On the exquisite upper floor of an inn, in a room with large rectangular rose-glass windows, luminous orbs gently flicker on the ceiling, bringing warm light to the room.

Sitting at the head of a dining table below an orb, a man with a brown moustache and a large belly chews some cartilage off a mist-sheep thigh; sucking out the bone marrow, he wipes his mouth with a caladrius feather before washing it down with some oaken-barley beer. The feather appeared to not even realise it had been tainted as the tracings of food stains disappeared within a moment.

‘Ahh, I have earned this meal. All that travelling and setting up shop was hard work. Good thing this inn is still open at this time of night’. He thought, looking out the window at the torches and luminous orbs illuminating different parts of the village; the sunset had passed by hours ago.

Noticing his gravy boat was empty, the rambunctious man called out for his personal servant.

“BOY! Come here!” Spittle and small pieces of food fly out of his mouth as he yells.

A frail young man with glasses entered the room, seemingly shivering. His black hair was in a top-knot and he was dressed in expensive servant clothes, though his posture and skinny arms exposed him as the nervous, panicky and fidgety wretch that he was.

“H-here’s a new pitcher of beer, sir.”

“HESS, MORE GRAVY!!!!” The man bellowed, slamming his fist down on the table as he threw the gravy boat silverware at Hess, then continued to eat his large portion of rat-tail steaks; he had not expected something so delicious to be served from some unimportant inn – and for only 5 gold a piece.

‘It’s a shame the innkeeper refused to reveal which farm he sourced these from.’ he thought as he chomped down another piece.

“Y-yes sir!” Hess squeals in urgency as he picks up the gravy boat off the ground, leaving the room before wiping off a spec of gravy from his glasses.

Every day, Hess dreamed of running away, but he was a slave – no, worse than a slave – he had a quintessence contract, binding his very soul to his master for as long as they both lived. This contract stopped him from even committing suicide – lest he breach the terms and conditions and serve his master in the eternal afterlife too.

While Hess was not even sure if there was an afterlife, but this was not something he wanted to risk, it was a gamble that was not worth the pay-off. Servitude for eternity, it would be hell.

Why would he throw his eternal life away for some small temporary respite?

Besides, his master was old, fat, and ate like a king – it will not be long till he is free.

After scoffing down the last of the numerous courses of food, Bertram began to review his plans as he quieted down.

“Mmm. Mhm. Good. Hmm. That checks out. Yes… good… mhm..”

As he worked through his papers, his demeanour changed; gone was the boisterous bellowing beast that he was before – replaced by a quiet and contemplative tactician, a mastermind of sorts.

Bertram was by no means lazy when it came to accounting and trading – he was more like a wolf. If anyone examined Bertram when he was like this, you would not think that he just stumbled into his wealth; it would be clear that he had earned every single gold coin he had – though to him, this was not work, It was a competitive sport. He relished every moment of it.

Even Hess had started to respect this side of Bertram, it was like watching a master craftsman create beauty from wood or stone.

“Hess, check these papers, tell me if there’s any problems”

“Yes sir” Hess was more comfortable around tactician-bertram. While he hated Bertram, he knew that he could be treated much worse. Besides, he may still learn a thing or two, so he worked hard for him.

“Sir.”

“Hmm?” Bertram didn’t even look up.

“Won’t the local lord have a problem with this?”

“Haha, he won’t say anything, I’ve made sure of that, boy” Bertram tapped his large coin pouch.

“I see… What about your reputation?”_.

“HA! We’re in a small, distant town where these commoners never leave. Besides, I’m the only merchant who bothers to come here. Their opinions mean nothing! Ha!” He slapped his knee.

“Oh, I see sir. I suppose there are no problems then”.

“No problems at all.” Bertram smiled and looked up from his paperwork. “I’ll make another hefty sum of gold from these new adventurers and then we’ll leave after the coin dries up.”

—

Jay was sprinting back to the village when he received a notification

[15 Exp]

He smirked. “Heh, I wonder what they caught”.

Getting back to the south road, he drank the rest of the water from his bottle and washed his face a little. He was hoping the stinky mud would dry up and fall off, but it seemed like he smelt just as bad as before.

