As Zero walked the road leading to the golden-rose town he appreciated the calm and serene way the forest presented itself. The road made of gravel was now smeared with dirt, grass growing upon some splotches of dirt. The trees gave a feeling of peace with their beautiful silver colored bark and their green lush leaves swaying in the wind, a gentle breeze passing over the forest. Sounds of movement through the forest , showing the real prosperity of life within it. I'm the future this place would change , dangers would lurk all around, from one eyed wolfs to metal sparrows. A true danger to human kind.
Zero gave a sigh , this forest was so peaceful making a person relax upon entering. The most dangerous animals would be bears unlike the future. As Zero kept walking he started to feel a presence of two mana cores nearby. Two humans. Without thinking much he activated his invisibility and started walking towards the sound. In the road up ahead was two men. One was muscly, big and strong. He was wearing a simple white shirt , a farmers leather jacket atop and gray pants with knee guards at the front. His core was big at least in the second level. The other man was slim , his clothes hidden by a hooded cape with the initials SS on the side of the hood. This man had only a small core without magic in it, meaning he was a normal human.
Zero wasn't sure on who they were so he chose to keep his invisibility cloak on while passing them.
The burly mans steps were confident and powerful , he made too much noise. The other one had less coordination with his feet, even though the steps were light he was making a ruckus by brushing the gravel with his feet.
As Zero passed them , he looked at them once more. He didn't say anything as he was still invisible and let them pass. Closing his eyes he focused in his ears. The men weren't speaking, it wasn't that odd. He lost interest once some seconds passed and chose to keep going. The serene illusion of the forest broke and now he decided to quickly arrive at the next city. With a jump he was atop a tree branch once more , jumping to another branch his hair swaying on the wind and eyes squinted as to not get dry by the winds speed. Rushing towards his next location he didn't realize he was making the same mistake he chastised the male pair before. The young boy started to go faster releasing even more magic onto his foot making him go faster.
It took four hours to reach the destination he was looking for. The Golden Rose town, this was actually a town bigger then villages by many times. The towns architecture varied a lot most houses were built with stone and clay usually two stories high. There were some houses and buildings built by wood. The only feature that made this town feel complete was the yellow roofs copying the color of gold and the many decorations of roses. The streets were wide and filled by people, there were stalls set around the place selling many miscellaneous things. There were even some carriages that had opened up the doors to show the people inside selling various things.
Looking around he found a abandoned alley way. The alley was really clean , maybe the homeless use it as shelter as the overhangs from the rooftops covered the sky. Zero didn't really care much for this place. Stoping the formula and becoming visible once again he went out of the alley. Before he took the second step out he felt weird in his foot. He looked down and realized that the bandage was coming loose, shaking his head he slipped his foot off of the sandals and started to unwrap the foot. His injury was probably already healed. His guess was correct, taking the bandage he didn't throw it away he might need it later. Putting it in his back pocket he started to look around the street.
He looked around and caught a glimpse of a shop with a old lady sitting outside in the sun. Walking towards it, he checked what the shop was selling. It sold wood carvings. Losing interest on buying anything he looked towards the old white haired woman. "Ma'am do you know if there is a shop that sells maps around here?" He asked.
The old woman took a second before slowly turning her head towards him her body shaking as she did so. Eyes squinted wrinkles going all around her face , she donned on a gentle smile and slowly nodded her head. "The big bug." She said faintly one of her bony fingers calloused by hard work pointed at the direction of a shop with a big bug sign. Seeing the feeble appearance of the lady in question Zero walked towards her getting close, took her hand and gave her 20 copper pieces he looted from one of the nuns. He still had more so he can be generous for a moment. The lady feeling the coins on her hand showed a little tremble, and with what energy she had opened her palm and said "don't deserve them , keep it." Her delayed reaction and slowed movement. Created a little timeframe which Zero used to walk towards the other store. Leaving the old woman to open her hand to nothing, the woman closed her eyes. Clenching her fist with little strength making sure the money didn't slip out. She fell asleep once more on her comfortable chair.
Zero walked towards the store noticing it was one made out of wood. The wood was stained a red color, instead of glass the shop used fences and windows like many other stores. The door was a smaller size then normal making Zero reach it with ease.
