Jack had exchanged his suit for light chainmail armor with cloth underneath. On his feet he had sturdy leather boots. A light battleaxe was hanging on his leather belt on his left side and a round wooden shield was on his back. He was also carrying two daggers, one on the right side of his belt and one in his boot on the same side.

It was late in the afternoon, he was travelling across a wide meadow with tall but not very dense grass, the town of Redwater was just ahead of him. Jack had disconnected from his hacker client to be as undetectable as possible, this also meant that he wouldn't be able to use his powers in a pinch but that was a risk he was willing to take. After choosing his disguise he had spent several more hours reading various books about the world he was in before finally departing.

He had assumed the identity of a mercenary. He still went by his real name since that would make playing his role easier, he figured that Jack was common enough of a name. Andy had dropped him off in a dense forest near Redwater. From there on he was on his own as he didn't have the means to communicate with his fellow hackers.

Jack took a look at the town ahead of him, it was surrounded by a wooden wall that only offered protection from naturally spawning mobs and wouldn't last long in a siege. After a few more hundred meters of walking Jack stood before the open gates of Redwater. One of the two guards on duty greeted him with a lazy gesture of his hand. Jack had at least expected some questioning but the security of Redwater was surprisingly lax.

He quietly said to himself: "There is nothing of value to get here either, just fish and potions."

As Jack walked along the road paved with cobblestone, he decided to take his chainmail headgear off seeing that he wasn't in any danger. After a few more steps he reached the town proper. In the outer regions of the town only private houses lined the busy street but the closer he got to the center the more stores or taverns replaced them.

Jack could already hear the loud noise of the central marketplace as a particular store caught his eye. It was built into a normal house but the sign hanging from a pole by the door didn't have any letters on it, just a symbol of a red eye with some slightly curved diagonal white lines on both sides. After stopping and looking at the sign some more Jack recognized the white lines as stylized scratch marks from huge claws. Those symbols together reminded him of Fire, red eyes and claws. Jack decided to start his search for information in this very store.

As he opened the door he expected some bells to ring but he only heard a deep and dull sound from a gong that was being held in place above the door. The inside of the store wasn't very well lit, the only light sources were lanterns filled with water that had glowstone dust suspended in it, all the walls had been painted in dark colors. After taking a quick look through the store Jack noticed that this must be a store selling potions judging by all the vials and bottles that were lined up neatly on long wooden shelves.

Jack also noticed that he wasn't the only one in the store, there was one other customer, currently talking to the shopkeeper. After taking a closer look at the shopkeeper Jack's jaw almost dropped. The shopkeeper was Fire! At a second look Jack however noticed that the shopkeeper's eyes were yellow instead of red but otherwise he looked just like Fire. After regaining his composure Jack slowly walked towards the counter the shopkeeper was sitting behind and listened to the conversation.

The shopkeeper asked in a deep voice, similar to that of Fire: "You know what you are buying, right? That is a poison strong enough to kill a person several times over with what little is in this very flask I am holding."

Jack took a closer look at the customer, he was wearing clothes that seemed to oddly be both fit for going to a fine dinner and traveling through the wilderness.

The customer answered: "I know very well that I am buying concentrated Shineroot essence and I plan to do just that."

The shopkeeper chuckled and said: "I figured. What are you offering?"

The customer replied: "I assume gold coins or diamonds aren't going to cut it. How about this?"

With those words he pulled out a strange crystal from one of his pockets, it was pulsing with energy and slowly changed color.

The shopkeeper's facial expression didn't change in the slightest and he simply said: "That'll do."

Without any further words the customer took the poison from the shopkeeper's hands, stored it in a small padded box and left, rushing past Jack.

The shopkeeper looked at Jack: "Anything in particular you are looking for or are you just browsing?"

Jack replied: "I am looking for someone."

"I may be able to assist with that. Who are you looking for?" the shopkeeper inquired.

"His name is Fire…" Jack begun.

The shopkeeper cut him off: "If you are looking for the Fire who is the owner of this shop I don't know myself where he is, I'm not him, that much should be clear, I just do the sales. There are plenty of other Fires around though."

Jack was somewhat confused: "You mean people that look like… you and are called Fire?"

The shopkeeper laughed. "You've been living under a rock, haven't you? Of course there are multiple red eyed Mencur-Besh named Fire, there are only so many words for the flame element in your language. But as you are physically incapable of speaking or understanding ours, you'll have to settle with that, sorry."

In this single statement the shopkeeper had opened up more questions than he answered. What are Mencur-Besh? Jack assumed that they were more people like Fire, which would make everything more difficult. And what language was he talking about? Jack decided that it was best not to ask further questions and to instead buy some potions.

He said: "I think that may have helped me in some way." He then pointed at a potion and asked: "How much is this one?"

Jack ended up buying several speed potions, some regeneration potions and a single strength potion, which had cost more than all the others combined. He spent the rest of his day wandering the streets of Redwater and stocking up on supplies. He decided that his current method of looking for Fire wouldn't lead to much, now that he had found out that not only there were multiple Fires that presumably looked almost the same, no there was an entire species of them, apparently called the Mencur-Besh. Jack wondered if that name had any deeper meaning to it besides sounding somewhat intimidating.

In the evening Jack decided to take a room in one of the better looking taverns, if there was anything he had a lot of it was gold coins. After renting a room for one night he decided to stay down at the bar for a bit and listen. If anyone would have any rumors, he would hear them. Bars were the go-to place for that after all.

He ended up sitting at a table with two town guards and another mercenary called Nathaniel who seemed to already know the guards. All of them were still wearing their equipment, for the guards it was their armored uniform, Nathaniel's outfit was similar to that of Jack, only using a longsword instead of a battleaxe.

Nathaniel asked: "How's business been for you, Jack?"

Jack remembered the backstory he had set up for himself and replied: "Not good, not bad. I spent the last few weeks trying to get to this town. You would not believe how many bandits are in the woods south of here. I wonder where they were when I was hired to escort some empty caravan, don't ask me why, as long as I get my gold…"

Nathaniel nodded and said: "Seems like we are in the same boat. The coin is coming but just barely enough to keep this stupid chainmail and sword from getting rusty."

One of the guards took a big gulp from his beer and said: "I used to be a mercenary just like you but then I took this post as a guard. And let me tell you, being a guard is just marginally better. It's trading action for more secure pay."

The other guard just nodded.

Jack spent the rest of the evening talking to Nathaniel and the guards over a game of cards until they all got tired, the guards were the first ones to leave, then Jack himself went to his room where he took off his chainmail and weapons and dropped into his bed.

Before falling asleep he thought that he would just have to find Fire another way, just asking random people wouldn't get him far…