Gates of Eldaria (Part 5)

Surprisingly there were more shops selling armor than there were for weapons. Yet most of them made custom armor too on request. Elaina who always wore custom was having a difficult time choosing an armorer, so she delayed her decision to some other day. Luca right away got into an intense discussion about the type of armor he would like at the very first shop. We just stood there for a considerable while watching them, not understanding if Luca and the shopkeeper were fighting or had become good friends. Eventually, they came to an agreement, which seemed more like the two of them finally choosing each other instead of fighting it out.

Sylvie... Well, Sylvie didn't really care about armor at all. She would just buy whatever premade armor piece fit her and felt better. For maintenance and repair, she would just go wherever she would buy her armor from.

Ren didn't need armor, and he already had his giant blade. So he just tagged along behind us, giving in his opinion once in a while, and keeping an eye on our hyper-active Sylvie.

I personally didn't feel the connection or appeal from any of the armor shops I visited. Which was for the good, cause as we were leaving, I met an old man and his son in a rather plain-looking shop. An old man with a temper and an interesting story about which I'll tell you guys later. Nevertheless, I chose him as my armorer.

Once we were done, Ren took us to that fabled place to eat, a favorite among adventurers apparently, and certainly seemed so too. There were adventurers of all kinds, shapes, sizes, ages, and ranks. The evening had already ended and it was well into the night, but this place was still so lively... and loud. Some of them recognized who I was, but in here Ren was more of a celebrity than I was. Apparently, he has been rising through the ranks rather quickly. He started as a slate rank in Eldaria a little more than a year ago and was already halfway to gold now. Everyone here had been following his progress and cheering for him, as he came here every time to celebrate, including the day when he was chosen by Dias for my team.

Tonight's dinner was a treat by Ren, who offered to order for all of us. Elaina also asked for some soup for the cold, while Sylvie kept insisting on a sweet, cold drink, and even though there was nothing like that on the menu, the head chef laughingly promised he would come up with something.

As for the food itself, there was a lot of stuff that we shared among ourselves, all of it extremely delicious, but what caught my attention the most was a certain dish that had small pieces of juicy chicken covered in some crunchy golden brown flakes of batter. Ren called them chicken nuggets. Damn, I might get addicted.

Even the steak looked very simple, nothing like the ones I used to have back home. But oh so beautiful, it was delicious and I absolutely loved it.

Apparently, the owner was also the head chef, a former platinum-rank adventurer, who used magic to cook and had traveled all across the continent learning about different types of food. And certainly, looking through the menu, there were too many things I had never even heard of before. What in heaven's name is a noodle? I hope it's made of meat. Maybe I'll try it next time.

After a wonderful meal and a pleasant evening, we decided to head back to our inn. On our way back, we walked past a couple of those adventurer taverns... The first one had well-audible chatter and people walking in and out... The other one, however... well... Let's just say we even heard the sounding of a war horn in there...

I was surprised, Luca was unfazed, Elaina had long disappeared inside her coat, Sylvie wanted to go in and Ren smiled as if it was all just so usual.

After a cold walk through the night streets of Eldaria, we finally bust through the doors of the Silver Swan, embracing the comfortable welcome heat of the inn. Mary, the innkeeper came over to welcome us back.

"Sorry if we caused too much trouble for you in the afternoon," I said.

Mary shook her head. "It was nothing. Thank you for saving Adele back then."

Sylvie looked at us blankly. "What trouble?"

I frowned at her. "The altercation that happened with the drunk man this afternoon... It was pretty loud you know..."

Sylvie still had a blank confused look on her face. "Hmm...?

"What were you doing when we arrived here?". Luca asked

Her face perked up again. "I was playing with the little puppy!"

"Little... puppy?"

"Yes there...", she pointed to a dark corner beside the front desk. I realized there was a kennel, and inside the kennel, two glowing eyes staring back at me with a hostile growl and the growl was getting closer.

It was neither little, nor a puppy... It was a massive beast hound. Not exactly a monster, but adventurers often got requests to hunt down packs of beast hounds who were ravaging through undefended villages.

Sylvie happily and innocently went to the beast hound and started scratching his head and behind his ear. The hound started growling and barking at her but after a moment started whimpering happily enjoying her scratches, snuggling with her leg.

The look on the innkeeper's face was one of utter disbelief and defeat. "It had been tamed and trained to never let anyone close to it, but here we go..."

I laughed and looked back at Sylvie. She was a natural at this. I turned to the inn's rune board and looked at the time.

"Alright Sylvie, let the puppy sleep and we should go too. Important day tomorrow, let's go." I said calling out to her.

"Coming!!" she replied ruffling the beast hound's neck fur and then said goodbye as she followed us back upstairs.

Apparently, she hadn't even gone back to her room in the afternoon, coz she was too busy playing with her 4-legged friend. So once Ren made sure she got back into her room, we all said goodnight and went to our own.

Today was a fun day, but tomorrow will be even more.

Adventurer's Guild, here I come.