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Chapter 07: That Unique Blend

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No reserves. No holding back. Time was against him and so he spent what had to spent and improve what had to be improved.

From the Walled City of Loire to the Walled City of Maria, the time it took for Siva to reach his destination were merely 2 hours. He even wondered why he had to travel by land and waste two days to get to Loire.

“If I knew this would happen…”

For a brief moment, he closed his eyes to inhale the air in Maria. Brief it may seem, or perhaps with the still lingering scent of that perfume in the air, Siva let out a the air with a forceful sound.

Luckily, the Miranda that was in the city two days ago had already left towards its destination. And although it was rude towards Rafaela, Siva was glad she wasn’t in the city now.

Commercial flights of Cyclones aren’t as comfortable as the planes of the modern era. Aside from the fact that modern airplanes and Cyclones share the same VTOL procedures (Vertical Take Off and Landing), the only difference they had is that Cyclones cost a significant amount of fare to use (Z130,000, and in terms of how money is earned in the game).

Even though he swore to be frugal in spending money, he swallowed that whole and still paid the price.

All to conserve time.

Still, he was thankful that in the Walled City of Loire, a BLUE VIP Pass can take priority from the services of the NPCs. He even had numerous chances to get high grade quests and missions but, regretfully, had to push them all aside and decline.

There are hundreds of thousands of hidden quests in Terroa. They can be discovered by books, initiated by acquiring and studying items, or by going into a place, looking into a specific detail of a picture, or meeting people who are key to initiating the quests.

Siva was aware of it all and since he had a Blue VIP Ticket, with the price of a Normal Ticket, he took the First Class flight towards Maria.

In there, since he was a high ranking player (B-Ranked) as of late, Some noble NPCs at least saw him as good enough subject to be hired for a job. These jobs are the high ranked hidden ones that cannot be easily acquired by normal players.

It’s a common knowledge that high ranking quests give out high class rewards but, regretfully, he declined.

There are more important things he had to prioritize.

He only had a month to complete this. To damn it all, if he knew that this would happen, he would have went straight for this treasure instead of going after what was closest to his starting location.

“Che.” He clicked his tongue and walked off the path towards the receiving area.

Of course, he wasn’t expecting someone when he got there but he was still surprised by the volume of people going in and out of the airport.

With hands waving here and fro, he slowed down his pace when he thought that some of the eyes going at his direction was waving their hands to him. Thankfully, he stood his ground and waited to see that these NPCs are all waiting for the people behind him.

Also, it was surprising that the sight of the countless jittering businesses of white masked men and women wearing cloaks and polo like him were around.

“Don’t tell me…”

All of them are fans of the Volume Hunter!

Just when did I become so popular? Asking himself the question posed another problem. He doesn’t have any means to answer it. He don’t remember ever going or even getting entangled to anyone worthy of say.

“Or have I?”

He walked off straight and continued towards the gates of the airport where a line of cabs awaited the arriving passengers.

“90% real indeed.”

The feel of the real world airports were replicated in the scenery in front of him. The arrival gates looked like a crescent moon and countless yellow colored cabs were lined like a snake.

Siva continued to walk towards the boarding area when he noticed that a certain crowd was forming not too far from him. Around 50 meters away, moving out of the third gate with men bickering and arguing to one another on who’s better and more handsome than them.

“Is there a celebrity?” Siva spent a few seconds trying to catch a glimpse of that moving crowd but he soon gave up when he was bumped on the back by incoming crowds of more excited men.

“Move it!”

“Let me see her!”

“Is it really the Fairy of the Lake?”

“She’s here! The goddess is here!”

“Get off me, man!”

“No, get off me! I’m first here!”

It was a lively, yet, irritating sight. Men having contests of sorts on who was more attractive or who was first in the line of already countless men fighting to get a view of whoever celebrity that was.

Even the cabs in line had their own contests. Almost to the point of crashing bumper to bumper, they ignored all of the passengers and just wanted to get ahead of one another to drive the celebrity through the city.

Their lines went chaotic, the cabs all lost their order and the ones who were up first were pushed until they reached Siva’s location.

“Damn it! All this trouble for just a passenger!”

Siva approached the cab driver swearing the words. If there is one thing he found good in this situation it is that one cab driver is available for him.

“Wanna ride?” The driver asked when he saw Siva.

“To the NPC Shops.”

“You mean the Madison Square?”

“Is that some place where I can upgrade my gears and buy some important stuff?”

“Well,” The cab driver pressed a switch on his panel and the door of the cab opened up. “I’ll take you there for free. I just want to get out of here.”

“Much appreciated.”

***

Just like in Xargoal-6 or in any other Walled City, the sheer size of these megalopolises are still amazing Siva to the point that he was speechless.

The highways and skyways are erected up to 100m up the ground, to the level of buildings, one sky way over another, they became entangled roads hanging in the air.

“You’re a unique one. Most guys would be lining up to get a glimpse of that missy up there but you seem to be the type whose not easily moved by appearance.”

“Is she that beautiful? That… Fairy of the Lake…?”

“Beautiful? Bah! She’s a goddess! But even if she is a goddess of beauty or something, I gotta earn cash to feed ma kids. Little rascals getting bigger over their old man. Heh, I wouldn’t even be surprised if I suddenly saw them leaving me with their own family.”

The talk of family made Siva look at the driver’s nape from the back seat. At some point, it hurts, at one part, it felt nostalgic.

As much as it was impossible to believe, he found himself regretting the fact that he was born with a sort of stone cold heart. Or perhaps it was the curse of his high intellect? Being born smart and actually knowing it became two of his hated curses. Deep in his heart, he felt extreme regret over everything.

And even realizing it now made him feel surprised. To actually become aware of it is an emotional problem.

