Today was going to be a great day. I could already feel it. My first stop? A god damn cobbler. I had gone for too long without shoes! Hell, I was probably going to have my feet cut up and torn to shreds and wouldn’t even be able to feel it. I had to be more careful about my, I don’t know, disability? Not being able to feel pain is only good in life or death combat scenarios, not every day life where it could lead to you being hurt and not realizing.
The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and my heart felt full of flight. I had enough wherewithal to briefly ask the elf at the front desk for directions to the nearest shoe store and I was off! I admired the buildings. Tyler, the philistine, hadn’t cared at all! But all of the buildings were made of wood. Not chopped up wood, not constructed out of wood, but the same wood as if it was one singular whole piece, a plant in it’s own right. And maybe it was! All these buildings… were they actually plants? I might have to visit the library myself to find those type of answers. Wait no, that would be boring. I was a tourist. The best way to learn about a city was to talk to the locals!
I got a lot of looks as I walked, many reacted with awe, shock, or hatred. Too close to the human lands but most of the elves seemed to be fine with me. I had no idea what that meant on a bigger scale. If my next door neighbor was dealing with an invasion force, it made sense that the Elves probably should have helped them during that time. It wasn’t even just politics at that point, it said a lot more about the culture of dwarves and elves that they hadn’t. The only race I’d heard about that nearly religiously helped out were the fairies.
Fairies. I hadn’t seen any of them. Konohora and people had barely mentioned them, as if they were just as normal as Elves or Dwarves were. But there had been a certain… reverence when they spoke of them. Konohora during our travel had even casually called them ‘The Guardians of Humanity’ and that had been an incredible thing to hear from a Truth Priestess. Apparently they had been decimated in the war, suffering even more casualties than humans did, with a far lower birth rate.
Personally, I found them… fascinating. I’d read my fair share of fantasy stuff and now I was in a fantasy world. There were a lot of things new that I’d come to expect but it was like looking at an image of a convertible driving vs being in that car. The experience wasn’t the same at all. Elves were fascinating but also, I knew elves. I knew dwarves. I thought I knew fairies. Clearly, I did not. Which had a loop effect. If fairies weren’t just tiny humanoids with wings that liked to play pranks… then how much did I really know about elves? About dwarves? Hell, even about demons and humans? I was making a lot of assumptions and simply looking at the buildings around here was already proving me wrong.
I had expected trees.
Since we had started heading towards the elven kingdom, I had expected trees. Treehouses, tree homes, forests as far as the eye could see. And sure, maybe I was partially right, as Elves seemed to have an intimate connection to wood and maybe these houses were actually trees. But I also wasn’t expecting what looked like a human town in a plain, just made of wood. It was, difficult to describe? Imagine you were going to go experience something new but that you had done plenty of research on, only to find out even more details that really ingrained the experience. It was like looking at the details in a video game or the lore and architecture for me. It was all just fascinating.
Example, there were fat elves. Not many, most everyone in this world seemed to be fit to some degree, and elves seemed to almost all be thin, but there were a few. And that had nothing on the few muscular elves I came across, usually guards. They patrolled the streets at a leisurely pace, clearly following a morning routine, and got lots of smiles and waves.
That… actually hurt. Sure, I’d lived in more of a city esk area while on Earth, but I couldn’t imagine any police receiving positive feelings, at least not in my country. But on the other hand, maybe it wasn’t so abnormal. ‘Police’ in this world dealt with people, but they also protected people from monsters. The fact that we hadn’t run into many in our travel had been bizarre to my companions but they had simply attributed it to luck. They were probably right but I had a feeling it was something more as I had felt monsters while we traveled. A lot of them. Creatures that were about as strong, or weaker, than a normal person but stronger than a squirrel. Damn squirrels. I saw one now, with its four eyes and two tails. I can see a bird right over there with the normal amount of eyes! Why do you have to be the weird creepy ones?!
Anyway, I’d felt monsters but they had suspiciously stayed away from us, some observing, others running away. At least that was what my ‘gauge’ had said. Which interestingly enough… seemed to have expanded a bit. That was awesome, really, but that it had done so was also weird. I was grateful in a way but if started expanding more and more, I’d probably explode. Filtering out all the ‘pressure waves’ from the people around me was already a bit tough. The stronger, the more the waves rippled out. But there was detail to it, that nearly drove me insane a bit. Guard? Dangerous. But two guards meeting up, clearly willing to fight together? That pressure wave just amplified a little bit, rather than just combining. A man temporarily putting his sword out of easy reach? Pressure wave lessened a bit. Normal person with a frying pan? Tiny, super small increase when having it, or decrease when putting it too far away from them.
