Caravan and Inner City Venture

Drew worked his way back to the tunnels and shortly after he found Flux laying on the ground lazily. As soon as Flux saw Drew he perked up and sat up with a look of excitement and happiness at his Master's return.

Drew smiled wide at the sight of the blue and white Doggo and rushed forwards and embraced him with a hug, the warm and soft feeling of the fur making him almost forget about his encounter with his memories.

Flux joined in with Drew's tackle and wrestled him to the ground and slobber quickly covered Drew's face.

He laughed at the insane amount of affection he was receiving and felt something similar to love, warm his heart for the first time that he could remember.

After nearly 10 whole minutes passed after the two of them reunited they finally relaxed and decided to move forward.

But after reaching the ladder to the room that they had entered, Drew ran into a problem.

'There is no way Flux would be allowed to wander around other people,' He thought while observing the 4-foot-tall wolf that was almost up to Drew's chest.

'The teeth and claws don't help too much either...'

'System, do you have any clues if one of these tunnels leads in the direction of the abandoned farm?'

[Calculating general direction and current memories of tunnel patterns...]

[Calculating direction of Abandoned Farm(Home base)...]

While the system began doing strange calculations Drew felt a headache suddenly throbbing within his mind as the System seemed to be using his brain to do the computing.

'Ugh... This is probably because I don't have the map feature that the System mentioned...'

'It seems like the system can do things that it could typically only do with upgrades at a cost,' Drew concluded as the system seemed to come up with an answer to his question.

(Author Note: This may look similar to a map function but is much more rudimentary and simple. Instead of the system being able to accurately map out everything in an area around Drew, it is instead using Drew's memories to recall the pathways that he had passed by and the directions in which his home is. Doing this isn't perfect and can easily fail, such as if the tunnel were to turn just out of Drew's vision, causing the System to miss calculate. Sorry if this is confusing to some people or a redundant explanation to those who already understood this. The system's previous upgrade 'Improved Data Base', increased the system's ability to consolidate already understood information and general information about the world. Because of this, it can do a lot more compared to before Drew upgraded it. Sorry for the long explanation lol.)

[The right-hand path that appears in 57 steps from your current position should lead you somewhere along the road leaving the city, which happens to be close to the farmhouse]

After the system stopped calculating the pain in Drew's head decreased significantly, though it didn't completely subside.

"Alright, Flux, looks like we got a way back to your new home,"

Flux tilted its head to the side as it stared at Drew with a cute curious face before wagging its tail and following Drew as he walked.

-

After about a half hour of walking, they finally came across another rope ladder that the system clarified should be the way out.

'This one is pretty short compared to the other one,' Drew thought as he climbed up the ladder with ease.

Instead of an open entrance to the ladder, a small grass cover seemed to be placed over the opening that hid this entrance.

'Not as good as the false wall but I doubt anyone would check some shrubbery for a secret tunnel,'

Drew climbed outside and after getting a breath of fresh air and confirming that no one was in close proximity, he called up to Flux to Lunge up to the surface.

A whirl of blue particles flooded through the small hole and Flux's strange and fluctuating body appeared at the top of the green grass next to Drew.

Flux stared at the green and bright surroundings with awe. His eyes darted around excitedly, taking in every detail while his nose twitched at all the new and interesting smells that enveloped them.

"Hey buddy, this is the outside world," Drew said, lightly chuckling at Flux's curiosity.

'He really is just a pup isn't he...' He thought as he stared at the massive wolf in front of him.

Drew hadn't been able to see his new companion's combat abilities in action yet... but a sneaking suspicion told him that even himself might not be a match for Flux.

The wolf's claws were sharp and larger than average, yet didn't seem to impede his movement. His teeth were just as impressive as they glinted every time he tried to smile.

"Alright Flux, I'm gonna bring you back to where I call home. After that, I have to leave for a little bit to get some business done,"

Flux turned his curious gaze towards Drew and nodded in understanding.

It was a short walk through some empty plains to reach the abandoned farmhouse. It hadn't changed a bit since he left and though the walls of his shack were small, it still felt more like a home than any place he had been to before.

