When I woke in the morning, Lily was sleeping next to my bedroll. Normally, when she had stuck around while camping, she’d be asleep near the fire, so it was unusual to wake up and see her so close. Perhaps it was because of Colin?

  Stretching and getting up, Lily followed me to the fire where I pulled out the bacon that I had already cut. I knew I wasn’t supposed to make a fancy meal, and I wouldn’t—just a couple of slices each for Lily and Liane to keep them both happy, then a porridge for breakfast.

  Having used most of my fruit already, especially after the pancakes, I had plenty of honey, so that would have to do.

  I started by slicing ten pieces of bacon, not intending to use it all now, and the cuts for Lily were considerably larger than the rest. I put them on the grill that Crisplet had already formed for me.

  It took very little time before the smell of the bacon had flooded the space, waking up nearly everyone—and even Liane, who stumbled over and sat next to Lily, simply watching as the bacon cooked.

  Chuckling to myself as I pulled out the pot to start the porridge. I also cut up the rest of the boar belly into slices, having in total twenty-three, with three of them being considerably thicker. I really didn’t expect everyone awake this early.

  “We’re fine to drink lemon tea without it being infused, right?” I asked.

  Hari just nodded.

  Pulling out two handfuls—just enough to make two pots of tea—it was a little wasteful, but I thought the tea would go really well with breakfast.

  Pulling the bacon off, I divided it semi-equally: three of the thickest for Lily, then three for Liane, and two for everyone else. That left me with three pieces left over, which I quickly stored before anyone noticed.

  The rest of breakfast passed without issue. I made the lemon tea and had to get some more cups from Milo since George and Darren had never had it before and wanted to try it. And it was just as well I didn’t go all out on breakfast, as Colin joined us halfway through when he came to ask Hari if he could stick with us today.

  I managed to sneak out to the wagon with Crisplet in order to warm up the barrels to make sure the yeast didn’t die. Lily had vanished, but her presence didn’t fully leave like on other days, so I knew she was still nearby or just watching from the shadows.

  ***

  We were on the road before we knew it. Again, Colin was riding with Milo on the wagon, and despite a later start than usual, I felt like we were making good pace. I never realised the difference good-quality roads made for travel.

  The road felt a lot busier than normal, and due to our slower pace, two groups had rode past us going in the same direction, and four groups heading the opposite way had passed, but we encountered no trouble—which wasn’t surprising with how many adventurers appeared to be on the roads.

  Two groups even waved to Colin, asking him if he had a good haul from the dungeon, so he was clearly well known in the area.

  It was just before lunchtime when I saw the town appear on the horizon. When I finally got a good look at it, it was unlike any of the others we had encountered. There was a low wall surrounding the town, but it looked like it would not provide any defence at all if there was a monster attack. It looked barely taller than I was.

  “Why is the wall so small?” I asked, looking at Jen and Liane.

  Jen shrugged. “There are no genuine threats out here, and it’s full of some of the more powerful adventurers at all times. Even then, if it were in such danger that it couldn’t hold, its proximity to the capital ensures backup will arrive fast.”

  “Wouldn’t the dungeon pose a threat? It’s close, right? And full of monsters?” I asked.

  Jen just smiled, shaking her head. “No, monsters don’t come out of the dungeons. For that to happen, you’d have to have someone or a team force them out through the entrance. It would be a lot of effort, and the monsters would be fighting to stay in. A dungeon is best thought of as a natural entity that keeps everything contained. If monsters escaped, it would lose mana and power.”

  “Natural entity like a monster?” I asked. I had never heard it described like that. Well—I had never heard it described really at all other than a multi-layered area that was massive and full of monsters.

  “No, not really. It’s hard to describe. There’s never been a record of a dungeon having sentience, but it follows the rules you’d expect of a monster. It lures people in with treasure, traps them with danger, forces them to use their mana, which it then absorbs and uses to grow. If someone dies there, or a monster dies there, it gets all that mana,” Jen said.

  The conversation came to an end as we passed another group, with the walls of Farnox appearing in the distance.

  There wasn’t even a gate—just two guards standing at the front waving people in. Some groups were not even stopping, just riding past the guards with a wave.

  As we approached, they seemed to have spotted Colin.

  “Hello Colin, had a profitable trip I hope?” the first guard said.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Absolutely! As always,” Colin said with a smile.

  The second guard just waved us past, giving a smile to Hari and a nod.

  I couldn’t help but wonder how different their reaction would be if Lily walked in with me like she had in Grey Rock. I could still sense her presence—it never left that day—and I didn’t really understand how she kept up with us while never coming above ground.

  But as we entered the city, it was vastly different from all the others I had been to yet. Going through the gate opened directly into a large market. The noise hit us immediately, with a main road running right through the middle.

  On both sides there were shops selling equipment—from shields to armour, from cloth to metal. Vendors shouting out their wares, even magical equipment. We rode past a sword vendor yelling about his swords, all with sharpness enchantments, as well as self-repair and cleansing. There were potion shops, vendors yelling out their wares and prices, and general supplies from camping gear to basic clothing, backpacks… I even saw a small shop that looked to be full of rings.

