Persperation dripped from his head as Xavier laid in his bed, the right side of his face riddled from the suffering in his dream. As the sun rose, Xavier opened his eyes and slowly got up and went outside to meditate facing the sun. He had done this for the past month since he had an unusual experience, one day when he woke up he found his glass eye glowing with a bright light and the iris glowed with a raging flame. He hadn't put in his glass eye that day, only on the next day once the glow and burning heat was gone he had finally put it in, but when he did information flooded into his head - it told him to meditate under the sun to temper the flames of his soul -
Xavier's burgandy hair glowed under the sun, of course he couldn't see it as he was meditating but from the information he got it was a sign of progress. Xavier meditated until the sun moved past nigh noon, he normally wouldn't do this but since today he felt good he chose to continue on. His stomach loudly roared.
"I'll go into town, to get food today." Xavier thought
He got off the flat, smooth stone he was sitting on, wiped off the sweat on his face and headed into town. Normally he wouldn't go into town to eat, he would just hunt for something in the outskirts of town, however today he was extremely hungry and felt that whatever rabbit or possum he could catch wouldn't fit it. Xavier left the dilapidated shack to the weed-ridden gravel path leading from the edge of the forest to town.
Parting the large hanging tree branches Xavier made his way to the town gate, at the gate was a party of warriors, each wearing shields branded with a two-headed snake with a sword down the middle, entering through the gate without obstruction. As the party departed into the town, Xavier stared over at the gate with admiration. Being a warrior was something impressive, by technicality anyone could be a warrior at the age of 16 however that party had an insignia, a symbol, meaning they were hired directly by the warrior's brotherhood for their talents or achievements. Another reason why Xavier decided to head into town today was to officially join the Brotherhood so he didn't have to sell the bigger prey he caught to make a living.
One of the two guards, having seen the ragged clothes Xavier wore and his dirty face, shouted to Xavier "Stop there, thing, what's your buisiness in town?"
Xavier frowned wanting to say something, but after some deliberation he chose not to and said "I'm here to buy food."
The guard thought for a second before replying "Sure you can enter after paying the tax of 10 bronze"
Xavier almost cried to himself at this moment as 5 bronze was the wages of a mines worker for a month, he could hardly afford it, last time he entered the town, 3 months ago, he only had to pay 120 iron. 100 iron was 1 bronze, 100 bronze was 1 silver, 100 silver was 1 gold and 1000 gold was a mana crystal - it was rough for the poor to compete with the rich who basically used foreign currencies than them, some people hadn't even seen a silver before let alone 100. Xavier had saved up his money for a year, though he didn't live well off he had saved up over 33 bronze meaning he would have to give up 1/3 of his savings to enter. Reluctantly Xavier handed over the 10 bronze and entered through the town gates.