~ Chapter 79: Soldra Town ~

[Back to present time]

[Alkelios’ point of view]

 We set up camp in a spot Kalderan found suitable. I was curious about how he managed to survive in this world for so many years despite being such a low level and only those weapons of his, although, what made me curious was the actual process with which he managed to make them.

If the people of this world got a hold of gunpowder technology and modern weapons, then the next best thing to do was to find a way to protect ourselves against them and also a way to use them in combat against monsters. I was not of the type to think that modern tech was bad, after all, I was a walking nuke launcher... What modern weapon could be worse than this? Biological ones could not even be made without the proper equipment and there were things like the Cure All plant, which basically made a lot of diseases and viruses not to be a threat anymore.

After Kalderan made the fire, he set up a small blanket and leaned his back against the trunk of a tree. He kept quiet while staring at the dancing flames.

“Hm, guess I should make camp too...” I said as I saw that he was not going to unpack a tent or anything.

Activating my skill [Black Hole], I then pulled out a tent from there together with two portions of cooked steak. It was still warm and smelled delicious.

“Want some?” I asked Kalderan.

The man was staring at me with big eyes.

“What?” I asked tilting my head to the left.

“T-That? What did you just do?” he asked.

“I activated one of my skills. It’s from the God-like. It helps me store stuff in it. To be honest, it’s ridiculously convenient, but it doesn’t have any other functions.” I shrugged and then deactivated the skill.

I sat down next to the fire and offered the extra plate to him. He did not refuse it.

“I wish I had something as convenient at that... My skills... they aren’t that great.” he told me and then took a bite from the steak. “This is good.” he said after he swallowed.

“Your skills aren’t that good? Who told you that?” I asked out of curiosity as I began to eat as well.

The tent I took out was right behind me, but it was still packed. After I ate, I would have to set it up.

“Everyone...” he replied and then took another bite.

“Hm? But I find your translating skill to be particularly useful, especially if you were to find yourself by the side of an ambassador. You can easily understand what the other party says as if they were speaking your natal language. When I hear you now, it sounds like you are a native speaker of Eastern Draconian. I lived among them, so I can tell.” I told him and then took another bite from my stake.

Forks and knives were for the weak. Sticky fingers were annoying though.

“You do? Well, at first, I thought the same... but if you can’t get out of Soldra and catch the eye of such an individual, its rather hard to make any use of it.” he told me with a wry smile.

“Soldra?” I asked.

“Yes, the town that can found just outside of this forest. It looks like a pear, has a palace in the center, a bunch of churches around it, and it was basically the beginner area for a lot of us earthlings.” he explained.

“Oh! I think I saw it on my way here, but I only caught a glimpse of it. I think the shape thing was one of the things I didn’t notice. But getting back to the subject, what skills do you have to say that they are useless?” I asked him.

Kalderan looked into my eyes and then back at his food “Some other time... for now, I don’t feel like talking about it.” he told me.

“Sure thing.” I shrugged.

We just met, so there was no way he would reveal something like that so easily unless I had guessed what it was for the most part. Then again, it was worth a shot. As for me, I also found myself in a similar position. I wouldn’t reveal that I was a half-draconian just yet. Of course, I did not plan on hiding it if he asked me directly. I was quite confident in my strength that even if it was revealed what I was, I would be able to get away from anything this country tossed at me.

After I ate, I lent him one of my tents and used a Warding Crystal to make sure we didn’t get any surprise visits from the local monsters. They would probably just be similar to a pesky mosquito for me, but not for Kalderan. The things here could kill him if he wasn’t careful.

That night, I fell asleep almost immediately. The whole day felt like it had been longer than it seemed. Maybe it was, after all, who could say that on the same day, they got up embracing their lovely wife, went to war, won it, got teleported in the God-like’s room, then they were sent three years into the future on another continent?

Yes, for me... it was one looong day, and I already missed sleeping with Seryanna. I couldn’t even imagine how she felt without me by her side for the past three years. It almost seemed like I was in her life for just a couple of moments before I vanished again who knew where. I didn’t like that... not one bit.

The following day, I woke up before sunrise when I sensed movement in the camp. I got out of my tent, and I saw Kalderan maintaining his SMG.

“Did I wake you up?” he asked.

“YAWN! Yes, but it does not matter. What are you doing?” I asked him as I got out and began to do some stretching.

Unlike him, I properly changed into some more comfortable clothes before I went to bed. My armor and weapons were stored within the [Black Hole], but since I could not just walk around with nothing at my waist, I made use of my mass-produced swords. It was simple, easy to use, but if I tried to attack with more than 50% of my power, the blade would shatter to bits.

