Godfather's System

025. Crucible - 2

I sighed as I strolled into the camp, taking note about the chaos that was going on. I had expected a level of discord, but the camp was even more disorganized than I had expected, with at least five shouting matches going on around me.

The general structure of the camp was simple. Each close-knit group had established their tents close enough to touch each other, at least four people standing guard, ready against any attack. The camp was crowded enough that no land beast reached that point, and the flying ones were almost exclusively attracted to the butcher station and the huge bonfire.

I didn't know whether the intention was to defend the camp or just a welcome side-effect; but either way, I wondered if it was a perfect solution if the tense attitude the people were showing as they walked around, some alone, some in groups.

But all alert.

Though even in this tense chaos, there were small islands of calm. A large pot of boiling food, guarded by eight people, with a line in front, people exchanging small pieces of silver for stew. Some kind of portable forge, with two blacksmiths desperately working to fix shattered weapons, while an apprentice assuming his young age desperately sharpening swords.

Further in the camps, there were other small islands of calm, but, I stayed away from them for now. I lacked the necessary information, and I couldn't handle any attention without pushing too much.

As I walked around the edges, not many people paid attention to me, which I am sure was no coincidence. It was about my posture, just non-threatening enough to avoid being noticed, but whenever I noticed someone eyeing me to see if I was a weak target that they might shake, I met their gaze, neither fearful nor angry.

It suggested that it was better for better prey.

It was a skill and the ordinary kind, not the magical, coming from a stone kind I developed in my youth. Knowing where you are, knowing who's around you, always catch and any observer and having a strategy to challenge or avoid as necessary.

However, I had to admit Perception was amazingly useful as I idly walked around the camp, taking note of everything that was going on before my targets could catch it.

I observed not only people but also my surroundings. My first focus was trying to understand how the economy worked, and it was complicated. There were a lot of transactions were going on around the camp, both between the members of the same subgroups, and among the groups, but with little rhyme and pattern.

The first thing I noticed, only a fraction of the trades used silver denicas, and mostly relied on barter instead, using various types of metals, minerals, crystals, and monster parts, as well as services and finished products.

Add intense bargaining that would have put an Egyptian Bazaar to shame to the mix, and the values of goods and services turned into a horrible puzzle probably further unsettled by the sudden order of evacuation, and changing priorities.

Very rarely, I had seen people using pieces of silver in trade, though those pieces were mostly in fractions of a denied, showing five-denica piece I had in my pocket was not an inconsiderable amount of wealth, making me glad that I had put some effort to maintain possession of it even during my desperate run.

Pity, I couldn't just spend it.

The problem was the nature of the piece. Other people used silver as currency, but not only were the denominations different, but also none of the silver they used had the smooth shape of the piece I had in my pocket.

Trying to use would only bring suspicion to me, meaning, effectively, the dagger was the only asset I could use for exchange.

I had done nothing but walk around for an hour, observing the people and the camp, make me understand not only how the economy worked, but also how people interacted with each other.

I was just another face in the crowd, too shabby to be noticed.

An hour was not a short amount of time, but it was worth the effort I had put in.

The first aspect was the prices. Some things, such as weapons, armor, and the material that could be used for construction, were extremely expensive compared to the other things, but the numerous grumblings I eavesdropped on suggested it was more about the exodus.

A weapon repair almost cost a tenth of a denica, and even the poorest weapons sold for half a denica though usually paid through barter rather than directly. The more expensive weapons went a denica or two, and armors were for a similar price.

Of course, when I said decent, it was just in the range of what was on display. Most of the people had significantly better weapons than what was actually on sale, and except the four warriors and the young lord none of the weapons were even close to the quality of the spears I had used against the beasts.

I did not doubt that one of those spears could be sold here for at least twenty denicas, maybe even more that was assuming I didn't just get killed, of course.

Food was a more complicated matter.

It was divided into grades, based on the Health they provided upon consumption and the taste and while I didn't expect the taste to matter too much, the discussion implied that the food had contained some kind of harmful energy that then needed time to dissipate, and the taste was a good indicator of how much energy it contained.

From what I could see, though, they didn't sell the simplest kind of food. That, people handled for their own.

I didn't feel anything harmful during the feast at the castle, but once again, it was probably about the quality of the food the nobles could access. Since I didn't plan to rob the young lord's tent, I would soon experience that.