Storing his bottle away, he kept running; slowing down would only make him begin to shiver as the sky began to darken.

—

Jay felt eyes on him as he neared the village.

Five spearmen blocked the road while a woman behind them held a crossbow, aimed at him.

Standing leisurely by her side was an athletic-looking muscular man – he was not big and bulky with too much muscle, but was more like a hunter who could both chase down his target and execute it with brutal efficiency. Wearing medium armour composed of thick hide, leather fastenings and dark-blue bux beetle shell pauldrons, he appeared to be bored.

“Eyes on target, captain. It just left the woodline. Permission to fire.”

“Wait till it gets a little closer..” The captain said with his arms folded.

As Jay approached, he was wondering why all those guards seemed to be glaring at him. Curiously, he slowed to a walk, wondering what was going on.

“It slowed down… It could be intelligent…” The captain narrowed his eyes “Stay vigilant. Only take a shot when you’re sure about hitting it” The captain coached the girl.

She nodded, holding her crossbow a little more tightly as she braced herself and prepared to fire. She aimed at Jay and slowly squeezed the trigger – suddenly, the captain yelled.

“ANYA WAIT”

The yell startled Anya and she squeezed harder, releasing the bolt – however, the unexpected happened.

The captain grabbed the crossbow before the bolt could leave it, gripping it so tightly that the bolt couldn’t escape.

Anya was shocked, but looking at her captain’s expression, he still seemed bored – even while the veins in his hand were bulging as they threatened to snap the crossbow into two pieces.

“It’s human,” he muttered. “Return to duties” he said casually as he disarmed the crossbow and gave it back to Anya. The spearmen all raised their spears, then with a salute, they all left. The captain gazed at Jay, checking his stats.

Jay – Level 5

[HP 100%]

[MP 100%]

‘Level five already huh? Impressive kid. Sullivan’s gunna have his hands full this year’ he smiled.

The ‘monster’ continued to approach, covered in black muck with traces of flesh and blood sprinkled throughout – but at this point, Anya couldn’t care less.

“He may as well have snapped it, the damage is too extensive.” Thought the girl as she pouted, looking at her crossbow with finger-holes in it.

Jay continued watching as he walked closer “Huh, that was weird. Must be drills or something. Oh well, I need a bath.” he said casually, not realizing he looked like some sort of man-eating mud monster and was nearly killed.

Jay picked up his pace to jogging speed as headed toward the inn with the dreamy ruby bath.

As he casually ran past the captain and the girl with the broken crossbow, he received a death stare from the girl.

“Huh, what’s her problem?” Jay thought with a confused look on his face, as he ignored them both and kept running as if nothing ever happened; his bag making jangling noises with each step as the soap rat teeth rattled.

“It will be best not to tell him…” said the captain “sorry about your crossbow, but it’s better to lose that than to end a man”. The captain looked back to the forest with remorse.

“Yes, sir.” said Anya, a little unconvinced, as she nursed her broken crossbow.

Suddenly, she felt the urge to vomit as a strong smell wafted over to her, though thankfully, it left as quickly as it came.

Her face was riddled with disgust from the smell as she looked up at her captain – however his expression changed for once as the smell hit him too; his eyes bulged and he pursed his lips as he began to run to another part of the village, it was the first time she saw the captain break his composure and retreat.

Anya furrowed her brows and frowned “I hope he doesn’t think that was me” she said as she squinted in the direction Jay left in.

—

Jay approached the inn – this time, he wasn’t as close to freezing to death as he was last time – though he was a thousand times more filthy. Since he wasn’t shivering, he had the energy to look up and check the inn’s name.

-Snakeraven’s Hollow-

It was commonly called ‘the snakeraven’ by the locals.

Above the words on the hanging wooden sign was an image of a black feathered snake with wings and a beak. It appeared to be winking.

“Why name it after a beast like that? No one likes those horrifying things.” He thought as he entered the wooden door.

Before he could be rejected for his horrendous stench, Jay pulled out 35 gold, as his smell greeted the innkeeper before he could even close the door behind him.

Quickly approaching with gold in hand, he exclaimed his order before he could be rejected.

“One room, a ruby bath, and laundry service please!”

