A Path Of Bone And Poison - Chapter 86 Skyhigh City
I tried to apologize to the guild leader for stealing his kill, but he only waved me off. He explained that my actions saved a lot of lives, and that I deserved the title. But I think he only said so because of my mothers sacrifice. She was the true hero of this battle. None of us could have survived without her.
We ended up splitting ways not long after that. The guild leader took the C rank adventurers and went to the nearby city of Riverview. It was likewise a C ranked city and would be the best place for them.
With our experiences, and taking into account how young we were, our group decided that a C rank city would not be enough for our growth. We had been upgraded to C rank thanks to the battle, and even the four boys had been upgraded to D rank. For us, only a larger city could truly satisfy us.
We ended up deciding on a B ranked city that was not far away from us. The city was called SkyHigh city, and was actually a city that floated in the air. The city was the only City above C rank in the entire area and was therefore the unofficial capital of the county.
It took us a week to travel there by foot, and when we arrived our shallow world views would forever be changed.
The city was in fact a floating city. When I asked a local how it was possible they explained that the piece of land the city was built on, a floating island, was a naturally gravity reducing material. The light weight material, combined with the abundant earth energy in the area allowed the city to float.
It was truly a wonder, and I could not help but marvel at how a city in the sky was considered a haven for earth element users. Earth was not the only element that was abundant in the city though. Because of it’s high altitude the Air element was also extremely thick.
Because of this then city was mainly filled with Wizards who specialized in those two areas. There were still other types of wizards, but their powers did not recieve a boost here, rather they would see a rather large reduction. The only exception was fire type users who could literally use any element except water as kindling for their own magic. Casting time was slightly increased for them because of this, but their over all power remained the same.
This was a huge decider for me. My mother had said to stay away from using my necromancy, and in a city where it’s power would be greatly hampered it would make it much less likely for me to use it.
The other members of the party had no issues with the decision, so we decided to make the city our new home. The only problem we encountered was how we were going to get up there.
We observed the area for a rather long time, before finding out that their were large flying beasts that would take people up and down from the city. zthe price for a flight was actually rather expensive at 50 silver a person, but we could only grit our teeth and pay the price.
The flight was anything but enjoyable. Those novels that I had read on earth about people riding on flying mounts were absolute garbage. The beasts were extremely fast. This much was true. But what they did not mention was that the incredible speed caused the air that struck you to sting incredibly. It was like getting a tattoo on your face.
You could not escape from insect either. The insects became tiny projectiles that would leave bruises and cuts all over your body. It was rare that a rider would arrive not bleeding.
The worst was the motion sickness. It wa alike riding a carnival ride, only you did not have an unreliable carny to make sure everything was running correctly. All four of us ended up having out our guts mid flight. It was not an enjoyable ride to say the least.
Our legs wobbled when we arrived at the city, and our first reaction was to run to the nearby waste bins and empty our guts. From the mess that was already inside it seemed that this was a frequent occurence. Thankfully no one laughed at us, and as we left we noticed the next group of riders doing the same.
We had finally arrived at the city. but it was completely unfamiliar and we had no idea where to go or what to do. We could only hopelessly stand there for a moment before Hylia reminded us of the words of the war goddess.
At last we had a destination, but we had no idea where the shrine was. We were forced to ask for directions. As the unofficial leader I was voluntold to be the spokesman of the group. Unfortunately people would take a single look at me before turning away in disgust. After the 5th time this happened we were forced to take a different approach.
The next to try was Sierra, she was a half elf which were still looked down on, but much less so than a dark elf like myself. She still ended up needing to ask 3 different people before she could get an answer.
The first person had tried directing her into a dark alley. The guy had a shady feel so we knew this was a trap. The second person had straight up ignored her, but the third person wa skind enough to point us to a vendor not far away that sold maps among other things. The map cost us a total of 5 silver, which was rather expensive, but we could not haggle on the price.
It took us a couple of hours to finally reach the shrine of the War Goddess. This was mainly due to the fact that we got lost twice, despite having a map. But shrine was not the right word. In Slagstone city it had only been a small shrine, however here the “shrine” was more like a military compound. The area was huge, surrounded by large stone walls with a large gate. Inside could be seen a massive temple as well as several other smaller buildings.