Yearning for the Moon

Chapter Two

The streets are full of many goods I haven't see before, though that isn't exactly hard, I have been rather focused the past few months on herbs alone, and this empire is quite different from the Khiradian empire, the first thing I do is buy a Lodestone Orpheus can wear, that is one of the most important things on my mental list to get. Dry rations and things that will keep well in the spatial world are just as easy to get, I buy some warmer clothes as well, unsure how the weather is in the tainted lands.

Those are easy supplies to guess I will need, but some of the others I will only find out once I get there. Not many places are habitable in the tainted lands, Valena is one of three empires that have managed to claim a piece of land inside the borders of Ulnaga. But that came at a big cost, there are rumors of how vicious the monsters that roamed the tainted lands are, and I know I won't be able to deal with them all myself. Money is the one thing that can buy me endless help, even if that help isn't particularly loyal, mercenaries could only be trusted so much, though they would still be helpful, of course while I had a fair bit of money, it certainly isn't enough to rebuild an entire city.

Thankfully, I possessed a rather fortunate skill set that was in high demand, refining pills, so much better than potions. Auctioning pills would be an easy money maker, but the smart bet would be to open a store in the Valenian outpost, it would allow me to take in all the profits, and also give me a great customer base for when I inevitably moved it to my own city, that I was determined to rebuild, people would make the trip to buy pills that are so much better than potions. Which meant once I reached the Valenian outpost and became established money will be no problem for me.

I stagger to a stop as we are about to pass a particular road, the sounds alone give clue to what is here. Animal sounds of all sorts, spiritual beasts in cages line the roads, and with the deal I made with Orpheus one of these wonderful creatures could become my contracted beast. I can't help myself from wandering down the street, looking at all the creatures in the cages, some I recognize, some I haven't seen before, but can guess what they are, and others I have neither seen nor heard of before. It is magical, one of the things I have always wanted and now it is within my grasp, I only have to choose which one I want. "Really? You get to finally choose a spiritual beast after waiting for so long and you want to choose from the weaklings who got themselves trapped in cages? Why am I not surprised?" I ignore Orpheus' snarky comments, knowing full well that I don't need the strongest spiritual beast, nor the deadliest, or any of the other things people try to seek out when they are choosing their spiritual beast, not when I had the ability to take more than one.

And even if I didn't, I know that even weaker spiritual beasts had their uses, look at the Wind Falcon, a rather weak spiritual beast, but one of the best at tracking and used to pass messages all across the Valena empire. But just because I had the urge to buy up every single one of these spiritual beasts in order to give them a better life than they would likely have, didn't mean I would give in to the urge, I wasn't that foolish. I am being watched, have been from the moment I left the competition hall, I'm sure they didn't think I'd notice, but living in the Silver Woods for almost a year had given me a rather sensitive instinct when it came to being watched, I needed that in order to make sure I didn't become a spiritual beasts prey in the woods, it certainly came in handy now.

If I truly wanted to lose the eyes on me, I could easily, but I knew they would back off on their own at some point, because while I can feel their stare, I don't sense any hostility, so they have been tasked only to watch me and not harm me, for now at least, and right now I have nothing to hide, so they can watch all they like. I wander slowly down the street, observing all the powerful or weak spiritual beasts here, crowds are surrounding the stronger ones, while only a stray person or two are looking at the weaker ones, already looking for something specific. It is only when I see a small colorful ball of fur cowering in a corner as a beast merchant kicks the cage in annoyance that I know I can't just leave it here.