10: Traveling the City
By the time he woke up, he was already on his feet. Even he was shocked at this sudden burst of energy, which made sense since he was asleep for 12 hours straight.
Thankfully time was normal in this world, the clock showing its usual one to twelve rotation while having both the short hand and long hand as usual. Seeing that it was already eleven in the morning was enough to rouse his sleepiness to disappear.
There were a lot of things he needed to do, and one of them was to gather information. He stood near the window sill and opened it up, the fresh breeze of midday wafting up to his face and chest. The feeling of being alive after the trouble of everything that occurred yesterday made him understand how people can suddenly change in a heartbeat when they went through a life-or-death situation.
While his life wasn’t in danger right now, it could be in a short while. He had two days before Nina returned to give him the supplies he needed to start his store, and he needed to be prepared.
One thing he realized is that he had no idea how to do business. Nina expected him to have some idea, but he really had no clue about how business was handled in this world. He didn’t even know what currency they use in this country, so that needed to change.
However, first he needed to change his clothes. He fell asleep in his horned-wolf attire and it was starting to chafe him in places. He looked around the room to find a dresser and opened it up, revealing a set of ordinary clothes he could wear.
He took out a white undershirt and pulled out his wolf coat, replacing it with the shirt. He continued doing this, even getting himself socks to wear, but there were no shoes to be had.
All this time, he had no shoes to wear, so he decided to be thrifty about it and remade his wolf coat using Craft. Making a small orb, he put the coat into it and redesigned it from top to bottom, and when the orb vanished, it revealed a pair of black boots with the top brim filled with fur. After putting them on, he nearly groaned in pleasure to finally have his feet covered after the entire day of going without shoes.
I will never forsake you again, shoes. Thank you to anyone who invented them. I appreciate you more and more!
He headed downstairs and entered into the central room where he stood in front of the door. Taking in a deep breath, he flared the Vanish spell and covered his entire body in a veil to disappear.
He looked back down, noticing the drain on his mana as his body became translucent. He opened the door and closed it, locking it in place before turning back around to find dozens of people walking about through the day. Since it was approaching noon, he expected everyone was already busying themselves for the coming lunch rush.
There was also the matter of his stomach rousing from its slumber, demanding food. But first he needed to see if the invisibility spell worked.
He walked down the street, noticing a pair, a man and a woman, walking side by side. He was surprised to find that there was an actual street with sidewalks and everything, though considering that his house had running water and electricity (or whatever the version of power is called in this other world), he shouldn’t be surprised to find that the town was developed enough for easier living.
Taking a gamble, he stood in front of the walking pair, walking backwards in place with the couple. He even had his arms stretched out in front of him, trying to get their attention. He figured if anyone would notice, they would just see a man joking around with the pair, and he would just apologize for acting weird by making up a short story.
The couple never realized this, talking amongst themselves without batting an eye at a grown man walking in place with them.
“Did you hear that there’s going to be a new store opening up around here?” The woman asked, taking a gander at the building that Aidan just left.
“Oh really?” The man answered. “I did hear that someone bought this place for cheap.”
“I heard it’s going to be a general store. I hope it’ll survive through the winter. It would be quite nice to have such a convenient place so close to us.”
“Eh, I’ll give it a month, tops.”
Aidan quickly left the pair when they started to talk more about personal matters that didn't matter to him. Hearing about them talking about the store he’ll be manning was interesting, but the conversation quickly grew concerning.
Goddammit, what is that chick gonna do to me? What are they talking about?
Keeping those thoughts in the back of his mind for now, he decided to keep experimenting with the spell. After about thirty minutes of just playing around, he figured out a few things.
First off, while he wasn’t able to be seen, he could still be heard. That was expected when he snapped a finger near a person’s ear, causing them to flinch and look around, only to find nobody there when Aidan bolted. The second thing was that there was a time limit. Thankfully he could feel the spell drifting off of him, like an invisible timer going off in his mind and telling him that the spell would be broken if he doesn’t reapply it soon.
Finally, he can’t be invisible all the time. The amount of mana per cast was costly, and his mana regeneration was slower when compared to using Soul Meditation. He thought about putting his stat points into Wisdom to increase the pool and regeneration rate, but put that aside for now. He could just hide away and enter Soul Meditation to recover his points quickly. It might even be good practice since he can technically still see his surroundings thanks to his ghostly form.
