– Day 5 –

The Capital

With the knight Lady Katharine galloping away down the highway. I decide to take a slight detour back into the forest. I want to take a look at the contents of the crates and containers I lifted from the camp, and I’d rather do it away from the prying eyes of people on the highway. Don’t want them to see containers appear from thin air after all.

10 minutes of walking through the dense forest and I’ve come to a wide enough space to bring the crates out from storage. To be safe, I’ll bring them out one by one and asses the contents.

Inventory: 35 / 99

– Small wooden container x4 –

– Small crate x 6 –

– Barrel x 10 –

– Large wooden container x 6 –

– Large crate x8 –

– Leather satchel x11 –

The small wooden containers have various vegetables in them. Nothing of worth but will be useful for cooking supplies in the future. That is, of course, providing my assumption on how the inventory system works. For now, I don’t know for sure so I won’t speculate.

The small crates have various rocks in them. I assume these are ores but I have no production type skills except alchemical right now so to accurately identify them is impossible. I will keep them in storage until that changes.

The barrels look to contain water and …ale? The very fact that the bandits left the ale behind beggars belief. Who’s ever heard of a sober bandit? Especially ones who take pleasure in skinning children!? The leader must be very charismatic or brutal to convince his crew to leave these behind…

“Ooo this barrels tapped!”

Mmm. The ale is quite strong but has good flavour. I’ve always been particularly partial to a well-brewed malt in my past life, so this is a welcomed find…

Back to 'Inventory' you go, for now at least.

Next the large wooden containers, which mainly contained clothes. There was some currency hidden between the garment but nothing major. I’ll count it at the end.

Ah, a pale blue shirt in my size. Finally, I can stop my 80’s boy band member routine!

I’ll leave the rest of the clothes crates here as it’s not like I can sell them without raising suspicion.

The large crates contained the most exciting stuff so far. Some held tools like pickaxes, saws, nails, hammers etc. While the rest included ridding equipment like saddles and straps; nothing too valuable so I’ll leave these here. Afterall, most are branded or have identifiable marks. I'll take a couple of picks and such though.

Finally, the satchels. 

Some books, half eaten food… gross, Currency and a map! Jackpot.

I’ll look at the map properly later once I reach the Capital. For now, let's use one crate to store everything we want to keep and ditch the rest here.

*blink*

Looking at the currency I’ve collected, this world uses copper, silver and gold for trade. I’ve collected 60 copper. 12 Silver and 8 Gold. I have no idea if this is a trivial amount or a fortune. Time will tell, but it’s something at least.

*blink blink blink*

Inventory: 39 / 99

– Barrel of Ale x 6 –

– Barrel of Water x4 –

– Small crates of Vegetables x 6 –

– Small crate of ore x 6 –

– Large crate of various things x1 –

– Leather satchel x1 –

– Gold King Coin x8 –

– Silver King Coin x12 –

– Copper King Coin x60 –

I head back to the highway and continue towards the Capital.

About 2 hours of walking along the dusty highway without a single encounter and I finally get my first glimpse of the Capital city. The forest has given way to vast open plains with various animals and grazing cattle. There’s a long winding river that leads through the plains and the centre of the city. Several boats can be spotted moving slowly up or down.

The scenery is really quite idyllic and gives off a very peaceful and friendly vibe. The bright, warm sun up high, clear blue skies and tall grass that I can’t help but brush my hands through while walking at a child’s pace. The smell of cut grass, filling my nostrils, ah. 

A beautiful day in a beautiful fantasy world. This is just what my soul needed to lay to rest the events of days previous.

Looking back to the plains as my sight line fell from the clear sky, there are many small hut-like houses scattered around. I can only assume they belong to the common-folk that farm the land as many farmers can be seen in the fields closer to the city.

The Capital itself is massive by any scale. It’s surrounded by stone walls and a man-made moat that links into the river. Every time the wall needs to change its angle, there is a cuboid tower at that location.

I can see three entrances in total from here; 1 on this side of the river and two on the other. There are drawbridges and gatehouses at all three. 

There might be a fourth entrance behind the large centre building but I cannot see from here, and I also doubt it anyhow due to the positioning of structures inside the walls.

I can see three enormous structures of note though. The centre one that’s raised higher than the rest is likely a King's palace, as even from here I can see the banners that have been draped over the walls. The lower left building is probably the knights' garrison due to its location to the palace. The final building is near the gate I’m heading towards. I have no idea what this building could be used for.

As for the materials the structures are made from… I’m not sure. In all likelihood, based on colour, I’d say it's granite rock, but I’ll probably have a better idea as I get closer.

Even from this distance, the front gate I’m heading towards looks very busy with both carts and people queued up to get in. Curiously, however, I haven’t seen Katharine or any knights amassing down there… She was on horseback so she should have already arrived. I can only assume that the commander of the knight-order has decided to either ignore the attack or is readying a sizeable force.

The fields closest to the gate on this side of the river have considerably more people in them... They’re most likely all farmers, but the land looks utterly bare with no crops being visible from here. Either it’s a lousy yield this year, or this is currently planting season. I have no idea which..

The backdrop to the city is a glorious mountainous region full of tall snowy peaks–

..That’s a dragon.

I stop dead in my tracks as I nearly trip over my jaw at the sight of it.

Behind the Capital and flying high around those glorious mountainous peaks like the ominous god of destruction, is a shadowy figure with a silhouette of a dragon… or wyvern perhaps? No, size wise, that’s a dragon. I sure as hell am not going up there to confirm it though! The very fact that it’s visible from down here tells me it must be enormous.

…Why is no one running in fear? I can’t be the only one that sees it right?

Friendly dragon? …Unlikely.

