Eritance - Chapter 16

The exit that we took was about half a day’s journey from the nearest village. This village was called Rhine. This village was a bit bigger than Hallen, but still couldn’t be considered a city yet. It seems that they focused on crafts instead of farming like Hallen did.

“Hmm, this might be a good opportunity for me to find some great materials” I said out loud. “Oh yeah? What are you going to pay with? Are you going to sell your body? They gave us provisions, not money” Ciara quipped back at me.

“Oh yeah, that’s right” I said with a sigh. With a sense of longing in my heart I tried to ignore all the various materials, weapons, and armors, that were being sold in the stalls that lined the streets.

“What’s wrong? Are you really that hurt by the lord’s daughter’s joke?” Ross said to me. “Obviously not. I just wanted to find some materials that I could test out my new powers on”. “Well if that’s the case, why don’t you use your jerkin?” Ross answered back indifferently.

It was true that I had stuff that I could currently strengthen, but I didn’t think it was the best idea to strengthen a random jerkin. After all, I wasn’t even sure how much power I could absorb, or how long it would take me to get all the power back once I’ve imbued it into something else.

“Hmm.no, that’s okay Ross. I just want to wait for something good to come along first” I silently replied. “You really are a dolt! Do you not know what you have on?” Ross retorted.

I wasn’t sure what he meant. By reflex I looked down at myself and examined my equipment. I had a long knife that was given to me by Apollos, the webbed black leather jerkin, a white tunic, tan pants, a belt, and some boots. Nothing really seemed that special for me. “Do you mean the knife? I wanted to strengthen something that I can wear though” I started to say to Ross. “No! You are really thick sometimes. You know that? I mean the dragon leather” he cried out in my mind. “Dragon. leather.?” I didn’t understand.

“Yes, d-r-a-g-o-n l-e-a-t-h-e-r you dolt. How else can I say it for you?” Ross began. “Look, your tunic is dragon leather. It is very old, so it’s strength has faded away. However, dragon leather is an excellent material for imbuing power into. It can hold a lot of power. You’re lucky that you started off with such a good material” Ross explained.

I finally got it. What I had thought was just an interesting jerkin was actually dragon leather. Furthermore, it turns out that it was a great piece of equipment for me after all. My mood improved drastically. I decided to wait until we had a chance to camp before I started trying to put power into my tunic.

Before heading back, we decided to explore the Rhine. It wasn’t often that I got to leave the village, I was always working. Ciara herself never really left, as she was always having lessons of some kind or another at the mansion. So, it was something neither of us really did all that often.

A mouth watering smell hit our noses as we turned down one street. It was the smell of meat being grilled. We had discovered this village’s food district. They had all kinds of foods being grilled up, fried squideel legs, roasted horned rabbits, anteleer ribs, and things I had never seen before. It all made my mouth water, but we didn’t have any money.

With tears in my eyes I quickly hurried past the food stalls. At the end of the street though, it opened into a town center with more people selling different wares. There was a man in the middle standing next to a small table. He was saying “come one, come all! Step right up, test your strength! If you can beat our champion in a strength test, you could win up to 100 gold”.

I was quite shocked. 100 gold was like a vast fortune to me. I had never seen that much money in my entire life. With 100 gold you could set up a small shop in the better part of a village. You could even buy your own field and a couple of oxen.

I looked at the champion. He was a tall bald man that was bulging with muscles. I instantly became discouraged. “I could never beat a guy like that” I thought dejectedly. “What are you crying about now? You could definitely beat that guy” Ross chimed in. “Impossible. His mother clearly produced him with a hill giant” I sighed.

Suddenly though, numbers flashed before my eyes. Strength 1.3 Stamina 1.3 Speed 0.8

“Ah- these are his stats” I exclaimed. “Right you are boy-o. He may be strong for a normal person, but next to a beast warrior he is nothing, even a weak one like you. Har Har Har!” Ross laughed.

“Ah, I see. So, I really can win after all! Hey wait a minute! Why didn’t you send me the stats of Apollos or Valera?” I asked angrily. “You never asked for them, don’t expect me to always baby you and hold your hand. You must make this power your own anyways. Besides, with good control, you’ll be able to automatically do it anyways” Ross retorted.

Ignoring Ross for now, I excitedly shouted out, “I’d like to challenge him!”. “Great, step right up!” the man said. “What do you have to wager?” he asked me. “Wager?” I said confused. “Yes, of course, you didn’t think this was a charity, did you?” he said.

With that I became depressed again and walked off the stage. “Let’s go Ciara” I said. “Now hold on now, I didn’t know you had such a beautiful friend” the man began. “If you would be willing to put her up for ante we would be happy to give you a chance to fight”. At this Ciara became quite indignant and shouted, “absolutely not! I am not a bartering chip” but before she could finish I interrupted her and said, “that is, we can’t offer her up unless you raise the wager to 200 gold coins” I said. “Deal!” the man said after looking at my wiry body.

Ciara stared daggers at me and her face turned red from rage. “Don’t worry I said! I won’t lose”.