Chapter 10
Delver Citadel [https://imageshack.com/i/pmtOcJZ0p]
Western Limerglade mountains are large and impressive mountain grades separating Empire of humans and lands which mortal men came around to call Riftlands. Limerglade mountains are considered impassable. Even pillars of Empire, men of great power don’t dare to stray too deep.
Men who try to pass through Limerglade Mountains aren’t seen anymore. Those few who come back tell stories of spirit beasts in form of ice, rock, and wind. Songs in ancient tongue sound over the snowy peaks of mountains putting to sleep any traveler who hears them and doesn’t matter how long you are going to travel in the Limerglade mountains you will never cross to the other side. Cold just gonna get harsher and spirit beasts are more vicious. No one has ever crossed them.
In only safe passage through Limerglade mountains, there is settled a rich bustling city. High defense walls end in cliffs on both sides of the passage.
In between walls and cliffs is settled a loud nest of human activity. The huge city in the rocky valley was the west point of the Empire. West guard of humanity. Blood has been drawn many times in past centuries when hordes of Eldritch riftkin tried to push into the dominion of humanity. Riftkin has never succeeded.
Order of Delvers stood valiant and has held this passage as long as history tells.
This place is called Delver Citadel.
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Delver Citadel was a city dedicated to warfare. Warriors, merchants, craftsmen, and whores were the most represented professions in this city of steel and sweat.
Many youngsters from all over Empire came here to find a party and gain strength in Riftlands, but most never came back. Those who returned brought with them essence-rich materials from their adventures.
Merchants bought these materials and distributed them to the rest of the Empire. They also delivered Delver Citadel food and luxuries for warriors to indulge in before they decide to venture out into Riftlands once again.
Countless smithies and leather workshops were located on the sides of the road bustling with activity. There was always a demand for new weapons and armor. Chimneys of workshops never stopped puffing out dark smoke, leaving the city darker and the air heavy and smoggy.
Four ragged warriors went through the busy streets of Delver Citadel with a purpose in their step. Party looked strange even in this frontier city.
Their leader was an old man with fresh wounds on his head. What was strange about him was his level 8 Guardian class. Usually, anyone who had managed to survive up to his age had at least tier II class on his hands. Considering how low was his level, he must have been living a safe and sheltered life. For a coward like him to come to Delver Citadel was out of the ordinary.
He was accompanied by three youngsters who have clearly come here to try their luck in dangerous Riftlands. Two of them had Spearman classes, which also was unusual. Delver tier I class was why people came here in the first place, so to see other uncommon classes was noteworthy.
One of the Spearman was a woman. She had her face recently bandaged and you could tell her gender only by the raven black hair behind her. She looked even stronger than the male Spearman beside her.
Human women were weaker than men in general, so as a result, their stats improved their bodies even less. The difference in power between genders would only grow with levels. Women who wanted to fight choose Adept class and became casters. Adept class granted a tier I talent - mana missile. Adepts were strong additions to any team as safe damage dealers from afar versus more dangerous foes.
Each human had a different base capability to channel mana. This capability is different for everyone, but females have a naturally bigger mana pool and mana regeneration than males. That’s why they get most from mana-based classes. Each Intelligence stat point expands the mana pool by 5% and Wisdom stat point improves mana regeneration by 5%. INT and WIS also have minor effects on the mental aspects of the human mind, but they are harder to gauge.
The third youngster had the Silent Watcher class. Silent Watcher wasn’t a class any of the veterans recognized but the name heavily implied a scout of some kind. A youngster with a rare tier I class specialized in scouting was the rarest treasure even here in the frontier. Common and uncommon classes you can find all around the Citadel, but rare class, as the name implies, is a rare find. Secrets in achieving them are valued in mountains of gold.
The young man was followed by many thoughtful looks and from time to time somebody approached him to recruit him, but they were only met with silence.
A Party size of four was also out of the norm. Twelve people were standard as the system split experience up to a dozen men and no more. In a large group, you ensured your safety. Often people preferred to delve into even higher numbers than dozen even if it slowed down leveling to a crawl.
Four warriors reached their goal and entered the Exploration hall. The huge foyer was decorated in a combination of Imperial style and the colors of Orden of Delvers. Rich tapestry decorated the walls of the room and marble columns held the ceiling up giving the foyer a feeling of might and grandeur. The tapestry on the walls was imperial red with black snake motives, while the marble ground was colored brown with patterns of white blades crossed under the helmet.
Hall was packed with young Delvers waiting in several lines.
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“Welcome to Exploration hall, please rest your weapons by me,” the attendant at the doors spoke to them,” What’s your business here? If you wish to copy the map with currently active rifts, go to line number one. The fee will be 10 imperial talons. 20 talons if you don’t have your own paper and ink.”
“We located rift a week's travel away from Delvers Guild, and we want to sell the location for the compensation,” Linus said.
Attendant gave them a skeptical look and waved for his helpers to take their weapons, “Lying and wasting scry crystal is punished by a fee of 50 000 talons or imprisonment in case you can’t pay a fee on the spot. Are you aware?”
“No, but it doesn’t matter,” Linus answered.
