10 Ancient fleshed
As he hurriedly wandered across the long alleyway, Steve was quick to realise that the architectural values of this city were interesting.
Sure there was nothing but stone around here, which made the whole place seem so gray and lifeless; but these frogs sure knew what to do with rocks.
The designs seemed wonderful, especially since the empty alleyways seemed expensive, even though there wasn't much use to such portions of the city.
Such details were valued a little bit more, once he considered that this whole world was medieval.
However. The path that Steve jogged through right now carried a few eye-catching columns.
Those ten-meter tall structions of carved stone, cooperated to keep these walls stable and dependable; but they also managed to beautify the whole alleyway.
There were also a lot of houses who behaved like walls as well, which created a comprehensive but yet complex view.
The young man almost fell down because he felt ensnared by these wonderful details, there was truly a lot to see.
But eventually he managed to find use out of the stone-work, rather than just appreciating their beauty.
He figured out that every once in a while, these walls carried wide pockets of space.
He could easily climb over them, because the walls were just a meter tall in those proportions.
These bits of space shifted elevation closer towards the ground obviously. And they were likely built that way, in order to add some texture across the stone-work.
Yet in this case, it could be used to avoid detection on an almost professional scale.
But for the sake of security he crossed the entire alleyway first. And then he sneaked through a wide street, just to enter another alleyway that was on the other side.
Once Steve jogged about thirty meters deep into this new route, he decided that now was the time to climb one of these shorter walls.
And he did exactly so, even though he had to place the expensive vase on one side of the wall, just to avoid scratching it; nonetheless break it.
"I'm young but I already feel too old for this," Steve complained, after one side of his waist ached due to the jog.
[This is nothing. You have to keep in good shape if you want to survive here,]
"Yeah, fair enough." The frogezoid sighed, right after he successfully climbed the short-wall.
But the architectural values managed to surprise him once more! As this wall was in a way, connected to a nearby house.
Such a combination was horrible as it would practically invite thieves over, but the wall didn't lead to any window so it wasn't all bad.
He slowly climbed over one platform of the house's left branch. And with a bit more effort, he managed to climb on top of the roof as well.
These houses had a lot of red-tiling, and they were laid in a square manner rather than pyramidal.
So overall it was easy to climb over any building, and necessarily he did exactly so.
This hiding spot would truly help him avoid detection, from practically anyone who was below. That crazy lady had almost no chances to find him up here!
Especially since dawn was still a few hours away. Darkness lurked on every corner, which aided to stay almost completely hidden!
And the moonlight at least proved helpful, in terms of giving away every bit of light he needed.
Steve could see his own two palms, and could definitely witness the merchandise he handled. So overall this hiding spot was great, well apart from the slight shivers he felt.
The frogezoid was seated over a stone roof right now, and this world has entered autumn from the looks of it.
Steve craved a fur-coat right now, but that was the least problematic issue he had faced in this new life.
"That was close," He eventually mumbled.
[It was very close, I advise you to be extra careful from now on]
[In the beginning you only had debt collectors chasing you, now a crazy witch is doing so as well]
[Survival must be taken seriously,]
"I'll be safe here for a while," He expressed and tried to remain positive.
Afterwards he contemplated a couple of facts, that solely revolved the fine line of what's right and what could be categorized as evil.
A moment ago, he just knocked a woman out cold and stole a few of her expensive belongings.
In the past life that he had, such behaviours certainly didn't befit his moral standards. Steve was what one could describe as an overly-righteous member of society.
That was why he felt that a portion of his personality had faded away, these acts surely were impactful on his noggin. But eventually he managed to push feelings aside.
The system did say that this land was barbaric, and barbarism simply couldn't be treated with manners. He could already guess that wealth was a necessity for survival here, quite literally even.
So he pushed all those thoughts away, and unleashed a deep sigh in order to replenish another tenth of his stamina.
Afterwards he softly handled the thin-book of which he had carried around in his black vest.
And he figured that it was the best time to study these few pieces of parchment.
He had to obtain that marvelous flaming crown, this was the main task at the moment. And this book was entirely dedicated to such a topic, so it seemed like the best idea to go through its contents.
Steve did exactly so for a good hour. At first it was a bit difficult to read without taking a break, as some sentences were difficult to comprehend.
And eventually he read through the entire book, but barely understood the information that was stored within.
Such a result managed to spike up his anxiety sky-high, so he had to go through the book once more just to tame stress.
Discomfort was one problem, but he also had a slight thirst for knowledge, which didn't let him put the book down.
Now he became a bit more lucky, because he managed to understand a few key points of this content.
He managed to get a brief idea, regarding where he could go next in order to start out this massive task.
So he dedicated another moment towards the comprehension of this content, and his brain ached a little bit as he tried to puzzle everything together.
That was when he complained, "These frogs have a weird language. Why is their writing so mixed up?"
[Literature isn't highly developed in this continent, and the authors do like to experiment quite a bit]
[You saw that most frogs here speak normally, so the authors of this era are to blame for this lack of transparency]
"I want to smack them with their own book, but that's fair enough." Steve added, and rubbed his head a little bit to ease down anxiety.
The young man didn't exactly feel happy with what he knew so far, so he had read the book a few times more.
He was dedicated to either fully understand or memorize these pages, as knowledge always helped ease goals.
Unsurprisingly the contents of this book managed to prove interesting, at least after enough effort was put towards its comprehension.
For example; not much was known about the flaming crown, especially since it was labelled as far too powerful. Such a result was quite expected.
According to the theories and legends, this crown was the first ever enchantment in the continent of Entagur.
Of course the country of Firestone was laid over this same continent, and was located somewhere around the middle.
However, legends decipher that some crazy wizard created the flaming crown right in this country. But of course no one knew where the crown was exactly located.
Borders have changed a lot through the river of time, so an aspect like that proved especially perplexing.
As for what use the enchantment had, it was easier to theorize that the Arcana arts were linked to it.
One legend guessed that once the crown was claimed and worn by anyone, they would instantly turn into the most powerful wizard of Entagur!
The thought itself seemed great, but it was most likely wishful thinking.
Other theories in this book related the crown with intense Arcana power as well, but no one knew for sure what exactly this item did.
"Everything here is so confusing..." Steve lightly complained.
And then he continued to banter, "Why are there so many theories when no one even saw the crown?"
[Lack of research primarily. Arcana arts aren't favoured at all in this country, so no research had a big funding before]
"That's fair," He swiftly agreed, just because he wanted to get back to the book.
One thing that these frogezoids seemed to be sure of, was the idea that this crown had been created over seven-thousand years ago!
Time wasn't even recorded back then, so he could guess that it would be difficult to locate the crown.
Yet a grand theory pointed out that this crown was created by one of the 'ancient fleshed'.
This idea was seemingly hated, because it contradicted every other theory, and disregarded legends that were gathered around the same topic.
As for what these ancient fleshed were, Steve didn't have the slightest clue. His best idea was to wait for dawn to rise, so he could find a bookstore; and buy bits of literature that surrounded this oddity.
