Urbus was a very different city than Taran. The whole town sat in a shallow crater carved out from the top of a plateau. It looked like the buildings were hollowed out of the rock itself. None of them were more than two stories high. The stone being all of the same colour made it hard to distinguish where one dwelling ended and the next started. Only the doors gave us an indication that there was more than 1 dwelling along a wall. The town wasn't drab to say the least, there were plenty of potted plants, various decorations along the walls and colourful carpets people used to sit on.

We were less interested by the town itself than what we would be available to get from the shops. We headed into the centre of town to look for a place that sold armour and weapons. There we found what we were looking for: The market place. It wasn't as big as the one in starting town, but compared to Taran it was huge. The place was vibrant with vendor stands of all kinds. We browsed the stands for a bit, but we weren't certain what we wanted exactly.

Sure we could simply trade in our current weapons for the same type: I could get a bigger sword, Karla could get a sharper dagger. But I wasn't sure anymore if a sword was the right weapon for me. I tended to go for brute strength instead of an agile strike. Karla, on the other hand, was very agile. She could do wonders with that dagger of hers. But a dagger's reach is limited and ill suited for solo combat. A second dagger would have helped, but the game didn't seem to offer a dual blade skill. I think we both needed a change, but I didn't know to what.

"Hey you!" Some one was calling out. I turned around to see what was going on. A big guy with his fists on his waist was standing in the street with a small group of less than savoury characters. Other players were getting out of the way, leaving an empty space between him and myself. I turned my back to him, preferring to ignore him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" the big guy said raising his voice. "Actually you're yelling at me." I said as calmly as I could. I tried to act as nonchalant as possible "What do you want?" I said annoyed. "Seeing that you're new around here, I imagine you don't know who we are. We run the Kabel fund to help the most deserving, and we noticed you hadn't contributed yet." The guy responded. "You must be Kabel, and I take it your group would be the most deserving?" I asked even though it was pretty obvious. He bowed exaggeratedly. "I have no money to give you. So I suggest you ask elsewhere for your 'contributions'." "Such a shame" he replied a little taken aback. Then quickly regaining his composure he continued "Well seeing that you refuse and you being new to this town, I feel we should properly 'welcome' you." He stressed the word "welcome". I crossed my arm to help calm my nerves, not knowing where this was going.

"I like to 'know' the people that come into town. And the best way is with a show of ability." The big guy said smiling. "So you will duel me. That way I'll know what you're capable of doing with that little sword of yours." He brought up his menu and sent me a duel request. The rest of the group laugh and smiled evilly. I looked at the duel request. I looked towards Karla; she looked worried by all this, but did not say anything. I smiled at her and turned back to face the Kabel. I couldn't actually die in a duel while I was in town, but that aside if I did duel him he would be able to asses my strengths and weaknesses. Right now he assumed I wasn't very strong and that all I had was a short sword and I wanted to keep it that way.

"No." I said as I refused the duel. "I will not duel the likes of you." He looked at me shocked. "I don't have anything to prove to half-wit punks that think they can bully whoever they come in contact with. I won't be made the target of a frustrated teenager that thinks way too highly of himself. Go waste someone else time." I turned and nodding to Karla, I walked away. Karla stayed back so as not to draw attention to herself. "You'll regret it!" The Kabel yelled at me. I just kept walking.

I didn't actually know where to go as the city was unfamiliar to me. I would have to quickly choose a direction that made me look as though I knew where I was going. I wanted to show Kabel and his gang that I was confident and not to be reckoned with. "Over here!" Ory was waving to me from a small alleyway. I casually made my way to where Ory was, and ducking into the alley I turned to peek to see if any of the thugs had followed me. Relieved to see no one had followed me, I looked to see if I could see Karla. She wasn't in the market place anymore. I turned to Ory and asked: "Did you see where Karla went?" "I sent Sharpclaw to get her. C'mon!" Ory said as he urged me to follow him.

We went through several streets before we got to a small inn off the main streets. It was hard to tell it was there at all. I certainly could not have found it myself and was it not for the sign on the door; you wouldn't know you were in front of an Inn. Ory went straight in without hesitation and I followed. I was relieved to see Karla and Sharpclaw sitting at a table in the common room.

"Who the hell does he think he is!" Karla said as Ory and I sat down. "I don't know how you kept your cool. I would have whipped him senseless." "I thought you were going to take him on." Ory said, slightly disappointed. "We try to stay as far from him as we can." "No one's taking on anyone." I stated "I don't want to be fighting other players, even if it was for a duel. There's enough fighting to do just with the mobs. The reason I didn't fight him, wasn't because I didn't want to, but because he was pushing me to it. And I'm not going to let a thug like him force me to do anything. We only wanted to upgrade our gear. Couldn't that idiot just leave us alone?" I was fuming and my fists were clenched on the table in front of me. Karla put her hand on my fist and gently uncurled my fingers. Her action had a calming effect on me. I took a deep breath and regained my composure.

"Because of all that we weren't able to buy new weapons or armour. I don't even know what I want anyways." I complained. "Kabel's on the street. It would be better if you didn't go back to the market right now." Ory said. "You can get rooms in this inn for tonight, if you'd like, and buy your stuff tomorrow." "That's a good idea." Karla said "That way we'll have time to think about what we want and we won't have to spend too much time in the market, especially with that Kabel character roaming around." I was going over all this in my head when I saw Sharpclaw whisper something in Ory's ear. Sharpclaw was giggling and Ory was smiling in spite of himself. I looked down to see what was so humorous.

Karla's hand was still holding mine.