Apparently, Pride's plan going forward was as creative as mine would have been: Pick a random direction and walk.

  At least it was a pleasant enough walk, with the weather being clear skies and temperate. Even the forest was easily traversed, the ground still a forest floor, but it wasn't overly rooty or rock covered, so we covered a good distance. Not that I had any clue what that distance was...

  "This might be a good time to inform you that I have exactly zero wilderness survival skills." I said, breaking the long, but comfortable silence that had been between us for at least an hour. "I have definitely slept on the streets before, but I am pretty sure that urban survival is way different to staying alive in a forest."

  Pride eyed me, but he was a dog and there for I had no clue what he was thinking. Puppy dog eyes and snarling was as far as my doggy facial expression knowledge went, really. "No need to worry, I know the basics. But I don't think we need to worry much. I can smell humans and filth on the wind... If I had to hazard a guess, there is a town not too far from here."

  "Oh, well great." I can't say I envied Pride his nose. Mine was already uncomfortably more sensitive than it had been when I was human, and I really did not need to smell 'human filth' from three kilometers away. But civilization was good!

  Turns out that Pride's nose was correct, not that I doubted it. It wasn't too long before our forest wandering took us to a dirt road that was fairly warn with muddy ruts, I assumed were from wagons. We followed the road, not coming across anyone at all.

  The town was not easy to make out when we did come across it, as it was surrounded by a tall, wooden wall. It looked sturdy, but flammable. And out side a double doored gate stood two guardsmen. These were not dressed as the Stellarian knights had been, instead they were dressed in miss matched leather armor. Both had a sword strapped to their hips and held long spears.

  "Er," I said to the hell hound as we slowly approached. "What are we supposed to do about this...?"

  "Get out two of those little magic stones I told you to pick up." Mumbled the dog, voice low as we drew nearer. Clearly we both agreed that it would be best that the super scary red eyed dog did not also talk.

  The stones were of varying sizes and colors, and all of them had been taken from some of the monster corpses from the dungeon. At the time we harvested them, Pride explained that they were magic stones, which were condensed mana formed in the bodies of monster, and that, back in the day, they sold pretty well. Supposedly, many of the monster parts we had left behind could of netted us a nice profit, if only we had a way to take them with us.

  But the stones had been relatively small and, those at least, I could tuck away to sell when we eventually reached people.

  I did what I was asked, slipping two of the smallest stones out of my tight jeans pockets and gripping them in a hand. It didn't take a genius to know that this was going to serve as either a toll or bribe. I might not know how to start a fire, but I did know bouncers when I saw them.

  "Halt!" Said one of the men in a deep voice. They both had leather caps on so it was a little hard to make out faces, but they were both older men with scruffy beards. "What is your business here?"

  I wanted to leave this to Pride, who, even with a his time underground, probably knew the culture here better than me. But we already agreed that it would be best if he spoke as little as possible. "We've been on the road for a while... We just want to get more provisions and an Inn for a night or so." I said, hoping they wouldn't question me too far.

  The men looked nervous. I thought it was because of Pride at first. He was large with red eyes, after all, but he had shrunk himself to a more normal size for a rottweiler. Not that I was even sure rottweilers were even a thing in this world. I had to remember that it was a man who originally came from Earth that created his race. For all I knew, there was no such things as dogs at all, just monsters.

  But then it clicked in that, though their eyes darted to Pride a time or two, most of their attention was on me. I then remembered that I was no longer Karen, the unassuming human woman. Now I was a rather undressed demon girl with freaking purple hair, a tail, and big old wings folded against my back. Oh... right. I'm the weirdo. Why had I not even considered that?

  "Are you a slave?" One of the men asked, eyes darting around my neck area that was partially covered.

  "What?" I asked, taken aback and pretty offended. "No."

  "Check her." One man told the other.

  The man did not look happy about it, but approached me all the same. I tried not to make any sudden moves, even as his hand reached out for me. I did glare at the man though, daring him to try anything funny.

  A slave? What the royal 'F' word?

  His rather filthy hand touched my shoulder and I felt a buzz of magic flow over me. The man's eyes scoured over me, closely enough that I was about to snap at him, but he removed his hand and backed away, turning to his companion. "Nothing." He said.

  The other man nodded. "Good. You best stay out of trouble girl, or you may just find yourself with a slave crest, after all." The man said, retaking his position at the gate.

  "Its two silver to get in." Sneered the other man, hand outstretched.

  I had no clue what the worth of two silver was, but I was guessing from the greedy look on his face that the normal toll, if there was one, was not as much as two silver. I suddenly got the feeling that that was the 'being a demon' fee.

  Bunch of stinking racists.

  Glaring I lifted my hand and showed the men the little stones, both varying shades of plum purple. "All I have are these. I assume it should be more than enough." I said. I had no clue about that at all, but when in doubt, bluff it.

  Judging by the twinkle in the men's eyes, I was right. Guard One snatched the stones off my palm and stepped back, nodding his head. "That'll do little miss."

  Feeling annoyed, I tromped through the gate, glaring dead ahead with Pride walking at my side like a very well trained little- totally not little- doggy.

