The three of us walked the forest trail from the Rocky Outpost to return to the town. It'd been about 2 weeks before we'd found some gems that might be worth something.

Strapped to my back, the "new toy" stood about a foot over my head. It was a long metal pole that merged with what looked like a battle axe at the tip. The pole branched off so that sharp blades about a foot and a half in length curved down its side. These blades converged at the tip into a sharp point. Alex had told me that a traditional halberd didn't have blades on both sides, but that this was better for dealing with basic skeletons.

The past week since getting the toy has been extremely hard on me. I was cruelly banned from stabbing my enemies. A full month perfecting thrusting the rocket of my arm forward in a straight line had been oh so cruelly stripped from my existence.

The one thing I did like about this weapon was its range. I naturally found myself swinging it like a baseball bat at the rock golems, I only had to do this once before, despite the cloth wrapped around the base of the pole, I wasn't able to keep my grip. Now weaponless, I almost died to a rock golem. God, that would've been an embarrassing way to go. 

Regardless, while I wasn't able to use it as well as my rapier, I was at least confident that I would be better than a slingshot. Speaking of slingshots, Mary had tried repeatedly to find someone to teach her magic. The best we could do was find a book written by a mage who had retired. Apparently mages didn't teach magic because they either were too greedy to breed competition, or because they died before getting a chance to pass on their wisdom. Having a book was supposedly a miracle, courtesy of Alex's connections with the library.

After only a week of reading this book, Mary was able to conjure up a ball of light to hover above her hand. She probably could've been further along in magic if it weren't for Alex's... creative explanations. Who the hell has even played pinball before. 

She carried my rapier for the time being, while focusing on primarily using magic. In the outpost, she focused on flinging water at the target. We both talked to an adventurer at the market who, while he couldn't teach us magic, did mention a person being able to slice through a tree with water. Mary's water seemed more like the water that projected from a spray bottle. If we ever find ourselves surrounded by cats, we'll have a natural savior on our hands. 

The dirt road eventually turned to brick as we approached the town. We still had a ways to go before we arrived at our destination. The building run by the government which would take any available item dropped from monsters was still on the gear street, but it was the largest building that faced the tower. It merged the gear street with the government's street which seemed quite convenient considering the building's use. This building had specialized in taking items from monsters and both researching and using those items to create gear that would give adventurers an advantage. It also sold these items at a reasonable rate. 

However, the street we currently walked down also had items you wouldn't find in the government's building. Citizens could buy the recipe for these items and sell them at their shops. As long as the people selling the items kept their rates within the government's restrictions, the government would not sell those items themselves. This was done to stimulate the economy, while also easing the burden of the government whose main goal was the tower and safety of its citizens. 

The shops on the street were almost the exact same, as if a machine had copy and pasted the buildings just a few feet apart. The two story buildings wore stone walls with a wooden trimming, occasionally a window could be found. A large wooden door that was similar to one you'd find on a garage would be lifted up and the merchandise would be placed out on tables and shelves for customers to survey. Honestly the scene reminded me of a farmer's market, except all the vendors had their own buildings. From the balcony of the second story hung a sign, which usually had a crudely drawn picture of what the shop was selling. 

Alex claimed to have his own blacksmithing shop. However, I'd been to his 'shop', aka his apartment, and there was no sign. Everyone knows professional businesses have pictured signs. 

As we approached The Government's Market, the building which bought monster items, the stares and murmurs of a few people on the street began itching my eyes and ears. I'd grown used to the occasional glance people would send Alex as he walked down the street, but lately it had gotten even worse. I'm assuming his attitude and disregard towards others probably left him disliked by most people he interacted with. 

After talking to him for over a month, it was obvious he wasn't purposefully rude to people, he simply just didn't understand that blatant answers were not what people wanted to hear. One man, a new adventurer, had tried to get some information out of Alex. 'Do you know the best way to kill a rock golem?' the man would ask. 'Yes.' Alex would respond nonchalantly, before returning to whatever task he was doing. 

I promise he didn't ask because he simply wanted to know if you knew. I couldn't help but rub my temples from remembering the awkward encounter. We were lucky we deliberately asked to go with him to the Rocky Outpost the first time we met. If we had tried to coax him into inviting us, we would've stood in the street for hours, days even.

