Chapter 4: 3. Purchase

3. Purchase

Lucas, the other day, earned 3 silver coins and 4 noble copper coins. His group’s way of distributing coins among their party members was by calculating the amount of work they contributed during their expeditions in the SHT. Lucas always got above average value compared to others because of his good contributions.

These calculations would last for at least an hour, but based on how late their venture would typically finish, the group decided to distribute coins the next day.

Lucas was in a group of seven members. Wit, who was the leader of their group, handled the money proportions for each member based on their performance. His frequent communication kept his group growing in strength, resulting in more outstanding money gains over time.

Morgan also helped. He seemed to remember the micro actions of each member that puzzled Wit. Because of this strange trait, he believed it would be significant if Morgan played a part in some of the money handlings. Wit sensed great loyalty from Morgan, which was the significant factor in his reason for asking him for assistance.

Both sorted out the money together in the inn on the second floor, where most people were absent. From their experience of past glares, they needed to keep the money hidden and have constant awareness in case people around had ulterior motives rather than just staring at the two.

Lucas and others retrieved their share in the mornings from their group leader and Morgan. Some questioned why they had to carry their money during the middle of their venture but most agreed that this way of distribution was the most effective way with their circumstances.

Mai, a member of their team, was the girl who fully objected to this.

 

- A Few Hours Earlier -

“Hah. Morgan, carry my pouch for me. Thank you very much!” Mai shouted while shoving her pouch that compromised her previous day's worth of coins in his hands. She patted his shoulder before heading down the SHT.

“M-Mai,” Morgan followed the group in the center. She turned around in question, but when seeing her face, he averted his eyes and told her to forget that he called. Letting out a slight sigh, he proceeded to follow Mai and the group deeper into the tower.

Ted grabbed hold of Morgan’s shoulder and asked him to stop for a moment before venturing to the upper levels with Lucas.

“Hey, Mai,” Ted called out, causing Mai to stop walking and turn her head around to see Lucas, Ted, and Morgan together.

“Carry your own pouch, ma’am,” Ted snatched the pouch from Morgan’s hands and threw it back to Mai. She jerked her body back from it hurling towards her direction, catching it almost an inch away from slipping and falling to the stone ground.

“You know the rules, and you gotta follow the rules.”

“Teddy!” Mai shouted with high energy. “This is utterly stupid! Why are we carrying yesterday's coins with us?!”

“Remember when Morgan lost all of his money in his home when we all went down the tower? It’s good to keep them with you in case something like that may happen again. We all agreed to this.”

“I haven’t!”

“Oh, dear. Last night, I was certain that I heard something on the lines of, ‘Sure, whatever,’” Ted grunted in an attempt to imitate Mai.

“I was drunk!” She turned her entire body to face Ted in the distance. “Keeping my coins slows me down from fighting!”

“It’s still your coins. If Morgan loses your pouch by any chance, don’t take the blame on him. Also, he’s part of the reason why you can afford to drink, lady. At least do your part and carry it so there’s no trouble.”

“Morgan, Mai! Hurry your feet,” Wit shouted in the distance, who appeared to have only his head showing up for the members in the base ground due to his descent into the dark tunnel. His bodiless presence and two people alongside him were illuminated by the torch being held by Wit, revealing their faces who stared at Mai and the rest of the group.

One was a man, a bit shorter than Lucas but wider in body size, and the other was a woman, the shortest out of their group. Mai was the second shortest.

Mai was more out front than her group and matched on par with Ted in terms of energy. Unlike others, she had orange hair stretching straight down to her mid-back region, and during combat, she would tie her hair up so that it wouldn't stand in her way. But fashion-wise, she always kept a small portion of her hair on the sides of her head pulled to the back and folded straight up using a plastic clip.

Surprisingly, Ted was the tallest despite his plump body. His taste for food matched evenly with the amount of body mass he had, telling jokes that mainly had to do with food. A big difference between Ted and Mai in terms of energy would be that Ted put his share of enthusiasm into whatever his stomach felt. And his group got used to his frequent comedic remarks and thought it to be his typical way of talking.

Mai, hearing Wit’s impatience, felt conflicted with her mind going into a turmoil. After a frantically switching gazes from Wit to Morgan, she hurriedly ran down the tunnel to her group while shoving her money-filled pouch in her side pocket.

