When we stopped next it was in front of a building that stood out. Most buildings on the main street were bright and colorful but this one was a mass of thick stone walls and had guards in full plate armor outside flanking the doors. They eyed us without turning their heads as we walked through the door where yet another new sight awaited me.
For a shop of this size, you would expect a large amount of merchandise. Instead, guards dotted the walls, and hip height tables ran throughout the open space in the middle of the room. Books were placed on these tables.
“What is this place? Is all of this security for books?”
“These aren’t just any books. They are the blood of adventurers in this world. These books are the best way to get and upgrade skills. But they come at an extreme price. Each of these books is worth sometimes months of pay to a low level adventurer. When you add in the cost of room and board that they have to pay… these books are the difference between a career adventurer and a body rotting in a dungeon. New adventurers will risk life and limb to get these books, just like I did in the past. The sooner you get one, the faster you can get the next.
These books give you skills or upgrade them. You can unlock these skills by meeting certain conditions but the conditions are hard to pin down and often far too extreme. So you can buy these books and unlock them in a moment. If you can shell out enough money, you can become absurdly powerful even at a young age.”
“Isn’t this just pay to win? A son of a successful merchant could just buy many of these books and level up super fast with them couldn’t they?”
“In short, yes. Affluent people often pay massive amounts to secure the futures of their families. This means cladding them in protective skills and taking up bodyguards who they hire with both payment in gold and skill books”
Dammit. Why did I think this would be a merit based world. The rich of this world buy up all the skill books and keep themselves strong. I bet the same thing goes with adventurers. Dynasties of strong adventurers who can harvest vast riches from harder missions and pass that on to their children who can do the same.
To be fair I have overheard we are in a kingdom, so it does make sense that the people at the top are absurdly rich, but I didnt think they would have such a big impact on adventurers. On the flip side, If I can get enough money to accumulate some of these, it seems like that will snowball quite easily.
We left the store soon after. And started making our way back to Venessa’s house.
“I brought you there so you could see what our goal is.” “To save up for some of those?” “In short yes but I think you’re missing out on an important detail here. Normally, necromancers are… hunted, for lack of a better word.”
I don’t like that detail thank you
“The crimes they commit to get near any amount of power usually mean that they have stirred an outcry from the pubic and have done enough to warrant parties whose sole job it is to hunt them down. I have never heard of a single necromancer making it to any sustained place of power. But you have no crimes that I know of at least, are a normal person from all angles I have seen, and you are far more powerful than any necromancer I have heard of, even at tier one.
If we go the dungeon like this, with your powers, we might be able to sweep dungeons floor by floor. The number of levels, drops, and cores we can get will be amazing! Normally we adventurers have to form into balanced teams, carefully inch through every floor so we aren’t killed in a surprise attack or trap, and then after it is all done we have to split the rewards. The profit low ranking adventurers see is almost nothing. But if we can use your skeletons to do all these jobs, and you can just make more if they’re destroyed, we can rake money in and reinvest it into ourselves.”
We got back to her house in the late afternoon and started packing up supplies. This is going to be a new period in this new life. I start tomorrow as a person with a goal and purpose after all!
“By the way, you are fine with what I layed out, right? Theoretically, you could basically do this all by yourself.”
“Why would I do that? Even if you caused me a fair bit of trouble your help has always proved to be worth many times more. I’m not giving that up for a couple more coins.
We ate supper while she told me about the world around us and some of the events of history, It was very nice, and best of all she was smiling at me more regularly now. We decided to get an early nights sleep and I started spreading out one of the sleeping bags we had prepared for the trip when she spoke from the bed.
“…If you want to sleep up here with me you can. I can’t even imagine when you last slept in an actual bed was.”
“Are you sure that’s ok? I don’t want to impose.”
“No, it’s fine. Just sleep well so we can get off to a good start tomorrow.”
“If you say so.”
I pulled myself into the bed next to her and almost immediately felt much better. From sleeping on dirt, to sleeping on a hide, to sleeping on a bed again. The difference is amazing, and even if it’s temporary I can’t help but appreciate just how important beds are. Soon I fell asleep.
Next to him Venessa faced the other way, towards the wall, and blushed as she listened to his even breathing next to her.
