Chapter 29 – Second city.
"…"
"Hey. Youn man. Wake up." – said the caravan driver.
"?"
"What is it?" – asked Phantasia while lying inside the caravan.
"We are here. The Draman."
"!"
Phantasia got up and looked outside the caravan and saw a massive city walls right in front of him.
"?!"
"Surprised?" – asked the driver.
"The walls around the Draman are quiet tall and thick since the area they are right next to is something called monsters forest that is straight up infested to the brim with the monsters."
"This kind of place is also an solid market place for the merchants to buy monsters parts as well as some other stuff you can get from the forest."
"Because of that, this and the capital city are directly connected for many different reasons, but mostly for the profit as well as to attract merchants."
"..Huh… Interesting."
(So if I try to pull the shit I did in the Min city with the plague, they would straight up end me.)
(Even experimenting with the plagues are out of questions.)
(Still, I will need an laboratory, but not now.)
(Right now I need to get to the inn and get the room that I can use to keep my stuff in and then start hunting so I can level up fast.)
(I need to grow strong enough so I can secure myself an solid line of supplies whenever I would go hunting.)
(I have a lot of money after my alchemy business, but it will be not enough since I lack the main clients A.K.A players.)
(In the town, I was able to sell my potions to the NPCs, but mostly players were buying them since they were desperate.)
(As for this place? I don't know.)
(I don't know if NPCs need to buy potions or they have private alchemist or maybe a merchant that is selling them potions.)
(So, I doubt I will be able to be merchant any time.)
(That means the monsters hunting will be my only income.)
Before long the caravan driver got inside the city and the Phantasia got off the carriage and finally finding himself inside the city.
"Thanks. Hope you have safe travels." – said Phantasia.
"You too." – replied the merchant before driving away.
(…)
(Wow.)
(This is…. Nothing like the Min.)
(The Min was a simple small city to the point it could have been called town instead, but this? Holy shit its well developed and I think it's may be quite big. I can see that tall wall on the other end all the way from here.)
(What I looked on the map I bought, the Draman and the Eruka are quiet far away from each other.)
(Honestly, the caravan driver did surprised me that two of them were directly connected since the travel between both cities would take a lot of time, but now? It has gotten…. More interesting?)
(I'm really curios about this place and honestly, I maybe should take a look around…. Well more like I have to since I literally got here.)
(I need to find an workshop as well as things like shops and see if there is anything like an quest board or something where people post their quest.)
(Its also good to look for any source of the informations regarding the monsters in the area.)
(Especially the lowest level ones since I need to target them.)
After finally arriving at the Draman city, I began looking around, trying to get a rough picture of the city and oh boy, this place is straight up massive.
I spend hours walking around, getting info about the city and some important bits of informations.
One of the most important bits I found is the adventurer guild.
You know, the ones from mangas/manhwas.
This one is bit different.
Its more like an organization that is directly managed by the kingdom and apparently different countries have their own adventurer guilds.
Simple put, the adventurer guild kind of works like that quest board I saw and used before.
They can post quest publicly made by people OR they can post their own quest.
For example: Hunt this and give us that. The stuff then would get to the people in charge in the country or the city.
This is honestly a nice system.
Its both beneficial for the players and NPCs, but by the look of things even the settlements themselves or the country itself can benefit.
By the way, the reason why Min and Wild didn't had anything like that is apparently because they were too peaceful nor there was anything special there.
Well, there were not wrong, the monsters themselves weren't even a real threat to the city and the guards there were enough if anything would have happened.
Anyway, I pretty walked around for hours, looking around.
Honestly, I don't think 1 day is enough to look though that entire city. I was planning on looking around, but I need first do my current objective.
My current objective is to see if I can even survive in this place.
What is the point of looking around if I end up finding that I cannot survive here and would be forced to give on this plan and go back to the Eruka?
So, I asked around about the adventurer guild and went there after finding out about its location and before long I found myself in front of it.
(….)
(Huh…. It does quiet stand out.)
(And there is also that symbol of the googles and the sword, just like that orc merchant said.) – though Phantasia before entering the building moment later.
"…."
(Huh…. Not too shabby.)
(If anything, it does scream "Adventurer guild from fantasy vibe".)
(There is even bar inside, probably for the people to relax or discuss their plans.)
(?)
Phantasia noticed a giant wide board hanging on the wall with many different posters and other papers hanging on it.
Curios Phantasia approached it and began investigating it.
(Yeb. It's a quest board.)
(….)
(Huh… Some of these quest are very detailed. For example, this one has a hand drawn picture of the monster with the details how they look and where to find them…. Well, it kind of make sense that they would do it, since the easier we hunt them and faster, the bigger profit they would gain.)
(Anyway, where-)
"Excuse me." – said the female voice.
"?"
Phantasia looked to his right and saw the young dark elf lady right next to him.
"Yes?" – asked confused Phantasia.
"You are new here, right?" – asked the dark elf worker.
"Well, yes?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Well, its just that we didn't see a lot of wonderers in here."
"?"
"Did nobody came here?"
"No. Its just that they couldn't handle it and left."
(Make sense.)
"So…. Are you also going to leave?" – asked the annoyed dark elf.
"Well… It depends."
"Honestly, I came here to gather the information on the monsters here, since no adventurer knew anything."
"They only knew that this place has more dangerous monsters that capital city, but not details."
"But, even if they knew, I don't think you will see adventures for some time."
"Hm? Why?" – asked confused dark elf.
Phantasia began explaining the situation about the Min and about the plague.
"…"
"I did heard the rumors, but to think that the story about that weird plague that disappeared like nothing was real?" – asked the shocked dark elf.
"Yeb. And I was even the eye witness."
"The plague is gone and all, but it did damaged Min city and slowed down the progress of the growth for the many like me."
"I got lucky grew strong enough to escape."
"It will take some time, but other adventurers will come here."
"As for me? Well, I'm here to find out what is the minimal requirement to stay here."
"I'm bit stronger than average adventurer, but I know I'm not some sort of overpowered protagonist or something so I'm looking for the easiest hunting quest and see how things will go."
"Any recommendations?"
"Hm…."
"Well, this one I guess." – said the female dark elf while taking one of the request off the board and handing it to the Phantasia.
"Some of the others adventurers tried it, but they failed. Honestly, I won't be surprised if you fail it too, considering the whole situation you told me about."
[Quest: Hunt down the Dugu]
[Quest rank: C]
[Dugu is a humanoid monsters with one eye and 3 finger claws arms.]
[They are below the adult human height, but they are quiet and dangerous.]
[They are an invasive species that is quiet annoying to deal with but their eyes and claws can be used for crafting.]
[Bring 60 claws that belongs to Dugus as well as 10 eyes that belongs to them to the guild.]
[Reward: 5 gold.]
"If you can't complete it, I recommend you to leave."
"…."
"Well, we will see if I really can beat them or not soon enough." - replied Phantasia while holding the piece of paper containing the information about the quest.