Gregg's Tavern
Aetius is now standing in front of the oldest tavern of this city.
This is a very famous gathering place for many types of people. It is said that they have special wine made by the dwarves of the north of Illariyan subcontinent !
Rich,noble,merchants, travelers,mercenaries,peasant all kind of people come here to drink and chat.
This kind of palaces are the perfect point to know some information and news.
People are constantly going in and out. I also entered there and looked inside.
The taverns looks way lot bigger than it should be. So it is without a doubt that space type magic props are used in this massive room.
Some people are laughing and celebrating something, some are drinking silently, some are so drunk that they are shouting whatever they have in their mind. some people are discussing as silently as they can in two's or more,some are looking for someone, even some people also fighting with each other in there!
So many stories, so many emotions, so many fights, this is a tavern!
I didn't sleep,not even a little last night. After eating the magic beasts meat, i am now full and feeling a lot of sleep. But before coming here, i had to change to a mysterious robe to hide my teen face lest avoid unwanted bullies and certain bad situations.
This place is perfect for me.If i can stay here, I can make plans for my future development directions. If i am lucky to secure a room that is.
This taverns has 7 floors in it. First floor is for ordinary customers.
Second floor is for VIP customers.
And third to seventh floors are used as hotels.
This kind of old taverns are visited by numerous peoples everyday from many different places.So they will rent rooms when they come. It requires luck to have a empty room in this kind of famous taverns hotels.
I asked a waiter to where to book a room. He said to me to go to the third floor. There i will find a receptionist who is responsible for room booking.
I gone straight to the third floor and found the receptionist who is a old man in his 70s or more sited in a floating magic chair. He is wearing a big round glasses and writing in a dairy.
Without stopping his writing nor looking at me, he said to me,
"All rooms are booked, please come later."
Well i did expected this kind of situation. This kind of renowned old gathering places are known to a lot of travellers. This is also a secure place which gives people a lot assurance. After traveling for a long time, if they don't have money issue, they will choose this kind of prominent hotels with their eyes closed.
I wanted to live here to be close to the as many people as i can. It is very convenient for me to go to the first floor for meals and also hear some news of inside and outside of this kingdom from time to time.
I suddenly remembered some room booking experience in famous hotels from my past life and applied.
I opened my spatial clothes bag and fetched out 500 gold coins and put them in the desk.
Finally, the old men looked at me. He took all the gold coins in his pocket and said to me with a smile,
"there's a room in the third floor available. 10 gold coins per day and 2 meals .No such service as night or day stay only. 10% discount if stay for 1 week. If you stay for a month 20% discount. If you stay for 1 year we will give 30% discount. "
Like my past world, hotels will always keep few rooms empty. They do so because of convenience. If a famous or important old guests come and didn't find a room to live, it will cause them to lose am important customer.Another reason is that the receptionists wants to earn some extra income.
It will cost me 60 gold (including discount) if i stay for a week. For 1 month it will be 240 gold coins (including discount). Because of 30 percent discount, it will cost me 2,555 gold coins.
I booked for 1 year after spending 2550 gold coins. I am lucky that the receptionist took the bribe and give me a room. Okay from now on, i have solved my food and housing issue for a year.
The receptionist give me a alchemy inscribed ring to open my room. The moment i touch the ring to the door, it will open automatically. I wore the ring in one of my finger.
Then he give me some documents to sign.I glossed over them and didn't read much. But all seem to be okay. I give my signature.
After that a attendant bring me to my room. Room number 321. I touched the inscribed ring to the door. It instantly opened without a sound.
1 bedroom, 1 drawing room, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom, 1 study room, 1 toilet and a iron cadged balcony. From there you can see busy road down. All the rooms are spacious and clean.
'It is a bit big' Aetius thought.
Aetius was very sleepy now. So he quickly take a shower and quickly jumped to the clean white bed completely naked.
"Those 2 monster women's were really rich! "
Thinking this he quickly fall in a deep sleep.
...
dip dip dip...
In a dark underground cave.
A gigantic 666 different monster head statue is constantly leaking blood from all It's canines.
Infront of this enermous statue a lot of figures are on their knees and chanting some mysterious words.
"God wants more sacrifices.... quickly bring those captured children's. We must satisfy the 666 heads ultimate god !"
4 dark robe figures quickly dragged a children to a bloody alter. The alter is now emitting a blood red aura around it.
"Ha ha ha good good this child looks more energetic then the last one. Lord 666 head ultimate god will definitely be satisfied in this 1001th sacrifice of today"
4 dark clothed men dragged the little kid to the blood red alter. Along the way, the kid was seeing a lot off beheaded corpse piled up as if a small mountain.The kid tried to shout for help but no one listened to his heartfelt cry's.
4 men forcefully hold this kid in the brightly red light emitting alter.A women who is naked but covered in blood all over her body came to the little boys feet's with a face with a smirks and a another men came close the boys head.
