Kaian looked around the village after his excitement fizzled away. He cursed at himself for losing sight of safety when he got happy yet again. He would have to eliminate this problem as fast as possible.
His eyes glided to the main gate, taking in the soldiers. He had no chance against a fully armed fighter. Maybe he could use his snail form to escape? They wouldn't obstruct a snail's way. The gate was wooden, as were the walls.
Though they had spikes on top they were too big for a snail, another way to leave.
If he lost Vexastone he could burn the village to the gro-
SMACK
Kaian jumped away and looked behind him, horrified. Someone just hit him in the shoulder! An attack. His right hand made a fist and assumed the basic fighting stance while the left one slid towards his pocket with Vexastone.
This half assed stance with one hand wasn't very effective and it didn't need to be. The main focus was the stone being at hand, another problem. He'd have to make it so that Vexastone is touching his skin constantly somehow.
Why was he thinking about this? He needed to face the threat and-!
"Haha, sorry, sorry, didn't mean to scare you so much. I was talking to you, but you ignored me so I wanted to grab your attention by touching your shoulder. Sheesh, you really flew far away."
"Oh… No, it's my fault. I overreacted and I apologize."
"Everything is fine then. Come! I will buy you a drink and we'll have a chat!"
Kaian was uncomfortable in the presence of someone this extroverted. He was also pretty suspicious of this. He'd come in, looking like a personification of a garbage dump, and someone invited him for drinks? There had to be something behind this!
"Sure, lead the way."
Unfortunately, the man was bigger than Kaian and he didn't feel comfortable refusing for no reason. Damn it, was everyone taller than him?
Despite saying that, he knew it wasn't true. There were some people walking around, observing him. They were roughly around his height so he was fine. Even if he wasn't tall, he was still a short king.
Kaian snorted and held his head high, proud of himself.
The man leading him, whose name Kaian didn't even know, stepped into an inn. Kaian followed and upon entering, the stuffy, hot air hit him straight into his nose. A brief wave of nausea washed over him.
Kaian shook his head, took a deep breath, which didn't help at all, and looked for the man. He disappeared the moment Kaian wasn't looking. Kaian looked across the inn, some people were looking at him, others only paid attention to their food and drinks.
The innkeeper's gaze, especially, burned Kaian and he looked away, ashamed, aware of the state of his clothes and himself in general. Finally, he spotted the man, sitting down in the left corner of the room.
The room was colored blue and there was a fire in the middle of a wall, glowing red. This resulted in a purple atmosphere, charming Kaian. The reality that he wasn't on Earth anymore struck him again, harder than before.
His charmed state vanished, like a status effect in a game that got cured by a potion. His eyes closed for a second and opened, clearer. Kaian wandered to the man and sat down on the opposite of the table.
"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Burley and I'm a Captain from Teim I got sent here to guard against bandits for a while. In short, I'll need you to tell me about what you saw outside and why you came alone."
Kaian's face blanked the moment he heard his name. Really? Burley? Burly?
Kaian grabbed his face and tried to appear deep in thought, masking the fact that he was currently fighting demons to not burst out laughing. He would've suspected he got some brain damage if it weren't for the healing from Vexastone.
"What are you thinking about?" Burley asked, frowning slightly.
Thankfully, Kaian had calmed down already and was able to respond.
"It's just that I haven't heard of Teim before. Nor have I encountered any bandits or anything."
"Odd, I was told that this village got attacked frequently, but I haven't seen anyone either. Why were you outside alone, though? You don't strike me as a person who could take care of himself."
Kaian winced at the roast and replied, coming out more angry than he wanted.
"Do you think that I wanted to be alone?! The village I came from got destroyed by a monster and I had to escape with my life!"
The people around them turned to look at him, calming him down. He muttered an apology for disturbing and ran his hand through his dirty hair.
"Hm, I didn't know, sorry for your loss. I will leave you now, the ale is paid for already, don't worry." Burley said and left, satisfied with the answers he got.
He had only wanted to know if he knew about the bandits and Kaian went ham on him. Kaian sighed and downed the drink at once.
What's done is done. At least he'd know what not to do if this situation arose again. Optimism babyyy!
With this newfound wave of motivation, Kaian went about thinking of his next moves. He wanted to get to know and use magic, but he doubted he could learn it here. Teim it is.
However, there were still some things to do before that. You see, learning magic was a *want*. Learning how to survive without Vexasatone was a *need*. And he could easily start grinding that in a village.
