Chapter 122 - 121 A Place To Stay

Riding on their carriage along the city streets of the Kingdom of Borealia's capital city Boreas, Marcus and Lilia looked at the diverse and numerous people living in the city.

'Wow, in Loursend I would see a few other races like the occasional elf and beast person, but it was still almost all humans.'

Looking around Marcus saw a number of races he had not seen since ending up on Mirrion. Some of them looked like classic fantasy races from games and folktales on Earth such as, gnomes, dwarfs, and halflings, but there were also some that made Marcus do a double take.

He saw, a group of people with charcoal skin and each one of them had four arms and three eyes, a couple of people that looked like normal humans except they were made up of wood, a single being that looked like a mass of floating energy, and many others

Of course, the majority of people that Marcus saw were normal average humans, but the numerous new races he was seeing for the first time was making Marcus exited.

'This world is more diverse than I thought it was. It just really goes to hammer home that I have barely scratched the surface of what this world has to offer.'

After Marcus and Lilia had their fair share of staring at the new sights they were seeing in Boreas, they headed over to some of the food carts that were lining the streets and bought something to eat.

The first thing they bought were some skewers with the meat of a magical beast called an ogre frog which lived in a large swamp not too far away that adventures would often kill since their meat was quite tasty and profitable.

Sinking his teeth into the meat that was slightly glazed with a sweet sauce Marcus was surprised by how tender the meat was and the vibrant taste it had.

'I can see why it was five silver a skewer, this is pretty good. I never had frog on Earth, but I imagine it did not taste this good or it would have been more popular.'

Marcus and Lilia continued to eat the local cuisine that the food carts had to offer and soon Lilia could eat no more and Marcus noticed that she was yawning quite often.

Deciding to stop his eating spree on account of Lilia being tired, Marcus began looking around for an inn using the directions he had acquired from the guard at the entrance gate.

After investigating a few places that either seemed a bit too seedy or did not have room for Blitz and his carriage, Marcus found a place called the Cozy Respite which when he walked inside was quite comfortable with an open sitting space around a large fireplace and it even had an attached restaurant and bar called the Respite's Jewel.

Walking up to the reception counter Marcus could see a young girl reading a book while waiting for customers.

"Hello there, I was hoping if I could ask you a few questions about this establishment?"

The young lady hearing Marcus looked up from her book and said, "Yes what did you want to know."

"I just wanted to know if you had an area where I could store a carriage and a magical beast for the night."

Sighing the young woman said, "Sorry we do not have any facility like that, but there is a stable on the street behind us not to far from here."

Hearing this Marcus began considering his options, he was hoping to find a place with an area to house Blitz and his carriage, but that had been exceedingly hard.

None of the places he had visited so far had somewhere he could leave Blitz on site expect one inn that seemed extremely shady and Marcus thought was a front for some illegal activity.

Clicking his tongue Marcus decided to house Blitz in the nearby stable since it was already getting late with the sun still just barely illuminated the streets and Lilia was getting quite tired.

"Okay thanks, I will go and leave my magic beast and carriage at that stable and be right back."

The young lady hearing Marcus' response nodded her head and went back to reading her book.

Exiting the building Marcus walked back over to the carriage where Lilia was slumped over her eyes fluttering a bit as she did her best not to fall asleep.

Seeing this Marcus hopped back onto the coachman's stand next to her and said, "Looks like we will be staying here tonight, they do not have any onsite area for Blitz but apparently there is a stable nearby."

Lilia being incredible tired from a long day of travel barley responded to Marcus as she fought hard not to fall asleep.

With a slight smile Marcus directed Blitz down the road and passing through an alley that connected to the road that was behind the Cozy Respite, and began going down the street looking for the aforementioned stable.

Traveling around five hundred feet down the road they came across the stable they were looking for and after paying a cost of twelve silver Marcus and Lilia left leaving Blitz for the night.

With his magic beast and vehicle now stored, Marcus and Lilia walked back towards the Cozy Respite but halfway there Marcus could see Lilia struggling so he picked her up and gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way.