If you look carefully, you will see these six man are standing in six direction. Also known as 'Six path of sacrifice '.
The naked women sit on her knees, spread her both hands as much a she can and closed her eyes.
"In the name of the great 666 head ultimate god. " all six shouted.
The men in front of the kids head, caught the hairs with his left hand and slashed the knife down with his right hand.
The shining knife in the mens head started to twitch like a snake and sucked the blood from the kids body.
Bright red light illuminating alter changed to blue colour.
"God is satisfied, yes, we succeeded! "
All of the thousands of black robed people shouted out in joy.
writers thoughts :I have cut down 1k words from this chapter because it became too dark to look at .
...
I slowly opened my eyes. As soon as i opened my eyes, i can see multiple stone holders in the ceiling.Most of them are filled with different types of stones.
'That stone is for temperature , that one for lighting which have a array that will make it brighten up if the surrounding went dark. And for the rest of the stones working principle, i don't know.
My knowledge reserve is really low. I need to go to colos city library. There are many times more books are available then the colos school library.
If these stones stopped working, i need to inform the hotel authorities. They will change it. If it is damaged or misused by me, then i will have give remuneration for that.
'Thirsty.'
I licked my dried lips to give the them some moisture.
I subconsciously watched my left wrist to know the time. But i quickly realized that in this world, there are no wrist watches.
In my past world, wrist watches become famous after ww1.Before the war, it was considered to be a women's watch bracelets.
I can consider making wrist-watches for earning some money.
After getting up from the bed, i started to go to kitchen for drinking water. Along the way in the drawing rook room there is a big wall clock hanging in the wall.
It is now 3:34 AM right now. I have been sleeping for 12 hours . I have had 2 day's worth of sleep in one go. Okay i can start early today.
Under these miscellaneous notions , i came to the kitchen room.
It is now a big empty room.If you want, you can cook your food here.But they will still count 2 meal a day and will not give you some more discount because you do not eat in the first floor.
I don't know how to cook not in this life nor in the past one.So except for drinking water, this room will remain empty for the time being.
In kitchen room, there is a water tap which gives drinking water.
The servant who came to show me the room said that there is a special magi magic artifact in the drinking water tank, which not only purify the waters bad things but also makes it delicious.
There are a water big glass made bottle to collect fresh drinking water and a normal drinking glass. After filling the big glass bottle and pour a glass of water in the drinking glass, I drank it in one go.
"The water really tastes good. Let me drink another glass. "
I am really feeling hungry now. I have 2 meals left from yesterday. Today and tomorrow i can eat 3 times a day.After then,lets plan it later. I am a 3 times a day eater, so i have plan how fill my stomach. I don't have a habit of eating 2 times a day!
Okay let's go and see, I hope i am not too early.
I wore my shirt, pants and the black robe.After opening the door i just closed it and it locked tightly.
Later, I started to walk to the stairs. The spacious stairs is now completely empty. Beautiful,mind-boggling, expensive light stones are illuminating this place in a heavenly way.
I soon came close to the stairs entrenching where that old men let me rent the room.
Now that old men is not here, another young men was placed there.
"Good morning sir, are you new to our hotel?"
He stood up and asked me with a bright smile.
I nodded and replied,
"Yes, i just joined yesterday. Where is that old guy? "
He however seem a bit surprised, looked at my black robes up and down and replied with a laugh,
"Ha ha ha, sorry sir, but you are a
senior, why are you using a teenagers voice? Please don't joke with me. " He is still laughing loudly.
Shiit, i forget about the fact that my voice is still a 13 years old teenage boy's! I should buy a voice changing tool from the market today. My height is 5.5 or 5.6 foot which is an average height of male in this area.So people don't think me as a 13 years old in this robes but thinks a senior or a mysterious figure.
Hartage kingdoms founder was a mage himself, so people's got used to seeing people's in this full body robes.They don't care as long as they are not harmed.
This colos city is a very important source of income to the colos family. So they won't tolerate any crime here. The security is very tight and very advance in this city.
Colos family is situated in this city. They have a rank 3 mage working for their family. There are many rank 2 and 1 mages who closely monitors this city.
So, no one will dare to do any heinous act like killing in this place.So yesterday, even if peoples were a little bit wary about me , they didn't mind that much. There were a lot people like me who were wearing black robes in this city yesterday.
Ignoring his laughter, i started to go down to the tavern . There are still a lot people in the tavern right now. Although not even quarter amount of the people there, when he first came yesterday, but its still very lively and crowded.
He found a empty table in a corner of this big tavern and tried to hear anything valuable from them.
"Ajob, please do something. I know you once said that a noble had a life saving grace to you. Please i beg you to ask that noblemen to do something to save my brother from joining this war. Unlike me, he is just frail and skinny boy! He just loves to draw paintings, he didn't like swords nor like to eat any animals from the childhood.
