If there was a passerby walking through the city of the dead, they might have stopped near a certain poor looking house. Had that hypothetical traveler peeked inside, they might’ve been able to see a twelve year old poking wooden floor with a sheathed sword.

  But no observer was present, so David could search undisturbed.

  What was he searching for?

  Food, obviously. His stomach was well and truly empty, which to be fair was not very surprising. Even his thirst was only partially sated by rain drops soaked into his shirt.

  Which is why, he decided to search the pantry in a faint hope that skeleton family wouldn’t have eaten anything.

  *Knock* *Knock*

  Nothing.

  *Knock*

  Failure once again.

  *Knock* *Knock*

  ‘Maybe I should just gnaw on bones.’

  *Knock*

  “Oho!”

  After hearing a promising noise, David immediately knelt down, and searched the wooden floor.

  Sure enough, there was a trapdoor hidden under a rug.

  “Come to think of it, why didn’t I just check under a first and only rug I’ve seen?”

  David started questioning his own intelligence, not without reason.

  Then again, he was quite exhausted. And hungry. Also thirsty. Not to mention the cripplingly anxious, because it’s not like he even knew if he would be able to ever return home.

  In other words, he had all the reasons to be a little stupid.

  “Whatever, I did find it in the end. Doors in the land of magic, don’t disappoint me!”

  David unsheathed his sword and breached the trapdoor with it.

  Had the blade enthusiasts of the world seen his struggles, they’d have all gotten a panic attack.

  (Thankfully, sword collectors are too focused on their swords to spy on some kid trying to break into a basement in a magical city.)

  The doors made of heavy wood were raised just enough for David to slip his fingers underneath them.

  Even weakened, David was able to lift them without troubles once he could grab them properly.

  Sword still unsheathed, (for he didn’t feel safe in the least) David entered the dark basement.

  He took out his phone. Thankfully, the Device was turned off during his journey, and its battery was more than half full.

  The light of his phone illuminated the space he found himself in, and allowed for inspection. He looked at the walls, shelves and hooks.

  Nothing

  Nothing

  Nothing

  A shelf bending under the weight of jars.

  ‘That’s something’

  A few glass bottles.

  ‘Alcohol.’

  David gathered all the usefully looking things at the centre, and carried them out to the surface.

  He turned his phone off again.

  The boy opened a jar.

  The foul smelling, unidentified mass of… something was not encouraging in the slightest. Nevertheless, he opened another.

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  This one carried the foul stench of deadly poison.

  “It was probably meat, back when it was good.”

  The next one contained what looked like pickles, but after David tried to poke them, they dissolved into muddy green liquid. The stench would make the ‘David from few days ago’ retch, but it was not enough to get such a reaction from a boy who got puked all over by a wyvern.

  It definitely deterred him from trying out the taste, though.

  He grabbed the fourth jar. Fully prepared for another round outside (To dump the garbage) David opened the container, but his nose was hit by one of a kind sweetness.

  Looking back, it may not have been all that great, but to someone whose nose experienced only smells worse than that of sewer water for the last few days, this one scent seemed like a jar full of paradise.

  “Honey!”

  Right. The fruit of labor made by most pleasant of insects, the venerable, amazing, Bee kind. It never goes bad, not even after thousands of years. And there was at least a liter of it, right in David’s shaking hands.

  It was all crystallized, so he couldn’t exactly pour it into his mouth like he was advertising cereal.

  (Not to mention the honey in TV ads is oftentimes actually engine oil, because it looks more like honey than actual honey.)

  The boy found a spoon, and wiped it with his shirt. It may not have been the most hygienic of all the ways to prepare for a meal, but honey has antiseptic properties anyway, so whatever.

  Once he started getting sick of the sweet taste ( so after half a jar) David looked towards the bottles he dragged up to the surface.

  It was obvious that they contained alcohol, but David had no idea what kind, and if he should drink it.

  ‘Alcohol is also calories, but if there is too much of it, It’ll make me sick.’

  In the end, he decided to go for it.

