A Sinner’s Chance - Chapter 193

I didn’t spend much time in the city as even though saving Ferrik’s group had given me a good reputation, my journey was still long and it was only the first step. The three days I did spend were used on getting an accurate map and learning as much as I could about the situation since it was so different from how I was taught in the Rymiz Kingdom.

The largest and most troubling difference was the ecosystem. Unlike in the Rymiz Kingdom where things were rather peaceful and the monsters generally weak, even the lowest ranked monsters traveled in packs with at least one higher ranked member. Monsters that were typically solitary, such as trolls, were becoming increasingly commonplace, endangering the common folk who didn’t practice some kind of self-defense. While a troll was no trouble, I didn’t want to be bogged down in a melee with a large number of enemies, even if they were mostly weaklings, nor did I want to get caught up with the more powerful creatures.

The map I’d gotten in the Rymiz Kingdom was mostly accurate to the one I purchased in the city, mostly the only differences were the marks of high danger areas as well as the loss of roads and other means of transport, but the route I had planned to the coast was unchanged, with the exception of the connection from the Rymiz Kingdom.

One of the more helpful things I found during my stay was an enchanters workshop. While the man running it wasn’t extremely skilled, there were several enchantments that could increase my travel speed, at least, if I were a regular person. While I did buy a few of the items so I could reverse-engineer them, I mostly did so to disguise my natural abilities that were already present.

My time in the city had helped shake away some of my darker thoughts and distract me from the real reason I had decided to make this sudden trip, however, once I left and was once again on my own, it was difficult to distract myself from having the thoughts invade. Almost like it was an addiction, I couldn’t help but pull the choker from my set of Communication Jewelry out and caress, tempted to put it back on and talk to Arya or Marian, but each time I reluctantly placed it back in the space-time cache as I continued to fly towards my destination.

I passed through several other cities on my way to the coast, and at one point I could actually see the World Tree of Iustitia, though from the distance I was at it seemed almost ephemeral and illusory. If it weren’t for the fact that the church was actively hunting me, I might have made a detour, however, since my circumstances disallowed such I could only press on.

Probably the greatest benefit of this trip was my enrollment and promotion through the Adventurer’s Guild. In around the fourth city I passed through I got sick of the paperwork and fees involved with just a regular citizen traveling, so I caved and registered, though since my Status Plate was false it wasn’t as if they could coerce me into anything. For the most part I was simply handing over monster materials with proof of subjugation as I made my way across the continent, yet by the time I arrived in the coastal city of Milton, I was already at rank C. While this saved me trouble with the officials of each city, the similar ranked Adventurers of the cities I passed through were displeased with more competition, even though I was only staying for a couple days, if that, in most of the cities. I had ignored the harassment since I knew ultimately nothing would come of it, unless the arrogant and prideful groups wanted to become criminals.

The coastal city of Milton was quite different to the rest of the towns I had simply passed through, not only in size, but in activity as well. No matter the time of day the streets were bustling and there was a very lively atmosphere about the whole place. However, despite the pleasant atmosphere, I was sat staring moodily out the window of the inn room I was renting. It had taken me months to get here and once I did I found out that there weren’t any ships going out to sea, trouble with pirates apparently.

While I’d never heard of them in the remote Rymiz Kingdom, the Skala pirates were a well-known and infamous pirate group run by two people, the captains of The Red Scale, and The Blue Scale. Supposedly none who had seen their face had ever lived to tell the tale, though there were plenty of people who had seen the ships painted in vibrant red and deep blue, usually as whatever ship they were on was utterly destroyed, or commandeered by the lower ranked pirates.

It wasn’t known why, but the Skala pirates had recently banned all ships heading towards other continents, as such the majority of ships were collecting dust in the harbor, full of goods that were to be transported. Without much of a choice I had signed up for the pirate eradication request from the Adventurer’s Guild, hoping to destroy those barring my path. However, the request had been sent out to the nearby cities and the expedition itself wasn’t going to happen for another month or so, to ensure all those that wanted to come could. The Guild was looking for both quantity and quality since the Skala pirates had a sizable force, and there were several members whose strength hadn’t been measured or seen by anyone.

I could only sigh as I made my way to the bed and fell into it. If it weren’t for the fact that I would probably end up lost trying to cross the sea I would have just flown over, but not only would it be a long flight, but if I lost focus for even a moment I didn’t know enough about the stars to know where I was located. Even a plane in Velen’s world could end up extremely far off-course and lost over the open water if their guidance was off by any amount, and I didn’t fancy flying around for Gods know how long until I found land.