Mysterious, well, I’ll just have to ask about it in the Capital. No one else seems concerned so no point worrying about it right?

Despite how clearly I can see the city from here. I’m still awhile or so from actually reaching the front gate. At this pace, it'll be nightfall by the time I get there.

I’ve been travelling since yesterday without sleep, so I think I’ll take a nap in that brush over there. It has good cover and looks comfortable enough. A nap on this kind of day with this scenery, heavenly! I’ll continue on foot late evening.

Hunger: 54% Thirst: 60%

Hmm, time to chow down.

Hunger: 4% Thirst: 0%

*blink*

[Activate Night Eye]

HP: 330 / 330 MP: 625 / 663 (670)

It doesn’t take long for me to drift off peacefully.

*Yawn*

Awakening to the setting sun over that idyllic scenery, I feel completely revitalised. After caring for my hunger and thirst, I realise a potential problem with my ‘Head for the Capital plan’.

Blood State: Normal

Now that I’m no longer near the forest, I cannot use [Blood Syphon] to sate my blood requirements on monsters and boars… I’ll probably be fine until I reach the city but what then? I’ve been so consumed with getting to civilisation that I’ve forgotten I have a very different set of basic needs--

Hm...

Well, that’s rather a dark yet brilliant idea…

For now, let’s just jog to the city. I want to try and get there before dawn and upping my pace to a jog should accomplish just that with time to spare.

As dawn breaks from the uneventful night, I finally approach the gates of the Capital. They're much bigger than I had first assumed from a distance. I can't imagine there's anything tall enough to need a gate this large..

There already looks to be a queue of about twenty humans, eight animal humanoids and three horse-driven carts in three distinct queues. Being a non-human, I choose to join the third queue, just to be safe.

Come to think of it. This is the first time I’ve been close enough to an animal humanoid to see it's features.

In this queue, there looks to be a total of five races excluding my own. If I rushed through them with brief descriptions of their closest counterparts from my previous life, it would be Lizard, Cat, Dog, Ox and …frog?

The two Lizard-kin in this queue have almost no human facial features at all with the exception of human shaped ears. They are both slender built with no nose on the face or hair on their heads. Their skin looks similar to a snake, and it's impossible to tell whether they are male or female based on features alone. They're both different in colour, one is dark brown while the other is bright green with a red hue. If I was to guess, the bright one is most likely male. I believe this due to remembering males in the animal kingdom usually are more vibrant so as to attract a mate but I could be wrong in this assumption. 

Both are not wearing chain collars so they must not be slaves despite their attire of rags making me think otherwise.

The singular Cat-kin in the queue is quite tall. Around six foot in height. It’s covered in grey and white striped fur. It has no human features on its face, and inverted knees which I guess allows it to run extremely fast? Or perhaps jump really high. It’s more or less a clone of a race from the scrolls game I mentioned earlier with that one exception. 

The Cat-kin is most likely a slave as it has a chain collar on.

The Dog-kin archetype looks to be the strangest one here but 'strange' for a different reason. 

There are two of Dog-kin in the queue. One is a little girl, and the other is a stunning woman with big breasts and hips that just don’t lie! She has an entirely human face and no fur on her body…unless it’s hidden by the clothes she’s wearing. The only things that stops them passing for humans are their tails and ears as they both have cute floppy dog ears and bushy tails–

Whoops, might have stared a little too long there as I got a glare. Anyway, they’re both wearing rags and have chain collars so are likely slaves.

Moving on, the single Ox-kin is a colossal Minotaur covered in muscle and brown fur. It’s quite definitely male and about eight foot in height with two large horns on its head. It’s atypical fantasy Minotaur only by it’s wearing chainmail and has a giant two-handed sword strapped to its back instead of an axe. 

Needless to say, he’s not wearing a chain collar. I would like to see someone dare to try…

The remainder of the queue is Frog-kin… They’re frogs. No really, they’re giant blue and green frogs. Big, round, webbed feet, frogs… I’m as confused as I sound–

Luckily I’m distracted from those thoughts by the sound of the drawbridge lowering. I can see behind me that more people are coming to join the queue. Glad I got here early!

The drawbridge is not even entirely down before I spot a couple of knights decide to sprint across from the other side and jump off the lowering bridge to this side; it looked to be a race? 

I guess you’ve got to find enjoyment in your work where you can right? I can’t help but think this country must not have seen war in a few generations if the young knights are allowed to behave that way.

Once the drawbridge has wholly lowered, a distinctly senior knight walks over. I can tell he’s senior due to the clown knights standing to attention…

*thud thud*

Yep, saw that coming. The senior knight just gave a left then right hook to the young knights in a one-two combination which sent both of them to the floor. I can’t really hear the conversation from here, but it’s pretty obvious what he’s saying anyway…

After the mornings' entertainment is over, a cart starts to head in, followed by ten humans and then 1-2 non-humans depending on the parties size. This cycle then repeats. I can see from the gestures that there must be an entrance fee for–

“Oi Blacky!”

Crap. One of the clowns is clearly looking at me while shouting that.

“Sorry, sir knight, are you calling me?”

“Do you see any others with black skin here?”

“No, I do not, but forgive me, I’m also not of black skin which is why I asked–”

“Your skin is black… Hmm? Pointy ears, you is an elf!”

…um sure, okay.

“Of course sir knight, may I ask how I can be of assistance?”

“Fancy talking huh? James, OI JAMES!”

“Wha?”

“Don’t you fink dis one matches the commanders' description?”

…Please be Katharine’s doing. If it’s not, this is most certainly a death flag.

“Black elf. Yeah, take 'im.”

Black again? I’m tanned at best, sun-kissed even, black my hide aargh!

I feel to debate this with them will be bad for my sanity. Whatever!

“Righto this way you!”