Azura had spoken with the analyst for almost an hour. In that time he had learned a lot about the inner workings of this town. Unfortunately the news wasn’t exactly good. He had assumed he’d have to prove his strength, but he had thought it would be in a sparring match against the guide themselves which would also allow him to test them in return, but it would seem all strength measurements were done using the id given to those who challenge the tower. Apparently the card was enchanted to save the details of your accomplishments in the tower. Monsters killed, floors reached, time spent, and items used. It would be simple enough to get a card and then use his own enchantment magic to put false info on it, but he didn’t know the exact layout of the tower, so it wouldn’t be odd if he added something that gave him away.
He sighed. He had hoped to be out of the town before nightfall, but he’d rather not enter the tower while there were many other adventurers swarming inside. The monsters respawned regularly, but he didn’t really want to deal with the mad scramble for kills. As such he decided to enter the tower at night, though he had already gotten an adventurer id and a spire challenger card. If he was being honest it irked him that his adventurer rank was the lowest possible rank. He understood it in a sense, he had no achievements he could prove after all, but the E on his id bothered him more than it should. At least Spire achievements could be proven, so it was one of the few ways other than quests to rank up as an adventurer.
He had thought his magic association id would count towards his adventurer rank at least a little, but their counter that some mages reach high rank through research alone was fair so he resolved himself to doing things naturally. In the meantime he needed to find somewhere to rest. He had several hours before he would attempt the Spire, and no guarantee about how long traveling in the spire would take. As far as the analyst told him, the first 4 floors were relatively easy even for beginners, but every 5th floor the danger level took a major jump. In order to get a guide to World’s End he’d have to conquer at least 2 of those massive danger leaps.
In order to not stand out too much he intended to retreat after reaching floor 11. The record at the moment was floor 74. Apparently floor 75 was something tricky even for veteran adventurers. Based on the info he had gathered he was confident he could reach floor 50, but progressing past that would be far too dangerous. If he went all out to reach that goal not only would he be exhausted, but going so far on his first attempt would definitely cause a stir. As much as he enjoyed playing up the mysterious stranger vibe he wasn’t going to exhaust himself before his journey even started just for something like that.
He was curious about the treasure at the end though, and about the floors below -5. The first 5 floors beneath the Spire were simply training areas. Where weak monsters of various types gather so you could get an idea of what you would find in the higher levels. Of course the monsters in the higher levels were much stronger, but they would be similar in nature so the info would still be valuable in the long term. However there was a gate that supposedly led to -6 and beyond that would only open to someone with a massive amount of magic power. Since it had never been opened, and the creator of the Spire never told anyone no one really knew what was down there.
He thought it was rather cruel for the Spire to incite his curiosity to this degree since he wouldn’t be able to properly study it for a long time. Even he was able to keep his priorities straight after all. No matter how much Katy said he liked to go on tangents. He pulled himself from his whirling thoughts when he found himself in front of the inn the analyst had recommended to him.
He stepped inside without hesitation and was immediately surprised by the peaceful vibe. If he was being honest he had expected it to be extremely rowdy with adventurers drinking too much and challenging each other incessantly, but in defiance of his expectations they were calmly eating their meals and simply chatting normally. Few of them were drinking anything other than water which made sense really. Staying hydrated was very important especially if they were preparing to enter a contest of stamina like the Spire. He apologized in his heart for stereotyping them before having ever even spoken to an adventurer.
Even aside from the adventurers the whole place gave off a relaxing vibe. The walls were a light brown, with a few paintings of beautiful landscapes scattered across from them, and the floor was a well polished wood. All the furniture looked sturdy, but comfortable as well. Even if they were calm like this it was possible some adventurers wouldn’t realize their own strength so sturdy stuff was probably a requirement. The image was tied together by the soft music being played. It was quiet enough not to be distracting, but loud enough to be relaxing background noise.
Overall it was nice, but not to the point where it was too nice, and you were scared to touch anything. He smiled, he had never had a chance to stay at a place like this before. Whenever he had to travel with his father they always stayed somewhere ridiculous. Frankly he was just glad not to see a bunch of marble fountains. He really didn’t understand the mindset. Super fancy hotels were just as uncomfortable as really bad ones just in different ways. As with most things the best bet tended to be somewhere in the middle.
The innkeeper was on the left side with the bar on the right. He walked over towards the innkeeper. The innkeeper was a young man probably only a year or 2 his elder who seemed to be rather bored, but to his credit as soon as Azura got close the man immediately perked up and put on a friendly face. It was false, he hadn’t lost his political edge enough not to see that, but it was clear the boy took his job seriously, and that at least was refreshing.