They will use him as a meat shield there,he will die within a first day! This war is not for people like him!"
Hearing this i become shocked and curious. War....? what war, which war, why a war, but most importantly why i don't know?
"Krehsol, that noblemen is just a 3rd son of the viscount koros of the colos city.
In this war every men ranging from 20 to 30 must participate, even nobles too.Like your brother, there are many others who are living west of this country must join the army!
Don't worry pray to the moon goddess for his safety. "
A war broken out in the west which forced every 20-30 year old men to must join in?
Hearing this i become shocked. West of this kingdom is Hussar kingdom,so the war actually started?
I started to sweat heavily after knowing this info. If it west of the kingdom's mobilization then soon it will be whole countries mass mobilization!
If it is now limited to 20-30 age male only, than it may become 1-100 both male and female!
I gulped a mouthful of saliva. I just started to enjoy my life but become terrified suddenly!
I thought that i have 1 year to figure out about a way to have my mana tip-off, but it seems that i don't have much time!
Thinking about booking the hotel room after spending 3000 thousands gold coin, i was thinking that i caught a big fish, but now i feel like i swallowed a mouthful of dung!
If i got this information earlier, than i would have never booked that room for a whole year!
I originally had 20,889 gold coins before entering the city. Then i spend 10 gold coins to buy magic beasts meat, spend 350 coins behind this inscribed black robe and booked a room for 3000 gold coins.Now i have 17,529 gold coins only.
No no no, Aetius think like a pro don't act impatient. The war has just began. It will take a lot of time to reach a situation where kingdom will be forced to send their future generation to the certain death!
War between kingdoms is not like those stupid wars of the nobles for territory or women's or wealth, that lasts only for about week at best. This is a war that involves fate of millions of people's of the both country's.
War of this size can't be decided with a few battles, it will take huge amount of time,wealth,manpower.
Throughout 1,000 years of this kingdoms history, there have been 3 great wars fought between these 2 countries. In the last war 121 years ago, we lost after a war of 9 long years and lost 1 / 3rd of total landmass !
Our kingdom back then ordered 14 year old men's to join the war after 3 years of brutal war.So if they still got strength like then or even half at least. Then i have at least 1 year.
But i can't be relaxed because of this. After 1 year of brutal war, they will not let anyone to get out of this country easily lest losing cannon fodders.
If running is a only option, then it is the best time to do so. After 1 year or so it will become tougher to get out of this kingdom, which become meat grinder to ordinary people like Aetius.
A danger passed another one jumped out. Seeing the situations, it will be best if i just run to a different place and start with a new identity. But i don't think it will be a good decision in the long run.
Aetius started to consider to run away or stay and do hia best have a mana tip-off.
Lets first think about pros and cons of run away or not to run away. Let's first go to my room and think with peace of mind. This place is becoming more rowdy and noisy.
I have no apetite right now, let's first think about the current question whether to start a new identy or stay here.
I quickly came infront of my room and oped it with my ring. I quickly sat on my bed started to consider my options.
If i can run away i can stay out of this quagmire for good. But the question which kingdom or empire to run.What is the guarantee that there will there will be no war or any troubles?
Starting with a new identity is easier said than done.Here I at least have a Foundation, even if it is a lot shallow one.
I am now a weak teen with no mana in body, it is not wise for me go out of this place to take a chance as it will endanger my life.
I have a system with me, so i have a chance to become invincible by only depending on the system only .All is needed is to stay in a safe place to level up my system and unlock It's all functions.
Also i have a chance to naturally awaken in one year. Although chances are very small but it is still a possibility. If i abandon this identify, i will also lose the chance to go to the mage subcontinent. Adriana subcontinent mages only accepts students from legal ways to maintain good relationship with the currently legal powerful factions.
If i leave this identity and suddenly one day have mana tip-off, then i can only curse myself till i die! Though there are illegal ways, but can i really go with illegal ways?"
After thinking for a lot of time, i decided not to run but focus on upgrading the system and wait for the chance to awaken.
Aetius opened his system panel in his head,
[Name :Aetius
System level: 1+
Skills :
1.Unlimited data storage ∞.
2.System space storage, Level 1+
3.Danger acuity, Level 1+ ]
System Level up conditions :
collect 2/1000 level 1 magic beasts gallbladders. All of the gallbladder must be from a different types of beasts.
System space storage upgrade condition :
collect 0/100 rank 1 space path magic beasts dead bodies.All the magic beasts must be from a different magic beasts.
or.
collect 0/10 rank 2 space path magic beasts dead bodies dead bodies. All magic beasts dead bodies must be from different magic beasts.
or.
collect 0/1 rank 3 space path magic beasts dead bodies.
'Danger acuity ' upgrade condition :
Collect 0/1000 rank 1 magic beasts dead bodies.
or.
collect 0/100 rank 2 magic beasts dead bodies.
or
collect 0/10 rank 3 magic beasts dead bodies.
or.
collect 0/1 rank 4 magic beasts dead bodies.
