The current world has three continents arranged in such a way that, on a map, they all look as if they were on three separate edges of a triangle.
The Southwestern continent is where the Amagra'ra, Korailion, Rivalidha, and many other kingdoms are located. A vast continent characterized by its calmer and more approachable biomes. While it may have fewer monsters roaming, the current wars between the various nations are doing just as much damage.
The Northern continent houses kingdoms like Lichtrey, Gtomika, and others. A continent characterized by similar yet more dangerous living environments compared with the Southwestern continent. Due to various monsters being exceptional and strange life forms, this continent has more magical particles compared with the other two continents.
The Southeastern continent also called the Dark Continent, is characterized by its weirder populations, with its inhabitants having more atypical characteristics—like the Koopsica race, also known as banshees. This is also the continent known for being the place the Queen of All Monsters resides. However, the people living here are equally conflicted in the war against monsters just as much as any other continent despite their assumed more demonic attributes.
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City of Trotero – Kingdom of Gtomika, Northern Continent.
"A hundred and seventy UBDs for this piece of trash!" A Miw man complained to the street seller sitting on her carpet while shaking the item in his hand.
"A real, functioning K-99 gun—the pistol of the Berus, humans with dog-like features—at not even half the price you'd find it for in an imported weapons shop. I'm sure you know the real value in it if that one really called out to you." The little girl gestured a ring with her index finger and thumb, a common gesture used by people trying to sell stuff.
Although the man with cat ears and tail said that the price was a hundred and seventy, it was actually a hundred and sixty-nine UBD with ninety-nine cents, a common practice to make the price feel a lot cheaper than it actually is.
"It may be cheaper, but this is the gun only. You sell no bullets for it! If anyone bought this, it'd be the same as buying an expensive ass paperweight!"
"Hey, if you don't want it, don't buy it. But I will not accept any insults toward the objects I sell, ya hear me!"
With a click of his tongue, the Miw man let the gun fall out of his hand and walked away from what he thought to be a scam.
"Hey, what are you—? Be careful with my goods!" The Vogel girl yelled out into the busy street, losing the man in the crowd as she barely catched the gun.
"Another slow day, Titiana?" A big Taurus man at the stand next to the Vogel girl asked while chuckling loudly.
"What do you care, old man!?" the girl with fire-colored feathers on top of her head angrily yelled at her neighboring seller.
"I hate when someone else in the business ends up not selling anything after their efforts of looting. Although, I don't have much respect for people who sell weapons that don't work."
"Don't work!? I'll have you know, old fart, that these goods were brought to me by an esteemed weapons dealer from far away!"
"I didn't know the sea was a person you could buy things from." The old man couldn't contain the sarcasm in his voice, which irritated the young girl—mostly because she knew he was right.
"I don't interact with people defaming my business."
"Ah, you're pouting and looking away! Are you angry? Have I irritated you with so little?" the man with one of his horns chipped asked with no real intention of stopping his verbal teasing.
The day continued as normal, with Titiana only selling a single one of the guns she managed to loot from the beach.
The client she sold that gun to was an experienced haggler who managed to buy the object for practically nothing. Although, to Titiana, any amount of money gained from selling scavenged goods was profit, since she spent not a single penny obtaining them—even if the merchandise she got was defective thanks to water ruining most of the items she collected on the beach.
"One apple, three oranges, and one banana." The girl ordered from a stand on the same street where she sold her goods.
It got late, and the sky was colored orange with the sun setting on the horizon. Normally, she'd close her shop, pick up everything, store it in a garage she rented—she would never let her goods end up at her house—and run home.
However, she had something else to take care of before heading home.
"That'll be five UBD."
"Yeah, yeah…" The girl repeated herself with no enthusiasm, as she needed to make a transaction and use her savings on things she wasn't going to use for herself.
Once the items were bought, she finally left the market street of the city to run once again toward the beach. Although this time she wasn't going there to loot anything washed up on the shore—this time she was there for something else.
Rather, for someone else.
Walking along the coast, she reached a part of the beach with many rock formations big enough and with small caves to use for hiding.
Before she entered the small hole that would lead her inside the rock formation, she crouched down and hid her face as she hugged her own legs, curling while leaning against a rock.
She let out a ragged and paused breath, not because she was nervous about the person she was about to meet, but because she needed to calm herself after putting up that tough façade all day at the market street—an attitude she adopted after many times being scammed and taken advantage of by potential buyers because she had a more passive personality.
"Ugh…" Once she calmed herself and wiped the cold sweat off her forehead, she finally stood up and tried to get into character to meet the person inside the small cave.
She entered the small hole and followed the narrow path, just big enough for her to walk through thanks to her smaller stature. After turning left at a crossroad, she finally entered the room.
The usually dark room was now illuminated with a flashlight she brought with her. The space had nothing; she had discovered this place only yesterday when looking for somewhere to hide the thing she found on the beach.
A boy who looked to be around her age. With dark green and grey scales around most of his body and a thin, equally scaled tail, the Vogel girl thought him to be either a Nagmia or a Reptilia—although, due to those races not being common on the Southeastern continent, she didn't know how to differentiate them.
"Ugh… I just thought of something that makes me look really bad… I'm sorry." She clasped her hands together as a sign of repentance toward the boy.
However, what surprised her the most were those two sets of horns on top of his head—characteristics that, even if she knew nothing and had never met any scalie race in person, were completely uncommon and didn't belong to those races.
"I brought these in case you were awake, but you're still unconscious. I guess that's to be expected considering you probably suffered in a horrible accident at sea."
It wasn't uncommon to find dead or passed-out people on the beach. With all the crime and monsters, she slowly got used to it after seeing dead people while looting. Normally, she'd just report it to the authorities after finishing looting, but this time was different.
This person had an expensive item with him. A crown colored in a dirtied dark grey metal that shone brightly and reflected a clean image on the sides that weren't covered in dirt—dirt that seemed stuck to the metal and wouldn't wash off no matter how much she tried. A crown with two star-shaped extensions at the front part. On the back part, a single extension with a kind of jewel that couldn't be identified thanks to the dirt impregnated on it—only a reddish glint was visible.
All along the body of the crown were more, smaller jewels and precious stones that were harder to tell apart. All of them were surrounded by some kind of language or signs she couldn't understand.
If she could have, she would've done as always—stolen the crown that definitely could be sold for a large amount and left the boy for authorities to deal with. Because if the crown disappeared and she was the one who found him, she would be the main suspect.
If she could—but that Reptilia boy held the crown in his hand with a grip that didn't budge even while unconscious.
Of course, the passed-out Reptilia was tied tightly with rope in case he was hostile, which is something Titiana scolded herself for, saying no race in the world is inherently evil. But she needed to steal that crown, and only when she negotiated with the stranger would she get it.
Titiana was ready to give up for today and go back to her house, even if she didn't want to, and try again tomorrow.
"I hope you wake up by tomorrow. I need the money." She muttered to herself as she turned around to leave.
"…Ugh…"
But the sudden sound of pain coming from a male voice stopped her in her tracks.
She slowly turned around and saw the scalie moving from side to side while waking up and muttering something incomprehensible.