Chapter 9: Chapter 9.

We were climbing up a hill through a bamboo forest. They grew tall, solid and healthy. Yellow leaves carpeted the ground. I spotted a few small rodents scurrying about.

I checked the number on my hand again. It hadn’t gone down much at all to reflect all the Essence I had gained and used to upgrade my abilities. It didn’t make sense. Dandee went from twelve to nine million, and he got the same amount as I did. While it made sense that I wouldn’t go down as much, but it should have lowered by at least a million? Right? Unless I misunderstood how the whole thing even worked.

“So, the Essence was split? Is that what you’re saying?” I asked.

“I’m not entirely sure myself, alright mate? But .. the gods watch and if they think that you’re working together, then it’s split.”

“Gods? What gods?”

Dandee tapped on his hand with the number. “The single numbered ones, of course.”

Dandee had explained why the number on his hand was green before. It had to do with the number of digits. His number before the last fight had eight digits, which made it green, mine was seven, so it was amber colored. This created tiers. Six-numbered was the next up for us. Then five, four, all the way down to a single digit. These were the gods. Or so he says. I was pretty sure that no gods were watching us. As if they have nothing better else to do?

“Do you know how to read?”

He shook he head. “Just a tad. Enough to know what’s what in the status, you know?”

“But you know numbers, right? Do you know how to add and subtract?”

“The what?”

“Add, or subtract numbers?”

“Ah, no.”

I didn’t expect him to. If he was the oldest of his tribe at nineteen years, or winters, it made little sense to teach the next generation anything more than how to fish.

We reached the top of the hill and I could see the full extent of the city laid out in a bowl shaped valley. A river ran right down the middle of it. The place was enormous, and built up tall. Some towers were as high as skyscrapers.

Toward the back, the city fit snug against the mountain side. A thick wall ran around the perimeter. Farmland was up front just outside the walls. The sun was nearing the horizon casting long shadows across the valley. The daily moon was creeping up on the sun. I anticipated a solar eclipse coming soon.

I hadn’t slept for close to twenty-four hours. My eye lids felt heavy, and my head was muddled. I needed to get some sleep. But first, we needed to get inside the city walls. I didn’t want to risk a grubling swarm.

We moved toward a dirt road that ran through the fields. Farmers were out and about, and a handful of wagons rolled along toward the city gates. The place looked peaceful. But I wondered what would stop the grublings from killing everyone in sight. Maybe it was a risk the farmers were willing to take? Or maybe they had magic to escape with?

We passed a few farmers, and I noticed an odd thing. Several of them didn’t have a number on their hands. All the froggies back at the swamp village had one. So, I asked Dandee about it.

He chuckled. “Aye mate, we don’t feed the ones that don’t have it.”

I blinked in disbelief. “Well … of course. Only feed the strong, right?”

He nodded. “Aye. That’s how it is.”

“That’s ... how it is.”

We walked by a line of wagons lined up against the city gates. The guards were inspecting them for something. Grublings? Drugs? Invasive species? Taxes?

All the guards were human, both at the gate and on the walls. They wore chainmail under plate breastplates, and carried spears with swords at their sides. Their white tabards had a crest of a golden phoenix. Or a fancy fried chicken. It was hard to tell really with the way it was shaped.

“Hey! Stop right there!” A guard peeled away from his post inside the gate, approached Dandee. “No swamp scum allowed. Get lost!”

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The guard slowed as I stepped in the way, then I took a step forward so I’d be looking down right at him. “He’s with me.”

“Look, they’re not allowed. You understand?”

“Unless they are servants, right?”

“Uhm .. u-uh.” He stuttered, looked over his shoulder to an older man, probably a sergeant or something. The sergeant nodded.

“R-Right. He’s y-your servant?” the guard asked.

I stared him down. “That’s what I said.”

It took a moment for him to figure out that he was in my way. Finally, he stepped aside to let us pass. I looked to the sergeant as we passed. The man sighed, looked utterly bored, and exhausted.

And then we were in. The street was wide and open. It felt like I entered a botanical park, full of greenery and life. This wasn’t like any urban city and street I had seen before. Birds darted through the air. Butterflies fluttered from flower to flower. Bamboo-like trees rose tall over the buildings, but unlike in the forest, these ones bore various sort of fruit, differing from tree to tree.

The streets were cobbled perfectly. I assumed magic had something to do with it. The sidewalks were lined in orange-colored brick. Carts, mules, horses and carriages rumbled down the wide streets, carrying goods and groups of people, some looking as if they just arrived from war, covered in grime, and bloody bandages. We had to be careful not to get run over.

All manner of human, human-like, horned and hoofed, covered in fur or hairless rushed about the place. Tall, short, more than two arms, and four-legged. With all the variety, it made me wonder why there was any prejudice against the froggies. Did they have a bad rep, or something? Dandee didn’t act like a violent sort. I asked him, but he didn’t have a clue.

The sun went out, darkness set in. And for a brief moment green and orange lights flickered all around us. Fireflies hovered and floated in the air. While Dandee and I stopped and gawked, everyone else in their mad rush to get somewhere.

The sun returned, and we continued north down the street until we entered the market square. The place was bursting at the seams with activity, and commerce. Full of vendors, carts, goods, yelling and arguing.

Many items being sold looked foreign to me. From the odd looking fruits and vegetables, to alien farm animals, gutted and hung up. Dried, smoked and fresh. Yet, the scents were familiar, the same wood burning smell and the delicate sweetness of fruits.

A bit out of the way, but I found what I was looking for. The blacksmith, and next to it was a vendor selling iron ore. I ran my hand over a lump of black ore, felt the familiar tugging of iron contained within. The vendor was selling it by the pound, but I didn’t have a nickle to my name, or whatever the currency of exchange was in this place.

I walked inside the smithy and was expecting a forge, an anvil, fire and smoke. But, instead I found a bored dwarf sitting on a high stool behind the counter. He was tweaking a pair of gauntlets. The metal flowed and ebbed in the same way as my Shape Iron. Before leaving, I looked over the prices, noted the gear and weapons being sold.

“We need some coin,” I said. “Any ideas?”

“Adventurer’s guild mate.”

“How do you even know about it? I thought you never been here?”

“No, but it don’t mean I never spoke to nobody from the city either. Some folk come out to the swamp, ya know?”

“Ahh, I see. Do you know where it is?”

Dandee shrugged.

I asked around, and was quickly directed to head east and look for a building displaying crossed swords. On the way, I came across an incredible sight at the east edge of the market.

Two portals. Fenced off, and guarded by dozens of guards. Each portal was big enough for a wagon to go through. And many wagons and carriages did exactly that. A whole line of them were slowly moving right through to the other side. People walked across too.

I stopped and gawked at such a marvel I had never seen before. Only one was being used. The other was completely black. Getting closer, I could see out through it to a completely different city on the other side of the portal. The sky was also brighter.

Then it clicked. The people in this city didn’t intend to stick around for the night and six months of freezing temperatures. No. Instead, they used portals to teleport to another city where the sun was still high up. Or better yet, to the ‘morning’ side for another six month of warmth and sunlight.

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