'Though I really do like this place... I wish I could make it bigger or actually own the land. But being wanted makes that pretty difficult,' He thought as the tight space still brought back some bad memories.

He shook his head to clear his mind and stop him from getting lost in his past and looked at Flux who was now in the small shack making quite a mess due to his large size.

'This is gonna be an issue...'

Flux moved around awkwardly and sniffed everything as if sensing that his master's scent was enveloping everything here.

'I don't know if leaving him outside would be a good idea though...'

"Hey, do you think you could hang out in the forest for a few hours? Maybe get used to the surroundings?" Drew asked hesitantly.

Flux nodded, half distracted from Drew's words but clearly understanding his intent.

"Just make sure to avoid anyone you see, people who look like me but different if that makes any sense to you,"

After a few more words of warning, Flux began to lazily walk into the forest while taking in the scenery.

'Looks like it's time to try and find Jazzy again,'

-

The roads were bustling with traveling merchants, some sort of caravan of sorts having just entered the outer ring of the city.

Horses of ridiculous sizes drew the carriages that rattled down the dirt road.

Drew took in the view and watched some of the travelers, hoping to maybe get more information. He hadn't seen any sort of major influx of people arriving at Nickten until now, it seemed a little strange but he would likely have to talk to the merchants to hear why they came here.

The travelers were all sorts of odd and familiar folk. Most of them were humans and wore clothes similar to his own, while some wore clothes made out of fine silk that draped around their shoulders like flowing water.

As he stared at the new arrivals he noticed something that sparked his curiosity.

At the back of the caravan, there seemed to be a group of people who didn't carry much on them. They didn't even have a carriage tethered to their horses.

He looked at them approaching in the distance but after they got closer in range of his sight he realized why they were different than the others.

They didn't wear silks or cloth... instead, they wore armor. Some were wearing metal that was shaped oddly, and some were even rusted. While others wore leather that fitted their bodies tightly while not restricting their movements.

'Guards? Escorts?' Drew thought as he stared at the clearly hardened warriors. But out of this strange group of soldiers, there was one thing that even further caught his attention.

There was one woman that wore some sort of liquid silver robe. A symbol that was different compared to her silver robe. It was a dark circle that seemed to resemble a bottomless pit that was chained and locked by massive silver chains. Just from staring at the symbol, he got a sense of power and suppression.

She clutched a slender staff made out of silver that twisted strangely and reached a curved edge at the end, almost like a shepherd's crook.

He stared at her as they approached closer, but as they drew near to the town she cocked her hooded gaze towards Drew, seemingly sensing his rude staring.

Her face was more angular than any face he had seen before. Her skin was gaunt and pale but her eyes portrayed a different person altogether. They were completely red. Not like blood but instead like autumn leaves.

She began to turn away from him after making him aware of her awareness but he caught the slightest hint of long ears beneath the edges of the cloak.

'An elf?' Drew thought as a light excitement filled his mind.

'Aren't they supposed to be rare?'

'I better stop staring, I'm sure I seem like some sort of creep,' Drew thought as he turned and finally started making his way towards the market.

A few new temporary stalls had been set up within the busy street and the market seemed to stretch out further than it ever had before.

'I wonder if the night market is getting some new additions?' He wondered as he stared at the various strange goods that filled the street.

He ignored the new wares after realizing that almost none of the items they were trading had any magical or combat value to him.

He wandered about for a while, searching for the familiar black cat he had seen not that long ago, but found that she was nowhere to be seen.

The previous place where her stall had been was now filled with some sort of farmer selling his harvest.

'Man, did she really disappear?'

He gave one more pitiful glance around the market before sighing.

'Maybe the inner city has some better goods?'

'But going there could be dangerous...' Drew thought as he stared into the distant stone road that would lead deeper within Nickten.

'If I want anything magical I ought to risk it,' He concluded as he hadn't seen any non-cursed items in the night market and the farmers market didn't have anything noteworthy in it without Jazzy's shop.

So he started to make his way towards the stone road and headed deeper within the city, trying to stealth as much as possible.