Chapter 16 – Designated Home City of Raskal

A pillar of light shone down upon them, and three teleportation circles appeared below Daniel, the shadowy knight, and the unconscious faerie in the knight’s palm. This was possible because the knight took Aerie as his subordinate squire, allowing her to travel with his master via hearthstone recall.

DUN.

Slamming into the pillar they were hiding behind with its shoulder, pillar rubble fell to the left as the level 500 stone colossus burst into their hiding spot and swung down with its fist.

The platform shattered upon impact from the stone colossus’s hammer fist strike, but there was no sign of the human or the faerie. Having completed the recall channel just before taking combat damage, the three misfit companions were well on their way to the city of Raskal, designated as Daniel’s home city.

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Several minutes later.

Daniel reappeared in the middle of the town square in a glowing light, as the recall animation underneath his feet rotated to completion. Less than a second after landing, he cancelled the summon for the knight.

“Huh?” a shopkeeper exclaimed, squinting his eyes at Daniel. He briefly saw the outline of a ghastly ghost knight, but he turned around in disbelief and by the time he turned back, the ghost knight was gone, in the blink of an eye as if it never existed.

There were multiple town squares that could act as recall platforms. This particular one did not have many people around, other than the lone shopkeeper peddling goods in his street stand to vagabonds that wandered through there.

Daniel felt his racing heartbeat finally begin to calm down a bit, and he looked around the vicinity. There were tall buildings as far as he could see, with large signs and decorations that depicted guilds, general shops, and all sorts of departmental buildings. If he could describe it in a way that made sense to a layman, the city of Raskal reminded him of a large, intricate outpost. It did not seem rich enough to be an imperial city, nor was it small or residential enough to be a village. It seemed like an outpost, a large base set up with all the necessary services and businesses needed so that adventurers could congregate and rest as needed, then venture off to the wilderness beyond the outpost walls.

“Huuu….” a small faerie’s voice came from Daniel’s hood. She peeked out for a moment. “Hiiiii!” she exclaimed, ducking back under into his hood.

“What’s wrong?” Daniel said, trying to crane his neck to be able to see the faerie.

“There are a lot of bad humans,” the faerie Aerie replied. “I think I’ll stay in your hood for now....”

Daniel nodded. He understood human greed, and didn’t want to entertain the thought of what certain people would do if they had the chance to get their hands on a rare species like Aerie. The auction house was the least of his worries– if a mad scientist got a hold of her, she might get dissected for science.

His three friends were somewhere in this city, but knowing them they were probably off running into danger head first yet again. He could always catch up with them later, and explore a bit first.

Walking past the street stall vendor and out of the town square towards the main street, Daniel began to see clueless people wandering around, almost certainly players who just came fresh out of the tutorial. At this point in the game, nobody really knew what to do. Most players were simply exploring and enjoying the starting city, familiarizing themselves with the layout between all the different stores and shops and guild rooms.

A crowd of new players were standing in front of a wooden bulletin post at the side of the street. Daniel headed over to see what the fuss was, looking over the heads of a few girls to see what was on the wooden bulletin. Not to his surprise, it was an announcement board with different quests and news tidbits.

Although there were a lot of quests and news postings posted on the board, displayed prominently in the middle was a particular posting.

[King Abraham will be paying an official visit to Raskal this afternoon. All citizens may attend the visiting ceremony and parade procession.]

Quest: Attend the visiting ceremony. It is highly recommended that new players participate in this quest.

Reward: Experience. A small sum of currency.

A tutorial message flashed on Daniel’s screen.

[Currency tutorial: The currency of Edenquest is denoted by gold pieces, otherwise known as gp, gold coins, or gold. Due to a previous empire’s mandate on anti-counterfeit measures, each coin is imprinted with an imperial seal. Attempting to pass off counterfeit currency as real currency will result in harsh penalties if discovered.

The amount of gold alloy in each coin is minimal, ensuring that the value of each coin is more than the sum of the value of its material.]