“You have my deepest gratitude for your time.” Aclysia bowed before the fisherman she had spoken to and then stepped back, to return to her party. “No one regularly takes the journey to Wise Shire.”

“So, we stay on foot?” Korith asked.

“Our only alternative is to pay a premium sum.” The metal fairy looked to Apexus for a decision. “A whole gold coin, to save us a week of travel.”

The kobold made a terrified sound, while Apexus considered it. Money was easily replaced, as an adventurer. Time was a more pressing resource. “We shall take that offer.”

Giggling, Reysha rested her arm on top of Korith’s blonde head. “Ya about to explode there, squishy?”

“It’s a whole gold coin,” Korith squeaked, while Apexus and Aclysia went to pay it. “That leaves us with 5 gold, 64 silver, and 8 copper.”

“I love that ya just have that filed in there.” Reysha grabbed her fellow haremette by the horns and rolled her head around. “What else do ya keep in that pretty head of yours, hmm?”

“First rule of service to the Hoard: always respect money and valuables as great as money. Second rule of service to the Hoard: always cherish what Hoard gives you, because he just parted with a piece of himself for you.”

“Girl, it gave ya a worthless rock for four gold.”

Korith grumbled and yanked her horns out of Reysha’s hands. Arms crossed, she accidentally made herself sexier than normal, just by virtue of her massive boobs getting pushed up. Even covered by a shirt and coat, the hills were self-evident. “You’re mean and a heathen!”

“Guilty on both charges.” Reysha squatted down next to Korith. “Ya already knew that though.” The redhead leaned towards the kobold, who kept her face averted. “Aww, come on, gimme a kiss. Just a tiny little smooch?”

“No!” the shortstack refused, taking half a step away.

“Are you having a fight?” Apexus asked, the agreement with the fisherman struck. “I observed most fights start with you, Reysha.”

“That’s because people can’t handle how awesome and fucking funny I am,” Reysha purred, her tail softly waving under her coat. A steady, soft patter was all that remained from yesterday’s heavy downpour. The roof of clouds was thin. “So, how long a voyage are we looking at?”

“About ten hours,” Apexus told them.

“By my estimation, we can save ourselves two hours if we let darling do the rowing,” Aclysia added.

“Ya think we need to pack some food for the journey?”

“Shallow water,” Apexus denied.

“Additionally, we will be dropped off at the first coastline in sight,” Aclysia further specified. “There will be an opportunity to hunt upon landfall.”

The quartet waited where they were, by the docks. Since they had arrived during the early morning of the third day of their journey, there was no need to delay further than required. The fisherman needed to inform his family what he would be up to until tomorrow.

While stationary, they got a good view of the village around them. The architecture of the Prince-Republic of Weststir was remarkably different from that in the Golden Field. A lack of wood forced the mainlanders to rely mostly on bricks, stone, and clay to build their houses. Here, they did not have that problem. There was an ample supply of all kinds of building materials and so the houses were larger, the wooden elements decoratively carved, and an array of windows widely available. Here and there, they used reeds for their roofs. The houses were close together at the centre, and sprawled out towards the outskirts.

Apexus noted such differences with interest.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Enlivia was the name of the dungeon. It was also the name of the place they arrived at about two days later. Exactly, it was named ‘Settlement by the Enlivia Dungeon’, a name that had been abbreviated rather quickly.

The largest city of the ‘state’ of retired adventurers was marked by two factors: an extreme sprawl of the urbanized area and an equally extreme difference between the poor and the rich areas. The outskirts of the city were filled with dilapidated houses and trash that no one bothered to recycle or at least gather somewhere. Scattered all throughout were pockets of wealth, extravagant houses, large windmills, and marks of agrarian industry and culture.

Unlike many other polities around the Omniverse, this gap between the rich and the poor was not born of any oppression or poorly managed economies. What created this happenstance was the nature of Wise Shire itself.

Retired adventurers brought with them, typically, the wealth allowing them to retire in the first place. While they settled down in a state of richness and skill that let them import whatever they needed from the rest of their world, the children they had were marked by a feeling of nomadism. The culture of Wise Shire was such that most young people found it to be their obligation to at least try their hand at adventuring. Consequently, most did not have the type of investment into the locality that would make them take care of it. Dirtying the environment was not a burden on the mind when that environment was only a stay of a few years.

After generations of this, Wise Shire, specifically the densely populated area of Enlivia, was simultaneously a half-developed, dirty mess and a centre of great learning. Here and there were areas that struck a balance, filled with those children from settling adventurers who did not intend to follow in their parent’s footsteps. They were, continuously, disgruntled with the situation. Too few in number, they did not have the influence to change it.

