Abigail followed the boys out to the main avenue. They were looking for a trades hall. "A trades hall will be full of people searching for different items that they could potentially purchase or use in their crusading," Abigail explained to Ob as they walked down the street. "It is kind of a crazy place full of loud people who are typically looking to be shady."


    "Trades halls are notorious for scammers to live in; it''s a place where someone can easily be scammed out of thousands of gold," Vincent added as if he was someone who had been scammed before.


    "Just so. We will have to proceed with caution, especially with an item as rare as a dark heart." Abigail said in agreement.


    The trio headed down the bustling street. It was much busier than when Ob was out just a couple hours prior. Street vendors sold jewelry, spell books, food, drinks, and so much more. It felt like a medieval bazaar with magic. Ob looked around at all the different kinds of species interacting with each other. He saw humans, elves, orcs, and some people who looked like a cross-breed of animals and humans. He wondered how many years it took for there to be such civility amongst all these people.


    "Hey guys," Ob said, asking the two, "I see so many people acting innocently with each other despite being different species. Has it always been like this?"


    Abigail chuckled. "Of course. Just because someone looks different or grew up in a different place doesn''t mean that they are not still worthy of being treated fairly or the same."


    "That''s not to say that there are some people who believe they have the superior species and want to assert that." Vincent added, "But you have to understand that here, crusading reigns. A well-balanced crusading team has a mixture of species. The best teams in our history are usually made of three of four unique species in a team of 6; the ones who don''t make it big are the ones who exclude. Abs and I grew up in the same kingdom, and yes, her family were the rulers. They are rare just as rare as human rulers."


    "Why do you ask?" Abigail said, looking back at Ob.


    "Where I come from, people do a lot worse to each other. We are all human but are different races, let alone species. Elves don''t exist. Honestly, no other humanoid being exists outside of us. We have had massive wars because one race thought they were superior to others. We have had wars to free slaves... It''s ugly." Ob said all of this to them without making eye contact. He was looking forward. Focusing so hard on the horizon, it was as if staring at it for this long would make things better back home.


    Abigail stopped in her tracks; she turned to Ob and gave him a hug. "I am sorry, Ob. I am beginning to understand why you are the way you are. Thank you for sharing," she whispered into his ear. Ob was shocked by the hug but hugged her back. Vincent stood watching the two. Vincent had known Abigail for a long time. She would do great if she chose to follow in her dad''s footsteps and be the leader of their kingdom. She was someone who cared deeply for people. She was an empath. Many times, he had seen her step in and go after someone for treating someone innocent poorly. It made sense why she felt for Ob, and he did, too. It was clear that Ob was a part of the race that was treated poorly; otherwise, his question would have been phrased differently. He spoke of the species in a way that was exciting and shocking at the same time; Vincent also caught a hint of relief.


    "Ob," Vincent began to speak.


    "Yessir?" Ob responded, letting go of Abigail, and began wiping his eyes.


    "I am sorry if how I reacted earlier was similar to how you have been treated before," Vincent said sincerely, bowing his head.


    "No worries, bro. I appreciate your apology. I have to also be good about controlling myself. I brought my past into that situation and took it out on ya. I apologize, too," Ob said, returning the bow with a nod. They looked at each other, the three of them, all understanding each other a little better now.


    They approached this building with a pair of hands shaking each other as the logo above the double doors. The building was graphite with gold trim around the outside and had a tall, pointy roof. The windows were built with vertical white birch wood slats. They had no glass; they were always open. Wind could rush through the vertical slats. The roof lining was also gold trim. They walked up two steps and stepped onto a porch, which was held up by two graphite pillars, the top and bottom of which were solid gold. Ob looked at the trades hall with wide eyes; he thought about how every building was so great to look at. He wondered if there were some sort of magical construction workers in this world.


