Chapter Fifteen

**The City on the Sea**

Jason and Vanna walked the rest of the road through the forest on edge. Vanna kept her sword out of its scabbard and her eyes scanned on the trees. Jason gripped Skippy’s reins tightly and didn’t dare to check any of his blinking notification. Jason didn’t know how much time past as they walked, but neither of them were in a mood to strike up a conversation. The forest seemed to echo their silence as all they heard were the quiet crinkles of leaves falling to the ground.

After a few stressful hours the companions emerged from the forest overjoyed to see the blue sky and rolling fields. “Look,” Jason said as he pointed to the south of their position. A little village was situation on top of a hill where his finger indicated.

“I don’t think the road passes through there,” Vanna commented. A few minutes later she was proved right when they reached a crossroads. “Byron said to take any north path we come across,” she reminded Jason.

Jason nodded solemnly, he was desperate to see some sign of humanity after the horrors he witnessed in the forest. “Hey Vanna, are you alright if we take a quick break by the river?” Jason asked. “I want to check some notifications and clear my head.”

“I couldn’t think of anything better, Honey,” Vanna said with a smile.

The highway and riverbank were separated by a strip of grass roughly fifty meters wide. Jason led Skippy off the road and removed the bags of wool from the donkey’s back. Skippy neighed happily when the weight was removed then began to graze on the tall grass. Vanna had walked to the riverbank and Jason saw her sit down on the stony beach. Jason found his own stretch of the river to sit alone then checked his notifications.

**Active Skill Critical Success: Sneak. You approached an entity without detection and took advantage of your environment.**

**Skill Increase: Sneak (Beginner II) +75 Exp.**

**Skill Increase: Sneak (Beginner III) +100 Exp.**

Combat Log

10:25:04 Vanna kills Alpha Male Wolf for 100 critical slashing damage

10:25:09 Beta Female Wolf takes 25 slashing damage from Vanna

10:25:44 Jason takes 7 glancing piercing damage from Beta Female Wolf

10:25:50 Beta Male Wolf takes 30 slashing damage from Vanna

10:25:55 Vanna takes 6 glancing piercing damage from Beta Male Wolf

10:26:07 Vanna kills Beta Male Wolf for 33 slashing damage

10:26:10 Vanna disarmed by Beta Male Wolf

10:26:14 All enemies have fled battle area

Experience Log

+125*1.4 from Alpha Male Wolf (Level 5 Alpha Wolf)

+50*1.2*.1 from Beta Male Wolf (Level 2 Wolf

+50*1.2*.5*.5 from Beta female Wolf [Wounded Experience Halved] (Level 2 Wolf)

Total Experience Gain: +196

+1 Luck. Deus ex Machina

**Animal Skippy(Common Donkey) has learned the command “Stay”. Animal will keep in a location until master says otherwise or animal becomes in a state of danger such being attacked, starving, drowning, etc…. The length and severity an animal will Stay is dependent on their relationship to owner and animal’s specie. Warning committing to command “Stay” will consume players last free command with Skippy, would you like to commit to Skippy learning “Stay”? Yes/No?**

Jason selected yes. He felt that his relationship with Skippy was progressing smoothly and it would rank up soon. Jason closed all of his notification windows and stared at the river. The water flowed slowly, but he could still see small ripples as the current flowed over rocks. Farther down the river, Jason saw Skippy drinking the water and Vanna washing her hands and sword.

Jason laid his hand where the phoenix gem stone lay and he could feel the heat and beat emit from the power source. He thought of Adamaxus and his urge to learn more the game’s magic grew. Skippy lifted his head from the water, beads of the liquid clung to his furry snout. The donkey saw Jason and cantered over. Jason patted Skippy’s wet nose and the animal nuzzled against him. “Come on buddy,” Jason said then led Skippy over to where Vanna stood. “Ready to get moving?” Jason asked.

“One second Honey, I just ranked up my scan skill to tier two and I’m trying to decide if I want to use an ability point,” she said then focused on her invisible UI. Ability point? Jason thought to himself. Vanna blinked then looked at Jason, “alright I’m ready, now I can see the basic status of things I scan.”

“Vanna what’s an ability point?” Jason asked.

Vanna shook her head, “I’m sorry Honey I forgot your level. Once you get to level 5 you start to earn ability points every time you level up. You spend the ability points on abilities you unlock every time you reach a new tier of a skill. They let you specialize how you’d like to use your skills.”

“Neat,” Jason said, he looked forward to seeing the abilities he would unlock once he got to level 5. I also need to get my skills to the next tier too, he thought to himself. “I seems like you don’t start earning ability points until level 5 because that’s when players usually get their first skill to the second tier, am I right?”

Vanna shifted her shoulders and replied, “pretty much. I got my one handed to the second tier around level four but scan is only the second skill I got to the second rank.” While they had been talking Jason reloaded Skippy.

“Alright, we’re good to go,” he said and then the group continued east.

The road was barren for the most part, the river to the north and hills to the south. A strong wind was coming in from the east and it bowed the tall river grass. Every so often they would pass a small shack or two huddled against the river. The residents seemed to be of two types, fishermen or farmers.

An hour after noon, Jason heard the beating of hooves on the road and up ahead he could see a small group of five horseman riding towards them. Instinctively his heart began to race and Vanna noticed. “Don’t worry they look like a patrol.” She laughed, “no group of bandits is going to have gear that nice.”

