4 Inn

'I am surprised that girl still has a job with how lazy she is. Hmmm, perhaps that just means you can't judge a book by its cover. Either that or the guild is desperate.' Alvar walked along the pavement with his left hand holding the backpack's strap.

'This city looks pretty peaceful, but I can tell that that is just on the surface. There's a monster breeding ground inside the city after all.'

'Are you still hanging in there, buddy?' Alvar asked mentally, only to get an annoyed grunt in return.

'We'll be checking out the dungeon soon enough, no need to worry. After we find the inn we can figure out the rest after that.' Alvar shook his head mentally, this so-called 'dragon' of his only has 'food' on its mind.

Alvar continued 'talking' to Stardust until the dragon got distracted by an appetizing scent.

While having nothing better to do. He started following the scent till he saw some symbols on a board in front of the place. He asked Misha before he left to write down the 'The Hostess of Fertility' on some paper.

Seeing the symbols being identical he assumed that this must be The Hostess of Fertility.

The Hostess of Fertility sits on a brick-lined street. It is a two-story building made of stone that has the depth of a neat inn. As it is located along the Western Main Street, it is usually filled with a lot of customers.

The Hostess of Fertility sign can be seen on the left side of the entrance, as well as on an overhanging sign with a fork and knife in the shape of a cross.

'Looks more like a restaurant than an inn.' He thought while opening the doors and entering the building.

What he saw inside was a bunch of drunk adventurers, some passed out while the rest drinking and laughing.

Although most of the customers were normal people as most adventurers tend to be in the dungeon at this time of day.

'These drunkards remind me of the good old days.' With a smile on his face, he walked to the counter and waited for one of the workers.

"Anything I can do for you, sir?" He heard someone close to him ask in a monotone voice.

Alvar looked up and saw a female Elf with sky-blue eyes and green hair.

"I was told that this place also works as an inn by a guild employee, so I'm just wondering if I could rent a room to stay in." Alvar took a quick glance around the 'inn' and scratched his cheek.

'No matter how you look at it, this place looks nothing like one.'

"Is that so? I'll take you to Mama Mia, she's the owner of this pub." The elf lightly nodded and walked off.

Alvar followed the elf to one of the rooms in the back where the owner was busy making some drinks.

"Sorry to bother you Mama Mia but he wants to know if he could rent a room."

"Hmm? Been a while since someone asked for that, you can go now, I'll take care of it." Mamma Mia said with a laugh.

'Did I perhaps miss translate something? I am so confused...' The ex-king and dragon both couldn't help but question why this matter seemed so important.

"So kid, why do you want to rent a room?"Mama Mia Asked in a somewhat threatening tone.

"I just want a place to stay at, I am new to this city so a guild employee recommended this place." Alvar shrugged.

Mama Mia stared into Alvar's eyes for a few seconds before she shrugged.

"I understand, it will cost about 1k valis for a room. As for food, you can just order something on the menu and pay that price, so for how long are you planning on staying for?"

"Depends, does '1k for a room' translate to 1k per day?" Alvar narrowed his eyes. His words caused Mamma Mia to grin.

"And what if it does?"

They stared at each other for a solid minute before Mamma Mia suddenly waved her arm dismissively.

"Fine, fine, you win kid. I'll lower the price to 500 valis and that's final."

"...Let me guess, your intuition is telling you that me being here might bring you more money?" Alver deadpanned at her shocked expression.

Spending so much time with that goblin tinkerer made Alvar notice these things.

"I'll pay for five days and after that, I'll decide if I would want to stay longer. Speaking of which, why does my renting a room seem so serious?" Alvar asked confused.

"My pub used to be part inn, but people stopped staying here because it was apparently too expensive." She clicked her tongue.

"Plus every one of my workers are female, so most of those staying here were people with bad intentions. You don't have to worry about it, kid. Since Ryuu is the one who brought you to me, then it is highly unlikely for you to be that bad."

"As for that recommendation of yours, not sure why that employee sent you here. The last time we had any rented rooms resulted in them getting kicked out with broken bones for trying to get into the waitresses' bathroom."

