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"This city is just so damn cool...

" Foster said with a smile on his face, standing along the railing of the top street-layer and looking over the huge marketplace in front of him. It seemed like it was only really built along the bottom layer, even though there were still rings of other layers around this large circular area.

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"Are people looking at me..? It feels like people are looking at me...

" Lynol muttered quietly, trying to practically hide behind Octer. It was the first time that he was walking around without his mask and cloak in such a huge city, or in any sort of city at all, really.

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"Guys, seriously, are you kids or something?

" Octer grumbled with a wry smile, clearly at least slightly annoyed by the way that his friends were acting. He slowly turned around toward Lynol,

"You sure you don't want your mask, at least? I put it in my bag before we left.

"

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"...No, I... I am going to be alright. This situation is just very foreign to me...

" Lynol explained, nervously rubbing his arm as he held his head low, nearly stabbing his horns into Octer's side. It was clear that he was incredibly nervous about all of this, but it was somethign that he chose to do for a simple reason. Lynol never wanted to hide, he just had to. In most cities, the most 'exotic' races that one may see would be an elf. But here in Arcadum? This city was a place where numerous different people of all backgrounds came together. People with wings, people that towered over others at eight or nine feet tall, or people with four arms... Compared to some of those, Lynol wouldn't really stick out too much with his red skin and small horns.

nThis was a fact that Lynol was already aware of before even coming here. Rather, it was the reason why Arcadum became his destination. It was the city where he wanted to restart his life, where he hoped he would be able to live as a normal person. But after living in places where he had to hide every bit of himself for years, it became a natural thing for him. Walking around outside like this, he practically felt naked. It would take him a good while to get used to this, and maybe he went about it a bit too heavily. Both Octer and Foster actually tried to warn them about that, but Lynol said he wanted to do it like this anyway.

nFoster turned around with a smile, leaning against the railing,

"Don't worry, man, everything's gonna be fine. Even if people end up staring at you, just try to ignore them and keep walking around normally, and they'll stop staring at some point.

" He said with a smile on his face,

"You know, that one time-

"

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"Please, do not tell us another one of your... 'stories' while we're out here in public.

" Octer suggested, and Foster just shrugged,

"Eh, fine. Anyway, wanna go down there and take a look around?

"

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"Hm? What for?

"

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"Well, you said that Adventurers usually make money by either fulfilling requests, or they'll sell materials monster parts, right? That means that we'll probably find some things related to the dungeons or monsters around there. It's a good idea to figure out what sorta things sell around here, and for how much money. I mean, the market for that stuff is probably gonna be pretty unique with how many dungeons are around here.

" Foster explained rather simply, and Octer took a step closer toward the railing as well, looking down toward the market.

nHe slowly nodded his head,

"You've got a point... I mean, when we get our handler we won't need to worry about this sort of thing too much. They usually handle everything like that. They help us get certain request, set up meetings with clients, deal with a lot of guild-related stuff, and also end up setting up a sort of trading-system so that we can sell the materials we gather properly.

" Octer explained, and Foster raised his brows surprised,

"Damn, that's a lot more than I expected, actually. But well, that's fine and all, but I think it'd still be good if we knew all that stuff. When we need to make the choice, we should know what stuff is more useful or valuable, right? It's not like we can carry everything we come across.

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"Well, fair enough.

" Octer replied,

"Although I'm a bit surprised how much you know about all this... I thought you didn't have this sort of thing.... where you're from.

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"Ah, that...

" Foster said with a wry smile,

"My... well, he's basically my brother... Anyway, he was really into games, and when we lived together, he would go on and on about dealing with this sort of thing sometimes. 'Inventory management' was a big deal for him or something.

" He explained, as the group made their way down the stairs of this street layer, alhough it was clear the others didn't really understand what 'games' had to do with all of this, and Foster didn't know how exactly he was supposed to explain all of this. There was plenty that he would need to talk about if he wanted them to understand everything, after all.

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"For now, all you need to know is that I picked up a few things like this, alright?

" Foster pointed out, before he and the others finally reached the bottom layer. Now that they were down here, the market looked even more impressive. There were a lot of stalls set up, all of them trying to sell anything they could to the people walking past them.

nJewelry, food, books, antiques, all those sorts of things. A lot of the items they were trying to sell were actually pretty cool... Just that they were extremely expensive.

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"Just... forget about buying anything, we don't have that kind of money right now.

" Octer warned both Foster and Lynol, but before he had even finished that sentence, they were already running around looking at what was being sold here. There were some interesting weapons here, some in shapes that Foster had never even thought he would see. They seemed pretty... useless, for the most part, but they were selling extremely well. And just as Foster was about to take a closer look at one of the items, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. It was a map that laid out on the blanket, but it wasn't a regional map... rather, it was more like a blueprint or something... a map that described the interior of something.

nCuriously, he stretched his hand out to grab the map, curious what it was about, when he saw someone else's touch it at the same time as him. Foster turned his head to the side and saw a young woman with long blonde hair, wearing a white dress decorated with light pink details. She had a small harp strapped to her hip, and soon locked eyes with Foster.. She was really quite beautiful. And while he was thinking about that, Foster could feel the map being snatched away from under his hand,

"Too slow~!

"

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