~ East Edge of the Main Continent, The Capital Marth

I sat upright after I was unbinded from the skewer. It is one thing to see it in games, but to be here experiencing this familiar rpg sight for myself is entirely a different experience.

Bustling streets are filled with vendors and people, along this long stretch of road that stretches all the way to the pyramid at the top. This large street was wide, but to be filled with all the merchants, vendors, carriages, rickshaws, adventurers and people bargaining with the merchants, there isn’t a lot of space around. Makes me wonder what it would be like during a festival. This is everything I expected! The crowd, the almost festive-like atmosphere, the noisy chatter, the fragrant and enticing aroma of all the snacks and food sold by roadside vendors.

Well, except for a random little girl playfully running around and jumping across rooftops, and the little boy chasing the little girl like they were playing a game. They seem to be teenagers, around 13 years of age if I would guess, just a little younger than me. They look like they’re taken straight out of some Chinese martial arts drama, jumping across large gaps between the rooftops as if they were on the moon. Everyone seems to be fine with it, as if it was daily occurrence. They quickly disappeared further into the residential area, continuing to play tag like the whole capital was their playground.

Hmm. Interesting~

It took me a while to fully absorb everything, but one thing that really captures my attention once I noticed it, is that there are multitudes of different races everywhere. Cat-girls, ogres, elves, half-reptiles, dwarves, fox-women, all sorts of races you could ever think of. Each doing their respective jobs, whether it is salesgirls, merchants, or parents, there is no sign of discrimination, as this is normal. I stuck out of the carriage, absorbed in my surroundings, I counted the different types of races and remembered their distinctive as well as subtle features, loading everything into my brain. This is amazing.

I’ve got occasional stares from the people while our carriage is going up the street. It must be my beautiful, long, shiny black hair (deal with it). I probably stuck out like a sore thumb like this, since most, or in fact all of the men and boys I have seen so far have hazel brown or light golden short-cut hair. Seems like that’s the fashion trend here. But maybe I’ll spark a new trend of long hair? Hah!

…

Alright... after a while the stares kind of get a little uncomfortable, looking at me like some sort of devil reincarnate. Guess I’ll cut my hair the next time I’m free…

…

“Here we are, finally.”, Jax proclaims. The carriage suddenly stops in front of a tall building on the right side of the main street. It had white walls and a tudor style look to it, three storeys tall, one higher than the rest, and also occupying two building spaces, making it two times larger than most of the stores along the main street. Beside the two large wooden front doors in the middle is a wooden sign, saying “The Adventurers’ Guild”, with a logo of 2 swords crossed in front of a shield. Looks much more humble compared to the rest of the building.

Ceris opened the way by opening the doors, while Jax is paying the carriage driver a few silver pieces for his service. The world’s currency is also based on gold and silver, it seems.

“Heyy! Welcom’ back Ceris, oh and the Elder of course. And Jax! Wanna go for anotha’ round brotha? And what’s this little critter?”, one of the men sitting at one of the many round table exclaimed. “Just a weird grandson of mine.”, Marelin replied without hesitation. So I’m her grandson now.

A few people had slightly confused faces, and I could hear some people discussing about me being her grandson, and the strange outfit I’m wearing. There’s a huge hole at the back of my lab coat that is almost exposing my butt crack. Gotta fix that if I can, it’s kind of embarrassing.

Soon after, the discussions about me stopped and the building became even more rowdy, although it felt warm and welcoming. Ceris and Jax seems to be quite welcomed here, they must be seasoned adventurers. Marelin is well respected, even by the most rowdy of the customers. She really does have powerful influence, or skill.

I scanned the place. Smooth wooden floors, wooden tables, and chairs of different designs that may as well be barrels. There are some marble ornaments around the large room, carefully designed to make sure the place doesn't look too extravagant, but yet respectable. The first level seems to be a bar, taking the front half of the building. There's also this large notice board beside the bar, filled with notices and requests, on its left is a map of the world. Ahh there it is. The map.

