With a few awkward
introductions done, between a human and a dragon, provided by a very
uncooperative (only towards the male human) girl, the trio made their way to the
western side of the inner city, a part of the kingdom more well known as the merchant's pier.
Now at the
Pier, Mimiru couldn’t help to be fascinated by the size of the ferries, it was not her first time seeing them, but she couldnt help herself to stand in awe. Big wooden
ships composed of 2 inner floors and the deck, easily discernible from afar not
only due to their hulking size, but also because of the bridge stood another
level above the deck. It was hard for her to believe that such a hulking ship
could remain above water given all the cargo that they were known to transport.
She had asked once how could they move such a thing, when she saw no
discernible oars or sails.
Its
sorcery. It is the wills of the gods. They are pulled by invisible water
beasts. It is a “cienceish” brought to us from another world. Such were the
various answers she got. What was evident was that whatever force moved the
ferries on the water was a well-kept secret, possibly known among the upper echelons
of those ruling the unified (in name) nations.
Letting her
thoughts go from a fruitless speculative exercise on the ships. Her thoughts
wandered again on the reasons on why they were to take such a luxurious[XS1] travel method.
The easiest
way to make their way to the Forest’s Lord Dungeon was by ferry (specially if
transportation costs were provided by the guild, as Mimiru could easily
attest). Carriage was a cheap and very affordable option often used by lower
ranked adventurers, horse or other mounts were also ideal if you had no qualms
with riding on your own. Those options were quite convenient on their own right,
but due to the urgent nature of some of the jobs they had been given, the more
expeditious methods took precedence. After all the trip was no laughing matter,
under the right conditions it could usually take a couple of days by a medium
paced carriage or caravan, a lot less with a fast mount. But. With a little bit
of bad luck, a fallen tree, bandits, a part of the road collapsed, any as such
could add an extra delay of 2-3 more days to the trip. Not ideal for “urgencies”.
The jobs
they were tasked with were easy enough to describe, alchemical ingredient
gathering and delivery, dangerous monster culling, and lastly, “rescue and
escort”.
Although
the sound might imply a great deal of celerity, this was only the grand
classification in which the request came to. In reality it was no more than a “poke
and ask” reminder to please write home. A job usually look down upon, due to
the lack of glory (and mostly coin) in such requests. The details could vary a
great deal but it was usually a request put by the requester wishing to know of
the current state of a certain individual, group or place. Most of the time
this sort of request was made by some sort of research group that had lost
contact with one of their teams, which in turn most of the time happens because
researchers tend to be individuals zealous about their work and happen to
forget all too easily about irrelevant things (on their own perspective)
outside of their own research, small unimportant things such as making sure
their superiors know they are still alive and working.
The
particular request they had at hand was such as that in fact. A group of
researchers went to the Lord’s Forest to investigate irregular migration patterns.
Nothing out of the extraordinary there. It was actually more remarkable that
this request came from a noble, paying the trip expenses and doubling the usual
payment for such a quest. It wasn’t uncommon actually, several nobles had
family within research institutions. Making such requests to go and make sure
they are alive and well, quite popular. Some of the requests actually included
a delivery option to bring food to such individual to ensure their health
(making any possible adventurer feeling rather conflicted about taking such a
job).
Trying to
gather her thoughts, focusing on more meaningful matters. Trying her best to
get her mind very far away from the clattering going on nearby. Mimiru
continued experimenting, examining her menus, trying her best to understand
them better. She was by now getting slowly, ever slowly getting accustomed to
the magical menus. Feugan explained that it was a sort of way in which the
world, spirits and gods could communicate more easily with their heroes and
champions. Feugan went as far as narrate an anecdote of a world where the gods
refused to communicate with the heroes, in turn making them very unsure on how
they could perform their heroic deeds adequately. He went as far as to describe
a situation in which 18 heroes tried to influence their luck against an “evil sky
spirit”, because no one was sure on how “good luck” skill actually worked.
That divine
intervention would explain why she could “read” so easily all the information
shown in the magic “windows”. Feugan kept calling them “windows” but she could
barely see a semblance between the clear windows on some of the town’s houses
or even the tinted windows found in temples. Pushing aside those thoughts she
focused on her skills once more.
Skills:
Diligent worker:
Level 1.
Barter: Level 1.
Monster Talk: Level
2.
