The training program that Error had put together for Dix was almost exactly what he had expected it to be. It reminded him of a professional football training camp combined with the apocalypse difficulty version of that old crazy Japanese TV show about an obstacle course masquerading as a gauntlet. This new gauntlet made the one in the tutorial look like a jungle gym. He lifted weights, ran, dodged traps, got hit by and hit back at increasingly stronger wooden training golems, and generally got worn down and beaten to a pulp hour after hour, day after day. The first day started easy, but got progressively harder as the weights, combatants, and gauntlet were all slowly acclimated to the proper difficulty to force him to grow. The second day started off as hell and got worse until Dix finally called a halt to the proceedings.

“All right, that’s enough of this bullshit!” Dix yelled as he rolled off the side of an elevated section of the gauntlet, dropping the five yards to land on his feet before stalking off to a bench on the side of the training area.

Error and Thunk were actually quite surprised. Before this sudden display, Dix had been beyond exemplary as a trainee. He eagerly charged head first into the gauntlet over and over, seeming to delight in the challenge. Sparring with the golems was a close second on his list of favorite training activities, evidenced by the fierce smile that was engraved on his face throughout each round of combat. Even the weight training saw him amicably chatting between sets of weight that would have done professional powerlifters proud back on Earth. The two shared a confused and concerned glance before looking to Dix for answers.

Dix had seated himself on the bench, and was tugging at the laces on his boot. Catching a glimpse of his two trainers looking at him oddly, he realized that he should perhaps clarify what he was upset about. “It’s not the training, that’s awesome. I just need new socks, I’m close to tearing holes in the only pair I’ve got, and I refuse to wear shoes without socks. I worked for some douchebag that did that all the time, and the only thing worse than his basic frat boy antics was the smell of his feet when he took his shoes off. Gods, haven’t thought about that asshole in a while, good riddance.” Finally tugging his foot free of the boot showed that his previous statement was true, his sock was wearing thin around the pads of his feet.

Error, somehow looking even more confused than before, said, “Uh, you should be able to get those repaired in town. Until then I’ve got a spare set of stockings in my room here, let me grab them.”

As Error left, Thunk wandered over and dispensed his own advice, “I know just who to take those too. She can repair them with magic, and then enchant them to keep doing so. I’ll even spot you the cash to get it done.”

“Now why would you do that?” Dix asked suspiciously. Thunk, upon discussing the items Dix had taken from the temple with his fellow religious personages, had decided that Dix would need to reimburse the cathedral for all the gear that he had taken, despite not properly explaining the limits of the cathedral’s charity. Being declared in debt by a madly grinning dwarf had given Dix the impression that the only thing Thunk loved more than booze, was money. As such, this sudden generosity made him more than a little nervous.

As explanation, Thunk silently tugged his pant leg up enough that Dix could see the travesty of an excuse for a sock that the civilizations of Mantra used. He didn’t even have to tug off his boot before Dix was marching away announcing to all and sundry, “Nope! Nope, nope, nope. Not happening. Show me this woman now, dammit. I am not wearing that garbage ever.”

Dix’s chthonic mutterings only stopped once for a short conversation on the way to the magical tailor shop. It started rather abruptly when he stopped mid mutter to ask, “How do you deal with those… things?” The last word was said in a way that implied he meant a dictionary’s worth of derogatory comments all packed down into one six letter word.

Being much more used to the changes in lifestyle he had had to deal with since he arrived in Mantra, Thunk was a bit more philosophical in his response. “Lack of availability, time, and, most importantly, stats. The first two help with mind set, while the last actually makes a difference. With high enough stats and resistances you could walk barefoot through the magma flows of Hawaii. Don’t try that here though, the volcanoes are hotter.”

“Hmm,” was all Dix said in response, although he did give the dwarf another speculative look.

Seeing that, Thunk couldn’t help but grin. He knew why the Folk was wary. “Don’t worry, I won’t include this in your debt. I’m hoping that in the process of repairing and enchanting your socks she gets a good enough understanding to make some for me. Oh, and the enchant will have self cleaning too,” he finished with a smirk. There was a moment of silence before he asked, “What’s with you and socks anyways? You were far more violent in your reaction than anyone else I have ever seen when they realize their clothes won’t last.”

With a chuckle, Dix responded, “Back at the start of freshman year of high school, our guidance counselor once asked my class what they wanted out of life. Even then I knew she was trying to find some sort of goal that each of us had so that she could encourage us to do well in school and strive towards college. Most of the class played right into her hands. They wanted to be celebrities, professional sports stars, or millionaires. Me? I’ve always been simpler in what I wanted than most, but that day was a slightly special one for me.”