    As soon as they crossed the threshold to enter the jobs hall, Ob felt like he walked into a wall of heat. It smelt awful. A mixture of a zoo and booze, he thought. He saw so many people, species, and creatures all yelling and screaming at each other. Through the chaos of the middle, Ob spotted a large circular pillar; at the pillar''s base were clerks. The clerks were calmly listening to the customers easily. Abigail looked at Ob and wondered if there was a way that they could communicate.


    Ob tried to use dragon speak to his party.


    "Does this work?" Nothing. Ob tried to focus on entering the minds of Abigail and Vincent. "Test #2, here we go." They stared back at him with blank expressions. This time, Ob tried to channel the internal feeling of manna and force it into his mind. Next, he thought about his interactions with Eclipse; the link made things easy, but he could feel something faint that was similar. He focused on that feeling and searched for it with his new friends.


    "Third time''s the charm?" Ob said, closing his eyes as if looking was the reason that it didn''t work before.


    "We hear you, Ob," a woman''s voice entered his head. Success! He had used dragon speak successfully. He couldn''t help but smile at his accomplishments.


    "BOOM! LET''S GO!" Ob said in colossal excitement. Vincent looked at his new friend and couldn''t help but laugh at how excited he was to do something for the team.


    "Very good," Abigail said, chuckling, "The main clerks in the middle are the ones we need to get to. They are the ones who accept items and put them up into the trade center portal." She began explaining. "Then you see to our right and left? Those clerks are the ones who will guide us into finding the proper item we are looking for. In the very back behind the main clerks are gold piece clerks; they give you the money you have earned from selling your items." Ob nodded, understanding what she was saying.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The trio pushed through the crowd, a mixture of excuse mes moves and shoves. Later, they finally arrived at the clerks.


    "Ello, there, love," The clerk said in a soft, soothing voice, "Welcome to the Trades'' All. What can I do fer ya?"


    "Hey, how ya doing, Eluna?" Ob said with a genuine smile, "I''m looking to sell this dark heart, dark stone, a few succubus wings, and a pair of succubus horns." He said, presenting the items to the clerk.


    "I''m doin'' aight here, love, thank you," She said with a surprised smile, "Oh, big haul, big haul indeed. You must be that newcomer who slayed that succubus team. Oh, don''t look so glum; love," she saw that Ob was looking sad at the mention of his victory. He was still trying to come to grips with it, "they were a rotten bunch. They had it coming. I''m glad they are gone so we can maintain the order." She continued, "You''re in luck; all your items are hot right now. You''ll get a pretty big haul for those." Her eyes glowed gold as she took the items, and they disappeared in front of her. She spoke, but her voice was different; it was harsher. "Take this ticket and head back to collect your gold; your items have been sold already." Her eyes returned to their standard brown color; she smiled gently and said, "You have a nice day, ya ''ere love."


    "Thanks, Eluna, you were a big help," Ob said with another genuine smile. He collected his ticket, looked at his friends, and they moved towards the back of the building. She was pretty kind, Ob thought to himself; she must not be called by her name often.


    Vincent was watching the exchange between Ob and the clerk. He noticed how much more helpful the clerk was after Ob said her name. She was just as shocked as Vincent to hear him call her by her first name; that was not what they did here. In most aspects of life here, you were a nameless worker. Not with Ob; he was intentional about getting the names of the people who served him; Vincent thought about Lani, their innkeeper; Janice, the weapons saleswoman; Loivern, the vendor; and Reginald, the tailor. Now adding Eluna to that list. Ob didn''t say people''s names because he wanted something from them; Vincent assumed it was because he genuinely cared about their names.


    They approached the back clerks. Ob held out his ticket to the clerk; the clerk''s eyes were brown but looked like they were dead; how much he hated to be here, "there, Hughuin, I have this ticket to collect gold."


    Hughuin looked at Ob, blinked in confusion, and then took Ob''s ticket. Hughuin didn''t say anything back to Ob because he was still confused at the mention of his name. "Eh, apologies, good sir." Hughuin said in a high-pitched, panicked voice, "Here is your payout." his eyes glowed golden as he accepted the ticket. After a bit, his eyes returned to standard brown and were a little less dead. The man didn''t hand Ob a bag of coins but a small item.


