Fern sucked in a breath and pulled himself to his feet. Where to now? He wondered. This was a new town to him, his father had regularly moved around between small border villages for years since his mother's death, leaving his reputation and trouble behind.

  In his core, Fern knew returning to his father was not an option. Nor did he want to. He didn't even have his alchemy supplies he'd saved up for so long. The only person he really knew in this town was the local alchemist, Finley. Hopefully, Finley could help Fern out with some advice.

  As Fern shuffled down the street he began to hatch a plan. First, he needed to sleep. The temperature was chill, but he could catch a few miserable hours of sleep. He would have a busy day coming up.

  The town was mostly constructed of three story brick and timber buildings packed together with gray clay tile roofs. The roads were paved with smoothed blueish river stones and a tan sandy grout. The entire town was surrounded by a wall made from 30 foot tall sections of trees harvested from the nearby forest. The town wasn't poor, but neither was it wealthy. It had lots of raw resources, but very little mana, and importing mana dense materials and talented craftspeople was far too expensive.

  A river ran through town, and so Fern made his way towards one of the bridges. It was paved underneath and looked clean enough, so curling up into a crook he fell into an uncomfortable sleep, the emotional exhaustion helping him close his eyes.

  Fern awoke shortly after dawn, the first rays of the orange sun Navaro bringing chasing the humid cold away with its warmth. His thick rough-spun garments were damp with the morning fog that was starting to burn away. He groaned in misery as a Gadu-drawn cart rolled across the bridge ahead, the hard clap of its hooves and the racket of wooden wheels bouncing on cobbles not helping with his headache. Nor did the sticky sensation of dried blood and congealed potion help.

  Sighing, he decided to dip in the river. He had nothing except his clothes, and he felt that cleaning up couldn't hurt. There was a designated river bathing spot upstream of the point where the river entered the town, along with an enchanted fire that was used to help dry clothing and warm the people washing clothes.

  It was rude to undress fully during bathing, but dipping in the water while in underwear wasn't too unusual. Especially since it was mostly the poor who cleaned like this. Most of the city had running water.

  "Oh! Cold!" Fern yelped, a bit chagrined as a pair of old ladies cackled at him. Slightly embarrassed, Fern waved at them before rinsing out his clothing and washing them against a communal washing rack. He had no soap, but it was better than nothing. His body shook like a dog trying to dry itself as he made his way towards the fire. By this point the rays of the Yellow sun, Amarlo, were beginning to cast doubled shadows across the city.

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  These are dry enough, Fern considered after about an hour. It's time to visit Alchemist Finley.

  Alchemist Finley's shop was situated along the main street towards the center of town. The inside space was mostly blocked off by a counter where a young clerk sat. Clara looked up in recognition, a concerned look crossing her face as she said, "Wow, your face looks bad. What happened?"

  "I'd rather not talk about it," Fern replied. "Is Finley in today? I succeeded last night with that pain relief potion, and want to ask him for some advice."

  Clara smiled and went to the back before returning with a wispy middle aged man. His eyes constantly shifting as they focused on various details. Eventually he settled his gaze on Fern and greeted him, "Welcome Fern, what brings you in today?"

  "Well, I finished the potion. Unfortunately, I don't have it with me though. Got into a fight last night with my father. It got lost in the scuffle. However, I also lost all my alchemy equipment due to the 'incident'." Fern finished while putting emphasis on the word incident.

  "Congrats on success with the potion, though bit of a shame with losing it. Everything alright with you?" Finley asked while showing a hint of concern. Clara also appeared to be frowning in sympathetic disappointment.

  "Yeah…" Fern let out a long sigh, "I could use some help. I've got nothing. No money, no tools, not even a place to sleep. You have any ideas on how I can avoid starving?" Fern felt a bit embarrassed asking, but he knew he had to act fast and Finley was a local and the nicest person he'd met in the area.

  Finley took a moment to think before replying, "Well, I'm not taking on apprentices right now, but I might be able to suggest something. What do you think about adventuring?"

  Fern frowned, "Well, I know you need an essence core and that's way out of my budget right now, and it's dangerous, especially at low levels."

  "Well that's all true. However, I could use some help with gathering herbs and other products. To do so, I'd need an adventurer. If you're willing to take the risk, I'd be willing to offer you a contract and some training if you promise to take on certain requests for the next period."

  Fern was stunned. An essence core alone cost over 1000 credits. But it could be such a step up. He'd just turned of age to receive one a few months ago. He was also a touch worried. Such a contract could be extremely limiting or exploitative. He'd heard warnings about situations like this. Time to proceed with caution, but maybe there's a chance. Fern thought.

  "Ok, well, does that mean you'd pay for a core? And what would that look like? Like what would you expect from me," Fern replied.

  "Well, I'd task you with two things. A weekly specific herb collection, first rights on any monster parts or herbs you find, and one special request a month. In return I will pay for your essence core, and give you a small sum to help you join the Adventurers Association and purchase some starting gear and basic training. I'd ask for you to spend a year under contract, and you pay 20% of your earnings to me until the initial loan is paid back."

  Fern thought it over for a moment. Really, that's not a bad deal. A bronze rank adventurer can make better money than anything else. And he's offering to teach me harvesting skills. That can be worth a lot."

  "I'm interested," Fern said, "When can I sign up?"

  "Let's go right now, I haven't started brewing yet," Finley replied. "Let's head over to the Guildhall and get a contract prepared."