“Okay, here’s the plan. You will ask for High-quality for the helm and chest guard. The rest will be fine as Good-quality,” I said.
“That will still be a few hundred gold at best,” Harrison said. “Honestly, I can probably only afford Good-quality for the chest guard and normal-quality for everything else.”
Okay, now I was starting to get an image of the value of things. I should have thought back to how much my old armor sold for at the end of my last dive. With all the Good-quality gear I sold, I made 234-Gold. And if it had been new, I would have gotten even more. Not to mention my gear was all Light Leather. I never asked Rose how much she got from her Light Chainmail, but I assumed it was more for the heavier materials.
“That won’t do. Not where we’re going and not with the dangers we’re going to face,” I said with a frown. I could honestly afford to buy him the best armor available, I had the money. But it would be an unnecessary expense, especially once he leveled past it.
“I am open to suggestions,” Harrison said.
I moved away from Harrison to inspect the armor, ignoring Nori’s frowning at me. “How long did it take to make one set of armor?” I asked.
“About a week, why? Think you can do better?” Nori asked.
“No, not at all,” I replied. A week was too long. I had no doubt Marie could make something comparable with that much time, but we didn’t have that much time. Still, it got the wheels turning. “Harrison, what are your professions?” I asked, not looking away from the armor.
“Um . . . I do not have a profession,” Harrison answered. “There . . . uh . . . there is not enough time while in the City Watch to spend on things like a profession.”
I could work with that. Grinning, I addressed Nori, “Alright, I want a full set for Harrison. Head and chest should be Good-quality, the rest Normal-quality.”
Nori eyed me up and down then asked, “Are you paying the difference? Out of pocket?”
“Possibly,” I said. “How much?”
“65-Gold,” Nori answered.
“50-Gold,” I countered, hoping my ‘Barter’ skill would work against the woman that clearly didn’t like me.
Barter
Level: 17
Experience: 67.14%
Skill Effect (Passive): Reduce purchase cost by 0.17% (+0.15% Charisma)
Skill Effect (Passive): Increases your Charisma Experience Gain by 17.00%
“100-Gold,” Nori countered.
“Do not do that Nori,” Harrison jumped in. “This armor is for me. You know, the one that has saved you from untold embarrassment and kept you out of prison on more than one occasion.”
Nori frowned. “Fine, for you Johnny, 60-Gold.”
“55-Gold,” I returned.
Nori hissed in annoyance. “57-Gold, 5-Silver, final offer.”
“Done,” I said, offering my hand to shake on the deal. As expected, Nori ignored the hand, instead, she presented her palm to me and motioned for me to pay up.
It took a minute to extract the 57-Gold and 5-Silver, dropping each piece into a bag the Elf held out in front of her.
“Very well, Johnny, please come with me and I will get your new armor refitted,” Nori said.
“You did not need to do that,” Harrison said.
“Oh, you’re paying me back,” I said. “Consider your contract extended until you have paid off that armor in full. I know it is not as good as Rose’s, but it will do for now.”
Harrison swallowed nervously. “Wait, you never said anything about paying you back. I never agreed to that.”
“Too late,” I said, smiling evilly. “Don’t worry too much. I have a plan that should easily allow you to pay me back by the time your 83-days is up.”
Harrison blanched. “What plan?”
“You’ll find out in time. For now, better catch up to Nori. She doesn’t seem happy to see you talking to me,” I said.
It took a few hours for Nori to resize the chainmail to fit Harrison perfectly. Honestly, I think the woman dragged her feet a bit just to spend more time with Harrison.
Rose and Nahid were waiting for us in the lobby when we were done.
“Took you long enough,” Rose complained, closing a book and standing to greet us.
“Sorry, it took a while for the armor to be resized to fit Harrison,” I said.
“It doesn’t auto-adjust?” Rose asked.
“I guess that only works for Quest rewards, loot drops and clothes, not purchased armor,” I said. “Anyway, I’m ready to get away from this place. Any trouble getting Nahid her daggers?”
“No problems,” Nahid said, unsheathing two daggers that looked exactly the same before sheathing them a moment later. Each one looked like the dagger a sultan would have worn at his belt in ancient history, which I now knew was a Janbiya dagger . . . unless the game changed the name of it.