.....
After hours of thinking, Aetius thought of staying and quickly focus on upgrading the system.
Now it has become bright outside, lets go and eat my morning breakfast.
I came out of my room and started to walk Through the corridor towards the stairs. Along the way i saw a lot of people are coming out or going in.
This 'Greg's Taverns and hotel' has a total of 7 floors. First 2 floors are used as first floor as ordinary one and the Second one as Vip one.The rest 5 upper floors are used as hotel.Every floor has 100 room each.
I soon came close the stairs entry point where the receptionist distribute rooms. Now the old men is back and busy talking with a customer. Looks like that young men is in night shift and this old guy in day shift.
I soon finished walking down.Now the tavern is full of customers. All kind of noise, happy,laughter, shouting ,scolding ,slang , bootlicking is mixed among them.
There are no single table left in this big tavern,so it can be seen that how popular this tavern really is!
Different kinds of people are in different kind of tables. Some tables are full of people like mercenary, who are laughing and talking about their hunting experience, Some are in 2 or 3s drinking alcohol heavily and don't seem to be sober, some are sitting alone in a whole 6 people accommodative tables,some are gloomy, some are sad, some are in black robes like me, some are happy,some are planing something.
I first decided to go to a alchemy prop shop and buy a voice changing prop to make my voice sound more like a adult.It can't be helped, i am just a teenager, my voice sounds like one too.
.....
"Ha ha ha, yesterday goddesses really blessed us. If not blessings, how can we encounter a week long dead rank 2 magic beasts 6 eyed darkskin python and also alone in a cave? If not goddesses has made Alanexibo to fall into that cave while shitting, we wouldn't have found that dead rank 2 magic beasts! We earned a lot, so enjoy.....hahahaha." Leader of the 'One-eyed hunter and brothers ' Prosores shouted loudly to attract everyone's attention in this big Gregg's tavern.
Prosores looks like an old man in his 80's, but he is very muscular and full of strength. He has no hair in his head and his rough face is covered with a lot of cut and scratch marks. Most eye-catching thing about him is that his left eye is no longer in It's socket. There are a small alchemy eye prop there, which doesn't look like a real one. You can see him fixing it from time to time.
He is a leader of a small mercenary team called, "One eyed Prosores and brothers'. They normally hunt wild animals and sometime rank 1 magic beasts with adequate information, prop and preparations.
Yesterday, when his team was looking for a wild ass mare in the southern part of this city, they were resting for a bit after hours of mountain climbing.
Because of the war, the demand for horse's are very high. And where there are demand, their will be a lot of money. These 4 men's team was looking for a wild mare or donkeys in that area.
Alanexibo, a young men in early 20's, was answering the nature's call. He was doing it under a tree a little far away from his teams resting place. While at it, he suddenly felt that ground under him start to crumble and he fell down half naked.
He fell approximately 10 meters down and drooped in something like cold soft cushion , but still injured his right hand in the process.When he looked down at which he fell on, he become terrified.
He is on a huge black snakes body which width is equal to his height. He thought that the snake is sleeping, so he didn't dare to shout to his teammates. As a part the cold blooded species most snakes normally has low temperature, so he didn't think it was long dead . He looked at the huge mysterious patterns in that snakes body and suddnely felt a huge pain in his head. So he stopped looking at the snakes body and slowly tried to go down from it. But he felt something wrong,there are no heartbeat or movements or reaction in its body.
So he stayed close to it for a minutes but still didn't heard a single heartbeat.
Suddenly his heart was full of joy and shouted to his teammates.
His teammates were also in ecstasy and tears. This is a rank 2 magic beast 6 eyed darkskin python.They found just a week long dead rank 2 magic beasts so it was in a perfect shape.
To catch a rank 1 magic beasts, they must need to prepare in advance. You need to hire experienced people who at the very least has some knowledge or experience with that kind of beasts, alchemic props to deal with that magic beasts abilities and also need detailed plan to kill that.
But they are so lucky that they found a dead rank 2 magic beasts witch didn't started to rot.They also needn't spend a single coins to catch it. They just hit a jackpot thanks to Alenexibo's no.2 work!
That magic beasts length was 12 meter and width was 2 meters.They asked a friend of them who has a rank 3 spatial bag to rent it to them for a few day's. They used that to bring this giant snake to the market.
The moment they bring this giant unharmed rank 2 magic beasts to the colos cities beasts seeling point, it attracted a lot of bidders. A foreign traveller brought this giant snake successfully after spending 120,000 gold coins.
Colos city officials as usual took 10 % from the money because of the city's beast market rule and they spend another 1,000 gold coins to the owner of the rank 3 space treasure. After that they had 107,000 gold coins left.
This is a huge sum of money for them. They never earned that lot of money in a single hunt.
Prosores is the oldest one in this group. Current 3 others only had been with him for 5 years at most.
