Chapter 50: Perfectly ordinary day
Thanks keome for the golden ticket
...
Two Months Later
By the time two months had passed, Ilebi no longer felt like a foreign city.
It was still enormous.
It was still loud.
It was still filled with more people, more cultivators, more merchants and more opportunities than any of them had ever encountered back home.
But it was no longer overwhelming.
They had learned its streets.
They knew which markets paid fairly for monster materials and which merchants would try to cheat inexperienced adventurers. They knew which roads were safe enough for Novices and which ones they had no business taking yet. They knew where to buy cheap food, where to repair equipment, where to rest after returning from a contract and, most importantly, where to find work.
Their lives had settled into a rhythm.
Wake up.
Eat.
Take a contract.
Travel outside the city.
Complete the job.
Return.
Sell what they had gathered.
Get paid.
Eat.
Train.
Sleep.
Then do it all over again.
It wasn’t glamorous.
But it was theirs.
The four of them walked through a stretch of woodland several miles outside Ilebi.
Tolu walked at the front, a small sack hanging from his shoulder.
Ore followed a few steps behind, her bow already in her hands.
Akin and Temi walked together farther back.
Tolu stopped.
Ore nearly walked into him. "What is it?"
Tolu crouched and examined the ground.
"Tracks."
Ore immediately stepped closer.
She looked down. "Three?"
"Four."
She crouched beside him. "Fresh?"
"Less than an hour."
Akin leaned over them. "What is it?"
Tolu pointed. "Fangbacks."
Akin smiled. "Finally."
Ore looked at him. "We’re collecting herbs."
"I know."
"Then why are you excited?"
"Because Fangbacks are worth more than herbs."
Tolu stood. "We’re not changing the contract."
Akin sighed. "You’re no fun."
"You can hunt them after we finish."
"Deal."
Ore shook her head.
They continued.
Two months ago, they would have moved cautiously through the forest, stopping every few minutes to check their surroundings.
Now they moved with much more confidence.
Not carelessly.
There was a difference.
They understood the difference between confidence and stupidity.
They reached the clearing where the moonvine grew.
Tolu pointed. "There."
Several pale vines crawled around the roots of an enormous tree.
Their leaves had a faint silver tint that caught the morning light.
Ore smiled. "Looks like we’re lucky today."
"Don’t say that."
She looked at him. "Why?"
"Every time someone says we’re lucky, something happens."
Akin laughed behind them. "He’s right."
Temi nodded. "He has a point."
Ore smiled. "Fine. We’re having a perfectly ordinary day."
Tolu looked at her. "Much better."
They got to work.
Ore carefully separated the moonvine from the surrounding plants.
Tolu cut the roots at specific points so they wouldn’t damage the valuable sections.
Akin cleared the surrounding brush.
Temi gathered the harvested vines and placed them carefully into their containers.
Nobody needed to explain what to do anymore.
They had done this too many times.
There were no wasted movements.
No arguments over who carried what.
No confusion.
They simply worked.
When they finished the first patch, Tolu inspected the bundle.
"Eight."
Ore looked at the remaining plants.
"Another twelve and we’re done."
Akin stretched. "Then we hunt."
Tolu shook his head. "You really don’t forget anything."
"Two silver."
"Four."
Akin grinned.
"Exactly."
The Fangbacks never became part of their day.
By the time they finished gathering the moonvine, the tracks had already disappeared deeper into the forest.
They decided not to waste time chasing them.
That was another lesson they had learned.
Not every opportunity was worth pursuing.
They packed their supplies and began the journey home.
The road back to Ilebi was familiar.
They passed other adventurers heading in the opposite direction.
Some were alone.
Others traveled in groups.
Some carried monster corpses.
Others carried sacks filled with herbs and materials.
A few looked exhausted.
Some looked excited.
Akin watched them pass. "Think we’ll ever get tired of this?"
Temi looked at him. "Of what?"
"Going out every day."
Ore smiled. "Probably."
Tolu adjusted the strap on his bag. "But not yet."
Akin nodded. "Not yet."
They continued walking.
A while later, Ore glanced at Tolu. "You’ve been quiet."
"I’m thinking."
"About?"
Tolu looked toward the enormous walls of Ilebi appearing in the distance.
"How much we’ve changed."
Akin laughed.
"We’ve been here two months."
"Exactly."
Tolu smiled. "Two months ago, we barely knew how this city worked."
Temi nodded. "And now?"
"Now I know where to sell monster materials without getting robbed."
Akin raised a finger. "I taught you that."
"No, you didn’t."
"I absolutely did."
"You almost sold a Fangback hide for half its value."
Akin paused. "That was strategic."
Ore laughed.
Temi joined her.
Tolu smiled.
They continued toward the city.
