Chapter: Path to Beast Mountain

Erik and Rugrat headed from Chonglu City towards the Wild Reaches Trading City through the forests, keeping clear of the roads and anyone that might be on them.

Their speed was much greater than before and they could run for longer easily.

They'd debated going back to their caches, but with the room in their storage rings, they wouldn't be able to collect everything so they continued with what they had.

It was only when they were getting closer to the Wild Reaches city that they started to see people again.

They changed their clothes, wearing a different outfit, after what had happened with the Silaz trading house they made sure to keep changes of clothes to hide their identity.

Wearing scarves to cover their mouths and a dark cloak they looked like two bandits back on Earth.

No one that had seen them before would know who they were.

They joined the carts and people that were joining the main road.

Wild Reaches Trading City was simply built with large and powerful stone walls that showed signs of battle. Powerful weapons were affixed to the walls as hard looking men and women patrolled the walls, their armor was uniform, but was worn based on the power it gave the wearer. These people, more than the clean looking Chonglu guards, were those that had dealt with life and death battles again and again without hope of support and survived.

Moving to the gate, few people dared to yell out, paying their toll and moving into the city.

Erik and Rugrat paid their coinage.

"No killing in the city," the guard said, letting them through.

They passed through getting their first view into the city.

It was roughly made, but all of the buildings were made from hard timbers and stone, looking like their own defensive forts.

The people were hardy and unkempt, looking like they hadn’t showered in weeks, but their weapons and armor were well maintained.

They begrudgingly went about their day, selling their spoils to the various trading houses and merchants.

The bars attracted the greatest number of mercenaries, fighters and traders.

There were different trading houses here that were looking for all kinds of goods, from monster cores, to monster meat, rare ingredients, even weapons and armor that one came across.

The Beast Mountain was not a peaceful place and there was a dark undertone to the city as people moved in groups and evaluated one another openly.

Erik and Rugrat moved through the streets, using their rifles might attract too much attention, most of the people here were high level adventurers that shouldn't be underestimated. If they saw Erik and Rugrats weapons and wanted them, as long as no one reported them, no one would know how Erik and Rugrat died.

Their first stop was a weapons store. It was one of the busiest with people checking out the new wares, weapons and armor were prized possessions, there were few stores in Chonglu City that could compare to their selection.

"Hello, can I help you?" A server came up and asked them.

"We're looking for bows," Erik said, both of them had shot compound bows on Earth and had a few of them lying around.

They already had the Marksman skill so they didn't want to waste the effort they had put in already.

"Certainly, this way," the woman said, with a small smile, used to the blunt way that they spoke.

The floor had been broken up into different areas based on weapons.

She took them to a wall filled with bows, people were checking out the different items here.

There were no compound bows here, all of them were longbow or shortbow, there were only a few that were recurve.

There were also some crude crossbows as well.

Rugrat looked them over, checking their stats and abilities.

Erik wasn't the best shot with a bow so he focused on the shortbows as they required less strength to pull back on the bow string and their range was lower, but one could fire more arrows faster.

Rugrat went straight for the recurve bows, he'd used more crossbows before and the Recurve bows while being the most expensive were also the most powerful.

Erik finally picked the best shortbow based on price and base damage.

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Cold Whisper

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Damage: 5 (piercing)

Weight: 3.2 kg

Durability: 89/100

Base Value: 1 silver, 23 coppers

Range: Short Range

Requires: Arrows

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Just the bow by itself was worth nearly half a day’s worth of healing people. Erik moved to the arrows, getting three different types.

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Freezing Arrow

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Damage: 2 (piercing) 1 (freezing)

Weight: 0.2 kg

Base Value: 5 coppers

Attributes: Applies freeze damage on target for 15 seconds. Chance to paralyze.

Used with: Bow

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Piercing Arrow

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Damage: 6 (piercing)

Weight: 0.2 kg

Base Value: 9 coppers

Attributes: Increases piercing damage

Used with: Bow

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Stun Arrow

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Damage: 1 (piercing)

Weight: 0.2 kg

Base Value: 3 coppers

Attributes: Applies shocking attack on target. Chance to stun.

Used with: Bow

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The enchantments sounded very good and the merchant extolled their virtues but with them being of low quality and level they might annoy their targets more than do any true damage. Still Erik and Rugrat thought that it would be best to test them out.

Finally he grabbed some regular arrows as well.

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Arrow (Basic)

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Damage: 2 (piercing)

Weight: 0.2 kg

Base Value: 2 coppers

Attributes: None.

Used with: Bow

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Erik got 10x Piercing Arrows, 10x Freezing Arrows, 30x Arrows (Basic) and 20x Stun Arrows, with his bow it came to 4 silver and 2 coppers with the weapons server bartering with him.

Rugrat got his recurve bow and a number of regular arrows, the special arrows were too expensive so he’d only have a handful of them.

Erik and Rugrat could only look at one another with pained smiles as they had been reduced to just thirty coppers remaining.

“You’re new so you might not know, there’s a request board that you can find near the Eastern gate, it’s in the Eastern gathering square which is a bit to the south of the Eastern gate. People put up different offers for items that one might find out in Beast Mountain,” the server said.

“Thanks,” Erik said.

“Just remember me when you make it big,” She gave them a wink before getting back to work.

“Seems that every time we make money we’ve spent it already,” Rugrat complained as they walked out of the store, their new gear in their storage rings already.

“Everything has its price here,” Erik said as they entered the Eastern gathering square, beyond it there was a direct path to the Eastern gate that led into the Beast Mountain itself.

There were people all around, groups coming in and groups going out.

Those going out had a determined expression on their faces, while those coming in might display their biggest kills, earning jealous looks and glares from those that came back bloodied or missing people in their party that they had set out with.

There were massive signboards at the sides of the large open area, these signs were easy to miss as people were looking at them, taking down notes and then moving away.

These were the veterans of beast mountain looking to get at least some small rewards on their trip into the wilderness.

Erik and Rugrat started to look over the different posters that littered the signboard, there were calls for materials, for different animals in various conditions.

There were even requests for sightings on different beasts.

The posters that drew Erik's attention were those about the different plants and ingredients that one might be able to find in beast Mountain.

There was also the different animals that went for a high cost.

Rugrat collected information on the different ores and items that could be used for crafting and making of weapons.

"Looking for three people, need to be above level eight, ranged archer, or mage with at least five different destruction spells!"

"Looking for a tanker, must be level eight or higher!"

"Hunting for the Black scaled Oek'sh, looking for three more party members, bring your own poison potions. Level five or higher!"

People were forming groups or looking for groups here and there. There were a number of groups and guilds that had formed in this Beast Mountain Range to make more money and look out for one another.

There were scouts even going around talking to people looking for a party, trying to recruit them.

Erik and Rugrat looked over it but they didn't pay any attention, being with a group, it was likely that they might reveal a secret when they were fighting.

Especially with Erik just getting stabbed in the neck by someone that he thought was a patient, they were hesitant to be around others.

"I want to check out one more place before we leave," Erik said.

Rugrat followed him as they went back into the city and towards a store tucked away.

There were a number of high level adventurers outside, all of them were respectful when they entered the store, looking around at everyone when they left as if looking out for trouble.

"Tommins chemical solutions?" Rugrat said, looking at the front of the building.

There were different plants and items in the window, but it was hard to see through the glass that had turned dirty after not being cleaned in a long time.

Erik noticed that at the bottom of many of the ingredient request posters this name had appeared.

"Lets check it out," Erik said.

He opened the door as a wave of heat and the smell of stored plants washed over him.