19.5 - ¿¿¿

Robust man: “Haha! This is truly a great haul! I cannot believe the good luck we have. With this surely they won’t be making fun of us anymore!”

Grim man: “Mmm… Indeed. This will surely change the balance of power within the kingdom, it seems like a new era of prosperity is ahead of us. And for those who obediently to follow us of course!”

Young man: “Hey, now. That sounds quite evil coming from you, you know?!”

Robust man: “Well, does it make it any less true?”

Grim man: “Hah! I guess not!”

Young man:  “Hey now, focus on your job here. If we fail here, you can forget about money, fame or revenge. We will be labeled criminals, or even worse traitors!”

Grim man: “I’m pretty sure we are traitors right now…”

Robust man: “Hey hey… come on don’t say that now! Don’t bring the mood down now! We all are a little nervous over this ok? Once we get to the ferry encampment, we will be safe and en-route for greatness!”

19- Spicy planning

Now on land, with the ferry trip part of their journey behind them. With the ferry workers doing their part, moving all sorts of cargo and assisting to some of the merchants that were also in that particular spot for business.

They stood at the ramshackle inland port at side of the river that went from the west side of the Kingdom, all the way to this particular area. To the south of the kingdom, way past the vast plains that held several settlers and farms that depended on the kingdom’s protection, by now the river was trailing along with the Domain of the Forest Lord, leaving them in the first of the many Inland ports by the forest.

Checking their departure with the pertinent crew, they disembarked the ferry and started preparing themselves. Not all of the ports by the Forest domain had sizeable settlements, but all of them had a small encampment of sorts at the very least. Small structures here and there to house travelers while waiting for the next ferry to arrive and a handful of personnel from the merchants at the pier. Depending on the importance of the ferry stop, or the cargo on itself, there could be a number of guards, mercenaries or adventurers stationed. This spot was not the case.

With a brief look around the place it was obvious they made the right choice in preparing all their equipment and goods beforehand. The most they could hope to get here was a wet bedroll by a fire and expired rations, just by the look of the encampment. Commerce was known to be poor at any of the inland ports along the Lord’s Forest, but the situation they saw was precarious at best. Any possible goods acquired by adventurers, travelers or merchants, were most likely send immediately to the kingdom, to the Bastion republic, ways south, or any of the medium settlements along the river. Since there was no way to create a sustainable settlement within or even near the Lord’s Forest, there was no way a merchant would decide to put a store in such a territory.

With just a quick inspection and a few questions asked, Mimiru and Bannon made certain there was nothing else of interest within the encampment. Even the outdated information they had about the research team seemed to be as good and sometimes even better since it was common fo the staff to rotate positions. Even if the research team had made an impression with the encampment workers, the tendency of said staff to rotate made it almost pointless to ask for more details.

After making sure every single worker in the encampment knew He was on site, reassuring them of their safety now that he was here, and about to go out into the forest (to which most of the workers seemed delighted to hear), Bannon called over Mimiru and Feugan, signaling to them as he brought out a map from his satchel.

“Here. We are in this spot on the northern side of the Lord’s Forest” He said while signaling at his own map, which Mimiru couldn’t help to notice it was even more full of notes, corrections, scribbles and even doodles all over the map.

“Our final target, the research camp, should be just half a day away from this point of the main route. We will have to look for a hidden cave where last known location of the research encampment was at. While following this path we will gather anything that seems worthwhile while evading any unnecessary conflict. Mimiru, the old man said you can soothe any beasts with your skills, you do that and let us know when it’s unavoidable. If necessary we will fight, but we will run unless there is no other choice. We will focus on the requested ingredients, then anything we know it’s expensive, then the useful, anything else we can gather on the way back after we have made sure what the research camp’s situation is. Questions?”

“Yes. Why do you seem so reliable all of a sudden?”

“Oh! how you hurt me Mimiru! An adventurer must always be ready to switch gears to their game face! Play hard but work hard too! That’s what my old man used to say!”

