I stood in front of Dawnhold's portal, wondering why Cluma was looking so nonchalant. Right, of course; this would have been how her family had got to the Emerald Nest last time, so not only had she seen it before, but it wouldn't hold good memories for her. Probably best not to dwell here for too long...
We waited for one of the porters to set up the walkway, then headed through the strange unnatural darkness to the Emerald Nest. A porter on the other side peered at me curiously, but this time I managed to get away without needing to explain myself. To think I went through such difficulty trying to get here five years ago, and this time it had been so trivial... Yay for adulthood.
While I'd passed through the Emerald Nest before, I'd never been outside the warehouse that enclosed the portals. This time, we needed to go shopping for something to let us climb up sheer cliffs. Even supernatural high-jumping ability wouldn't be enough on its own, so we'd need proper climbing gear. At the least, ropes and picks. Both of us were strong enough that a couple of picks would be sufficient to climb anything, as long as the rock was sturdy enough to support our weight, but in case it wasn't, I'd take whatever an expert suggested.
We stepped out of the warehouse and into a street of unnatural green. This place looked like the Oz's emerald city, without the cheat of everyone wearing green-tinted glasses. The buildings looked like they were made of literal emerald! I'd assumed the place was named because it was surrounded by lush green grass or something. What the hell was up with Erryn's construction sense?!
Putting aside the ridiculous architecture, I turned my attention to what we were actually here for. "Hey, Cluma, do you know where we should go, or shall I ask?"
"It's been five years since I was here, but we can try a place I remember. Umm..."
Cluma was looking fidgety, and obviously had something on her mind. In fact, she'd been a bit weird all day, the morning's hug being the shortest I'd ever received, after which she'd run back inside without saying anything. Was she ill, or nervous about something? "What's wrong?" I asked. Maybe this place was bringing back too many bad memories, and she would rather wait in the warehouse?
"Umm... If we have time, and if you don't mind, is it okay if I visit some people, since we're here?"
Of course... Just like she had to leave behind her village friends when she moved here, she would have needed to leave behind any new friends she made here when she came back... "We can stay here the night if you want. We aren't in a rush."
"No, that's fine. A couple of hours will be plenty."
The shop Cluma led me to was on the same street as the warehouse. I could see the walls around the city dungeon too, and a building that I strongly suspected was the local delvers' guild, so these shops must cater to delvers. It wouldn't surprise me if there were dungeons around that required climbing, and being an original settlement, there would be a wider range of stuff here than what was required for the local dungeon. It all made logical sense.
The walls were taller and far more imposing than in Dawnhold, despite the way the Dawnhold walls had been upgraded since the Emerald Caverns incident. They also looked very new. I could guess that everyone was now upgrading their walls, and were making no assumptions about the level of monsters that may emerge.
On entering the shop, I was really glad I'd brought Cluma with me. When I said we were visiting the Sapphire Peaks and needed climbing gear, I got some very strange and disbelieving looks. When Cluma asked, she got some equally strange looks, but they thankfully lacked the disbelieving element. We came out with my [Item Box] packed with ropes, spikes, hammers, picks and some technical things that the clerk had told me the names of but that I'd swiftly forgotten. I felt they weren't the sort of thing I should be trying to use without some instruction beforehand, but I had my feather fall ring for when I inevitably screwed up and fell.
What we didn't have were harnesses or helmets, or anything else that would have checked the health and safety checkboxes back on Earth. Again, thank goodness for my feather fall ring.
Shopping done, I indulged Cluma in her desire to tour the homes of everyone she'd met when she lived here. Some had come of age and moved out since she left, but she knew who was where, having kept in regular contact with them by mail. Literacy in the city was far higher than it was in the village. Or far higher than it was in other villages, anyway. Maybe I should take the [Teacher] class next, given that I seem to have taken on the role almost accidentally...
...Wait, was that why education in the villages was so bad? Because they didn't have the manpower for someone to take the [Teacher] class, and with the mindset that you couldn't do things without skills, that meant that everyone felt they couldn't teach? Dammit, Erryn!