My power gauge was practically getting soaked through, with how many waves were all around me. And there was another detail. An archer had a much longer pressure wave, and it had multiple parts. The ‘can hurt me and is a potential danger’ aspect and the ‘is around this powerful, so this is how far their ‘power level’ stretches outwards from them’ aspect. I felt like I should have gone insane but it felt all, easy as swimming. Not always easy to make out, too strong or too many like this and I couldn’t yet keep up with it all. But I felt like I could with time. It was, a weird ability. Celena had mentioned way back when, that most powerful people could tell how strong someone else was just by looking at them. I had a feeling my power wasn’t that. Maybe other strong people did develop exactly this but this felt way too, versatile. Diverse. It was like I was in a pool while a million rocks moved about, sometimes growing larger or smaller. It was fascinating just to ‘watch’ the ripples on the waves.
My feet finally reached the shoe store, lost in thought as I was, and I smiled. The sign out front wasn’t a picture of shoes but of a potion, sword, and shield. Clearly I’d just been sent to a general store. I opened the door and blinked in surprise when I heard a bell ring above my head. Huh.
“Welcom-” The elf at the front stopped, blinking in surprise at me. Well, okay, a demon did just walk into your store. Or the store you work for, either way.
“Hello. Do you have shoes here? Oh. And also socks but I suppose I could try sandals.”
That had been a bit of an odd sight to see around but Elves seemed to either prefer clothes with lots of skin, plenty of male and female bellies, arms, legs, etc showing, or cloaks covering their whole bodies. I think I had been in shock the first time I entered the gates yesterday and saw a male elf with a crop top, shorts, and sandals. The whole town had been shocking though.
Store owner(?) still looked surprised at me but recovered quickly.
“Of course, we have our fair share of shoes. Both that and socks are near the back shelves.”
I turned around and now it was my turn to blink in surprise. I could see the shoes and socks in the back, among other accessory pieces of clothing like hats and such, but it was all the other things that surprised me. Potions, actual, honest to god potions. Maps, compasses, backpacks, travel rations, one whole section of the store seemed dedicated to travelers. Another seemed to house a few more pieces of clothing but not many, mixed in with cooking supplies. The last held-
“Is that a sword?”
It was a dumb question coming out of my dumb mouth. But for some reason, the rack of bargain bin weapons seemed to surprise me in a place that also sold hats. Swords were clearly popular, there seemed to be a barrel of them, but a few spears, bows, a mace, and other basic weapons were essentially laying around. Not haphazardly or anything, the store was clearly taking care of them, but still, it was just a bunch of weapons on a wall.
“Hm? Oh, of course. We aren’t a professional weapons store or anything but we take good solid steel and iron from aspiring blacksmiths and make them ready and available for purchase. They won’t do you as good as a more expensive piece of gear, that is true, but it’s always handy to have a backup weapon or a few while you’re out there in the wild or just traveling to and from!”
Definitely store owner, as they tried to upsell me on basic weaponry while still seeing I had a giant black metal sword strapped to my back.
Still, I was loving this. Loving all of it. This, this is what I had wanted! To go to some place and be surprised by even the most basic of basic things, to be shocked by a culture, except without it actively trying to kill me. It was a nice surprise. I walked over, glancing at a few price tags. I knew this damn world had paper but still, I felt residual shock. It was just so, normal, so modern a thing to have. Little white paper price tags. But not something I’d have ever expected in a fantasy world. I really, really wanted to question the owner but I’d seem crazy and insane. And what would they tell me, where or who they bought it from? And then what, I go chase down that person and ask where they got the paper from? Or were they the person who made the paper itself and they’d teach me what they were doing? Paper wasn’t common in medieval times for a reason. Was there a machine or magical process involved? I had seen a bit of magic by now due to Riary and could confidently say, machines should have been possible, but I hadn’t seen anything more advanced than magic. Was magic replacing everything? I mean I took a shower. There were rocks that produced water, that even Tyler could use, despite never showing any signs of being able to use magic outside his weird irregular aura stuff.
“Sir?”
“Ah, sorry, I tend to get lost in my own head.”
I tried on a few pairs of shoes and sandals, finally figuring out at least some vague idea of size, and nearly went the blasphemous route of socks and sandals, before saying screw it, and just buying a pair of sandals and a pair of shoes. I went up to pay and the price might have been high, it might have been low, but either way, it was absolutely negligible to me right now. The price was in copper.
“Say, how does money… work?”
The owner, who had just handed me my brand new gear, stared at me like I was an idiot. Which, you know, fair.
“What?”