By the time they reached the market, the four had already begun discussing what they would eat.
Akin wanted meat.
Temi wanted rice.
Ore wanted something sweet.
Tolu wanted something cheap.
Three minutes later, Tolu lost the argument.
They sold their moonvine.
The merchant counted the bundles carefully before placing the payment on the counter. "Twenty bundles."
He counted the coins. "Four silver."
Tolu accepted the money.
He weighed it in his palm.
Four silver.
It wasn’t much compared to the wealth they had begun seeing around Ilebi.
But it was money they had earned.
Akin looked at the coins. "Not bad."
Tolu nodded. "Not bad."
They left the market together.
Akin immediately pointed toward a food stall.
"I see meat."
Tolu grabbed his shoulder.
"You see expenses."
Akin looked offended. "Why must you ruin everything?"
"Because someone has to."
Ore laughed. "He’s right."
"You’re supposed to support me."
"I support your right to buy your own food."
Akin sighed.
"Friendship means nothing anymore."
Later that evening, they passed through one of the busier sections of Ilebi.
They weren’t looking for anything.
They were simply walking home after eating.
Then Tolu slowed.
Not because something was wrong.
Something had simply caught his attention.
A group of young people was approaching from the other side of the street.
They weren’t wearing academy uniforms.
They weren’t wearing military clothing.
They weren’t even doing anything particularly impressive.
But people noticed them.
That was what caught Tolu’s attention.
The young men and women looked around their age.
Perhaps a year older.
Perhaps younger.
Yet the way people treated them was completely different from how ordinary adventurers were treated.
Their clothes were clearly expensive.
Not overly extravagant.
They didn’t need to be.
The fabric alone looked better than anything Tolu had ever owned.
Their boots were clean.
Their weapons were polished.
Their equipment wasn’t covered in scratches from months of use.
One of the young men carried a sword whose hilt alone looked more expensive than Tolu’s entire set of equipment.
But it wasn’t even the equipment that caught Tolu’s attention.
It was the people surrounding them.
Several young men followed them, laughing at everything they said.
One would make a joke.
Another would laugh before the joke had even finished.
Someone else would compliment their clothes.
Another would ask where they had been training.
And the girls were no different.
Several young women walked close to them, clearly interested.
One kept trying to catch the attention of one of the boys.
Another laughed softly whenever he spoke.
A third deliberately walked close enough for their shoulders to brush.
Nobody looked particularly embarrassed about it.
It was almost normal.
Tolu watched silently.
Akin noticed. "What?"
Tolu shook his head. "Nothing."
Akin looked toward the group. "Oh."
Temi glanced over. "What?"
Akin shrugged. "Rich people."
Ore looked at them for a moment. "They’re probably from one of the great families."
Tolu nodded.
He had seen enough by now to recognize the signs.
They weren’t necessarily stronger than him.
At least not by appearance alone.
But they lived differently.
They had resources.
They had people around them.
They didn’t seem to worry about whether they could afford their next meal.
They didn’t have to spend the morning searching for a four-silver contract.
They didn’t have to repair a worn-out pair of boots and wonder how long they would last.
They didn’t have to count every silver coin.
Tolu watched as one of the young men casually handed something to a merchant.
The merchant immediately bowed slightly and smiled.
The young man barely looked at the price before paying.
Akin whistled softly. "Must be nice."
Temi looked at him. "What?"
"Being able to buy something without checking the price first."
Ore smiled. "Maybe we’ll get there someday."
Tolu didn’t answer.
His eyes remained on the group.
He wasn’t jealous.
Not exactly.
But he couldn’t deny what he felt.
He wanted that freedom.
Not the attention.
Not the people following him.
Not the girls trying to impress him.
He wanted the ability to look at something useful and simply buy it.
He wanted better equipment.
Better techniques.
Better cultivation resources.
He wanted the freedom to stop worrying about whether four silver was enough.
And perhaps most importantly...
He wanted to become strong enough that nobody could decide his future for him.
Ore glanced at him. "You okay?"
Tolu looked at her. "Yeah."
She smiled. "You’re thinking again."
He smiled back. "Always."
Akin stretched his arms. "Come on. If we stay here staring at rich people all night, we’ll never get home."
Temi laughed. "He’s right."
They continued walking.
The wealthy young cultivators disappeared into the crowd.
Tolu eventually stopped looking.
But the image remained in his mind.
Not because he wanted their lives.
Because for the first time, he understood just how many different worlds existed inside Ilebi.
There were people struggling to earn silver.
People earning gold.
People training every day simply to survive.
And people who had been born into lives where strength, money and opportunity were already waiting for them.
Tolu looked ahead.
He didn’t know which world he would eventually belong to.
But he knew one thing.
He didn’t intend to remain at the bottom forever.