During the next couple of days of travel, Victor realized how out of shape he was compared to the other four people. Sure he had been told that they were a small group of military troops doing some traveling as a part of their training, except for Elya who was apparently the person in charge of the training and ensuring that they didn’t do too poorly.

Even though Victor knew that they had the training, he felt that he was slowing them down and unable to help, causing him to feel like a burden. In his mind, he was even sure that one or two of them thought he was a nice excuse to take a more relaxed pace on their way to the destination. Especially since he was sure he heard one of the men say that the easy pace was nice.

Over time he did begin to learn a bit about the people he found himself with, even being told about the pay they would get upon their return. The money seemed to be coin based with three different metals and two different sizes. Although apparently based on where they were minted, some of them do have different shapes as a small way to indicate how far the coins have traveled between different parts of the kingdom. He was even able to sell one of his dollar coins for a coin of the local money from Jaul who seemed to really take an interest in the design.

While it was tiring and at times mind-numbing Victor felt that traveling with them wasn’t too bad. He even managed to figure out some things about this world. He learned a little bit about how, while nearly everyone had magic to some degree, most people didn’t study it seriously due to their bodies' mana limitations.

He was told that monsters of any type might have a mana core in their body which is used to create magical items. These were needed to keep the magical items charged. In that way, they were like a battery that would keep the enchantments empowered, but would still fade over time meaning they were always in demand.

For his part, Victor mostly stuck to telling stories. Mostly fairy tales and the like that might be of some interest to the group. While none of them said any of them were bad or boring it was obvious that some of the stories were more enjoyed than others. Especially the one about a woman cursed to sleep because her family angered a powerful magic user. He even learned that while he was able to speak in a way that he could understand and be understood the written language wasn’t the same as he was used to.

Reading aloud from one of the small books he brought, which was what he labeled a waiting room book, Jaul was interested in the written part of the book rather than the actual story. It seemed that here the words were, instead of letters next to each other, connected to a single line. After drawing a line you would place the markings, that Victor considered the letters, on the line and let them flow out to form the words. It reminded him a little bit of cursive writing, even if he hadn’t used that skill in so long he wasn’t sure he could use it properly anymore.

By the time they got to the gates of Orlayn wave, Victor felt that Jual was probably the one who he had gotten to know the best, while Elya had made sure he was safe and gave him small bits of advice here and there, including getting a proper weapon when he got the chance. Despite the short time together and the rocky start, he was glad he had found them when he did albeit mostly because if he hadn’t he would have been eaten by those beasts.

Having traded away some of his loose change, one of the lighters, and shared nearly all the hard candy that he had with him. Thanks to that he now had a few things that he hadn’t before.

Looking at what he had gained he put away a short worn out blade and a small bag of dried meat. The meat apparently belonged to some beast the group had slain during their travels. He also placed a small number of coins into his pocket. Three small silver coins, a large copper one, and three small copper ones.

Parting ways, Victor looked at the map that Drelt had drawn him on a piece of paper from one of his notebooks. It was a bit oversimplified, but he appreciated the effort put into it as he started about town with three main goals.

Goal one was to find a place to sleep and eat.

Goal two was to check out where Elya suggested he look to start working, mostly because of his lack of connections.

Lastly, three was to see if anyone knew about the demons that were, supposedly, the reason he had been brought here.

After he had walked for a notable amount of time, Victor wished he had asked to have someone write a few words for him. Being unable to read was more of a hindrance than he realized.

He eventually asked for someone to point him to an inn that wasn’t too expensive. While he was asking a few questions about what he considered cheap and if meals being included was would be a big deal to him he suddenly felt someone tug on his arm.

When he turned around Victor saw a boy who looked to be about fifteen years old, pulling on his arm.

“We got a room at our place right now we even include meals. If you don’t mind a room with no frills and is on a second floor that’s in a bar we got just what you need and want.”

Looking at the man that he had been talking to the man nods his head, “You can trust him. His family runs an inn. We sell them some of the produce we grow so at least you know the foods good.”

With a shrug of acceptance, Victor agreed, “Sure as long as it’s not too much I think that sounds fine. Just remember I am looking for price over anything else.”