“Like, currencies. Different currencies, how much copper makes a silver makes a gold, that sort of thing.”
The owner, who I was now starting to regret not getting the name of, continued to stare at me.
“Are you… serious?”
“I’m a demon and I’m really new to this world. I got some money and I understand the basics, just not the exchange rate.”
Did I feel stupid asking a total stranger to explain a concept even a two year old would know? Yes. Hell yes. Very much yes. Did I feel comfortable asking my ‘companions’? No. Not at all. I’m pretty sure I’d feel like they were being condescending no matter how they told me, like I was stupid for not knowing something I couldn’t possibly have already known. I didn’t need that extra annoyance in my life, even if I wasn’t going to see them in about a week.
The owner still stared at me, utterly baffled, before explaining.
“It’s, it’s one hundred copper makes a silver. One hundred silver makes a gold. It’s been that way… god, since forever. Since before the Dark Age. Possibly even before the Calamity Age.”
Now it was my turn to be baffled, it was good that we were sharing in that.
“It’s been the same way for thousands of years?”
“Well… of course. Why would it change? Oh, but don’t me wrong. The prices of things and wages have sure changed! Why, I tell you, back in my day…”
I listened in, feeling my spirits lifted as the owner went on a rant about how things used to be and how all the business was good for the town but had royally fucked him over about thirty years ago when the demon war ended. He also spoke of the beginning of the demon war and how that had affected his prices at the time. He spoke like he was already well into the business in both instances and yet… he looked younger than I did. The lifespan of elves was truly amazing.
It suddenly occurred to me that Silinthia, who had fucked me, could have been hundreds of years old. Apparently, elves lived up to around a thousand if they’re lucky. God, it didn’t feel like the elves around me and I had seen were hundreds of years old. If I lived for over a hundred years and wasn’t retired, I’d kill myself out of shame and anger. Well, maybe these elves were just young in a way. After all, the owner in front of me clearly seemed like he wasn’t purely doing this job for money, but seemed like he genuinely enjoyed it.
It was a nice, pleasant conversation, and before I left he advised me to pick up a few more items if I’d go out traveling soon. His suggestion of a proper rain cloak nearly made me weep tears of joy. Forever fuck you rain.
Eventually though, after my slight shopping spree, I headed on out and to a new destination. The day was just getting started after all! Next stop?
The church.
Today was going to be a great day. I could already feel it. My first stop? A god damn cobbler. I had gone for too long without shoes! Hell, I was probably going to have my feet cut up and torn to shreds and wouldn’t even be able to feel it. I had to be more careful about my, I don’t know, disability? Not being able to feel pain is only good in life or death combat scenarios, not every day life where it could lead to you being hurt and not realizing.
The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and my heart felt full of flight. I had enough wherewithal to briefly ask the elf at the front desk for directions to the nearest shoe store and I was off! I admired the buildings. Tyler, the philistine, hadn’t cared at all! But all of the buildings were made of wood. Not chopped up wood, not constructed out of wood, but the same wood as if it was one singular whole piece, a plant in it’s own right. And maybe it was! All these buildings… were they actually plants? I might have to visit the library myself to find those type of answers. Wait no, that would be boring. I was a tourist. The best way to learn about a city was to talk to the locals!
I got a lot of looks as I walked, many reacted with awe, shock, or hatred. Too close to the human lands but most of the elves seemed to be fine with me. I had no idea what that meant on a bigger scale. If my next door neighbor was dealing with an invasion force, it made sense that the Elves probably should have helped them during that time. It wasn’t even just politics at that point, it said a lot more about the culture of dwarves and elves that they hadn’t. The only race I’d heard about that nearly religiously helped out were the fairies.
Fairies. I hadn’t seen any of them. Konohora and people had barely mentioned them, as if they were just as normal as Elves or Dwarves were. But there had been a certain… reverence when they spoke of them. Konohora during our travel had even casually called them ‘The Guardians of Humanity’ and that had been an incredible thing to hear from a Truth Priestess. Apparently they had been decimated in the war, suffering even more casualties than humans did, with a far lower birth rate.
Personally, I found them… fascinating. I’d read my fair share of fantasy stuff and now I was in a fantasy world. There were a lot of things new that I’d come to expect but it was like looking at an image of a convertible driving vs being in that car. The experience wasn’t the same at all. Elves were fascinating but also, I knew elves. I knew dwarves. I thought I knew fairies. Clearly, I did not. Which had a loop effect. If fairies weren’t just tiny humanoids with wings that liked to play pranks… then how much did I really know about elves? About dwarves? Hell, even about demons and humans? I was making a lot of assumptions and simply looking at the buildings around here was already proving me wrong.
