“Yeah, they all have people from Galen who are involved, but they started off world and end up here. Some of them are spread across a few dozen planets.”

  “So, no multiverse spanning mega-corporations?”

  Nevin said, “There are always rumors of parent companies but that seems unlikely. The sheer distance and power necessary to move from one universe to another would be staggering. Just traveling from one galaxy to another requires portal mages stronger than any I’ve ever seen.”

  I nodded. As I did, I realized we were almost to the walls of the city. They were thirty feet high and formed of rough stone. There wasn’t anything like the smooth look of concrete. These walls had been built with massive blocks and rather hastily at that.

  “They aren’t anything compared to the capital, but there’s a mage here in town who had some stone shaping magic. If it weren’t for him, the walls would still probably be wood,” Dori said.

  I saw a group of about a dozen guards checking carts and wagons as they went through the gate. The gate itself wasn’t anything like some big double door like thing you see in fantasy cartoons. No, it was a very functional draw bridge type gate which crossed what appeared to be a narrow but very deep moat filled with sharpened stakes.

  The gate couldn’t have been much more than ten feet high, and I got the sense it was kept small to minimize the weak spot in the wall. Despite the single lane of traffic, everyone was moving quickly as most everyone was headed into town. In fact, I didn’t see anyone leaving at all.

  “Why so many guards? Is there a problem with smuggling?”

  “No, there is a tax on anything brought into the town, but that is handled inside the gates. The guards are part of the town guard. They’ll mostly be guys who got some warrior shards and formed a basic class. None of them will be past level 20 because they don’t go out and hunt. In fact, most will be under level 15, although the standards are increasing as time passes. They are there mostly to secure the gate in the event of a monster wave.”

  I tried to imagine how the people of Earth would take the total loss of our technology and sighed. It was easy to judge the people of Anwich for not wanting to accept the new world they found themselves in, but I could only imagine a great number of people from Earth resisting the change too. Heck, people were never good with handling change.

  “Will they let me in?”

  Crag looked at me with confusion on his face. “Why wouldn’t they?”

  “I’m an alien.”

  “We aren’t that backwards. Oh, there are some off-worlders who look down on us natives, but people are judged by their actions here, not their species. That said, everyone will assume that you are one of four things. They’ll think you’re a corpie, a bounty-hunter, an exile—or the least likely of the four, because it’s pretty rare. A traveling adventurer.”

  Nevin looked at me. “I think it will be safe to say that given his clothing, most will reject the idea that he’s a corpie or even a bounty-hunter. People will assume he’s an exile until he proves otherwise.”

  “An exile?”

  “Yeah, lots of worlds don’t have any type of corporal punishment. They will send their criminals to dungeon worlds. Most are fairly weak, so it isn’t an issue, but every so often some rare classed level 100 is sent here. Fortunately, now that there are new worlds being inducted, Galen should be moved off of the top priority for exiles.” As Dori spoke, her face grew a deeper blue. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I know it won’t be easy for your world.”

  When we got to the gates, the guards teased Dori and the team a bit. They asked me for my name and if I was an exile. When I said I wasn’t, the guard gave me an expression which said he didn’t believe me, but he simply said, “Well, we do have corporal punishment here, so make sure that you follow the local laws. If you’re friends with Dori here, she can show you how to stay out of trouble.”

  Then they let us through and directed us to a set of booths. Here, the town officials itemized and checked anything we brought into the town and levied whatever tax we were required to pay.

  I just followed along but looked on in awe. The town was obviously in an expansion phase, with signs of construction everywhere. The roads were narrow, not much wider than a single cart, and many of the buildings were in the middle of having a second or even third floor added. Some were made of stone, others wood and no real sign of a centralized building plan.

  Even inside the city, everyone other than a few small children that I saw was carrying a weapon. Boys and girls who I would have equated to being 8 to 10 years old back on Earth had belt knives or clubs in their hands. The belt knives were more like some military combat knife than a cut your cheese kinda size.

  We had a short wait for one of the booths which allowed me to get a good look around. I half expected some young master to stumble into me or my new friends and then demand that we bow and scrape before him. But no, the people of Anwich seemed like they were all business.

  We were all eventually scanned by a woman with a foot long rod. It beeped at each of the others, and they pulled out the loot that they had taken as their share already. Dori was carrying most of it except for the parts that we had distributed based upon obvious need.

  Interestingly, the rod didn’t make a beep as it ran over me. The woman looked at me and then at Dori, “What’s the matter, Dori? Don’t trust the off-worlder to carry any of your loot?”

  She shrugged, but didn’t answer otherwise.

  “Well, some of those shards are potentially valuable, but the taxes on potential value aren’t that bad. It’ll be 185 credits for everything you’ve got.”