Of zero surprise whatsoever was the sheer number of houses we ended up visiting. Neither were all of them children; apparently she'd befriended a bunch of the customers, too. Again, given the current state of the Dawnhold delvers' guild, where she was on friendly terms with everyone, that was not a surprise. Many of them were out at work, given the early afternoon time, but that didn't stop her trying.
And then we came to a stone house on the outskirts of the city, well outside the perimeter of Erryn's architecturally suspect emerald creations, and this time when she knocked on the door, her expression was... complex, and more than a little nervous, tail twitching from side to side. Who lived here? I looked through the place with [Mana Sight], but saw no-one. Another adult who was out at work?
"No-one's inside," I said.
Previously, she'd just left when the person she was looking for wasn't there, but this time she hesitated. "Who lives here?" I asked.
"... Daddy."
Chapter originally published for free on royalroad.com. If you're reading this message elsewhere, it's been pirated. If you paid for this elsewhere, you've been ripped off. Also, since whois says today's pirates are Hong Kong based, let's throw in a random comment about President Xi and Winnie the Pooh, or maybe the Tiananmen Square massacre, (天安门大屠杀) in the hopes of triggering some keyword filtering.
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"Do you want to wait?" I asked, not really having any other reply to that. She had told me, even before she got her traits back, that she was intending to go and see him again. Given that she knew where he lived, no doubt they'd been in contact through mail too, although she hadn't said so to me. She'd also called him 'daddy', instead of the 'dad' that she normally used these days. She was likely thinking about their parting.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Previously, I'd hated him for what he'd done to his family. That... hadn't been fair. He was blatantly suffering from PTSD or something similar; something that couldn't be magicked away with a simple cast of [Heal]. He'd done what he thought was best for his daughter when he thought that proximity to me was putting her in danger. I wasn't happy with his behaviour, but he'd watched his brother get killed by a monster right in front of him and was helpless to stop it, then was faced with an orc turning up from nowhere right in front of his precious child. It was impossible to stay angry, given his situation, and I could see why he reacted in the way that he did.
"No, it's okay. Maybe we can try again on our way back?"
I nodded, but despite her confused feelings, there was obviously a fair amount of disappointment mixed in, her ears and tail drooping. "Tell you what; we haven't had lunch yet. I bet the food here is very different from back home. Why don't we get something to eat, then we can have one more go before we move on."
I had enough pre-prepared food in my [Item Box], but that was no excuse not to try out regional cuisine while I had the chance. I could more than afford it. We ended up in some sort of grill place, with a fire crystal powered griddle in the centre of our table, where we ordered cuts of meat that we had to cook ourselves. It seemed a bit silly to pay for a restaurant and then cook food ourselves, but I took the opportunity to investigate how much the cooking skill of the [Cook] who cut the meat mattered compared to mine and Cluma's skills when we cooked it.
In fact, there was barely any difference between myself and Cluma, despite my six level advantage, but there turned out to be a fourth factor in play.
Mythril Griddle (Quality: 30)
- Enchantment: Cooking enhancement (Rank 2)
The griddle was mythril. What had, a handful of years ago, been a barely obtainable super-material, was now in common enough use for a mid-class restaurant to be casually using it like this for cookware. And not in the kitchen, either, but on every table! Was the cook using a set of mythril knives out in the kitchen, too? How much longer until I came in here and they had orichalcum griddles for the added enchantment boost?
To be fair, that would be a lot harder; gold was found twenty floors deeper than silver, and it was also a lot harder to convert gold to orichalcum than silver to mythril. It took a lot more than a rank two skill and a ten-floor dungeon, and not every household had a Darren available. If they wanted a boost, it would be cheaper to find themselves a better enchanter.
I enjoyed the meal, and as ever was impressed with the sheer amount of meat Cluma was capable of putting away. There were vegetables on the menu but, like Synklisi, they needed to be imported and were more expensive than monster meat. I had enough of them in my item box, anyway.
Meal over, we made a return to Camus's house. This time, I checked the place with [Mana Sight] as soon as it was within range, and could clearly see someone was home. Someone with cat ears atop his head and a tail trailing behind him. "He's home," I said, causing Cluma to stumble. I think she wanted to visit, but was half-hoping that he wasn't there so that she could say she tried without actually having to go through with it. To be fair, I was thinking the same thing. This was going to be weird...
