Chapter 145: Journey 3
The evening was quiet, the tension from the evening disappearing within safe walls. Apparently, traveling can get quite dangerous with a little bad fortune.
Any driver worth half his salt will steer clear of known monster hot spots. Never buy a cheap driver; they will get you killed. Of course, that tip is redundant, given I can fly at high speed. Not only can I fly at high speed, but I also own an airship company. Yet, here I am traveling in a carriage, along rough dirt roads.
I can only sigh at my situation as I watch the greenery go by. If anything, I love how clean this world is. The air crisp, smooth, far less acidic compared to earth. I never noticed it while living there, but my previous world had a metallic, electric taste to it – got to hate pollution.
Speaking of pollution, is the earthen empire already causing it? I haven’t looked into it, but it may be a risk. Something to check in future, it is better to prevent, rather than fix, as my world proved.
To my appreciation, the monotony of traveling will soon be broken up by the first town.
Gazing through the front window, I see the grey brick town slowly come into my view. A tantalizing oasis, ready to satiate my parched boredom; I have missed civilization.
Although my company is good, I tire of eye spy and card games. I need food, socialization, and new sights. The dreary look of the driver slowly disappears as the town comes into view. Clearly, another suffering member of this carriage, having missed towns too. How I lived in the wilderness without madness, I do not know.
Once the carriage reaches the gate, it stops. Through the thin wooden walls, I hear muffled voices.
A masculine voice, the guard; “documents, and reason for a visit!”
The driver replies, “here are the documents, taking a break before continuing the journey.”
The voices pause for a moment undoubtedly, the guard is checking the documents. “Okay, the seals are legitimate; here are your papers. Where is your end location, and who are you carrying.”
“We are heading to the capital; I am currently carrying Lady Mor, her son, and a guest named Aeternum.”
“The Aeternum?!” The guard shouts. “Please, you must let me meet him.”
Sighing, I open the door. “Hello, nice to meet you,” I say, holding my hand out.
The guard rushes to my side, grasping my hand and shaking it up and down. “Damn, you are famous; never in the nether did I think I would meet you.”
“I see my reputation precedes me.”
“Of course, the dragon slayer, island constructor, technological entrepreneur; you’re a legend!”
He must have seen my downtrodden expression, quickly calming down. “You okay?”
“I’m fine… Just… Being famous is kind of new to me.”
He steps back, “of course, sorry for stopping you. Please be on your way.”
Returning to the carriage, I spot Jengal laughing. “Something funny?”
“Nope.” He says, a big grin on his face.
Rolling my eyes, I feel the carriage start to move. Watching as the walls shift for wood and brick buildings, people passing by merrily. We must have taken a detour, as this town is unfamiliar. Only having taken major roads when traveling personally, did catch me by surprise.
Nonetheless, we are finally inside a town. Excitement bubbling up like spritzer bubbles; food, friends, things!
Once we reach nearly the center of the town, we turn to the side. We quickly come upon an open area, the docked carriages tell me of its purpose. Spotting a variety of different carriage, one catches my eye. It is in the middle of parking, a golden monstrosity encrusted with vaults worth of gems; it screams gaudy.
And to no surprise, a man and woman disembark. They are decked head to toe in purples reds, golden jewelry, and diamonds across their whole body. Feeling a little outdone, I opted to step out of the carriage with my armor visible. They turn to us, a dismissive look on their face until they see me. They have to look at me twice, surprise clear.
Without wasting a moment, they scurry over to me.
“Hello, good sir.” The man says.
“Hello, how can I help you?”
“We just wished to enquire why someone of your standing is in such a poor carriage.”
“The seats are soft; that is all I care about.”
“Humble, good, well met, stranger.” He then walks away, faces a mixture of emotions.
“Weird,” I say to myself. Seeing Jengal and his mother at the side, smiles on their face.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
His mother is the first to speak, “friends of yours?”
Shrugging, “apparently, never met them before.”
Turning back and looking at the carriage, “hate that carriage. Screams opulence and waste, how pointless.”
“Agreed,” Jengal says.
His mother speaks, “meet here in 2 hours?”
“Sounds good.”
We all split up, our own things we want to do. This town is on the smaller end, and given my mobile home, we have no need or wish to sleep here. I am pretty sure Jengal is off to explore; his mother mentioned a spa. Might ask her about that; a spa day sounds great. As much as it is a little emasculating, I do like being pampered too.
For now, I just walk through the town. Getting a few looks, nothing too intense. Curious onlookers gaze at me irrespective of my armor, clothes, my body itself is the problem. I could perhaps disguise myself. If I recall, the magic mirror allows you to disguise yourself as anyone you have the blood of.
Funny fact, depending on how staff members for servers were added, if you used their taglock on the mirror, you could get their permissions. Extremely broken, if circumstantial. If they got a staff rank given through on server commands, it worked. If they got it through the console? They were immune. Most moderators were given it through the server, whereas any server worth a damn used console for admins and above.