In this world there are a lot of strange beasts are out there. Ordinary beast,dark beasts,mana or magic beasts, alien monster,devil, demon.... etc. You never know when you will sudden encounter one and die.
Hunter job is one of the most deadly occupations where death is just a normal daily life.
Living to the age of 82 (Prosores)while doing this job for more than 60 year's is a miracle in itself.He has faced many life and death crisis from day 1 in this job. He witnessed many of his teammates death,injury,retirement so many times that he has become indifferent to these.
In this harsh job,not everyone can make a living. Most of the people's leave, some after a few day, some after a week or some after a few year's.
A rank 1 magic beast full bodies average price is 5,000 gold coins to 20,000 gold coins depending on thier value and usefulness.
To catch a rank 1 magic beasts,you need to prepare a lot. Which requires a lot of money ,time and headache.
Also, you need to be careful not to harm it outer appearance very much while killing it. If It's skin or other parts are massively destroyed, than you will receive far less money than usual.
After all of this, you will only have 3-10 thousands gold coins left only. Which you need to distribute among your teammates. As a team leader, he takes a significant parts from it and rest is distributed according to their merit and demerits.
Alenexibo's contribution was large in this hunting, so they unanimously supported the notion of giving him half of the money for his shitting luck!
Everyone looked at this direction with jealousy, loathing,surprise, furious and many more looks. But soon they started to do whatever they come here for.
Alenexibo's joined old hunter Prosores's mercenaries team a month ago. He is a men in his early 20s.He joined this hunting team because of money. Hunting job is one of the most highest paid jobs out there.
An average people in this city can earn around 10-100 gold coins in this city.But a hunter can earn thousands every month if they are skilled of found some great games.
Alenexibo's believes that risk = money. After entering in this team, he cursed a lot about his poor decision.
He thought that hunting some wild animals is just a piece of cake. But reality hit him hard.
You must stay outside of the city for the most of the month. you have to sleep in open place surrounding a fire place and keep vigilant about nocturnal animals attacks.You can't even sleep peacefully for even an hour because of wild animals constant shouts. You need to walk for whole day searching for animals. His foots pains even now.Catching wild animals also a lot difficult.
Team leader said that i will get used to living like them eventually.
I was planning to leave after my monthly probationary salary in a few day's. I was worried about what to do after leaving. But after receiving 50,000 gold coins, i am finally relieved. With this huge sum, i can easily start a medium sized business in this city.
While the Prosores and his team was enjoying very costly dwarves wine to their heart content, a dark robed men sat down in their table.
Although they didn't like that someone else came to their tables and sat on the empty chair, but they can't say anything. As the tavern is now full packed and all tables now has at least a men sitting, newcomers are siting down wherever there are an empty sit left.
Also this dark robed male is very mysterious. You can't see any of his face as all of his body draped in black robes. You can't tell anything about him at all.
You never know, if this men has some prominent or dangerous background. So it is best not to offend this kind of people.
This colos city is situated close to one of the busiest land roads of this kingdom. Many travelling people decides to replenish thier supply from this city.So, it is not strange that outsiders will be spotted around the city.
So Prosores and his team didn't tell him anything so as to fall in trouble and continued in their celebrations and chatting with each other.
"I no longer feel the energy i had back in 30's or 40's.But i still continued to hunt to this day. But in this 80's, i feel like i can't go on anymore.
I didn't tell this to anyone for 60 years but today i will reveal my past life as i will be leaving this hunting job after finishing the few unfinished task i have have left."
Prosores said with a gloomy face.
Hearing the old leaders words,other 3 member of the team stopped drinking and looked at the old men infront of them.
It is not that they are not having idea of leaving. After earning a lot , they are also planning how to tell the old guy that they will be leaving. Except Alenexibo other 2 mercenaries are following the old man Prosores for about 5 years now. After going through a lot of danger, troubles and hardship, they formed a huge bond and trust among themselves.So they naturally feeling bad and hesitating to say what they had in their minds.
From the 107,000 gold coins they earned,
Alenexibo took 50,000 gold coins
The rest of the 3 mercenary took 19,000 each.
This is a huge amount of money. With 20,000 gold coins, you can buy a good land in the main colos city. Ordinary people's who earn 10-100 gold coins, lives in the outer city which is basically a slum.
Except the old man Prosores, who can afford to live in one of the colos main cities hotel, the rest of the three lives in the outer city slums.
Living in the main city is a dream for many outer city residents. There are many benefit living in the main city
1.Main colos cities crime rate is in the very bottom. The colos family have many rank 1 and 2 magi,who constantly monitoring the city.So no one will dare to break law or commit crimes infront of them in a clear mind.On the other hand, outer city is a very dangerous place where local gang war ,thief , robbery, murder are a normal part of daily life.