That means one thing. He needed to be quick about it. So he put his stat points into Speed, increasing his movement.
He wasn’t sure whether it was all the points into one stat, or perhaps his Agility increasing from 3 to 4, but he definitely felt faster. It was as if his body knew instantly on how to correct itself every time he took a step, putting less weight into the heel and more into the toes. Thanks to that, he managed to hide into a small alleyway between two large buildings before his invisibility spell ran out. He laid on the wall with his back, his eyes closed as he entered Soul Meditation to recover his mana.
All the while, his ghostly form took control, and he was shocked to find the entire place revealed to him. He realized then that he had a better time seeing the area around him if the vibrations surrounding him were vibrant and moving, each time making a beat that connected to the others in a way only he could conceive.
But at the same time, it rattled his brain. There were so many consecutive beats and different types of rhythms that his mind couldn’t keep up with them all. It was like hearing all different types of songs blaring all at once, creating a cacophony of noise that blurred his senses.
He kept focusing only on his surroundings, making sure that no shady guy or gal would come in and try to steal from him, or worse, try to attack him while his guard was down. Thankfully his mana regenerated back to full before he opened his eyes and walked back out. He decided on saving his mana this time rather than disappearing, finding no reason to be invisible all the time.
He instead used this as a chance to expand on his Sense Vibrations, feeling each beat of the noise he heard through the souls of everyone around him. Before he realized it, he spent an entire hour just walking across the street, not even finding himself lost despite taking many turns and visiting many blocks over.
There was a fountain farther away from where he lived, and even a small park where he spotted many children playing about. He also noticed some rather sketchy places away from public view, where he saw some suspicious people going about their business. He wasn’t sure whether they were criminals, or people like him that didn’t like to be in a crowd for long.
The stores were abundant, their colors ranging from vibrant reds to soothing green, and the streets were slightly clean, though trash still lingered here and there. He also saw that there were barely any guards around, their metal armor easy to spot even within the crowd of people that surrounded his vision.
Soon enough he spotted a place where he saw a signpost hanging off the wall, revealing what looked like a book insignia with a quill hanging off to the side. If he didn’t know any better, that would be a library where he could read up on some things.
Taking the chance, he put himself between a crowd of people and used Vanish, heading straight into the library without anyone else noticing anything strange. If nobody was paying attention to him in the first place, it was easy to just disappear from the crowd.
Surprisingly, a notification dropped onto his vision.
You have gained a new skill!
Stealth (Copper)
Allows you to disappear from others’ sights and keep yourself hidden until you make noise for yourself or appear out of nowhere. You can cause others who see you to think differently, as though you are just part of the scenery around you.
Now that’s useful, though I don’t know how useful it might be thanks to my Vanish spell. Guess it’s good in case I ran out of mana and I got nowhere to hide?
Suddenly the idea of a snake hidden in a box took his mind, making him chuckle, but quickly pushed it back down. He was sneaking into the library right now, so he needed to be quiet.
He quickly entered through the opening door when the man was entering inside, managing to squeeze in before the door was closed without anyone knowing about it. As expected, there was the one in charge of the library, an older man probably in his fifties. He greeted the man who entered while sitting near a desk reading a book himself.
The inside was a lot cleaner and properly organized than he expected. Dozens of shelves lined the walls with some tables scattered about, showing other patrons taking a gander at some of the books. Aidan stood to the side, seeing that the man who entered before him showed what looked like a small white card between his fingers to the older librarian. He nodded as though in confirmation as he headed into the confines of the shelves and lost himself in between the many books that lay here.
So I gotta buy a pass to read? No thanks.
He had no money in the first place, and he needed knowledge. Offering a silent nod of apology to the librarian, he headed deeper into the library and looked around.
He had to place his hand on the sides of the shelves, displaying a set of words that were written in the so-called standard language of this world. He still had no clue on what they were saying on the surface, but when he brushed the words and used both Sense Vibrations and Humanoid Tongue, he understood that he was in the History section of the library.
Having to touch the words was a pain to deal with, but he was lucky enough to actually understand the language enough to get through the shelves and pick up the first book there. He opened one up, ensuring that nobody else was around to see a suddenly floating book opening up and revealing itself to no one in particular.
Taking in the chance, he quickly felt the pages, feeling each word and letting his skills do the rest.