“With my birthday just before the school year started, my family got me the same thing they always did.” He smiled fondly at the memories, then continued. “It was a bit of a running joke. See, I had a tendency to slide across the floor on my socks as a kid, and tore holes in socks faster than you would believe. So every year, for Christmas and my birthday, I would get bunches of socks in addition to whatever else I got.

“So, that day, at the beginning of the school year, I happened to have put on a brand new, never-before- worn pair of socks. You’ve probably been here long enough to forget just how fantastic it feels to put on a pair of new socks, but you’ll hopefully get a reminder soon. It’s up there on my list of most amazing feelings that people forget. Everyone talks about how amazing an orgasm is, but they forget the small pleasures in life. Taking a piss after a long movie, a hot shower after a hard day’s work, and the sheer comfort of a new pair of socks.

“When my turn came, and the guidance counselor asked me what my goal in life was, I told her that all I wanted was to make enough money to buy a brand new pair of socks every single day, for the rest of my life.” He barked a laugh at the stunned look on the priest’s face. Pointing at him, he said, “Yep, that’s the same reaction they had as well. Nobody knew what to say until I explained that I was in a great mood that day because I was wearing new socks, and that I wanted to feel that great all the time. Everyone should.

“Years later, when I was actually making enough money to do just that, I would make a big load of laundry made up of just socks. I’d wash the whole load, then wander through the streets on the weekend handing out almost new socks to all the homeless people. When I explained that they had been freshly washed, and only worn once, they all decided it was better than money. Particularly in winter, as even I would change to wool socks then.”

Shaking his head, all Thunk could come up with was, “You’re crazy, but you aren’t wrong, I guess. God, I hope this works.”

After a moment of thought, Dix casually asked, “I don’t suppose you’d do the same for her to make a copy of my underwear as well, would you?”

The dwarf’s head shot up in surprise. He hadn’t even thought of that! “What kind? Boxers or briefs? Oh hell, it doesn’t matter. Whatever you’ve got has got to be better than the garbage they wear here.” The laughter that came from the much taller Folk was joyous, but still somehow felt a little cruel to Thunk.

“Don’t worry,” Dix said. “I’ve got boxer briefs, the best of both worlds. Also, I always found them better for gearing up in anything that has straps on the legs, like sheaths or armour. Boxers bunch up too much to be comfortable, and briefs do nothing to help, but offer great support.”

Thunk snorted. “Having gone commando under my pants while wearing armour for years I’m fairly certain the style is inappropriately named. It's awful.”

Dix shrugged off the last of the conversation, and instead turned his attention to the city they were walking through. It wasn’t really big enough to be a city, but too big to be a town. Or at least compared to his modern Earth sensibilities. It could very well be one of the largest cities in Mantra for all he knew at the moment. His earlier attempts at research in the library of the cathedral had been less than useless in a lot of ways, although he did learn some things of interest.

The world of Mantra had eight continents. Only two, Verasal and Vacatine, had large populations of sentients, and were reasonably safe from monsters. That meant that there weren’t any large, singular, city destroying monsters left active on either of the continents. That didn’t mean they didn’t exist, just that they were contained in dungeons, hibernating for the next few centuries or eons, or were sealed away. Apparently killing things of that level of power was near impossible, but they could be contained in a variety of ways. All of the maps he had found showed Verasal and Vacatine as the central continents, with Vacatine being due west of Verasal, the continent he was currently on.

Imagining a letter V, Vacatine and Verasal would be the upper portions, while Perigodor would be the bottom, but not connected to either of them. It was so monster infested as to be suicide to attempt to land there. Even the seas near it were filled with monsters. It did, however, have a connection to the continent of Duvar through a fairly narrow isthmus. Duvar was also quite dangerous, particularly any attempt to cross the isthmus. What made it strange was that it also had a civilized presence. Built at the Duvar end of the isthmus was a giant wall that was also a city. A strange combination of the Great Wall of China and the ruins of Petra, Caer Etzera was a giant wall stretching across the entire isthmus at its narrowest point. The information he had found listed it as being five leagues in length, which Dix guessed was fifteen to twenty miles. Apparently, the very existence of people on Duvar was a joint expedition by a variety of races looking to expand the available territory in which people could live. A massive magical undertaking had created the original wall separating the isthmus, and had been added too constantly over the years since. The plan was to expand out into the rest of Duvar, pacifying it as they went, once Caer Etzera was as safe as it could be made.