  *Sniff* *Sniff*

  It smelled like wine. David already had history of carefully liberating alcohol out of his dad’s stash, so he more or less knew what wine should smell like.

  ‘Smells normal, though it would probably be super expensive if I sold it.’

  'The older the wine, the more valuable it is. I think.'

  ‘When they found some arctic expedition a while back, and their super old wine, I think it sold for a price of a house for a single bottle. Wonder what would an ancient wine from a magical world sell for.’

  It was not that important, though. Even the most priceless treasures are worth nothing if there is no one to appreciate, or buy them.

  David took a swig.

  ‘As expected, it’s gross.’

  But it was a fluid, and it made his belly warm. So he raised the bottle once more.

  And twice, and thrice, and until his stomach was full. David stood up, and went to take a piss, nearly staggering into his self made puddle in the process, he returned to the house.

  ‘I think that wine might’ve been a bad idea.’

  His entire body suddenly felt gross, and slightly painful.

  ‘I am definitely sick.’

  He started searching the house once again. David didn’t want to cover himself with a rug, so a blanket or something of the sort was necessary.

  He opened a drawer for some reason, most likely because he was hammered, and it didn’t occur to him that there was no way for a blanket to be in such a place.

  Instead, he found a small bottle. The boy opened the container, hearing a liquidish sound inside.

  His nose was immediately assaulted with a smell best described as medicinal.

  “Oh, cool. Medicine. Just when I started feeling sick.”

  He downed the entire bottle in one go.

  Looking back on it, it was an incredibly stupid action to just drink unknown medicine, and such a large amount to boot, but David was an exceptionally sloshed twelve year old, so rational decisions were not his forte in the least.

  In the moment of clarity, he approached a closet, and found what he was initially searching for.

  Instead of dragging a few of them to a more suitable place, however, David simply fell face first into a pile of blankets, and buried himself in them.

  And he slept well.

  Once he woke up, David immediately got up. Despite his good sleep, he was not in the mood to stay in his makeshift nest. ( Because that’s how it looked like after he changed his sleeping positions several times through the night. )

  He got up, went to piss again, and noticed that he didn’t take off his shoes.

  “Crap, with all the blisters I’ve got, I’ll be lucky if my feet aren’t as rotten as those zombies back then.”

  He took off the sturdy boots he was wearing, as well as the socks. They indeed had some blood stains on them.

  “Oh. Well, That’s… nice. Weird, but nice.”

  His feet were completely fine. So was the rest of his body, come to think of it. He should have had a truckload of bruises, and aching muscles, especially those in calves, but He didn’t. Quite the opposite. He felt nice, and his step was bouncy.

  ‘Shouldn’t I have gotten a hangover?’

  He knew what it was, since his Dad would often say that he would love to drink at Sunday, but a hangover would make his work a living hell.

  David thought back to the time right before he went to sleep. The sight of a small bottle was so hazy, it might as well have been a dream.

  But an empty bottle laying on the floor was proof enough. He sniffed it, and found its medicinal scent fading, but still present.

  “Oh, crap, was that a Potion?”

  On one hand he was excited. On another, he just wasted something as precious as an actual, real life health potion on mere blisters and a hangover.

  “I should’ve kept that for emergencies, but oh well. What’s done is done. I should consider what’s next.”

  He looked at the blankets he was using earlier, and selected two. He found a few pieces of leather cord, and gathered his newfound belongings, including the wine, honey, kitchen knife, and a few other things, including a small whetstone.

  David began to grind the edge of both the kitchen knife, and the sword, until he deemed them acceptable. He laid one blanket on the ground, and wrapped his things in it, tying everything up with the leather string.

  “And there it is, a makeshift backpack. Gotta make a cloak too, and I’ll rock that adventurer look.”

  As he said, so he did. The cloak turned out to look not even half as cool as they look in anime, but it didn’t matter, since it would keep him nice and warm. All the belongings wrapped in wool blankets were as safe as glass can be.

  “If such a poor looking house had something to eat and a potion, then looting more houses may get me well equipped.”

  Having decided on his next course of action, the boy stuck a meat mallet right next to the sword, and stepped on the path of conquest.