The patrol was a mediocre success, mostly because I nearly blown up sewers in a process, and now people complain about smoke coming from all around town, still, I managed to get rid of all the rats and a few nests, so I only got a bit of a pay deducted, still passed the first assignment, but as I already broke into the trader guild and stole everything from it, or to be precise, converted it, including most of the money, wile also getting 'blueprints' for gold and coin shapes. Kinda expensive if you ask me, 5 thousand mana for the biggest gold coin. Yes, gold is cheap. It costs way less for the smaller coins, like two and a half for big, and 1K for small, while big coin costs 10 medium, or 100 small, or 1000 big silver, or 10000 small silver, well, you got the picture. Each coin costs 10 of the previous coins.
Anyway, now I have access to the blueprints of... well, quite a lot of metals, including mithril, because of course there would be some sort of mithril scepter in the guild, sky steel, or meteorite steel, which is actually quite weird to be honest, it's actually a 'naturally' formed steel, but that got a lot of mana in it, for some reason. Then there are regular steel, iron, bronze, tin, copper, silver, gold, no platinum however. Then cloth, like cotton, which I already could do, silk, wool, all sorts of hides and leathers, and, of course, some wood and bark, like ironwood, redwood, emberwood or dryadwood, again, some of which came in the shape of a staff or a wand. I wonder what wands are for? Oh, also this brightglow crystal thingie, which isn't glowing for some weird reason. Also saphire, topaz, diamond, emerald, ruby, you know, the old boring pretty stones, that the nobles like so much. At least they can store some mana. Basically, I got my revenge for deducting my payout.
On the other hand, that little stunt of mine got a bit too much of attention, luckily, I didn't leave any evidence. Not the first time I do this, though it was way easier than the usual thing, mostly because I had magic, and there were no cameras.
Then there was an issue with the missions, or the lack of thereof for my rank in the region, and after some questions, the most dangerous area was actually not that far from the northern border, not the ex Askonia kingdom territory now, as northern border is a loose definition, so let's call them wildlands, as they house a lot of dangerous creatures, and to the west, including southwest, but not northwest, we have an Albion kingdom, the human supermacist country. Don't get me wrong, if I were to choose whether I go to a human supermacist, or a non-human supermacist country, I'd choose both, as I can be both human and a dragon, well half dragon, but still a dragon. Of course if I were only human, I'd go to humans and showed those xenos what I can do, while also getting tons of cash, but... well, unless there is a non-human supermacist country that thinks all besides their race are beneath them, I'll probably go and... I dunno really. I mean, I kinda owe princess for summoning me here, so I don't want to destroy this country, but Albion looks like a good place to start my rise to power, whether it being a good old monster hunting jobs, or massacre of a city or two. Or a few dozens.
But of course I will have to stick with the academy for now, I really need that irradiation gone, and not because there were no quests to go into the Albion, and considering my specific questions guildmaster told me to check with trader guild, where I could get myself a carriage to any city I want. I totally could've done just that, so I did just that, and saw the joyous chaos at the trader's guild. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand them freaking out because someone stole their entire treasury, but come on, you're just a branch, ask for help from the other branches, or from the central office.
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“Hi, I want to go to the Albion kingdom.”
“Any specific place?”
“Some major city in Albion, preferably that is ripe with the monster activity. Or criminal activity, it doesn't really matter what I kill.” The guy notices a silver badge, and sighs.
“Yes, yes, silver adventurer? Well, this might prove problematic as we don't have anyone interested in going there, due to racial policy of the Albion.” guy licks his teeth... weird, looks like a human. “As you are here, can you help us recover an item? We just sent an errand boy to post a mission for the retrieval of a highly valued staff.”
“What is the item you're searching for anyway?”
“Oh, it's a Staff made by none other than the Magnus Beardbane, master craftsman of the Sawtooth mountains.” erm... what? “Someone stole it and now we are trying to find the item.”
“OK? Why is it so important?”
“It was made by the clan of Beardbane.” he looks worried. “The master craftsmen, engravers and enchanters. You don't know about them?”
“Of course not. Why should I? They're not making equipment for me.”
“I see. Still, if you wish, trader guild can sell you a horse, and if you desire so, a carriage, cart or a wagon. We also have maps of the countries and a continent if you wish to purchase them.”
“Not good with animals, but I will take a map. World map to be precise. And if you have detailed maps of kingdoms” he nods and procures a scroll from under the counter.
“Two gold pieces.” I sigh and give him the biggest coin. “Sorry sir, but I would ask you to procure two gold pieces.” I sigh, but then get the two regular coins. “You're not familiar with the currency?” he asks while taking one gold coin and giving me the eight small coins.
“These are coins right?”
“Coins, I asked for pieces. Gold pieces are smaller and have shield insignia.” he points at the crest from behind the coin and a shield on the front.
“I'm surprised you didn't take advantage of me.”
“Why should I? The customer that comes over many times, is better than a milked down customer who comes only once.”
“How can I join your guild?”
“Depends, but usually you just need to order something from the guild in large quantities, or be a merchant.”
“How do you even... whatever, do you have books on... what did they call that again? Enchanting?”
“Yes, we have a library. What exactly you want?”
“Basics on enchanting.”
“Hm... follow me.” I shrug and follow him behind. “Are you interested in combat enchanting?”
“Combat?”
“Yes, like enchanting your weapon temporarily with an element of your choosing.”
“Temporarily? Is there a permanent way?”
“Yes, one is a regular enchanting, which most people refer to, and engraving. We have books on both, but only one for engravings which explain the basics.”
“So, I need to go to the bearded clan?”
“Beardbane? No, they rarely interact with outsiders. But as to going to the mountains? You could, but then again, there are engravers in this city as well. There is usually one or two engravers in a city, lucrative business, if you're good at it.” we entered a dimly lit room with rows of bookshelves. “Here we are. Now for the engraving-”
“Engraving, enchanting, combat enchanting, alchemy, compendium of herbs and other alchemical stuff, oh and a monster compendium if you have one.”
“Yes, wait here.” he moves along the bookshelves and gets a couple of books, one is actually a tome, while others are more of manageable size. And of course one book is more like a pocketbook than anything. “Alchemical encyclopedia.” he mentions to the tome. “Enchanting with Duffledore. Adventurer's guide on animals and monsters. And finally, an engraving.” he shows me the two more books, which are surprisingly normal size, and a pocketbook.
“How much?”
“Six pieces for animal and monster guide, big coin for enchanting, it covers combat enchanting as well, two big coins for alchemy, and five big gold for engraving.” I shrug and give him the knight coin, as he puts the books on the table.
“I'll get the change.” I wave him off.
“No need. Cya.” I miss printed books. Well, I mostly read from tablets, but I don't like handwritten books. Artifacts of a more barbaric age. Not like modern times aren't, just slightly 'less' barbaric.