2. Colos main city is very clean and beautiful than the outer city.
3. In every few years, wild beasts from southern part of the city or the easter part of the dangerous thar mountain ranges, northern poisonous swamp is full of dangerous poisonous monsters, west of colos is a huge grassland from where horse riding nomads will raid colos city from time to time. At those time, the best place is definitely will be the main city which will be protected by the colos family.
4. If you can own a land in a city ,you will earn the status of a 2nd class citizenship.
In this fuedal world,There are 3 types of citizenship. First class belongs to the the nobles , aristocrats, magic knights etc
2nd types of citizenship are given to the rich, wealthy, prestigious and those who contribute to the kingdom.
3rd and final class is for common people's like poor,serf, peasant etc.
As for slaves , they have no rights.
....
"When i was 15 years old , i was son of a serf in korpon region, east of this kingdom .
My father was a lowly serf working under the ducal family the 'Blair family '. Korpon region is a flat land blessed with a big river . Therefore, many serf's grow crops there for the Blair family there.
Since i was little , i didn't liked the fact that , my father works hard all the year like thousands of serf's under the merciless sun heat in the vast fields. After working hard for a year, when the time of harvesting come, they don't even give us a single crops. Almost all are taken away by the ducal family. We are just given few gold coins to live for a whole year.
After winter, they give us seeds and tools to plant crops in the fields. And my father obey their commands and work hard for another year in the fields from morning to twilight, like all other serfs.
some year, Because of famine or beasts attacks, the crops may grow far fewer then expected. Then soldiers of the duke family will torture us and give us far less money to live for a year.
So, like my father, all other serfs will pray to many deities related to agriculture to protect their crops fields.
That year, i was 14 years old. I didn't wanted to be a serf who will die working for a noble family.
One day, One rank 1 'water elephant' magic beasts came out of the nearby river and ate almost all of my father and other 2 serfs fields crops which was about to be harvested.
The dukes soldier who monitors us become furious for missing crops and caught my father and other 2 serf and dragged them to the fields.
Even though everyone confirmed that a magic beasts ate the crops,these soldeirs didn't listen to them and started to beat my father and other 2 with whips mercilessly.
I can't stand still seeing my father being beaten by these rogues. I shouted at the, "My father is innocent, it is you soldiers job to protect the fields from the beasts."
Hearing my words, a soldier rushed and kicked me hard which made me fly a meter away like a rag doll. Before losing consciousness i clearly saw a soldier spitting at me and said something that i will never forget,
[ A lowly serf dare to reminds us about what to do. ]
I wake up next day with a high fever and with a broken ribs. My mother helped me to recover within 6 month.
That soldiers words will always buzz in my ear that time.
One day, i decided to run away from there. I didn't wanted to be a lowly serf who will work for his whole life for a noble but will be stamped as a lowly being.
I got into a merchant caravan's goods bags and escaped from there.Later i spend some money to erase the serf mark and started to live a new life.
I have always wanted to see my father,mother and my little siblings, but i didn't succeeded.
During the succession crisis 40 years ago, I take advantage of the the chaos to go there to see how they are.
It was already more than 20 years after i ran away. I saw an old men was working in a large fields. He has tanned so much that anyone will mistake him as a black men.The skeletons are clearly visible from long away. He was working with 3 young men then. Seeing their face, i can easily tell that they are my little siblings.
I didn't wanted to cause them any trouble because of me. as serfs are a personal property of the noble family, the serfs who are disobedient, will be executed. I wanted to see mother , but I can't as serf stay with the soldiers. So i reluctantly go away .
If I had money back than , then i would have pretend to be a rich men and brought my family from this kind of life . huh" After saying his life story he sighed heavily.
He saw that not only his three teammates but that mysterious black robe guy ,who is drinking same dwarves wine as his team was also paying close attention to his words .
He continues,
"Now today i am hearing that war with the Hussars has broken out . I will take this opportunity to pretend to be a rich men and buy my nephew's and niece and free them from this salvery. I hope at least one of my younger brother is still alive.
We have some commissions left which we have taken , after finishing these we will go to our separate ways . " saying that he gulped all of his from his wine glass and ordered more .
The previous smiling faces now all turned into gloomy face . If you can look through the black robes , you can also see that a teen is also saddened by the old man's talk.
The dark robe man said to Prosores in a mysterious voice , "Old man , i would like you to give a task ,i believe that you would like to hear it ."
Prosores has lived for a long time because he can control his emotions. Even though annoyed by this mysterious men but he still nodded .
" I would like you to give me some detailed information about the magic beasts near colos city you know so far in your 60 years career . It doesn't matter if it is rumors or assumptions or dead .
I will give you 1 gold coins for every magic, dark, giant, mysterious or other type of magic beasts."
Prosores's eyes lit up as soon as he heard this .He has been a mercenary for 60 years. He knows every single dangerous monsters near this colos city like the back of his hand .He also heard a lot of stories about dangerous monsters in the poison swamp north of colos city. In this poison swamp their are many poisonous animals are full packed .