Devin was slightly hunched over from the smell as his nose twitched a little, but it seemed like he was tolerating the smell quite well – he did work in an inn after all, so he dealt with the occasional vomit.

“You’re 10 gold short”

“But these were the prices last time?” Jay squinted

“You’re extra filthy this time lad, 5 extra gold for washing and 5 extra gold for the muck you’ll leave in the bath”.

“Sure. Here you are” Jay immediately pulled out the extra 10 gold, not willing to test the innkeeper.

“TAMARA!” Devin yelled out to his daughter. “GET THE RUBY BATH READY NOW”.

“Alright dad!” a yell came from somewhere down the hall.

In a few moments, Tamara came down the hall. It was clear that she could smell Jay too, as she was trying her best to stop her face from cringing.

“This way, sir”.

“Thanks” Jay said, analysing her as he followed.

[Tamara – Level 14]

[HP 100%]

[MP 100%]

“Level 14 huh, she’s pretty strong” Jay thought, he wasn’t planning on asking how old she was, but if he had to guess, she was about 24; 6 years older than Jay.

She had a voluptuous figure with braided waist-length brunette hair, and was about half a pitcher taller than Jay, who was average-height in Losla.

“Maybe I will ask her what class she is after I stop smelling like the definition of stink.” he thought.

Entering the room again, everything was prepared the same way as last time. Jay thanked Tamara, locked the door and removed all his clothes, dumping them in the laundry basket in the corner before sliding into the ruby-gem bath once more.

“Ahhhhhhh. Finally.” He smiled in delight.

His entire body relaxed as he closed his eyes for a moment, seemingly forgetting to open them. Waking up 30 minutes later, Jay was satisfied with his nap – wrinkly, but satisfied.

Taking some soap, he washed his body and hair as bits of dirt sank to the bottom and pieces of flesh floated to the top.

“Eugh, gross” he said as he attempted to shoo away the floaties.

The more clean he got, the more disgusted he was by the smell coming from his laundry basket. With a final check for mud behind his ears and a soap scrub under his armpits, he got out of the tub, dried himself with the towel and put on a robe.

Jay decided his bag would need to be cleaned too, so he removed all his items from it and gave whatever he could a rinse in the soapy bath water before putting them on a shelf to dry – though he decided to place [Molodus’s Coat] in with his other laundry.

The remaining mushrooms, nuts, and bondtussle root were all spoiled at this point, so he wrapped them in his stinking shirt and placed it on top of his laundry basket for Tamara to dispose of.

Grabbing the stink-rat tail, he wondered what he should do with it. It was nearly 2 meters long and as thick as a fist. Analysing it, he realised it was top quality meat – the fat streaks formed elaborate and evenly distributed branches throughout, the marbling could have been the most beautiful that Jay had ever seen.

‘I wonder….’ Jay squinted at the meat.

Jay opened the door and called “Tamara!”

“Coming!” a voice sounded from up the hall.

In a moment, Tamara appeared. “How can I help?” she said with a smile.

“Here’s my laundry, also I left some rubbish in that shirt so please throw that away. Oh, and I was wondering if your father would like to buy this rat-tail? It’s quality meat, and I would butcher it then sell it myself, but I’m going to be too busy these next few days; It would be a shame to waste it.”

She pursed her lips as she took the laundry basket with Jay’s bag on top. “I’ll tell Devin”.

“Thanks” smiled Jay, happy to have the stinking laundry basket gone.

A short time later, someone knocked on the door. “Hey Devin” Jay said after opening it.

“Hello, you have some meat for me do you?”

“Yes, here it is. I’m… I was a butcher so I know top-quality meat when I see it. Have a look here at the marbling and the fat distribution. Quite alluring, isn’t it?” Jay said, looking at Devin. ‘Huh, he’s older than I initially thought, now that I see him up-close’ thought Jay.

Devin took the tail and inspected it. “How much?”

“50 gold.”

“50 is too much, kid” Devin said, his eyes betraying him as he was still gazing at the meat.

“I don’t think so. I think even 80 gold would be a fair price. It’s nearly 2 meters long, if you cut 3cm thick steaks from it and sold them for as little as 2 gold – which is the same price as your other steaks – it will fetch a profit of about 100 gold; of course, with this quality of meat, you could probably even charge as much as 3 or 4 gold for it.”