"I'll go to the desk and see how much we can get for this crystal" Alex said, holding up the gem which looked like a purple amethyst about the size of a half dollar. "Why don't you two see if there's any items on the market you might want to save up for?" He walked through the large garage door of the shop which looked similar to a museum. The walls were taller than the buildings around it with a white marble forming the architecture as opposed to the stone walls of nearby buildings. The part that reminded me of a museum was the massive amount of large windows that lined the walls. You almost felt outside as the windows would stretch from the floor to the second story, with lines of wood and inch or two thick dividng the glass into square foot panels. A marble pillar would separate each window about every 10 feet. The third story was not so much functional as it was beautiful to look at. A pyramid of glass with the same wooden dividers would've illuminated the inside of the building, had the sky not constantly been in a dark overcast.

Inside the shop reminded me of a bookstore from the older world. Large, long shelves were placed around the store into what almost made the store a maze. There was a clear path from the entrance to the back of the shop where I assumed you could trade the monster items.

I walked around the aisles that, like any official shop, had crudely drawn pictures of the items being sold attached to the ends of the shelves. This seemed a little redundant as you only had to turn your head slightly from the picture of a bottle to see an actual potion.

Noticing a vial that had a few Z's painted on the glass bottle, I held it up and tried to look into the purple bottle. The bottle itself resembled a round cologne bottle, no taller than my fingers. You could tell the type of potions by the shape of the bottles. Offensive potions usually had a circular shape for throwing at the enemy like a baseball. Potions such as healing potions, were in a square container and usually had a dropper for applying the potion.

I watched the purple liquid swirl in the ball, wishing it was something for myself rather than an offensive potion.

"Hello there! Anything I can help you with?" An older lady with messy white hair chirped up from my side while looking at the potion. Startled, I nearly dropped the potion, flailing my arms to catch it. This only caused the lady to laugh at me behind her thick glasses. Her brown apron moved up and down with each hearty chuckle. She wore a long sleeve striped blue shirt and long grey pants that covered most of her shoes.

"Ah, I was just hoping for something to help me sleep." I stated, a bit winded from the stress of nearly breaking something that would take me a few months to afford.

"Well, that potion will feel more like getting hit hard in the head, than a sweet lullaby. Hehe" she smiled largely at her own joke before continuing on. I couldn't help but compare her to a loving, yet mischievous, grandmother as she spoke. "If you're looking for sleeping potions, you should check the other potions section over there." she stated pointing to another crudely drawn picture of a bottle a few aisles down.

"I appreciate the help, but with my wallet I probably won't actually buy anything." I tried to match her smiled mannerisms but couldn't help to sigh at the thought of my own wallet. "We're moving our adventures to the Crypt soon so hopefully we'll be able to afford something soon." At least this statement I could actually say eagerly.

"The Crypt? You aren't going with Alex are you?" she said, the smile on her face dropping to a concerned smirk.

"We are, is there a problem with that?" Surely he couldn't have upset this lovely grandma as well...

She made an uncomfortable cough before continuing, "Well I'm sure you've been with him enough to know what he can be like. But, attitude aside, there's rumors about how he arrived in this town that would stop most people from going near him. There's even rumors that he's actually a ghoul!" As she finished her statement, her eyes seemed more like an old storyteller trying to spook the kids gathered to listen to her story.

A ghoul? I was a little upset that someone could assume my friend, and I'm using the term 'friend' loosely, wasn't even human. But considering the world we lived in, I decided to think about it more analytically for a moment.

I know not only from Alex, but also from other adventurers, that the key difference between ghouls and humans is: All ghouls can use magic, and ghouls can't heal. Alex said he couldn't use magic, but there's no way to prove someone can't use magic. Healing... I haven't seen him get injured, but I've seen him training at the rocky outpost with his shirt off enough to know that his body is completely covered in scars. You can't get scars without healing right?

If he was a ghoul and wanted to lure us to the crypt, he could've just killed us while we were alone and dragged us there. He also could've taken us there sooner under the guise of it being the Rocky Outpost considering how close the two places were.

I let out a sigh from deep in my body before addressing the grandma. "I know he isn't the most pleasant person to be around, but I promise he is no ghoul. While I'm sure it wasn't intentional, he has saved us more than a few times both from starvation, and through guiding us in this cruel world." There was a brief silence before I turned to find Mary. Before I could go, the old lady placed a hand on my shoulder.