  Crag started to protest, but Nevin hushed him and then Dori paid up before they guided me further into town. I realized that I had no idea where I was supposed to stay or how to find the mayor or even what the value of a credit was. I felt so naïve, but there were only so many questions I could ask at once.

  Dori seemed to have read my mind, “Don’t worry. We won’t leave you alone. Heck, if you can stay with us longer, that spatial skill of yours would definitely come in handy. I noticed the town officials couldn’t detect...” She looked around before whispering, “you know what… We could have saved a bunch of credits.” Her smile widened as she bumped my shoulder, “I mean, think of the possibilities. You could hide weapons, poisons or even steal from a wealthy corpie without them suspecting a thing.”

  I thought about it and then shook my head. “The officials would have been suspicious if you came out of the dungeon without any loot. Speaking of which… uh… I’m not sure how to ask this, but how much is a credit worth?”

  “Well, that depends.” She tilted her head in thought. “A credit will buy you a meal from a restaurant—a bag of rice, a night in an inn, a big mug of ale—or most common items. They might seem like they have a widely disparate value, and they probably do, but the system won’t break down credits, so it’s the minimum amount that can be charged for anything. There is a bit of haggling from time to time, but don’t expect anyone to give you deals as an off-worlder.”

  Something about her explanation of how their economics worked seemed off. How could a system like that even work? I figured I’d need to learn more about it, but now wasn’t the time to get into the minutia. I really just needed to know that a credit would buy me most simple things and that even buying an apple would cost me a credit.

  Crag said, “Speaking of which, we should see if there’s another room at the Rusty Nail.”

  “Rusty Nail?”

  “The inn we’re staying at. We need to figure out how to help you complete your challenge.”

  I simply nodded and let them lead me through town.

  Chapter 18- What a Stranger Can Get Away With

  It turned out to be easy to check into the inn. They had an additional room on the third floor, having been one of the buildings which had already expanded. Their common room was busy and seemed to serve as a restaurant of sorts, too. Dori and the others each had their own rooms on the second floor.

  I had to hand over seven credits, as the minimum stay was a week, even though I had no plans to be here that long. It turned out that paying for something was as easy as holding out a slender amber rod that Dori had given me as my share of the credits so far. After the entry tax, I had 787 credits between my split and the quest rewards.

  It felt like quite a lot given that a hotel room back home would have cost me 100 bucks a night. So, going by that context, I suddenly had nearly $80,000. Yet, I also understood that a single credit would be the cost for an apple, which I might buy for under a $1 on Earth. That was quite the swing in value and honestly a little difficult to get my head around.

  Next up we got a table and ordered meals, which again each cost a credit. We sat and ate the food: it wasn’t too bad. Honestly it tasted similar to fried chicken and potatoes with fresh squeezed lemonade to quench my thirst. I decided not to ask what the food actually was, because I didn’t know if I’d like the answer. It was filling and didn’t taste awful, so I just went with it.

  Dori said, “I think I have a plan that will work out for both of us, but it’s up to you to sell it. Think you can do that?”

  “How so?”

  Dori grimaced. “I’ve already been told that Bek is looking for us. He wants to take us to Resha and ‘talk it out’.” She rolled her eyes before her expression grew serious. “I suspect he wants to make an example of us—inflict some pain as a warning to the rest of the locals. Either way, it isn’t something I want to find out about. I’ve got a good feeling that Mayor Nitrin isn’t going to be happy about it. He hates the corpies as much as we do, but knows that we need outside support to help Anwich grow.

  “If we can provide him with a way to stick it to the Transhek Corporation without it pointing back to him, then he’ll be favorably inclined to us.”

  I looked at her skeptically. “Not inclined enough to give up his signet ring.”

  Nevin smiled. “Oh, I see where Dori’s going with this. Silas, you really need to read the descriptions of any quest or challenge that you get. The details mean a lot.”

  I pulled up the challenge again and thought about it. Then it hit me. It should have been obvious, but the mind often fills in meaning to what we perceive. The challenge only said that I had to obtain the ring, not that I had to keep it, or steal it. I wouldn’t know until I tried, but by the open-ended construction of those words, I could have simply walked up to the mayor and asked him to let me hold the ring.

  “Could it really be that easy?”

  Crag slapped me on the back. “You really are new to all of this. I get the feeling you’re like some kind of scholar or something where you are. You’re always overthinking things. The system wants to test you. It wants to make you work. But it’s also a system with rules open to interpretation if you’re smart enough to see them—and then stretch them. What an adventurer does is figure out which rules can be stretched, which can be broken, and which you have to avoid.”

  “Okay Morpheus. I get it. I have a lot to learn and for some of it I just need to throw myself into it. For the record, I’m only a student where I come from, although I get the feeling that we might be a bit more technologically advanced than Galen—prior to your induction.”

  “Morpheus?” Crag asked.

