Chapter 35

Half an hour later, I was relaxing. I’d been deprived of about a third of my precious coin so far, and I was regretting nothing at all.

Kimzi, the glowing Larian who currently earned her living pointing people in the right direction and harnessing the power of gossip, had been a godsend. Not only did she deliver on everything, she also helped warn me about some rookie mistakes I was pretty certain I would’ve committed otherwise.

First off, I learned about the untouchables. By that, Kimzi indicated the four people here in Last Chance who were absolutely not to be messed with unless you wanted to stop breathing. There was a monster slayer, a smith, a Crafter with his cadre of underlings and a fighting Collector. That last one, it appeared, was a rather badly-tempered Gold-Rot Collector who went out solo to collect materials and fought off anything that got in her way. The others were, by and large, easily explained, and I got a nice physical description to go with all of them, so I didn’t inadvertently piss them off.

Then I learned how people went about getting work here in Last Chance, and the best way to not tick off or get conned by the people who actually went about providing the jobs.

To my surprise, there wasn’t too much actual lawlessness going on. Or, rather, there was no law. But not a lot of people went a-murdering, trying to set up their own little kingdom or treating others like dirt. Why? Well, because when the place held less than five hundred people, you didn’t get to act like a dick for long before you managed to annoy somebody who knew somebody powerful. And that was not a survival strategy.

On top of that, because the place was lawless, there was no infrastructure in place to keep some above the law. No crooked magistrate, no Supreme Ruler wielding absolute power. So, young masters or nobleman’s sons running amok was not a thing. At least not for long, because they’d be put in their place by somebody stronger.

One final thing, I learned, by absolute coincidence. The system, in Ademia, was called ‘kismet.’ So that was what it meant. No explanation why, no reason. It just was. Good to know.

Following that, I got myself settled. And by settled, I meant renting a place I’d be safe in. That was also my first experience with mana attunement, which was duller than expected. Basically, a fingerprint scanner, only magical. Regardless, I got myself a single room with a bed and a large chest, which ostensibly should be inaccessible to anybody who wasn’t me. Obviously, I’d still keep my important goods in my Personal Universe but… worth it.

I got my bath. It was a simplistic clay bathtub, placed out in the open for all to see, next to three other rows of tubs of different sizes and shapes. Two Adrastians, a Larian and one of the ugly bird-people were occupying their own tubs. Sprawling… all over the place. Apparently, nudity was not taboo here in Ademia – that, or the type of people who lived in Last Chance had other concerns.

Flapping or not, it was an amazing setup. Actually, it was handled and arranged by that one Crafter and his apprentices who I definitely shouldn’t mess with. Tenethor.

There was no monopoly on business in this place. But the guy had been quick to go in and secure a huge part of the business for himself. He was a Crafter, focusing on constructing with the elements, and all his apprentices followed his footsteps, in one way or another. This meant, if you wanted, say, a room in one of his large, brick-shaped buildings, or a clay bath tub with water summoned from nowhere and heated by magical fire? Tenethor’s apprentices were the ones who prepped the area, heated the water and collected all your hard-earned mana-coinage. Only if you had a proper order, like a custom-made wizard’s tower pulled from the soil would you get to talk to Tenethor himself.

I floated in steaming water that had just been re-filled at an extra cost, after I’d scrubbed off all the horrid reminders of the gory details of my travels. Free to consider my situation and what to do with myself.

Some of the heat from the water seemed to fade as I realized just where I was. I grimaced and dipped below the surface, holding my breath for as long as I could. When I surfaced, I shook my head and steeled myself, facing facts.

The past week and more had been one long life-threatening experience with me running for my life and fighting for survival. I hadn’t given myself the time to really think about my situation, or I might have just laid down to die. I snorted. Okay, that wasn’t an option. I’d always been too stubborn to quit.

But now… now I was actually safe, for a given value of ‘safe’. I’d be able to find myself some proper equipment, learn about my surroundings to avoid inadvertently stumbling into my doom. Meanwhile, humanity’s surviving representatives to Ademia were likely toiling away, enslaved to the bestial Kadren. What should I do? What could I do?

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I crossed one option off of the list right away. Even with better equipment, I was not going to try to take on the Kadren forces by my lonesome. That’d be insanity, as it was. Right now, I was still one against hundreds, thousands, even, and the beasts were clever enough to adjust to anything I could throw at them. On top of that, I was still vastly underleveled compared to the leaders of their forces. That Higher Glimmerscale had been nearly twice my current level.