Foram led us through the archway, it shimmered briefly as we passed and the illusion was lifted, ahead of us was a city of magic. People floated from here to there on various devices, the homes and shops seemed to be grown from the massive trees, above the shops and trees were walkways with even larger constructs grown in between the branches.
If I had the ability to breathe this would have left me breathless. Beastmen and demihumans of all kinds walked the streets, I even saw an orc with goblins on a leash as if they were rabid guard dogs.
Foram wordlessly led us into the city until we came to a butchers shop, "Petes" was the name of the shop, a very simple name but hopefully that would not detract from the service.
The door wasn't quite large enough for the beast corpses so Hextia and I entered with Foram trailing behind us, leaving the splinters to watch over our loot. Looking at the shop unexpectedly there was a lack of meat. there was however shelves filled with spices and dried herbs, a large lizard man stood behind the counter slicing and packaging a few choice pieces of meat.
Hextia walked to the counter and waited until he had finished his task, without looking up he asked in a deep gravelly voice, "Welcome, what can I do for ya?"
I let Hextia do the talking as I looked around the room, I wondered if I would ever get to eat real food again after my; I wasn't sure what to call it rebirth or transformation? A small lizard girl in an apron ran past and out the door with a small notebook, I watched through the window as she went to each corpse scribbled in the book and eventually ran back inside and passed the page to Pete.
He read the list aloud, " 1 stag and 12 wolves. Quite a haul, the pelts will easily bring in 500 silver Sols, the meat I would offer 300 iron Sols while the horns, teeth, bones, and claws can be sold to the smiths to forge weapons. You will have to visit the smiths with the goods to get a better estimate of how much they can pay you."
Listening in it seemed they had similar to a gold standard for currency, calling them sols must have a connection to the multiple suns in the sky. If they didn't use credits then this planet was well beyond the trade federations influence.
Hextia waited while Pete settled the bill, the irons and silvers came in either coins or sticks, the sticks were solid and would be worth larger denominations and were marked along the sides the amount they were worth. Five silver sticks and 3 irons went into a small pouch along with the receipt, we would be able to pick up the materials for the smiths later that evening.
Pete went back to butchering and when we left the shop a large cart was being used to hold our spoils by a few lizardmen, young boys really, after they were loaded up they began to push and pull the cart to the far side of the shop.
Foram silently led us about the city, there were plenty of food stalls that had delicious looking food or knick knacks, god I wanted a bite of that caramel covered apple, as we walked around one of my spiders dropped from the inside of Hextias' cloak and ran over to a stall.
Hextia followed it quickly to prevent any misunderstandings when we came upon the arachnid it had jumped into a sack of nails. The nails were matte black, I asked Hextia to hold the nail up to me and let my eyes analyze the metal. It was strange, to say the least, there were impurities throughout the metal, the impurities were like a wrapper around a more pure core. Though the core wasn't large it was incredibly dense, it made A class starship metal look like a joke.
The tiny arachnid went to town on the nails and was soon joined by the others for a feast. I kept a nail for myself while the spiders gorged themselves. The shopkeeper looked at us with a raised brow.
At first, I couldn't tell what this demi human was until I saw his tail which sold him out as a beaver, which might explain the nails and tools for woodworking.
"Excuse me, sir, what metal are these nails made from, and do you have any more of it?" I asked. This metal would be very valuable, not only for ship repairs and construction but also for weapons and possible munitions.
The beaver laughed before he pointed to a barrel of the nails with a sign that had the barrel for 40 iron sols for the entire barrel. The shopkeeper had a slightly high pitched voice and talked rather quickly, "Those are made from Moar ore and you can find it throughout all the mountains. It's the most abundant ore in the continent, but it's too tough to craft anything very useful out of it and the impurities in the metal make it nearly impossible to purify. So we use it for nails and such. It's cheap and strong. I have another 10 barrels but if you want to purchase more you will need to find the mining guild and sign a contract with them."