  Dori said, “It’s just something from his world. Don’t you remember what Ativas said? Off-worlders are crazy sometimes and Forerunners are the worst of them.” Then she looked at me. “Ativas is a rare-class adventurer who trained all of us, to some extent or another.”

  “Okay, so I get the gist about how I might be able to game my challenge, but what is it you think I’m going to do to win him over enough for him even to let me hold it?”

  “Two things. First off, we’re going to imply that you will be fighting with us. Forerunners are always at the center of events. Crag isn’t wrong about that. He will be excited, as it will bring more eyes and potential revenue onto Anwich.”

  “Wait, isn’t that a big thing? Like you already said that the corporations take advantage of Anwich.”

  She shook her head while grinning. “No. A corporation is taking advantage of Anwich. They have a very valuable dungeon, not to mention some monster spawn points, and even some valuable resources. This is a perfect training spot for basic and common level adventurers. If we can draw more attention, then Transhek will have some competition. That will up the value of everything here. Eventually, we might even get an adventurer’s guild rep to show up.”

  “I have no idea if I’ll ever be able to come back here after this challenge is completed.”

  Dori said, “We know that, but we also know that there are stories all throughout the system of Forerunners who make their mark on an area forever lifting it up.”

  Nevin mumbled something, causing me to ask him to repeat it. “I was just pointing out that there are likely just as many examples of Forerunners bringing ruin to the worlds that they visit, but you don’t hear about those.”

  The weight of responsibility settled onto me. “You mean because there aren’t any survivors?”

  “No, because the system tends to quash the communication of events that it doesn’t want to promote. The exact rules are far above my paygrade, so I only have hearsay to go by.”

  I nodded. “I get the idea.”

  “So are you in?” Dori asked.

  “First off, you said there were two reasons and second you haven’t really told me anything at all. I have no idea what you’re expecting from me.”

  She got a big grin on her face. “The second reason is because you’re going to give him a reason to come down on Bek.”

  I couldn’t help but nervously giggle. Internally I screamed at myself to not snort before I got myself under control. “I haven’t even met this Bek guy, how am I supposed to make that work? There’s something you aren’t telling me.”

  Crag looked pointedly at Dori, “She’s a woman. There always is.”

  Nevin groaned, but Dori didn’t do more than roll her eyes. Then she focused entirely on me. “You’re sorta cute and you’ve got that strange mix of exotic off-worlder and innocence.”

  “Uh, thank you… I think?” I was still wondering if she was flirting or messing with me. I was going with the latter. “Still not sure how that helps?”

  “Simple, how’s your flirting game?”

  ____________________

  A few hours later I found myself at a much rougher bar. The women doing the serving were wearing enough—or not enough, to get the imagination going. Blue skin or not, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that most of my college buddies would have killed to get into a place like this.

  It wasn’t that they were doing anything inappropriate, but the way they looked was a nerd’s wet dream. They were elegantly graceful and simply stunning. Of course, those same friends might have ended up dead too, because the waitresses all carried heavy belt knives at a minimum. Some had a few other lethal weapons displayed on or about their persons. I saw a couple of miners get handsy with one of them only to have both of them get their hands sliced wide open. These girls weren’t taking crap from anyone.

  I went in alone and ordered, which made me feel uncomfortable, but just a couple of tables over Dori and the others were sitting. They didn’t make eye contact with me or otherwise let on that they knew me, but they were hopefully close enough to intervene if anything happened.

  I replayed the instructions again and cursed myself for going along with it. Dori really wasn’t that pretty, but I did have a bad track record of making stupid decisions for women. Which, of course, was another way of saying that I was a 22-year-old male college student.

  Looking around the room, I found the one person I was supposed to talk to. There were plenty of eyes on me, but not nearly as many as I would have assumed there would be if an alien had walked into a bar on Earth. Hell, that sounded like the start of a bad joke or an awesome D&D session depending upon your preferences. I smiled internally, my D&D friends would have been screaming in excitement right now.

  The short, pretty woman standing at the end of the bar waiting for drinks to carry out had pink hair. She was exceptionally pretty, at least to my human eyes. I couldn’t really say what made someone one pretty on Galen, but she did have that ‘it’ factor. I could tell that much just from how much attention was paid to her.

  I’d been briefed on her. Her name was Cao, and she was the subject of a great deal of unwanted attention from the corpie enforcer, Bek. Dori’s idea involved me getting Cao’s attention and then Bek’s in turn. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with this strategy, but it wasn’t like I had a better idea.

  Up to this point, I had turned off my passive, Adorably Harmless, but now I shifted it back on. It felt like an invisible pulse rushed out of me. It was even stronger than I remembered, but that might have something to do with having put my free eight stat points into Charisma. I’d been reluctant to waste the points on Charisma, but Dori had been convincing.