As we were approaching the inn Nic pointed out earlier today I noticed his shop in the corner of my eye and realized I was still carrying around the horn. Maybe I can get a knife and flint or something useful. Seeing as I’m probably going to be spending a lot of time sleeping outside for the foreseeable future… well at least until I can complete a few commissions and make enough talons to rent a room at an inn.

Digging the horn out of my small canvas sack I turn to Notch pointing at Nic’s store and say,

“Let’s head back to Nic’s store and see what we can get for this horn.” Notch nods his agreement, and we head over.

Entering the shop I hear in a bored tone say, “Welcome, to Nic’s Goods is there anything I can help you find?” from Dan who from the look of it is just paging through a book. Looking up finally he sees me, “Oh, it’s you Nic’s not here right now,” and back down to his book.

“That’s okay I just wanted to sell a horn or maybe trade it for a knife and some flint.”

“Well then place the horn on the counter, and I’ll take a look at it.”

I hand over the horn hoping it’ll be worth enough to afford the stuff I want. But from the look,

Dan gives it, I can tell I’ll be lucky to get anything.

“What the hell did you do to this thing? Use it as a hammer? There are cracks all along this thing.”

“Oh, is it still worth something?”

After looking at it, some more Dan says in a surprisingly professional tone, “Well, yeah but only because it can be ground down into a powder for alchemy but with all these cracks leading to the core it has degraded and with how small it is the best I can do is one Talon.”

“What about the trade instead?”

“Can’t do that the cheapest knife we have is at the very least five Talons and as for flint our smallest piece we have now is two Talons.”

“I guess I’ll just take the Talon then, thanks, Dan. Have a good night.”

Handing over the single Talon he waves and is already back to his book before I even leave the shop. Walking out of the store a horn lighter and a Talon richer I head across the square to the inn. Entering with Notch on my shoulder I see a young woman sitting behind a desk with a stairwell leading up behind her and a hallway leading to the right that I hear some music and the sound of a crowd of people.

“Good afternoon, Welcome to Dondton Inn and Tavern. If you would like a room for the night I can help you with that if you are just here for dinner or a few drinks head-on into the right,” says the young woman.

With a nod, I start making my way to the right but only make it about three steps when I hear her speak again.

“Oh, sir one more thing. We do not allow any monsters into the rooms or tavern, please put them in the stable that is outside and to the right. There will be a stable boy in there to help you. Since you are just here for a drink it’ll be free, but if you plan to stay the night the fee will be added to your bill, and of course, you can pay for them to be fed while you eat too.”

“Uh…okay, how much would it be just for my slime?”

“Well, actually you’re in luck sir if you are willing to let your Slime clean up the mess left by all the other beasts in there we will pay you a Talon for the work.”

Looking over at Notch he gives a nod, “Alright, we’ll do that then. By the way how much is a bed for the night?”

“Ten Talons for just a bed, twelve for bed and a meal.”

“Oh, I’ll just be here for dinner then,” I say more to myself, “Okay, thank you for the information, do you pay me or…”

“The stable boy will take care of it,” she says with a nod.

Exiting the inn and looking to my right I see a large building that has large barred windows all along its sides. Entering through the large double doors, I’m hit with the strong smell of animals that in a former life would have made me puke but now… it’s not the worst thing I’ve smelt. Continuing in I walk into what appears to be a large room split into three rows with differently sized stables with from what I can see are half filled with monsters of all different kinds. While staring at all the different monsters, I don’t notice a young man just a few years younger than me walk up beside me until, “Hello sir here to stable your Slime?”

With a small jump I look at the young man, “Please, the hostess said you’ll pay me if Notch here helps you clean up a few of the stalls?”

“That would be great, we just got a Thunderhoof in, and well you can probably imagine. Just know any damage caused by your Slime will be held against you so make sure to command it not to get into any fights or destroy property. I will pay you the Talon on pick up.”

“Alright Notch try not to cause trouble, I’m sorry you can’t come too, but I’ll be back after talking to Nic and his wife,” I say while helping him to the ground once there he wiggles up to me an affirmative or that he’s hungry… I’m not sure. With a wave to both him and the stable boy, I head back over to the tavern. Making my way in I wave to the young women, who nods back, and enter into the bar area.