‘Damn, this brat knows what he’s doing. Even I realise the price is low, maybe there’s a catch’ Devin thought as he scratched his bald head.

“Well, why don’t you do that?” Devin inquisitively asked

“Because I’m becoming an adventurer, I don’t have time to prepare it, and it would be a travesty to let this prime meat go to waste.”

Adjusting his glasses and half-smiling, Devin made a decision “I see. We got a deal” Devin was as indifferent as ever as he pulled out 50 gold and handed it to Jay.

“Thanks.” Jay smiled.

Without a word, Devin left the room and closed the door, dragging the rat tail behind him.

“Tamara, I’ll be in the kitchen! We’re doing a special tonight!” Jay heard Devin’s deep, raspy voice from behind the door.

Jay was still smiling as he shook his head. He took his now semi-clean belongings as he went to his room on the floor above.

The room was small. A cabinet on one wall, a luminous orb on the ceiling and a single bed on a wooden frame was in the corner. There was a tiny round port-hole style rose-glass window which was currently closed.

Entering the room, Jay went to rest on the bed. He was so tired that he didn’t even get under the sheets, and before he realised it, he was asleep.

—

“What the?” Jay was woken up, hearing clunking silverware hit the ground and a booming voice yelling from the room above him – before hearing a quick patter of feet run down the nearby stairs and after a moment, back up them again.

“Sounds like someone’s having a good time” Smirked Jay as his stomach gently growled.

Making his way out of the room, he found a note which had been slid under the door.

“Your laundry is ready – Tamara”.

Pocketing the note, he went to the stairs and called out “Tamara!”

Soon, another set of feet came tapping up the stairs.

“Could you please bring me my laundry?” Jay asked kindly. He really didn’t want to go downstairs to have dinner in a robe.

“Yes, sir. Be back in a moment” Tamara left.

“Phew” Jay sighed in relief, knowing he would be the source of entertainment for the night if he did wander around the bar in a robe.

It wasn’t long before Tamara came back with Jay’s fresh clothes and knapsack.

“Here you are sir. Was there anything else I can help you with?” she smiled warmly now that Jay wasn’t a stinking mess.

“Can I order some food while I get dressed? I’ll come downstairs in a moment”

“Absolutely, we have a special tonight – Prime steaks with winter vegetables and gravy” She smiled “6 gold”.

“6 gold? Haha so I guess he’s charging 5 gold for the steaks? They must be good.” (1 gold for vegetables and gravy)

“Yes, sir. Premium quality meat.” Tamara would not say it was rat tail, under strict instructions given by her dad.

“Heh, here you go. I won’t be long” Jay chuckled at their antics as he handed her the 6 gold.

Jay retreated back to his room with the laundry basket. He changed back into his clothes and put his remaining items back into his knapsack – however, he equipped [Molodus’s Coat].

The coat was a dark-green colour with round black-wood buttons. It had a collar that came up just under his chin, while the coat reached his upper leg. Jay looked more dignified and commanding with the coat on, and it suited his dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

‘Nice.’ Jay thought, pleased with his new look.

Forgetting what the coat did, he analysed it again.

[Molodus’s Coat – Level 1]

[Molodus’s Essence] (Passive) Melee attackers take 1 poison damage over 3 seconds. Does not stack.

[Poison resistance 10%]

Description: Acquired after defeating [Stench-rat Molodus] – King of the soap rats, scourge of the stink-rat marshlands: Part of the vile rat king’s own soul was woven into this coat, he was not yet satisfied with his scourge as he died, his own hate lived on to form this coat from his own hide – this coat which now attempts to consume and decay all who threaten it.

“Wow, cool. And it has a level? I guess that means it can level up…?” Jay smiled “Though having a soul in my coat is a little creepy haha” Pleased with his new coat, Jay stashed his knapsack under the bed, before locking the door and leaving for the bar downstairs.

“Time to try those rat-tail steaks” Jay half-smiled as he made his way to the stairs.

****

Author here – Thanks for reading and for the lovely comments.