Gen was walking towards the tailor store, and in the middle of the way, he started to get tired and thought, 'Good thing this is the last stop before going to the city gate. I can't carry these backpacks anymore.'
He then kept walking for a few more minutes until he reached his destination and entered the store with difficulty.
Trim trim trim
"Good morning.", Gen heard soon after he entered, and soon after, he heard, "Oh, it's you, Gen. Happy birthday. What's with the backpack? Are you moving?"
Gen turned in the direction of the sound and saw a young woman who appeared to be a little older than him. She had dark skin, long brown hair, and sand-colored eyes. She must have been around one meter seventy tall.
He then said, "Good morning, Cris, thank you, and no, I'm not. It's just that I'm going on a long trip."
"That's right, I heard my father commenting about it. Well, have a good trip."
"Thank you."
"You came to get your clothes, right?"
"Yes."
"Okay, come with me."
Cris started to walk to the counter, and Gen followed her. On the way there, it was possible to see several types of clothes on display for both men and women. On one side, there were casual clothes. On the other, they had party clothes and even for more important situations such as weddings, and in the back, there were some clothes for adventurers. The store also took custom orders, which is what Gen had asked for.
When they reached the counter, Gen put his luggage on the floor, and Cris screamed towards a door that led to the back of the store, "Mom, Gen came to pick up his clothes."
"Ok, I'm coming.", was the reply received.
After a few moments, a woman came out of the door with a package in hand. She was around one meter and seventy tall, with dark skin, short shoulder-length black hair, and sand-colored eyes.
She approached them both and said, "Happy birthday, Gen. Here's your outfit."
"Thank you, Miss Karla."
"Try it on to see if it looks good."
"Okay.", Gen said and walked towards a corner of the store where the changing rooms were.
Gen went into one of the changing rooms and tried on the new outfit.
When he saw that it was in the right size and that everything was just as he had ordered, Gen came out of the changing room and said, "The outfit looks great, Miss Karla. It is exactly as I pictured it."
"Glad you like it, Gen. Luno told me where you are going, so I paid extra attention to it and made it very sturdy."
"Thank you very much for the consideration."
"Anytime."
Gen approached to pay and decided to give her three silver coins, even though the agreed value was two silver coins and nine hundred bronze. When Ms. Karla saw this, she looked at him but decided not to say anything.
"Be careful, Gen.", said Ms. Karla.
"I will."
"You need to come back safely. You are still very young. You have so much to experience, like love, for example. Cris is still single. When you come back, you could go out a few times. Who knows something doesn't -"
"Mom!", said Chris in surprise.
"What, you're already twenty-three, and you can't find a boyfriend, your older brother only thinks about forging, and the others are still too young. Lapis will turn twenty, and the other two were still wearing diapers yesterday. If things continue this way, I'll have to wait decades until I have some grandchildren."
The two continued arguing for a while, and seeing that it didn't look like it would end soon, Gen decided to interrupt by saying, "I'm sorry, Miss Karla, I have to go. I want to use as much sunlight as I can."
Hearing Gen say that, the two stopped arguing, and Karla said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Gen, you're right. You better go as soon as possible. We can continue this conversation when you get back."
"Sure.", Gen said to get rid of Ms. Karla.
He then picked up his backpacks and said, "Bye, Miss Karla, Bye, Cris."
The two said goodbye back, and he headed towards the door.
As he walked out the door, Gen noticed that the two had started arguing again and thought, 'Miss Karla never changes.'
Gen then kept walking for a few minutes until he reached the city gate.
The gate was one of the places with the largest flow of people in the city at this time of day. It was possible to see several caravans leaving with products, some consisting of only one cart and others with dozens, surrounded by guards.
You could also see some people going out alone with just a few supplies and a camel for transport. These people were known as adventurers. They make their living traveling from town to town, completing orders in exchange for money. Some orders are simple and quick, such as bringing a certain amount of material common in the region, and others are more complicated, such as providing an escort to another city, which can take from one to several days.
The requests and adventurers are divided by type and rank.
The types of requests and adventurers are normal and awakened. The ranks of each are bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, and red diamond for the normal type, and body, external, material, influence, natural, and king for the awakened type.
Normal adventurers are identified by rings made of the material of their rank, while the state of their rune identifies awakened adventurers.
The runes are something that all awakened people have. Usually, they are hidden, but if the person wants to show the rune, it will appear anywhere on their skin.
The runes show the level of progress in the essence through their traces. Every complete rune has six traces, the first corresponding to the Body level and the sixth to the King level. The appearance of the runes is based on the individual's understanding of their essence, thus varying between people with the same essence.
The organization that sets the ranks and distributes the requests and rewards is known as the adventurers' guild.
It acts as an intermediary between the person making the request and the adventurer, making it easier for the adventurer to find a job that suits his level and thus accelerating the speed with which requests are completed, taking for itself a piece of the reward as a fee.
Some orders are placed outside the guild, but since only orders registered by the guild contribute to the rank increase, most adventurers take their orders from there.
Gen kept walking towards the gate, and soon, he saw his final destination. It was a huge store next to the gate. It was packed, with people waiting outside.
On its facade, there was written the name Moving Desert.
This was the best camel store in the region, but there were other reasons why it was packed. It was full because everyone who lives in the desert knows that going out in the desert without a camel is like asking to die. That's why camel stores are always full.
Gen approached and got in at the end of the line, and after a short time, an attendant came to meet him, "Good morning, may I help you?"
Gen then said, "I made a reservation for today. It's in Gen's name."
"Okay, one moment, please."
The attendant then took a paper from his pocket that was full of names and started to read it until he found Gen's name.
"I found your name, Mr. Gen. Do you mind showing me your ring so I can confirm your identity?"
"Sure.", said Gen, and then put the backpack in his right hand on the floor and took from one of his pockets a platinum ring.
When he saw the ring, the attendant took a transparent stone and placed it against the ring. Soon after, the transparent stone began to show Gen's information.
This stone is known as an identification stone, it is made by people who possess the essence of the earth.
It can read a code that is registered in small stones inside the rings, preventing someone from pretending to be someone else.
After checking all the information, the clerk looked at Gen and said, "I have confirmed your information, Mr. Gen. My name is Andy. Please come with me."