The Unbidden: A New World (1) (Short Parts)

Part 50

I dropped the cargo off with Jayde, but quickly departed before anyone struck up a conversation. I headed to one of the other groups along the road. Thankfully one of them was a group of adventures – just who I was looking for.

There were three of them in total sitting around a small campfire talk amongst themselves. It didn't seem like they noticed me as I approached.

"How much you think we could get for the venom sack?" one dressed in dark brown garments asked the others.

His voice had a thick southern accent to it, but the way he spoke was calculated.

"Maybe twenty silver? I know someone that deals with potions," a female wearing a cloak spoke as she cleaned a dagger.

"Excuse me!" I interjected.

"Evening, traveler," the man wearing the brown garments smiled.

"Sorry to intrude upon your conversation, but I had some questions. You guys are adventurers, right?"

"'Tis correct," the female spoke as she put the cloth from her dagger away.

"I am as well. I'm a part of the group Final Bastion. We came down here because of a couple quests, but we've never been to the region before," I approached a few feet away from them so they got a clear view of my face.

"I can tell by your accent! We are Tauros Endina. Come, sit. My name is Thrash Weaver," he motioned to an empty seat next to the third individual who was slumped over with his head in his hands.

His soft snoring could only be heard once you got next to him. It was curious he could fall asleep in such a position.

"Marie Snapshot. Pleasure to meet you ...?" she trailed off.

"Xavier," I smiled.

"How long have you been adventuring?" Marie asked.

I looked to the side as I thought about it. It wasn't something I kept track of.

"Less than a year, but we're doing well enough that we'll probably become famous soon enough!" I chuckled.

"Lots of competition out there, y'know?" Thrash laughed a little, tilting his head toward Marie.

"You may be right. Still. I heard there were dragons in this area. That makes it significantly more dangerous to venture around, right?"

"That is true, but there are already two groups after them."

"Who are they?"

"One goes by Dread Steel, the other by Absolvers of Yuna," Marie spoke after taking a swig of some drink.

"Dread Steel sounds pretty powerful. You guys know anything about them or the other group?"

They both shook their heads silently.

"All I know is both groups got promoted quickly by continuously taking on dangerous quests. They're Platinum ranked," Thrash poked the small fire with a stick to stir it up.

It was only natural a Platinum ranked group would take on a Platinum ranked quest, like killing dragons. I still wasn't sure the power dynamic in the world, so it was possible they were out of my league, or that I was out of theirs. I refused to get cocky and complacent, however.

"It's good to know there's people out there keeping the peace at large so smaller guys like us can take care of the easier quests," I laughed.

"You got that right," Thrash and Marie said together.

"Still, thank you for the information. I think I'll head back to my group. They're probably wondering if I hadn't been attacked," I stood to leave and waved.

"Maybe we will see each other again," Thrash joked.

"Maybe!" I headed back to the group.

It was late, so I fell asleep rather quickly after telling Jayde and Thea what I learned.

We continued the remainder of our trip without much talk or interference. It was a rather annoying I couldn't practice since there were a lot more people around. Soon enough though, we came upon Kle'Xa.

While I was surprised at how the walls appeared, as they weren't just flat at the top, but rose up in increments to form large points, the walls weren't nearly as tall or large as Onyx's. In between each point where the walls flattened out were dozens of archers, and some individuals with robes.

We were greeted by a tall elf with long flowing blonde hair and blue eyes upon reaching the gates. He looked almost like Legolas, but he definitely didn't sound nor act alike. We showed him our adventurer bracelets and papers from the Red Wing guild granting us access to any adventurer guilds in the region. After given the go-ahead, we continued into the city.

The buildings were mostly low rising with long, oval archways that came to a point. A lot of them were a teal or some slightly different shade of it. Several of the buildings had ornate designs and statues outside, likely churches of some sort.

We passed by a few other structures that were of human design as well. They appeared to be bars, inns and shops of different sorts, though I wasn't sure because I couldn't read the signs.

We rode around for about an hour exploring the city a bit to get the lay of the area. Afterward, we checked out a few different inns, including a couple elvish ones. The evlish inns were genuinely better in appearance and even smell than all the human ones. Some of the inns' rates were highway robbery. One guy was charging forty silver for a room with two beds with nothing else and one 'free' meal a day! We ended up picking one of the elvish inns.

Each room had a single bed, but the amenities were nice for the price of ten silver a day. Not only did I have a room to myself for once, I had access to a bathroom that had a shower and toilet. The shower itself was just a circular area with a dark blue stone held about seven feet up sitting on a plate with holes suspended by small chains in the roof.

If I took a bit of water and threw it on the stone, it would begin producing water magically. The toilet was weird, however. I had to stand up and lean against the seat if I wanted to take care of the heavy duty needs.