The World Which Is

Chapter 30

I get most of my supplies at the Caravan Market after getting up and having a good breakfast of eggs, griffon steak and hash brown. I probably won't have griffon again, but that's what was on the menu this morning.

I spent the evening going over the map of Toronto Aaron drew. The beds had sheets hung between them for privacy, and the ring provided enough light to read by.

It's rougher than most of the others, with crossed out notes or 'this isn't there anymore' comments under the name of a merchant in the margin with an arrow to the intersection of Well Town and Young. The sense I get is that he's been to the city multiple times, and updated the map with each visit. There are no dates with the notes, so no way to know if any of them will still be around.

The one note that feels important, to him at least, is in the top left. "Check in at the Champlain Club". It's circled and underlined. There's no arrow or an address telling me where it is, and the merchants I asked as I bought supplies didn't know of it.

I managed to buy almost everything I wanted, with the longest being the second equipment slot set, because I had to stand in line at the guard recruiting office. They don't let anyone simply walk in, even if it's to use their store. It was half of what Chuck paid me; but it's worth the investment. It frees space in my pouch and I can go from clothing to armor with one thought instead of having to equip everything individually. It even lets something carry over from one set to the other, so long as I don't fill that slot. I don't have to worry about my sword going away when I get out of my armor.

It does mean I have to stay in it until I leave the market. It rained during the night and the ground hasn't improved. I'm not exposing my regular boots to the mud.

I spent too much, probably, on a thirteen slot backpack, but if there's one thing I've learned growing up with only four inventory slots, is that there is no such thing as too many of them, and it comes with a dedicated slot to hang a weapon from.

Yes, pockets add two, but it only holds a half-minus treen of one item, and they come with size limitation that make them mostly useless, a good belt can have up to a half-plus treen slots with the same limitation, other than they'll take bags or packs to expand that. My belt isn't that good. Just four slots, one is taken by my pouch, one by my scabbard, one my knife, and one by my new quiver that holds two treen's worth of arrows. Another good investment, I hope.

The recruiting office also offered skills, but none of the ones I wanted. With a few exceptions, like cooking, herbalism, and whittling, they were all guard and fighting related. I could have bought any of them up to a treen, if I could afford them, but I have better places for my points.

Unfortunately, none of the stores within the market offered skills. They need to be of a higher tier before that's an option and other than the inn, the recruiting office, Chuck's building, and the barns for the animals, nothing looked permanent, and that's needed for a store to start ranking up.

I fill my personal inventory with salted meats for really cheap. The stuff keeps for just about forever, ensuring that I'm not going to go hungry, no matter if I can't catch anything while traveling.

I don't find a magical repair kit among them.

With the shopping I can do there done, I head for Trade Road, and walk the rest of the way to the city.

* * * * *

One thing Toronto is known for is the Tower. It's visible, or so I've heard, from all over the place. Even from to other side of Lake Ontario, in Buffalo. While I can't know if that's true. It's been visible since before we reached the market yesterday, and it's there, like a guide, pointing me to the city. Even without a road, that spire with the bulb at the top would show me where to go.