I was speechless. These people were wasting a natural treasure, I bought the rest of the demi humans stock and rented a cart, we would only use the spacial pouch when we were away from unseeing eyes. We didn't know if spacial equipment existed on this planet and until we knew for sure we would keep it hidden.
The arachnids multiplied as they ate their way through the barrels, I could hear screeching and chitterings of joy as they feasted on the nails. Foram led us to the miners guild, it was quite large as it took a gigantic tree while there were upper floors above near the skyway.
It took a few hours of negotiating but we managed to become a new buyer, as we were new to the area we could only buy 200 barrels per month for the first year until we could increase the amount of ore, we had inspected the ore and it was in a similar state as the nails so we decided to buy the ore raw.
We would be able to pick up the ore at the end of the week while they put the first batch together, as we were leaving the guild there was a commotion going on down the street. We walked over to see a young boy in his mid teens standing over a couple and their daughter.
The family were actually snake folk, the Lamia, the girl couldn't be older than ten while her mother was a lamia her father was an arachne.
The boy's voice carried over the silence of the small crowd, "Since you won't give your consent there's nothing I can do, it's too bad that she was orphaned. I will take her into my house and protect her." before anyone could blink the father was crushed by an invisible force. The mother cried out and reached for her husband before the same force crushed her into the ground.
I looked at our guide and asked in a deadpan voice, "Foram, what is the law of this place?"
The boy visibly shivered before he answered in a whisper, "The law of the jungle is the only law here."
'Good.'
"Hextia, I'll distract him. You know what to do." I tightened my hands into tiny fists as we walked out through the crowd. The snake girl just laid there looking at her parents with silent tears streaming from her eyes.
Hextia took me to step between the teen and the girl, the young man was a demi human, a cat of some kind by the look of him. He stared at us with his head cocked slightly to the side when we had stepped between him and his prey.
I looked at the father and mother in bloody heaps, my eyes saw how they had been killed. Their bones had shattered including their skulls, the shards had then pierced into their organs. They had been killed near instantaneously.
I turned back to the teen, he was holding a purple gem in his hand that I hadn't noticed before though it mattered little to me. "Hey there tiny pussy, why are you attacking my niece?" The boy snarled at my remark.
"You little piece of shit, she isn't your niece!" he roared back at me.
I sneered, "Who are you calling little? I'm twice the size of your dick you pissant, and that's not saying much. Besides I say that she is my niece, so she is."
The boy went to argue back but his ears twitched and he snarled and that invisible force appeared around him, there were thuds as two splinters hit the ground just a few steps away from the boy.
More splinters broke from the crowd and drew knives, they attacked the boy and he wielded his gemstone to push or pull the splinters away. The gem glowed every time the force came, so that must have been his source of power. I placed my hands behind my back and watched the fight.
The splinters would get close only to fall but they would rise to fight again moments later, their bones refused to break and Hextia kept them going.
With a shout a pulse of energy came from the boy and pushed back the splinters, He pointed the gem at the girl, either in an attempt to pull her to him or to kill her.
It was my first time using that ridiculously named art but I would rename it later, the splinters had a spider on each of them with a string of nearly invisibly thin metal connected back to me. I pulled and the strings that had been secretly placed on the boy were pulled taught, his arms were strapped against his body and the jewel fell from his grasp.
The crowd watched silently as Hextia walked forward, a Splinter picked up the gem and handed it to her. "That's Mine!" the boy growled at us.
I looked him in the eyes before I whispered to him, "The dead have no possessions." The splinter stepped forward and put a knife in his neck, another went into his stomach while a third pierced his heart from behind. They stepped away in unison and the strings fell away and his corpse dropped into the dirt, the spiders began to collect the metal thread.
We approached the girl but she was in shock. A splinter picked her up, while two more gathered up her parents' bodies and placed them into our cart. Another splinter searched the boy and brought back a coin purse and jewelry and a badge. We stored it away for now and began heading back to Pete's butcher shop, Foram followed behind us silently.
This trip into the city was turning out to be much more complicated than I had wished.