    Item: Redemption Ticket


    Divine


    This is a ticket given to you by a priest of the god Goldar. It has a pre-selected amount of gold pieces. The amount of gold pieces on this ticket is: 100,000. Would you like to accept? Yes/No?


    “Holy craaaaaaaaap, YES!” Ob exclaimed, not intentionally. This got a massive grin from Hughuin. Hughuin thought how strange this man was; no one had ever called him by his name; it had been nearly 5 years working this job since he heard his name at work. Now, he was excited about the amount of money he just earned. Most people were upset. "Thank you, Hughuin, this is awesome!" Ob said, interrupting his thoughts; his smile was huge, and he went to shake the clerk''s hand. Hughuin shook his hand and watched this peculiar man walk away.


    “100k?!” Vincent said


    "Oh, my gods. You were blessed." Abigail exclaimed. "Well, we can definitely afford to get you an awesome keystone item. Pretty much any item that you want. Let''s find something to the left over here; we could meet another clerk." Abigail was perplexed; why was Ob always getting such great luck? Especially here, something was happening, but she was not sure what it was, nor was she upset by it.


    As they approached the final clerk, she was a woman with forest-green hair. She had pointy ears and small horns sticking out of her head. Abigail had called her a forest halfling, half druid, and half human. "Hi Prancey, I''m Ob. How are you doing?" Ob had asked her with a genuine smile and an extended hand. The clerk just stared at his hand and slowly reached out to shake it.


    "Hello, Ob," she said slowly and carefully, letting go of his hand, "I am doing okay, uh, thank you for asking. How may I be of service?" Her speech was slow and methodical.


    "Good to hear. I am looking for a keystone item with high rarity." Ob said, looking her in her forest green eyes.


    "Very good; any kind you are looking for, young Ob?" She said with a small smile. Her eyes flickered as she was asking the question.


    "Mystic keystone would be ideal. Do you have any of those?" Ob said, noticing the flicker but electing not to mention it.


    "Ahh, yes, of course. Let me check the inventory," Prancey responded, her eyes turning to the same gold color. She stared in Ob''s direction, but he could tell she was not looking at him. After some time, her eyes returned to their forest green color. She now held several items in her hands and placed them in front of Ob. "Here I have a Mystic Stone, Mystic essence, Mystic box, Mystic Drop, and a Mystic Vile. How many are you looking for?" Prancey asked Ob.


    "Abigail?" Ob asked his companion through dragon speak


    "Let''s get three. You can afford three, and having the rest of your powerset be mystic will be good. It will match your celestine race perfectly." She responded.


    "The most valuable ones there are the drop, vile, and box. But you don''t want the box; it will for sure give you a shield spell that would go against your powerset." Vincent also responded.


    Now looking back at Prancey, Ob said, "The Essence, Drop, and Vile, please, Prancey."


    She stared at him momentarily with an eyebrow raised, "Very well. That will be 7500 gold pieces." She handed him another ticket.


    Item: Ticket of Debt


    Divine


    You have been given this ticket to pay off a debt. This ticket debt is set to 7500 gold pieces. Would you like to pay now? Yes/No?


    Yes.


    Prancey''s eyes turned gold for a quick flash. She handed the items to Ob, and he gladly accepted them. He looked at Prancey, frowning, "You don''t shake hands usually, do you?" he asked her.


    Prancey looked up at him and smiled, "Traditionally, druids do not shake hands with strangers."


    Ob put his head down in shame and sighed, "Damn, I am sorry. Forgive me for my ignorance. I will be sure to keep that in mind next time. Thank you for your grace, Prancey. Take care." He turned and walked out. How strange, Prancey thought to herself; no one had ever offered to shake her hand, let alone apologize for it. It is a small rule amongst the druid community; how was he to know? Yet he is determined to mind her people''s culture. That made her heart skip a beat, and she couldn''t help but smile at the encounter.