RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 232

Another five hours took him to finishing enough antidotes for him to finish the contract that he signed with Karma. Once done, he decided to follow the road to the city of Wightbarne. He planned to get a few reputation points in the city so that he could get back to city when required.

There was a slight chance that he might stumble into the tier 1 quest accidentally, but he understood that it would be fine if he didn’t go to the temple in the city. So, he planned to avoid the temple at the city as much as he could.

Apart from the temple there are few other good quests he could receive in a city currently. It wasn’t the same as White Heart City where he was able to pioneer the development or Rudra’s guild as they were the first to get to the city. A number of players already populated the city, and he didn’t want to waste much time by doing the routine quests to get city reputation. The reward from it are too low and not much exciting. Thus, he wanted to get as much information about the city as he could.

Balthazar also wanted to reduce the time he would take to get to the city. A four-hour trip is considered a lot of time waste. Luckily, he was level 20 and the other thing that he could do was to get a mounting skill as mounts would be available from level 20 onwards. It was much easier and faster for him as he already had an acquaintance of a tamer, Kiran in the town.

He went back to the tamer’s residence in the town and asked the receptionist about it. He had expected some kind of quest to get the skill required. The receptionist just held out the skill book for him.

“Having received the tamer’s acknowledgement and considered his in-name apprentice, you can purchase quite a few animal related skills in exchange for money,” said the receptionist.

Though it was different from what he had experienced in his previous life, it was true that he had different experience in the game this time. It could be acceptable that having a tamer as his guide was quite useful and pet mounting could be considered a very basic skill for tamers. So, he quickly paid an amount of 2 gold for it though it could be considered very high for a basic skill

Though Agua provided him with a map to the city, there wasn’t much other information he could provide to Balthazar. Agua and his team were in the town and didn’t get much involved in the politics of the nearby Wightbarne city. So, he decided to ask Kiriti for more information. As the Valhalla Raiders managed to establish their guild strongly in the town, they were bound to keep an eye on the other player organization in the nearby towns and cities. He had Agua arrange a meeting with Kriti and as Kiriti heard his question, he was quite surprised.

“Why do you want to go to the Wightbarne city? That place is on the border of two nations and the players are a lot more competitive there than the town. Here, we have a very good amount of control on the guild. There you might be bullied or even pulled into their fights unawares. There are a lot open PvP happening at the city,” said Kiriti clearly advising him to not go there. He had to create antidotes for their team and Kiriti was very concerned about him not being to complete his part of the contract. Though the contract would force him to pay renumerations, it would delay their mission which was not good.

“I know that a city would be more dangerous as it is on land and unlike this town, it has no bay separating the two countries which makes fae players coming to fight a commonplace. But I have a tier 1 completion quest for which I need to go there,” answered Balthazar.

“Fine, I will gather all information that I can get on the city. Just don’t get into much trouble and keep out of sight till we are done with killing the knuckers,” replied Kiriti. “You have enough reputation to portal back to the town, right?”

“Yes, I am a citizen of the town. I can get back. I even got a map to the city but need more information to complete my quest without getting into much trouble. I guess you understand what I am seeking from you, right?”

“Yes, you can start on your way to the city. I have a few adventurer teams whom I have been in contact with. They are the best at collecting such information about whom to avoid and the relative strengths of the different groups. I will get Salket to meet you at the gate. I guess you make haste, you would need some time to get there. It takes about four hours on foot,” said Kiriti as he cut the call.

“I better have someone I trust follow you. It would give me a chance to know about your true capabilities,” thought Kiriti as he called Puba. He didn’t have much influence, but he knew that the Ardent Ronins being an adventurer team would be in contact with others nearby. A few minutes, later he had made the required arrangements and went back to killing beasts with his team.

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He already had a pair of horses in his pet pouch and those could be mounted and ridden. He quickly learnt the skill and made way to the city on the horse. Until now, most players didn’t see any player ride a horse and all that they saw were NPCs. So, his exit of the town caused quite a bit of commotion among the players especially the Valhalla Raiders who were surprised that someone not in the guild already managed to get a mount.

