CHAPTER 9.

Amber didn’t really know what she dreamt, but she felt good when she awoke. Though, she also felt dirty. The room she was in was rather basic, and didn’t seem to have a bath or anything that even resembled something like that. So, gathering her belongings she headed downstairs and ended up paying for a bath, which was ten copper.

Finally, she was alone in one of the rooms behind the bar. There, she saw what was essentially a wooden hot-tub and also a rather dirty mirror, which she used to see her appearance. Her eyes immediately went wide.

“I look fucking homeless,” she whispered.

Her clothes were torn and incredibly dirty, there were random gashes and things that indicated attacks as well as blood all over them. And her hair; her everything was a fucking mess too.

Immediately, following the instructions from the innkeeper she used the bath. Water came from some kind of artifact, and the hot-tub would heat up just by supplying mana into it. First she washed her clothes, as much as she could anyway, then she washed herself thoroughly. She also combed her hair with her fingers and removed all the filth from it. The whole process had taken about two water refills before she finally managed to just enjoy herself in the bath.

She stared at the wooden ceiling, her sword and dagger were next to the entrance of the room. From what she had just learned, the bathroom experience maybe wasn’t so bad in Vir. Maybe I really am meant for this world? A chuckle left her as she shook her head. She enjoyed Vir and her current life-style, but as she had learned yesterday there were things that she was still unprepared for.

She relaxed for a few moments before sighing.

“I just have to take it one step at a time. Letting strangers' deaths weigh on me is a terrible idea.”

The merchants didn’t seem to care too much even though they had had a more direct responsibility with their deaths. Of course, Amber didn’t exactly think she should be like the merchants and wash her hands from it no matter what, but ultimately she had no part in what happened. And even if she did, she had to accept that people made their own decisions so she couldn’t let it burden her too much.

Thieney invited me to that dungeon, if someone dies… She closed her eyes. I guess every adventurer probably accepts the possibility of dying.

Finally she shook her head, there was no point in brooding. There were a myriad of better things she could be doing, like enjoying the bath, enjoying local cuisine, or even enjoying the city, or better yet, getting new clothes.

“First comes enjoying the bath.”

* * *

Amber had no clue how long she spent there but she felt so damn good afterwards. She also noticed that her body had changed, she had now lightly toned muscles⁠— well then again she was basically a superhuman, so that much was expected. But she liked the changes, which put her in a better mood.

She decided against trying the inn’s food even though she was starving, and instead left to pursue only the highest delicacies; street food. But when she left, she found Thieney waiting for her. He no longer wore armor but instead, casual clothes, his sword and shield were nowhere to be seen.

“Didn’t think you’d take so long to show.”

“You were waiting for me?” Amber blinked. “Wait, how did you even know which inn I chose?”

“Yes, and to answer your second question: yes.” He smiled.

“It was obvious,” Amber sighed.

“Exactly.”

Amber shook her head and watched as Thieney gave her a look.

“You look a lot less savage now. Thought that was just the way you liked to portray yourself.”

She shrugged. “What can I say? I have to look scary when meeting strangers, I’m just a frail lady after all.”

The man chuckled, and Amber smiled.

“I was hoping you could take me to get new clothes, as much as I like these, it’s obvious that they won’t really hold.”

“Hm, I hear ya. I think I could give you one of my old armors and you could get it adjusted at a smith.”

Amber blinked. “Really?”

“Of course, I would’ve probably gotten quite injured fighting the monsters the other day if it weren’t for you.” Thieney smiled. “So consider it a thank you.”

She nodded.

“But first, I should show you something.”

Amber felt confused as she was dragged by the hand, and a couple of minutes later they stood near the city gates. Thieney turned to her and bowed lightly.

“Welcome to the City of Laria.”

Amber blinked. “I’m already in the city.”

“But did you look at the city?” he asked. “Did you actually observe anything? Your eyes are practically glued to the ground from what I’ve seen.”

She blinked and he gestured at the square, Amber’s eyes followed along and she saw the sun cascading over the busy plaza. She saw crowds of people, easily thousands going about their business. She saw a large main fountain with a statue erected at its center. Protruding towers over the horizon. Buildings of bricks and orange roofs. It almost reminded her of some historical cities on Earth.

And it was beautiful.

“It’s so pretty.”

Thieney nodded. “I get that there isn’t much to glean from looking at random streets, but it’s actually quite beautiful, and suppose I owed you a proper welcome.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

* * *

Amber admired the city some more as they got the first order of business done. Thieney, as per his word, had given her an armor that looked surprisingly unscathed. And after bringing it to a smith he had quoted her one silver for adjusting it to her body, which Amber paid. While she didn’t feel like she quite needed armor, it was better safe than sorry.