“Maintenance. You changed your clothes? Weren’t you worried that someone might attack you in the middle of the night?” he asked me with a raised eyebrow.

“As if anyone could.” I laughed and then started to pack the tents.

“True. Judging from the amount of strength you showed me yesterday, I doubt any adventurer in Soldra can do anything to you. But I am not too sure about monsters. You said the Warding Crystal helps keep monsters away, but why are you sure about that?” he asked.

“I’ve seen its effect in the Seculiar Forest where it kept monsters over level 200.” I replied.

“Over 200?! They are that powerful over there?” he asked me.

“Most mobs on the Dragon Continent are like that.” I replied in calm tone of voice as if it was nothing.

True, even a low level draconian could defeat something like a regular mob.

“Oh, but the sheep are dangerous.” I told him.

“What? They go ‘baaa’ too much?” he scoffed.

“No, they hunt wolves and eat the flesh of lost adventurers.” I replied with a smile.

“What?” he looked at me a bit shocked.

“Yup. I’m not kidding here. If you see a sheep on the Dragon Continent, run and don’t look back.” I advised him in a serious tone of voice.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” he nodded.

“Anyway, we’re going to Soldra today, right?” I asked him.

He nodded.

“Anything I should know?” I asked as I activated [Black Hole] in order to store the packed-up tents inside.

“Just keep quiet until you learn the language. Speaking draconian around these parts can be very dangerous. If the slavers hear you, they might try to get a collar around your neck. Well, if you really need to tell me something, do so in a whisper.” he warned me.

“Slavers? Slavery is a thing here?” I asked him.

“Yes. Isn’t it the same on the Dragon Continent?” he raised an eyebrow.

“No.” I shook my head “Slavery isn’t technically illegal, but it’s frowned upon and not used by the majority of the dragons. I do remember hearing something about it being more common on the Human Continent, but I do not know any details about it. How are slaves treated here?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Like items. They are tools the masters can do what they wish with them. The laws are made in such ways that anyone can easily become a slave. Many earthlings ended up in this position when they first arrived in this world.” he had a sad gaze in his eyes as he told me this, but there was also a hint of anger in there as well.

Maybe something happened to someone he knew? I thought, but I did not ask him about it.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I nodded.

“You should because not many did.” he said and then went back to doing the maintenance of his guns in silence.

We left the campsite at sunrise.

On the way, he told me a few of the basic laws there, such as: don’t interfere in the punishments the nobles give out to commoners, no matter how unjust they may look; don’t attack a noble under any circumstances; don’t disagree with the nobles unless you have power to back it up; don’t think that the Adventurers Guild will protect you if anything happens between you and the nobles.

Those were the most important ones, in rest it was the same as it was everywhere: don’t steal, don’t kill, etc.

On top of all of these rules, he also told me not to speak and only wait patiently for when he will translate me the conversation.

Somehow or another though, I had the feeling that I was going to end up breaking several of them at one point. Actually, knowing myself and what he explained so far, chances were I WAS going to break those rules sooner or later. I preferred later, preferably AFTER I got to learn the language and earn Kalderan’s trust.

After around two hours of walking, we finally reached the gates of the Soldra town. From a single glance I could tell they weren’t enchanted in any way or manner. They were just a pair of huge metal and wood doors I could crush with flick of my finger. The walls were the same.

Kalderan spoke with the guards and pointed at me once, then gave them a few coins. I listened to their conversation and tried to make sense of their words, but I could only pick up the accent a bit and the order of the words, like where the verb was placed in a sentence.

After we got in, Kalderan whispered to me “I just told them that I will pay the entry fee for you. I vouched for you that you aren’t a criminal, so if you do anything stupid here, it will be my neck on the line.”

“Got it. Just follow those rules you told me, right?” I replied with a thumbs up.

“Yes.”

We then walked around the town and I was shown the commoner areas. Since Kalderan was neither a wealthy merchant nor noble, he couldn’t get entry to the inner town without a summon from someone. The security was far stricter over there than it was here.

Apparently, four years ago the town had a circle shape, not that of a pear. When the earthlings came, adventurer numbers went up and so did the various requests and the income rate of monster materials. As a result, the town prospered and soon developed outwards. They built an extra layer of walls and a sturdy gate to keep monsters away, but in the case of a siege from an enemy nation, this part of town would fall less than a day.

The craftsmen area was to the Southwest of the city and contained most of the shops available to adventurers and commoners, while the higher quality ones were located in the Rich Merchant Area of the town.

I took a look at their wares to see what they had for sale, but nothing caught my eye. When I showed them my sword, most blacksmiths were surprised beyond measure and asked me in what dungeon I found it.

Apparently, this mass-produced sword was worth a lot more than I had thought, but seeing the other items here on display, I could understand why. My sword could cut through with easy every single armor and weapon they made. After all, it was enchanted.

