Dan looked at the kid lying on the floor. He looked around 10 years old. His clothes were tattered and worn out. His shirt was grey with soot and dirt. His shorts were rough around the edges as if moth had eaten them.
"Come inside and I'll pay for your meal."
"The kid smiled a little but stopped almost instantly. It hurt his stomach. He tried his best in lifting himself of the ground but he couldn't. He did not have enough energy or strength to do it.
Dan sighed and grabbed the kid by the back of his shirt and lifted him .He entered the inn with the kid in his hand. It looked better on the inside than the outside.
The warmth he felt was amazing compared the cold outside. The smell of amazingly delicious food hit his nose. The place was bustling with all types of people.
There were muscular men who were drinking booze and woman who were eating with their children. Dan scanned the place and it reminded him of the rooftop on the academy except there were more people.
There were several people wearing armour and their weapons was covered in blood of different colors. The stink was bearable to Dan but he could see the other customers holding their noses.
He put the kid down on a seat in front of him at an available table while he sat on the other side. Kan sat down at Dan's feet and received a scratch on his spine.
"What would you like to eat kid?" Dan asked. The kid just barely shrugged and managed to say a few words. "Any...thi...ng...anything... is...alr...alright."
"All right." Dan called for a waitress that was cleaning a table. A beautiful lady wearing high heels made from Simi Horns, a black tight skirt with a white shirt. She had long hair and grey eyes that made Dan wonder whether she was blind.
"What can I get for you?" She asked in an elegant voice.
'How about you, with a side of you and you for dessert.' Dan didn't say this out loud.
"Can you bring us some meat without the bones, fish and some food." The waitress opened her mouth but Dan continued talking once he noticed his mistake. "Just get us anything. As long as it satisfies the stomach. Also some apple juice, or whatever juice you have, I do not mind at all as long as it's not alcohol. Also can I get some raw meat for my dog. Not too much he has already eaten a lot today." The waitress left the table and entered the kitchen from a door that was behind the cashier.
"Do you have enough strength to eat by yourself or do you need me to feed you?" Dan asked the kid. The kid grumbled a bit trying to say something. "I guess I have to feed you then."
Dan sat confront of the kid in an akward silence until the waitress returned. She carried two large metallic plates the size of carriage wheels and set it down on the table. In one of the plates there was all sorts of meat.
On one side there was goat meat, elf meat, chicken, fish and Duck meat. Dan could tell at a glance since he had been a butcher before. Luckily there was both female and Male elf meat. Dan grabbed a small soft piece of the Male elf and put it in the kids mouth.
The kid slowly chewed and Dan patiently waited for him to chew it all and swallow. Dan fed the kid until color returned to his face and was able to eat by himself. This was thanks to the elf meat, had it been normal meat he wouldn't have recovered instantly. It would have taken him a day of rest to regain his strength.
The boy ravaged everything on the table not even caring to chew. He bit down on the tender goat meat and chewed it of. He hadn't eaten for days. He could feel his strength returning to him. He didn't bother chewing the rice or the fried potatoes. He just ate it like his life depended upon it.
Dan sat in silence and watched the kid eat. The waitress returned carrying 5 jugs of juice in one hand while a big plate full of raw diced meat.
She had only been gone for a minute and half the food she had brought was already gone. She looked at the kid whose stomach was connected to the void of the universe. She set down the jugs of juice and placed the meat next to Kan who immediately ate it. In the jugs were normal water while the others had different types of juice. Apple, orange, blue miri miri juice among others.
Dan looked at the waitress and gave her a smile. "Can we get some more?"
"Yeah...uhu...sure."
The waitress gave a smile to them both and left. She came after a while with the same amount as earlier and left. The kid suddenly stopped eating all of a sudden. He looked like he had forgotten something and just remembered.
The kid grabbed several big pieces of meat and tried to put it in his pocket. Dan grabbed the kid's arm. "What are you doing?" Dan asked bewildered.
"I UF a unger ottther!" the kid said with his mouth full of meat.
"Swallow first then talk." The kid swallowed the food in his mouth. "I have a younger brother. I left to search for food but I collapsed and forgot about him." The kid tried putting more meat inside his pocket but Dan stopped him.
"Are you gonna feed your brother dirty food. Do you want him to be sick?" Dan asked. 'Although I wouldn't hesitate to give my younger brother poison.'
The kid quietly sobbed and Dan sighed. He reached into his inventory and brought out the pack of cigarette and the lighter that he had stored. He lit a cigarette and took a puff.
He scrolled down on his system and finally saw the item he was looking for.
➡️Ring of storage.
➡️Store up to 10 items in this ring.
➡️A pair is considered as one when storing.
➡️Items bigger than a table will not be stored.
➡️Cost: 1 gold
➡️Available gold: 1
Dan bought the ring with the last piece of gold he had in his system. Dan's heart ached as the last of his gold disappeared.
The ring appeared in his inventory with a little icon that resembled a ring. Dan was fascinated by this. When he stored any item inside his inventory then they would appear as they are, crystal clear. Even the Clobi creature's that he had killed who were still in his inventory were in front of him without any changes.
'So any item I store is shown as is and any item I buy from the shop is shown as an icon. I didn't even notice this before.'
Dan held the ring in front of the kid. A beautiful blue metal ring. In the middle was a small mineral rock. "Here!"
The kid blushed and averted his eyes by looking to the side. "I appreciate what you have done for me truly but...I'm not interested in men."
