Jack brings both the wolf carcasses back to the village and manages to sell them to a butcher. The butcher didn't ask many questions, simply happy that more of the wolves were taken care of and paid Jack a couple of coins for his troubles.
'6 copper coins?' Jack looks at the coins in his hand, not really knowing if it's a lot of money or very little money. Probably depends on the lifestyle as well.
He didn't really try to haggle much with the butcher, especially because the wolves were pretty badly damaged, and he had yet to understand the local currency.
'I must really learn the currency quickly, especially if I want my cover of a robbed merchant to be intact.' He thinks before heading towards the only store in sight.
The town has a small general store which sells a little bit of everything, rope, knives, torches, various home supplies like pots and pans, candles, ink, paper, among other things.
This store has a simple name, "Elphon's shop", which is probably named after the owner.
Jack enters, hearing a small bell jingle as he opens the door.
The store is somewhat small, and a few tables and shelves are crowding the room, with the shop counter right next to the entrance of the store.
A somewhat tall and slender man is leaning against the counter, talking to a woman carrying a basket. He gives a quick hello towards Jack before continuing his conversation with the woman.
Jack greets him back, then starts browsing around. He quickly finds a torch for 1 copper, which gives him some insight into what things might be worth.
He takes a tour around and checks other things as well. A dagger is worth 2 gold coins, a shortsword sells for 10 gold coins, rope is dependent on length, but a bundle sells for 5 silver coins, a small knife for 4 silver coins, and most pots and pans are roughly 1 or 2 gold each.
Jack makes some mental calculations and concludes that most things should be multiplicative of 10, meaning 10 copper coins is 1 silver coin, 10 silver coins is 1 gold coin.
'Judging from the prices of things, and how cheap food was at the tavern, most people should only have to spend roughly a few silver coins a day, meaning 10 gold coins should be enough for a week of food, water and maybe a somewhat good room at an inn?' Jack guesses mentally.
The woman with the basket seems done with her conversation, so she turns, smiles towards Jack and then leaves.
"Greetings, customer, my name is Elphon. How can I help you today?" The lean man behind the counter says.
"Hello, Elphon, I'm Jack. I got robbed recently, and Joe saved me by bringing me back here." Jack says with a slight smile.
"Aa yes, I heard, awful thing, especially with bandits around these parts," Elphon responds.
"Yes, I must have been quite unlucky... You don't happen to need any help with anything? I could really use some coins right now." Jack quizzically asks.
"Sorry, sir, I got everything covered around here, but I'll keep you in mind in case anything comes up." Elphon gives a radiant smile.
Jack notices how Elphon's ears are longer and pointier than ears usually are. He also has really smooth skin and appears quite handsome.
"My father is an elf, in case you were wondering." Elphon says while looking right at Jack. "You got a problem with that?" he continues.
"Oh no no, of course not." Jack responds while waving his hands dismissively. "I'm sorry for staring, was just a bit surprised, is all." Jack says.
'There are ELVES in this world??? I mean, that old bearded guy mentioned a magical world, but still. This is just pure fantasy now.'
"Well, we aren't that common, and most elves still reside in the forests of East, so I can somewhat imagine it. But still, I'm a half-elf and I've seen quite a few half-elves and elves in my days." Elphon continues.
"But enough about me, I see you're clinging to that torch? You going somewhere dark?" He looks at Jack skeptically.
"Yes, I just thought it would be good to have. Always useful in dark areas." Jack sighs and places one copper coin on the counter. "Is that enough?" he asks.
"Yes, certainly. Do you need anything to light it with? A tinderbox perhaps?" Elphon says while casually grabbing and placing a tinderbox on the counter. "2 silver pieces and it is yours."
Jack looks at his 5 copper coins left, thinking about how he is going to solve this problem. His brain once again starts quickly coming up with a decent answer.
"Sure, but I don't have more than 5 copper left, so if you place it on my tab, I could pay it back tomorrow. I'm staying at the inn and helping Bob with the cleaning and stuff. I'll probably stay a while." Jack says and gives a large smile.
Elphon looks at him, somewhat suspiciously, but after a few seconds, he agrees. They shake hands, and Jack leaves with his torch and tinderbox, ready to head into a dark cave.
'I now have negative 15 copper pieces, great...' Jack thinks about his incoming bankruptcy, but if he manages to successfully hunt a few more wolves then that would probably solve it. His insane attributes should make it very easy to earn money later.
He takes a detour to the tavern, helps Bob with some menial tasks and eats something before once again going back towards the den of wolves.
The sun is slowly disappearing behind some clouds, and Jack decides to finish his cave job before the evening.
He goes through the forest, following the same route as before and finds the cave again. No new wolves or any other animals are nearby, just the dried blood on the ground.
Jack brings out his tinderbox, strikes the flint and steel to create some sparks on the tinder, then slowly lights his torch.