“{How will we find the hidden cave? I have sharp enough senses, but old hidden trails might be difficult}”

“Oh! We will find the research encampment with the help of this special device, here” Bannon brought out what seemed like a small metallic lantern, it gave off a soft yellow glow even in the middle of the clear morning.

“This little lantern here will glow in a bright green color when we are near the camp. It’s a special tool the research commission uses to find their teams”

“{I thought you couldn’t understand me!}” “Oi! I thought you couldn’t understand Feugan”

“Oh! I cannot understand you Feugan, I just assumed you would want more information on how to track them” Said Bannon while looking straight at Feugan as if responding directly at the dragon’s question.

“{Can you or can you not understand me?! Which is it?!}”

“I am great, I know! No need to praise me! too much! Hahaha!”

“{You…}” Feugan just blowed angrily through his nostrils in defeat while staring at the now grinning Bannon.

“Bannon, Can I get one of those meat bribe-, er… Meat buns, please? I suddenly feel like I need some solid motivation” Said Mimiru, looking tired and crestfallen already, all the interactions with Bannon seemingly sapping her.

“Oh? Yeah sure thing, Sis said there were extra special since it would be your big first into a dungeon, your ‘Maiden Maiden Voyage’ she called it, hah!” Bannon just tossed the lantern inside of his bag much to Mimiru’s chagrin. He then brought up a small package that she immediately recognized.

Blue and white checkers on waxed paper, enveloping one of Jeanna’s special meat buns. They were known all over the kingdom, and they were very sought after, Mimiru rarely had the chance to get her hands on one. The price wasn’t an issue with them, as much as the amount being sold. Jeanna herself once claimed she just wanted to do bakery as a hobby and had no intentions of asking big amounts of money for doing something she loved. In Mimiru’s eyes she was the equivalent of a saint bringing (very delicious) food to the people in need.

Mimiru opened one side, taking a good look at the alluring well baked white bread, crunchy on the exterior, soft on the inside, it still felt warm somehow. The smell alone was almost intoxicating, giving her a goosebumbs, and this was even before she got a whiff of the still warm meat filling reached her. A mixture of several spices and meat. This was jeanna’s second specialty, her incredibly famous, curry mixtures.

“Oh! This is great! Jeanna really overdid herself this time! Mmmm!!”

“Hah! Ill let her know you appreciate her buns!”

“Ugh… I… Thanks…” Mimiru felt like there was a double entendre there, but Bannon seemed to reply honestly with no bad intentions that she could see.

“But what is this? Red curry? I cannot quite make which kind of meat this is. Its very chewy, yet I feel as if I’m invigorated the more I eat”

“Oh, its Red Dragon Curry, Pops recipe”

“DORA- THE WHA?!”

Epic grade meal Consumed You gain benefits for the next full day. +15 Strength +20 Vitality +50% Bonus on all physical skills

18- The ferry trip

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.

 Barter:

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”

 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.

 By successful bargaining you have gained progress in Barter Skill

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”

17- Dungeon Delvers

Armor’s integrity, Checked. Dagger’s condition, checked. Condition of my carry bag?, Checked. Adventurer’s basic item kit, checked. New expensive crossbow which has put me further in debt? Painfully checked.

At some point during the party, the guildmaster handed me a “equipment order” note, I was overly excited because he told me the guild would supply me with new gear, better gear to protect me better as well as more tools to use in all this adventuring endeavors. What I didn’t know is that this order was not paid by the guild, it was gear supplied and there was no need to pay it. No need to pay it immediately, that is. And to make matters worse, Feugan somehow managed to find her when she went for the gear, to his insistence I ended up getting not only higher (more expensive) quality gear, but also, This crossbow. This Crossbow!