I had expected trees.
Since we had started heading towards the elven kingdom, I had expected trees. Treehouses, tree homes, forests as far as the eye could see. And sure, maybe I was partially right, as Elves seemed to have an intimate connection to wood and maybe these houses were actually trees. But I also wasn’t expecting what looked like a human town in a plain, just made of wood. It was, difficult to describe? Imagine you were going to go experience something new but that you had done plenty of research on, only to find out even more details that really ingrained the experience. It was like looking at the details in a video game or the lore and architecture for me. It was all just fascinating.
Example, there were fat elves. Not many, most everyone in this world seemed to be fit to some degree, and elves seemed to almost all be thin, but there were a few. And that had nothing on the few muscular elves I came across, usually guards. They patrolled the streets at a leisurely pace, clearly following a morning routine, and got lots of smiles and waves.
That… actually hurt. Sure, I’d lived in more of a city esk area while on Earth, but I couldn’t imagine any police receiving positive feelings, at least not in my country. But on the other hand, maybe it wasn’t so abnormal. ‘Police’ in this world dealt with people, but they also protected people from monsters. The fact that we hadn’t run into many in our travel had been bizarre to my companions but they had simply attributed it to luck. They were probably right but I had a feeling it was something more as I had felt monsters while we traveled. A lot of them. Creatures that were about as strong, or weaker, than a normal person but stronger than a squirrel. Damn squirrels. I saw one now, with its four eyes and two tails. I can see a bird right over there with the normal amount of eyes! Why do you have to be the weird creepy ones?!
Anyway, I’d felt monsters but they had suspiciously stayed away from us, some observing, others running away. At least that was what my ‘gauge’ had said. Which interestingly enough… seemed to have expanded a bit. That was awesome, really, but that it had done so was also weird. I was grateful in a way but if started expanding more and more, I’d probably explode. Filtering out all the ‘pressure waves’ from the people around me was already a bit tough. The stronger, the more the waves rippled out. But there was detail to it, that nearly drove me insane a bit. Guard? Dangerous. But two guards meeting up, clearly willing to fight together? That pressure wave just amplified a little bit, rather than just combining. A man temporarily putting his sword out of easy reach? Pressure wave lessened a bit. Normal person with a frying pan? Tiny, super small increase when having it, or decrease when putting it too far away from them.
My power gauge was practically getting soaked through, with how many waves were all around me. And there was another detail. An archer had a much longer pressure wave, and it had multiple parts. The ‘can hurt me and is a potential danger’ aspect and the ‘is around this powerful, so this is how far their ‘power level’ stretches outwards from them’ aspect. I felt like I should have gone insane but it felt all, easy as swimming. Not always easy to make out, too strong or too many like this and I couldn’t yet keep up with it all. But I felt like I could with time. It was, a weird ability. Celena had mentioned way back when, that most powerful people could tell how strong someone else was just by looking at them. I had a feeling my power wasn’t that. Maybe other strong people did develop exactly this but this felt way too, versatile. Diverse. It was like I was in a pool while a million rocks moved about, sometimes growing larger or smaller. It was fascinating just to ‘watch’ the ripples on the waves.
My feet finally reached the shoe store, lost in thought as I was, and I smiled. The sign out front wasn’t a picture of shoes but of a potion, sword, and shield. Clearly I’d just been sent to a general store. I opened the door and blinked in surprise when I heard a bell ring above my head. Huh.
“Welcom-” The elf at the front stopped, blinking in surprise at me. Well, okay, a demon did just walk into your store. Or the store you work for, either way.
“Hello. Do you have shoes here? Oh. And also socks but I suppose I could try sandals.”
That had been a bit of an odd sight to see around but Elves seemed to either prefer clothes with lots of skin, plenty of male and female bellies, arms, legs, etc showing, or cloaks covering their whole bodies. I think I had been in shock the first time I entered the gates yesterday and saw a male elf with a crop top, shorts, and sandals. The whole town had been shocking though.
Store owner(?) still looked surprised at me but recovered quickly.
“Of course, we have our fair share of shoes. Both that and socks are near the back shelves.”
I turned around and now it was my turn to blink in surprise. I could see the shoes and socks in the back, among other accessory pieces of clothing like hats and such, but it was all the other things that surprised me. Potions, actual, honest to god potions. Maps, compasses, backpacks, travel rations, one whole section of the store seemed dedicated to travelers. Another seemed to house a few more pieces of clothing but not many, mixed in with cooking supplies. The last held-
“Is that a sword?”
