Chapter 14: Ch. 13 – Downtime

“Doesn’t look too bad”, Chloe commends my magic, “seems like you took out a dozen or so crawlers and dealt decent damage to everything that isn’t a golem.”
“I don’t think I make much difference.
The golems and deers are too sturdy and the big slimes will just regenerate most of the damage before they get in range again.”
“Eh, don’t beat yourself up over it. You should’ve gotten at least some nice exp out of this.”
“Slightly more than half of what I got from the training earlier.”
“See? That should hurry you along on your way to take the ‘Survivor’ class.”

Chloe stays silent for a moment, thinking, so I try to break the silence “what now?”
“Oh, emmm.
Honestly not sure what to do with you now.
The early arrival of the flood broke my entire timetable.
I wanted to show you around a bit, finish what Jack should’ve done.”
“Uh...”
“But now I have obligations where I can’t keep watch over you...
Can you promise me that you’ll behave?
Go a bit through town, familiarize yourself with the closer area. Don't wipe out humanity. Those kinda things.
Uh, here’s a map. Just stay away from the slum section”, she hands me a worn-out map and points to a section marked ‘slum’.

Even in a fantasy world, there are still those less fortunate.
I wonder what kind of issues they have that they can’t be trained under this level system…

“Why? What’s wrong with that area?”
“It is… outside the fortress’s jurisdiction.
Meaning if you met someone like Therese there who doesn’t like your face you are dead.”

But wouldn’t that also go the other direction?
Vampires can feed there without the law enforcement getting triggered?
Thoughts for later.

“Ok, I’ll avoid it.
Why even are there slums? From what I gathered from Therese you would need all the help you can get."
"That is... a longer topic and I don't have the time right now.
Anything else urgent or can I let you off now?"
"We got a bit sidetracked earlier; what would I need to do to gain access to the library?”
“Ah that.
Hmm… Not sure actually. I’ll see what I can do about that later.”
“Good enough for me.”

(Can I even read the local language? Speaking is one thing…)
(Only one way to find out.)
(Yeah, the chance is 50:50 – either I can or not.)
(Somewhere a statistician is crying...)

“One last thing I wanted to ask what is up with the soldiers’ equipment, why is barely anyone wearing a helm?”
“Those are… expensive.
Standard gear only encompasses a weapon and armor. Anything after that comes out of our own pockets.”
“Oh, right that reminds me, here”, she hands me 100 gold coins.
“What is that for?”
“A reward for your idea of throwing stuff at the monsters.
No idea yet how much this will change the course of the flood but if it means we can save a few more lives by weakening the more dangerous monsters it's worth my savings to me.”
“Wait, that is ALL of your savings?
Uh, how much salary do even we get per month?”
“I get 5 coins, please don’t tell anybody; a regular recruit starts at a single gold and 50 silver. Though living expenses are already taken care of.
As for you vampires, I think you only get like 60 silver?
Though you get a share of the blood phials other people find in their dungeon hunts.”

(Ok, timeout. She just gave me 20 months' worth of her income!?
This was just a stupid little idea.)
(I’m more concerned then how the three kids had 31 coins among them.)
(Yeah, those are the same type of gold coins as Chloe just gave me.)
(So what does that tell us?)
(Nothing really. They could’ve just saved up for a long time, could’ve originally been on an errand for their mentor Evan or even stole it somewhere – and honestly? That’s not my problem.)
(Fair enough.)

I put that thought to rest, “are you really sure that’s it ok to give me that much money? Don’t you need it for anything?”
“Not really, general expenses are already taken care of and there’s not really better gear I could buy – at least not until we get the ‘Lord’s Mansion’ active again and the new ruler decides to upgrade the smiths. The only thing I could think of would be another ‘Class Core’ and they are… ridiculously expensive.
So if it can get you jump-started to becoming useful – worth it.”
“Ok, sure then, thanks.”
“Well then, see you tomorrow, same time and place as today.
Just as a reminder, tomorrow is dungeon time.
And please stay out of trouble.”
“Certainly.”

I make my way into town following the instructions on Chloe’s map.

I have some money now so I want to spend it on something to increase my survival chances.
My new robe is probably the best I can get here but I have nothing on my head so that has priority if I can afford something. Maybe some extra accessories or a ring, no idea what the stacking rules are, are two rings the limit?
A better staff may be possible? Though I doubt there will be much on offer if magic users are that rare.
Blood probably won’t be sold at all.
Potions… may not even exist.

You are reading story Deteoh – A Glitched World’s Isekai Story at novel35.com

Eh, I’ll just look at what is available and then decide.

Between my cloak and ring, I have only 3 hours to work with so I do my best to stay in the shade on the way to my destination.

The way leads me just past the slums but I stay clear of them.
No sense in risking anything right now. This can wait until I’m either stronger or at least certain my ‘stealth’ skill keeps me undetected.

Though I think I saw Niles, one of the other two vampires, heading into the slums. Alone.
If the slums are as lawless as Chloe claimed I can already guess what he is up to.
I’d be a hypocrite to stop him, I already had the same idea.
Damn, I should be better than this...

A few blocks later I see another disgusting sight: slave traders.
Presenting their ‘wares’ in the middle of town as if they weren’t talking about living beings.
Some dirty and just in rags, others slightly more cleaned up but still in chains.
I don’t want to look at this any longer or I’ll hurl...

(Elly, please add to my list that this practice needs to be ended. Bloodily if possible.)
(Eh, sure, but currently you’re in no position to do anything about it. You have neither the political power nor the personal one to force a change.)
(I know…
but then I have to take down a demon lord anyway, this is basically the same thing.
Also, this doesn’t make much sense. Didn’t Eva and Jeff say that there were multiple ‘Lost Ones’ before? Like 60 or so? Supposedly worshipped like minor deities? How come ALL of them were such horrible people as to tolerate slavery?)
(Yeah, no idea how to defend that one.)
(Only way I could think of was if all of them managed to get themselves killed before they were revealed. Which raises even MORE questions.)
(Such as?), Elly doesn’t understand where I’m going with this.

(Simple.
If ALL of them failed early how could the deva guys figure out that the ‘Lost Ones’ are oh so important to the people here DESPITE their weakness.)
(True, so that can’t be the case.)
(So the next option is that they don’t do much of a background check on who they send, or even worse don’t care. Let's leave the lives of billions in the hands of apathetics or sociopaths, whatever could go wrong.)
(Well, they got you now.)
(That just proves my case.)
(...)
(Stop speaking ellipsis. And, well, you get the idea.
Everything so far points to something being massively off.)
(But what if the ‘gods’ are actually fine with slavery?)
(Then I'll have to become a proper 'demon lord' and usurp them.
If this is the world I’m stuck on for the rest of eternity there WILL be changes.)
(Don’t worry, I’ll be behind you on this. All the way.)
(With or without a knife?)
(Ha, ha, funny.)

I leave the ‘auction’ before I do anything stupid and cause a scene.
But I WILL be back!
You’ll rue the day you’ve offended my morals!

After some more minutes of walking, I finally reach the real marketplace.

I look around at the shop signs.
Groceries, clothing store, cutler, dungeon supplies, shoe cobbler, weaponsmith… yeah, let's start with that one.
Oh, damn, it is closed today.
Wait, why am I going to a regular weapon shop? Didn’t I say I wanted to start with checking for a helm? Weird…

I look a bit more and find an armor shop.
The shop owner shows me his limited selection of headgears.

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