General Store

Meanwhile, he read the rules and remembered not to break any. After skimming everything, he was handed a small stack of black ink. When he touched it with his finger as Kelle had instructed, it turned deep red. He signed his name and put his fingerprint there at the bottom and the ink and paper disappeared.

"Deep red, that was an interesting color," Norman said. "In my experiences, anyone with that color dies an early, tragic death in a sea of glory and flames."

"like who?"

"The last person we know that made the ink such a deep red was almost a century ago and it was even darker than yours. It was almost like blood and he died fighting some crazy monster that the monks over on the East Mountains hold. He wanted to defeat it once and for all after it awoke from its 100 years of rest. Apparently, he did defeat it, something not many do, but died in the process. His story became a legend here, the legend of Kezmerald.

The monster will wake in another one or two years, so he defeated it about 98 or 99 years ago. He would be in the middle of his life by now, probably with some pretty strong grandchildren if he was still alive. He was part fairy part human."

"Alright, enough talking. Let's go to that store."

All three of them stepped into one of the large platforms at the back and Zeeth followed. Norman put in some kind of passcode and a ring of black and blue wrapped around them and sent them into another, nearly identical room but this time, instead of white walls and polished floors, it was a grey stone wall with dirt floors.

They walked to the other side of the room where a single urinal stood. Norman placed his hand on the handle and vanished.

"Zeeth, you just gotta place the finger that left a fingerprint on the paper on this handle and if it's the same fingerprint, it will send you away to a private bathroom owned by us that no one else can enter. Try it first."

"Okay." Zeeth placed his hand on the handle and he felt a warm brush on his fingers. The next moment, he was sent through to a stall and opened the door. When he left he saw a long row of stalls in a dirty bathroom and Norman looking around for the others. Then the other two came from the two stalls next to theirs and they headed for the door. Another scan on the door and it popped open to an empty restaurant room with a single table and two chairs. They went out of that door, headed upstairs, and appeared in a bustling restaurant.

The entrance was guarded by tiny little greyhounds hidden behind the door.

Norman noticed Zeeths face staring at the sleeping hounds. "Those things become really vicious when someone unauthorized tries to enter. They can willingly change their size and live for hundreds of years. They also make 50 babies a year, although most of them die or get eaten by their parents so only the strongest life. Perfect guard dogs. Almost bit off Will's ass last year when he tried to talk to them too much and annoyed them."

"You didn't need to say that. Didn't they try to back away from you once because you stank?"

"Guys let's go. I want to check out new accessories and pets." they started walking again once Kelle reminded them of their shopping and began talking about what they should buy.

Zeeth looked down at his map and noticed that the store they were talking about was one of his first locations. it had a star next to it, signifying that it was a primary location.

They started walking again and Zeeth caught up to Kelle and said, "Kelle, you were looking to buy a tentacon, right?"

"Yeah? What, are you looking to buy one for me? Entrapped by my beauty?"

"HAH! BEAUTY! THAT IS HILARIOUS!" Norman held his stomach and laughed at her, "YOU LOOK LIKE AN ELEPHANT!"

"RRAAGGHH!!" Kelle shot strands of hair at him. He held his hands up, stopping it midair. someone ran up to Zeeth holding a sheet of paper. "Hello, you're Zeeth, right?"

Kelle stood between the man and Zeeth and asked him, "Why?"

"This parchment is for Zeeth. It tells him the location of his belongings."

"Oh! Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Thanks." Zeeth took the paper, unwrapped it, and looked at it. It told him an address and a small drawing of where it was.

"What is that?"

"Oh, it tells me where my tentacon is I think. I caught one on my way here. That's why I was asking you about that. I was wondering if you wanted it."

"Really? You really caught a tentacon? You're the seller? Well, it would be great to get a discount but I can't just take it from you. We're in the same group."

"How much then?"

Kelle made a large grin and asked, "How about 300 styrs?"

"Are you crazy?!" Both Will and Norman yelled at her, "that's way too low! If it's going for that much, I want to buy it for 301!"

"Then I want it for 302!"

"Alright, I get it! It's too low!"

"No, I think this is a good idea. Let's have an auction for my tentacon. The lowest bid will be Wills for 302."

"Fine, 303!"

"350!"

"375!"

"400!"

"Hey, Will listen to me. We're good friends, right? And if I buy the tentacon, then I'll let you borrow it every now and then and you won't have to pay a single bit. Let the 400 go and let me buy it for 375, how about that?" Norman wrapped his arm around his shoulders in a friendly manner and tried to get him to pull back.

Will seriously considered it for a bit but Kelle shouted, "Will, don't listen to his lies. Remember when he told you he would pay you back for all those fries he took? Has he given back a single styr? Don't trust him, he won't share it with anyone."

"Kelle! You're supposed to be on my side! I would've shared with you too!"

"No, you wouldn't have, you cheap little faker. 450. My last offer. I can't go above that."

"Will, let's split the bill and each pay 225. I'll pay 226 and we can beat her."

"That's true, it would be cheaper." This train of thought seemed to have excited Norman, who thought Will would split the price with him to beat her at 451, but he said, "but I don't want to only have half of the tentacon. That would be too much trouble I think it would cause a lot of fights."