The information quickly disseminated to almost all the players through the forums and a bunch of discussions about getting mounts soon popped up. Unexpectedly, he brought the attention of the players to the tamer profession to Agua and a few other players who had come to know of his quest with the tamer and soon came to the conclusion that it would be a fast way to get mounts.

Horses at the same level as a player were at the very least 5 times faster than the player on foot when moving at a constant pace in the game and they could maintain a constant pace compared to human at their normal movement speed. The players lose their SP at a fast pace by maintaining their highest speed mentioned in their characteristics of the player, but it isn’t the same for mounts. They can maintain their movement speed constantly for a long duration with much smaller gaps than a player which would reduce the travel time quite a bit. A tamer with a good number of proper potions can make the travel time much less.

The guidebook that Balthazar received from Kiran had a few general suggestions except for the recipes of such consumables. Even with his current skill set, Balthazar could force his horses to ride at a fast pace making his travel time 10 times faster than himself even though the horses aren’t at the same level as him.

He had occasionally fed them and level the two horses twice bringing them to level 17, but still it was much less than his speed. Luckily the Clydesdales were a strong breed which were capable of running at more than 10 times his speed at their fastest pace. So, alternating them by keeping one in the pet pouch and mounting the other and interchanging them at small intervals could reduce his travel time to a bit above half an hour.

The good thing about doing this was that riding mounts and feeding them was a good way to slowly level them up too. So, his plan would also increase them by a level and moreover, the fact that he is going to use them on proper road made sure that there wouldn’t be much danger and with a pair of horses he could outrun any ambushes that might happen on the road at this stage of the game.

Sticking to these old tricks that he had come to know from his past life, he made to the city gates in a little above 40 minutes in the game. As he reached the destination he found that the city was not as he had expected. He didn’t get a chance to move around in the Five elements empire as much, but as always had expected it to be built like a proper city with large wall and a lot of open space and a number of merchants bustling around continuously like in the White Heart City.

The sight he got was quite different. The city had a very dark atmosphere. There were rows of pikes placed all around the city walls. A number of dead fae impaled and left near the gates which was clearly a kind of warning. It was not a city at peace but like a military fort that was at war with the nation beside it. The entire entrance looked quite gruesome and it was definitely not for the faint of heart. He found it hard to believe that the game put such scenes in a public place.

Looking at the scene, Balthazar understood why Kiriti suggested that he not go for the quest, but he had already stepped into it and the fact that the deacon referenced to some power within him, he was sure that it was to the Mask of Shadows. So, he was determined to enter the city.

The walls were all black and had a bunch of spikes attached to them. On their top one could clearly see a number of ballistae and arrow shooters with a number of personnel moving on guard. There were also occasional patrols riding on giant hawks on that could be seen.

Kiriti told him that he would arrange for someone to meet him at the city, but no one was there waiting for him. So, he put in a message to Kiriti that he had arrived at the city and had his horse trot through the city gates.

A couple of guards were at the gates and they checked to see if he was a fae and gave a couple of instructions before registering him at the gate and letting him enter. The person who registered him was a player who was doing guard duty and he had asked him about his mount.

“Ya, I had received mounting skill book,” replied Balthazar taking a chance to look at the person more clearly. He had assumed that it was just an NPC till he heard the question.

“Are you from Murk Water town?” asked the person named Salket.

“I am. I guess someone posted about me and my mount in the forums,” answered Balthazar with a smile.

“Good. How about we have a deal?” asked Salket. “You provide me with information about the mount skill and I will provide you with the latest information on the city. Sitting here, I tend to notice a lot about who goes in and out. It is a better deal than anyone else can offer you.”

“That is quite true. Your job here allows you to gather a lot of information on players movements. So, tell me which guild you are from?” asked Balthazar.

“Why do you think I am from a guild?”

“There are four gates and suggesting that this the best deal that anyone here can offer implies that there are someone observing at the other gates and you guys cooperate. So, at the very least you are not alone, and I know that sitting here all-day round doesn’t provide much experience or money. Reputation is a different thing. So, I believe that you wouldn’t sit here if you weren’t asked by your guild to do so.”

“Oh! You are quite clever. Didn’t expect it of you as you came strutting on your horse publicly telling everyone that you know about mounting skills,” said Salket.

“Just confident that I can escape,” answered Balthazar smiling.