Settling down

Theo walked down the main trade street of the town adjacent to the sect.

Despite the late hour, life in this trading hub for the area was busy. Farmers would run around and look for someone who would offer the best price for the crops they could bring. Collectors roamed around the entire city, searching for some hidden treasures sold away by people who didn't know any better.

Additionally, the town was swelling with the people who already finished their job for the day and roamed around in search of some fun. Some would end up in pubs, others would be led astray to the red light districts… while some, would end up on the main trading street, just like Theo.

'What a nice atmosphere,' Theo thought, calmly observing the situation.

Every once in a while, Theo liked to just let his thoughts roam freely. This freed him from the shackles of his preconceptions, allowing him to look at anything that would come to his mind with a fresh viewpoint.

The merry atmosphere of the town only further reinforced Theo's daze, nearly carrying him away when he started to sink into the simple pleasures the town had to offer.

'No!' Theo stopped, desperately calling himself back from the abyss he was heading. 'Right now, I can't afford to lose any money!'

As enticing as the idea of going for a beer looked, it was the shortest path for Theo to put a dent in his already small budget.

Theo looked down the road, his eyes attracted by some sort of huge commotion all the way down the road, where it entered the inner sect district.

It was something big.

'An event of sorts?' Theo thought, before shaking his head away and not sparing the notion any of his mind.

'Right now, I have fifty gold coins,' Theo calmed himself down by thinking about the details of what he had planned for the night.

The pouch from the elder turned out to be a bit more than Theo expected… but still a mere fraction of what he was entitled to.

'I guess I will really need to look for a way to change to a different division.' Theo clenched his hands at the mere memory of the elder's face.

He was blatantly stealing from him and supported his bullies while spewing bullshit like how he would protect him right in Theo's face!

'But I better not get involved with the politics, not just yet.' Theo took a deep breath to calm himself down and hold his horses. 'For now, let's focus on what I can do rather than on stuff that's beyond me.'

Then, prepared for what was about to come, Theo took a dive into the crowd, allowing his instincts from shopping on earth to carry him around the place.

The marketplace at night was truly a sight to behold.

A myriad of small lamps illuminated the entire place, keeping it relatively safe from the darkness of the falling night. People moved all around. Everyone knew their own place within the flowing crowd.

A magical experience all on its own.

But for Theo, it was this flow of people that he used to strike up several casual conversations, asking around to gather the information he needed.

He didn't search for anything confidential or even remotely important. Just a desire to rent out a small lodging.

Theo didn't look for any facilities at the sect. With the benefit of having everything in place, the prices for rental on the strictly sect grounds were sky-high, far beyond anything Theo could afford with his meager allowance.

Incapable of matching the prices of buildings in the sect, Theo turned his eyes elsewhere in the area. And the worse-off parts of the city quickly turned out to be the exact kind of jackpot that he was looking for.

After two hours of struggle in the crowd, Theo finally concluded his surveying mission as he took a rest a few steps away from a closed-down tavern.

The building definitely saw its better days. It was made out of some kind of dark wood. Thick logs served as the base of the building's structure while thick planks filled up the holes between the logs.

"The owner of this inn went to a war and never returned, hence why its state is as you can see," a random passerby turned landlord presented the property with all the honesty he could find in himself. "Still, it's a good, sturdy building," the stranger said as he moved closer and gave the thin-looking part of the wall a good kick.

'This place is exactly what I'm looking for,' he thought as they surveyed the insides.

"It will require quite a lot of work to put it back into an acceptable state," Theo then commented.

His statement was obvious to anyone with eyes, but only by bringing it up could Theo try to haggle down the prize a bit.

"Yeah, that's what I said I have," the stranger shook his shoulders. "Fifteen gold coins."

"Save for the walls, everything is a ruin. The kitchen looks like it could burn down the second I start a fire there!" Theo countered. "Seven gold coins."

"Thirteen gold coins," the stranger threw his offer right back at Theo's face. "Listen, this old man needs to earn something too!"

"I would pay thirteen coins… if this place was in the middle of the trading street!" Theo didn't give up. "In here, we are stranded with nothing but bandits all around," he accurately described the situation of the area they were in. "Ten gold coins."

"Twelve," the man bit his lips.

"Ten and not a single more," Theo replied, not giving the man any time to think. "That's how much this property is worth to me and that's how much I'm willing to pay," he added, spreading his arms out to show his honesty.

"Ten it is," the stranger agreed after a moment of hesitation.

He then pulled forward only to stand right before the blackened doors to the rundown inn. His hand reached out to his pocket, pulling out a complex-looking arrangement of small crystals.

"Release the property bound." The words left the stranger's mouth and struck the stones that he brought up to his lips.

Then, the crystals started to vibrate… only for something in the air to suddenly crack open and release.

'What the…' Theo twitched, taken aback by the feeling.

"Here," the stranger reached out and passed the crystal piece to Theo, "the key is yours," he added before grabbing Theo's gold and rushing away.

He likely knew full well that a property in this part of the town and in this run-down state wasn't worth a spit over five gold coins!

Theo couldn't care less, though.

He turned around and brought the crystal up to his lips.

'The formula for the bounding was…' Theo scoured his memory for a bit, sorting through it in search of the appropriate piece he read about back in the library. 'There it is!'

Theo smiled gently. "Capture the property bound."

Something clicked.

It was the same feeling that Theo experienced a moment earlier. This time, however, it acted out in reverse.

"Welcome home, I guess," Theo thought, breathing the air out of his lungs as he locked his eyes on the building.

'I can have those runts fix it up for me,' Theo thought, formulating the next parts of the flexible part of his plans. 'In the meantime, I should go and earn some money,' he thought, looking down at his now thinner pouch.

Everything in this world costs money. And a fortune of forty gold coins wouldn't even be enough to properly renovate the place.

"It's not much… but should I maybe try to gamble?" Theo muttered to himself as he sunk into his own thoughts. "Gambling might be risky…"

Theo's chin moved up, squeezing his lips together. He then lightly clenched the back of his jaws, dissatisfied with the very idea of resting his fate in the hands of nothing more but luck.

"Gambling might be risky…" Theo muttered again.

He then stopped. His mind cleared out.

"No, gambling is risky," Theo then whispered as a smug smile crept up on his lips before taking a permanent spot on his face. 'But the gambling house never loses, was it?' he thought, turning his voice down so as to not reveal his intentions to anyone nearby.

Theo took a deep breath.

"But first…"