“The ship took a lot of damage, and I lost crew,” the captain said. “But we would have been lost without you. Thank you.”
I nodded. “Will you be able to repair and find replacement crew members in Mirut?”
“Probably. It will take a few days, maybe more. I can put a word in with some other ships in the port and find you faster passage south, if necessary, though I’d hate to lose you now.”
I wobbled my head in thought. “I wouldn’t mind a layover, if it’s only a few days.”
Mirut’s white stone gleamed in the sun as we approached, and I took in the sight of my childhood home. It remained a beautiful piece of paradise, and it was nice to be back. I planned to make use of my extra time there.
When we got into port and I stepped off the boat, I immediately noticed how much smaller my hometown felt. Things were familiar, yet I found my memories all slightly off. That was part of growing up, I knew, and even though I had an adult’s mind in my childhood, I was still surprised at how much my physical perspective had shaped my perception.
I moved away from the sailors who were salvaging the cargo from the damaged ship, passed the fishmongers and other local establishments, and made my way to the beach. Soft, white sand spread out across the bay in which the port and city were protected, the cliffs and the jungle on either end. I removed my boots and wiggled my toes into the sand, then sat back to relax after the long journey and stressful battle that punctuated the first half of the trip.
It had been an intense battle, but overall it had not actually been that hard. The colossal kraken was surprisingly squishy, unlike the dracosaur. Of course, we had fought it above water, and had we been underwater, it would have absolutely devastated us. The beast had also done substantial damage to the ship, though thankfully failed to sink it. We had done some clean-up before setting for Mirut, and I managed to get a few of the tentacles into my inventory to bring back with me for the high-value meat.
Sadly, there were too many eyes on the dead beast’s floating main body for me to take it. Fishing vessels were already setting out to haul it in for the meat, so at least it would not go to waste.
Killing a rank B beast had also pushed me to Level 50, so I pulled up my stats and considered what to do with the big five-oh.
Pilus Horgson (Lv 50)
HP: 398/398
MP: 466/543
Status: Absorption (major), Protection (major)
EXP: 3378/5000
Skills: 3-Point Magic(++), 4-Point Magic(++), 5-Point Magic(++), 6-Point Magic(++), 8-Point Magic(++), Acrobatics(++), Brewing(++), Butchery(+), Cooking(+), Detect(++), Enchanting(++), Foraging(+), Horticulture(+), Inkmaking(+), Inventory(++), Knotting(+), Leatherworking(+), Literacy(++), Mounted(++), Needlework(+), Negotiation(+), One-Armed(++), Ranged(++), Smithing(+), Stealth(+), Strength(++), Taming(++), Tanning(+), Two-Armed(++), Unarmed(+), Woodworking(+)
Fifty was such a tempting number to just dump into a single skill, which would raise an expert skill a whole 5% in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, I did not particularly have a skill which beckoned me to do so, except for maybe One-Handed or Two-Handed, which were both exactly at the expert level.
I was sort of using both for my current combat style with my giant sword, though, and was not sure which would suit me better. I decided to dump twenty points into each, raising them both 2% of the way to a master skill.
With the remaining ten points, I put one into Strength, bringing it to an even 10% to mastery, then the final nine into Taming, bringing it to an even 60%.
“That’s nice and tidy, actually,” I mused, looking at my lengthy but pretty skill menu.
SP: 0
+ 3-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ 4-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ 5-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ 6-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ 8-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ Acrobatics (0/1000)
+ Brewing (0/1000)
+ Butchery (0/100)
+ Cooking (0/100)
+ Detect (0/1000)
+ Enchanting (0/1000)
+ Foraging (0/100)
+ Horticulture (0/100)
+ Inkmaking (0/100)
+ Inventory (0/1000)
+ Knotting (0/100)
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+ Leatherworking (0/100)
+ Literacy (0/1000)
+ Mounted (0/1000)
+ Needlework (0/100)
+ Negotiation (0/100)
+ One-Armed (20/1000)
+ Ranged (0/1000)
+ Smithing (0/100)
+ Stealth (0/100)
+ Strength (100/1000)
+ Taming (600/1000)
+ Tanning (0/100)
+ Two-Armed (20/1000)
+ Unarmed (0/100)
+ Woodworking (0/100)
I had expected Level 50 to feel like a bigger milestone, but in the end it was just another level. I had gained so much experience from the fight, despite so many sailors taking part in it as well, that I was quickly approaching Level 51 already, and knew that once I started hitting the dungeons in the south I would blow past this.
Last time I had sat on this beach, the idea of reaching Level 50 had still been both a serious dream while also seeming like a power fantasy that I may never attain. My level had basically tripled since I left Mirut, which made sense since I had been away for about twice as long as I had lived there, now.
Not that my growth had been even remotely linear. My time in Mirut was characterized by steady growth, trying to gain two to three levels per year. My time away had involved long periods of stagnation, punctuated by events that had driven me to become the man I now was.
Grunting, I sat up and shook off my thoughts. No point dwelling on it. I was back out in the world specifically to push myself again, grow like I had in the past, seeking new discoveries and learning more about the world, magic, and myself.