When the riders past Jason was in awe. Each was atop a real horse at least six feet tall. Until then Jason had only seen people riding the shorter ponies or pulling stocky pack horses. Each also was carrying either a long lance, great sword, or longbow and wore fur and plate armor. The nodded as they past but rode on fast once they saw Vanna and Jason were innocent travelers.

“They looked like the King’s or some other lord’s personal troops. The lords are better here, in West Tumlohn there weren’t any patrols,” Vanna commented.

“Their gear was insane,” Jason said. The horsemen were the strongest people he had seen in the game so far without a doubt.

“They levels are probably in the upper twenties or thirties,” Vanna said. “Look,” she cried point towards the western horizon, “you can see the city.”

Jason looked and she was right. At first a single stone keep poked over the peak of a hill but as they walked closer the keep turned into a larger fortress situated on top of a hill. Farther down on the hill a large walled city sprawled at least double the size of Exton. “It’s huge,” Jason said.

“It is the capital,” Vanna noted.

Jason gave her a dark look then continued to observe the city. The walled city was not situated right on the ocean, which they could also see now, but wedged between the river they walked besides and another that flowed farther north. Essentially the city was on an island similar to Manhattan. The part of the island closer to the ocean was taken up by a smaller unwalled town with a port, but if it weren’t for the wall around Laxtar it would all have appeared as one continuous city. Jason tried to guess how far away they were but Vanna beat him to it.

“Looks like we’re still an hour or two away.”

Jason nodded, “come on just seeing it makes me excited.”

The last stretch of the trip flew by fast as Jason’s head whirled thinking about all the things he would do in the city. Soon after seeing the city they also started to pass groups of peasants who had been visiting. Although it seemed like most of the day traffic was leaving when they passed through the tall stone gateway Vanna and Jason could barely hear each other through the roar of the crowd. The gate was clogged with people and animals trying to go in and out while the guards stood by lazily.

“Let’s try to find a map,” Jason yelled to Vanna. The city gate opened onto a large cobblestoned plaza and Jason saw various bulletin boards around the edge of the plaza. Thankfully most of the traffic was exiting the city and the boards were not crowded. Still there were a dozen strewn about with all different kinds of information: quest, trade request, recruitment ads, wanted posters, and much more. Jason made a note to himself to check out some of the other boards another time. Eventually Jason found one with a rudimentary map of the city that showed the major roads and the various neighborhoods. The map told him that they were in the craftsman and tavern district while the warehouse district was outside of the gates by the river. “Should we split up for a while?” Jason asked.

Vanna gave him a worried look and shook her head, “I don’t want to get lost and we don’t know how safe it is to be here alone. We’ll walk around together until we become familiar with the place.”

Jason nodded in agreement and started walking towards the road the map said led to the gate to the warehouse district. Once they were out of the plaza the congestion died down significantly and they were able to cover the distance to the River Gate, as the map called it, rather quickly. The smell of fish and saltwater smacked Jason’s face as soon as they walked through the gate and he gagged. When he recover he saw that the road continued to pass through a row of warehouse which was where he assumed he could sell his wool. “Come on we should be able to sell the wool in one of those big building,” he said.

The set up in Laxtar seemed to be different then in Exton. Instead of warehouses holding monopolies on certain commodities, traders shouted out prices to buyers and sellers in an open market. The warehouses were rented out for storage instead of being owned completely by one trader but most of what was bought and sold looked to be transported as soon as the transaction was completed. Some of the commodities markets were more organized with giant chalk boards with an open book listing the best bids and asks while others were mere informal pits. A few of the markets like the grain or cattle markets were still full this late in the afternoon. Eventually Jason found the wool market and was disappointed to see there were only half a dozen traders still moving about in the pit. Thankfully there was a board with the book and Jason didn’t have to yell out a random price without knowing the going bids.

The highest bid was 33 and a half coppers but Jason saw the lowest asks was 35 and a half coppers leaving a wide spread. Jason parked Skippy with Vanna on the outskirts of the pit then walked in. The traders looked at him with disinterest, most looked as if they were about to leave and close the market.

“Asking 34 and a half for four,” Jason said trying to be as confident as he could muster. The traders looked at him in surprise. Some seemed wary of the newcomer, but one graying man in a rich robe called out, “hell, I’ll lift it I’m ready to go.” The bookkeeper wrote down the transaction and removed the merchants previous bid. Then the bookkeeper came over to Jason.

“Sir, in future you must take you inventory to the clerk,” he pointed to a woman sitting I in front of the warehouse, a large guard stood near her. “She will give you a receipt for the wool which you then trade with your buyer for money. She will also take your holding fee,” he said the last part politely but succinctly. “The current handing rate is a quarter copper a unit and I can take that from you now if you would like to complete your transaction.”

“I’m sorry,” Jason said, his reddening from embarrassment. He pulled a copper from his pouch and handed it over. The bookkeeper smiled then returned to his board.

Jason’s buyer laughed then said, “it’s alright lad, I’m leaving anyways. Just follow me with the wool to that wagon over there and I’ll give you your money.” Jason followed the trader and five minutes later he was walking away with an unloaded Skippy and 6 silvers and 17 coppers more in his money pouch.

“That didn’t go so bad,” Vanna said with a smile.

“Yeah but I shouldn’t have been so confident,” Jason said.

“They probably would have taken you seriously if you hadn’t acted like that.”

“You’re right, but at least I know what to do now, it was different in Exton,” Jason added. “Alright, let’s go visit a shop to get the villagers requests and find an inn, I’m tired and starving.”