The smith had offered to sell her a sheath for her dagger and a scabbard for her sword for fifty copper, which she also bought. Amber wasn’t really sure if she got a good price for everything, but she would bother about thinking about all that later.

Thieney had also given her some old pants and a shirt of his. They were oversized but they did the trick.

“So, anything you need now or should I take you to register to become an adventurer before going to the library?”

Amber looked at him. “Isn’t it obvious what I need?”

“Booze?” Thieney asked.

“No, I need food. Been eating damn berries for like two days now, as tasty as they were, I need something with meat on it. And not raw.”

The man chuckled. “Who would eat raw meat?”

“I wonder who would be insane enough to do that,” she sighed. “So, any food stand you recommend?”

“Sure, it’ll be my treat.”

She raised her brow. “You keep giving me stuff, I don’t want to bankrupt you.”

“Look at you and your fancy words, but it’s fine. Consider it kindness.”

In the end, she just nodded. She appreciated Thieney helping her around because she would be completely lost. On their way to one of the many plazas Amber found herself admiring the ambience once more.

She had completely ignored it when she arrived in the city, but now it was hard to ignore. The air felt earthy, refreshing even. There were a lot of people going about their business and even merchants trying to sell their wares. While it wasn’t a massive city, and was probably quite small by Earth’s standards, she found herself fascinated.

“If you like the city that much you could sign up with the guard,” Thieney commented.

“Do they get to fight strong monsters?” Amber asked.

“Rarely.”

She scowled. “I’m good then.”

The man gave her a look and shook her head. “Maybe it’s because you’re young, but shouldn’t you be worried more about your life?” He continued walking. “I mean, you look like a kid. Maybe recklessness has paid off so far, but who knows in the future.”

“I’m twenty.” She shook her head. “I’m capable enough to make my own decisions, and besides I’m here for a reason, I can’t waste my life away not living my best life.” Otherwise why even be here in Vir, she thought.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Is that so?”

They stopped before a food stand and she saw the man buy five skewers, each priced at five copper. Why so many? He took one and handed her the other four, making Amber blink.

“You said you were starving, so I figured I’d treat you with something nice.”

Amber blinked, she wanted to refuse but the aroma was so pleasant that she just accepted the gift. Then, after a moment of hesitation she took a bite. She felt the meat practically dissolve in her mouth with an almost sweet taste, it was heaven.

“How is it?”

“It’s really good!”

The man smiled.

* * *

Amber found herself seated at a bench, looking at the plaza as Thieney, her now guide joined her. She was still eating the rest of her skewers.

“What kind of berries could you have been eating in the forest anyway?”

“Osthus Berries,” she said simply. “They were quite good actually.”

“Osthus Berries are poisonous, are you sure?” Thieney asked dubiously.

“Yeah, they raised my Toxin Resistance to level 10, pretty nice actually.” She nodded.

Thieney paused, seemingly in shock. “Yours is level 10 already… what? That… huh? What kind of life have you been living?”

“My life?”

Her words didn’t seem to make sense to the man as he kept muttering under his breath. Amber found the behavior weird, sometimes she got looks of disbelief and other times of shock from the man, before finally he calmed himself down.

“I see, you should probably be more secretive about your skill levels, attributes and all of that. It’s considered private information, but I appreciate what you shared.”

“Right.”

“Anyway, how about I take you to register as an adventurer before we go to the library?”

Amber nodded at that and soon after she finished eating.

* * *

Shortly after, Amber found herself in the Guild. It was a building that had several tables, a bar, a board with papers and also had a long desk with multiple receptionists. The atmosphere was rather rambunctious with music playing, drunk people laughing with each other, and others chatting.

Yeah, this is definitely not my kind of thing.

Amber looked around using Identify, some people were level 20 or lower, some were around her level and some were 50, and one or two showed question marks. She wondered about their level, but ultimately ended up forming in line along with Thieney. And a minute later they stood before the receptionist.

“I’d like to become an adventurer,” she said simply. “My friend here will pay the registration fee.”

The receptionist nodded, even if confused. He was a man who seemed in his late twenties, with rounded glasses.

“Very well, are you familiar with the Guild or should I explain the basics?”

“Explain the basics,” she urged.

The man nodded once more, professionalism evident. “The Guild is essentially a service, you will register with us and obtain an adventurer rank relevant to your level. This rank determines what kind of missions you can take. The Guild, of course, takes a cut from every mission you take in order to maintain operations. The adventurer ranks are as follows: Level 10 is required for Bronze Rank, Level 20 for Silver, Level 30 for Gold, Level 50 for Platinum, Level 75 for Diamond, and level 100 for Mithril. You have to pay for a new badge in order to upgrade your rank. And if you feel deserving of a higher rank, you may ask the Guild to give you a test for a fee.”

