Kapitel 13: Osirath II
A source of light emerged in the world of darkness all around me—a darkness that was not dark. Light seemed to emanate from every corner and nowhere at once, revealing the encompassing darkness. It seemed like the purpose of the light was to show the darkness all around. The light that emerged, however, was a thing separate from the world; like a lightbulb shining a room that only needed a candle to illuminate. Strangely, I found solace in observing the darkness rather than the light. The darkness, however, wasn't what I needed, so I turned my attention to the translucent source of light that seemed excessively bright due to the surrounding illumination.
Upon touching the ball of light, it split into two smaller balls. The one on the left was dim, while the other one was as translucent as before. I touched the dim one first; nothing happened. Then went for the other. As I touched the translucent ball of light, it swirled, traveling around my palm, then up my arm to shoulder to my whole body as it expanded and enveloped me, filling me with ecstasy. The light vanished, replacing itself with a light brighter than before. I noticed that the previously dim light had become translucent. I touched it and it seemed to absorb light from me and somehow turned dim again, while the brighter than translucent light turned back to translucent. I touched the right one like before, letting the light surround me, then vanishing while creating brighter light. I touched it twice again. Each time both the lights grew brighter and brighter, one brighter than the other.
When I touched the brightest light I had seen there and let it envelop me and vanish, it didn't bring brighter light. It instead dimmed like the initially dimmed light. Now the left was the brightest. The cycle was completed. Something still seemed incomplete, however.
I woke up with a newfound strength, like those fights were workout sessions that increased my power. Maybe that's what it would feel to a fighter. Good news was that all the tiredness had completely melted away. Something hit my sides while waking from the bed. I had slept with the sword on and felt like a fool to do so.
After the daily routine, I went to the table to have my breakfast, which I acquired by paying 50 coins. Apparently, the 50 was for three meals and I needed 100 for bed and dinner. So without a bed I'd be saving 50 coins, and I'd get three meals a day. That was as fine a deal as anyone could ask for. But where else to sleep for a day? I could've gone to another inn, but everyone in the common room said that they all had the same price.
After breakfast, I strolled to the obscure shop with the energy drinks and purchased two of them. The buzzing stopped, as expected. But started again after a two to three seconds interval. I didn't know what to do with it, so I ignored it.
I figured I had the whole day, so it would've been good to walk around the town, completely unlike a shut-in. Shut-in? Was I ever one? Something felt wrong with my memory. I pondered about it while walking through the town, seeing new places.
I came across an establishment with a signboard saying "Sandsight Expeditions: Navigate the uncharted sands, find adventure in the waste." Another saying "Golden Sands Alchemists: Harnessing the mysteries of the desert." All of these places enticed me, but ultimately I decided to visit "The Ever Glorious Sand Castle of the Setting Sun." Too extravagant of a name, to be honest. Felt pretentious enough to be suspicious. Regardless, I went.
The castle, like all other structures in the kingdom, was entirely constructed from sand. <The king should feel grateful it's in the middle of a desert.> If any fool—who would want to conquer a desert kingdom in the middle of a desert—had wanted to raid it with an army, they might or might not have succeeded in defeating the Osirath army, but the castle would have toppled down for sure.
When I reached the gates, the guards stopped me. There was no way around them. They didn't even suggest a fight like the guards outside. These guys simply refused entrance. No amount of convincing would budge them. I became sure of that. So I simply stood there, gazing at the magnificent castle adorned with a red setting sun banner on a golden field that fluttered even in the absence of wind. Perhaps they had hidden fans on the rooftop, but I couldn't be certain. Eventually, I turned around and continued exploring the town.
Deciding to change my line of work, I went to the alchemists agency. The receptionist resembled a witch from the 16th century, both in appearance and speech.
"Fair is foul and foul is fair—"
"That's stolen from Macbeth." I interjected.
"What?"
"You stole this line from Macbeth, didn't you? Are you trying to look intimidating? I might've been a bit intimidated if you wore a beard."
"Hmmmm...." She pulled off her cloak and put it aside, revealing a dark green gown that still looked like that of some mage, but I refrained from commenting on it. "Welcome to the Golden Sands Alchemists: Harnessing the mysteries of the desert, sir. How may I assist you?"