  The town was actually larger than I originally thought. The houses were built close together, made with wooden supports, stone foundations, and plaster like walls. Some of the rooves looked like wooden shingles while others almost looked like thatch. All in all it was how I pictured an old English town might look, which totally fit the whole theme of this crazy, wild, hero summoning scenario pretty well.

  The place was the definition of shabby and sketchy though. And even I could smell the nastiness here now.

  The people kept to themselves, eyes either looking at the ground or avoiding me as best as they could. But that was just the people I passed. I could clearly feel eyes on me, which I was no longer surprised by, since it wasn't like I saw any other demons wandering around.

  In fact, as Pride and I went hunting for a main road, I noted that all I saw were humans. But that changed once we did hit the main road.

  It was much wider than the dirt roads we had been traversing till now, and was also paved with cobbles. Horses clopped past, pulling wagons, and there were stalls lined along the roads between the houses and shops. The noise was greater here too, as shop keepers and stall owners called out their wares.

  I stood there, staring stupidly, before Pride nudged me along. We needed to find some where to sell our stones and didn't have time for me to gawk at that huge man with an axe bigger than me strapped to his back, or that woman over there with cat ears poking through her witches cap, her long dark robe dragging on the ground and a staff clutched in her hands.

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  As we walked, I gawked. I was leaving the shop location to the dog, but I was in the middle of a bit of a culture shock, right now. As jarring as it was to see people with animal features walking about, I think it was the blatant carrying of weapons that was most jarring to me. Good luck having a plainly displayed scimitar back on Earth, bud. Like, what the hell!

  After a bit I realized that I wasn't the only one looking. Though, I really couldn't blame them all for eye balling me and Pride. Even I could see that we stood out, even amongst all of these people. No one was outright hostile at least, so I think that Pride was right in thinking that this was outside the Stella Empire, given no one was coming out with the torches and pitchforks, screaming to kill the demons.

  "Here." Said Pride, just loud enough for me and my newly sensitive ears to pick out.

  I peeled my eyes off the locals to look at the store front that Pride had stopped us in front of. It was pretty plain, with no wares out front like many of the other shops had. Above the wooden door was a sign stating... I had no clue what, because I could not read the language. That was going to be an issue.

  Could Pride read it?

  Putting that aside, I opened the door and let Pride enter before me. It was small inside, with what looked like shelves of random junk along the walls, and barrels filled with bones, scraps, and any number of other things. It did not have pleasant smell either: sort of a mix of death and incense. A closer look at the shelves showed me that they held what looked like monster parts. I saw something that looked pretty similar to the bug carapaces I saw in the dungeon, more bones, and jars of nasty eye balls... ugh, was that a mason jar of dried, pointy, ears?

  "Welco-" Started a woman's voice, stopping mid greeting. I tore my eyes of the jar to see a woman with a mane of long, curly black hair, tanned skin and deep brown eyes. She wore a long, flowy skirt, but nothing more than a beaded bralette up top. If some one told me she was a fortune teller, I'd believe them.

  Currently she was eyeing me in surprise, but quickly pulled herself together, shaking her head and placing another jar, that I hadn't even noticed she was carrying, on a counter at the back of the shop.

  "Good afternoon." She said with a fairly pleasant smile that made me feel a little more at ease. At least she was going to pretend that having a demon in her shop was no big deal. "Please be mindful of your wings miss, these things are quite expensive."

  "Oh! er, right, sorry." I said, shuffling away from the shelves a little. I really did not want to knock the jar of eyeballs onto the ground.

  The woman chuckled. She had a deep, calming voice that was quite pleasant to the ears. "No worries. Do mind your, uh, dog... as well please. Now, how can I help you?"

  "I actually have several magic stones I was looking to sell." I said, following the woman as she went behind the counter so that we were both on either side of it.

  "Well, you came to the right place." She said. "I deal in just about anything that comes from a monster, and magic stones are always in high demand." she moved a few jars aside that I did my best not to look too closely at. "Set them here and I will appraise them."

  I started pulling stones out of just about any spot I had found to stuff them. Given the massacre we had done down in the dungeon, I had quite a few. Enough that I watched the woman's eyebrows raise as I kept pulling them out.

  "I don't suppose you managed to bring anything else from these monsters...?" She asked.

  "No." I stated. "I had no where to store the other parts, I'm afraid."

  "A shame." She said, picking up one of the larger stones and rolling it in her hands. "I am willing to bet that some of these came from some powerful monsters." Her eyes jumped to me, assessing, before landing on Pride. Yeah, I wouldn't think that it was me who killed those monsters either, if I had been her.

  At first I thought she was going to use a higher level of 'appraisal' than my own when she told me that she would appraise the stones. But I had been wrong. First she took out a small stack of papers from behind the counter, along with a quill and bottle of ink. She then whipped out a small set of scales. I watched as she eyeballed each stone, weighed it, then held it in her palm, mumbling what I assumed was a spell. I saw no visual effect of the spell, but I did feel the now familiar buzz over my skin when magic was cast near by. Between each step she would bend down and make notes on her papers.

