Chapter 16 Newcomer

"I'd like to rent a room." Leo stated with a nonchalant tone, ignoring the people staring at him.

"Y-Yes, of course sir. We charge 10 Ven a night. How long would you like the room for?" the young woman working behind the counter could feel everyone staring at Leo and was very nervous something might happen.

"Three days." Leo had taken one pouch of Ven out of his storage before walking in. He wasn't sure if the ring he has is something that regular people would posses, so he decided to hide its existence for now. He takes out 30 Ven in bronze plates and places them down on the counter.

The young woman counts the plates and when she's verified the amount she speaks "Your room is number 6 on the top floor, here's the key. Please enjoy your stay, Sir." She places a small metal key on the table.

Leo picks up the key and walks up the stairs without saying another word. As soon as he exits the view of the other people within the tavern, they all begin speaking again as the music picks up.

Leo walks up to the top floor and down the hallway, looking for his room. Each room has a metallic number nailed to the door. There are 3 rooms on this floor, and Leo's is the last one, furthest from the stairs.

Leo slides the key into the lock and opens the door. The room is very simple. Around 5 meters in width and 7 meters in length. There's a double bed pressed up against the far left corner of the room, with a desk and chair pressed against the far right corner.

A simple wooden chest is on the floor at the foot of the bed, around half the width of the bed in size. Leo walks into the room and closes the door behind him.

'I wonder if 10 Ven a night is a reasonable price. I've been a slave my whole life, so I've never even used Ven for anything. I don't know the cost of living. This is something I'll need to familiarize myself with.'

Leo stands at the foot of the bed and squats in front of the chest. He reaches down and opens the lid.' Empty... That's good, I wouldn't want to be accused of stealing something that somebody else left behind.'

Leo then checks his bed and the table. Once he was satisfied he left the room, locking the door and placing the key, as well as his Ven pouch, in his storage.

Leo then walked down the stairs and into the bar area of the tavern.' It looks like there's about 12 people in here, other than the barmaid. I wonder why they aren't out doing some kind of work, it's the middle of the day so surely they have work to do. Maybe they're just lazy...' Leo scoffs at the thought.

Through his is entire life, if someone was lazy then they would be beaten until near death. Laziness wasn't a luxery he could afford growing up, and so he had grown a hatred for laziness.

Seeing these men here in the middle of the day made him angry, 'Must be nice to live a life without the worry of death constantly hanging over you...' Leo's thoughts were spiteful. Truth be told he was jealous of them, jealous of the easy lives they had lived compared to himself.

Those thoughts faded after a short while and Leo thought to himself, 'I wouldn't want anyone to live the life I did... I'm just acting like a child.' Leo continued on his way and left the tavern, walking down the streets of the village, looking for different types of stores.

His goal was to see how much value was placed on which items, and so he asked several shopkeepers about their prices.

Bread and basic ingredients like tomatoes were priced at 1 Ven per piece. Already cooked food, such as pies and stew, would cost between 5 and 15 Ven depending on what you bought.

Clothing and other wearable accessories would increase in value as the quality got better. Basic clothing would cost around 20 Ven for a single item, while higher quality clothes would start at 50 Ven a piece. While jewelry would cost 150 Ven at the cheapest.

'So far I've found most of the prices to be reasonable, other than the jewelery, which seemed a bit over priced in my opinion.'

Soon Leo was reaching the end of the road he was on. So far he had gone through every road in town and this was the last. He could see only one shop left that he hadn't gone into.

Leo walked up to the door and pushed it open. When looking around, Leo could instantly tell that this was a blacksmith. There are hammers and other tools lying all about. Various weapons and pieces of armor are hanging on the walls being displayed.

An older woman with shoulder length grey hair came walking out from a door at the back of the room, she had a smile on here face and spoke, "Welcome, everything you see is for sale, other than the tools of course."

Leo took a look around at the various items and then asked the woman, "How much does your armor pieces cost?" The woman looked around at all the armor and spoke again "Well it depends on which one you want, but the prices vary. If you want a full set then it will be around 1 000 Ven for our cheapest one."

"1000!?" Leo's eyes went wide in shock as he heard the cost, he was expecting it to be around 400 to 600 at most, and the woman said this was her cheapest one. "Can I buy the pieces seperate or do I need to buy the whole set?"

The woman laughed a bit when she saw Leo's surprised expression. She had seen many people act that way when hearing how much a set of armor costs, especially the cheapest ones. "Yes, you can buy them individually. Is there a specific piece you'd like?"

"Yes, how much would just the chest piece cost?" Leo asked, hoping it wouldn't be too expensive.

"It's 400 Ven, the chest piece is the most expensive item in any armor set." The woman's smile never faded when she replied.

"I-I see... I'll have to come back once I've acquired some more funds. There is something else I would like to purchase though. It isn't something I can't see on display but it shouldn't be difficult to make."

"I understand. You're welcome to buy at any time. As for this item you want, may I ask what it is?" The womans head tilts slightly to to side and one of her eyebrows raises, clearly curious by the request.

"I need two metal balls, around the size of these stones." Leo takes out the three stones he had been using to absorb energy from and places them on the table.

The woman looks at them and nods" My husband should be able to make them for you within a few hours. Come back tomorrow to collect them, I'll tell you the price then."

Leo nods to the woman and then leaves the shop ' I never would have guessed that armour would cost that much. I was so surprised I forgot to ask about the weapons... Well it doesn't matter, my ability only works if I touch someone directly... Or could I use a weapon with it? I'll have to test it out at some point.'

With that, Leo walked back to his room. The sun was just starting to set as Leo entered his room, he then sat down on his bed and tried something he hadn't done yet.

"Uh... Hello...? Random guy who talks into my head... are you there?"