Coming in to the shop , have a feeling of old and ancient. Tables showcasing many different maps of the continent , some with greater detail and others showing only the city. In the middle of the store was a table going in a circle on the inside of the circle was a man sitting in a high chair. The decoration was full of roses and lush greenery.
"Hello I'd like a small mad of the city please." Said Zero approaching the sitting man. "They're in table four pic your size!" Said the sitting man. "Thank you sir." Zero order and looked around, on top of the tables there was a sign showing numbers, this was the table number. He found the number four table.
He looked at the maps in the table, they were all about the town, some were big and had a high amount of detail. He chose a small one that showed the districts and some of the main points of the city, it was only 11 by 16 centimeters. Taking the map he went towards the round table where the man sat.
"I'd like this one please." He said handing the man his small map. The man looked at it and nodded "that's one copper kiddo" Zero handed the man the money. Taking the map he started to walk outside.
Zero then looked at the map and used magic to focus on it. Completely memorizing the map within seconds. Finishing the process he crumpled the man and threw it on the floor.
The map seller looking through the window shook his head at the map thrown. Kids these days wasting money on things they don't understand and then throwing it away.
After that little fiasco Zero headed towards one of the inns of the town, it was a low grade inn but even then it was better then the damn pig sty of an inn that he slept on last time. He didn't come here to sleep though, he came here to gather information. Any type of information is useful when used correctly. Going in he was fully immersed in a smell of alcohol and food. The in. This time was designed with red walls with flower patterns over it, the floor was stone with splotches of liquids mostly beer. The inn had glass for windows. The thanked were a silver wood color whilst the chairs were stained black with dye. The lay out was simple the stairs came into the far right, followed by the registry counter and then became rows of tables they were put some space around one another insuring no bumping. In the left was a blocked off area which had a sign of a bucket, meaning the restroom.
He looked for a bit, then chose a empty table that had a single chair. Sitting down a waitress came immediately "How may I help you sir" she asked a glinting of ridicule showing from her eyes. In front of her was a child and he was pretending to read through the menu, she found it fun to fluster this type of children. In this time only adults could read and even then they couldn't read that well, that's why most places have insignias instead of writing. "I'd like to get the honey glazed beef and a cup of coffee please!" Said Zero , shocking the waitress. The waitress nodded her head once writing the order down. "Anything else?" She peaked at the genius boy in front of her. "Nothing!" The waitress went away after that.
Zero now closed his eyes as if waiting for the food but what he was doing was controlling his magic to his ears , if he was in his other body he'd be able to do this by instinct but because he's a child now he needs to concentrate a bit more.
"Hey did you hear lord Serben took another child in, he's so kind to the children living in the streets." Zero heard this news. "Oh yeah? He's such a kind lord!" The chat continued on, different topics were spoken many rumors were spread. The bar was filled with information , a cheating spouse, a thieving store, scammers on the street, secret brothels, even some news on the kidnappings if woman.
"Have you heard there was a great struggle to find who's gonna be the next leader of the Shmin house hold! Hope it'll be the noblewoman _Leylin_ ! She's so kind" there was a snigger of ridicule followed. "Have you not heard, it's unknown if that 'noblewoman' is even a woman! Haha!" Then laughter followed. "Really? I didn't know that!"
As not to overwhelm his memories, he cut off the magic from his ears and at that same moment his food came to him.
Nothing interesting was spread around, only the name Serben was eye catching. Serben Bon Hein a man that lived for many years even reaching the middle of 1000s, of course in the end he wasn't a man anymore but still. This man during the magic crisis had transformed into a ranged beast of the night, a vampire. The first of his kind, growing strong enough to live until the 1000s. Feeding on blood of the people. Much of the history before the crisis was lost only some remain. And much of history became legends then tales then rumors. It was rumored that Serben was a noble before turning and the rumors during the 2000s were that he was a kind fellow before turning. Serben the vampire king, completely destroying any town city or empire , not a single drop of blood left behind. He was only killed because of the great legendary warriors. His death was the begging of these legendary warriors. He couldn't remember the name of these people though. During his years of living, Serben was a midnight tale told for kids to be good.
His interest was piqued, maybe he'll meet his childhood nightmare before evil took over him. Finishing his food he left putting 4 copper coins on the table. Walking towards the door, exiting the inn.