7 Chapter 7- Eventful Arrival

     Alexander walked around the city of Dwargon just marveling at the sight of it. It really cemented the fact that he was in some kind of fantasy world. It was a huge rocky city built almost entirely inside a carved out mountain. Sunlight creeped in from the exposed rooftop above shining on the metal outlines every single stone building had. In the streets people of many different species walked peacefully amongst each other. Alexander thought back to an old colleague he had back when he was on Earth.

     He wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the sharpened tool box but he was still pretty smart. He wasn't exactly setting records though. Really what kept him around Alexander's workplace was mostly just his stubborn determination. However, that wasn't the only thing. The thing that really set him apart from the rest was his...chaotic tendencies. He was fun to have around for sure but he would bring his girlfriend in to look around, mess and joke around with the people in the workplace to see if he could get them to laugh, he would "accidentally" leave his whoopee cushion on Alexander's chair. Things like that.

     But, there was something else he would do that would prove very useful to Alexander. He would watch a lot of fantasy and anime. Like, a bit too much. He would even watch it while working. At the time it did annoy some people but Alexander didn't really mind as long as he got his work done efficiently which he surprisingly did. However, to Alexander's dismay, this do whatever you want attitude also made it so he would talk to Alexander about it. Ogres this, lizardmen that. It was truly impressive just how much that guy knew about fantasy and thanks to him Alexander could immediately recognize everything he saw.

     The shorter but bulkier humanoids. Obviously they were the dwarves. The people with long pointy ears. Elves. It impressed Alexander just how much he had remembered but then again, his colleague did talk a lot about this sort of thing. Who knew it would come in handy? Definitely not him.

     Moving past that thought though, Alexander focused up on the people around him. Among the different species he also noticed some more normal humans. They were the second most abundant in the area outside of the dwarves it seemed. For now he would just look around. There was no real reason to speak to random strangers after all but he would make sure to learn more about the new world. As he looked around though, he suddenly noticed something. "A bar." It had been too long since he had the chance to go to one. In the old world he visited bars more often than he would have liked to admit but after the transfer he had practically stopped consuming alcohol. There was beer in the ogre village but he never really got around to drinking some. He was too busy being tortur...trained in the art of combat by Byakuya.

     It was a nice sight to see after so many years but he didn't really feel like walking in. This was because on top of being busy that made it so he wouldn't drink much. His tolerance was far too high. Even with his Poison Resistance EX deactivated, Alexander's passive tolerance for poisons and drugs was still superhuman thanks to [Adaptation] modifying his biology a bit. This meant in order to get drunk he had to consume a monstrous amount of alcohol. Enough to kill an elephant he guessed. With more normal amounts he would only really get a short buzz that would go away in a half hour or so. It just wasn't worth it. Didn't help that beer was apparently much less common thanks to lack of refrigeration making beer less appealing so he would have to consume large amounts of wine instead. A bit more expensive.

    With the thought of the bar though, Alexander then realized. Wait, if bars were a thing. He looked around. Found one. What he found was an average looking restaurant on the side of a street curb. Alexander was interested in trying one out because he hadn't really tasted the cuisine of the new world yet. Sure he had tried the cooking of the ogres but it wasn't exactly complex or good. It was mostly just roasted cuts of meat and vegetables with little in terms of added flavor. It was fine but not exactly something he drooled over the thought of eating. Dwarven food on the other hand. That had him interested. After all, judging off of the size of Dwargon, they were definitely more developed.

     As he walked in he immediately went up to a counter on the edge of the right back corner of the restaurant and spoke to an elven girl seemingly serving as a cashier. He spoke up, "Hello, is this where I can order something to eat?"

     The elven girl looked up at him, a bit surprised at the overly casual tone. Not many people in the world talked like that in public. "Eh, yes sir."

     "I see." Alexander looked at a menu on the side of the counter. "Is this what this place offers?"

     "Yes sir."

     "Hmm." Alexander looked over the food. "I'd like some of this." Alexander pointed at the picture of some steak, "and this." He pointed at a strange looking soup using a mix of plants native to his own world as well as some new ones from the new world.

     The elf looked at it, "I see. Would you like anything else, sir?"

     "Yeah, that's fine."

     "Very well."

     Alexander looked around a bit and suddenly realized. Oh, yeah. He needs to pay. He reached over to his side where he attached a bag of money before leaving and opened it up. He asked, "How much would that be?"

     "Oh, that'll be..." She suddenly looked down at his bag. "Uh, s-sir..."

      "Wha, yeah?" Alexander was confused at the sudden response of the elf in front of him.

     She leaned over and quietly said, "I don't recommend revealing that much money in public."

     That much money. He looked in his bag. The way he had obtained his money was through making some simple inventions and telling the ogres to go ahead and sell and trade them with Dwargon. He had never actually gotten directly involved outside of that though because of his training with Byakuya though. He told them to give him a cut of the money and that was about it. Because of this he didn't really know how much the money he had was worth. All he knew was they were gold coins. It surprised him when he realized this. He hadn't thought to ask how much gold coins were worth. "Ehehe..." He laughed a bit. If the elf was pointing this out then, "Uh, this might seem a bit dumb but how much money is this exactly?"

     The elf looked shocked, "Are you serious? You truly don't know?" Alexander nodded. The elf looked shocked. "This...I'm not sure how to respond."

     Alexander looked at the bag. The coins were definitely solid gold. He could tell that but he didn't exactly know how valuable they were. He should have thought to ask Byakuya. He simply sighed, "Never mind. I'll just pay with this." He pulled out a gold coin and gave it to the lady. As soon as he did he felt as if some people looked at the coin and started speaking amongst each other. "Who is he?" "Do you think he's a noble from a human country?" "Who would use a gold coin here?"

     Enhanced hearing. Useful for fighting and for pinpointing enemies. A curse when in a city. He could basically hear everything. The elf defeatedly asked him, "Would you like your change sir?"

     Still hearing the people around him already spreading rumors he said, "Yeah."

     The elf laughed a bit at the absurd payment, "Very well." She proceeded to dig into the earnings in silver coins of the day and tried to hand Alexander 95 silver coins. "Here's your change."

     Alexander looked at the pile. He couldn't carry that. "Uh, you know what. You go ahead and keep it. Consider it a thanks for the service."

     The elf asked, "A-are you sure?"

     "Yeah, I have more money anyways." The elf stopped and stared at the pile. "I can keep it? Truly?" He nodded. The elf thanked him profusely and smiled as she put the change in a bag she herself had. She seemed eager. He wondered why she did that so fast but chose to ignore it. Instead he just walked back to a table and proceeded to wait for his meal feeling people talking about him nearby. "Do you think that bag has more gold coins?" "Not sure." "I'm worried. He might get robbed later." "That's for sure." Robbed eh? He didn't think so. There wasn't anyone particularly strong there.

     What really concerned him was the possibility of rumors spreading. People were asking if he was something called a noble. Alexander knew what that probably meant and it wasn't good. If rumors spread it also wouldn't take long for people to get suspicious of him. It seemed like gold coins were valuable. A random person appearing with as many as he had definitely would look suspicious. He knew that. Getting out of town was probably a good idea.

     That also got him thinking. If he only got a small cut of the money and it amounted to as much as he had, just how much money did Ogra in total have now? He had noticed some improvements in the town but not anything too big. The ogres probably just didn't try to improve the town very fast. That did mean that they likely had a good amount of gold coins in storage somewhere. That gave him the added question. How did they get this much money from just trading?

     It didn't take long to figure it out. One of his inventions was a really fast and efficient wooden semi-automatic loom. Back in the old world when looms were created they were revolutionary as they made mass production of several important items easy. Just that alone would have netted Ogra a good amount of money. Just how much were they selling them for though? He would look into that later.

     Instead he just chose to focus on something more current. His food. He watched as the elf brought him his food and smiled, "Here you go sir."

     "Oh, thank you." He took them and immediately analyzed the food. It was definitely more seasoned than the food back in Ogra. That was for sure but it still didn't look as good as what he could make. Figures. After all, he knew more complex and modern techniques. A fantasy world restaurant wouldn't be able to compete with that. It was still good though but as he ate he heard something. "Ah!"

     A girl's scream. The entire restaurant went quiet as people looked around looking for where the sound came from. Screaming was heard soon after. It eventually became clear that the sound was coming from behind the desk where Alexander had ordered his food not long after that. From the back he heard two female voices but one was screaming and the other seemed scared. He recognized the scared voice. It was the elf. "What the?" He ran over to check. As he did he realized what they were fighting about. The screaming woman seemed to be an owner of the restaurant and she was accusing the elf girl of stealing from the restaurant.

     He immediately realized where the confusion came from. Damn it. It was his fault. Jumping over to stop this from guilt he ran in and saw a taller dwarven lady about to slap the elf. Faster than you could blink, Alexander ran over to her and stopped her by craving her hand. "What the? Who the hell are you!?"

     "The man who told her she could keep the change from my gold coin."

     The lady froze, "Wait, so..."

    Alexander turned to her, "She was telling the truth."

     "I..." Realizing her mistake she turned to the elf on the ground, "I-I see." She tried to speak but the elf just got up and ran away. "I-I'm sorry..."

     "A bit too late now don't you think. How the hell did it even escalate so fast?" The dwarven lady looked down. A bit embarrassed. Alexander sighed, "You know what. I don't care." He ran out to look for the elf. It didn't take him long thanks to his enhanced hearing. Walking up to her he asked, "Are you okay?" There was no response as he suddenly heard crying. This is is gonna get awkward.

Status

Name: Alexander Sarmos

Race: Human-Saint Intermediary

Titles: Honorary Guard

Magic: None

EP: 75609

Abilities: Unique Skills [Long Lived, Survivor and Regenerator]

Extra Skill [Adaptation, Adaptive Reflex, Memory Bank, Thought Acceleration, Magic Sense, Information Processor, Attack Prediction, Enhanced Senses, Body Enhancement and Instinct]

Resistances: Poison Resistance EX, Physical Attack Resistance, Pain Resistance