Shwick!
With a swift motion the person cut off a half pound of flesh from Alaric's backside.
"Shit!!!!" Alaric started keeling over in pain.
Being prepared for the pain and injury, the person brought out bandages, antiseptics, and a painkiller.
The person started by quickly wrapping up Alaric with some bandages. They quickly applied some of the anti-septic onto the white cloth before wrapping Alaric. They were surgically precise, efficiently wrapping up the wound as to let as few drops of blood escape from Alaric as possible.
It was still extraordinarily painful.
"Give me the fucking painkiller man!!!" Alaric begged the person, seeing the potion in their hand.
The person promptly handed over the painkiller.
It was in a small vial, and it had a blue hue.
Alaric popped the cork on it before gulping it down.
He was on the ground crying. It hurt incredibly much.
"Give me a sec, I need to wait for it to kick in." Alaric said struggling on the ground. Luckily, the injury didn't feel permanently damaging. It wouldn't be overly obtrusive in the future.
For about five minutes, Alaric rocked on the ground crying.
Then the painkiller kicked in.
"Alright, alright. I'm done crying now." Alaric now stood up. The painkiller was miraculous. He felt perfectly normal, just a half pound lighter.
"Give me the rod man." Alaric said.
True to his word, the person handed over the rod.
It was his now. Whether it was worth it or not was debatable.
"I've already done it now, no use thinking about it anymore. At least I have a fishing rod now." Alaric said out loud.
"Even though it's cursed." He said slightly quieter.
"See you next week." Alaric said. He was tired and just wanted to eat a nice meal and get some rest.
The person put up their palm signaling for Alaric to wait.
Alaric waited.
"What is it?" He asked.
The man, had his other hand in a fist. He then exposed it, revealing the contents.
In his hand was a wooden ring. The ring was made of a dark wood, and had a complex engraving on it.
Alaric took it into his hands. It was clear that the person wanted him to have it.
Now he analyzed the engravings.
On one side was a flower with thorns on it. The flow was large, and the thorns were larger. On the ends of the thorns there were engravings of liquid falling off of them, likely a depiction of blood. There was a hand below the flower grabbing onto the thorns, the hand riddled with holes with blood coming out. A very morbid engraving.
Alaric peeked on the other side. The other side was much more pleasant. It had a picture of a worm expressing humility. Alaric didn't exactly know what was so humble about the worm but it just seemed like that. The worm was coiled in a spiral pattern and appeared to be long.
This was a worm worthy of the title of a solid nightcrawler.
"Good engraving!" What's this for?
"You are extreme external ally now." The person said. This was likely something that couldn't be expressed non-verbally.
"Ok, so it's kind of like a token to display my status with you guys?" Alaric asked.
The person nodded.
Alaric put on the ring, displaying it on his hand,
It wasn't unheard of to give jewelry as a sign of welcoming for certain groups. Relationship tokens came in many forms. Some were just rings or bracelets, but there were sometimes more elaborate procedures for deeper bonds. Sometimes tattooing, piercing, scarring, and branding were used as relationship tokens. With such extreme methods, it would show extreme mutual dedication.
When he was in the market, there were many traders with immense amount of rings and other jewelry signifying their relationships with certain groups. Not to mention some people with large amounts of tattoos or branding. This made it so that if one had a positive interaction with one person of a group, enough to warrant a token, then they would have an easier time convincing others of that group of their reliability.
The symbols also transcended language barriers, allowing for some knowledge of a person and their affiliations from just a glance at their body.
Thinking about it, it was now clear that the person in front of him was deeply involved in the organization. They had deep, obvious scarring. This clearly displayed their alignment with whichever faction this was.
"Alright, see you next week." Alaric said casually. He kind of liked this person. They were very professional and efficient, not to mention reasonable. Despite them cutting of the part of flesh, they were both adults who consented to the business deal, and there was no deception employed by either side.
Alaric left somewhat happy. Extreme external ally was better than being an enemy. The casual nature of a ring that could be taken on and off at a moments notice displayed that they weren't yet deeply linked.
"If they have this whole token system, it means that it is a whole organization. Because that person was an Esoteric Fisherman, it means that the organization is likely something I would be interested in." Alaric thought.
"What a lucky encounter. Truly fate is on my side!" He thought. Then he felt his back and the bandages. The cogs of fate had turned in his favor this time, but they had also taken from him as well. Despite Alaric agreeing to the whole deal, there was still the matter of the cursed rod.
The curse likely worked in two ways, both a negative and a positive way. Because the person had not educated Alaric deeply on either, he would have to be cautious using it. He would have to employ an extremely controlled trial and error process in order to achieve its potential.
Alaric was tired now however, and he and the rat were hungry.
The set off for the final stretch to reach back to the inn.