"Anima! Wake up!" Ruby said with a jingle to her voice. I slowly rose out of bed while rubbing my eyes.
Once I looked outside to see a pitch-black field, I turned to look back at Ruby. At first, I couldn't find her and started scanning the room, only to realize she woke me up so she could sleep in my place.
"Hey! Get the hell up! That's my bed!" I yelled out to her.
"Huh? Go sleep in mine, it's over there on the floor." She said, pointing to a pile of leaves tucked away in the corner.
I ignored her and spent most of the early morning in my inventory, searching through several different recipes for potions and other things I could craft. Trinkets and potions were my new skills, as I could make both now. First off, I wanted to look into potions that restored more than health.
Lolo talked about them... as I remembered her, I felt sort of sad. I wish I could've learned more from Lolo.
Lolo talked about Restorative Potions, not Health Potions or Stamina, but Restorative. Potions that were meant to heal all stats and cure illnesses. Unfortunately, the ingredients were way too hard to get. The point of origin for these ingredients all came from New Olympia. While we were there, I wanted to stock up on the various ingredients New Olympia had to make sure I was all set for future battles.
I organized various things as weird menus popped up and I rifled through my weaponry and low-grade armor. I made a note of what potions were made with what ingredients, carefully storing each note depending on the size and style of the potion. Something I've learned on my own is that any type of potion could be any color with a little bit of food coloring. Food coloring in this world comes from a specific species of flower located in every city I've been to so far. I just found it interesting and kept notes in different places. I was basically holding a library at this point.
-
Some more time passed and everybody was finally awake, ready to travel to New Olympia.
"So, we just follow this road until we get there?" I asked Soul. She nodded while adjusting her backpack. Ruby was yawning and both Ipa and Ken were in their own conversation. I was at least happy they could talk... but then we had two others with us as well.
Jane and Janice followed to see their relative, or whatever, so there were more people we had to take care of, more people to feed, and more people to protect. If I wasn't trying my best to be a Hero, I wouldn't have cared.
"Over there! I see it!" Ruby shouted out.
Pass the small green hills and the trees in the background, large granite structures, and other stone buildings that seemed to scrape the sky were popping out of the surface.
"That would be New Olympia. Come on! Let's hurry!" Janice said. Ruby and Janice ran as fast as possible ahead of us toward two guards standing at the gate.
"Halt! What business do you have here?!" The guards asked.
"Uh... the festival, what else?" I pushed ahead of the crowd to talk to everybody, gently setting Soul aside while standing in front.
"We have tickets!" Janice pleaded out to the guards. She pulled out the three tickets in front of the guards and they nodded.
"The rest of you have to stay back, but three of you are good to come in." The guard stepped aside, while his friend watched over Ipa and the others.
"Hey! I wanna go!" Ruby complained.
"You should've been paying attention, only three of us could go. Janice, Jane, let's go." I told them. They all nodded and we walked inside, passing the guards.
Jane turned back toward my direction, but couldn't exactly pinpoint me because of her lack of vision.
"Don't worry, we'll get them in here," Jane told me. I thanked her and moved forward.
The city itself looked how I imagined Ancient Rome to be. Stone structures were everywhere, but advanced enough to look like it was stable and wasn't going anywhere. There were pyramids inside, decorations all around, and streets made of the same type of rock layering the building on the outside. Overall, this was the most impressive city yet.
"Hey, how are we supposed to buy tickets if we aren't allowed in?" I asked Janice. While listening to her answer, I noticed some familiar toys on their shelves... were those fidget toys? How in the world did they have these in this world? Who brought them here?
We eventually got to the counter, watching the people in white robes all disperse in disappointment, which helped us learn that they were out of tickets completely. I sat against a nearby stone wall and thought silently about how to get those tickets... or at least get them inside. I mean, nobody would know...
"Anima! This man here said that we can get tickets through games in here! Let's do that!" Janice told me.
"I just don't get it... why would they sell tickets if you can't get in? What's the point of that?" I mumbled.
"Doesn't matter! Come on, let's move!" Janice pulled me off of the wall and walked over to a group of people standing by a stage.
"Guess the weight and win yourself a ticket! Guess and win people!" The man said. I shrugged off the idea of a game and rose my hand upward.
As he called on me, I froze for a moment. "Janice... how do you say how much people weigh?" I asked her.
"With... pounds...?" She seemed confused while telling me, but I breathed a sigh of relief. I was worried the units were different in this world.
"One hundred pounds," I said to the man. He shook his head and clicked his tongue, telling me that I was wrong. It was only a person, he didn't look heavy at all...
"I got it! He's two hundred and fourteen pounds!" Jane shouted out. With her eyes closed, everybody looked at her in confusion... but I was totally baffled as one ticket was placed in her hand.
"NO WAY!" I yelled out. I was excited and let it get to me, quickly silencing my loud volume.
"Hehe, looks like you'll need me after all, Anima!" Jane said with a wicked smile.