“Hello, and welcome to Honeyside Inn. Are you looking to stay for just tonight, or are you looking to take up temporary residence?” He thought about that. Getting to the requisite spire floor would probably only take him a few hours, but who knew how long finding a guide would take. He hoped to be on his way by tomorrow, but he couldn’t be sure. On the other hand, wasting any more coin than necessary wasn’t a good idea. He had managed to save up a decent sum for a commoner of his age, but it wasn’t to the point of him being wealthy. Worst case he was more than capable of making himself a temporary residence outside the city if he had to.
“Just the 1 night should suffice.” It was only his need to enter the spire that made it necessary to find internal residence in the first place, so he decided to get by spending as little as possible. Unfortunately that also meant that he’d be eating the rations he had bought for this trip instead of buying a meal that would actually taste like something. At least the rations didn’t taste bad, it was best compared to eating water with the consistency of fresh bread. It contained all the necessary nutrients, and it was properly filling. Still he couldn’t say he liked them. They were more convenient, and they weren’t bad, but they just weren’t a substitute for a proper meal. Well that’s how he thought about them anyway. They still beat war rations even if they weren’t as effective.
“Very well, that will be 5 copper. 6 if you want breakfast included.” What? That was absurdly cheap. Rather that was cheap to the point of being suspicious. This was a nice enough place that even asking for 2 silver for a single night wouldn’t be unusual. The addition of breakfast being a copper or 2 was normal, but that initial price immediately set him to be wary. He didn’t show a visible reaction, so as to try and confirm without raising undue suspicion.
“Only 5 copper? That’s pretty cheap isn’t it?” Contrary to his expectations, the young man just looked confused. It seemed genuine as far as he could tell. Was there no reason? Or more likely did this person just not know anything about it. No, rather even if he didn’t know about this specific thing he should know that the price was way too low.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I mean I guess? Uhhh most of the inns around here are going to be about the same though. Umm I think there is one in the Borealis zone that costs 2 silver a night, but that place is super fancy.” 2 silver for a piece significantly fancier than this? Somewhere in a wealthier zone by the sound of it. Was it just this place? Of course he knew the economy would be different this far out on the frontier, but was it really to this extent?
He heard a tinkling laugh behind him. “Even if you ask Bernard like that he wouldn’t know. He was born and raised here after all.” The man behind the counter rolled his eyes and frowned. Azura got the impression that he knew this woman well, but wasn’t her biggest fan. “This place is pretty isolated, and we rarely have anybody with any real money come through here. Lake Spire is after all mostly a town of adventurers. Since few people come through here we have very little money circulating through around here. To compensate, everything here is a lot cheaper than it would be just about anywhere else.”
Ahh so that was it. He nodded in thanks to the red haired girl who appeared to be in her early 20s. She couldn’t be taller than 5 ft, and her eyes were a vibrant green. “So that’s how it is huh. Alright then, 6 copper it is.” If it was that cheap around here than even if he splurged on meals he would still end up spending way less than he had projected for this stop. He handed the coins to the innkeeper who jotted something down on his clipboard and then handed him a key with a card attached to the back that said room 206. He assumed that would mean the 6th room on the 2nd floor. Although it wasn’t impossible for a spell to make this place big enough to have over 200 rooms, it was pretty unlikely for such a spell to be used in a place like this.
“So what brings you here, oh mysterious stranger? I’m assuming you’re a mage of some sort, because I was sure that pouch was empty and yet you pulled 6 copper out of it. Quite the cautious type aren’t you?” He narrowed his eyes. He had made that spell more out of convenience for easily moving his funds. He had found transporting simple objects was much easier than complex ones so compared to teleporting himself his coins and other gear were easy. However it appeared to also work as a solid deterrent against thieves, no point stealing an empty coin pouch after all.
“What brings anyone here? As far as I can tell there is only 1 thing that people really come here for. As for this it’s just enchanted so I can reach into another space and pull stuff from there. Of course it doesn’t work if I don’t know the space I’d be pulling from or if I tried to reach into a space that isn’t properly prepared.” In other words it wouldn’t do anything for anyone else if it was stolen. He’d have to make another one though, and that would be a little annoying.
The girl had an interested glint in her eye. Perhaps in this kind of place where there wasn’t much to do other than go into the spire, choosing to act more mysterious than usual was a mistake. He hadn’t thought just this much would inspire the kind of curiosity he saw in her gaze. Rather he was starting to get the feeling he was dealing with another analyst. Which would be rather shocking considering he had only ever encountered 1 analyst in his entire life before now. They were in fact so rare as to make even unique magic seem widespread. “Oooh how fun. You seem to be hiding something! It’s not often anyone interesting comes around here. It’s just a lot of sob stories, and people who were all brawn and no brains.”