He holds the torch with his left hand, which sort of makes the shield less useful, as it is somewhat attached to his arm but has the handle unused. But he still tries to make it work, worst case, just drop the torch and pick it up after the fight. It probably won't be extinguished that easily, he hopes.
With his new light source, he enters the cave. The entrance is not very tall, so he sort of leans in to enter it. But after a few steps inside, he can stand tall without having to worry.
There are some indications that wolves lived here, scratch marks and small pieces of leftover meat left behind.
As he goes in deeper, he hears the first growl further in, the torch does a wonderful job lighting up the cave, and he can see the outline of the wolf just up ahead of him.
He prepares himself by entering his battle stance, pulling his warhammer back and being ready to strike. However, he quickly notices how the wolf won't attack due to the fire from his torch. So Jack decides to do the striking instead.
He quickly runs forward, lunging with his warhammer, swinging in a wide arc while aiming for the wolf. The wolf reacts quickly and tries to dodge, but Jack is surprisingly fast and hits it square in the back, breaking its spine and killing it instantly.
It gives off a sad whimper and a short, painful screech before it collapses on the ground.
Jack once again looks at a dead wolf, but still, he doesn't really feel anything.
'This is disturbing. How can I kill it without feeling anything at all?' He ponders quietly.
He then proceeds forward, deeper into the cave and not before long, three more wolves show up.
Jack drops the torch, readying his shield and quickly starts hammering away. He makes very easy work of the wolves and even tries to kill them as quickly as possible to reduce their suffering.
After he's done, he picks up the torch and looks around, once again disturbed by his lack of empathy for the wolves.
'I surely hope I still feel normal towards other humans, as I hope to never have to kill anyone.'
He waves his torch around while searching the rest of the cave. The three wolves he fought seemed to be inside the deepest part of the cave, a somewhat large cave room with various rock formations in different heights.
He walks around, finding a bunch of remains and general leftovers left behind by the wolves.
'This must have been their home, the cave ends here' he thinks.
Suddenly, he hears a low noise coming from behind a pile of rubble and bones, and he readies his weapon.
From behind the pile, a wolf cub walks out. It looks irritably towards the bright fire Jack brought with him and gives off a snarl. Jack studies it. It looks like a small fuzzy dog, kind of cute.
The small wolf notices how all the other wolves are lying down further away, and runs towards them to investigate. The cub jumps around them and playfully bites them, but gets no response.
Jack sees this, and for the first time, he finally feels something. Sadness, remorse and empathy make an entrance as the cute little wolf cub tries to wake its parents up from their deep, deep sleep.
'Okay, at least I still have my feelings left. But now what? Should I save it? It won't survive on its own in the forest, and I can't take it with me.'
"Hello, little one, come here." Jack says and squats down, putting his hand out to try and lure the cub over.
It looks over at Jack and gnarls, not moving any closer to Jack.
With his hand still open, he slowly moves towards the cub, trying to talk to it in a calming voice. But the cub suddenly gives off a howl and starts running away.
Jack chases it intending to finish it off, he reasons it's better to kill it now or it will probably just end up dying in the forest anyway. He runs after it with incredible speed and slams his warhammer down. However, the cub runs in between some bones, and Jack actually misses. He brings his hammer down hard into a rock, which shatters most of it and throws out debris all over the place.
*BANG*
The sound echoes in the cave as the rock explodes around him. He continues to chase after the cub, fully intending on finishing his job. The second time, he manages to corner it, but before he can swing his warhammer, he notices something odd.
The cave wall behind it looks disturbed. It seems sort of out of place. The cub uses the opportunity to run between Jack's legs and escapes, running out towards the forest. But Jack lets it get away, because his eyes notice an outline that creates a shape.
He approaches the wall and places one of his hands on it, moving it around and knocking. Trying to feel if anything sounds hollow.
He then pushes with both hands, and slowly, a part of the wall is pushed inwards, then slides sideways and opens into a small cave room.
Inside this room is only really one thing, some type of altar. A solid black rectangular slab of rock, with weird emblems and candles placed in a candelabra. The room is filled with dust and seems to have been empty for quite some time.
'What is this place? Some secret prayer altar? What are they even praying to in this world? The weird old man I met?' Jack wonders.
He enters the room and looks at everything, analysing the symbols and the candles.
The symbols look like circles filled with lines in certain specific, crescent shapes. It looks very detailed.
He sits down on his knees in front of the altar and lights one of the candles using his torch. Suddenly, a strange noise is emitted from the altar. Black smoke rises from the slab, and some shadowy form takes shape in the air above the altar.
Jack immediately regrets everything, panic flushing over him, and he retreats backwards.
"Who summoned me?" echoes softly in the cave, resulting in Jack getting goosebumps.
"No one summoned you. Please go back where you came from." Jack says, while running out of the room, pushing the stone wall shut behind him, and quickly sprinting out of there.
'Dear god, or whatever gods exist in this place, what have I done?' He softly says to himself while running back to the village.