In his long life ,he also heard about a lot of legendary beasts which used to live near colos city or may still out there.
Colos city is just a road city which is used by traveling caravans, merchants, travellers, pilgrims to rest and fill up their supply which is short. It's economy is heavily dependent on business .
It is only sorrounded by 3 baron family's who's population is not so much . After that ,there are no human settlements in a close proximity.
Colos family always stations a rank 1 magi in the north of the colos city where poison swamp is and another rank 1 magi in east of the city where thar mountain range to keep an eye on them. It is to make sure that those poisonous and magic beasts will not come to the colos city to damage their profitable business.
The mysterious man in black robe quickly understand that the old man has the intention to accept this mission .
He fetched out 1000 gold coins from his spatial bag and pushed them to the old men .The old men smiled and happily accept them .
"This is the advance money . Meet me in 1 week later right in this tavern. All of the information must be written neat and cleanly in a paper." The mysterious man said in a grand manner.
" Don't worry sir , i will do my best you can rest assured."
...
...
...
Aetius has gone to the market to buy a voice changer from there. After searching for a little bit around ,he found a very weird voice changer prop .
This voice changer prop is very different from all of the props he has stumbled upon so far . it has shape of a maple leaf .It is very slimy like a chewing gum and it's very small ,about an inch .
The merchant told me that a person sold it to him just an hour ago !
I touched this and felt a sticky but slimy texture as if it is a real tongue. The merchant inform me in advance that it is a stolen good and he didn't washed it yet . I almost vomited and ordered the merchant to bring water .After washing it for a good while ,i stick it under my tongue as merchant said .
As soon as i touched it with my tongue,I received an electronic message. I didn't checked it now as i am busy checking this strange voice changers working principals.
I felt as if it melted with my tongue ! I quickly shove my right hand in my mouth to check and can still feel that its still there .
Hmm ,i think it is not a simple thing .As far as i know , props are made from metals only but it is same as if a tongue! Maybe i can win a rare alchemy prop now. Let me first check something.
"Merchant, this thing is a very bad prop i have ever seen . It feels as if i had a cow dung in my tongue. who sold this kind of stuff?" I said acting as if dissatisfied with this
" Sir ,I didn't check it after buying this from that thief girl . I was so busy that i almost forgot about this .I am also not very optimistic about this ,just give me 200 gold coins if you want it ."He said believing in my lie.
Thief's from outside of this city sells their stolen goods inside this city . Of course the magi station here will execute any thief if they dare to steal in this city .
ha ha ha , Looks like a thief sold it here not knowing anything about it's true value !
I didn't wanted to bargain as i fear the merchant might refuse to sell after hearing my counter offer .I quickly paid and left .
Then i gone to the the tavern, darank the famous dwarves wine ,give a task of collecting information about local beasts,myth and presumptions .After that i go outside to go outside of the Prosores eyes. I don't wanna let him know that i live in this taverns hotel!
After the mercenaries go away ,i started to eat my morning meal ,I quickly go upstairs to my room and closed it .
" I can't wait to see what kind of jackpot I got today!"
...
I quickly took a shower to refresh myself. After finishing my shower , I started to use my strange voice changing artefacts.
Unlike other props, it is not made from hard objects but made from a slimy materials. It is shaped as a maple leaf.
After wearing it under my tongues, i feel like it is a integral part of my tongues! Not like those metal artifacts which will feel unnatural and hard in you mouths! Also i can keep wearing it for all day like it is not a prop but a long lost part of my mouth.
The thing that makes me excited is that i can change voice many times non stop using it! This is really not a 200 gold coined item but it's actual value is much more higher!
[ Would you like to bind the voice changing prop with the system? ]
What is this? Can i bind all kind of prop or artefacts with the system?
'Yes' I give the command.
[Congratulations, You have successfully bounded the '??? voice changer' with the system, level 1 + ]
The system has no idea about the name of this artefacts, so it is showing '???' or question marks. It knows everything i know. But if i don't know about something , it will also don't know.
I aetius wanted to bring out the strange voice changer out of his mouth to his hand. He wanted to see it more closely if he can find any clue about it.
However, he realized that the voice changer is now gone!
Is is because it is bounded with the system that it vanished?
I came close to the mirror to look. I saw a maple mark is under my tongue! So this means the artefacts that is bounded with the system will become a part of my body and also for convenience it will vanishes!
Ha ha ha i have found the cheat hahahahah, let's buy all kind offensive and defensive props and artefacts i can . Then i will bound them with the system and become invincible in this kingdom no no no in this middle part of Illyriya no no no in the whole of the Illyriya subcontinent ha ha ha.
My dream of killing god is about to be fulfill so soon! Oh yeah, who cares if i have mana tip-off or not. I can become strong much more stronger using this systems than becoming a mage!
