Foster sat there in the back of the carriage, finally able to relax for a while. He looked at the scenery through the large opening in the back that he climbed through earlier, and before long, the carriage came to a halt again, although Foster was able to hear some more things in the distance. Were they finally there?

He leaned his head out of the back and took a closer look, soon seeing a thick, tall stone wall as well as a large gate that fit the wall’s size, “Eh..?” He let out somewhat surprised, not having expected to see something like this. It did seem pretty cool though, if he was totally honest. It didn’t take long for the carriage to be let in, and they entered the short tunnel that would lead them to the other side of the wall.

It was exciting, really exciting. This would be the first time that Foster would see a city of this world in any capacity, so there was no way that he wouldn’t be somewhat excited.

Right after they left the short tunnel, the carriage came to a halt again right next to it, and Foster could hear the driver jump off the front. He came around to the back, and looked at his guest with a light smile, “We’re ‘ere now. I’m gonna have to stay ‘ere to get my cargo checked, but I’m sure ye can just head straight to an inn.” The driver said, and Foster slowly climbed out. He felt the paved ground underneath his feet and felt somewhat happy and that familiar feeling.

“Actually, I’m mostly here to travel through. Can I hire someone here to drive me somewhere else?” He asked, and the driver seemed rather surprised, “Oh? Where are ya headin’, boy?”

“Well… have you heard of the ‘Golden Kobold’ Guild?” Foster asked with a somewhat wry smile. The driver just began to laugh, “Ah, I should’ve known from yer outfit! Yer tryin’ to be an adventurer for that guild, eh? Well, good luck with that! But… wait, that means that yer goin’ in the wrong direction? Tobald’s in the direction where ya just came from.”

“Ah, that… I… am bad with directions?” Foster said awkwardly, although that was the biggest lie that he had told here in this world so far, and the driver seemed to have caught onto the fact that he was hiding something. He was rather clever, it seemed.

“Well, if ya wanna get to the Golden Kobold Guild, ya definitely don’t wanna ‘ead to Arcadum. It’s in the completely opposite direction, and while it’s an ‘uge dungeon city with a bunch of other good guilds and plenty of work for anyone, the Golden Kobold Guild ain’t there.” The driver explained to Foster, “And that means that ya also definitely don’t wanna talk to my buddy George at the ‘Highland Company’, who’s plannin’ on deliverin’ stuff there in a couple of days.”

Foster looked back at the driver rather surprised. With a grin on his face, he looked back at him and nodded his head, “Alright. I definitely won’t do that then. Thanks for the advice. I really owe you one.”

“Ah, don’t’cha worry ’bout it. It’s our role as elders to take care of the young’ins, eh?” The driver laughed, “Now go on, before they close up for the day. Ya just gotta go follow this street, and when ya reach the market, go down the street to the right. Yer gonna recognize it right away, it’s the building with the huge star on its sign.”

Foster stretched his hand out toward the driver, who did the same, “Good luck, boy.”

“Thank you. I appreciate your help.” Foster replied, and then slowly turned around. That was when the whole vibe of the city finally hit him. Certainly, if this wasn’t a medieval city, then Foster didn’t know what was. While everything was built tightly together like in a modern city, it was clear that this was anything but ‘modern’. For one, there were no special streets for cars or anything like that, and everyone was walking around everywhere. The carriages were driving in the middle of the street.

And most importantly… Plenty of people here were carrying weapons with them. It looked like Foster was at an executive meeting for the syndicate… Just that these guys weren’t carrying guns, but swords or bows. There were also plenty of people in metal armor walking around, like classic medieval city guards. It was a surreal sight, overall.

Foster started to walk through the streets. There were a few people that looked at him, most likely because of the outfit that he was wearing, but for the most part nobody seemed to really care about him. It was kind of surprising to see this kind of calm, collected city so close to something like that horrendous tree and someone that was said to be a ‘calamity’. Soon, Foster reached the market, and he was immediately able to see a few sights that he never saw before.

For one… different people. It was full and bustling out here, and there were all sorts of people here. Foster assumed that different classic fantasy races were a thing, since Aaron said he was a half-elf. That meant that the people that he spotted were some elves, what seemed to be dwarves and maybe some gnomes. For the most part, that seemed to be it, though. There were probably others, not that Foster was able to confirm that idea right now, though.

But beside the people, there were some other interesting things here. Stalls that were just selling swords, pieces of armor, and other kinds of martial weapons right here in public. Plenty of kids were gathered there, playing around with some of the blunt weapons. It seemed kind of irresponsible, though… Beside those, the stalls selling actual food, like one would expect from a market, were all selling things that Foster never saw before.

Purple, wart-covered apple-shaped things. Cubic, spiked fruit. And Foster didn’t even want to think about what those mushrooms looked like to him… And when it came to the meat as well, some of the half-butchered animals were just unrecognizable as well. Foster liked to get his meat fresh when he had the chance to, so he saw plenty of different animals in all the different stages of butchering, but none of them looked like this. However, there was one other thing that Foster was focusing on… the money that was being used.

Foster grabbed as much of the coins that he saw in Thiodrus’ cabin as he could carry, but that didn’t mean he had any idea how much they were worth. So, he just stood there for a moment and waited until one of the random people here bought one of those purple apple-things. It seemed to be a small copper coin, although it looked a little different than the ones Foster had with him.

Well, he should be able to ask, at least. After seeing that guy walk off while biting into the purple apple he bought, Foster walked up to the stall. There was a small sign right in the middle of them reading ‘5 Val’, probably the currency of this place.

“Erm, excuse me, but I’m new around here, so…” Foster said while looking at the lady behind the stall, “Do you take these coins?” He asked, holding forward a couple of those small copper coins toward the lady. She took a closer look at them with a squint and then raised her head to look at Foster.

“Never seen those kinda coins before. Where are you from?” She asked, and Foster smiled wrily, “I’m just a traveler from the west.”

“Hm, I see. Well, can I have a look at those?” She asked, and Foster handed the coins to her. She took a closer look at them and made sure to feel them in her hand, “Well, they’re copper pieces, for sure.” She muttered, “They’re just a bit heavier than the ones we use around here. Three of these should be worth 2 Val.”

“Ah, then…” Foster looked through the bag filled with more of these, pulling out one of the actual coins, “And how much is this worth then?”

“Also a bit bigger. One of ’em is 15 Val, I would say. Might be worth it to go exchange them at the bank, though, gonna be easier to handle.” The woman suggested to Foster, and he slowly nodded his head, “I see. Got it. Then… Three of these here, please.” He said, pointing at the purple apples. The woman nodded and gave Foster the copper pieces back, while keeping the coin. She packed three of the purple apples into a small jute bag and handed it to Foster.

“Here you go. Enjoy your Kiras, mister traveler.” The woman said with a smile, and Foster turned around with a light nod, “Thanks. Have a nice day.”

He turned around and made his way toward the street that was described to him earlier. He still didn’t know what those other coins were, but at the very least he now knew both where to go to get money that he could actually use here, and he also knew a bit more about the currency.

These purple apples were rather big, in total they seemed to be about two pounds. That meant that each was worth maybe a dollar? If he compared them to regular apple prices at least, “So 5 Val are a dollar, meaning 1 Val is about 20 cents? Hm… should be easy enough to remember.” Foster muttered quietly, as he pulled out one of the ‘Kiras’, and bit into it with a smile on his face, although he was somewhat nervous about it. It didn’t look particularly appetizing at least, although that guy from before ate it without a worry in the world.

It was juicy, incredibly so… Sweet, with soft flesh, “Huh.. Tastes like a pear.”