Soon they arrived back at the Cozy Respite and purchased a room with two beds for the night for nine silver.

'Everything is quite a bit more expensive here, but I suppose I should have expected that since this is the largest city in the kingdom.'

With his room key in hand Marcus walked up the stairs and to his room, where he saw the two beds along with a couple chairs and a desk.

He then placed Lilia down in one of the beds and told her to get some sleep before leaving the room and going down to the attached restaurant and bar.

Entering into the restaurant Marcus could immediately smell the aroma of cooking food and while Marcus had no need to eat, since he could still taste it would have been a shame if he did not try the local food.

Sitting down at an empty table Marcus ordered something called fried quinzent which was some type of local bird along with a few of the drinks they had.

The waiter looked at Marcus a bit strangely because he had ordered enough alcohol to satisfy even the most practiced binge drinker.

But money was money and Marcus paid six gold coins for what he had ordered, which was nearly twenty time more than an average customer.

Soon Marcus food and drink arrived and seeing it all laid out on the table Marcus realized that he had gone a bit overboard on the number of drinks he had ordered.

'Whoops, I was so exited to try some new alcohol that I got carried away. Oh well not like I can actually get drunk though I do wonder what happens to the stuff I consume.'

After thinking about what happens to the things he eats and drinks and finding no logical conclusion, Marcus just shrugged his shoulders and got to work on eating and drinking.

Marcus then consumed the food and alcohol he had ordered finding that the fried quinzent tasted quite good like the best qualities of chicken, turkey, and quail, while he had some hits and misses with the alcohol.

Some of it tasted like pig swill, while others were actually quite good, and Marcus made sure to note their names for future purchases.

However, what Marcus did not know was that his large eating and drinking session had attracted some attention.

Many people were wondering how this young girl was going to get everything they had ordered down when they watched Marcus eat and drink like he had a bottomless pit for a stomach and for all intents and purposes, he did.

'Ah that was pretty good, some of the alcohol was not to my taste, but this Fenres Wine was quite good, I may try to find a few bottles of it later.'

While Marcus was thinking about which of the alcohols he wanted to procure, a person sat down right in front of him and when he looked up, he saw a large woman that looked like a body builder sitting across from him.

"Sorry for the intrusion, my name is Bridget, and I was wondering if you would not mind giving me a minute of your time.'

Looking at Bridget Marcus was a bit suspicious and decided to use his creature appraisal and was a bit surprised to find that she was level twenty-seven.

After apprising her Marcus nodded his head and said, "Yeah sure what did you want to talk about, ah and my name is Irene."

A slight smile creeping onto her face from hearing Marcus' response, Bridget quickly cleared her throat before say, "Let me just get to the point, I am the leader of an all-female adventuring party called Eternal Queens, and I was wondering if you would join us. We are all gold ranked adventures and while I know it is a bit rude one of our members got curious and used her appraisal skill on you."

Bridget then nodded her head over towards another table where Marcus saw six other young girls and women sitting around looking over at Marcus and Bridget.

Sighing Marcus said, "While I appreciate the offer I am currently not working as an adventure so I will have to decline."

With an expression of disappointment washing over her face Bridget stood up and said, "Well that is too bad, but if you change your mind you can often find us here since this is our regular place to stay in the city."

Bridget then held her hand out for a handshake and Marcus stood up and grasped her hand.

As the two shook hands Marcus felt Bridget strengthen her grip with enough force to break the average person's hand, but Marcus being even stronger returned the grip and Bridget winced in pain before releasing Marcus' hand.

Marcus could see a tinge of surprise on Bridget's face since she had not expected Marcus who in Irene's form seemed daintier than his actual strength reflected.

'I know she is three levels higher than me, but I did not expect her to be stronger than me. Now I really wish I could get her to join us.'

As Bridget thought this, Marcus bid her farewell, walked out of the restaurant, and back up to his room planning to rest for the night since he had a long day ahead of him.