He didn’t think that was strictly accurate, but based on what little he knew about analyst abilities it wouldn’t be a stretch to say compared to her all but the few most devoted to their studies would seem stupid from her point of view. After all even though the analyst he had met before was 3 years younger than him she had always been able to outwit him. It was especially frustrating given her position and personality. Frankly if his sister didn’t like her so much he’d be more than happy never to see her again. “Oh? Am I bringing back unpleasant memories? Odd, I haven’t brought up anything strange. It must then be something about myself then right? Ahh, it would seem you figured me out already and have had a bad experience with an analyst, right?”
He sighed. As far as he understood, analysts were people who’s magic wasn’t suited for the use of spells, rather their magic was all used innately to increase their processing ability. It was to the point where in terms of study 1 analyst was easily worth 20 people, and that was of course at the lower end. There were people that were geniuses even among the analysts who might be worth even 1000 people in terms of studying. “Should I say as expected of one such as you? Rather even if it’s just this much, I’d rather you not try to pry into my secrets. After all we are strangers, and it’s none of your business.”
Obviously she would already have realized he was a noble. He still defaulted to his noble bearings when dealing with unfamiliar situations. Rather it was hard not to act like a noble when he was this stressed. Either way he was thankful to have met that old man, because otherwise he would have simply thought that all analysts were this way, but that one at least was normal. “My name is Melissa, what's yours?” He almost laughed. At the very least when it came to wordplay the other one he knew was at a much more advanced level than this. Though he supposed that much was to be expected.
“If we trade names that makes us not strangers, is that what you're getting at? Well either way I have no intention of giving out my name. In fact I think I’m starting to feel rather tired, so I’ll be retreating to my room for the night.” Melissa pouted, but seemed to be willing to stand down for now. He had no doubt she’d be waiting for him in the morning though. The innkeep apparently named Bernard, just gave him a pitying look. Apparently it wasn’t just him this woman had caused a lot of problems. He quickly retreated to his room. He sighed in relief once the door was closed and locked behind him. Of course no matter how nice the inn was there was no way he would be willing to just trust the inn's security so several enchantments were set. Some were basic defenses that most mages knew how to cast, but those were mostly just to disguise his much deeper enchantments.
Regular defensive spells were of course popular for a reason, they worked really well, and the lack of dedicated enchantment specialists meant there weren’t many that could disarm them without alerting the caster, but it was to be expected of someone who specialized in this branch of magic his defensive spells were leagues above what even most high security places could boast. Well aside from the imperial palace and the Aetrium that was. Well there were probably other places too, but those were the only ones he had ever seen. Once he felt that his location was properly secure he fell on the bed. A magic circle appeared next to him that reign appeared from as the rest of the familiars came out of their various hiding spots on his body.
Thanks to Phantasma’s magic no one else had registered their presence, so the only one anyone else knew was here was Reign. “So you called me back already? Shame I was actually quite enjoying the spirit world. The latent mana there is quite appealing.” He chuckled. Reign was actually the easiest familiar to keep hidden ironically. Dragons were beings of almost pure mana. They had a core that could generate and store absurd amounts of mana which was part of the reason they were so powerful. Though it also made them extremely valuable hunting targets. Their bodies were pure mana given physical form, which made them valuable commodities, and their core itself was invaluable. Something like that had a million uses, and as long as it was treated with care it wasn’t limited in how much it could be used. Because of their nature dragons were one of the few creatures that could survive in the ‘real’ world and the ‘spirit’ world without any issues.
“Yes, well it would be bad if you stayed there for too long. After all I’m not linked to a part of the spirit world you could reside in without issue. The wolves will overlook it if you’re there for a few hours, but longer than that could be dangerous. Of course I could always send you to the equivalent space of where we are now, but then I’d have no way of knowing what you’ll run into.” Of course if he could enter the spirit world himself safely for more than a few minutes at a time then it might be a different story, but for right now that was beyond him.
“You’re too soft, what do you care if a few wolf spirits die trying to remove me from their territory?” He took a deep breath. As usual Reign’s thought process was totally foreign to him. Of course he knew well enough that dragon instincts were very different from humans, but that alone shouldn’t be the cause. Then again he supposed his father’s thought process would probably align closer to Reign’s than his, so perhaps he was the odd one. For now he decided not to retort. He would need his rest, tomorrow was going to be a busy day.