The last four continents were all rather mysterious. The northernmost continent was simply called The Ice. It was unclear if it was actually a landmass, or simply ice. Dix assumed there was something similar at the southern pole of the world as well, but no one had sailed far enough south to discover the truth of the matter. Sailing on Earth was hard enough, but Mantra added monsters to the dangers that must be faced during a voyage of discovery, most of which simply never returned. Continuing the trend of extreme dangers, West of Vacatine and east of Verasal, was the continent of Ismeretlen. There was virtually no information about it at all, as no ship had ever successfully landed there and returned. Even getting close was more difficult than approaching Perigodor. The surrounding waters were so dangerous as to have kept anyone from discovering if Ismeretlen was one continent, two, or twelve.

The last two continents were Digue and Isla. South East of Verasal, Digue was essentially a wall between Isla and everything else. The continent was even built as such, being completely devoid of beaches. Instead, the entire continent was an unbroken sea cliff rising hundreds of feet into the air and covered in the nests of airborne monsters, making it yet another continent that was too dangerous to even get close enough to explore.

Isla was its own kind of mystery. Rather than one solid landmass, Isla was a series of islands. Unconnected islands. Once more the information on how or why the islands were unconnected was missing from what Dix could find, but he did know how people knew they were. The islands of Isla drifted on the sea, under the sea, and above the sea through the clouds. No rhyme or reason had been found as to what was going on in Isla to make its islands move around in such strange ways, nor why they sometimes switched between under, on, or above the water. The fact that the islands rising from under the water seemed completely unchanged from their trip under the sea only confused the issue more.

Pursue, the city in which he stood, was near the north east corner of Verasal, with only a few smaller towns farther towards the edges. Those towns were mostly farming or fishing communities, mostly supported by selling their goods to the city for the few things they couldn’t get themselves. Pursue had a number of farms scattered around it as well to provide food, but its main industry seemed to be the trio of dungeons it contained. The training dungeon he had already been within was the smallest, and weakest of the three. The other two dungeons weren’t much stronger. What they did provide was excellent training opportunities, able to smoothly transition someone from their beginning, pre class levels up to their first class evolution.

With a large number of semi-transient youngsters passing through the city over a couple of years, Pursue was almost the adventurer version of a college town. The city had been developed in a way that made it appear to be a misshapen circle city A preponderance of bars, brothels, and boarding houses filled the area between the three dungeons. The next ring outwards housed most of the guild buildings and trainers, as well as adventurer support businesses. Smiths of all kinds, enchanters, tailors, alchemists, and mages filled in the areas around the larger administrative buildings. The cathedral was located in this same section, as was the tailor they were visiting. Outside of that was the housing for the middle class permanent residents. Following that were the high class residences, as well as the city administrative offices, and then the lower class housing filled in the rest of the area before the walls.

Dix was looking forward to exploring the rest of the city when he finally got a real break from his training, but for now he knew he needed to focus. He especially wanted to get out of the city, and see the surrounding wilderness, but he figured he would need at least a couple of levels before he was ready for that. The few books he’d found that resembled bestiaries weren’t as hopeful as he had hoped, but, more importantly, they painted a grim picture of his chances of survival if he headed outside anytime soon. He wasn’t sure how long it would take to get through his training and gain the levels needed to move on, but he was cautiously anticipating a couple of months.

While he hadn’t gotten through a great number of books before he had had to head to sleep both nights, he had discovered a great source of confusion and mystery. He was intending to speak with his trainers about it tonight. He had been more tired than he had realized that first night, otherwise he would have recognized immediately that there was no way all of-

“We’re here,” Thunk said, interrupting Dix’s thoughts.

Startled, he looked up to find them standing in front of a building that wouldn’t have been out of place on any residential street in the States a hundred years ago, other than its preponderance of windows, and the mostly glass door. Wood construction, peaked roof, stone foundation, rectangular shape, and painted a modest yellow with white trim. Small flower boxes below each window, as well as bordering the path to the door helped brighten the image of the house, without overpowering one’s vision. The windows were filled with mostly cloth based clothing of all types, although there were a few with leather sections, or accessories as well. Most of the display was dedicated to women’s styles, with a few for men scattered around. Above the door was a sign stating Marsh’s Clothier.

A smile was growing so large on Thunk’s face that his beard couldn’t hide it. Unable to contain his excitement, the dwarf wiggled up the walk like a puppy. Despite his obvious emotions, he still tried to sound gruff, saying, “Come on, let’s make this quick.”