Ravenfront!

After taking out some more meat, they started roasting once again. After another 10 minutes or so both Thufrat and Ark had eaten their fills. They only digested the food for a couple of minutes before they started to move again. They wanted to arrive at Ravenfront as fast as possible, even though they had plenty of time.

After another 5 hours of walking, Thufrat and Ark had already left the Twilight Forest and stepped onto a small road. In the distance, a fairly small wall made out of wood was towering over the city of Ravenfront. Even though they both had excellent stamina and endurance, both Ark and Thufrat were excited upon seeing this wall in front of them, they had finally arrived! Since people were up ahead on the road, Ark took the opportunity and went into the forest to change forms as fast as he could.

What he didn't notice, however, was that a pair of curious eyes inspected him from a distance. When the pair of eyes noticed that the wolf had entered the forest, and a human came out, they shone with a weird glint before disappearing again. As this was happening, Ark and Thufrat made their way toward Ravenfront. Getting through the city gates was fairly easy now that they both had identification papers, the fee was quite small too, at only 10 copper coins.

One of the guards had wanted to extort them for some more money upon seeing their spatial bags, but the other guard stopped him from doing so.

"Dude, what the hell, we could've earned some easy money, why would you stop me?"

"Are you an idiot? You notice that they have spatial bags, yet you don't stop to think why? They obviously have backers, or are powerful themselves, besides, we shouldn't stoop that low just for some money!"

After hearing this, the guard that had wanted to extort Ark and Thufrat suddenly looked as if he had realized something important. "Damn, how could I forget something that important? Thank you for restraining me back there!"

The other guard chuckled a little as he heard this, "No problem" was all he said, before going back to work once more. Messing around with people was rarely a good idea. One day, you would end up offending a noble or someone of similar status, and the next day you're dead. That's how simple life can be at times, besides, would you want people to extort you for money? No? Then you should probably not do it to others.

Whilst this was going on, Ark and Thufrat were exploring Ravenfront. The marketplace was Ark's favourite part of the city, and not just when it came to Ravenfront, he just loved the marketplace in general. Walking around the market whilst peddlers tried to sell their goods, the people ran around and bought all kinds of stuff, the atmosphere of the market was always bustling. Ark loved it, he never interacted a lot with people in his previous life, and he wanted to get to know people more in this one if he could.

The lives of the common people in this world were a lot more joyful compared to his old life. The biggest reason was just that the people of this world were satisfied with what they had, and made the best out of their situation. The people from his previous life were never satisfied with anything, no matter what they did, and it created quite the gloomy atmosphere, and the mindset of the people of his previous world just got worse and worse. That isn't to say that the opposite also exists in both worlds, but from Ark's point of view, it wasn't nearly as prevalent.

Even though the people of this world had it way worse from an objective standpoint, they still lived happier lives. This mood also influenced Ark a bit when he walked down the streets, he couldn't help but smile as he saw some small kids helping their parents out with errands, and playing around. Thufrat also enjoyed this kind of mood, but he also felt a little bit of envy. His childhood had been fraught with discrimination and loneliness.

After strolling around the city and experiencing the hustle and bustle of the market, Ark and Thufrat proceeded to check into an inn called The Bear's Den. The inn was fairly cheap, and the reputation was great, netting them two customers in Ark and Thufrat. The biggest contributor to them choosing this inn was probably their immense fatigue from walking around all day, it was close by after all.

Neither of them really cared for privacy, and Ark was a wolf when he slept anyways, therefore they just resided in a spacious single room. Ark could sleep soundly even in the middle of the city even though he was in his wolf form, the passive ability of this race he had evolved into was truly convenient! After going to sleep, the next day quickly arrived.

Since they had nothing better to do, Ark and Thufrat decided to first eat some breakfast before deciding anything else. The innkeeper was busy with something else, so the reception was left to his first-born daughter while he was away. Her name was Lily, and she was about 16 years old. As Ark and Thufrat asked for breakfast, she guided them to the dining hall. As she did so, she repeatedly snuck glances at the duo. When they had come the day before, she had been very surprised, seeing an abnormally handsome young man with a dwarf was a pretty weird sight to see, considering the discrimination they faced. These 2 people had definitely piqued her interest.

After eating their breakfast, Ark and Thufrat headed out for the day. Since Ark only had 2 and a half hours to do what he wanted, they decided to find something to entertain themselves during this day off. But before that, there was something very important they had to do, even though Ark felt that it was a little degrading, he felt like it would be totally necessary for the future, and even for this current mission that they had accepted. They were currently headed towards the local adventurers guild, to register Ark as Thufrats contracted beast.

Ark only had 2 and a half hours each day in his human form, and to be someone's bodyguard while being restricted by a time limit of such a size would be impossible. It would also come in handy in the future if Ark ever needed to enter a city without time in his human form left. To do this though, Ark needed to transform into his wolf form before they left. Since he was really big in his wolf form, he was going to try and see if he could shrink down his size, to not scare the life out of everyone in the city.

After sneakily entering a very dark and secluded ally, and making sure no one was around, Ark transformed back into his wolf form, but this time, he stopped himself from growing bigger just as he had turned into a wolf, leaving him at about a meters height. Ark didn't think that anything was off until he walked a little. He could feel that his body was weaker than it had been before. After opening up his status, the reason was laid before his eyes...