Being pulled through a few of the roadways, Victor found himself being brought into a building that had a hanging sign with an etching of what seemed to be a beer and fire above what looked like writing. Apparently, that meant that this place dealt with food and a place to sleep or at least somewhere that a person could warm themselves up.

“Hey, dad! I found someone that needs a room. Oh, but he does say that he needs to watch his money so since we aren’t busy do you think you can give him a deal?”

The first floor was full of people eating. Many of them began to alternate looking between Victor, the boy, and a decently built man who had been cutting chunks of meat off of a larger piece of meat. It seemed that the patrons were enjoying a meal of meat, bread, and some sort of plant, with a drink as the man threw the piece of meat he just cut across the room onto another person's plate, landing right on the center of it.

Slamming the knife down into the meat again the man looked at Victor and then again at his son, before returning his gaze to the potential customer.

“If money is a problem you can work to reduce the amount for a night. That is only if you work doing any job I ask from breakfast until halfway through lunch I will let you have a room for two large copper per night. Otherwise, it will cost three with a limit of ten nights before I up the price to four.”

It took Victor a moment to think about how much money that was. The small copper coin apparently could be cut into smaller currencies. The commonly acceptable amount of times that it could be split was one half and then another half. The larger coins were worth ten of the smaller ones and, unlike its smaller relative, nobody would cut them into smaller pieces as a way of dealing with change.

Since the coins seemed to scale by ten every time that it went up in size he figured he had enough money for the ten nights that he was told was the most he could do at the cheaper price. Since Elya had told him that he should save one of the small silver coins to pay for his membership into the guild. He had been told about the fact that there was a fee to join it. With this in mind, he took out two small silver coins.

“If your son was telling the truth about meals being included, I don’t think I can argue with the price and exchange. I will stay for seven nights to start if you will have me. I plan to visit the guild later today so I can get myself started on a new life here. Also, I might ask for a little help knowing what shops are where since I can’t really read the signs myself.”

Pointing to a spot at the bar in front of him, the inn owner placed a piece of meat on a wooden plate along with a mug of some sort of slightly bitter drink.

“That shouldn’t be a big concern.” He bellowed, “The good shops have signs outside of them that give you an idea of what’s inside. Some don’t even write anything on the shop unless they are hoping to deal with the more rich people.”

One of the men eating yelled out from across the room, “Or they think it will make them stand out and seem high quality! Too bad a lot of them use it to trick people into eating their shit food and drinking their piss drinks!”

“And yet you keep coming back every time your wife doesn’t want to make you a meal!”

“At least he has a wife unlike you!”

The patrons went back and forth for a while as Victor sat down and ate the food that was placed in front of him. It wasn’t anything that he would consider special, but the bitterness of the drink did seem to work with the meat in a way that he didn’t expect and before long he had finished the meat and found himself realizing he had been hungrier than he thought.

“That was great. Can I put my stuff in my room and head out? I kind of want to find a few stores and maybe hit the guild while it is still open.”

With a small slam on the counter, the man looked at his son, “Take him to the back room. There isn’t much to it but as long as it’s just you sleeping in there I doubt you will have any troubles.”

Going up the stairs it wasn’t long until he found his room. It was quite small and barely had more room beyond the bed, but at least it meant he wasn’t going to be sleeping outside, Victor thought to himself.

Putting most of the items into his backpack he started to put what he thought he might be able to sell into the purse. Since it was smaller than his backpack he even debated trying to sell it as well if he could find a buyer. Especially since, as far as he could tell, it looked like a nice purse.

In the end, he decided on some of the pens, two of the remaining four lighters that Amy had in her purse, the cigarettes, nail polish, and other makeup. All in all, it was what he felt he could do without that would still be useful enough that he might be able to get some money from.

Leaving everything else except for some food behind, Victor headed out to get better bearings on the town. He only stopped to get the name of the inn just in case he got lost despite himself.

Going down the stairs he thought he heard a door shut, but it was just one of the neighbors leaving their room behind him, so Victor went out hoping to make a few sales as well as purchases. Especially since he thought having some clothes that matched the clothing of the people around him instead of his current clothing was a good idea.

This proved to be true as partway down the street he noticed more than a few eyes had already landed on him and began to follow the path that he was taking with more than a little curiosity.