What is survival? It is living. What do you need for living? Food and water. He would need to find some hunter to teach him how to forage or hunt. Next was fighting. The bandits talk gave him quite a scare so it would be good to level up attack as well.
Finally, it was disguising. If he couldn't beat someone or something, he would run and hide. Sure, it wasn't exactly admirable, but there would be more than enough time to gather admiration when he wasn't dead.
Kaian grinned and took out all the coins he acquired, for counting them was important. After tallying them up, he came up with one blue-ish golden one, five golden ones, thirteen silver ones and 12 whites.
He had no idea how much they were worth; couldn't be that much anyway. With the new knowledge, or rather the lack of, he approached the innkeeper.
"Ah, Hey. Do you know where I could clean myself here?" Kaian asked.
The innkeeper raised his eyebrow and replied smoothly: "We can give you a wooden tub full of water here, for only a single mon. Are you interested?"
Kaian indeed was interested, interested in knowing what the hell a mon was. Only being able to guess, he took out the golden one and put it on the table.
"A cut? Do you also want a room for the night?"
"Uhh, yes, yes I do. I could also use some information if you'd care to share."
"Well… I'm a bit too thirsty to talk right now, maybe you could buy me a cup and I'd be willing to share something."
Kaian cursed in his mind. What is this NPC talk? Damn, you literally have a bar worth of drinks behind you, just take some. Naturally these words didn't leave his mind, his mouth saying the opposite instead.
"Of course I'd treat a friend, how much would a 'cup' cost?"
The innkeeper's eyes glittered and he replied, even smoother than last time.
"I'm actually pretty thirsty right now, a mon should cover it though."
Kaian cursed again.
I'll cover your body in dirt if you say mon one more time.
He still didn't know which coin mon was exactly. Anyway, did a bath cost the same as a drink? Kaian didn't think so. He was getting ripped off and he couldn't do anything about it.
What could he do? Transform into a snail? A fish? Maybe that would work, the innkeeper would die from laughter and Kaian would have his revenge.
Kaian took out the silver coin, hoping it's the correct one and from the lack of reaction on the innkeeper's face, it was indeed a mon. That only piece of cash left was the blue gold coin and the white one.
Judging from the obsession with blue, that coin was worth the most. That left the white on the lowest position, or the second highest one. Of course, this was all speculation and Kaian didn't even know if he had all types of coins.
Despite that, he felt like a detective. Sherlock Holmes in action, ladies and gentlemen. In fac-
"Are you going to ask me something then?" the innkeeper rudely interrupted Kaian's thoughts.
Kaian sheepishly laughed and asked his first question: "Okay, which way do I need to take to get to Teim and can I learn magic there?"
The innkeeper went into thought for a while and then answered: "Teim is directly West from here, as for the magic, I assume you mean etching sorceries. They're strictly guarded and the only place you can learn them without being a noble is Kore, the city closest to God."
The innkeeper accompanied his talk by showing the directions in case Kaian didn't know where west was.
However, Kaian blanked out after hearing the last part. City closest to God?! Does an actual god exist here?! He was skeptical, the last time he heard about God it was some glorified demon fish.
"God?" he managed to ask without triggering his PTSD.
"Yes? Don't you know? She fell a long time ago, the only reason why Kore is the capital city. Well it used to be, now it has such an advantage that even if She disappeared, it would still be the capital."
Kaian ran his hand through his dirty hair again, trying to chew through the information. So there was a real god. And She fell…. He shook his head, no time to think about this right now, I need to ask more questions.
"I see… For my other questions, is there a hunter that would be willing to teach me something about surviving in the wilderness? Or someone who knows how to read? Lastly, do you play Azir here?"
The innkeeper went into thought again, shorter than last time.
"We indeed have a hunter, his name is Trails. You should be able to find him in the house next to the gate. I'm not aware of anyone who can read, but you can try the village leader. And yes, we do play Azir. Do you see the guys playing it next to the fireplace? You can do so there. Is that all?"
"No, I need to know where my room is."
"Oh right, Ber! Take him into 02. Give him a tub of water too."
A man stepped out of a door in the bar and gestured to follow him. Kaian did and after going up some stairs, he got a key for his room.
"The water will be there soon."
Kaian nodded and stepped inside. A place, finally. He laid down on the bed.
"A dead god, huh?"