She knocked on the door, and I watched him look around and then start walking towards us. This was probably an invasion of privacy, but not half as much as [Soul Perception]. Oh! I'd completely forgotten about that! I could easily spot any reincarnated individuals using that skill; they'd lack the chains! I might still be able to spot them even if they hadn't been born yet.
I still regretted not using [Soul Perception] on Erryn back when we were in the ark. The combination of sleep deprivation and panic caused me to miss far too much back then...
Distracted as I was by the sudden realisation, I very nearly missed the door opening. "Cluma?!" Camus gasped, on seeing his visitor, who immediately dived through the door and wrapped him in a hug.
"Hi Dad. It's been a while. We were passing through the area, and thought we'd drop by."
"We?" He looked around, having seen Cluma first and ceased to pay attention to anything else, and finally noticed me. In an uncanny mirror of when Cluma had first knocked, he pulled a complicated expression, then sighed. "Peter," he greeted with a nod. "Would you two like to come in?"
"We can't stay long," answered Cluma, suddenly a lot more cheerful now that the waiting and uncertainty was over. "We're on our way to the Sapphire Peaks!"
I couldn't say I did want to go in, feeling rather awkward about the whole idea, but Cluma was already effectively inside, having dived in for the hug. I stepped in after her.
"The Sapphire Peaks?" Camus exclaimed, frowning. "Why are you... No, it's not my business. I... don't need to ask."
Camus, Beastkin, Monk (8/88)
I did my best to suppress the snort of surprise as I fired [Appraisal], and thankfully the father/daughter pair were too busy to notice the strange choked noise that resulted. Or at least, too busy to comment on it. Monk?! It had been an available class for me since my very first class change, and I'd even looked up the details a number of years back, but it hadn't had anything useful, so I'd put it out of my mind. What had the description been? Something about searching for inner peace? With advanced meditation and relaxation skills? I suppose that would be handy for him right now. And level eighty-eight without ever reaching rank three? I suppose two combat classes, [Farmer] and now [Monk] would add up to that. Poor guy...
"We're just searching for a couple of people. I promise there's no fighting involved, and that's a rank four feather fall and ice resistance ring she's wearing. It's okay, there's nothing wrong with worrying about your daughter," I said.
He looked at me in surprise. "I hadn't expected to hear that coming from you," he replied.
"Why not? What sort of cold person wouldn't worry about their own family? It's not until you try to lock her in a cage against her will and claim it's for her own protection that I would start disagreeing. But as she pointed out herself, I've been guilty of the same thing, so I have no right to complain."
His surprise turned to shock, but the Peter who'd intended to punch him in the face the moment we next met was long gone. The current Peter felt little more than pity.
I let Cluma have a bit of a catch-up, although it very quickly became obvious that she was just repeating stuff that she'd already written in letters, this time with an accompaniment of animated gesticulation and interspersed hugs.
Conversely, I learnt some interesting facts from Camus. Or rather, he told Cluma some interesting information that he'd never put into letters, and I got to overhear it. The restaurant hadn't failed. It was teetering on the edge, with Camus putting in the minimum required work to ensure they stayed afloat, but then Clana had deliberately defaulted on their debts. She'd done it to get Cluma out, after Camus's behaviour had robbed Cluma of her [Hugger] trait. It didn't really change anything, but it was nice to know Camus hadn't been directly responsible for the restaurant's failure. As for the reason for his campaign to get dungeons closed, it wasn't, as I'd assumed, purely because of his hatred of dungeons. It was Cluma again; after she took [Apprentice Fighter] against Camus's wishes, he believed she'd end up joining the delvers' guild, and getting the dungeons restricted was his best option to protect her.
It was all still messed up, but it was nice to hear things from his point of view. Cluma hadn't known a lot of that information, and both of us were in rather thoughtful moods as we walked the streets.
Before long, we were back off to the warehouse. Fortunately, the Emerald Nest had a direct connection to the Sapphire Peaks. Or maybe unfortunately; I'd have appreciated a stopover in Synklisi, so I could visit the slime that was not called Blobby. I would have loved to see the interactions between her and Cluma.
Wait... I was legally an adult now. Didn't that mean my chastity would be in serious danger if I ever visited her again?!