46 Rumors Around The City

In the morning my mana pathways were sore so I decided to go for a walk around the city instead of continuing the mana practice. I had some insight into how it should circulate but after getting some soreness I decided that I should hold off for now before it got worse.

'My control over my mana needs some improvement, if only one night of practice lands me here how would other's progress be?'

I had never asked others how they used their mana. Mana just came to me and I use it as if it were natural to me, surely others have trouble using mana outside of skills right?

Mana is in the world around us and resides in nature as an unknown force. Rather than Earth which had no mana and was missing that 'Force'. It must be an amazing thing what we accomplished back on Earth without any influence from mana, magic, or gods.

After a shower, I cleared my thoughts and walked out of the inn heading down the street.

'I've never been much interested in this city and have only explored some things other than the guild and the outside surroundings.' Thinking that, I went along the streets intending to explore more of the city that I had been staying in.

The streets were made out of cut and polished stones and the city had a well-off and happy atmosphere. Kids were playing on the street as their mothers talked in a circle watching the kids from nearby making sure they didn't run out of sight.

'A mother's worry seems to be present even in supernatural worlds such as this huh?' Although I couldn't see my face I could tell from the others who were looking nearby that I had made a face they knew all too much.

'No matter how hard I try to hide the memories it still comes up unintentionally in the end.' I had some tears building up in my eyes so I wiped the water away and moved on with my sightseeing.

The buildings looked to be not what I would expect out of a fantasy world, there seemed to be some external design choices made as I reached more toward the center of the city. The designs even became more modern for some buildings. Some looked to be Japanese styled and some looked American-styled. Even some that looked to be a new style I had never seen before.

'It seems like this world has a history of reincarnated people from all kinds of worlds.' I thought to myself as I continued through the houses and reached a marketplace area.

Eventually, I arrived at what seemed to be a street vendor heaven as it was bustling with people and stalls selling different stuff. The surroundings were loud as vendors yelled their products trying to get every customer that they could to make their living.

"Orc Skewers! Get 'em while they're still hot!" A vendor yelled as I passed by.

With the skewers smelling that good I couldn't hold out against the temptation and I couldn't help but notice that I had yet to eat breakfast so I took a couple to go and continued on my way throughout the marketplace.

There were more food stalls but I had my fair share already so I continued looking at the wares of some stalls, nothing held my attention so far though. After about an hour of walking, I bought some underwear and socks that felt well-made and were recommended by the vendors nearby too.

I had managed to hear rumors floating around the city as well. I heard that the blacksmith and the tailor who have shops next to each other have been seen around the town at restaurants being lovey-dovey. After listening in apparently the blacksmith was a woman and the tailor was a man, that part was a bit unexpected but it was fun to hear about nonetheless.

I also heard about a 'prophet' of the church who has dreams of the future. He had collapsed while training out of nowhere and a prophetic dream had occurred. His expression upon waking up was the church has been passing along the dream to everyone who would listen.

The thought of a prophetic dream had intrigued me enough and with this world having magic and powers as such there would probably be some truth in said ability so I decided to ask for directions toward the church from one of the vendors.

"You gotta buy something if you want an answer young man."

After taking a second look at the vendor it was an old man with a hood covering most of his face. Trying to look into the hood only earned me the sight of complete darkness as no matter how hard I tried I couldn't see into his hood.

"Sounds fair." I didn't have a good look at his wares before I reached my hand over the table and grabbed what was a pendant sitting on a pedestal.

"That'll be 3 gold, sir." The hooded old man said without missing a beat.

The second I had the pendant in my hands I felt a shock run through my entire body. It felt as if something had become infinitely clearer as I took a second look at the pendant. It was old and didn't even react when I tried to appraise it. Although it was expensive I could recoup the costs by hunting more this week.

"3 gold for something that can't even be guaranteed. It looks to be made of Silver but it could just be plated, couldn't it? 20 Silvers." Whatever that shock was made me interested in this pendant so I wanted to haggle the price down as much as possible. Depending on how much I could save I wouldn't have to hunt as many monsters to recoup the cost.

The old man seemed to stare at me with his lack of a face as he contemplated the haggle. Eventually, he answered, "That's not entirely wrong. I could go down to 2 golds at the most. This is my lowest price! Don't try to fool me, I have had it appraised before I know what it is."

"Deal, but I need proof of the appraisal then." I decided that spending 2 golds here was acceptable, I had saved a whole 100 silvers and I still have yet to clear out the 50 goblin parts at the guild yet. I was fine parting with 2 golds.

After receiving the directions to the church and reading the appraisal results on the way I couldn't help but feel scammed by the old man.

The appraisal results weren't what I had expected.