Before that could happen, though, I would enjoy a bit more of the nostalgia of my hometown.
* * *
Being an adult meant I could just walk up to the town gate and leave the wall, no sneaking or subterfuge required. I passed by my family’s cottage on the way, having promised Horg I would check in on it, and found everything in order. I knew the city guards under Horg’s former employ would be checking in on the area and making sure it was not being looted or vandalized, and Mirut was a peaceful enough place that I was not too worried that it would even have become a problem.
Things could have changed, though, and Mirut could be worse off than it was when I left, but it was almost like the seaside town was frozen in time. On the surface, it seemed unchanged. As I was heading out of the city walls, I even saw my old guard buddy Timur, just a handful of years my senior, now in his thirties and quite the capable guard from the looks of it. Sadly, I could not greet him as a friend, as I was in disguise, but I was glad to see him doing well for himself.
The jungle felt like home. I took a deep breath of the warm, humid air, and started to move through the foliage, headed south.
Thanks to the Tamers Guild, I had still seen many of the local beasts relatively recently. These jungle creatures were not the most common of the beasts kept by the Guild, but some, like griffators and ramhogs, had been bred for years now.
Others, like the vipises or stingknights, had not attracted much attention from tamers as of yet. I certainly did not encourage Guild members to bring them to me, when I ran the Guild, having left the bounty rather low for those creatures. I was not sure if Rena had changed that, but I had been happy to leave some of those monsters in my past, which I discovered when I stumbled onto a stingknight nest and began doing the world a service by exterminating it.
When I encountered a troop of treehoppers, who territorially attacked me since it was still spring and breeding season, I just put up a barrier and let them tire themselves out for a bit before casting a calming status on them so I could check out their babies. I smiled through my melancholy, remembering my time with Treepo.
My familiar had actually become a father so many years ago around this area. Perhaps this troop of treehoppers had even descended from him. I petted a small treehopper kit, then left them otherwise undisturbed as I continued into the jungle.
Hours later, I found myself at the location I had marked on my mental map. The entire space was completely overgrown, almost two decades later, and I had to hunt to find the stone marker I had left behind all those years ago. I rubbed my hand over the inscription that read “BIRDO” on the stone, the first of my tamed beasts to fall in battle for me. It was an event that had both taught me wariness and care when it came to taming beasts, but also one that had cemented that I wanted to tame as a big part of my life. It was a bit funny, then, that I had returned to Birdo’s grave not as a tamer, but as a swordsman, but life was like that sometimes.
I stood and stretched, looking further south and west, though I could not see very far into the jungle. Somewhere in that direction, I knew I would find a bit of a swamp full of furgs. I wondered if there was another draconewt out there. Given my strength now, I could probably tame one, but that would create a lot of questions that I could not answer, so with one last glance, I turned away and started heading north back to Mirut.
* * *
The next day, instead of exploring the jungle, I explored the town itself. As an adult, it did not seem very large, but my exploration took me all over. I headed out to the northmost part of the interior wall and found Morag the blacksmith still working hard, despite how much he had aged since I last saw him.
“That’s some sword,” the blacksmith commented on the slab I was lugging around on my back while I browsed his wares.
“Want to try and give it a swing?” I asked, handing it off to the man who I had first learned about the Strength skill from. He wielded it quite impressively, which was not a surprise given that he was actually a higher level than me and with a much more focused skill set.
“I like it, but I don’t think I could sell many of these around here,” he commented with a laugh, handing me back the greatsword.
I bought a few items from him, including the most expensive sword and knife he was offering for sale, since I knew most of his business was to the city guard who he sold to on the cheap. It felt good to inject some wealth back into my hometown, and once I was out of sight of the smithy I tucked the items into my inventory. My little brother Varus would like them, though he had plenty of access to high quality swords already.
From there, I made my way to Belat’s shop, and found it replaced with something new. After inquiring, it seemed the old woman who had taught me brewing and enchanting had passed away from old age. While Mirut seemed like it was frozen in time, in truth, it was just as swept up by the currents of time as anything else. I said a quiet goodbye to the cranky old woman before continuing on through the streets.
To my relief, the butcher shop was still there, but I found it being run by a younger man with a familiar face. I appraised him, and smiled a bit when I saw that the young man’s patronymic was Boshanson.
“Hullo there,” I said to the lad. “Is your pa around?”
“Not today,” the teenager answered.
“Is he, uh, doing well?”
“I guess? Why?”
“No reason,” I said, happy to hear the man was still around and seemingly all right. I glanced around at the meat for sale, and while I wanted to buy them out to inject some capital into Bosh’s family, I also did not want to deprive the local community of meat. There was no Adventurers Guild bringing in an excess in Mirut. “Say, what’s your most expensive cut of meat right now?”
The lad brought something out and I bought it, rounding up on the coin and telling him to keep the change. He thanked me and I waved it off, walking away. I would have liked to see Bosh, but maybe it was for the best, since I could not expose my identity.
With a very pricey piece of meat in hand, I headed back towards the port and my inn. Hopefully I could borrow the kitchen and get it cooked up and have a nice meal before I was back on the boat for weeks to continue the journey to Haklan.