When i was cheering and laughing out loudly as i was about to usher in a great life, something happened that not only made me furious but also dumbfounded.
[ You can only bind 1 prop with the system in each system level.]
What, what, what?
He quickly read the massage again and again to confirm.
'If I can only bind 1 prop In each system level, then I should have binded a offensive or defensive one,Why did I bind a voice changer? nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....
You fvcking system bitch, why didn't you tell me earlier?
why?'
I was so furious that i shouted loudly in anguish.
After calming down i started to think rationally.I should be contented with what I have and use the in my own advantage.
I clicked the plus sign to see It's upgrade condition
[??? voice artefacts upgrade condition :
collect 0/1 rank 1 props]
'There are no reason to upgrade it. It can already do what i need, so i don't need to focus on this upgrade. This can stay and rot, I don't give a damn about this ability.'
After leaving a long sigh, i start to think,
'I need to focus on upgrading the system. I need 998 magic beasts gallbladders. After upgrade i can use a attacking prop or survival prop to bind it with my system. Then i will be in a peace of mind!'
Let's go to the magic beasts bidding point and sell those 2 magic beasts women duo.
It is now 12 pm, if lucky, I can find a rich travelling tycoon and sell these 2 monster corpses at a high price!
I now have 16,320 gold coins after buying the voice changer, paying 1000 gold coins as a advance payment for a detailed information about many beasts surrounding this colos city and drank a cup of dwarves made wine for 9 gold coins.
That time i was feeling drunk to a certain extent so i only drank half of it to remain sober.
As for why i offer 1000 gold coins as advance payment to the old prosores is to make him assure that i will not trick him into some mischievous way.
The old man lived for for more then 60 years and grew old in the highest-level mortality rate job in the world. So no mercenary or hunter in this city will be as experienced as him about the beasts walking around this city.
As for the matter of betrayal, I am not concerned in the slightest bit. The old man is living in this city for more than 60 years and has a special place in the hearts of this city's many people's. So i don't think a law abiding person will break the respect of the countless of peoples for a 1k gold coins in his goodbye times.
When I give him coins, a lot of people openly or secretly saw that. So there are a lot witnesses.
Lastly, he needs a lot of money to free his long distant families in a chaotic times like war. Not only you need a lot of money to free a serf by Illegal ways but you also need to consider the issue of staying place, food,clothes etc
You can't free a serf. They are private property of a nobleman. Only if they personally approved that you can free them.
But taking advantage of the chaos like war, when nobleman's are busy running away for their own lives, you can take the opportunity to bribe a official or a few soldiers to rescue his long lost,long distant family . So he will do his best to add as many information as he can to earn a lot of money.
As for how he will find me, i have secretly handed him a small torn page which was written 'room 321' . He will definitely understand that i live in that room!
While missing in these miscellaneous notions, i came out of the busy and noisy tavern and took a big salamander powerd carriage toward the magic beasts bidding point.
Within half an hour, i reached the bidding place. It is like the auction house back in my world . It has a big field surrounded by barbed wires. outside is place where people sit and watches the beasts which are displayed behind the barbed wire.
You need to pay 1 gold coin to enter and participate in the bidding. The bidding goes on for for 24/7 for 365 day non-stop. You can stay 1 day at most with a single ticket.Lot of powerful organisations placed thier people to wait here to buy different beasts. If lucky they can also buy a rank 1 magic beasts from here.
Aetius came infront of the bidding house front. A lot of peoples are constantly going in and out of the beasts auction house.
I saw 3 desk infront of the auction house. One for giving people's a ticket with one day duration, other is for the peoples who are here to auction of their common game. And the last one is for the auction of the ranked beasts.
Compared to the first 2 busy desk, this third one has no one standing in line.
While others 2 receptionist are busy, she is now sleeping.
'Looks like magic beasts or ranked beasts appearance in quit rare even for this city! ' Aetius mused and came close to the desk.
Aetius though of a something mischievous and slapped the desk hard.
She almost jumped out of her chair like and looked at me like a frightened kitten.But soon become angry and stared at me like a sharply.
''Ha ha ha, if looks can kill,i would have been dead by you, you sleepy head. Did they pay you to sleep? Quickly complete the formalities, i will auction of magic beasts. " I said in typical local gang members tone.
"She was about to scold me, but when i said magic beasts, she swallowed her words and put on a smile and said,
" Yes sir. please take this token and go to second floor."
If a magic beasts seller go away because of her harsh words, she will be kicked out of this job , so she helplessly respected this thug.
A lot of people was paying attention to his acting. So when shouted loudly to the reception women that he is here to sell magic beasts, there was a huge uproar in the crowd.
Aetius has no interest in teaching a lazy worker about her work nor any malic against her.
He did this to attract as many attention as possible to create a hype that a magic is about to be auctioned. So quickly prepare to spend a lot of juicy money!
'Seeing the uproar, i am sure to earn a lot of money today,he he he.'