I couldn’t help but to repeat myself as I hold up in front of me the aggravating (to my debts) piece of gear. Truly an incredible piece of ingenuity, capable of allowing the untrained person to have access to ranged attacks. While the Bow and arrow remain as the king of ranged attacks within the kingdom, the ease of use made the crossbow quite convenient and a popular tool among midlevel adventurers… Midlevel! The ones with much more coin to spare!

After checking the state of the rest of my gear and provisions, then, next is wrapping up several of the daily chores I had remaining. Chores that a proper adventurer was supposed to tackle as part of their daily routines. Or, at least the guildmaster would drill this belief to us every morning. While mentally reviewing list of the contents in my bag and pouches, I actually found it a tad soothing, helping me to try and calm down a bit, to try and find a moment of mental solace… for the thirteenth time just this morning!!

For starters! Why is it so bright today? I didn’t drink that much yesterday! Ok. No. I am calm, yeah, very very calm, deep breaths. All the new gear I was fitted, to properly send me into even more dangerous jobs fit for a Champion. Yeah -none- of that is stressing me out!.. NONE!

Now, just getting some extra things done, focusing as best as i could on my usual morning routines to try and focus on something other than the current chaotic state of my life. After a few extra trips here and there along the city, we could finally get the day truly started, nothing extraordinary at all by this point, after getting done most of the usual revisions. Now, some extra rations just in case for Feugan, perhaps. I am preeety sure he mentioned at some point that he can just eat up wild animals, although his personal preference is cooked food, he also made a point about “by-the-fire-pit game while on a Raid” to be ok. Whatever that meant, some sort of custom of his previous master maybe. So, anyway, a few extra dried meat rations just to be on the safe side. And maybe for me, a couple Cacao & Honey Biscuits from Jeanne’s… to be on the extra (delicious) safe side.

Having finished my usual rounds, plus the extra added of helping Feugan brush up. We were again back at the guild. Equipment ready, weapons ready. I steeled my resolve, again, as we both entered the building and made a beeline towards the counter.

The plan was simple enough. The guildmaster was to leave orders for a few choice jobs to be put aside for me and Feugan to tackle together. A joint effort in having Feugan learn the ropes on formal adventuring, manners customs and the like, all with the idea that he wont go and make any sort of social blunder due to a misunderstanding on etiquette. Which in all honesty wasn’t a whole lot, most of the adventurers in the guild have a good heart, but they shouldn’t kiss their mother’s cheek with their mouths, and table manners? “what are those? Can they help you get food on the table?” would be the most common response.

All the while Feugan will be assisting me to learn and use the “menus” that master kept talking about just like any other useful “up grey dish” or whatever master might have tried to spout in his drunken speech.

Without much preamble at all, Kara welcomed us and then just made a motion to let us know she would be back as she went to the back to grab on the job requests that had been set apart for us. While waiting, I couldn’t help to notice the Guild seemed even louder than usual. Maybe I was too tense, but I swear I could almost hear some of the adventurers whispering about us almost as if I was just in front of them listening to them.

Bringing me back from it, Kara brought a sheaf of parchments, putting them on the counter for us to see. I nodded in agreement and thanked her for her assistance with the drinks the night prior as well. I was really glad for that. Without much else to exchange she gave a small bow as i replied in kind, then she went on to attend another adventurer that had arrived. Being confident in me being able to discern the contents of the requests.

“{What are we to do, then? Is it demon slaying?}” 

“Oi! Don’t say stuff like that! this is supposed to be training to learn the ropes, for the both of us!”

“{Is that so? Maybe some hydras or adamantoises?}”

“You! Just what do you think the word training implies?! We are starting from the bottom here! Gathering, scouting and maybe the lowest enemies, here see this? Goblins! Goblins and Slimes see?! This is the real starting line! (Also what in cakes name is an Adamantoise?!)”. Having said that, I show Feugan the respective parchment requests, both with the usual easy-to-understand text and draws.