He easily accepted his parents’ death. And even though Baron is being held as a hostage of some form just to save his life, he still let it go like that, powerless to get mad at Augustus for doing so.

“So this is what you call embracing the dagger.” The murmur came but only he heard it. Thankful that it is, he might have found no reprieve if the cab driver heard what he said.

Speaking of reprieve, perhaps he was still mourning? It wasn’t even a wild guess to say that he’s venting his agony towards the freedom inside this game.

“Or am I?” He murmured again and sighed.

And to be so merciless to the point of losing himself to the taste of violence…

That sweet sensation of crushing bones, of bathing in the warm and cold feel of red blood, to kill monsters and beasts without care to the rules of society, he found it repulsively alarming that he frowned and yet the act itself made himself feel ashamed of denying the truth.

“Ah… S-Sorry if I was talking nonsense…”

“H-Huh?” Siva was lost when he realized the awkward tone of the cab driver looking at him from the rear view mirror. “I’m sorry, did I… do something bad?”

“Well…” From his intimidated look, the cab driver, an Atlas Race NPC with dark skin and casual physique, bade a low chuckle to Siva to change the mood. “I was just trying to talk to you about my kids. Sorry to have gone and bored you with the nonsense.”

“Ah, that, no. It’s not boring at all. I just… Its just that I remembered something painful, that’s all.”

“I see. Well, everyone has their own problems. Me, my biggest problem is how to earn more cash for ma kids for their school.”

“How old are they?”

“Both four. Twin lively nickel tackles. Ma wife and I wanted them to be politicians someday so we’ve been working hard and saving up cash so we can put them in a good school someday.”

Siva stared outside, digesting the words.

After this, if this actually succeeds, what’s next?

How could he give Baron a good future?

Even the word future hurt like a million needles in his chest. He cast his eyes, averting the stare from the good hearted driver. He just stared outside the cab passing through the tall buildings in the city’s central.

Questions like them can be answered when they’re near but right now, he had to do the job that he had to do.

Plans, strategies, tactics, his mind worked on possible scenarios that might happen on the place he wanted to go. The Great Forest of Anazon, it was different than the forest of Kali near his starting city, Aarun.

In here, B-ranked monsters are treated as trash.

Not even veteran adventurers dare to go in here. In this continent, Anazon is one of the places considered to be restricted areas.

Meaning, they are restricted to the strong “enough” to actually dare explore these lands.

But along with that thought, there was the possibility of being the first to discover undiscovered dungeons with lots of loots and strong mobs. Treasures yet to be seen by others, creatures soon to be recorded by books, even places that grants possible clues to unexplored regions in Terroa, the possibilities of adventures were endless in The Great Forest of Anazon.

But along with these tempting rewards comes the risk of death with the strong monsters that roam the land. A single mistake can lead to disaster, one mishap, failure to plan ahead will cause his time and effort to go to waste if he slack off.

Siva thought of these as he stared outside the window.

After all this, what comes next? That’s not something he should be asking now. Instead he focused his mind on the goals he set up ahead.

“…and they went running off to somewhere, making ma back hurt chasing after them.”

“That’s quite the kids you got there.”

“Yep. They had this spirit of adventure in them. But, I am afraid they might go off to somewhere we can’t see them so me and ma wife are trying hard to teach them the right ways to survive the life.”

“Of which is?”

“Information, ma man, information! If you know what you should know, you have more chance to survive!”

“You sounded like an adventurer. Why didn’t you go and start off with one?”

“Well, I did when I was younger. I learned the art of swordsmanship in the White Academy in the Central but when the time that the final exam went on, I got scared off ma pants and got away with just a wound on ma left calf. Well, glad I survived that one. The blasted Arthropod almost got me, thank the heavens I knew his weakness so I used it to save ma life. Regretfully, three of ma buddies in the academy wasn’t as lucky as I am.”

“The value of information, huh.”

“The value of information. And now that we’re in the topic, when you see an Arthropod, don’t forget to cut down the feeler in their forehead because that’s what’s going to give you your opening soon.”

“Well, what’s an Arthropod look like?”

“They look like—oh, we’re here. This is the Madison Square of the Walled City of Maria.”

Taking the prompt, Siva looked to the left as the driver drove off the cab in the unloading area. As the good man said, it was a free ride and did not ask for the fare but instead, he asked for his name.

“I’m Gilbert, by the way.” He extended a hand and he took it with a smile.

“Siva. I’ll contact you when my friends are in town.”

A prompt on Siva’s vision showed that he received an NPC’s contact information. In the contact list that displayed the names of the very few people he accepted the contact list invitation, the blue name Gilbert stood out like a beacon of difference.

“That, I appreciate much. Have a nice day mister Siva.”

“You too, mister Gilbert.”

Siva entered the “shopping mall” after he parted ways with the good driver. In simple terms, Madison Square is the Terran rendering of the New York tourist spot Madison Square Garden.

It was a shopping mall in the Walled City of Maria where all the major establishments (NPC Shops and the Enchantment Temples) are gathered in one place.

Item shops, weapon shops, Item Trading Posts, were also here. It was an amalgamation of all necessary spots for an adventurer’s needs. And speaking of which, as he walked around for a few minutes, it was just focused on establishments that an adventurer needs.

Perhaps the only vivid difference he saw in there is the eye-catching logo of green and white with the name “Starbucks” in there.

“Well I’ll be damned.” Siva excitedly went towards the coffeehouse on one side of the mall’s east wing. It was an open establishment outside and only a sliding glass door and a few tables separated the walkers and patrons of the shop inside.

One reason why Siva was excited is because of when he became a teenager until now, or perhaps it was his father’s legacy, young Rex had learned how to love the aroma of Cappuccino and only Starbucks’ Cappuccino got near the taste of his father’s personal blend.