I guess my first impression of this town, is discomfort?
We all present our cards when we go in, but the guard’s attitude is really bad when it’s Sera’s and Hikari’s turn. With Sera in particular, he has a contemptuous smirk on his face, and he doesn’t even try to hide it.
The other guard next to him sighs, so I think it’s more of a personal issue with the other guard, but it still doesn’t feel nice.
When we actually get into town, it feels gloomy, or rather, dark.
It’s like there’s no life to it, and people are all holding their breaths.
There are towers built to watch the border, but the atmosphere feels so oppressive, that it makes me wonder if they’re not actually there to watch the town instead.
“We don’t often get visitors. Where are you headed?”
“We came from the republic. We want to stay for two nights, please.”
Rurika handles everything in the reception like she’s used to it.
The owner of the inn peeks at Sera, but she doesn’t really say anything.
I guess she doesn’t care who it is, as long as they pay to stay in her inn.
But she asks a lot about our travels and our plans.
Once we get to our room, Rurika tells me why.
“It’s probably because we came from outside. If we looked suspicious, she’d have to report us.”
It’s not really their duty, but if guests cause trouble, there’s a chance that the inn’s employees will be held responsible.
That’s why they want us to not cause any trouble at least until we leave.
“Is that why she wanted to know our plans?”
“Yes, she might have reported us. We didn’t lie, so there shouldn’t be a problem. The real issue is what we’re going to say if they ask us in the next town.”
Rurika is right.
Would they arrest us if we followed a path other than the main road and headed to the dark forest?
“We have to be honest and say we’re going to the dark forest, and follow the main road until we’re far enough away from town, even though it means we’ll have to take a detour.”
If we headed west from Astous, we’d reach the imperial capital Heil. To the northwest, is the defensive city of Nove.
We could follow the main road in the direction of Nove, and once we’re far enough, turn to the dark forest.
After this, we spend the day in the in, and the next day, we go for a walk around town.
Now that we’re just walking around, I notice people’s eyes on us. Is it that rare for them to see outsiders?
We split into two groups. Rurika and Chris go to the adventurer guild, and the rest of us go shopping.
Sera is coming with us, because we’re worried about hot-blooded adventurers starting trouble with her.
At first I’m worried about unpleasant encounters in the middle of town too, but there aren’t that many people walking on the streets, and more importantly, if someone starts unnecessary trouble, that person is also going to be punished severely, so it feels like people are trying to avoid contact.
With that in mind, I start feeling like the looks people are giving us are less because they’re monitoring us, and more because they’re wary of us.
Maybe from the point of view of an average person here, they just want no trouble.
Would it be the same in the adventurer guild? Then again, adventurers tend to be rough, and people who act first and think later.
It happened a lot to me too. But strangely enough, even though the adventurers in Elesya seemed the worst, they were in a way the most friendly and decent too.
“What is it with that smile, Sora?”
“Master, creepy.”
Say Mia and Hikari, and I tell them why right away.
Hikari in particular remembers adventurers in the holy kingdom starting trouble with her, so she understands.
“I think you’re just lucky.”
Sera seems less convinced, probably because they also believe in human supremacy.
We buy food, stop by an equipment store, and buy magic energy herbs.
I feel like buying them in equipment stores is a waste, but I need to make a lot of mana potions. The reason is simple, to level up my skills.
I’ve been using magic whenever I have the time and MP to increase my skills’ proficiency, but after coming into contact with the darkness of this world in those ruins, I feel like that’s not enough. Lately I’ve been more aggressive with how I use mana potions.
We strayed off the main road from the ruins and onto Margari because Rurika told me about the medicinal herbs growing on that grassy field.
“Just don’t overdo it, Sora.”
Says Mia, but I’m focused on Space-Time Magic and Replication, because their effects get stronger as their levels go up. I want them to be as high as possible.
It gets harder to level them up the higher level they are, but I have skill points, so worst case scenario, I can use those.
I want to get them to level nine at least.
“I want to do what I can now, rather than regret it later. And potions stop working for some time if I drink too much of them, so I can’t really overdo it even if I want.”
That restriction is probably what’s stopping me from pushing myself harder.
And then, the next day, we leave Drous like we planned.
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Thanks for the treat.
Seems like a waste to use skill points over time won’t the skill naturally increase even if it takes a while. If me if learn some more skills and let them passively grow