Jordie was worried that he wouldn't have enough to pay for his room after paying a rather hefty sum for Minos' diapers and baby care products, but that fear turned out to be unwarranted.
Apparently the cost of renting a room was about two silver coins, one for the previous night and one for the current night. Additionally, a bowl of Golden Bamboo curry with bread was about three copper pieces.
This pricing meant that either the System was up charging him for the diapers or that this world's concept of what's considered a liveable wage was much nicer than his own world.
"Granted, I imagine this world's greedy merchants get punished, as opposed to back home..."
With that pleasant thought, Jordie and Minos spent one last night at the Panda's Rest before their big trip tomorrow morning with Marianne.
_________________________________________________
The next day
Jordie made his way over to the stables where Bessie was staying. In his arms was a bag of steamed buns that only costed him two lead pieces, that he got for breakfast for himself, Bessie and Marianne if she so desired.
As he arrived at the stables, he was surprised to find that Marianne was there. She appeared to be stirring a pot of milk.
By her side was a cart that read "Marianne's Fromagerie and Future Visions" on it's side, being pulled by a horned tiger with a cow-like skin pattern.
"Are those...udders?"
_________________________________________________
Classification: Beast
Species: Chimera
Subspecies: Holstiger
Level: 8
Grade: D
Attribute: Earth
Description: Tiger-like monsters with cow-like features, Holstigers are not to be messed with lightly. Sharp horns, strong bite and claws combined with the sheer musculature of bovines, Holstigers are surprisingly fierce. That being said, the milk the females of this subspecies produce is surprisingly mild with a sharp yet pleasant aftertaste.
_________________________________________________
"Huh..."
"Oh there you are!"
As Jordie finished analyzing the Holstiger, Marianne stopped stirring her pot of milk and made her way over to Jordie.
"You ready to go?"
"Yeah...oh, here's a bun by the way," Jordie said as he tossed her one.
"Thanks."
Unlike the somewhat fashionable robes Marianne wore yesterday, she was currently wearing a more workman style outfit with an apron covered in various stains and a pair of goggles. Her style reminded Jordie of alchemists from a certain game series.
"Would...that make me the dorky guy friend or one of the guys with the neat backstory and cool asthetic?," Jordie thought to himself.
Lost in his thoughts, Jordie's attention was suddenly grabbed by the sound of a friendly argument.
"I still don't get why you don't just buy a saddle from me, George. I'd cut you good deal."
"Like I said before Akys, I have no need for a luxury item when I barely leave town as is."
"Whatever man, you just wanna use the money for wine."
Turning towards the sound, Jordie was greeted by the sight of George the guardsman standing off to the side as the stable master attached a saddle to Duros the Tusked Panda. Attached to Duros was what appeared to be a caged wagon with three occupants: a large man with a wonky mustache, a skinny dude that looked slimy and a girl that took the goth-punk asthetic in a decidedly wrong direction.
Jordie didn't know what these guys did wrong, but judging from the wanted posters slapped onto the side of the wagon, it must've been bad. As Jordie stared, George eventually noticed him and his companion munching away. A friendly smile appeared on his face as he walked over to chat.
"Hey minopops! Leaving our fair little village? Who's your friend here?"
"Yup, heading to Jade Spire. This is-"
"My name's Marianne, cheese maker and tyromancer extraordinare," Marianne interrupted while sticking her hand out to shake George's hand.
"George," he said as he shook her hand, "Wait, you said Jade Spire?"
"Uh-huh," Jordie answered, "Marianne knows someone I can get a habitat disk from. Gonna need one since..."
"Bessie?"
"Bessie."
"Well shoot, I'm headed to Jade Spire too," George said as he pointed to his wagon with a nod, "Got turn in a couple of bounties. Say, why don't we travel together? Three heads are better than two."
"Sure, that'd be great," Marianne answered for both her and Jordie, "We could use some extra protection."
"Yeah alright, let me go get Bessie from the stables then."
"Mooowah!"
"Hold that thought."
_________________________________________________Dorado, Jacobs and Sarah languished in the cage as they waited for George to hurry up and drag their butts to prison already.
For about three years they managed to evade capture and make a decent buck kidnapping monsters and selling them on the black market or at random. But now their number was up and they were going to be imprisoned for a long time.
"Well this sucks. I can smell the steamed buns from here and they're fresh too!," Sarah griped as she stared at their captor talking to a pair of young people. They looked like a couple or a couple of naive adventurers from her point of view, but she was more focused on the bag of food in the young guy's arms.
"Oh shove it Sarah," Dorado complained as he laid on the wagon floor, "We're all freaking hungry right now. Gah! If we only we managed to capture that blasted minotaur! Then we'd be feasting like kings instead of wasting in this wagon."
Jacobs was about to join in on the complaining, until he saw the aforementioned baby minotaur being pulled out of the young guy's backpack.
"Uh boss?"
"What is it Jacobs?"
"Take a look," the eely man said while pointing at the couple.
Dorado lifted his head up just enough to peer out the bars, but immediately got to his feet once he saw the baby minotaur in the young guy's arms.
Drinking away from a gourd the young guy was holding, the accursed baby minotaur that made them end up in this situation in the first place was just laying there looking all snuggly and warm.
"I don't believe it...," Dorado said with his jaw dropped.
It appeared as if fate hadn't forsaken the trio, instead they now had a second chance!
"Well my friends, it appears we have another chance!"
"Hell yeah!"
"Yeah! Wait...how are we gonna take the baby without our disks?"