Richard Perez, a name of the most common and a cultural mixture product of the cultural exchange between different people, although for him it was not something strange, he was busier trying to reach the goals imposed by the supervisor of the printing house where he worked, he was too busy to have philosophical ideas about his name.
It was a headache having to deal with both the technicians who had to keep the printing presses in good condition and the programmers in charge of keeping the necessary programs running smoothly for the external newspapers they had to work for, after all, they were just a small company more oriented to weekly or university newspapers.
It was certainly not what he had envisioned for his future when he was a kid, but it was a job with above-average pay and he had a good conscience about savings, having worked overtime and endured deprivation to be able to save was not an easy thing, and more In the era of great consumerism, the money he had saved had been invested in cryptocurrencies for just over 4 years, this was his final outlet for a happy life.
He hadn't made much of a profit from it, but he had made a nice side income, enough to be able to retire before 40 years old in some city with good security or maybe in the country with a comfortable, laid-back ranch, one or two trips a year, maybe to Madrid or Paris, Vienna, Shanghai, etc. and being able to have a wife and 3 sons or daughters, that was his ideal life.
yes, everything looked wonderful for Richard, however, when he felt the heaviness of his head and looked at the thatched roof which gave off a putrid smell, the sunbeams illuminated his face making him see a whole range of dust and spores inhabiting this room, he knew he was fucked.
Richard felt a chill and as if something cold and burning at the same time ran through his body, it was an uncomfortable sensation of denial and shock.
"H-how is it possible, it can't be possible that I lost all my savings! It was more than 800k! It wasn't supposed to be a safe solution to the loss of confidence in FIAT currencies!? uhh..." Richard froze Hearing himself and let out a slightly nervous laugh, even his voice sounded strange to him, just like a child changing his voice in adolescence.
"Of course, this must be a dream, a lucid dream! Just like that movie in which dreams are deeper and go layer by layer, I first dreamed that I lost all the money invested in cryptocurrencies by leveraging the investment x4 times! and now I dream of being in a demolished shack... and also I'm again in my childhood! haha, even when I was a child I never reached this extreme of poverty, if this dream is real, I wonder what will be next? I'll dream that I start as a young investment genius and know the movements of the stock market like the back of my hand?... Ouch... I'm not supposed to feel pain in a dream..." Richard gave a reason why he was in his current place so he could relax a bit, but the nervousness and a bad feeling in his chest didn't go away.
His eyes lost their focus when he saw his thin arm that had a bruise where he had pinched himself earlier, the pain throbbed, letting him know that things were more complex than he could imagine or rather accept.
he got up with some difficulty from where he was lying down, he did not dare to call it a bed because what he had for a quilt was something similar to an animal skin with an unpleasant odor and with hardened black patches of some unknown substance.
Beneath it was a mound of straw and linen which acted as a mattress but it did a poor job at it, although it did at least lighten the rough surface of what appeared to be logs lined up on the ground making a rough bed, these still had crumbling bark and would be no better to lie on them without that straw and linen which he could not decide to call it a mattress.
Shaking his head Richard got up and looked at the narrow room of the hut where he was, the walls were made of tree branches reinforced with mud and did not give a very stable appearance, what kept the structure standing were 4 logs of a thickness of about 4 inches on the corners, but the trunks were not straight so the reliability of these was even more worrying than the walls, in the middle it had another trunk supporting the thatched roof at least this one looked better as it did not have much weight on it.
Other than that, there was no furniture other than some logs lined up in the form of benches where some torn and dirty clothes rested or some clay pots where perhaps there was food or perhaps there was some poisonous vermin.
"This must be a bad joke... I killed myself at work for 12 years, not only that but I avoided going out formally with anyone so as not to lose my focus and everything to... to lose it because of an oversight! but. ..how it's supposed I ended here? and besides, this isn't even my body!" Richard began to react without being able to deny what was happening.
Getting up on his 2 feet and feeling slight dizziness on the way to the door which had nothing more than a log through it as a secure way, removing the log with difficulty, he looked to the outskirts of where he was and was blinded by the light for a couple of seconds.
what he had in front of him was an impact even greater than his current voice or his lower perspective than before.
"Hey, Thorin, what are you up to at this time of the morning? You don't let your neighbors sleep even if they have protected you all night! Have you ever woken up with your feet in your hands? I've heard stories of that happening in the south of the continent, possibly caused by some alchemist, hehe, what I've heard about necromancers is even worse, you know? Alchemists are such noble characters it's a pity few people can understand them, hey, are you listening? your uncle Gerd is not your servant to ignore him, you damn brat!" a rough and lazy voice echoed from the side of his hut.
The man who called himself Gerd had a ragged appearance with a long beard covering his cheeks but with patches where hair did not sprout, skin flecked with black dirt, and his hair was knotted, dirty, and stiff from lack of cleanliness.
an ocher smell came to him from this so-called uncle, but since he had woken up everything smelled particularly bad to him, he was not a clean freak, but this was beyond what was tolerable for someone of the modern age, even an inhabitant of the dark depths of their mothers' cellars would find the odor given off by this self-named Uncle Gerd shocking.
"Uh, Uncle Gerd?" Richard answered with doubt.
he was petrified because a series of memories came to his head, this man that he had in front of him was indeed his acquaintance, he was not his uncle but he had helped him survive these last 2 years in which he had lived away from his mother.
the memories stopped here and trying to remember his mother was difficult for him, he could only remember that his stay with her was not pleasant and he had fled by his own decision.
