Theo finished his meal after about twenty minutes and closed his eyes. This was undoubtedly the most delicious meal he had ever had in his two lives. He slowly tried to sense the location of those few people, and he seemed to have noticed that his sense of space had increased just a little bit. He finally located them, and after two seconds, he disappeared, directly appearing about ten meters away from them in an alley.
Theo walked out of the alley and continued in the opposite direction from these people. He directly walked around the town for about twenty minutes before finding an inn that doubled as an eatery and walking in.
Theo entered the inn and looked around. There were tables all around, each with five chairs right next to them, some of which had peope sitting on them. He strolled toward the counter. There was a little girl not older than ten sitting there and scribbling something on a note with mana. "Yes?"
"I need a room."
"Ten coppers a night." She was still scribbling on her note and hadn't looked up at Theo even once. Theo reached into his pockets before realizing his pockets were gone. His clothes had been melted off along with his other belongings when he entered the cocoon, even the jade box didn't survive the corrosion.
"Crap. I'll be back." He turned around and headed straight out the inn. Outside, the sun was low and everyone was packing up and heading home. Theo decisively strolled towards the center of the town where the important buildings usually were.
Theo walked until he saw a huge building that had completely gone to sleep. It was dark and empty, just perfect for his next move. He strolled past the huge door like it didn't exist, moving sneakily through the passageways. He arrived at the main hall and looked at the stairs leading to the next floor. There was something unusual in the space there but he couldn't see anything.
He directly warped past the stairs. In any case, this was a top secret covert mission so traces of him entering must be covered. He walked past a few locked doors till he got to a room at the end of the long passageway. On the door, a plaque said 'District Head'. If this guy didn't have a few coins stacked, he didn't know who would.
He walked as though there was no door and directly entered the room. Ahead of him was a desk stacked with a lot of papers, and a chair behind it. There were also two chairs in front of the desk and a huge cabinet embedded in the wall behind the desk. On the cabinet were tons of files and books.
Theo decisively walked to the cabinet and drew out a book. Contrary to common sense, where the book usually leaves the cabinet with his hand, it actually sprung back and a clicking sound was heard. A part of the cabinet shifted to reveal a strong-looking square safe with a magic circle on it.
Theo waved his hand and the magic circle disappeared, causing the metal door to creak open. He dipped his hand into the safe and pulled out a scroll. Upon taking a look, this scroll had a map of the surrounding provinces and a red x on it. This might come in handy. He tossed the scroll and it disappeared into thin air.
Dipping his hand into the safe a second time, what he came for followed his hand out. Shiny little coins filled his palm. "Ehehehe. This is too easy." He waved his hand and emptied the safe before closing the door and pressing his index finger on it. A certain magic circle seemed to blossom on the door like it had always been there and was keeping outsiders from all the valuables behind it.
A few minutes later, Theo was already standing in front of the inn he had left some time ago. He directly entered the inn and asked for a room, getting the same response as before. However, when he dropped a gold coin, the little girl looked up at him with smiles beaming on her face. He made a mental note to avoid this girl in the future.
"Of course, dear customer. How long will you be staying with us?" She asked. Theo looked down at what she was scribbling. He didn't pay it any mind before but now he saw she was actually drawing a picture of the inn, and it was extremely lifelike. With her skills, she would probably make a decent artist back on Earth.
"Hello?"
"Oh, sorry. I was just admiring your work. It's really inspiring." Theo complimented. "Anyway, I don't know how long I will be here yet but I sure hope that amount covers a long enough time."
"That depends. If you factor in meals, then the time spent would naturally decrease. Ten coppers is for a night without meals. You have to pay an additional two coppers for each meal and we serve mornings and evenings. If we factor that in for each day, that will be fourteen coppers per day, which will exhaust 10,000 coppers in..." She ranted on for a while before stopping after seeing Theo had lost interest.
"It's going to last you for about two years. May I show you to your room?" She took a key and directly walked past the tables to a short stairway leading up to a number of rooms. As she walked, she explained the household rules. "Breakfast is by six in the morning; if you miss it, you are on your own. Dinner is by nine. Whenever you are leaving, you must drop the key and you let me know in advance how long you will be gone so I don't assign someone else to your room."
She stopped in front of a wooden door and used the key in her hand to open it, swinging the door wide before entering, allowing Theo to follow behind her. "The little room right there is where you do your 'business,' and this is the bed where you... well... sleep. No bringing of girls over; this rule is absolute. If you need anything, let me know."
She directly dropped the key on a small desk next to the wall before turning around to walk out the door. "Wait..." Theo called out. "I wanted to ask, what is the date?"
"Oh, that's easy. Today is the fifth day of the seventh month of year 7234 after the era of the gods." She immediately walked out after that, leaving Theo in a daze.
"I... I'm fourteen years old!?"