Future developments were guaranteed to change this. For now, Wise Shire was a fascinating place. The houses came in all manner of shapes and sizes, architectural styles that were adopted from other Leaves or created locally from a mixture of several were scattered all over the landscape. It was impossible to say where the loosely populated ‘city’ began and where it ended. There was never a point where there was a notable gap between the houses. Them standing densely packed was almost as rare.

This was, until the trio closed in on the actual centre, where the settlement had originally begun. By a broad river, lazily meandering its way towards the ocean, stood a small city with cobblestone roads and large buildings. A gigantic windmill stood at its centre, slowly turning according to the whims of the wind. Several kilometres further, on the other side of the river, was a grey rock of colossal size. That was the entrance to the Enlivia Dungeon.

The quartet squatted in one of the many empty houses. It was in a state too poor to live in, but as shelter for a night it would do. All four of them were huddled together in a dry corner of the house. Aclysia’s Illumni was filling the house with a soft golden glow. An outsider looking in would have, for the most part, seen four heads poking out of the pile of blankets they used to separate themselves from the dirty floor and cold air. Under it, there was just familiar warmth.

“Do we want to give the dungeon an ass kicking?” Reysha asked.

“Why?” Aclysia asked. “According to our map, the appropriate level to challenge Enlivia is 10 to 15, which we exceed by approximately 8 levels.”

“Yeah, an ass kicking, not a challenge.”

“Why?” Aclysia repeated.

“Dunno, I just feel like bullying some easy prey.” Reysha, chin on his shoulder, looked up to Apexus. “What do ya say, big guy? Someeasy meals before we go the rest of the way?”

Apexus combed through Aclysia’s silky hair as he contemplated the question. An opportunity to gorge themselves on the creations of a dungeon sounded good. The best meal they had these past few days had been a lobster Apexus had caught during their rowing voyage. The urban sprawl of Enlivia did not lend itself to big game, so rabbits of the non-magical variety had been all they were able to get so far.

They had tried to season their meals up a bit with whatever remains of magically enriched plants and meat they still had, but that merely brought the meals from ‘disgusting’ to ‘tasteless’ for Reysha.

“No,” Apexus decided, regardless. “We can indulge ourselves in easier times.”

“Urgh,” Reysha groaned then immediately started to cackle. “Ehehehehe, alright then, guess I’ll just have to get another taste on my tongue to get through the travels.”

____________________________________________________________________________

She would end up getting her fix of magical meat three days later. In the north, Enlivia’s sprawl was endless, but in the south it rubbed up against a mountain range. Past that, there was mostly untouched forest. An occasional farmstead with orchards and small fields seamlessly integrated itself into nature.

In that stretch, both the plants Aclysia found near the house they were occupying on the Teacher’s Isle and several varieties of minorly magic game made their home. The woodlands stretched on and on, all the way until they hit the narrow strait between the island and the western continent. Four and a half days more and they were back home. A total of thirteen days of additional travel, since they made landfall.

“Sure takes a long fucking time to get around the world, doesn’t it?” Reysha groaned, as she lay down on their semi-permanent bed. They had never gotten a mattress, much less a frame, but the large pile of blankets that had stayed home was still better than the limited number they could carry with them. “We spent like four times the time to get there and back than we used to plan and kill the dragon.”

“Travel is a slow and important matter,” Aclysia responded, focused on rekindling the fire that had been out for over two months. In total, 65 days had elapsed since they first left, 24 of which had been spent on the Dragon Isles themselves. This was almost twice as long as the time they had been taught in the first place. “To the best of my knowledge, Tacuitos is not an outstandingly large Leaf either.”

“We need to find some ways to slash our travel times,” Reysha groaned and turned to Korith. “Ya think Hoard will give ya wings if ya bribe it enough?”

“Not out of the question.”

“Ya shitting me?”

“The blessings of the Hoard are numerous… I also think I told you that before and you just forgot,” Korith said and lay down next to Reysha. She let out a long sigh. After weeks of travel, lying down in the knowledge that there wouldn’t be much movement the next day was pure relief. Even her iron-reinforced spine was feeling the impact of the additional luggage in front of her chest after such a long time marching.

Like a cat that had discovered something she really liked, Reysha gave Korith’s chest some playful kneading. “I can do your back instead if ya want,” the redhead suggested in a soft purr.

“That’d be nice,” Korith groaned and rolled onto her chest.

Reysha helped her party member out of her shirt and then gave her a massage. Nothing more than that. Much as the tiger girl could have groped, she understood instinctively that sometimes closeness like this should come without eroticism.

Apexus knelt next to Aclysia, the two of them holding hands while looking into the fire. “It hasn’t come here yet, darling,” she whispered. “It’s been almost four months. How much longer do we have?”

“I do not know,” the humanoid chimera gave the unsatisfying but honest answer. “All we can do is prepare. We’ll see Maltos tomorrow.”