Mark's next step, after talking to the village elder was to head to the Inn. The village's Inn was one of the bigger buildings and the only two story building in the village. The Inn doubled as a general store because of the lack of travelers to Brambleton and its poor conditions. When Mark entered the building, it was much of what he expected. A man sitting behind a counter and shelves filled with many kinds of goods that are used for traveling. These good ere things such as camping equipment, small knives, rope and other basic supplies. To the left of the door is a staircase leading to the second-floor which Mark infers is where the beds for the guests are kept along with the owner's living space.
As Mark entered the store, the man behind the counter greeted him cheerfully. He also said "My name is George, I haven't seen you around here before. Are you from Stone City?". Mark explained to George that he come from the forest to the south of Brambleton much to George's surprise. George continues saying that it has been at least a year since anyone has come into Brambleton that way. "The only people who come or go to the Ever Wood Forest are hunters, lumberjacks or adventurers." George thought for a moment in remembrance, and then said, "I think I remember a story of a traveler going that way in search of some rare plant but overall the Ever Woods are a dark and inhospitable place, quite the opposite of my Inn!"
Mark smiles at this blatant advertisement and thinks to himself that George would be eaten alive by the sly Carl if he ever came into this world. Mark then asks, "You also operate as a General Store?" After George replies in affirmation, Mark roughly places the cloth package on his back on the counter. "I was told these were all my "spoils" and I could sell them to you."
The shiny trinkets and the cold steel of the swords shock George as the only people who come to sell things to him are hunters with their prey and any herbs or special items the villagers find during their very ordinary days working. "I can give you 30 silvers each for the swords and 3 gold for the other items, George says after some consideration." The five swords together with the other trinkets would amount to 4.5 gold. In this world, according to the George the currency is very simple. There are 4 types of currency going from copper, to silver, to gold and finally to a magic platinum piece. Each currency is worth 100 of the previous such as 100 copper equaling 1 silver and so on. The platinum pieces are only hearsay to someone like George because they are used mostly by high ranked adventurers or as a marker between high profile merchants across kingdoms.
Mark doesn't know if all of his gather items are worth 4.5 gold but doesn't see any other option short of dragging all of these spoils with him to Stone City. George then explains that if Mark needs any of the items in his store it can count toward his payment which Mark gladly accepts. Mark then proceeds to take a small steel knife, water skin, flint and steel and a unusually soft cloak that could double as a blanket to the encouraging smile of the Innkeeper. After deducting these purchases, George hands the remaining 3 gold coins and 80 silver coins to Mark. George then says, "Because I know you are new here and don't have anywhere to go yet I'll throw in one night upstairs for free since you spent more money than I see in a normal year". Mark gladly accepts George's charity and thinks that he should be disappointed for even thinking about comparing this nice Innkeeper to Carl from HR.
After having dinner made by the Innkeeper consisting of stew and extremely hard black bread, Mark goes upstairs to sleep and practice his powers as he still has one remaining day before he can go along with the carts to Stone City and hopefully start his training as a doctor soon.
The next day after waking up and checking his powers for any improvement, Mark realizes that his powers have had a barely noticeable growth as reflected by his system status. Next to each one of the skills, Radiation Control and All seeing Vision, are the numbers (1/1000) which Mark assumes is his progress at increasing his powers.
This is shocking because of two reasons. The first reason is that on the lower level VR capsule the training increment was never shown as Mark could only spend a max of 8 hours inside because of its quality. The second reason comes as a new understanding to Mark's realization that this should be an expected result that he just didn't know about. Why were large families and corporations so insistent on having a higher rank? Because it shows the natural talent the person holds or if they have been groomed with the best supplements and time in a high-quality VR capsule. Mark makes these assumptions because of how all his friends at college, especially the ones from a rich family, spent most of their time learning from virtual schools for days at a time at the insistence of their parents.
Mark's realization here is considered an open secret among those who are from a B class or higher family. This also shows how many of the higher rank children are groomed since day one at having a higher position than the regular F and E class citizens almost by default. The time in a VR capsule with scheduled training and supplements before the age of 10 almost guaranteed a at least C rank ability because of the effort spent. There were odd exceptions to this rule but it was very consistent across the board with those born from parents with B rank abilities having at least a C rank potential and so on. This would only lengthen the gap between the citizens in poverty, general population, and the wealthy.