“Right, what about those above level 100?”

“Special cases, there are badges above but I don’t think those are relevant at the moment.” The man shook his head. “Any other questions?”

Amber thought for a moment. “I don’t think so, can I get a Gold Rank badge then?”

The man blinked and looked at her before his eyes widened. “Of course. It’ll be ten silver.”

Ten? That’s a lot, no? However, Thieney placed the coins without hesitation and whispered into her ear.

“You know, hiring someone of your level for half a day like the merchants did yesterday, would cost about twenty silver, but given how strong you are it would be closer to thirty five.”

Amber blinked. Oh.

“So you saw me getting robbed and didn’t say anything?”

“That’s why I’m being extra kind to you,” he nodded.

Amber shook her head and the receptionist offered her a gold-colored badge, one with the symbol of a sword that evidently probably meant Warrior. After thanking him, they left and headed for the library.

* * *

In the end, he is even helping me with this.

Amber saw Thieney bringing books to her, he had also paid the fifty copper entrance fee to the library.

“Are you being this nice to sleep with me or something?” she finally asked.

The man’s eyes widened before answering in a whisper. “What? No.”

“Then?” She didn’t understand it, and at this point it was beginning to bother her.

The man frowned and sat down. “Firstly, you got ripped off, secondly you are strong, thirdly you remind me of my brother.”

“Your brother?” She blinked.

“Always seeking challenges, always pursuing higher goals, but also caring and sociable,” he explained whispering. “I won’t answer more. This is all just me being nice, there is a chance we both die at the dungeon so might as well build chemistry now.”

“Right…”

Amber didn’t know how she felt about his response, but to some extent she felt glad that she had been wrong. The man grabbed a book and opened it for her to see. It had the drawing of a very large map, almost an entire continent. Amber noted the text in the page essentially looked like English to her.

“Anyway, I’m not too great at reading, but I can at least explain what I know. We are here.” He pointed at the center of the continent where it said, Kingdom of Cytel. “The Kingdom goes from the center of the continent all the way to the South. To the North there is the Luxo Mountain range, all I know is that it’s dangerous. Finally, west there is the Sacred Forest.” He pointed.

“Why is it called that? Also I assume it’s not part of the Kingdom based on the map?”

“It is not, the Sacred Forest belongs to the elves. Peaceful beings with great affinity towards magic. No one messes with them due to that. It could be said they are the strongest.” He shook his head. “I’ve heard rumors that beyond the Sacred Forest lies a land with no rules. Some republic.”

He pointed past the forest, where the map ended.

“Then, there is the East, the Grand Desert.”

Amber paused, remembering what happened with the Primordial Spirit. Dargon had come from there. Her eyes narrowed.

“What is in the Grand Desert?”

Thieney’s brows creased as he thought.

“There are a couple of things, there is the Grand City of Torl, it’s a commerce city and the only one in the entirety of the desert. It thrives because of where it resides.” Amber raised her brow and he explained. “It’s situated atop a Grand Dungeon, unlike normal dungeons these ones haven’t been fully explored, and hide great dangers within. They are considered something from an ancient era, remnants of it. The Great Desert has bad mana density, which is terrible for mages, but near the dungeon that isn’t present.”

She nodded. “How is it different from a normal dungeon?”

“Well, most dungeons are quite small. Even if they are big, nothing is as big as Grand Dungeons. So I suppose, size and complexity, plus based on rumors monsters above level 100 are commonplace deeper inside the Grand Dungeons. As for dungeons, they are just generally really mana dense places where monsters appear.”

She blinked, getting another question in her mind.

“I was wondering, at what level is one considered strong?” she asked. “What skill levels are they at too?”

Thieney paused. “Amber, did you crawl out of a hole or what?”

“Sure, let’s go with that.” She nodded.

Thieney blinked. “You… are completely clueless about the world aren’t you? Were you raised in a remote village or something?”

“Well I did tell you I’m absolutely fucking clueless.” Amber shrugged.

“I suppose you did,” he sighed. “I’ll try to fill you in.”

After taking a deep breath he continued.

“In regards to what is considered strong. That is a very difficult question, there are rumors of level 200 individuals. I know the city lord is over level 100 here in Laria. So I suppose, over level 100 makes you strong. There are some adventurers that are said to be close around too. That said, we are in a rather peaceful region of the Kingdom. As for skill levels? I’ve heard rumors of 4th Rank being considered admirable.”

“Huh, I see. So the max rank for a skill or class level is not known.”

“It is not.” He shook his head.

I wonder what’s the max rank for a skill?