Ted lightly pushed Morgan on his back causing him to lose slight balance and step a couple of feet forward. “Get going. Remember that you have a mouth to speak with, not just for eating!”

Morgan nodded with gratitude and hastily ran to his group that had already gone down the tunnel to the point where they weren't seen.

Once everyone vanished, Ted faced to his left away from the main tunnel and saw smaller tunnels that led to the upper levels lit by the fire from the torch he held. He then looked at Lucas who appeared to be staring outside the SHT and where the market was.

“Ya ready to go, my boy,” Ted shouted in excitement. “Sorry for the wait!”

Lucas jolted up in surprise, turning around to Ted who grinned with food in one hand and the torch in the other.

“Oh, are we ready?” Lucas asked for clarification. Is he going to eat while facing monsters again?

“Of course,” Ted replied with words that seemed like he heard Lucas’s thoughts. “Also, did something catch your eye?”

“Catch my eye? What do you mean?”

“You were looking out there quite seriously. You hungry? I can give you my food. I brought them sparingly!”

“Oh, I’m not hungry. It’s nothing to worry about. I was just thinking of something.”

“Is that so,” Ted turned his back to face the tunnel to the side. While walking, he called out to Lucas behind him. “Well, let’s not waste too much time standing around here. We got work to do!”

Lucas followed him down the narrow tunnel as he gazed at the marketplace in the distance one last time until going up the SHT.

 

---

 

After his work on the upper levels with Ted, he was told to leave home early. But instead, he went to the market to continue his search for a dress. Men and women wearing nearly identical clothes roamed the Central District and the market.

Most wore white or light gray shirts, the main product of choice that wasn’t too costly but had a greater chance of being thrown away if not taken proper care of. Some wore light brown tops that served to be a leeway of avoiding to clean them when stained with dirt. The people never cared about fashion as if it would destroy their life without it, so they usually bought whatever seemed good.

But when it came to venturers who went down the SHT, most wore black tops. Unless they were sensitive to the smell of blood stains, these dark-colored materials could go on for significantly more time until they eventually get thrown away.

Black tops also served to be of good camouflage during combat in dark environments, and the SHT was the prime example of such usefulness. Though it may not contrast well with various colored stones and rocks around them, it provided a better handicap than other colors that stuck out.

However, black tops and black uniforms had flaws such as higher light absorption than any other color. This brought discomfort to those who couldn’t tolerate heat, especially people that were not capable of wielding fire. And worse, they were costly.

People wore shorts during this time of the season when heat from the sun became quite bothersome. Colors of caramel, light brown, or white were seen most often - white being the most versatile.

Lucas went around the section categorized as “Clothes & Accessories” but hardly found something that caught his eye.

Before, he spotted a silky purple dress lying in a shop. It was incredibly noticeable due to a color that rarely shows itself in this wasteland. He didn’t bother to buy it as soon as he saw its cost to be 4 arc silver coins and only questioned why it was in this place. He thought of finding it again when he had the money, but it wasn’t there anymore. A year had already gone by since he came across it.

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Currency Info:

1 Arc Silver = 10 Silvers

1 Silver = 5 Noble Coppers

1 Noble Copper = 10 Coppers

The purple dress made of silk was worth 4 Arc Silvers (2,000 Coppers).

The average cost of a day worth of food for an adult: 4 Noble Coppers (40 Coppers)

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Lucas searched around the area and came across a shop holding clothes for women. The shops in the market were not large enough for an interior searching privilege for the customers. Counters were placed in front of the shops for item placements and other necessities so that alone wouldn’t allow anyone to go inside. The only way people could scavenge for items was to look through the store's interior from under a mid-section top cover made of brown fabric which stuck out for shading.

These shops were estimated roughly the same size as the houses commonly found in the barren lands. In other words, Lucas was looking at his own home but with a more generous exterior design.

These buildings had clay walls with a ceiling reinforced with metal sheets, preventing any robbery and acting as an insulator for the store owner inside.

A shopkeeper behind the front desk, where Lucas was, stared at him with a dull expression. She was a woman who looked close to her mid-20s, wearing a dark brown dress reaching down to her heels.

She had very straight and beautiful black hair, which Lucas thought was alluring. When he saw her face, he saw lifeless eyes. He couldn’t tell if the shade covering her figure caused her eyes to look the way they were.

