Abyssal Awakening

"I\'m just someone who came from outside this city. Let me help you back." Alice offered as she felt bad seeing him suffering from both his injuries and the side effects of his Abyss Blood.

"Ah… Thank you. But really, you shouldn\'t deal with exiles like me. The people of this city wouldn\'t look kindly upon you." The man smiled bitterly as two young children ran out from their hiding spot and hugged the old man.

They looked to be younger than ten years old yet their body were also disfigured with horns and scales.

"Why?" Alice furrowed her brows. While it was indeed pitiful to see someone suffering from Abyss Blood, she didn\'t see it as a reason to abuse them in the way the Hunters had done earlier.

"Because we\'re now impure. These horns, these scales, they don\'t belong to man. To them, I\'m no better than a beast. Please, for your own safety, allow me to go back with my children." The man pleaded as Alice sighed and let go of him, allowing him to walk away with his family.

Watching him disappear into the alley, Alice noticed that several others were peaking at her through half closed windows and they seemed to be suffering from other side effects similar to the old man.

\'Is this where they throw all the people who have visible side effects?\' Alice thought to herself with a slight frown.

However, this was none of her business. Considering the state of this alley, it seems like this is a long held belief the city holds and one that keeps them away from the public eye.

\'Is it a belief of those that follow the Church of the Sun or just how people are in general?\' Alice sighed as she turned away from the alley.

Stepping out, she noticed that a few people shot her disgusted glances and whispered to one another while pointing at her.

Ignoring these glances, Alice made her way through the streets in search of a clothing store.

Thankfully, it didn\'t take long for her to find a store with what seemed to be affordable clothing from what she could see on display.

Granted, these outfits were still rather expensive at 6 gold pieces for the full attire, a little over the budget she had set herself.

However, she couldn\'t keep walking around in half torn up clothing or else she\'d attract too many eyes to her.

After perusing the store, she chose a simple yet cute outfit by her own standards. It consisted of a black shirt and shorts, a pair of tights and white knee high boots. The main attraction of the outfit was the large jacket that could be either worn like usual or off shoulder as there was a clip to keep it attached to her shirt without it falling off.

Walking around for a bit, Alice was satisfied with her outfit and also bought a bag to keep her old attire. After all, she wanted to get it fixed by Sera since it\'s a durable outfit and it felt good to move in.

The outfit she had just bought was mostly for walking through the city without fighting in mind.

Adjusting the bag on her back, Alice doubled checked to make sure she didn\'t leave anything and left the store.

Her second agenda now was to buy a storybook on Hunters since she remembered that she had enjoyed them when she was younger. Perhaps seeing one would rekindle those feelings in her chest and act as a hobby.

With plenty of time on her hands, Alice wandered wherever interested her and enjoyed her time browsing the stalls.

Before she knew it, hours had passed and she was now holding a bag of books, detailing the adventures of famous Hunters. Naturally, they have been adjusted to exclude the gory details and only wrote about the pride and honor strong Hunters received from each kill.

Sitting down on a bench by the plaza, Alice leaned back and crossed her legs before placing the books beside her.

With Ria taking her time with the exam and not arriving at the plaza yet, Alice figured that she had a bit of time to enjoy her books.

She felt like she had forgotten something but if she didn\'t remember it then it probably wasn\'t important enough.

What was important for her right now was to enjoy her books.

However, before she could start, she wanted some snacks and a drink to enjoy while reading.

Thankfully, there was a vendor nearby that was selling some kind of skewer with mushrooms, vegetables and some meat along with an assortment of drinks displayed on the table.

Purchasing a drink and a plate of skewers, Alice sat down and enjoyed her books.

As she was reading through the contents, she wasn\'t sure about some of the stories it had told. After going through some hunts herself, she knew that some of these were exaggerated and boasted about the luxurious life a Hunter led. Yet she couldn\'t stop herself from reading as there was nothing else to do.

One of the books was even strange as it detailed a gruesome battle of fear and panic for the beast rather than the Hunter. How it would try to dodge yet spikes would always appear between its legs.

