53 Report and Shopping

Considering what I thought was going to happen when I came back and announced that I have collected the artifact, teleported into the enemy base, got captured, and somehow escaped, the current situation is easily much better than what I expected. I expected the resistance leader to yell and berate me like you would see in the movies about the soldier who didn't do their job according to plan but instead there was a lot of tears involved.

As I made my way to the war room where we discussed what we were going to do to break into the castle, a couple of people in the resistance passed by me and did a second look to see if what they saw was true and once they did, most (About 50% I would have to say), fell to their knees and started crying. It was one of the weirdest things possible for me because I knew almost none of them and they were all treating me like their teenage celebrity crush.

I had to use misty step a few times just to avoid some of these people. Once I get a nice long rest and something to eat, I am going to try and get my next mission or job and leave to go do that. Finally, after a couple of minutes I was able to get to the war room safely. Once inside, Aaron, who was doing some paper work, looked up from it before once again looking down and continuing it.

"Ah, Leo, glad to see that you've come back finally. Some of your "fans" have been freaking out and begging us to send some people to go and rescue your after word quickly got out that they captured the number one heretic Leo while Ava and I tried calming them down." Aaron said while filling out his paperwork.

Ava, who I previously didn't notice as she was sleeping in a corner surrounded by multiple beer bottles, suddenly jerked up once Aaron called her out. Her hair was stuck to her face and it seemed as if she was still asleep. Her speaking however showed that she wasn't.

"LEO YOU'RE BACK!" She said loudly and drunkenly. "CAN YOU GET ME SOME MORE ALCHOHOL?"

Ava picked up a bottle and tried taking a drink out of it but was unable to as there was nothing inside. Out of drunken anger, she threw the bottle at Aaron and missed him only by a few inches.

"Leo, I think you deserve a few days or so to relax after what happened. Please report to Rebgi and report the mission while also giving him the artifact. After that, you're free to go ahead and enjoy yourself. I will... Attempt... To deal with Ava." Aaron said while finishing up what he was doing, getting out of his chair, and throwing me a bag of coins.

Not wanting to deal with a drunken Ava again like I had to back at Chance, I pocketed the coins in my inventory and quickly left to deliver the artifact and write a report about all that happened. Rebgi was nice and didn't seem like one of my fans so I was able to have a nice conversation with him while filling out the paperwork.

From there, I changed my clothing to something else I had and did my best to sneak out of my room. To enjoy my new days off, I think the best thing to do would just be to go to the surface and have a bit of fun. To get there, I took the secret way that I used to get to the king's home but took a few turns here and there to get somewhere else.

A mixture of blink and invisibility allowed me to find my way into a back-alley without getting caught so that I could merge with a nearby crowd flawlessly. Using the flow of the crowd I took my time to look around and find some places to go to. One that caught my attention was a potion shop that had some smoke coming out of it. People walked by and didn't even bat an eye to the smoke or even the small explosion that happened as I made my way to it.

Opening the door to Djon's Potion Emporium, I caught a heavy smell of something burning but was unable to determine exactly what it was.

Instantly upon reading these I covered my mouth and nose as to do my best to avoid the poison but continued making my way inside. In the main room there was no nobody there but there were multiple potions of the walls that each had different bottles shapes, colors, and sometimes even things floating inside them.

Slowly moving my hand away, I noticed a bell near the wall that had a sign that said "Ring me!" so I did as it said. Once that ringing stopped, a thud was heard from behind the door behind the counter.

"Coming!" Yelled an old man's voice.

A second later, a short old man with that was balding and had white beard and mustache. His entire face was covered in soot and his eyes looked as if he was staring off into the distance.

"Ah yes! Have you come for some potions!?" Asked the old man while fidgeting around and constantly looking around excitedly.

I took a look at how much money I had and my eyes widened for a second upon seeing how much I actually had thanks to what I got from Aaron. 500 Gold coins.

"Yes, what all do you have!" I asked with excitement about having some money to spend.

"I have an assortment of things! Do you want to grow bigger? How about growing a rainbow-colored beard!?" He spouted off like a mad man. "Just tell me what you want and I'll see if I've got it!"

"Well before that, might I ask for your name Mr...?"

"Ah! I'm Victor! AND DON'T FORGET THE K!"

"The K?"

"YES!"

At this point I realized that he might not be fully there.

"Well victor, I was hoping that you might have something for injuries? I tend to get hurt a lot and don't have time to go to a doctor or a priest."

"A healing potion eh?" He said before quickly turning around and grabbing a potion that was nearby. "This potion by itself will cost you..." He started using his fingers to count how much it would cost and which point I then noticed that he was also missing 2 of his fingers on his right hand that he was counting with. "50 gold per potion!"

Digging out 100 gold coins from my inventory, I handed it to him in a small coin bag. From there, I watched as he took one out and bit into it which showed how little teeth, he had left. Once he confirmed that they were real, he picked up the bag and threw it behind him directly through the doorway.

Reaching under the counter, he grabbed a second red potion and handed both of them to me. Taking both, I made it look like I was putting them into my backpack but actually putting them into my inventory.

"Anything else I can get for ya?" He asked while rapidly blinking.

Slowly backing up, I made my way to the door while thanking him and saying that I didn't have anything else I wanted. Once out, I made my way back into the crowd and start looking around once again.

The encounter with Victor was a weird one but did show that not everyone was the same. Sometimes they're some batshit crazy old man that seems to be doing experiments that heavily harm him. I'll just have to remember him later on when I needed more potions or ingredients maybe.