lady behind the counter said, trying to quickly push past whatever had just happened.

"I'm looking for provisions. Two kilos of meat, any kind that's preserved. Then I'll take hardtack or dried out bread, let's say another two kilos of that. Uh, vegetables, let's do a kilo, another kilo of lentils and beans. Do you have any tea?"

"Yes, we've got black tea, if that works with you, sir."

"Perfect, I’ll grab some of that, as well as dried fruit, let's say another two kilos. Then let's say a small ration of salt, small ration of pepper, some sugar. And that should do. Oh, also nuts, if you've got them, about a kilo."

"Okay, I can look into that for you.” She finished up her list and headed into the aisles behind the counter.

Len moved to the side as another attendant moved up to the counter.

Cost me a lot but if you can get food, its always worthwhile to stock up. Len debated buying more though the backpacks and their limited capacity would hold them back.

She returned with two helpers depositing their collected items on the counter before they headed back into the shelves.

Making a folded space device was going to quickly become a priority.

“Sure. This all comes to fifty six copper.” So cheap. If we were to buy a lot of supplies before everything becomes scarce…

“Uhh do you have jam or honey?”

“Any flavors of jam?” the lady asked.

They have different kinds? How rich are they?

“How much would they be?”

“If you buy say five I can do that for twenty coppers and then five for the honey,” She said.

“Yep!”“Okay,” She frowned and looked at one of her helpers who ran off.

“All of them?” Len asked.

She nodded and walked back. Len took off his backpack, opening and started to fill it with the various packages on the counter.

Jams in multiple flavors, fuck yaaah.

He finished packing up his backpack as she returned with five jams and a big jar of honey.

“How much?”

“Twenty-five coppers.” She said.

He took out the coins and put them on the counter, looking around to make sure no one was going to stab him for his goodies.

Right, jam and honey are normal right now.

“Thank you!” He picked up the backpack. The straps dug in.

It can’t weigh that much. No body tempering and I just condensed a white vapor core. A base level one player. Weak as they came.

At least he had been doing some labor to have a level eight body.

He headed for the Slumbering Willow, he’d need another drop off before he could get to the Coiled Serpent.

And I’m running low on coins.

Len, stopped at the counter to the slumbering willow. “There a place around here that has sound talismans?”

The woman sighed. “Five doors down on this side of the street.” She pointed it out.

“Thanks.”