Forager’s Intuition:
Level 1.
Nature Touched:
Level 1.
|
She
furrowed her brow when looking at the information in front of her, it was an
odd feeling, being told by the world itself, things about you that you weren’t
sure about. It was a feeling akin to being told by a friend that they
considered you good at something, in this case the proverbial friend was the
world itself, and it was not so much a consideration but rather a fact. It was
a troubling feeling to say the least.
“Which one
of them could help us more here?” She pondered once again.
She furrowed her brow when looking at the information
in front of her, it was an odd feeling, being told by the world itself, things
about you that you weren’t sure about. It was a feeling akin to being told by a
friend that they considered you good at something, in this case the proverbial
friend was the world itself, and its not so much a consideration but rather a
fact. It was a troubling feeling to say the least.
Except when it came to Barter.
“Blessed be the thirteen for granting me so many
blessings” she gave another silent prayers that could very well be considered
blasphemous by many, frowned upon by a great many deal of pious people, and
yet, received with a chuckle by all the clerics that were more familiar with
the struggles of having shallow pockets, as well as being quite capable of
recognizing an honest prayer of gratitude to the heavens.
Your perseverance on finding the right price to accommodate your pockets has given you the ability to skillfully turn negotiations to your favor.
To Mimiru, a skillful negotiation meant cutting down
prices a notch. That’s all she could ever ask for from an otherworldly “cheat
skill” as Feugan claimed some of such skills could be. So while having a
doubtful reason for it, her prayer remained quite honest.
“Which one of them could help us more here?” She
pondered once again, closing the details on the barter skill and returning to
her other skills. So far the descriptions were quite simple and more or less straightforward,
the name of each one somehow described them to a certain degree, all but
“Nature touched”
The champion of the Natural world. You are blessed by nature and your affinity to it is higher than most.
“Dangit, just what does that mean?” Mimiru repeated
under her breath, she could definitely “read” the meaning, thanks to some sort
of divine blessing, that she felt it was better not questioning too much about.
But in this particular case it didn’t meant she “knew” what it meant at all.
Feugan insisted that it was better to experiment and get accustomed with the
skills on your own. Which was actually quite alright with Mimiru, she was more
of a hands-on type of person when it came to learning new things.
“Maybe Feugan
can tell me something about this one”.
“And that was when the small town port of Xibaria had
the opportunity to witness my great strength! On their darkest hour i singlehandedly
fended off hordes of shark-men attacking the convalescent-”
“{Mimiru! Help me! His ego is too strong! I cannot
stop him!}”
After realizing that Feugan was still valiantly
sacrificing himself for the benefit of the group. Keeping Bannon busy was of
foremost importance, otherwise he would end up trying to sweet talk with
someone of the female personnel of the ferry. Or even worse, if there was by
any chance a noble lady riding the ferry as well, it could (would) easily
spiral out of control to a political incident. Mimiru had decided to not let
this job go out of control by some big ego and an unchecked libido.
“{He cannot even understand me, I cannot ask him to
stop!}”
“Oh! right! I better check if they have current maps
of the area nearby the port”
“{I am not a tank! This is not my pertinent role!}”
Acquiring information about a zone was always important,
maps could go a long way among adventurers, zones such as the Forest of the
lord were bound to change over time, a landslide, for example, while a rare
occurrence, could still happen, changing the landscape, the paths and even
alter the habitat and behavior of its inhabitants. Mimiru had her own map of
the Forest domain, filled to the brim with notes and corrections, all of her
own making. But since she had never gone very deep into it at all, it only had
her notes regarding the outskirts, where to find certain herbs, fungi and
components, as well as which zones to avoid as to not encounter monster’s
nests.
Barter Skill +0.2
She couldn’t help herself to grin. after haggling with
one of the merchants on the ship for a discount on a map. She had gotten a magic window whowing her of her progress. Feugan had mentioned this. "{By using a skill continuously and
effectively, the proficiency will increase, increasing its effectivity. The
world system will reveal such progress to you within a window notification}". Finally coming to understand what all that meant! She was Elated! The succesful use of the skill meant she would get better at it and therefore acquire better
prices in the future!
[XS1]Opinions vary greatly regarding the
cost-benefit of using a ferry. But the general opinion seems to be that of “slightly
expensive yet quite convenient”
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