“Then proceed to line number five, it’s that one,” attendant pointed them to the clerk with no people in front of him.
They went through the room towards the clerk they were pointed to. Delvers in other lines followed them with curious glances as they went past them.
“State the name of your party and your business here!” older clerk said without looking up from her paperwork.
“Mad Dogs of Rosmorre. We want to disclose the location of the newly formed rift a week's travel from Delver Citadel,” Linus said to her.
Clerk looked up at them mildly surprised, “Which strata?”
“Rift is occupied by Eldritch Souleaters,” Linus didn’t know anything about strata.
“Blind in the light, see in the dark, sharp claws, swarms, kidneys used for pain relievers, eyes used in magical rites, born from level 10 to level 20?” clerk aggressively scribbled something in her papers.
“Emm, they were blind, yeah. We saw level 17 and 18 ones,” Linus said and clerk looked over their party checking their classes and levels.
“If you lie, you…”
“We know! We know!” Linus interrupted her, “We are telling truth. We barely survived.”
“Follow me,” clerk said and left her post going through doors behind her.
Party followed her and found themselves in a room with a large map settled on an impressive ornate wooden table. The map displayed Riftland’s and it showed land a lot further than the one they previously copied for 20 talons when they were coming through here as still unawakened.
The map was colored with purple spots and every spot released purple magical light from it. Farther west you looked purple spots became more numerous and their shade even darker. The west corner of the map was completely covered in dark purple light with no separation between individual spots.
Two women in clerk uniforms were playing cards on the table with a magical map without giving a damn about the map under it.
“Isrelia! Miko!” their clerk shouted at the girls, “Don’t tell me you have nothing better to do anymore!”
Girls squeaked and hide cards in hurry.
“No, mam!” one of them said, “We just took a small break.”
“I will deal with you later. Bring one scry crystal here!” clerk said angrily, “Move!”
Girls hurried to follow the clerk’s order and brought a large crystal to the table.
“Show me where you found this rift,” she said to Linus.
Linus came closer to the map and looked over it trying to read it properly, “We were going to this beginner rift with the weakest of riftkin.”
“Outer strata rift,” clerk specified.
“Yea, yea. Outer. We were crossing this river and went too far west,” Linus carefully looked over the map, “Rift should be here!”
Linus pinpointed the spot on the map and looked up at the clerk proudly. Zaun came from Linus' back and pointed to a completely different spot.
“Haha!” Jack laughed from their backs.
“Zaun is probably right,” Linus cheeks became slightly red.
Clerks put the crystal on top of the designated spot and placed their hands on top of it.
After a minute of channeling crystal broke into small pieces and in the map under the crystal, there appeared one more purple spot.
“Scrying crystal found your rift,” clerk said to their party with a smile, “Good job on that. Let’s go back to my desk and I will get you your reward. It’s deep strata rift, you are lucky you met only Eldritch Souleaters.”
They went back to her deck. She called out to a different clerk who brought eight heavy bags with imperial talons.
“Eight thousand talons for the location of deep strata rift. Here you go,” clerk said, “You can count them if you want, but I wouldn’t advise flashing thousands of coins in a room full of greedy delvers.”
“We gonna believe your word, darling,” Jack winked to clerk and Mad Dogs left the Exploration hall with the eyes of other delvers on them.
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“We are rich!” Orla laughed counting tiny golden coins laid out on the bed.
“How rich are we?” Jack asked.
Mad Dogs were gathered together in Jack’s room in the tavern where they stayed for a night.
“It's not that much,” Linus sat beside Zaun watching coins with thoughtful eyes, “After we buy better sets of armor not much will be left over.”
“What’s wrong with our armor?” Orla asked.
“It’s weak. It’s light, but the weight doesn’t matter if it can’t stop neither blade nor claw.” Linus twirled a single coin in his hands, “Besides Jack’s armor set is complete garbage now. There are more gaps than in your teeth.”
A golden coin flew and hit Linus on his forehead bouncing off and slowly spinning on the floor.
“I also need an axe or hammer,” Jack said, “Fighting with big toothpicks is not my style. No offense to any spearman in this room. And a bigger shield. And good dagger. Two of them.”
Zaun picked his hand up in agreement.
“You also don’t like fighting with a spear?” Orla asked in fake outrage.
Zaun smiled and nodded. He drew the form of an axe in the air with his finger.
“After we gear up for four people and also buy supplies for our next expedition, we will be almost broke again,” Linus pointed out.
“Then we better leave Citadel as fast as we can,” Jack concluded, “Tomorrow we will go shopping, and the day after tomorrow we gonna go back to Riftlands.”
Mad Dogs nodded in agreement.
“And this evening we are drinking,” Orla said.
“Cheers to that,” Jack agreed.
They picked up some coins, hide the rest, and went down to the tavern floor to enjoy the evening.
“Thanks,” Jack said to the rest while they went down the stairs.
“For what?” Linus asked.
“For not leaving me to die,” Jack said silently, “It means more to me than you might think.”
“No problem, geezer!” Orla chuckled.
“You better defend us good for that, you crazy old man!” Linus said.
Zaun pressed Jack’s shoulder and they went below to enjoy the evening with people and some good drinks.