Eritance - Chapter 20
“Hey, wait a minute Ross” I started, “I thought you said I couldn’t exceed my capacity”. “You can’t, that is, the current you can’t. However, like I just explained, as long as you strengthen your body sufficiently your capacity itself will grow”.
“Hmm”. I started devising a plan in my mind. In the morning we will set out from Rhine. Once we leave it will take around three weeks to travel back to the village on foot. That is, unless we can find some other mode of transportation.
Regardless of the mode we take, I’ll need to make sure I keep enough gold coins to train myself. I’m not sure what kind of materials I’ll need to do so, but they probably won’t come easily. On the other hand, I’m not really sure where to train myself either.
I’d better look for a mentor that can teach me to strengthen my body in one of the cities. I’m sure somebody there had the luxury of learning body strengthening techniques instead of working in a field at the bottom of the gutter their whole life.
The question is, which city should I go to? I had never been to any of the cities before. I wasn’t sure how much they cost, or what they were like, but I guess it didn’t really matter too much at this point. My priority was to dump Ciara back off in Hallen and let the lord deal with her. Marry, don’t marry, it doesn’t affect my life.
“Alright!” I couldn’t help but saying out loud while clenching my fist. I now had direction, I may not know where my journey will take me, but at least I have a proper starting point now.
With that I went to sleep, dreaming of meat and power.
I woke early in the morning, just as the sun was beginning to rise. I was laying in the soft bed at the inn and I felt extremely comfortable. It was amazing to me how comfortable a bed could be, I usually just slept on straw or some type of mat, if not the floor when I was out hunting or scavenging.
I wanted to sleep longer, but after working in fields all my life, it was hard not to rise with the sun. The life of the poor really is pitiable I thought to myself. One day, one day soon, I won’t have to struggle so much anymore. Even if I couldn’t be wealthy like the lord, if I could just have enough to live isolated from the worries of poverty, that might be enough for me.
With a small sigh, I jumped out of bed and tried to exercise. It didn’t go well. Of course, I was somebody who was in shape, but that was by virtue of working in a hard labor job my entire life. I had no idea how to exercise my body properly on purpose.
I tried many things like, standing on my head, jumping as high as I could, punching the air, etc. However, none of it really seemed to be that effective for me. I really needed to find a trainer, and fast. Otherwise, I would always have to wear my power infused armor to be strong.
It isn’t that I minded wearing items infused with power, and I could even sell strengthened armor in the future. I’m not sure how common stat enhancing armor is, but at the very least, I’ve never seen it before. Of course, that’s not saying much, growing up on the outskirts of Hallen.
By this time, I was starting to feel a slight hunger building in my stomach. Just as I started to think about getting something to eat, a knock was heard at the door.
“Your breakfast is here” the voice said. Opening the door, I saw the host from last night. He had a cheery expression and carefully carried the platter in and set it down on the table, just like last time. He quickly walked out of the room and went back downstairs.
This time there wasn’t much meat, but it was full of things I had never seen before. There were a few round sausages and some slices of bacon, two eggs, and this sweet brown bread. The brown bread was round and flat, and it was covered in this sticky, sweet sauce. It was topped with a bit of butter. It was really good, I had never had a bread quite like it before.
I had never cooked before, beyond roasting meat, but I had to make a mental note to learn how to make this dish. At the very least, I needed to make enough money in the future to hire someone to make dishes like this for me every day. I think that would be a wonderful life.
I set in on the food and had consumed it all at a breakneck pace. After that I prepared my things and went to go collect Ciara. It was time to head out. I knocked lightly on her door, and she answered after a short while.
She was already packed and ready. I had always heard that rich girls take a long time to get ready in the morning, but I guess in this case it wasn’t true at all.
After returning our keys to the host we set out to check on transportation. We could save a lot of time if cheap transportation could be found. The town had some stables and one carriage service. Never having ridden a horse before, I suggested that we check out the carriage service first. After all, I didn’t know if it was easy or hard.
When we arrived at the carriage service place we asked about their prices. Apparently, prices were based on the day, as well as how luxurious the carriage. This time, I didn’t let Ciara interject and ask for the best one. “With the basic carriage and one horse, it will be 2 gold per day” the lady behind the counter told us. It would take two weeks to get to Hallen, so that meant 28 gold coins.