"Huh?"
"WAIT DONT MISUNDERSTAND, I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT." Dan shouted as he stood up, his seat falling backwards. Several people looked at him with an annoyed look because he ruined their drink.
Dan apologised quickly and sat back down. "Look, this isn't just any ring, this is a storage ring. It let's you store up to ten items no matter what they are. There is a size limit though."
Dan checked the ring for a few seconds and after fidgeting with it for a while he figured out how it works.
He held the ring in front of the food and twisted the mineral. The ring vibrated and with a whooshing sound the food that was in front of Dan disappeared.
He barely saw the food being sucked in by the ring with his advanced eyesight.
Dan handed the ring to the kid who was a awestruck. His mouth formed an o shape of absolute shock.
"Where did the food go?" he asked.
Dan tapped the ring as if to say "In the ring."
'I thought that it only stored 10 items. It seems like that food was listed as one thing. So a collection of one thing that is connected is marked as one thing. I'm guessing that If I went to a river and stored all of it's water then it would still be considered as one." However this was wrong.
The ring would not be able to store an entire river of water.
"That should be enough food for your brother. If you want to take out the food then just twist the ore."
The boy looked down at the ring and then at Dan. He had a melancholic look in his eyes. "Why?" he asked. "Why are you helping me? I don't have enough money to pay you back. You paid for my food and even gave me an expensive magic ring. but as grateful as I am I have learnt one thing on the streets, if something is too good to be true most of the time it is."
"Ha ha ha." Dan chuckled lightly to himself. The kid gave him a questioning look. " I see myself in you in way, you dont trust anyone except the people around you. Although i dont trust my family and the only people I trust being Kan and Pedro. I like you. The reason I helped you is nothing much. I have a big bag full of gold coins that does not belong to me and i saw a kid who hadn't eaten for a while."
"When I saw you outside lying on the floor, it pissed me of, how is it the humans that I wanted to meet for a long time all be the same. They passed by you without a second thought. I hate people who act high and mighty and look down on people literally or figuratively. So in short term I helped you because I didn't want to be like these pathetic humans who look down on people." Dan gave his answer to the kid.
'That is seriously hypocritical, I look down on people a lot, the real reason why I helped you is because I know the struggles of being the inferior one in a world where everyone else is considered superior to you.' Dan thought to himself. The kid jumped across the table to give Dan a hug. Dan just let it happen. He didn't like hugs unless they were with women with big boobs.
He thought the kid would let go because of the smell coming from Dan but he didn't. In fact he started crying , snot coming out his nose. The snot covered all over Dan's tunic but Dan didn't mind. He just let the kid finish his crying.
The waitress returned this time with the bill. It looked really akward, the kid was crying on Dan while he smoked.
'What strange people, well I'll just clear up the table, Wait...'
'Excuse me but can you tell me what happened to the plates and jugs?" she asked Dan.
Dan tilted his head to the side and in a rough voice said, "I ate them, can you add them to the bill."
The waitress had been through a lot ever since she had started working here. She had faced a lot of sexual harassment, a lot of threats and a lot of offers from men to be with them but this was a new type of harassment. 'What does he mean by he ate the plates? Well I don't care, I'm just gonna add it to the bill.'
The waitress gave him a smile and nodded. Before she left Dan ordered some porridge.
"We don't have that."
"Sorghum."
"We don't have that as well."
In the end Dan just ordered milk with honey. As the waitress Dan pushed the kid of himself. "Stop crying and get home, you cry baby. Your brother must be hungry."
The waitress returned almost immediately with a warm glass of milk along with a small bottle of honey and a spoon.
The kid finally left and Dan decided to enjoy his drink. He poured the honey into his tall glass of milk and stirred it. He drank it all the way to the last drop as it felt rejuvenating. Dan took a look at the bill. 800 silver.
That was chump change to Dan. As Dan reached inside the pouch in the corner of his eye he saw four men leave the inn. He paid with one giant gold coin. He also booked a place to sleep for the week. With that being said he left the inn to take care of some business.
Once he was outside he activated his invisibility ability and took of to take care of some business.
__________
Charlie skipped down the street in glee. He was happy with what he had acquired. He had enough food for his brother for several days. His entire face was aching from smiling to much. His happiness knew no bounds. This ring was also useful. Sooner or later he would find some way to make the most out of it. That is what he thought.
As he skipped down the street full of people in glee, what he failed to notice were the four hooded figures following him stealthily from the rooftops. Finally Charlie went down a dark alley just as they were hoping. This was their chance. They had already seen the ring and how useful it was. It would fetch several gold coins for them. 15 gold coins at minimum and maybe 25 if they were lucky.
This would be a huge boost for them given that the average adult earns either 6 or 7 gold coins per month.
Sliddy the leader, a midget of a woman with a near flat chest stood on the edge of the building, a sinister smile on her face. Unlike the other three, she was planning on selling Charlie to a slave trader.
"KAWAAAAAAA"
A short muffled noise came from. She quickly turned her head just to see one of her jump of a building head first. She heard the sound of his spine breaking all the way from up the building.
What she didn't know was the man didn't jump of the building by himself.
As you guessed it, it was Dan who was invisible that threw the man of the building. This was the business he had to attend to. Dan smiled as he gained exp although they were not as much as before.
➡️1,200 exp gained.
'Looks like your gonna have to forfeit your lifes.' Dan thought.