Time to go. Edward made his final goodbyes to Caspian, Balin, Bertrand, and the others before initiating his way toward Gobéliard. He threw a last glance at Agriping before entering the Vipin Forest a smile on his face.
He was almost surprised not to meet any Bloodmaws on his path. With their source shut off, their number had greatly decreased in the week Edward had spent training his mana.
Agripin’s guards had organized another excursion to hunt down the stragglers near the village. Edward wasn’t worried for them, with how many Awakens they now had, they could take care of themselves.
Moreover, with how aggressive the Bloodmaws were, Edward strongly suspected that the forest’s native monsters had done their part too. He remembered how a wyrm had slaughtered a group of Bloodmaws all by itself.
Usually, monsters, especially the powerful ones, had their own territory which they didn’t breach. Bloodmaws were not paying any mind to those and were just roaming everywhere killing anything they found. When they entered the territory of some powerful beast like a wyrm, they were becoming the prey instead. If the Bloodmaws attacked any monsters they saw, without additional reinforcement they wouldn’t last long.
From how the Bloodmaw’s pile of corpses had been munched already, Edward was sure that their taste was up to the standard of Vipin Forest’s more powerful monsters. The impact of native monsters on the Bloodmaws wasn’t visible while Oshle Tirion was still opened, with Bloodmaws coming out continuously. But now that there was no supply to restock their number, Bloodmwas would become scarce.
All in all, Edward’s trip was peaceful, not encountering any monsters while crossing through Vipin Forest. He had stayed on the forest path which was a deterrence to local monsters. The Bloodmaws who dared to roam on it were an anomaly rather than the norm. With the disappearance of the Bloodmaws, the path between Gobéliard and Agripin was now again practicable for travelers.
As Edward left the cover of the trees he squinted, acclimating to the change of luminosity. When he opened his eyes wide again Edward could see the horizon merging with the ocean in the distance with Gobéliard standing right in front of it.
As Edward was drawing closer, he noticed more details about the city. Agripin was a village, with buildings made mostly out of wood. In comparison Gobéliard was a proper medieval city. Its murals were made out of actual stones, covered with some kind of binding to increase their cohesion.
The walls were reaching a good ten meters in height, with bright and colorful banners hanging from different towers standing tall and built at a regular interval. The banners were showing off the symbol of the city, a sea conch on a yellow and blue background.
The entry facing Vipin Forest was opened, but for a city, there weren’t that many people flowing in and out.
With a coastal city, I suppose most of the activity must be on the ocean’s side. Especially when all you have on the other side is a monster-infested forest leading to a village and then to barren wilds. Still, I can see they do have some fields as well. I guess they can’t gamble everything on the sea, they have to diversify their food source as well.
Edward reached the opened gates to enter the city. Passersby were entering in front of him without problem, the guards only standing lazily at the side without paying much attention. However, when they saw Edward come over from the forest, they immediately regained their focus.
“Hey, you!! Come over there. Did you just come from the Vipin Forest? Stand your business.” One of the guards shouted while pointing at him.
To his surprise, Edward discovered that both guards were at the Awaken level. The standards were clearly different from Agripin, even if thanks to him, this gap had decreased a lot.
“Good day to you. I do come from the forest but I’m nothing more than a humble traveler wishing to visit this city and maybe the rest of the world one day.” Edward answered, being careful not to antagonize the guards.
“Travelers crossing over Vipin Forest are scarce. Especially lately, you are the first in over a month. Did anything happen in there?”
“I’m coming from Agripin, we did have a monster problem but it is solved now. The path is safe again.”
“I see, we will report this matter. Monster activities are increasing lately. You wouldn’t have met anyone from the Vega family on your way?”
“The Vega family?" Edward asked confused. "No, why?”
“Never mind then. One of them left for an expedition in search of some ruins or whatever. The Vega family is starting to discuss sending an expedition to discover what happened to him since he hasn’t given back any news yet. I bet they would have given me a nice reward if I had fresh news to give them.”
An expedition in search of ruins. Are they talking about Marc? Now that I think back about it, his family name was indeed Vega. It’s probably in my best interest to feign innocence. The way the guards are talking about it the Vega family seems pretty influential.
If I tell them one member of their family is dead and partially because of me, I doubt they will take it happily. It’s better not to say anything, it will save me the trouble of defending myself from having any implications in his death. And it’s not like anybody else from Agripin will come to Gobéliard.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Unless they really do send people to Agripin to ask for Marc, I should be safe. And even if they do, it’s not like I’m the one who killed Marc..
The guards let him enter after warning him not to cause any troubles. Edward walked in the city’s streets, staring at everything. The streets were busy with bystanders walking quickly to accomplish their tasks, stalls overflowing the alley, and buyers stopping to glance at different products.
The buildings were made either entirely of stone, or with a mix of plaster and wood. Most of them were two or three stories tall. People were wearing colorful clothes with lots of vibrant colors clashing together.
Edward took his time strolling through the city, noticing areas that were quite remarkable compared to the surroundings. He stopped in front of a villa that took as much place as ten normal houses put together. The villa was surrounded by a tall wall protecting an inner court so that one couldn’t peer inside. However, the wall did nothing to hide the overlooking edifice inside of it. Not only was its size contrasting with the nearby houses, but so was its style.