In the end, Kelle bought it for 450 and Norman sulked the entire way to the general store. Zeeth followed them there since it was one of the locations he had to go to. Kelle was a lot more cautious about what she would buy now that her bank account limit was so drastically decreased.

Zeeth needed some legal documents from a tiny store in between some larger more colorful stores. When he went in and the black drapes fell back behind him, all lights were extinguished and he thought he was in the wrong area.

He was about to turn around when a croaky voice came out from within the darkness, "Aah, stamp AE-001. Haven't seen that in a while. I assume you've been given map A2? Is this your first location?"

Zeeth quickly looked around the darkness, searching for the source of the voice, and replied, "Uh, yeah."

"I see. Well, there is a lot for you to learn then. Follow me." A flicker of light came from the darkness and Zeeth went after it. It shouldn't be dangerous, right? I mean, Emma gave him the map. It should be fine.

He chased after it for some time before it stopped in front of a door handle. He pushed it open and saw a bony, four-armed, and four-legged man sitting behind a pile of magic slabs. All of his hands were speeding around to move things, one stopped to adjust his glasses as he looked up at Zeeth. He nodded at him and smiled a bit before looking back at his work, silently telling Zeeth to wait a minute.

Suddenly, one of his legs disappeared and a soul-like image stood up from where he was as his main body continued to work. The soul picked up a single magic slab from behind him and asked Zeeth things like, "blood type? Height?"

Zeeth replied "I dunno."

The bottom was a cold black metal that was connected to a long pole that extended ten feet upwards and had a foot-long stick attached to the other end were a couple of long steel bands.

When he got on the steel bands began searching his body, the stick curved to reach even his toes, and when it was done his body felt cold all over.

I got all the info I need. "Here is your official life document. It is very private and important info, don't share it with anyone untrustworthy. it is called a screen."

He was handed a square purple slab of glass about as big as his head. He noticed that the corners were buttons that he could press.

He pressed one corner and a screen popped up. He looked at the other side and he couldn't see it there unless he completely flipped it over to let it see his face and his hands were properly placed on either side. Neat.

The screen said things like his name, height, a birthdate (which was something the magic bands had to estimate because he didn't know it), and things like that. It even had a fake code for him.

"Don't worry, all of this can be used legitimately. I just input it into the system. Although I wouldn't advise using it outside of any of these locations on the map for the week. It may take a while for it to settle in and not seem suspicious.

The other corners have their own functions. As you know, the top left one opens your screen. Don't worry, the screen can tell what direction you're holding in using hand sensation and magnetic field sensors. The right one allows you to adjust the size a little. It can shrink to the size of your eye and big enough to be the size of your head. The bottom left can be pressed to accept drives to import new information like books and videos. The fourth one allows you to change its color. If you press all four twice within three seconds it self-destructs. You can come to get another, but it will cost 50 styrs. Now move along to your next destination."

Zeeth walked back out of the dark hallway, moving slowly as he felt the walls for fear that he might fall over something. When he finally got to the drapes and pulled them open for the light to greet his face he walked out in relief.

He walked deeper into the general store, where many people were trying to show off items to random shoppers. He heard someone say, "Meanwhile, you should take a look at my wares. I have a vast collection of items like a dagger made purely of a single dragon fang. Slowly grants the owner poison immunity and deals poison to anyone stabbed by it."

He looked over and saw a pearly white, long, curved dagger with little blades protruding out the sides. The handle was wrapped in what seemed like dragon skin and the tip gleamed with a touch of purple.

Just a few aisles away he saw Kelle looking at a rather expensive chest plate and Norman comparing two strange-looking tabs, one labeled 101 ways to better control magic and one labeled 11 tips and tricks to telekinesis.

Kelle looked over and pointed at the 11 tips and tricks to telekinesis and said something. He put it down, looked at her suspiciously and Zeeth made out from his lips, "you just want to use the 101 books too don't you?"

Will kept bringing them new shoes and asking for suggestions. "What do you think about the new Vacrons? I hear James wear them. Maybe it makes him better at punnetball."

Zeeth walked up to them and asked, "What's punnetball?"

"It's a popular sport. How do you not know about it? Anyways, what shoe do you think I should get?"

"I'm not sure either. Should we go get that tentacon?"

"Oh, you still have some things to get right? You will probably need some of those soon, you should go get them. We'll wait here, we still have somethings to look for."

"Okay." Zeeth nodded, looked at his map, and clicked the second closest location. It seemed it would take him 10 minutes by walking.

He went through the map, getting various uploads to his screen from really sketchy looking areas.

Until his second to last one, this one was a small store out in the open. There wasn't a lot of people around and it was a bit on the outskirts. He walked into the store while reading the instructions about it. He was supposed to ask the people for a monster license. He looked up and saw a big, bulky man with a gruff beard and a scar on his chin banged down on the counter as he yelled at the girl from behind the counter. "Just give me my damn badge and my money!!"

Everyone else in the room tries to steer clear of him except for his three similar-looking goons and the people behind the counters protected by glass.

Every single one of them, about 10 people, glared at him from behind the glass.

They all knew none of them could be his match if they ever fought, but these were the lawful citizens of Jarlon while these guys were thugs trying to mess with people everywhere they went. The law and the soldiers would protect them so they had nothing to fear.