A few would even detail the Hunter dragging \'souls\' from the body and trapping it in a lantern to be resummoned later.

\'Can Sigils even accomplish a feat like this? What\'s stopping them from just taking the soul of a powerful Hunter?\' Alice wondered to herself while flipping through the pages.

While absorbed in reading, she didn\'t notice Ria approaching and hitting her on the head gently.

"!!!" Jumping up in shock, Alice glanced up and saw Ria who seemed a little messier than usual.

"Finished?" Alice asked, closing her book and placing them into her bag.

"Yep. I got my four star license now. The battle was a bit annoying but it was pretty easy. The hard part was waiting for the damn instructor to arrive." Ria sighed.

"But enough about me, you went clothes shopping and didn\'t even tell me urg. If you had told me I would\'ve gone with you and helped you pick an outfit but this one is cute too. What books were you reading?" Ria asked curiously as she sat down next to Alice.

"Nothing too interesting. Just story books about Hunters. I remember I used to enjoy them when I was younger so I figured I\'ll give it a go again." Alice shrugged.

"I see… We\'ll I might have a read myself if you say you enjoyed them. But considering how you got the outfit and books I\'m assuming the blacksmiths couldn\'t fix your gloves. Though I suppose that\'s to be expected because Allura had asked a friend of her\'s to commission such a thing."

Hearing this, Alice was silent as she finally remembered what she was supposed to do. She had gotten distracted with wanting to find a hobby along with reading that fixing her glove completely slipped her mind.

". . . I still haven\'t gone to the blacksmiths yet. I forgot." Alice replied awkwardly as she didn\'t expect herself to get distracted so much.

"Wait… how much gold do you have left?"

Holding up 3 fingers, Alice smiled meekly.

"3 gold?!" Ria was speechless as she didn\'t expect everything to cost 11 gold in total.

"Ahem. The books were a little more expensive than I thought and I had bought a few." Alice explained while Ria didn\'t know what to say.

Not only did they need travel funds but they also needed money to fix their gear. With Alice only having 3 gold left, they would need to stay in this city for longer than they expected to earn some money.

"We\'ll need some funds for an Inn tonight unless you want to sleep in the streets. Sigh… I\'ll do some clothes shopping tomorrow I guess or get an easy job at the Guild. Thankfully, more opportunities have opened up since I got my four star license including some work in the city." Ria sighed.

"Sorry…"

"Don\'t worry though. I have a better idea on how we can earn some money." Ria grinned as Alice had a bad feeling in her heart but her curiosity got the better of her.

"What do you have in mind?"

"I\'ll tell you later. Let\'s find an Inn first. Once we get our rooms, we\'ll go earn some quick coin." Ria chuckled as she dragged Alice with her to find an Inn as quickly as possible.

In the end, they settled with an Inn called the Crowned Hero that cost 20 Silver per night with breakfast and dinner included. Not only was the price affordable for them, but it was also close to the plaza where it leads to a majority of the main buildings within this city.

Now that their place of residency has been secured, Ria had Alice leave her books in her room before dragging her away.

"Can you at least tell me where we\'re going first?" Alice sighed as she wanted a rough idea so she could prepare herself.

Considering how Ria called it quick coin, it was most likely something dangerous.

"Don\'t worry, just follow me since I\'ve done this a few times." Ria reassured with a grin.

Hearing that this was something Ria had some several times, the bad feeling in Alice\'s chest manifested itself again as she recalled one situation that Allura had warned her about.

And as expected, her fears came true after seeing their destination.

It was the fighting ring where you could gamble on who won.

"I\'ll join a few fights myself and our coin purses will be full in no time." Ria chuckled as she couldn\'t wait to enter.

"Didn\'t Allura mention that she had to bust you out last time because they wouldn\'t let you leave?" Alice frowned but Ria shook her finger.

"But that was BEFORE I got my resonance. Don\'t worry, I\'ll keep it low key."

Seeing that there was no changing Ria\'s mind, Alice sighed and nodded her head.