It was in one such shops when a well-dressed black-haired man in his twenties approached me and said something while pointing at my sword. I understood the words ‘sale’, ‘give’, and ‘me’, but I could not understand if he wanted to buy it, take it from me, or tell him where I got it.

“This noble wants to know if you will sell the sword for 400 gold coins.” Kalderan whispered to me.

“Huh? No.” I replied.

“Are you sure? That’s a lot of money.” Kalderan told me.

“Yeah, if we need money, we can just sell some gems.” I shrugged, but my words took him by surprise.

“You’re actually rich, aren’t you?” he asked me.

“According to dragon standards, yes.” I nodded.

I wasn’t an idiot not to be aware of the value of my own assets, but the reason why I refused to sell the sword was simple: he was a human, and humans were currently in a hostile relationship with dragons. I couldn’t bear the thought of them using my own weapons to kill the dragons and dragonesses I had fought side by side on the battlefield.

The noble listened to what Kalderan said and apparently didn’t accept it. He made another offer showing two fingers, then another showing three fingers. I managed to understand the words for ‘gold’ and ‘hundred’, as well as the numbers ‘one’, ‘two’, and ‘three’. He probably raised the offer to 500, then to 600, and the last one to 700.

I was afraid he would want to take it by force, but it was a needless worry. In the end, the noble took one last glance at me and then left looking dejected.

After he left, Kalderan sighed and then said “That was a lot of money... my pay for more than 10 years.” he commented.

“I’m sorry.” I told him with a wry smile.

“No worries, it wasn’t like it was my gold anyway.” he replied and then let out another sigh.

After this we walked through the town for another half an hour or so. We ate some sort of skewered meat from a food stand and then decided to head to the Guild Hall. Here, we could sell some of the monster materials we managed to gather and take new quests.

The building itself was located in the middle of the Adventurers Area and had two inns placed to its left and right respectively. It was a good location from a business point of view. Unlike the ones on the Dragon Continent, this building was a bit smaller and while having only two floors, it felt rather cramped.

Before we entered, however, four adventurers came out and greet Kalderan. One of them wore barbarian-style armor with fur popping out everywhere. He wielded a big black sword on his back and had spiky red hair. One wore a full plate armor, but it didn’t appear to be steel, maybe iron. He wielded a large tower shield and a big hammer. The third one was an archer wearing a hooded leather armor and smelled like grass. The fourth one was a woman with average looks and wore thick leather armor. She had a bow on her back and a pair of daggers sheathed at her waist.

At first, I thought they were Kalderan’s friends because they came out and greeted him, but then I saw the sneer on the redhead’s face. He said something that made the others laugh and Kalderan clenched his fist and grimace. It probably wasn’t something nice. When the woman noticed me, she winked at me, and I could feel a chill running down my spine. In reflex, I showed her my ring, and she said something back, probably a curse because her face expression didn’t look nice.

The redhead guy noticed me as well and then said something. Kalderan didn’t translate, but I don’t think he needed to. It had something to do with them and me, probably something like a request to join their group or maybe a warning that I would never get into a group if I stayed with Kalderan. Either way, I didn’t think any of the said options mattered to me. They had nothing of interest to me, and I already disliked their personalities.

The redhead tried to tell me something again, he was speaking louder than before and appeared to be slightly angry. In the end, he spat down at my feet and walked past us. The full-plated man tried to bump into me, but I stood still, resulting in him falling on his back.

Kalderan was surprised by this, but I wasn’t. I knew what that guy tried to do, but such pathetic intimidation acts would never work against a Breakthrough-er like me.

The guy got up, he said something to me, showed me a throat slitting threat and then left.

I merely shrugged and then asked Kalderan “Just out of curiosity, but were those guys the local idiots?”

He looked into my eyes with surprise and then laughed “No, actually, they were my former party members until they decided that I was of no use to them. They kicked me out of their party and spread the rumor that I was useless adventurer. As a result, not that many people wanted to join me.” he showed me a wry smile.

“I don’t think you have useless skills, maybe you just haven’t figured out the proper way to use them.” I told him.

“Thanks.” Kalderan showed me a smile and then entered the Guild Hall.

I followed him inside and soon found out why this place appeared to be rather small to me, that was because it really was small and cramped. There was barely enough room here for 30 people. There were only four tables here by they were already surrounded with customers.

“Sara here is the receptionist. We should speak to her about getting yourself an adventurer guild card.” he told me in a whisper.

“Oh, I have one of those! But do Dragon Continent guild cards work here as well?” I wondered in a low volume, so the others didn’t hear me.