“Welcome,” The shopkeeper spoke in a monotone voice.

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Lucas blinked a couple of times to dismiss his sight of her attractiveness.

“What are you searching for, sir?”

After they took turns staring at each other, he turned to the items behind her to see various dresses displayed.

It wasn’t easy for Lucas to find clothing that appealed to his wife’s taste. At times when he did, most responses were lackluster with barely a sense of gratitude - just plain speaking, “thank you,” and back to her work. But after countless times of mistakes with his past self, he was sure that his present self in judging well or poorly produced clothing will have him receive more gratitude than just a mere thank.

Looking closer at the dresses that portrayed the most glamorous appearances, this shop didn't look common among the other shops he'd encountered. And this encouraged him that this was the one that may do the trick.

Lucas felt lucky he'd found a store that sold dresses that seemed to express endearing amounts of compassion and devotion since these shops wouldn’t be around forever.

After a few seconds of exploring, a vintage-looking dress caught his highest attention in the corner of his eyes. The dress had a loose overgarment like a blouse with a small cape covering the shoulder down to the lower chest region.

That will be the one, I’m sure of it.

“Um,” Lucas muttered. “I’m here to buy a dress.”

“Of course,” the shopkeeper replied. “Please choose the one that catches your interest.”

“It’s the 4th dress on the left,” Lucas pointed in the specified direction.

As the shopkeeper turned to see the dress he mentioned, she turned back around and questioned him. “Are you that confident in yourself, sir?”

Lucas looked down to grab his pouch filled with coins up to the brim but was interrupted by the woman’s question, hastily looking back up and freezing briefly.

“Oh, if it’s the cost, I don’t mind. You see, I want to give it to someone, so I’ve saved up some money for occasions like this.”

From his response, the woman made a slight nod and turned around to the location of the specified dress. “Very well. Give me a moment.”

While Lucas continued searching for desired coins in his pouch, he saw something to his side away from the shops. He stopped what he was doing and looked around to see what caught his attention this time.

There were two bulky men dressed in heavy metal armor. Their chest, shoulders, arms, legs, and hands acquired metal plates with black cloth wrapping their arms and hands underneath.

They were nearly as tall as Ted if putting them side by side, and they roamed around the area with an unsteady look on their faces. They had swords twice as large compared to Lucas’s, and something about them suddenly caused his memories to become nonsensical.

His legs felt heavy, and the air around felt crushing for his lungs, making it harder for him to breathe. This tense feeling coming from the men was as if it was a signal to back away and not interfere with the two. He knew the only way someone could give out such an ominous atmosphere was if their fire strength was overly powerful.

Lucas imagined that if they went into the SHT, they could go all the way down to level 42, the lowest level anyone went to. What amazed him about this fact was that no one could go down to level 35 in recent years.

Recorded in the inn that starting at level 30 and progressing downwards, the difficulty of facing these monsters will spike incredibly high. The inn stated that these monsters were not extraordinary creatures; rather, they were creatures that had very similar looks to those in the upper levels from 1 to 10.

Level 30 and onwards, they were creatures that were thought to be the weakest but then became the strongest. This was mainly because of their strong fire-wielding. The sheer strength of their manipulation would eventually be classified as a fatal matter for the people having difficulties facing monsters weaker than those in level 30.

But as the news spread, it wasn’t impossible to go below 30, as evident by someone being able to go down more than 10 levels by themselves. It’s as if the person who went down to level 42 was otherworldly. Perhaps it was those two men in front of him, Lucas thought.

They then walked up to a woman carrying a young baby that may have recently passed infancy.

Lucas couldn’t hear what they were saying nor did the men make any move, but whatever it was, he could only gaze at the woman who looked up at the two men with constricted pupils. Even if he wasn’t the one the men were talking to, he could feel the utter fear coming from the woman who only nodded at random intervals. It seemed like she didn't even know what she was nodding to.

The baby started to weep with its small frail voice from the menacing power the two men gave off. The mother held her baby closer to comfort them while trying her best to remain calm. But seeing this, Lucas's mind became even more gloomy as the memories began to go haywire.

Suddenly, voices were heard in his head - cloudy but loud as if they were speaking right up to his ear.

While continuously gazing at the men ahead of him without getting a chance to blink, his vision turned blurry as the sides of his vision swarmed with a murky dark color of yellow.

