Now that Damion knew he had a place to sleep and his next couple of meals assured. He decided to head out and explore. In Saung the roads were wide and typically filled with people walking or driving ground cars to restaurants and shopping areas. Bufort, however, had no ground cars moving about and the people walking about were not doing so in a leisurely manor. They were hurriedly going from place to place, as if being out in the open too long risked something.
Damion could only speculate that these people were nervous due to the recent beast wave. But the walls of the city were standing and with the Sentinel Order having a garrison here, Damion had a hard time understanding what was keeping all these people on their toes.
After a walk around the city, Damion started to understand why people were still on edge. Away from the core of the city, where the Sentinel stronghold and the Adventurer Association was, Damion saw damaged and destroyed houses and shops. Some of the buildings were in the process of being rebuilt, while others appeared to have been completely abandoned.
Seeing the varying levels of destruction around the city, Damion could only conclude that the beast wave had been quite devastating, far more than the one that hit Saung when he was younger. What Damion could not figure out was, why did no one in Saung talk about it? Ethan knew about it, but then he took the escort mission with his father’s trade caravan regularly so that made sense.
Did everyone know about the beast wave, and no one bothered to let Damion know, or was it some kind of coverup? Did the government not want to admit how bad the beast wave was? Or was Damion just too sheltered by his parents to be exposed to the truth?
The questions reeled in Damion’s mind as he tried to suss out the truth. In the end Damion gave up. He had no real way at the moment to determine which of his theories, if any, were correct. When he got back home, he would ask Ms. Teft and his mother, perhaps then he would have a better understanding.
When Damion had enough of his wanderings, he headed into a grocery store in search of food for lunch the next day. If he and Ethan headed out to kill Fire Scorpions, he did not want to spend the afternoon hungry. While Damion was browsing the fresh produce section, his eyes nearly popped out of his socket at the prices.
An apple was listed at 12 copper coins, four times the price compared to in Saung. Damion knew Bufort was having supply issues, but that price was quite outrageous. Damion continued his search for lunch away from the produce section and he quickly found that not all items in the store were as outrageously priced.
Canned food and other processed food items that would last were more reasonably priced. Still more than at home, but most were not even double the normal price. This told Damion that Mr. Hoyt’s trade caravan was likely alleviating a lot of the shortages, but fresh produce, with limited shelf life, was still in high demand.
Damion found the deli area and purchased himself two sandwiches that were packaged in individual containers that would preserve their freshness for several days.
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‘Magic is great,’ Damion thought as he paid for the sandwiches and stowed them in his bag. ‘If only they could do a preservation spell over the produce area, then wouldn’t that solve a lot of the issues with food going bad.’
As Damion wandered back to the Adventurer Association he pondered the possibility of such a spell and why it did not appear anyone was using it. They could preserve things in containers with a simple spell, but not fruits or vegetables in a bin.
Once back in the Adventurer Association Damion settled in and waited for dinner to be ready. When it was time, Damion followed the group of people in the Association to the serving line, which lead into a backroom Damion had not noticed before. This apparently was the kitchen.
In the middle of the kitchen a table was set up and Damion recognized the clerk behind the table serving each person as they came through. When Damion got his bowl of soup and a thick piece of bread he followed the other adventurers out of the kitchen to the lounge area to eat.
Damion ate in silence, as did most of the other adventurers. Though, a number of them gave him curious looks.
After Damion finished eating, he headed to the third floor and claimed a bed for himself, stowing his sword and backpack inside a locker that sealed magically and would only open with his touch.
As Damion lay in bed, it was difficult for him to fall asleep. He had come to terms with, or at least he believed he had, the idea of killing. But every time he closed his eyes, he kept seeing the bodies of the bandits and escorts that were killed and the look of fear on the two he let escape.
‘Was it really wrong to kill people just trying to get food to survive?’ Damion asked himself, but then another question popped into his mind. ‘Was it right for them to attack the convoy, kill the escorts and steal?’
While in the midst of pondering those questions, and a few more, late into the night, Damion eventually fell asleep. In the morning Damion was roused by the sound of boots and the rustling of clothing.
Rolling out of bed, Damion retrieved his bag and sword before heading downstairs. He elected not to change into the clean set of clothing his mother had packed for him. There was a decent chance that during the mission to kill Fire Scorpions he would end up dirtied and in need of clean clothes. Least he return home filthy and receive his mother’s ire.
Breakfast was much the same as dinner. Everyone lined up and filed slowly through the kitchen to receive a sausage patty, a piece of toast with jam on it and a fresh piece of fruit. The fruit surprised Damion, given the current cost of a single apple, but he was delighted to grab an apple to save as a snack for later.
Not long after finishing his breakfast, Damion headed out to meet Ethan. The idea of being able to go out and hunt wild beasts for the first time got Damion’s blood pumping. He just hoped that Fire Scorpions, while they sounded fairly fierce, would not be too dangerous.
“Ready to go?” Ethan asked when Damion arrived.
“How far is it to where the scorpions are?” Damion asked.
The idea of walking for several hours and then having to fight was not pleasant.
“About two hours on foot, but we can rent transport over there,” Ethan answered and pointed to a shop near the gate.
Ethan led the way over and Damion saw the shop had advertisements to rent a variety of vehicles. There were four wheeled options that looked like anything golfcarts to ATVs from Earth as well as two wheeled off-road bikes.
The option that got Damion’s attention were the flying ones. The shop had a selection of what looked like hoverboards and flying motorcycles and even a four passenger aircar for rent. Ethan saw Damion gravitating towards the hover bikes and gave Damion’s shoulder a slap and pointed to the sign.
The sign Ethan pointed out made Damion want to shout out in frustration.