The rest of the city looked like a medieval town just like on earth, but Edward could see evidence of magic in this building. The architecture choices were too bold, balconies seemingly supported by nothing, complex ornamentations, and towers arising from surprising places. It made Edward thinks of elves' mansions, even though it was evident the mansion had been built rather than grown from a tree.
This villa didn’t seem like an official building, but more like a private mansion. It even had its own flag floating over the roof depicting a giant squid on a deep blue background. Such a view was a perfect demonstration of the blatant inequalities in resources and power in this city.
This could have looked cool if it was an isolated complex but the fact that it stands in the middle of a city is spoiling its charm. It makes me think of the separation between slums and luxurious hotels.
Edward continued his way, the streets growing even more busier as he was approaching the sea and the docks. He had to stop to let a chariot carrying ores drive through. Access to the sea meant access to food such as fishes and crustacea, but as importantly it was also a way into maritime trade routes.
When he reached the docks, Edward was able to gaze at all kinds of ships. There were big caravel ships, that were used for trading and transporting goods, small fishing boats used by the locals, but also sailing boats that stood in between in terms of size. Those ships were currently docked and looked like pleasure boats used by rich families to entertain themselves.
Edward enjoyed the view of the ocean, stretching into the distance until it was blending with the horizon. The sun was reflecting on the, for now, calm sea. Birds could be heard squeaking and flying around. Some islands could be seen into the distance, although too far to make out any details.
Once Edward had his fill of the view, he went back to the city to find a pace to stay.
I can afford to visit the city and spend money for some time but at one point I will need to find a way to make money. I got a nice nest egg from Marc’s savings, but it won’t last forever. With the size of this town, I hope they have something equivalent to an adventurer guild. This would be the ideal job, being able to explore the world while still making money and without anyone supervising you and yelling at you. I don’t want a repeat of Marc’s expedition, it’s for the best if I find jobs where I am a certain level of autonomy.
What Edward hadn’t noticed that if most people hadn’t chosen to become an adventurer in this world, it was because of the very real risk of dying. Sure, others jobs could be less interesting or rewarding, but at least you were still alive at the end of the day. Adventurers were having a passionate but risky life. On top of that, the first problem was how to become an adventurer.
Adventurers made their livings by killing monsters, and one had to be strong enough to kill said monsters. There were two main ways to become stronger. One by killing monsters and absorbing their power, which was difficult to do when you were weaker than the monsters you were trying to kill.
The other way was to buy potions made by alchemists from monsters’ blood essence and other ingredients. And this costed a lot of money.
So, to step on the adventurer path you either had to be already strong or have strong friends taking care of you, or you needed to be rich. This severely limited the entry of outsiders into this trade.
*****
Edward managed to find an inn soon enough. He hadn’t explored the whole city yet, but he had already been walking for the whole day, and he wouldn’t say no to a nice comfy bed. That would be a nice change from sleeping in a tree for fear of monsters eating him in his sleep.
The inn was named the Golden Pie, with an appetizing smell coming out of it. Edward followed his instinct, and not at all his stomach, and walked in.
Several clients were sitting at different tables, either drinking or eating a meal, the establishment had nothing fancy but it seemed decent enough. Edward ordered the inn's specialty which had given its name to the tavern, and he reserved a room for the night. It costed him a few silvers but he had more than enough money right now.
After his meal, before going to sleep, Edward asked the innkeeper about the must see of the city and other points of interest. The innkeeper wasn’t particularly surprised that Edward was new in Gobéliard, they did get quite a few travelers coming from the sea, the innkeeper just didn’t know that Edward was coming instead from Vipin Forest.
“So, you are telling me there is an arena in this city?” Edward asked the innkeeper as they were discussing.
“Yes, they organize tournaments from time to time. When it’s not in use you can rent it to spar or to settle a grudge. Lots of people like to watch and bet on the fights too. Since you are new in town, you should definitely try it. If you are lucky, you will even be able to see adventurers fighting monsters. Although it is quite rare since they first need to capture the monsters alive to fight in the arena.”, the innkeeper laughed.
“It does seem interesting.”
This would be a good way to see how the people from here are fighting. I only fought monsters until now, and I want to see what kind of techniques fighters from this world use against each other.
“Do you know where someone who don’t mind a bit of figthing could earn some money?”
“Well, you could try to fight in the arena as a professional fighter or just place some bets. Otherwise, your best shot will be the adventurer guild, they do have a lot of requests lately due to an increase in monsters’ activities. And if you plan to settle in Gobéliard, you could also try to get hired as a guard for a noble family. They are picky about who they hire, but once you are in, you get good pay from what I heard.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Edward answered. He gave him twenty copper coins as a tip, before walking upstairs to his room.
Becoming a guard for an uptight arrogant noble. No thank you, I’ll pass. The adventurer guild seems interesting though. I will see what kind of job I can find over there. As for fighting, I don’t know…once or twice could be fun, but I don’t want to become a professional fighter. One day or the other I would just get trampled by some new guys who studied my tactics. And I don’t even know how far they push the fights. I hope there is no fighting to the death, that would be sickening. Killing a monster is one thing, but I don’t feel like killing someone unless I don’t have a choice.