  There were also at least ten food stalls serving lines of people that I could see from the entrance: roasted meat on sticks; one vendor slicing meat off a large leg and filling a bread roll with sauce. All of them were bustling with activity. What I did notice was that there were very few raw food stalls here.

  Colin jumped off the wagon. “Thanks for the ride, it’s certainly been an interesting encounter! Might catch you on the road to the capital if you’re not here for long!”

  After Milo and Hari said something I couldn’t hear over the crowd, he waved and ran off toward one of the largest buildings I had ever seen.

  Like the surrounding buildings, it looked to be made out of stone, but unlike the others, this one had absolutely giant pillars—looking almost like the Temple of Storm before it was destroyed—and it looked to be at least four levels high.

  “That’s the adventurers’ guild,” Jen said, following my gaze and open jaw in shock.

  “I believe it’s the third largest on this continent, only dwarfed by the Capital and the city of Kelnovar to the far north,” she added.

  “Are we going to the guild now?” I asked, looking around at her—before my eyes darted to the next thing that grabbed my attention.

  Jen shook her head. “No, not yet. I believe Milo and Hari will take us to their favourite inn here. The owner, Wyatt, always has some of the best drinks in town; he’s also an old friend of Hari.”

  I just nodded as we turned off the main road and passed shops. Again, it seemed like they were all craft shops—from tailors, cobblers, weapons, armour of all sorts, to the most amazing-looking bookshop I had ever seen.

  “Can we stop there?!” I said, turning around to Jen and Liane.

  Jen laughed. “We will go shopping before we leave, so do not worry. Micca has specifically asked to take you around for a day and teach you how to shop and haggle. Just no knocking yourself unconscious again, you got it?”

  She said the last bit with a smirk, but I really felt confident this time. I was going to be careful—and I was going to get to the bookshop!

  I really wanted to see if there were other books about the mythical creatures of the world. One of the books Milo gave me touched on it briefly, saying there were three known dragons, a giant desert worm, a sea monster of colossal scale and the mythical phoenix, but it didn’t give any information on any of them.

  The most it claimed was that the Storm Dragon lived on Mt Divinus—and I knew that to be wrong since it was a Tempest Dragon, and lived inside the mountain, not on it.

  Pulling up, we were next to a large three-storey stone building that had a carved wooden head out front of a man drinking. Next to the giant stone building, there looked to be several stables—some clearly designed to hold wagons.

  Hari called out from the front, “Make sure we empty the wagon. Don’t trust anything left out here!”

  Quickly dismounting, I made my way to the front where Hari was.

  “I have not tried yet, but would I be able to see if I can store the whole wagon?” I asked.

  Hari looked surprised. “You’ve not tried? Yeah, sure. Go for it. Milo, get down for a second but hold on to the horses.”

  I walked over, placing my hand on the wagon, unsure if it would work or not.

  Unable to store. Two living lifeforms attached.

  I read the notification again. It didn’t say it wouldn’t work…

  Hari spoke. “That’s too bad, it would hav—”

  I put a hand up to stop him. “I think it will work. It just said two lifeforms are attached, so I assume it won’t go because of the horses?”

  Milo shrugged. “Worth testing it now.” Then he started unhooking the horses.

  “It is strange that it’s concerned about the horses, but the yeast in your barrels are living as well—and that wasn’t a problem? Unless it was the barrels themselves causing the issue,” Milo said.

  I could test that theory right now. Entering the back of the wagon, I went to the two barrels and stored both with no trouble.

  Would you like to store 1x [Common] Reed Juice Barrel for 5 mana? Yes/No

  Would you like to store 1x [Uncommon] Reed Rum Barrel (Fermenting) for 5 mana? Yes/No

  I poked my head out of the wagon. “Not the barrels. I’ve stored them both.”

  A couple of minutes later, and with Jen’s help, the horses were free from the wagon. When I tried again, the message showed up:

  Would you like to store [Common] Cooking Wagon for 5 mana? Yes/No

  And then, just like that, it was gone.

  “That pantry skill is really broken, you know that, right?” Milo said, shaking his head.

  Liane smirked. “It’ll be really useful if we ever need to throw someone off our trail. They’d be tracking a wagon, and it just vanishes.”

  Hari’s voice cut through the chatter. “Let’s get inside. I’ve not seen Wyatt in months!”

  A few moments later we were making our way through the entrance of an absolutely packed inn. Almost every table was full of adventurers cheerfully drinking.

  “Hari, you old dog! Long time no see!” A loud booming voice cut over the top of the crowd.

  “Wyatt, you bastard! We’re in need of drinks and a room!” Hari called back with a giant smile on his face.

  A moment later, an absolute giant of a man cut through the crowd. He was wearing a rough brown tunic and pants covered in stains. His face had an incredibly bushy beard, but his head was perfectly bald. His most defining feature, however, was his size.

  He was at least twice the size of Hari—probably three times my own size.

  The man pulled Hari into a bear hug; I was worried it would crush him.

  “It’s been far too long, old friend. I hope you have some good stories to make up for it,” Wyatt said.

  Hari smirked—for one of the first times I’d ever seen it. “You better believe it. I’m going to win our bet.”