Walking into the room I see that it is a medium sized open area, with a stage on one side, that has a fiddler playing on it, with a small dancing area in front of it with tables and chairs scattered around the room with a bar on the opposite side, with what looks like a door to a kitchen behind it. After looking around a bit, I see Nic waving at me from a table off in the corner. Weaving my way through the tables and customers, I get closer to Nic's table and see he is with an older woman with dark brown hair that has steel gray streaks in it shaped into a no-nonsense bun and even from this distance, I can see she has piercing green eyes that seem to look straight through me. Once I get to the table, Nic jumps up and pats me on the back.

“Nox, you’re early, nevermind that doesn’t matter meet my lovely wife, Learna, Lea this is the boy I told you about Nox.”

Standing up she reaches her hand out and shakes mine, when she stands I see she has a very athletic build, and a firm grip that feels like she has multiple scars and calluses on her hands.

In a strong but feminine voice she says, “Nox it is so nice to meet you, thank you for looking after my husband on the road.”

“Thank you, but really your husband probably saved me if anything. I was not prepared to be out in the wild for long at all.” I respond while we all sit back down.

After sitting down a barmaid seems to just appear at the table, “Good afternoon, what can I get for you guys tonight? The usual Nic and Lea?”

“That would be lovely Nelly, and we will also be taking care of this young man tonight as well.”

“Taking in strays again Nic?” Nelly responds with a raised eyebrow.

Laughing loudly Nic says, “No, no, Lea won’t let me take in any more strays, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help a man out when I see that he needs some. Just trying to get him a job while he runs the dungeon to bring up his Spirit Level will have to do for now. Speaking of does the old codger need any help around here?”

It’s apparently Nelly’s turn to laugh she gives me a look up and down and says, “Unless he can grow a pair and doesn’t mind warming someone's blankets I doubt he will take him in.”

Staring slack-jawed at her I hear Nic and Lea start laughing even louder, “I don’t think that will work from the boys' expression but thanks for the tip.” Nic responds after he finally stops laughing.

“Anyways, what would you like dear?” she asks turning to me.

“I uh… don’t know just water and whatever's hot I guess.” Honestly, if I can tell it’s food, it’ll be fine after almost a year in the sewers.

“Alright, I’ll be back with everything in a few minutes then,” with a wave she disappears back into the crowd.

“That Nelly needs to stop speaking so crass otherwise she’ll end up like me married to an old good for nothing, and you shouldn’t encourage her,” Lea says with a smirk and glaring jokingly at her husband.

“Now don’t start on me already a woman, plus you were laughing too,” Nic says with his own good-natured smile. “So, Nox I take it from how early you are that it didn’t go too well with Druss or Gwen?”

“No, not too well at all. Druss wasn’t really looking for a brand new apprentice, and Gwen says she doesn’t trust my decision making.”

“Hmmm… thought for sure Druss would pick you up. Didn’t really have too much faith in Gwen she can be quite picky about her apprentices. What are your plans now?”

“Just sign up with the guild and hope I can make enough off commissions and monster drops from the dungeon. Until then Notch and I will have just to make due camping out and foraging.”

“Anybody you know Lea that may be looking for someone?” Nic asks while taking a sip from his ale.

“Well… Nox, can you read and write?” Lea asks while looking at me.

“Yes, but isn’t that mandatory throughout the empire?”

“Technically, but no one enforces it. How is your penmanship?”

“Good, I guess, but I’ve never really thought about it though.”

Lea raises up her hand and mimes writing at the bartender after he notices he nods at Lea.

“Alright, Reg over there will send over something to write with and some paper so we can test you out.”

“Okay… but what is this all about?”

“Well, if your penmanship is up to my standards I may take you on as a new transcriber for the guild's library. From what Nic has told me you have a basic slime that can help you clean up and ink splatters, and if he’s good enough, you may even be able to wipe a book that is transcribed horribly of all its insides after you put the information into another book. If you’re able to do this, then that will help us save some money on paper and binding new books.”

“Are there really so many books that need to be rewritten?”

“Yes… unfortunately, we are the smallest and honestly the lowest class chapter of the guild in the empire. Meaning that even though it is mandatory for us to have a library for the town and guild to use, we are the least likely to get any good copies of the books and even when we do get a copy it’s usually sloppily made by an apprentice.”

“I guess that does make sense, so what you would want me to do is just copy over all the stuff from the badly transcribed books into new ones?”

“Yes, that is if you meet my standards.”

As she was saying this Nelly was back with our food and another barmaid is follows behind her with a bottle of ink, quill and small piece of paper.

I go to grab the writing utensils and paper when Lea stops me.

“Let’s eat first then I will tell you what to write.”

I just nod and start devouring my first actual meal since my last birthday.