As for the medicines and other materials, it was chaos, both in terms of pricing and in terms of arguments about the effectiveness, one that I stayed away from. Even with the assistance of Perception,the magical medicines sold by crooks were simply too complicated to be touched.

Unfortunately, while my walk had taught me a lot about how the basic economies worked, the same didn't apply to the System. Unlike my little gambling session with the soldiers, I wasn't there, leading the conversation to the topics I care about.

The System was not one of the standard topics of conversation. Or more accurately, its working principles were not something people talked about; people might talk about when the bus would arrive, but they didn't talk about the workings of the internal combustion engine.

Then, a notification popped into my sight.

[-1 Health]

As the warmth spread into my body, I felt like I had just had a good meal and a nice sleep, renewing my exhaustion. An excellent alternative to collapsing in deadly exhaustion. Pity that it dwindled my Health reserves even further.

I was aware of how much Health remained I was counting the dwindling number with the same obsessiveness I counted bullets in combat but I still summoned the System to see, for the first time since the Promotion.

[Health (2/225)]

"Huh, looks like an emergency," I muttered.

Useful, but only if I replenish my energy. It was time to buy some food.

And to do that, I needed some silver that didn't shout suspicion. Luckily, while it had been a long while since I pickpocketed anyone, during the little encounter with Toross, Agility proved that stiff fingers were no longer a problem.

I walked forward, looking for a convenient target and it didn't take long to find it. Two groups, one wearing black armbands, the other red. Gangs, and recently-formed ones a detail that I picked from their postures and the discussion that surrounded them. The two groups stood apart, but their members also put some distance between each other, occasionally checking their own members hesitantly. The lack of trust implied that they didn't go through many dangerous events together.

Naturally, I wasn't actually targeting the gang members, even with the pouches on their belts that looked considerably larger than ordinary citizens.

Not with my Health already scraping the bottom.

No, their presence created a commotion as they insulted each other, and everyone looked at them in fear, ready to dash away if they burst into combat. More importantly, they weren't paying attention to their immediate surroundings.

I passed near a middle-aged man, who seemed to be nominally richer than the others, carrying a large box of materials.

When I walked away, he was about a denica worth of silver poorer

I didn't miss even a step as I walked away, even when he noticed the theft and started to raise a commotion. No one tried to stop me. Old, exhausted men were not the first target of suspicion.

Nevertheless, I went to the other side of the camp to buy some food, from one of the less popular cooks. "A large bowl," I said as I pointed at the stew.

"Money first, old boy," he said. I passed a misshapen piece of silver that was about one-fourth of a denica, almost a gram and a half, and he passed me a stew.

"What a disgusting thing," I found myself muttering after the first bite, a disgusting, acrid taste filling my mouth, though not as bad as my only aborted attempt to eat one of the beasts I killed, fearing poison.

"Did you just complain about my great cooking, old man?" the cook answered, blistering at the mention. "Feel free to try the tastier variants if you just want to gamble to see if you'll receive a point for a full meal."

"Don't worry about that, young man, it's just a bit bitter for my old tongue," I said placatingly as I stood at the side, quickly spooning down the stew despite its disgusting taste. Before I could even finish it, I received the first point.

[+1 Health]

However, that was not all good, as along with that warm energy of Heath, I felt another energy, colder, more hostile, spread into my body, and settle like a chill. It was probably the harmful energy they were talking about

"Wow, you must be really hungry," the cook said. "I know my cooking is strong, and you're the only one that can eat with such gusto. What kind of stone did you crawl out of?"

"Let's just say it was a bad patrol. Our idiot leader thought that he could handle one of the bigger beasts in melee, and predictably, it didn't go well," I said.

"Oh, really?" he said. "Was that bad?"

"Not the worst, not the best," I said noncommittally as I finished the stew, barely in a minute, though surprisingly, I had received another point.

[+1 Health]

Surprising, because I didn't expect to gain another point this quickly. I had renewed Health much faster in the castle, but the quality was leagues above what I was consuming. From what I had gathered, it was supposed to take hours to properly digest, not minutes.

Pity I couldn't just come out and ask, as it was either about my sole ability, or my class. Not the topics I could casually poke without revealing my utter lack of knowledge about the world.

"Good food, I'll definitely come back later," I said. "My name is Euon, by the way."

"Zolast, the greatest cook in this god-forsaken camp," the middle-aged man answered, and I walked away.

With my Health slowly regenerating, giving me a layer of protection, I felt like I could poke a bit more.