“Didn’t even cost a Gold,” Rose said, returning 9-Gold and 1-Silver to me. “How about you? How did things go with Harrison?”
“Apparently, pure Elves really don’t like half-Elves of any kind. Half-Human, half-Boar, sure, no problem. Half-Elf, absolutely not. The owner, or whatever she is, spent the last few hours calling me a mongrel and several other unsavory descriptions I would prefer to simply forget and move on from. Long story short, we’re never coming back to this shop again. And Harrison owes me 57-Gold for his new armor,” I answered. Honestly, I really just wanted to go back to the Hotel and sleep until it was time to leave for the ‘Endless Savanna’. Unfortunately, we only had an hour and a half left before it was time to go and we still needed to pick up supplies.
“This is not okay,” Rose said, getting angry on my behalf.
“No, it isn’t,” I said, grateful that Rose was there. “But it’s over. Let’s just get out of here.”
Rose studied my face for a moment before nodding. “Alright, if you say so. On the bright side, Tracy told me you were going to be a while, so I ran down the street and picked up the Enchanting Powder I needed for my enchanting. I even bought a book of enchantments. If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll find something I’ll be able to use to enchant at least a little of your equipment and everyone else’s. That’s one less thing to do,” Rose said, looking rather pleased with herself.
“That’s great!” I said enthusiastically. It might have been selfish on my part, but I was happy about the possibility of Rose enchanting some of my armor. “I know I said I wanted to stop at the Cartographer’s Guild, but I think we need to go to Wally’s Sundry first and get our supply situation sorted out. If we have enough time after that, we can stop at the Cartographer’s Guild.”
“What do you need from the Cartographer’s Guild?” Rose asked.
“I’m supposed to pick up my first royalty from the Hurlig Ridge map. I also want to see if my updates for the Hammer and Anvil Mountain Valley Province were accepted. And last, see about buying the current map for the ‘Endless Savanna’,” I answered.
“Let us go already,” came the hurried voice of Harrison. “Before that woman decides something else needs to be refitted.”
Rose lifted a questioning eyebrow.
“I’ll tell you later,” I promised, smiling at just how desperate Harrison was to leave.
Wally’s looked exactly as I remembered it. Herbert looked as if he had never left his greeter chair in the month since I last saw him.
“Herb, good to see you,” I said.
“Bye-bye and Rose, good to see you both again,” Herb said. Then the old man looked around to see if anyone was nearby. “Say, Bye-bye, would you be interested in helping me make that good for nothing Rhyes disappear?”
I snorted a laugh. “Herb, no. Rhyes is a good man and he’s about to become a father from what I hear.”
“If he were a good man, my sweet innocent Granddaughter would not be pregnant. She is much too young. It is all that Rhyes fault,” Herb complained.
“Grandpa, please tell me you are not trying to drag someone else into your ill-conceived
plot to kill my husband,” Molly complained. She looked exactly the same as the last time I saw her except for the barely noticeable bump in her belly.
“No,” Herb replied unconvincingly.
Molly rolled her eyes. “It is good to see you again Bye-bye. How can I help you today?”
“Camping gear,” I answered. “And I wouldn’t mind saying hello to Rhyes if he’s around.”
“He should be in soon for lunch with me, it is part of our new daily ritual,” Molly said, sounding absolutely giddy about it. “Anyway, you said camping supplies, right?”
“Yes, and I have some old camping gear I want to sell,” I said.
Rose looked to me then asked, “We’re camping together, right?”
I grinned a little and nodded.
“Good, then I also have some old camping gear to sell,” Rose said.
“Well look at the two of you, finally figured it out, eh?” Molly asked.
Rose took my hand in hers and nodded.
“Good for you. I assume your two shadows will also need camping equipment?” Molly asked.
“You guessed it,” I said. I know I had plenty of money, but I wasn’t looking forward to paying for both of our new companions camping equipment in addition to my own. These two would definitely be working off the debt.
“Any idea of what you want?” Molly asked as she guided us through the store.