  I could see that this was going to take a while, but I didn't want to wander the shelves. One, I didn't want to break anything, and two, I wasn't really interested in looking at more monster parts. They were gross... and making me hungry. Which was so disturbing on several levels I was not particularly pleased about.

  I really hoped that we got enough to stay at an inn for the night and eat real food. I did not see it as a good thing that a jar of what appeared to be dried goblin ears seemed like a tasty snack. Mmmm, goblin jerky. Ugh.

  And so, I just stood there, watching, as Pride settled himself on the floor by my feet.

  It took the shopkeeper another fifteen minutes to make her way through the stones. Once done, she straightened up, stretched out her back, and let out a tired breath. "Phew, that was a lot."

  "Sorry for the trouble." I said. I wasn't usually so polite, but so far she had been the nicest native of this land I had met, including Pride, so I figured I might as well return the favor.

  She smiled. "No trouble. It is my job after all. You found yourself quite the haul here, so I am sure it will benefit us both."

  "So, what am I looking at then?" I asked. The truth was that this woman could totally swindle me out of a lot of money here. Not only did I have no clue the value of these stones, but I also had no clue how the money here worked, other than two silver was a clear over estimation of what entering this shitty town was supposed to cost. I really needed to learn the written language and money system here.

  "In total? I can give you twelve gold and seven silver." She gave me a knowing smile, and I knew then that she knew that I had no idea what these were worth. "To be honest, these bigger ones, you could get a better price in a bigger city. But that's the best I can do here in Verst. We just can't really move such powerful stones here in such a small town. If you like, I can just take the smaller ones off you for three gold even? And you can keep these larger ones to sell at a bigger trading hub."

  She sounded truthful, but I had no way of knowing for sure. Either way, it didn't really matter at this point. "No, if you can, I would just like to sell them all now. I need the money more than the stones at the moment."

  She nodded. "That's fine with me, I would be getting quite the deal. Just so you know, you could sell the bigger ones for nearly twice as much in another city..."

  I thought about it. It was nice of her to be so apparently open with me, but in the end, I could always kill more monsters to get more stones.

  I sook my head. "Its fine. I'd just like to sell them please."

  "Very well." She smiled, putting her papers and ink back under the counter before removing a bag from her hip. From within it I herd the tell tale sounds of coins. She counted out the coins before setting them on the counter.

  At least I could count, even if I did not under stand the value of the coins themselves. There were twelve golden coins about the size of a watch face, and then the silver ones were around the size of a bottle cap. I scooped them all up into my fist, not having a nifty pouch to put them in, I just stuffed them in my jeans pocket for now. It wasn't the safest location, but at least the pocket was tight and there fore hard to pickpocket.

  "Thanks." I said.

  "No, thank you. Like I said, I am the one getting the better deal." she said with a little laugh. "If you get any more, please stop by."

  I smiled back. "I will be sure to do that."

  As Pride got to his feet, and we turned to leave, the woman spoke again. "Be safe out there miss. This is not the most welcoming of towns for your kind..."

  I frowned, but saw that the woman did look genuinely worried for me. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

  Once back out on the road I let out a relived sigh. This was some how more stressful than fighting massive roaches. Walking back down the road with no real destination in mind, I tried to have a conversation with Pride while moving my lips as little as possible and speaking in a low voice. These people were already suspicious of me, I didn't need them thinking I was a crazy lady who spoke to a dog too.

  "What do you think?" I asked.

  "When I last walked on the surface, we also used a money system that used similar coins, but I have no clue of the current values."

  I sighed. "Yeah, makes sense. Any clue where we might find an inn? Are you able to read the signs?"

  Pride shook his big head. "No. But I can follow my nose. I will just follow the scent of cooked meat and beer... Every inn always smells the same after all."

  That made sense.

  As Pride took the lead, I went back to people watching. I could see that there were a lot of what I would describe as 'adventurers' around: people dressed in various armors and carrying weapons. And mixed among them were the citizens of the town: people wearing tunics and simple shoes, warn out dresses, and very little jewelry. I would say that there were not many higher class people in this town. Or, none that wandered about this particular street at least.

  "Move!" I heard a man snarl, drawing my attention from ogling a man dressed in robes with the face of a freaking lizard. A lizard!

  I saw a rather large man dressed in leather pants and a torn tunic, a bald head and angry green eyes. He stood before a line of the most scrawny, sickly, bunch of people I had ever seen, most of them boys and all of them human.

  The man smacked the shoulder of a kid about fifteen years old, and he stumbled forward before clambering hurriedly into the back of a wagon. The others hurried to follow. I saw that each of these people were dressed even worse than I was and everyone of them had a leather collar around their necks.

  "Slaves." Stated Pride, quietly. "We had those back in my day too." He didn't sound like he particularly found that a good or a bad thing. But, I couldn't say I found it particularly pleasant, especially considering this lot were still kids for the most part.

  I frowned, but continued to follow Pride. Being a random vigilante, freeing slaves was going to do no-one any good. I'd get pursued, and they would just be caught again. Besides, a handful of freed slaves here was not going to suddenly change the country's view point on slavery, was it?