"I do not know how she's a guild employee in all honesty..." Alvar shook his head.

'The guild is 100% desperate. I hope the next time someone better will be there to help me.'

'Her reactions are funny, but I do not want to worry about whether the information is valid or not.'

Mamma Mia is very curious about the boy in front of her. Not just because of her intuition, like Alvar pointed out, but also the fact that Ryuu of all people brought him in.

"You can ask Ryuu to take you to your room, she should be at the counter, after you pay." She stretched out her hand with a 'smile' on her face.

Alvar took out the 2.5k valis and handed it to her. He then said his goodbyes and headed to the counter.

"Sorry to bother you again, but can you show me the way to my room?"

"Sure." She walked away from the counter while another waitress took her place.

They didn't talk on the way, it was in complete silence. Until they arrived at Alvar's new room.

She handed Alvar the room key and said: "Here is the room's key, you can ask Mama Mia or any of us waitresses if you need anything."

Alvar briefly glanced at her ears before picking up the keys. 'It seems that she is being influenced by the necklace. It seems elves do have a connection with spirits in this world too.'

"Do you perhaps know about any adventurer by the name of Cali?" Alvar asked with hidden hope in his words.

"...I haven't heard of any adventurer by that name in this city." She shook her head slightly.

"Adventurers usually only get popular when they reach level 2 and above. They also get a nickname at level 2 so most are only known by that. Any characteristics they might have?"

"She is a female and uses brimstone magic, which is bright red flames. She used to have black hair with red highlights and purple eyes. Although we haven't seen each other in years so that might have changed."

Ryuu stopped to think and slowly shook her head again, although her eyes showed a hint of sadness.

"I haven't heard of that type of magic nor of anyone using it. Sorry for not being able to help." She apologized.

"No need to apologize, it's not your fault. Besides, she's probably... dead by now." Alvar sighed and walked to the door and opened it.

"Thank you for allowing me to stay here. See you tomorrow." He gave her a light smile and walked inside his room.

'She is lying, but that sadness... It was genuine.' He was concerned. Very much so.

It isn't that big of a room, but it has enough space for a desk, bed and a closet.

Alvar sat on the chair and placed the silver orb on the table. He slowly started pouring his mana inside the orb causing it to gain a dim blue glow.

Small, thin lines started appearing, making four sections on the top half of the orb. It slowly started opening up revealing a small circular platform... with nothing on it.

The orb was completely empty.

Alvar himself was confused for a few seconds... until his expression turned into one of understanding as he clenched his fists tightly as he stared at the seemingly empty orb or more accurately.

At a thin red strand of mana that was slowly dissipating into the atmosphere.

"..." He continued to blankly stare as his mind began to wander in thought.

When he finally calmed down Alvar stored the now useless orb. He let out a small smile as he took out the three books that Andrew gave him and his grimoire.

'I knew this was in the realm of possibilities, in fact, the most likely scenario... but it still hurts to know.'

'...I took too long.' His eyes filled with disappointment and grief as he closed them and started reminiscing.

'I took a shot in the dark and missed.' He let out a sad chuckle.

His scarf got a bit warmer, sending a bit of warmth to Alvar as his emotions got out of hand. Causing him to smile a bit.

'Thanks, buddy.' He heard a mental grunt from Stardust causing him to let out a chuckle.

Alvar opened up his eyes and grabbed his pen. A smile still hanging on his face.

'I'll still at least find out how you died and look for your body. It's the least that I can do.'

Alvar pressed the pen on his chin lightly turned his head to the side and started thinking about his plans for the future and organizing his thoughts.

'My first step should be to learn more about this world and find a library. Andrew's books might not be enough to give me this world's common sense. So it's time to learn how to read.' Alvar started writing letters inside his grimoire with symbols next to them.

Within the few hours that Alvar had to answer questions for his temporary ID, he also looked through the answers that the elf wrote down. Using the characters of the answers in his language and the one of this world's. He wrote them side by side and started cross-referencing them.

In the few hours, he was in the line, he had somewhat decoded a few words inside one of the books.

But now he has the needed information to decode the rest. By paying attention to what the elf at the entrance asked and wrote down on his identification papers. He knew what a few of the words meant. He did the same with Misha for the freelancer papers.