Although the level of literacy was higher in big cities like the kingdom and therefore, the same could be expected from an adventurer’s guild, since the requests could be shared between Adventurer’s and mercenaries, it is an usual custom to have them portray easy to understand pictures. Just like how this one had a drawing of a green slime, a number indicating the minimum amount and the reward following the same core idea, a picture of a gold coin and a number indicating how many will be paid upon fulfillment.

Wait.

Roll back.

Green slime?! Gold coins?!!

I immediately pulled back the parchments I had in front of Feugan and started double checking the contents. Must have made a mistake, I mean, it couldn’t be, slimes are usually depicted as blue or clear, any variant in color meant it was a different species altogether.

Yup. Here it is. Clear. Clear as day.

A clear green slime picture… which can only mean…

Yup. Here it is too. Actually now that I look at all the requests properly, all of them indicate the same. The domain of the Forest’s Lord… Is this a Joke? This is not a starting ground! Regardless of being a forest it was known among adventurers with a slightly different name.

“Oi! Kara! Come here, this cannot be right! All these job orders are for the Forest’s Lord Dungeon!”

“{Oh a dungeon? I like that idea!}”

Truly, even though it is a Forest, the Domain of the Forest’s Lord, it’s also recognized as a proper dungeon in itself, due to the forest sharing a plethora of qualities found only in dungeons. Even to the point of containing a Dungeon guardian. A superior magical being that safeguards the dungeon and its inhabitants, an abundance of magic that feeds the same inhabitants as well as plants inside, the same magic being confined within the limits of the “dungeon”

“Oh! Yes, sorry I forgot about it, Mimiru!”

“Right? I mean it’s obviously too difficult if it’s only the 2 of us!”

“Yeah you are right. It is my bad, sorry, I got a little distracted here. Ehem. The Guildmaster has left orders to tell you that: ‘You are an old enough adventurer, you and your companions should learn from this and grow fast, to help me retire soon, ga ha ha ha’…” Said Kara. With a red face, almost shrinking down in size due to sheer embarrassment, right after she made a very poor imitation of the master’s boisterous laugh.

...

...

“Did you… the old man left explicit orders to even repeat the laugh, didn’t he?” I didn’t even need to ask, poor little Kara just nodded, she cannot even look me in the eye right now… This surely counts as some sort of harassment.

Wait.

“Oi… did you just said ‘companions’?”

“{I think she did}”

“Yup, she sure did” Was said by an overly familiar and unwelcome voice from behind us.

Slowly turning around, trying to maintain composure. Surely I misheard the voice, surely I misheard Kara too.

“Heyoo there, newbies!” Came the annoying greet from the (fool) tall handsome (depending on who you ask, opinions vary greatly) man in front of us. Just as he gives a wide smile and brushes his brown hair back in a practiced motion as is if trying to be charming.

Overconfident smile to the point of being annoying, accompanied by an overly familiar and slightly disrespectful attitude. A full plate with a white pearly finish to it, accompanied by a long sword to the side and a shield on his back

“The ever gallant and heroic Bannon Cena Galvalnor, truly yours here shall be your companion!” said the (fool) thing man in front of us while giving an overly dramatic bow and curtsy.

“tsk!”

“Oh you hurt me so much my little Mimiru!”

“If only I could hurt you enough”

“Oh the abuse! Surely you understand just how big of a favor this is? If master didn’t vehemently ask for my assistance, wouldn’t be able to put aside ALL my responsibilities to come help you!”

“Drinking and skirt chasing don’t count as responsibilities you know?”

“{Oh, Kara is slowly fleeing…}”

“Oh but how can you hope to go to the Forest Dungeon without a proper shield?! Surely you understand the paramount blessing me being here is?”

“Dead by poison slimes is a risk I’m willing to take over a Curse”

“Oh! When my dear sister heard I was taking you to the Forest Dungeon she gave me some her famous red curry buns, you know?!”

“Thank you for coming! We will be in your care!”