“How much do levels matter by the way?” She decided to ask.

“Well, it’s a mixture, but technically speaking a level 1 with a 5th Rank skill could probably badly injure a level 100 so long as the skill does not scale with the stats of the person.”

Amber nodded.

“Do you know anything about Primordial Spirits?”

“Well, it is said they came from the stars themselves. That they are the rightful gods of Vir. It is said that they blessed humanity with the System, and by extension classes and power.”

She nodded. She had heard about all of that.

“However, it is also said that the world seeks to keep an equal balance between things, so from the core of the world itself demons were born.”

She blinked. How come Ax’thra never mentioned it?

“Unlike Primordial Spirits, no sighting of a Demon God or something has ever been reported. However, it is said that the demons are the enemies of the Primordial Spirits, that they are meant to kill and destroy them. They seek to restore the balance of the world, or so the sayings say. The undead are very low grade demons, but the thing is, demons haven’t been spotted in the continent of Sarliane in five decades.”

“So that’s why we have to investigate.”

“Yes, hopefully we’ll identify the source.” Thieney nodded gravely. “I hope that helped in some capacity.”

“It did. Thank you.”

Amber then frowned. Is Dargon and his Arcane Council related to the demons? She wasn’t quite sure, she didn’t understand enough and she certainly couldn’t go around asking about them, lest she wanted a target on her head.

“By the way, are the names of Primordial Spirits recorded somewhere or something?”

Thieney shook his head. “It is said that Primordial Spirits only give their names to those they trust, it is a sign of acknowledgment, of respect, and of friendship. Which is why their names aren’t recorded.”

Amber at that moment blinked before smiling. Now she really wanted to see Ax’thra again.

“I see.”

“Of course, the odds of meeting a Primordial Spirit are incredibly low, it is said that they still visit their towers but even though there is a tower in the Arthra forest, it’s been empty for decades.” He shrugged. “A team checks it once a year. So if you want to try to meet one, it might be a very hard thing to do.”

“Right.” Amber nodded.

Then she looked at all the books on the table.

“Do you know about the monsters in the continent?” she asked.

Thieney shook his head. “There are too many to count, but perhaps an encyclopedia would be useful. However, for our dungeon that we are going to, it has mostly Dark Hounds and Fledgling Sapphire Ardrids.”

“The poisonous spiders?” Amber was shocked hearing something familiar.

“Fledglings of them, yes. They are around level 20 to 30, and their poison is considered rather weak but we’ll still bring antidotes for the expedition. Actual Sapphire Ardrids are usually level 100 or more, definitely wouldn’t want to encounter one.”

“Oh, huh.”

Why were the ones in the tower level 30? Amber found it confusing, but she had no one to answer her.

“Anyway, the Dark Hounds resemble wolves but have night-vision, they are between level 30 and 40. They hunt in packs. As for the undead, they have a supposed aura of decay that weakens their foes. So we should be wary about that.”

Amber nodded.

“Anything else?” Thieney asked. “We’ll have to leave soon..”

She pondered before arriving at something she had wondered about. “How are equipment grades decided?”

Thieney blinked, rather confused by the question but still answered. “It’s pretty straight forward, there is Common, Enchanted, and Relic for grades. Common has nothing, Enchanted has a passive effect, and Relic has a passive and active effect. Like an ability you can use. These grades have nothing to do with the quality of the weapon, so an Enchanted Sword might be infinitely weaker than a Common Sword if the materials are noticeably worse. Then, you know there are quality markers.”

“Right, what are they?”

“Common, Rare, High, Superb, and Ancient.” He took a pause before adding. “The last one is not one I’ve seen. Quality will refer to the materials of the item. Generally, anything High Quality will sell for multiple pieces of gold.”

“What if it's enchanted?”

“Depending on the effect, dozens,” Thieney nodded.

No wonder Ax’thra was so annoyed about me throwing the weapons around.

“I see, thank you.” Amber smiled. “I learned a lot thanks to you.”

“If you want to thank me you should tell me where you’re from to be so lost,” he chuckled. “Were you raised on a farm and were never allowed to go out, so you escaped to finally have freedom?” he asked, evidently amused.

“That’d be a fun origin story, but to answer your question.” Amber gave him a mysterious smile. “I’m from a land so far away that I do not know if I’ll be able to return to it.”

The man seemed to pause but nodded, taking the books away. After that, they left the library and he even saw her off at her inn. Paying for another night, Amber went to bed in peace. The sun was barely setting in the horizon, but she had to wake up in the early morning.

She had enjoyed the day just relaxing but she was already itching to go out and kill monsters.

Tomorrow, I’ll push my limits at the dungeon.

It was going to be fun.