Chapter 7: Going alone (1)

"I guess, there is no way back. Only forward." Kyle commented with a bitter smile as he saw the door to the room disappear. There was nothing else left to illuminate his path the moment the door closed, but in a few seconds, another door opened up and with no other option, Kyle walked towards the new door.

As he was walking forward, he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his back, which caused him to shiver slightly. After the shiver though, he quickly turned around for a moment, before moving on once again. In a couple of minutes, he had stopped in front of the door and couldn't help but tear up a bit. He knew that the moment he entered that door, he would enter a whole new world and he had no way of going back home, so he quickly wiped his eyes with his right hand and then run towards the door with all of his might.

The moment he ran past the door, everything became bright for a couple of seconds, before the light started to dissipate slowly from his eyes and although he saw the light for a moment, that was more than enough to blind him for a little while.

After recovering from his temporary blindness, he managed to get his first glimpse of the world around him and he was definitely shocked. There was nothing that could resemble anything close to the industrial city environment that he was used to and instead, it was a rural place with a few dozen buildings around the area. With the tower in the center and a few shops and inns, it looked like a small settlement, rather than a town or village.

After seeing the area around him for a bit, he decided to look upwards towards the tower and found out two things. Firstly, the tower was pretty tall, but from a certain point upwards, he couldn't see anything else, since a thick layer of clouds was preventing him from looking any further. Lastly, he saw that the sky was rather dark and aside from the lighting of the nearby buildings, as well as a few nearby land posts, everything else was clouded with darkness.

Knowing that it was nighttime, he needed to find a place to stay the night and he had to be fast. Since he was in another world, he didn't if it was even safe to be outside at night, let alone sleeping outside, so he decided to look around as he was making a plan on his mind to find some lodgings.

As he was walking around, he had also checked himself for any belongings he might have on person, but he didn't find much, except for a badge of sorts that he had in his pockets. The badge itself had a shield that was being pierced with a sword, had three pairs of wings on the shield and had an azure color on it. Aside from that, he only had the clothes that he was wearing on person and judging by the way these clothes looked, he could guess that these were probably fancy clothes.

As he walking around the streets, he could see armored men walking down the streets, as well as many other adults who looked like they enjoyed the night life. After some time though, he had stopped in front of some sort of clothing shop and although he couldn't read the language, he could still see the exterior and it looked similar to the clothing shops on Earth. Without much else to go on, he could only go inside in hope of making a bit of money and get some information around the area, so he could get his bearings.

In the meantime, the clothing shop clerk was sighing to himself as he was wallowing:

'I'm so tired. I thought that someone would come and buy something today, since it was the day the tower's doors were going to open. Why do I have such rotten luck, especially today out of all days? Did I commit an unspeakable sin in my past life or something and now is the day where I'm being paid in full for that?'

*ring* *ring*

"Oh? Welcome, welcome." The shopkeeper spoke respectfully to Kyle as he quickly got up and straightened his clothes quickly.

"Ummm... Hello sir. May I ask you something?" Kyle asked slightly nervous.

"Sure, go ahead young man."

"You sell clothes here, right?"

"I do. This is a clothing shop after all. Even the sign outside says 'Barok's Clothing Emporium'." The shopkeeper explained proudly with a shine on his face.

"Then, I guess you also buy clothes?"

"I do, but that depends on the quality of the clothing. I won't be buying cheap clothing or anything off-brand, only clothing from genuine clothing brands." The shopkeeper answered with a serious expression.

"I see. Then is this clothing suitable to sell it here?" Kyle pointed at his own clothes as he asked with a slightly nervous expression.

"Hmmm... Take the coat off to see the brand quickly." The shopkeeper ordered Kyle and so he did as the shopkeeper told him and then gave it to him. After a couple of minutes later, he broke the silence and said this:

"It's definitely suitable to sell it here, in addition, it's a good brand as well, so it will fetch a decent coin. How many pieces of clothing are you going to sell?"

After the question, Kyle stayed silent for a minute as he was looking at the clothes around him. Although he could read the numbers, he wasn't exactly sure of their value, since there were quite a few clothes that were tagged with four or five digit prizes, so he asked curiously:

"For how much would my clothes go for?"

"Probably slightly over a million and two hundred thousand Tils. It's a pretty famous brand, so it isn't easy to get it." The shopkeeper answered seriously as he was looking at Kyle.

"Then I guess I'll sell my clothes. Also, can I buy a set of clothes with the money from my sold clothes?"

"Pick freely young man." The shopkeeper answered happily as he pointed towards the rack with the clothes. After that, Kyle spent around fifteen to twenty minutes looking at the clothes on the racks, before finding some simple and comfortable clothing. Although his current clothing wasn't bad per se, he wasn't a fan of gaudy clothing, so selling it would be the most optimal thing he could do.

After changing into a pair of brown cloth pants, a white shirt, a brown leather jacket and a pair of leather shoes, he put all the fancy clothing on the counter, with the exception of his underwear and the insignia that he had put in his brown pants' pocket, while he was in the changing room.

"Alright, after deducting the cost of your new clothing, your total is one million and one hundred ninety thousand Tils." The shopkeeper then passed him a bag full of gold, silver and copper coins.

"Thank you sir. Before I leave though, can I ask one last thing?" Kyle asked nervously as he put the coin bag into his pocket.

"Ask away sir."

"Would you happen to know any places to stay the night in?"