With this, he cross-referenced the different words to see what symbol corresponds to what letter.

After an hour he started reading Andrew's books. It started slowly with Alvar figuring out the words and their meaning in their use in each sentence. As he continued to learn, his speed increased.

In about five hours he finished all three books and managed to learn a lot about this world.

'Most of the information is mainly talking about historical figures which aren't that helpful. But I got the jist of it.' Alvar started summarising the important parts inside his grimoire.

[A dungeon appeared and started to spawn monsters, people started fighting monsters. Monsters got stronger, people started dying. With the help of some outer power, adventurers gained the help to fight monsters. 1000 ago, deities descended to help mortals fight the monsters. They branded them with their falna which allowed them to get stronger from fighting monsters. They become a familia from the deity who branded them with their falna. The strongest familia at this time would be the Zeus Familia...]

[The Zeus and Hera Familia were able to reach the 71st floor in the dungeon. It was unknown when, but 3 great beasts managed to escape the dungeon. The three were the Behemoth, Leviathan, and Black Dragon. The Zeus and Hera Familia decided to hunt down these three beasts in a mission named 'Three Great Quests'. The two familias slew the Behemoth and Leviathan while the black dragon pushed them back and survived with only one eye left... The two familias were weakened by the fight and got kicked out of Orario...]

[...]

After a couple of hours of reading and summarizing, Alvar was finally done. he was quite interested in the history of this world now. Not because of the gods that descended but simply because parts seem to be missing from the story, leaving him to have some questions.

Things like: 'How and why did the dungeon appear.' and 'If the dungeon could suddenly spew out dangerous monsters like the black dragon, why stop? It has been years since the last three, so why not make more?

And how does the leveling system work? What is Excelia exactly?

'How strange indeed.' Alvar thought to himself before he took in a deep breath and let out a sigh.

'I need to stay calm, I can't have my nature take control right now.' He took in and released a couple of deep breaths.

'Alright, I need to find a library for more information to work on and then take a peak in the dungeon.'

Alvar looked outside the window and saw that the sun was starting to rise.

'It took longer than I thought, but it will still help me out in the end.' He stood up and made his way towards the library or at least he was walking around the city in search of one.

Funnily enough, it seems adventurers don't usually use the library causing no one to mark it on the map.

Speaking of which the only things marked are the guild, the exits/entrances of the city, the dungeon, Hostess of Fertility, districts, and the noteworthy/ important Familias.

Adventurers are on their way towards the dungeon. Some are excited, some not. Some old, some new. Experienced and not.

'Been a while, hasn't it?' Alvar thought to himself. 'A breath of fresh air, new things to explore, and new things to study. And, if possible, new friends. Isn't this what you wanted?' Alvar chucked and inhaled a breath of fresh air.

'If you are truly gone, then I'll live, not just for me, but for you too. We both will experience this new world.' A soft sad smile stretched on his face but faded as soon as it appeared. 

Alvar spent a while looking for the library, he wanted to relax a bit. So he calmly walked around the city, taking in a few things as he walked around. Talking to a couple of people here and there to learn some things and ask for directions. He ate some food at the stalls he walked by to try out the new food. The most noteworthy one was Jagamarukun. 

After relaxing for a bit he made his way to the Library. It was called LoreLumina Library. As Alvar entered the library, he was met with a female half-elf with silver hair and green eyes. She seemed to be the owner of this library so Alvar simply gave her a nod in greeting and went exploring. 

Alvar spent a couple of hours scanning through numerous amounts of books and found a couple that would be useful or necessary, those being an encyclopedia of the monsters in the dungeon that have been documented/ encountered. A book about Flora and Fauna, the different races and cultures, smithing 101, adventuring rules, and a few historical ones.

He took all the books and went to one of the desks in the Library and spent the rest of the day reading all of them and summarising them inside his grimoires, while also making a few sketches for the flora and fauna, necessary symbols, and so on.

After the library closed, Alvar had finished a couple of the books and brought a few of them to the 'inn', with the permission of the librarian whose name was Elara.