Still fun using the glitch, becoming a fake admin, and trolling people. Never really used it for the access to game mode Creative; I have enough duplication glitches for that. Anything with twilight forest, ars magica, or with inventory items; they generally all work. In fact, ars magic is just the most abusable mod I know.
Quickly, a market comes into sight. The sweet smell of spiced meats wetting my pallet. “Don’t mind if I do.”
It's not long before I'm overwhelmed by the array of street food. Eventually, I settle for the most average of my choices. Leaving the market with shishkabobs in hand, ripping the unknown meat from the stick. “Don’t care what it is; it tastes nice.” My face now visible for the world to see as I scoff my food.
Coming across a library, I wander in. The librarian quickly points to a sign, a big piece of meat with an X on it. “Sorry,” putting my meat skewers in my golden bag.
Approaching the counter, “how much for entry?”
“1 silver,” the brown-haired woman hesitantly says.
Handing her the silver, I disappear into the bookshelves. For an unassuming front door, it has quite the array of books within. Opting not to lose myself in the “story” aisle, I head to an area with a semblance of magic. Looking for books around magical energies, for curiosity's sake.
It takes a while, but I find a small book named “energies of our world.” Perusing its pages, I see breakdowns of the different energies.
Excerpt from the book “Energies of the world” By Rosalie
Natural energy, nature energy, druidic energy, life energy; all alias for the most basic form of environmental energy. In its simplest, it is the life force of non-sapient living entities. We have already covered Vitality and Mana, the energy that grants sapient species, life.
Druids, the most common specialists utilizing life energy; their research has brought us far in the knowledge of this energy. Yet, we learn the most from entities that live off that energy, such as dryads. It is a common misconception that their magic is life energy, it is far from it. They utilize the next tier of environmental energies. They take in life energy to sustain their existence and convert to the next tier to be utilized. When you see a dryad disappear into the forest, they are using nature essence. A distillation of pure natural energy, the concentration and power are leaps apart from the run-of-the-mill natural energy.
What I am teaching here is not all higher tiers of energy are hybrid energies or from superior sources. Some come from humble sources, converted, concentrated, or manipulated into different, more potent forms. Mana is an exception to this rule, crystalizing when concentrated. Otherwise, most energies can be concentrated into a more powerful form.
“Damn, this book is great.” Hailing the librarian, “can I buy books here?”
She shushes me before saying, “no.” Damn, that sucks.
Wait, books can be added to that reading app. Whipping out my phone, I hastily add the book to the reading app. Far better than stealing the book I believe.
With my book lawfully stored within the phone, I leave the library. Just before exiting, I hand a phone to the librarian. Winking at her before leaving the building. A smile on my face, I wonder what to do next.
Screw it, let’s give out free phones. Stepping into the market and hastily shouting “free phones!” Just passing out phones to whoever walks by. Quickly, a large crowd of people forms around me. So many people, in fact, I struggle to give out the phones. Eventually, I just pour a small mound of them on the floor, flying away. Smiling as I see a small fight break out over the phones. Sorry, Mayor of this town.
Quickly landing to not get the guards ire, I walk towards an armory. Seeing swords and shields lining the walls in a variety of materials, shapes, and sizes. Most wandering in out of curiosity, I peruse this man's wares.
“Looking for anything?” Turning, I see a muscular, silver-haired man approaching my side.
“Nothing really, just looking.”
“Tourist?”
“What gave it away.”
“The armor, the face; would have remembered that face of yours.”
“That’s fair,” I shrug. “You make all this?”
“Yeah, every last piece… except that knife.” Following his index finger, I see a small shoddy knife mounted on the wall.
“Apprentice?”
“Son.”
“I see, a blacksmith like his old man?”
“No, he has dreams of being a merchant. He will be back here in 5 years after he fails.” The old man says, laughing a little.
“No optimism for his chances?”
“He is terrible with money, couldn’t buy bread from Margs. Anyway, he has a slim chance of succeeding, nonetheless, he is allowed to try. He either makes a living off it or returns here and follows my footsteps.” The older man shrugs.
“Fair enough, might I ask what you think the best sword in here is?”
“Sure, come over here.”
I follow the man to the counter, he passes me an iron sword. Dense sugarcane for the hilt, and the blade has marbling, “looks nice.”
“Damn right, I love this sword.” He says, admiring the blade. “Probably the best blade I've made recently.”
“Fair enough, nice to meet you.” Shaking the man's hand. I hand him a phone, “for the pleasant conversation. The power button is on the side, have fun.”
The man takes it, curiosity all over his face. I leave the store, happy with my phone distribution progress.
Should have insisted on a quest, I would be rewarded with ease. Well, no use crying over spilled milk. I get the internet out of this, so I don’t mind.
Can't wait for music to be produced, innovation, youtube videos; god I miss watching youtube videos. Although, the videos produced on this world will be of a different flavor.
I look forward to the future.