Chapter 10 - 10. The Great Town Of Ingmery

"So tell me, you've got only these few stuff down in the basement, yea? I knew you could do it on your first trial. I hope it gives you a boost after those 5 levels." Prius said as he took a swig from his mug and when he placed it down, he got a foam moustache. Hah hah hah.

"It was a harrowing experience for me, my friend. I never thought I would be facing gigantic rats at the basement after all. When you mentioned rats, I was half expecting they were this big." I gestured with my hands to show how big I expected them to be.

"Hah hah hah... Audemars, my friend. Sorry if I were to hide certain information from you regarding that basement. It's not a basement but it's a dungeon."

"Secondly they are no grains and seeds underneath but there were crates and barrels and every one of them contains a certain number of credits. I hope you got them all."

When Patricia heard us talking, she immediately rushed over with a portable medikit and placed it on top of the island. She wanted to check me out and was stopped by Prius.

"Leave him be at this moment, you may check for any scratches later on. We're in the middle of a discussion her, Pat."

"Oh, my bad. I'd come back later." Patricia threw a glance at me and I smiled and quickly hide it as I picked the mug of grog and took a swig. It was bittersweet and when I placed the mug back, I too had a foamy moustache and I let it be since it looked kind of macho. Hah hah hah.

"Yes, I got them all. As what you said 'Finders Keepers' so I was wondering what those crates and wooden barrel were doing there. I kicked one of them and it sounded empty so I started to bash them about and retrieve some pouches with credits in them."

"That's good, and so far you had the basic necessities that you need, that would be the one piece of a glove, an old bronze sword as well as as a wooden round buckler. Do you have anything that you need to ask me further?"

I brought up the interface and saw that I need another 87% before I could progress on to the next level. Seems rather a long and arduous journey for me to travel before I could even be on par as what I used to be before this Leap. Since this is the way, I decided to be a non-combatant during the day and to venture out in dungeons during the night.

"What does this settlement offer at the moment, Prius? Does it have a Blacksmith, a crafting shop, herbalist, farmlands et cetera?"

"Ah, this is a small settlement indeed. We do have a small Blacksmith shop here, a general goods store, a Tavern, a Mystical pharmacy and a herbalist pharmacy. This is just in the central parts of Ingmery."

"The Northern and Southern parts of the settlements have quite a few more stores, mainly for those who have deeper pockets, if you get what I mean," Prius said and I nodded on apprehension.

"Hmm, it means that there are three zones here and the central ones are the ones that had been built initially. It seems I may need quite a lot of footwork going around these places, eh?" I thought to myself as I wondered how big could this settlement be since I had not left the Great Hall yet.

"By the way, Prius, I am sure there are other great halls such as this, am I right?"

"There are, of course, this was named as the Great Hall of Ingmery, the Northern one is named as Guild of Northingmery, while the Southern one is named as Guild of Southingmery. Ours was named as the Great Hall because our forefathers were the ones who founded this central part of the settlement."

"That's a very good name, I believed that Ingmery had existed for some years already, right? I asked as some ideas did enter my mind on how to be a non-combatant in the day.

"Hah hah hah... Ingmery had been around for at least 150 years, my good friend." Prius explained with a sense of pride being born and raised here in Ingmery. "What you may see here would be similar to what you may see in the Northern or Southern parts. We had local produce market and there are quite a number of abandoned houses, small houses that are average in size as well as other homes too."

"These houses were abandoned since their owners had long demised during the wars that were fought between humans and those beasts," Prius said while subconsciously clenching and unclenching his fists while its knuckles turned white as he gnashed his teeth together to suppress the surmounting feelings of rage and hate within him.

Seeing Prius in this state, I raised my mug and announced, "KANPAI..." and he too raised his mug and we clinked it together. "TO HEALTH..." he said as he took a big swig from the mug and an offscreen crew came and refilled our mugs with a frothy A&W Root Beer.

"Could you tell me a bit about your family history? As for me, I can't remember it vaguely, due to the fact that most of brains cells were dead and I had not much recollection of who I am except for a name, no class and profession but just some skills that I had picked up recently." I told to Prius to bring him out of his anger that was soon to erupt.

"As you already have known, we are the Keatings and there was once a family of seven, including my parents. My mother died while delivering Patricia that time, and there are 3 elder brothers ahead of me. I'm the 4th while Patricia being the youngest."

"My dad was a Warrior, a fearsome one and he was the predecessor for our family downline, however during that particular war 12 years ago, my 3 brothers and my dad perished totally. No bodies were being found and I had to fend for ourselves since the age of 10."

"I had not picked up a sword myself to train because any able-bodied person who learned swordmanship or anything, they would be called to pick up arms and sent to battle, the one that you alone had survived."

"Right now since the war had abruptly ended, I may take up a sword or a bow to hunt some game outside. Just outside the Northern and Southern gates, there are quite a number of games to hunt such as deer, wild boar, rabbits, sheep's and an occasional Dino cow."

"What's a Dino cow? It sounded a bit weird to me." I asked since I've met a Giant Rat before, a Dino Cow could be just a nickname.

"A Dino Cow is a cow the size of a dinosaur. Hah hah hah. Hence its name. Its larger than a double-storey house and it would take a few hits from an arrow to bring it down. It's quite docile unless it's being provoked. Since it's a Dino Cow, it's hide and meat is rather unfavourable, and adventurers like yourself would kill it to gain experience points."

"Of course, there are Snow Wargs and White Bears and they occasionally have good hides," Prius mentioned enthusiastically since these hides could be sold for good money.

"Be wary though, there's a troll Cave right in the northern side as beyond it would be a goblin campsite. I heard that grinding for troll would be a good way to gain experience points for levelling up while the goblins do drop quite a lot of credits and certain spoils that might be useful."

"There's a small merchant campsite just a mile or two from the troll caves. He seemed to be there like forever though. Maybe he was waiting for his friend or something. Ah well, I had been in this Great Hall and I have not ventured out much. These are the hearsay from the infirmary that I worked from."

"I'd catch up with you later, would that be alright? I'm going to take a short rest right after the basement raid and once I'm alright if join you for dinner." I explained as I picked myself up and finished the grog from the mug, thanked Prius as I made my way back out and heads to my room.

"Would you like me to take a look at you first before you rest?" Patricia called out to me as soon as she saw me leave the kitchen and heads to my room. "Don't mind if you do, Patricia. I don't think I suffer much from the ordeal but I may have gotten some nicks and bumps that's all."

I opened the bedroom door and removed my shoes which were stained with the rats' blood after I had annihilated them. The wooden buckler and old bronze sword had been placed at the corner of the room near the door and when I looked at them, thoughts of upgrading them entered my mind.

"Heh...I wonder what kind of metals that they used over here besides bronze. It would be good if iron and steel could be introduced and I could be earning more credits since I have tons of Refined Steel Plates back in the smelting production area." I thought to myself as Patricia entered and asked me to strip down as she wanted to check me out for any injuries.

True enough, I did suffer from some nicks and bruises while I was down in the basement, smashing up those wooden crates and barrels, looking for hidden pouches of credits. After rubbing some disinfectant and pasting some band-aids, Patricia smiled and left the room without much words spoken between us.

"Well, I can't wait to venture out and have a look around the settlement. If there are 2 separate districts, this settlement would be as big as the town already." I thought to myself as I sat in the bed in just my boxers as I bring up the interface.