Savior! Redemption in Another World! - Chapter 66

— Point of View: Gust Renarus, two months after departing from Taf —

The journey so far has been strangely nostalgic. It’s been years since I slept in a tree, hunting for every meal, all whilst spriting the forest like a madman.

Ahh, to be young again. However, I can’t get caught up in the joy of reliving my youth, I’m on a mission, and I must never forget that.

After two months of easy wilderness travel, it appears that I’ve arrived at the large city Blaze was always talking about visiting. The trade city of Torn.

Once every five years or so, Blaze would make a trip here to trade and acquire new magical supplies, information, and books.

According to his reports, the city of Torn is a strange one. They care not for race, creed, age, or even ability. The citizens and businesses care about one thing alone.

Money.

Torn is not part of the greater Magic Kingdom, instead, it’s a city-state allied with the kingdom, acting as a buffer between the Magic Kingdom and its eastern neighbor, Darvelous.

This unique situation has led to an even more interesting situation within the large stone walls of Torn. According to Blaze, as long as you have enough money, no one would bat an eye if you brought a drake into the city and it ate someone.

Walking towards the gates of the city confidently, the guards didn’t even give me a second glance.

The streets were filled with a mix of different people, all doing a mix of different things. Some selling different objects and implements, some playing games, some gambling, a bit of everything.

Before I was able to get a bearing on where exactly I was going, an interesting offer made its way to my ears.

“Step right up! The first one to correctly guess gets a bag of storage! Medium size, no wear, and only one soldi per game!” A younger man was calling out, and before him lay five identical cups.

Pushing through the crowd, I eventually make it into the encirclement around the young man.

Before him sits a larger-looking demonoid, four horns peeking out of his disheveled hair. The young man places a small green marble under one of the cups and begins to rapidly move them, sometimes switching which cup the marble was under.

After about twenty seconds of shuffling, I can tell the marble is in the far right cup. Unfortunately for the four-horned demonoid, he had incorrectly tracked the marble, guessing wrong and leaving disgruntled.

The instant he stood up, I sat down and took his place.

“Welcome welcome, who do I have the pleasure of playing with today,” The young man said, looking up at me and smiling.

“I am Gust Renarus, chief of the Tiamat Village of Taf. I believe I understand the rules of the game, all I have to do is find the green marble correct?” I ask as the boy seems a bit shaken by my introduction, but nods in agreement anyway. “Very well, let’s play,” I say, giving the young man a warm smile and dropping a single coin into his upturned hat.

The young man places the marble under the center cup and begins to shuffle it around at a rate even faster than what he had used for the four-horned man. No matter, compared to the monsters in the forest, as well as training my soldiers and family, this level of speed is nothing.

After about thirty seconds of shuffling, I can guarantee the marble is in the left-most cup.

Placing my hand upon it and lifting, the space under the cup is barren.

“Sorry! Wrong guess this time.” The young man says, his calm and confident demeanor completely restored.

Ah, it’s this type of game.

Silently, I drop another coin into the boy’s hat and gestured for him to play another round.

Antonio had fooled me with a similar game as a part of his magical practice, however, he simply used his hands. The actual trick is quite simple and easy to counter once you understand it.

The mage will conjure multiple of whatever object you’re trying to follow, and simply destroy the one in whatever hand, or in this case cup, that the other player guesses. The counter to the game is quite simple, but also good practice for us against mages.

If you know when the person is going to destroy their stone, you can simply release a bit of cloak onto the stone, preventing it from ever being destroyed. For a person such as myself, whose mana network barely allows me to produce a small flame, this technique is quite useless outside of close combat.

However, for those of us who are more magically gifted, this can be a way of messing with your opponent’s spell casting. Truly an ingenious method of training.

After twenty seconds of intense shuffling, I place my hand upon the cup that contains the marble and inject the interior and surrounding area with a bit of my cloak.

Lifting up the cup, the marble remains untouched, whilst the young man looks incredibly shocked.

“H-how did you-” He begins to ask, but is soon cut off by the loud cheering of the crowd. I can assume they’re all sore losers.

Defeated and outnumber by the rather intimidating crowd, the boy reluctantly hands me my new storage bag.

Feeling a bit bad for the young man, I lean over and whisper a bit of advice into his ear.

“Next time, destroy the marble before you let someone touch the cup. Doing that makes the trick much harder to counter.” I say in a low whisper before I stand up and take my leave.

Hmm, I’ve never used a storage bag before, yet I know Blaze was always talking about how useful it would be to have. Apparently, this small bag can fit a great number of items, allowing you to carry three to four backpacks worth of goods in one small bag, all without having any difference in weight.

As a test, I think I’ll try and put my whole bag into this small one and see.

Taking my backpack off my back and opening the small storage bag, it takes a simple push for the small bag to grow to an impressive size and allow me to drop my entire bag into it with ease. Afterward, it closes back up to its normal size.

Truly remarkable.

Strapping the bag to my waist alongside my sword, I begin my search of the Adventurers Union.

After a few minutes of searching and asking a few guards, I’m eventually brought to a large stone building, with the name ‘Continental Adventurers Union’ plastered on the front.

Taking a step inside, I walk up to what is obviously a reception desk and state my business to the fare looking union worker.

“Hello, I’d like to register as an adventurer,” I say, yet before the receptionist is able to respond, I feel a hand touch upon my shoulder.

“Look, big guy, don’t sign that shitty contract yet. Ask to go through the tests first and try and get a better one. Trust me when I say that the piece of paper they give you is nothing but a scam.” A deeper voice says, most likely belonging to the one whose hand is on my shoulder. I have half a mind to cut off his hand for having the nerve of sneaking up on me, but it appears I’m in his debt.

Turning around to look at the man, I come face to face with a tall, older-looking human mage. He’s wearing a deep brown robe and has a pair of thin glasses delicately placed on the very edge of his nose.

“Ah, thank you. I’m quite new here.” I say as the man sticks out his other hand for a handshake.

“No worries, the names Arnold, Arnold Farrowhead, and it looks like we’re going to be taking the same test here soon. Only ten more minutes before the next testing session right?” Arnold says, peering over my shoulder and looking at the receptionist.

“That is correct sir.” She says with a flat and bored face.

“Perfect, come take a seat over here with me. What did you say your name was again?” Arnold says, not giving me any time to reply.

For the first person I’ve had a conversation with in this strange town, he sure seems, eccentric.

“…when you mix Flames of Agr-” Oh he’s still talking.

“The name is Gust, Gust Renarus. I’m registering here to make money whilst I look for my children.” I say, sticking my hand out for another handshake, interrupting his ramblings.

“Oh, sorry for your loss if they turn up dead. As I said, I’m Arnold, I’m a Golemancer, and it looks like I’m also now going to be a part-time child tracker.” Arnold says with a matter-of-fact tone and a gentle smile.

“Come again?” I ask, man I should have listened to his ramblings a bit.

“Didn’t you hear me before? I’m registering as an adventurer to have fun. So, you need help and seem fun, so I’m going to help you. Simple as that.” He says, his tone and smile never leaving.

“A-alright then,” I say, genuinely a bit off guard.

I guess it could be helpful to have a powerful mage on my side.. Seems like there would be no harm in having him along.