POV Roger

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to admire the view for too long as a more important attendant approached me. "Good day to you. I presume you are Roger, the person who sent the letter, and the rest of you are his merchant party?" The person who spoke was a bear person. He was quite big but seemed happy that he had some new business. "Yes, I’m Roger and good day to you as well. Let me get your payment right away," I said, then took out and handed him the agreed-upon payment.

It was a large sum of coin and cores, but thanks to this portal complex being a part of a bigger company, it meant that we were able to pay for our entire trip to the city-state of Verdia and back. The person accepted the payment and after only a few seconds put it away with his smile widening.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you," he said, and then led us to a small sitting area. "While we could already open a portal to the next city, it’s a good idea, especially for first-time travelers, to rest between so you can get used to the travel."

The place was really nice and had a good view of the city and the large bay. He said it would be best if we waited for at least two hours and then left for other business, but after about 15 minutes I saw him coming back. "Is there something wrong?" I asked him, to which he shook his head. "No, no, it's just business is quite slow so I thought that I would come and introduce myself a bit better and we could perhaps exchange some stories."

It sounded like a good idea. "That would be most welcome. My name is Roger," I said with a gentle smile on my face. "Good to meet you. My name is Arktos. It was an interesting letter that you sent. You see, we rarely get anyone from the Green continent, especially when the petty kingdoms must be in constant war," Arktos spoke, but I was a bit confused.

"What do you mean petty kingdoms? I’ve never heard the term before," I asked him. "It's something that most of us in the portal business are calling the new smaller kingdoms that are emerging from all the fallen kingdoms. Can’t really call them proper kingdoms as they don’t have the staying power real kingdoms have," Arktos answered, to which I nodded.

"That's a nice name for it and describes what is happening on the continent quite well. I assume that this is happening all over?" To my question, Arktos looked a bit confused. "Do you not have access to a global mail system?" he asked, and to that, I nodded. "Well, that makes sense. Then you guys have missed a lot. Every month the world council sends a newsletter to explain what's happening in the world. Wait, have you even heard about the world council?"

To that, I shook my head. "The former capital that had the connection to the global mail system is not too friendly to us, and one of our contacts there even believes that they’re suppressing world news. One of our main goals for this trade mission is to get the required resources so we could be connected," my answer made Arktos quickly nod his head.

"Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of places are trying to suppress the news as it usually doesn’t fit the narrative they’re trying to make, and that’s a good idea about getting your own connection. It's important for the future, but let me fill you in on a few important things."

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"First, it turns out that the world government has been in existence for a lot longer than anyone expected, but usually, they just let nobles and kingdoms rule the regular people while they dealt with the higher ranks. But I guess that even you guys have heard about the empire and what they did with the plague?" To that, I nodded, so Arktos continued.

"Yeah, basically everyone knows that. So, one of the reasons that happened was a few higher-ranked people wanted their home empire to become the most powerful nation so they could slowly start influencing the council more."

"From what I heard, the battle to take down those higher-ranks wiped off the empire's capital, which was one of the biggest and most populated cities on the planet. The council wants a bit more visibility and so that people would understand more about the world so these things wouldn’t happen again. Slowly over time, they have started to explain their decisions more and give general news of what’s happening around the world." When Arktos finished, my mouth was completely open. What the hell have we been missing?

"Why does everyone react the same?" Arktos asked, which finally allowed me to take control of my mouth again. "This is quite overwhelming," I said, after which we both turned to the bay so we could both think in quiet for a little bit. Eventually, I said, "Those letters seem quite important, especially for my own nation. Do you perhaps know if it would be possible to purchase copies?"

Arktos didn’t answer immediately. "You know what, when you finally make it back here, I’ll collect the letters for you for only one monster core. You seem like a good sort and perhaps we could set up some sort of a trade deal as this city has a lot to give." Now it was my time to think. More close ties here would be nice, and selling to this place would mean that we wouldn’t have to collect such a fortune every time we wanted to trade.

At the current moment, I can’t think of anything crucial that we would need from this city, at least in the resource department, but for coin and core, it would still be good. “I’m not opposed to the idea, but I would need to come here so I can properly introduce myself to the city's markets, but that would have to be another trip I’m afraid. But not to worry, for my nation, jumping here is not that expensive." Arktos smiled and gave me a big nod of approval.

"That is good to hear. Our city has been suffering from the lack of trade that the plague has caused, but I’m a bit curious as to why you are referring to your home as a nation and not a petty kingdom?" Arktos asked. "Well, that's quite simple because we don't have a king, we have a council. My nation is called United Freeholds."

Now it was Arktos’s time to be surprised. "Not a kingdom, that's surprising but not unheard of. The name, however, United Freeholds, now that's unique." We ended up speaking until it was time for us to enter our portal. Arktos and I parted ways as good acquaintances and with another step, we were in another location and another trading city.

We had reached Lacustrion, the second stop. This city was much larger and situated at the shore of the massive lake named Verlum lake after the continent it's in. The lake was bigger than the fallen kingdom we came from, and we could see hundreds of fish farms and again countless small sailboats fishing. The attendants here weren't so friendly, but they were still professional.

Here we didn't need to wait because we needed to recover, but because there were wait times and schedules for portal usage in this larger city. It took us six hours before we were able to once again portal to the next location.

Sylvoverda was a richer trading city. They had access to rich farmland, a stupid amount of lakes and rivers, and a huge forest where the deeper parts were filled with monsters and dungeons where wealth could be extracted from.

When we were being led to a sitting area, I noticed that the road that led out from the portal complex into the larger city had people in robes who were constantly approaching people and trying to start up a conversation.

Our attendant noticed my gaze and let out a frustrated sigh before he spoke. "Those are followers of different religions who are trying to convince anyone who listens to start following their beliefs. A while back they were allowed inside the portal complex, but we got so many complaints that they now can’t enter, but unfortunately, we can't do anything about them being outside our complex."

"Fortunately for you, you don't have to worry about them as you won't need to leave the portal complex. If you, however, want to, just keep walking as any guard would immediately arrest them if they try to forcefully stop you." The news was sobering, especially after I was informed about religions and the churches. It seems that Rich has more experience with them and while most of the time they are problematic, some of the people who believe in those religions can be quite mad with their beliefs.