Do it, a manly voice spoke that sounded like they were in their 50s. Now is your chance!

His pupils began to rattle and shake violently.

Lucas, give me your arm! A woman voiced next. His heart began to race ever so more from the voices of these people he vaguely remembered.

I trusted you, and lastly, a young girl said in a soulless voice. Immediately from their words, a drop of tear ran down his cheeks.

“Ch…Chri…” Lucas mustered with immeasurable weakness.

Whatever it was, he refused to have the men come up close to the woman with that threatening aura. Seeing the mother carrying her child in worry rose anger within Lucas’s heart, callusing it with nothing but intentions to kill.

And without thinking, he reached to his side where the sword was, opening his hand and grabbing firmly on the handle. His body took a wide stance facing directly at the men with uncontrollable shaking; and breathing abnormally, he used his raging might and pulled out his-

“If I were you, I wouldn’t go near those men,” the shopkeeper mentioned with the dress folded in her arms.

With the silver blade barely exposing itself out of his scabbard, Lucas remained still and slowly gazed his focus on the shopkeeper next to him. She looked back with her usual blank glare.

The voices in his head slowly receded, becoming a blur that faded into nothingness. His head then was met with a wave of stinging pain, causing him to let go of the sword’s handle and push his hands against his head in agony.

Lucas remembered the faint voices speaking to him. He partly recognized who the voices were; however, out of fear and guilt, he kept these memories locked away from ever being brought to the surface. But when situations like these happened, it felt like his memory would never flush out.

“...The total will be one arc silver coin,” the shopkeeper added after a short moment of silence.

Lucas had enough to buy it. His pouch amounted to two arc silver coins that took him roughly two weeks to earn.

He then breathed at a slower pace to lower his racing heart and closed his eyes to regain composure. With his utmost effort, he brushed off what his sight beheld and focused on the task before him: purchasing the dress.

“W-What do you mean by that - staying away, I mean,” Lucas said with a stutter, grabbing his pouch from his pocket while periodically looking at the men. He dug in to fish out the coins summing to 1 arc silver.

“We shopkeepers heard from other shopkeepers around the league. There was a rise in the number of mercenaries making their way through these lands for a long while.”

“Mercenaries?” Lucas questioned while counting the coins in his hand.

“These mercenaries came from the city in the distance. They are ordered to look for a child and to bring the child to their area.”

“Oh,” Lucas suddenly stiffened as he placed the specified value of coins on the desk. The shopkeeper collected them and handed the dress over to Lucas.

“That is all I have to say. You should get going now,” the shopkeeper concluded. “Thanks for shopping. If you need more clothes, you are free to come back.”

“Um, before I go, I have one more question,” Lucas held the dress neatly on top of his hand and arm. “Assuming that you heard from others… How long ago did they start looking around for this child?”

“... Three years ago.”

Lucas’s eyes slightly widened from the response. Looking at her still gesture, he glared down to recall his past regarding the events that occurred in that time frame. Immediately, a sense of worry came to him.

“I see,” he said hastily. “Thank you for-”

But as he turned to walk away while finishing his sentence, his senses felt something odd. The atmosphere went back to normal. Lucas turned to see the two mercenaries, but they were gone, including the woman and the baby. During his time conversing with the shopkeeper, they vanished without a trace.

He looked around to see where they could’ve possibly gone, but it was useless. In every direction were rows of shops with few people roaming around as if nothing happened, and those men with armor weren't seen.

When did the atmosphere come back to normal, and where did that woman and child go, he asked himself. He looked up at the store owner with her stone face stare. It seemed like she didn’t care about the mercenaries whatsoever.

Even with the men missing, he remembered why he felt so worried when the shopkeeper mentioned the three years' time. Without a moment to waste, he turned around and waved back at the woman as he ran back to his home.

“Thank you! I’ll come around sometime!”

“My pleasure. If you need more clothes, you are free to come back,” the owner replied with the same line as before.

That woman with her child, something must’ve happened to them, Lucas thought. I really need to tell Morgan about this matter with the mercenaries! But…

Holding onto the dress tightly around his arms, he ran as fast as he could humanly run to his family. Worried that if the mercenaries had done something to them, he couldn’t focus on anything else but ponder about their safety.

Oh by the mercy of the gift of fire, may my family be alright!

Because he too has a child, a boy who was born exactly three years ago.

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