The bar itself lies against the wall facing the entrance, shelves of liquor and beer cases of unique and exquisite designs can be seen. Stairs at the sides lead to the second level, and another set of stairs on the second level in the middle leading to the third floor. The is probably where the accountants and the counters are, and the third, I would guess, to be the guildmaster’s office. Interesting interior design.

Spoiler :

http%3a%2f%2fi66.tinypic.com%2f1fwk5x.png [http://i66.tinypic.com/1fwk5x.png]

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

My rough idea on what the guild looks like, drawn on paper and badly edited.

Bright candles lit the place up with a light orange glow, alongside the sun which shone down through the windows. The candles are strangely bright for a traditional light source though.

“Nahh, gotta turn this in first, and I would rather have a proper meal right now. I’ll catch ya’ later buddy.”, Jax nonchalantly replied, as he came in with the bag that was previously on the carriage.

We went to the second floor and to one of the accountants, a sexy devil-woman, literally, as she had a protruding horn at the middle of her forehead like a devil. Though still incomparable to mine, her black hair is smooth and long, tied into one long ponytail. She seemed professional with her grey and white working attire. It is a working attire, but it is tight enough such that it clearly shows all of her curves and plentiful bust. Of course, with a pair of glasses behind her crimson calculating eyes to seal the deal.

“Here it is, ten claws of the clawed rabbits as per job request number 10.”, Jax handed the bag over the counter. The accountant accepts the bag, putting it under the counter then flips through a register and marks something down. She then counted 20 gold coins before putting it in a pouch and handing it with both hands to Jax. “Thank you again, here’s 20 gold coins for the job.”, she said with a sweet smile. I wonder if she is already taken…

I went back down to the first floor to take a good look at the map. “Terminus”, wrote at the bottom. It really is quite a crazy land formation, I didn’t really expect the main continent to be *that* much of a diamond shape as brother pod (yes that’s his name) described. It’s almost like a square tipped on its sides, big enough to stretch into the north and south poles, and have like a huge river cutting through from the middle of each side, to meet around the centre and create a smaller, similar shaped land mass in the middle about a quarter the size of the main continent. Basically looking like a diamond surrounded by a large river, inside of a big diamond that is the main continent. There’s countless smaller rivers in the continent, while it may look small, I’m sure even the smallest one that can be seen in the map is at least kilometer wide.

We are currently on the east edge of the continent, just beside a river, which I assumed to be where I landed. On the other side of the river, is another city, where it says “Capital Zenith, Zekiel Empire”. The rest of the map are filled with countless dots, but many of them belong to a few major Empires or Kingdoms. On this side, the east is currently dominated by Zekiel Empire and Magire Kingdom. There’s also seems to be long lines connecting the capitals together.

Spoiler :

http%3a%2f%2fi68.tinypic.com%2f5xpzxv.png [http://i68.tinypic.com/5xpzxv.png]

My rough sketch on the outline of the map, use your imagination to fill the rest in.

Unexplored pockets of land are also everywhere around the continent, but nothing can beat the largest piece of unexplored land in the middle - the whole of that land surrounded by a large river! It’s a huge piece of mystery, literally named “The Unknown” in large text. It looks like it was completely untouched, and probably, for a good reason. Although that reason would probably never be enough to stop me, hehehehehe…

There is also this second continent, attached to the north pole with a shape like a sharp talon. Also completely blank on this map, but that it going to change, some day, for sure.

Strange enough there seems to be different shaped dots all over the continent (except for the centre), which when I squinted my eyes, looks like they are strangely designed buildings, and I realized when I see that one of them said “Marth Labyrinth”, right over the Capital Marth. DUNGEONS!

Magic really does strange things to a planet’s geography to make it look like this, and create... dungeons? I would need to ask grandma for that later. It is indeed a cool and strange phenomenon that I must study.

“Earth, what are you doing, hurry up!”, Jax hurried me, arms folded and already waiting at the door along with Ceris and grandma. He seems to already be quite relaxed around me, I say he have a good judgement for people’s personality.

“I’m sorry, let’s go now!”, I returned back to the group, while taking a last glance at the map, fully committing it to memory. Terminus, the end, the last destination…

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