“It should. Both the Merchant and the Adventurer Guilds are recognized worldwide. They have the same laws everywhere and normally don’t get into politics at all. At most, they are a neutral side.” he told me.

“Ah! That’s good. I think I was Beginner Rank or something.” I said and then opened my [Black Hole] to retrieve my guild card from there.

When I closed it, everyone was looking at me. I tilted my head to the left and saw Kalderan face-palming himself. He then said something to them, and they all seemed to relax again.

“I told them it’s not an attack... it’s a low level storage skill with fancy illusion set in place because you like those sorts of things.” he said.

“But why?” I asked.

“Because otherwise they would keep eyeing us and the receptionist would get suspicious of us.” he explained.

“Anyway, here it is.” I told him.

Kalderan walked up to the receptionist and presented her the two cards. She asked him something, he shook his head and then returned to me for a moment.

“Do you want to have us registered as a party?” he asked.

“I don’t mind, but are you sure?” I replied.

“Yes. If we are going to hang out for a while, why not form a temporary party and finish quests faster?” he explained with a shrug.

“Sure.” I nodded.

He returned to the receptionist and after he signed a document, he brought me my guild card back.

“Here you go. You are Beginner Rank.” he explained.

“Makes sense. I never really made any progress on this part. Once you can hunt down boss-level monster it seems a bit of a waste of time to focus on the Adventurers Guild. It was highly inconvenient for me from other points of view too...” I said as I took the card from him.

When I was inspecting my card, I suddenly remembered Seryanna and that time when we all went on my first mission together. It was easy with a powerhouse like Kataryna on board. She was also Beginner rank despite being a Breakthrough-er. It made me smile as I reminisced about our adventures together.

When I came to this world, I was alone, afraid, and lost in a forest. The first person I bumped into became the love of my life, my wife Seryanna. That was definitely the result of my maxed-out Luck at work. I then remembered how I almost lost her and the way Kataryna stole my lips when I was with my moral down. These dragonesses cared for me and took care of me more than I probably deserved.

I already miss them... I said and then opened my skill menu to let Seryanna know of my location again.

It probably wasn’t needed anymore, but this way, she knew that I was around and thinking of her.

I let out a sigh and seeing me like this, Kalderan asked “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just remembered my wife and how much I miss her.” I told him and showed him a soft smile.

“From back on Earth?” he asked.

“No, she’s a dragoness.” I replied shaking my head.

“Oh... really?” he furrowed his brow.

“Yes. If not for her, I probably wouldn’t be here talking with you.” I said and then let out another sigh.

“Well, we’re pretty far from the Dragon Continent, but the journey to the border shouldn’t take more than a month or so.” he said as he was rubbing his chin.

“Really? Great! Then let’s make plans to go there! I’ll help you level up on the way!” I told him with a smile.

“Huh? What?” he looked at me a bit confused then shook his head “Wait a second! Not so fast! I have no reason to go with you! And besides, that we will need money! Lots of money!” he told me.

“Hm, let’s do all of that and then go!” I pointed at the quest board.

“Huh? All of that?!” he replied surprised.

“Yup! Ah! But I’m hungry. Let’s go grab something to eat and then find an inn for the night. And if you are worried about what you might be able to gain from this journey, I can offer you level up, information, money, and well... a friend who won’t mock you for being a low level.” I showed him a smile.

Looking at me for a moment, Kalderan seemed to be weighing down his options, the advantages and disadvantages he was going to gain from all of this.

In the end, he gave in and said “Alright, you convinced me.”

“Great!” I said ending the deal with a handshake.

We then left the Guild Hall and with his help, I managed to book a room for the night. I spent the rest of the day down at the tavern, drinking ale and learning the language of common language around here. Overall, it was a good day.

[Seryanna’s point of view]

 I was standing in Alkelios’ workshop, looking around for anything of use that he might have wanted me to bring him, when I received the second location message from him. It made me smile, and instinctively, I knew that this was his way of letting me know that he was safe and missed me.

If I could, I wanted to just spread my wings and soar through the sky until I reached him, but such a journey by air would have been perilous and highly unlikely to have a chance of success even for a Breakthrough-er like me. The currents above the oceans were different from those above the land. Three was also the matter of food and rest as I knew that such a flight would last more than a day, yet throughout history, there had been those who tried it and succeeded.

It wasn’t impossible just highly improbable.

With a sigh escaping my lips, I sat down in his chair and looked at his tools. They were all arranged neatly, showing the care and respect he held for his work. Everything was just the same as he had left it. The only thing I did here was clean them of dust now and then.

“I miss you, my love.” I said and then looked out the window.

The longing in my gaze was there to be seen by all the gods who cared to watch. If any did and took pity on me, then they would help me be reunited with my husband sooner rather than later.