It was a dumb question coming out of my dumb mouth. But for some reason, the rack of bargain bin weapons seemed to surprise me in a place that also sold hats. Swords were clearly popular, there seemed to be a barrel of them, but a few spears, bows, a mace, and other basic weapons were essentially laying around. Not haphazardly or anything, the store was clearly taking care of them, but still, it was just a bunch of weapons on a wall.
“Hm? Oh, of course. We aren’t a professional weapons store or anything but we take good solid steel and iron from aspiring blacksmiths and make them ready and available for purchase. They won’t do you as good as a more expensive piece of gear, that is true, but it’s always handy to have a backup weapon or a few while you’re out there in the wild or just traveling to and from!”
Definitely store owner, as they tried to upsell me on basic weaponry while still seeing I had a giant black metal sword strapped to my back.
Still, I was loving this. Loving all of it. This, this is what I had wanted! To go to some place and be surprised by even the most basic of basic things, to be shocked by a culture, except without it actively trying to kill me. It was a nice surprise. I walked over, glancing at a few price tags. I knew this damn world had paper but still, I felt residual shock. It was just so, normal, so modern a thing to have. Little white paper price tags. But not something I’d have ever expected in a fantasy world. I really, really wanted to question the owner but I’d seem crazy and insane. And what would they tell me, where or who they bought it from? And then what, I go chase down that person and ask where they got the paper from? Or were they the person who made the paper itself and they’d teach me what they were doing? Paper wasn’t common in medieval times for a reason. Was there a machine or magical process involved? I had seen a bit of magic by now due to Riary and could confidently say, machines should have been possible, but I hadn’t seen anything more advanced than magic. Was magic replacing everything? I mean I took a shower. There were rocks that produced water, that even Tyler could use, despite never showing any signs of being able to use magic outside his weird irregular aura stuff.
“Sir?”
“Ah, sorry, I tend to get lost in my own head.”
I tried on a few pairs of shoes and sandals, finally figuring out at least some vague idea of size, and nearly went the blasphemous route of socks and sandals, before saying screw it, and just buying a pair of sandals and a pair of shoes. I went up to pay and the price might have been high, it might have been low, but either way, it was absolutely negligible to me right now. The price was in copper.
“Say, how does money… work?”
The owner, who had just handed me my brand new gear, stared at me like I was an idiot. Which, you know, fair.
“What?”
“Like, currencies. Different currencies, how much copper makes a silver makes a gold, that sort of thing.”
The owner, who I was now starting to regret not getting the name of, continued to stare at me.
“Are you… serious?”
“I’m a demon and I’m really new to this world. I got some money and I understand the basics, just not the exchange rate.”
Did I feel stupid asking a total stranger to explain a concept even a two year old would know? Yes. Hell yes. Very much yes. Did I feel comfortable asking my ‘companions’? No. Not at all. I’m pretty sure I’d feel like they were being condescending no matter how they told me, like I was stupid for not knowing something I couldn’t possibly have already known. I didn’t need that extra annoyance in my life, even if I wasn’t going to see them in about a week.
The owner still stared at me, utterly baffled, before explaining.
“It’s, it’s one hundred copper makes a silver. One hundred silver makes a gold. It’s been that way… god, since forever. Since before the Dark Age. Possibly even before the Calamity Age.”
Now it was my turn to be baffled, it was good that we were sharing in that.
“It’s been the same way for thousands of years?”
“Well… of course. Why would it change? Oh, but don’t me wrong. The prices of things and wages have sure changed! Why, I tell you, back in my day…”
I listened in, feeling my spirits lifted as the owner went on a rant about how things used to be and how all the business was good for the town but had royally fucked him over about thirty years ago when the demon war ended. He also spoke of the beginning of the demon war and how that had affected his prices at the time. He spoke like he was already well into the business in both instances and yet… he looked younger than I did. The lifespan of elves was truly amazing.
It suddenly occurred to me that Silinthia, who had fucked me, could have been hundreds of years old. Apparently, elves lived up to around a thousand if they’re lucky. God, it didn’t feel like the elves around me and I had seen were hundreds of years old. If I lived for over a hundred years and wasn’t retired, I’d kill myself out of shame and anger. Well, maybe these elves were just young in a way. After all, the owner in front of me clearly seemed like he wasn’t purely doing this job for money, but seemed like he genuinely enjoyed it.
It was a nice, pleasant conversation, and before I left he advised me to pick up a few more items if I’d go out traveling soon. His suggestion of a proper rain cloak nearly made me weep tears of joy. Forever fuck you rain.
Eventually though, after my slight shopping spree, I headed on out and to a new destination. The day was just getting started after all! Next stop?
The church.