"Now do you recognize me, you damn rascal? Hehe, tell me what you have for me? I'm done with the mushrooms from last time, I'll pay you as usual for the [Carbocara mushrooms] 2 large copper coins for each mushroom, you must not show these mushrooms to anyone, if any guard looks at you with them, you will end up without hands or on a pike, if they look at an outcast like you with them they will only think that it is a 'Desesperado' with the intention to kill some noble for a piece of bread, hehe" Gerd laughed lightly and with some mischief.
for his part Richard or rather now Thorin remembered what Gerd was talking about, Carbocara mushrooms were considered an exotic material and therefore it was regulated, it was black, about 8-10 cm in diameter with a flat surface and a black color that made them earn their name from the word [Carbo] of Carbon and [Cara] because they had white patches that looked like a humanoid face, the effect of this mushroom was a greater blood flow, a rapid blood pulse and a hyperalteration of the senses in small doses, in large doses cardiac arrest, thrombosis or excessive bleeding could occur in the event of an injury, so this mushroom required treatment from an alchemist to obtain beneficial results.
They were commonly used as a poison by the poorest sectors of the population because although they did not reproduce in many places, they were easy to poison someone and had long times of effectiveness, in addition to the fact that it was not so clear when someone had suffered their poisoning.
that was why if any civilian was found with one of these mushrooms near the city walls, they would be treated as a threat to the nobles who used to be targets of assassination by what they called 'pariahs', more than anything it was the last resort for those without power.
"I collected 4 of them, are you sure you have the money to pay for it? You reek of wine and cheap perfume, I doubt you have a copper on your body" Thorin looked at Gerd doubtfully.
at the same time, he could only be surprised by his adaptability to this change, just a few minutes ago he couldn't help but believe that it was just a dream, and now he was acting in a composed manner in front of this one who was an acquaintance of the original Thorin.
"Who do you take me for kid? Of course, I have money! I'm a glorious alchemist... well, apprentice alchemist! I shit gold, boy... uh... I was supposed to bring my wallet here, wait a minute." Gerd checked the sides of him where he was supposed to carry his money but he couldn't find the bag where he carried it.
Gerd, seeing that Thorin was looking at him with a distrust that was on the rise, staggered reluctantly, checking his body for his bag with the coins, leaving on the ground that he was a glorious alchemist or as he said to be, an alchemist's apprentice.
"Damn all the drunks in this kingdom, my bag has been stolen, wait, I always carry something extra with me in case something like this happens!" Gerd smiled confidently revealing his yellow teeth.
Gerd leaned against the mud wall of Thorin's hut causing creaks to resound from it without taking it seriously, Thorin for his part, felt his blood boil with anger, the hut was his only refuge and this guy was about to make him a free demolition, but seeing that Gerd took his boots and the smell he gave off overshadowed the sour aroma of his body he couldn't help but take 2 steps back and wrinkle his nose.
"tch, not here either, did they clean me at the betting table? I can't remember anything about it, hehe don't worry I still have one last place where I'm sure no one would dare to rob me!" Gerd smiled again with surprising assurance.
Thorin's trust in Uncle Gerd was already on the ground but when he saw what Thorin was doing he opened his eyes in surprise and horror, as Gerd put his hand in his pants with direction in his crotch, mysteriously turning his hand several times searching in a place that even the swamp goblins would not dare to search, but Gerd's certainty disappeared from his face and became a more solemn face, after several seconds of not finding anything he took out his hand and fell silent.
"Damn it! Those whores have done it now! Only they would dare to rob the great Gerd of what he has earned with the sweat of his brow! How dare they, after what I have done for them! How many times I have not gone to patronize their business? I have given them a satisfaction that they will never have again while I am not with them!" Gerd cursed loudly and furiously.
'Gerd should be grateful that some girl is willing to take his business offer, at least there is no doubt that this guy is very trustworthy making business, never swindled Thorin in the past... forget it, after all, from now on I will be Thorin' Thorin though silently.
"hehe don't worry little Thorin, I'm always prepared for any situation, just... forget it I'll trust you this time." Gerd shook his head after calming down, as he said this he took his hands to his matted hair but not before smelling the hand he had just had on his crotch, Thorin could only contain the urge to vomit and continue watching Gerd fight with his hair.
"here it is! a silver coin, the equivalent of 15 large copper coins, I will pay you this silver coin but the next time I come you will have to give me 4 mushrooms, this is my payment for those 4 mushrooms, what do you say? I'm sure you've never seen a silver coin! This will be yours if we make this deal!" Gerd smiled knowingly.
Thorin looked at Gerd cautiously because in his memories he used to behave similarly but he had never given him so much money in a transaction, but he did not see that Gerd was trying to deceive him so he nodded and entered his hut.
"Here are the mushrooms, I'll give you the other 4 when you come back." Thorin returned with the mushrooms in a crudely made basket.
"This is just what I wanted! Now, take this silver coin, it's entirely yours!" Gerd smiled as he looked at the mushrooms with relish.
Seeing the coin contaminated by sweat and other substances from the human body, Thorin extended his hand and dropped the coin to the ground to proceed to step on it and rub it in the dust on the ground, quickly picking it up from the ground and went into his hut.
"Hey! Damn brat! That's your uncle Gerd's blessing for your work in picking mushrooms, learn to value it more! tch, that's why I don't have children, at least not that they're not bastards..." Gerd retreated grumbling.
Thorin just watched his back disappear into the trees that covered the view of the fields that surrounded the city or what could be said to be a town from the perspective of someone modern.
"I just have to start from scratch in this new world ... a new world, a new day, and a new me ..." Thorin said this wanting to be positive but his face did not stop twisting containing all the emotions that were stirred in his chest.