<Damn! The tone shift.> I thought against commenting further on the subject. Then enquired her about available jobs.
"Go to the kitchen on the third floor, brew something, fill the vials with it, and bring them to me. You'll be given 10 coins for each vial you fill, and you can keep one-fourth of the vials for yourself. Have a nice day." She bowed as I left for the kitchen.
There, I went to a cauldron that wasn't occupied by witch folk. There was a menu card or ingredient card or cook book card or whatever it was called on the table. I examined it for a while, then put some herbs, mushroom and water in the gray liquid. After stirring for nearly an hour, the liquid turned blood red. I emptied the cauldron into 20 vials. Took them to the receptionist. I received 200 coins and 5 vials of the liquid. I put them into my pocket and they vanished!
"What witchcraft is this?"
"It's alchemy."
"I mean, why did they vanish?"
"Oh that. Don't you have a Handheld Nexus?"
"What the fuck is that?"
"What do you have on yourself except that sword of yours?" She said, pointing to my waist.
"My armour?"
"No, I mean a rectangular device."
<A rectangular device? Ohhh it's the phone.>
"This?" I said, showing the phone.
"Yes." She smiled.
Then it clicked. Everything up to that point was being sent to me through the phone, so why would the vials be any different?
"So this is called a Handheld Nexus?"
"Yes."
I thanked her and went back to the inn. There, I sat playing a betting game. It was a randomizer with five items. More specifically, the five elements; earth, fire, water, spirit, and air. I bet on a different element after each spin, repeating it after a cycle and won 500 more than I previously had.
Night came soon. Hunger indicated that I had skipped lunch. The bloody addiction of gambling rubbed me off the wrong way on my first fucking day. <I guess 25 coins were wasted. Still, that means I got a profit of 475.> Optimism was the way to go. I ordered dinner and gobbled it down. I had to use the stipulation to get extra food so I could fill up the extra hunger. It felt wrong, then felt right, since my 25 was already given.
As soon as I finished dinner, I went strolling through the streets, searching for thieves to loot. I found 7 of them before exhaustion indicated the need for sleep. I could've used the energy drinks, but gambling made me know when to stop being too greedy. There was one oddity I found during my hunting. All the thieves had 150 coins each. I suspected I was dealing with a guild of thieves that shared equal coins between themselves. I wondered how much the death of 7 of them would change their shares.
<Tonight, I'll remember to put off my sword belt and armour while sleeping.> I thought, <Also, why am I still wearing this coat? I need to change into something more desert-like. Then again, it's a weird desert; hot during day and cold at night. Is there even a dress that could handle that? Oh, don't tell me I have to change clothes two times a day.>
I cursed a lot before sleeping. I somehow remembered to sleep without my stuff on, and that made sleep better than ever. Once again, I was floating in the darkness with those lights. They grew brighter and brighter for three times, then grew dim again. I thought of moving to somewhere else. Another light was before me. This time, touching it vertically divided the light into five different lights. They were not exactly balls of light, but had different shapes. I didn't have much time to examine them, as I was yanked out of the dream.
Somebody grabbed my neck and held me down. I kicked and screamed in vain as they held together and bound my hands in chains. There was another man who put a ragged cloth in my mouth. I was hauled up and lifted from the ground by my neck. It felt suffocating with the gag on.
"You will cease your futile efforts of escape unless you want a hand chopped off."
I stopped dead and nodded in compliance. Eventually, the man put me down, but maintained his grip on my neck. The other one hoarded my belongings in a bag and dangled it before my eyes.
"You will get these back once you're proven innocent."
Perplexed, I tried to express my confusion with my facial expression as best as I could.
"You, traveller, are under arrest on charges of assault on four guards."
I wanted to scream objections saying "they agreed to fight" or "they put that damn challenge first", but the gag prevented me from muttering a single word. Not that I could have said anything had my mouth been naked. I was too stiflingly shocked, unspeakably unmovable, uncontrollably dumbfounded and speechlessly flabbergasted to say anything. The buzzing had finally stopped, replaced by the thundering boom of beating drums.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein