Cheers!

Staying in proved to be a good thing for Rictus. First off, he had tried leaving the house with no money. After searching around his new hew house, he remembered that the money was split between a pouch on the bedside table and the chest in the bedroom. Looking through his money pouch revealed another slight shock. Septims were not all the same. Looking over the gold coins, some were smaller while others were larger. There were also various numbers on the coins which denoted various denominations. With the coins he owned, there were septims worth 1,5, and 10. His 'other' memories let him know that this was pretty standard and that there were coins worth up to 100. This made sense when Rictus thought about it. Think how difficult it would be to carry around lots of metal coins everywhere you go. Some enchanted items cost thousands of gold. You would have to carry around a chest of gold everywhere you went if that was the case. Makes a lot more sense that there are other denominations of coin values honestly.

The other major benefit was to some of the spells Rictus knew. Thought and intent mattered a lot regarding the Alteration spells he knew. Simply thinking about the spell he wanted to cast was all that was really needed. He could also change the spell to better fit his thoughts, such as changing the intensity, shape, and colors of his mage light. Yes, the blinding white light was great, but sometimes you just don't need all that light. Finding a robe which looked like a jedi robe and pretending to have lightsaber does have practical applications with magic in the world.

Another spell which had been interesting Rictus was the Alter Body spell. He knew the spell was supposed to allow him to change his physical appearance but did not know to what degree. In the game, this spell basically took you back to the character creation menu. It turned out that the spell was almost unchanged. Casting the spell did require him to close his eyes, yes it took awhile to figure out he had to close his eyes, no he does not want to admit how many times this took to figure out.

After closing his eyes, he can almost see what appears to be a 3D model of himself. Imagining the changes he wants to see gives him a feel about how much magic it would actually take to make those changes. The more drastic the change the more magic it would take.

He could change his race even, but this would mostly only be a cosmetic change and would require more mana than he possessed for making him look like an Argonian or Khajiit. Taking off a few pounds though…now that wasn't too hard at all. He could even give himself boobs and potentially change his gender, but he did not linger too long on that given the weird feeling it gave him looking at a female version of himself.

"I know I initially did not make any changes, but I feel like I should do it now…purely for the sake of science and finding the limitations of my magic. Not to get rid of my belly or add extra muscles or be a little bit bigger in other areas. Heh. Nice."

After thinking these things to himself and making the changes, he felt some weird tingling all along his body. Looking over himself, he discovered a more athletic version of himself. He didn't make himself buff at least not yet. He had a feeling that making too many changes would not be good and he did not want to have to get used to drastic changes. Making small incremental changes daily would be the goal. Athletic for now, buff for later.

After all of that, a goodnights sleep was in order.

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Whiterun was a little more than he expected. After yesterdays failed attempt at getting out of the house, Rictus was more than ready to leave the house. Looking and wandering about the city was an interesting experience. Rictus remembered Whiterun being one of the largest cities in Skyrim, but the game naturally failed to get its true size right. This makes sense considering that games cannot really show the full aspect of a city since no platform has that kind of processing power. Rictus also kind of remembered seeing Whiterun as he approached with the caravan and then walking to his new house. It was also different aesthetically from where he grew up in Daggerfall...and Georgia. That caused a little bit of a headache, but as long as he did not really think on it everything was more manageable.

Still, a city is a city no matter where you end up. The crowded buildings combined with all the people moving around seemed to somewhat calm Rictus. Ignoring the different clothes, armor, wooden buildings, and occasional different race, the city appeared to operate a lot like most other cities.

The city seemed to be roughly the same layout as the game, just blown up to a realistic size. The lower district was technically broken up into a few sections.

There was the artisan section, which was where blacksmiths, carpenters, and others created their wares and was located right past the main gate. The game only had the one blacksmith, but there were naturally others in a city this size.

The residential area contained most of the working people and families in the city and was right past the artisan section. His new home, known as the breezehome to the locals, was located here and was the marker between the artisan and residential area.

The market section was the final and most impressive location in the lower area. It had many different shops for all kinds of businesses. There was also the open market area which was much more expansive than shown in the game. This section also was home to the various taverns, though there was another in the upper district.

Rictus did not really explore the upper district yet, but a helpful old lady behind him filled in his gaps in knowledge. The upper district was where the more affluent families lived. It contained the various temples as well as the hall of the dead. The most impressive thing there was Jorrvaskr, the home of the Companions. The lady also told him that the Jarls of old were smart to have it near the entrance to the keep because if there was an invasion the Companions would be an extra layer of defenders.

After wandering around the city for a few hours, no thanks to that old feeble lady who would not stop talking to him, Rictus found himself in the open market searching for a snack. After grabbing a couple sticks of honey nut treat from a vendor, Rictus takes a seat on the slight hill which leads to the upper district. Eating and people watching has always been a fun past time of his. With so many people around, he also figures it would be a good time to cast detect life in order to try and max out his skill.

As long as he channeled the spell, there seemed to be a glow originating from the core of any living being in view. It was interesting to note that there were varying intensities to these lights. It appeared some people seem to have more life or vitality in them than others. There was an old couple with a dim yet constant light. A man in armor had a vibrant light. Surprisingly, a woman in what appeared to be a mages robe seemed to have the brightest light.

'It appears that mages may have more of a signature than others. This could be useful in a few situations.'

Lost in his thoughts, Rictus barely noticed the passing of time as he simply sat there watching the people go about their days and repeatedly casting his magic. As the sun started to go down, he noticed people beginning to pack up their things and head home. Thinking the idea was not a bad one, Rictus took one last look around. He noticed that there seemed to be a fair amount of people heading into one of the larger buildings right near the market. If his prior knowledge was to be relied upon, this was probably the Bannered Mare.

'Hmm. I could go for a drink before I head back home. Besides, it would be a great place to gather some information.'

Unsurprisingly, the Bannered Mare was larger than what Rictus Expected. The Bar had enough room for at least 10 people and there were quite a few tables scattered throughout the place. There was even a couple of indoor fire pits near the center of the room as well as a larger fireplace along one of the walls.

The inn was filled with people. Many people were standing near the fire pits with a drink in their hand while talking about their day. Others were sitting at the tables with friends. There were a couple tables which seemed to have people playing games with either cards or dice. There was even one hulk of a women in full armor standing over a man she had apparently just knocked out while his friends tried to drag him out the back door. Above all the noise was the sound of a lute being gently played by a man on the stage in the far corner.

Deciding to get out of the way, Rictus made his way to the bar where a homely woman was passing out drinks. Taking a seat near the edge, Rictus waited for the woman to finish passing out drinks.

"What can I do for you?" She asked after giving him a once over.

"I'll take whatever Honningbrew you happen to have."

With a nod the woman reached behind the bar and placed a bottle in front of Rictus. Exchanging the bottle for some gold, Rictus took his first sip of this world's mead. It had a wonderful flavor and was surprisingly cold. After carefully watching the bar tender, he noticed a quick flash of magic from the woman's hand which implied she was using a bit of frost magic on the mead.

A slightly scruffy looking man suddenly sits down next to Rictus.

"You look like someone who can hold their liquor. How about a friendly contest to win a staff?"

After taking a second to look over the somewhat familiar man, Rictus finally replied.

"A drinking contest with a stranger? I don't know…"

"Ah come on, I haven't had any good drinking buddy in a long time, and I just got into town. I even have my own special brew we can use free of charge."

"Welllllll, I do like free Booze. What's the worst that can happen?"

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[A/N]: Well those words never got anyone into trouble. Especially when drinking is involved. To those who don't know why he suddenly started drinking with a stranger, well he is a bit off his game still and has a lot to learn. Besides, I think a lot of people would drink a little too much if there were whisked off somewhere with no real idea how they got there.