In a Moonlit night of Neworn, The City of Alchemical Herbs and Spices situated at the Kingdom of Eris in The Southern Continent and next to Neworn resides The city of Mewel also known as The City of Religion and Pious Gods, The streets of Neworn are filled with murmurs and gossips of the Locals of the city, The Streets although pretty empty at The Dawn of day slowly fills up with Street vendors selling different kinds of herbs and spices.
On a certain corner of the right side of the streets sits a small shop the name board of the shop although dirty and roughly written, said ''The Humble Alchemical Shop of Mr Valin Bornherd'', There was a young boy no older than a teen sitting in the shop selling different kinds of materials and alchemical herbs and spices.
The young boy looked quite different then kids his age, usually kids looked full of life and vigor but that wasn't the case with the young boy, He looked ghostly pale and skinny and there were slightly dark circles under his eyes probably from the lack of sleep and his tired expressions as though they lacked the strength to even move, His dark brown eyes they looked like a mirror they only returned the gaze of what was in front of his eyes they were as empty as an empty flask, his hair unlike himself looked quite exquisite, The hair was black as the night and had grayish streaks at the end, his hair was quite long for his age they ended at his neck.
He was wearing a children's black robe, his robe was kinda longer than the usual boys' black robes, it was closer to a girl's robe, and he also wore some back pants underneath, These clothes along with his long hair and slightly feminine face so people often hilariously mistook him for being a girl.
There was a sudden knock on the door of the shop as an old man in his 60s walked in, and he looked at the boy as the old man said.
''Oi kid, where is the owner of the shop? I need some materials for my elixirs'' ''i am the owner of the shop. Tell me what do you need?'' said the boy.
''You? What? " Don't make me laugh, kid, a girl as young as you can't be the owner of the shop. My patience runs thin, kid, don't play with me, go bring the owner'' said the old man in a scowl.
''I already told you i am the owner of this shop. Well, technically, the owner is my father Mr Valin Bornherd i am his son, Merlin Bornherd passed away a few weeks ago, Now i am the one who runs the shop and also i am not a girl sir i am a boy''.
''Oh, so you are not a girl, um, sorry, I guess'' said the old man in a surprised expression ''It's fine, sir. You are not the first one to mistake me for being a girl, anyway. What materials do you need?''
''Um, I need a stock of 16 bottles of Feyritch Blood, 2 bottles of Earth Mucus, 150 grams of Volcan powder, and 5 petals of Dragon Flower'' said the old man.
''Wait a few minutes, sir i will go get your materials they are at the back of the shop'' as he went to the back and came back with the materials and packed them up.
''Hmm, 16 bottles of Feyritch Blood cost 15 silver coins, 2 bottles of Earth Mucus cost 10 silver coins, 150 grams of Volcan powder costs 6 silver coins, and 5 petals of dragon flower cost 50 silver coins, so that will be 81 silver coins.
''Damn, 81 silver coins for just that much, alright, I guess. The cost of things has been getting higher and higher, okay.'' The old man reaches his right hand into his pocket and hands him a gold coin.
He takes the gold coin and gives back 19 silver coins ''There you go that is your spare change of 19 silver coins'' the boy says as the old man grabs his materials as he walked out of the shop. The shop was empty again as Merlin looked at the ceiling of the shop
''I guess today I will only get a single customer'' Merlin sighed, leaning back on the wooden chair he had been sitting on ''Fucking Valin piece of shit, you died, that's not a big problem, you left me with this fucking debt of 2500 fucking gold coins''.
The currency system was established 852 years ago by the first emperor, Lod Magneel Furion. The currency goes as follows: 1000 copper coins are equal to 1 silver coin, 100 silver coins are equal to 1 gold coin. The paper currency was established 200 years later by the 4th emperor, Gaglion Estric
As Merlin leaned back in his wooden chair a bit more, He had leaned back a bit too much as the wooden chair fell, and Merlin fell on the ground. Now tired looked at the ceiling again and noticed that there was a hidden box on the right side of the ceiling.
Curiosity spiked in Merlin's head as he got up from the floor and dusted the dust off his robe, wondering what could be inside it. Curiosity got the better of him.
He got a ladder and climbed up it, reached out, grabbed the box with his right hand as he climbed down the ladder, and sat down on his chair. Suddenly, a greedy grin appeared on Merlin's pale face as he said.
''He he he he, although the idiot is 6 feet under ground, he seems to have had a secret stash. I wonder what is inside this box? What if it's a shit ton of coins? I can't wait.'' he laughed like a maniac, laughing like he had found gold.
Merlin opened the box, His grin still plastered on his face as the box revealed what was inside. Merlin's grin turned upside down, and his expression of greedy happiness became that of disappointment when he saw that it was a little picture book filled with photos of naked women and books that were filled with sexual positions and novels of quite gross fetishes
''uh uh ew what the fuck, Is that a novel about animals uh what the hell what kind of a freaky guy was he, No wonder he had no fucking wife thank god that i am adopted imagine being related to someone like that'' Merlin shrugged it off as he threw away the box suddenly he noticed something else there was something written at the bottom of the box.
''Hmm, there is something written here, the wood is fucking rotting, uh, what does it say? hmm Magon-Ignis-Homun, what the fuck does that mean''
After closing the shop, Merlin went to his small house to sleep. As Merlin lay on his bed, he wondered and said.
''My life is so fucking boring, man, when is something interesting gonna happen'' as Merlin said that he heard slight footsteps coming from outside his room, and they stopped and suddenly started again. This time, the footsteps were louder until they could not be ignored.
Merlin got up as he looked outside his room. There was absolutely nothing there; it was quite strange. Suddenly, Merlin noticed that there was a shadow on the wall, and the shadow had a humanoid shape and horns.
'' What the hell?" Before Merlin could scream or say anything, the shadow suddenly moved, snapping its fingers as Merlin fell asleep and woke up to find himself inside a dark cave filled with bugs and the smell of rotting bodies.
Where am I? Where is this place? Is anyone here?'' Merlin said in a panic as he tried to walk, but his legs were trembling in fear until he braced himself and started walking blindly in the dark cave. As Merlin steps somewhere, there is a click sound.
It goes silent for a few seconds until suddenly the floor he was standing on splits in half in the shape of a serpent's head, and he starts falling down, and he loses consciousness.