“Best two-person tent setup you’ve got,” I said. I already spent a small fortune today, what was a little more? “And something simple for our companions. We’ll be camping in the ‘Endless Savanna’ so whatever you think we’ll need to survive.”
“Alright, let us see what we can do,” Molly said.
The last time I worked with Molly, she was distracted by a desire to flirt with Rhyes, my Patrolman friend and her now husband. Seeing her in action when she was driven to make a sale was a different experience.
Starting with food, she loaded us up on a lot of dry food and rations. Then another dozen thermoses of various waters. And then, she convinced Rose and I both that we needed new bags with a much larger capacity and weight reduction enchantments. By the time she was done with that I was so convinced that she had the right of it that price was forgotten. At least it was until we started looking at tents.
Two single person tents and bedrolls took care of Harrison and Nahid.
Buying a two-person tent for Rose and I ended up being kind of like what I expected home shopping would be like. And this was just a tent.
“Now, this is our premium model, please come in,” Molly said, walking to a wall tent. “Now, this model comes with all the amenities including an enchanted hanging shower that will heat any water added to the hanging pouches. The bedroom comes with a Queen size cot for two or two twins upon request. The sitting room options include chairs, tables, benches, and a desk if you want.” The tent was rather fantastic with its thick padded floor and crisp white cloth walls and the foldable wooden furniture, but I could already feel my wallet screaming in agony, this was not going to be cheap.
“That’s all nice, but how are we going to carry all this?” I asked.
“The tent uses the same enchantment as your new bag,” Molly answered, pointing to the new travel bag hanging from my shoulder. “It uses dimensional magic to contain everything in one nice neat package and reduces the weight. It’s easy to set up and take down thanks to the enchanting work that has been done.”
“This seems like too much,” I said. “Hopefully I’ll figure out how to get us into town within a day or two, then all this will be pointless.”
“And if you do get us into town and they still refuse to let us stay because we aren’t Beastkin?” Rose asked.
“But do we really need all this?” I asked, motioning around me.
Rose pointed toward the cloth wall that separated the sitting room from the bathtub. “Do I really need to say more? Besides, she hasn’t even given you a price yet. It might not be that bad.”
I looked at her incredulously.
“And the walls are soundproof,” Molly added with a wink.
“Soundproof you say?” I asked, already mentally telling my wallet to shut up and live with it.
Chapter 9
When Rhyes showed up there was barely enough time to exchange greetings before we needed to leave. Especially if I wanted to have enough time for a quick stop at the Cartographer’s Guild, and I really wanted to stop in. I wanted to see how much I made from my Hurlig Ridge maps, assuming I made anything at all. Could it have waited until I was back in town at the end of the month? Probably. But again, I wanted to see the results.
The stop at the Cartographer’s Guild was mercifully quick. Ruffalo, the half-Sprite, half-Weasel-Fox-thing was short tempered and after giving me a royalty statement, proceeded to kick me out. This after telling me to buy a map from a general store. I would have fought harder with him but when I saw the statement for my map of Hurlig Ridge at 276-Gold and the Hidden Norse Temple at 772-Gold I was too dumbstruck to come up with a decent argument. That seemed like a lot considering both maps were related to a low-level province. It really made me wonder just how popular Hurlig Ridge had become as a starting province. I made a note to myself to check the Book of Otherworldly Knowledge later.
After a very quick stop into Wally’s again for the map, which they didn’t carry as the portal was on the other side of Root City, we moved quickly to get back to the hotel, hoping Olaf wouldn’t be too upset with us for being a few minutes late.
“Okay, is everyone ready to go?” Olaf asked, doing one last check over our growing caravan of NPC’s. It was already 30-minutes past the planned noon departure due to Olaf himself being late and apologizing sheepishly, saying he lost track of time.
“Ready Babe,” Micaela cheered excitedly, setting off a round of calls of ‘ready’ from the group.
“Okay, next stop, Fourth Ring, Northeast 2,” Olaf shouted. The large Minotaur then nodded to the hired Portal Mage to get to work.
It took a minute for the Mage to channel the spell and create a portal large enough for the entire group to fit through, including the massive form of Perses, Titan’s giant blue furred bear, an Ursa Major. As such, Titan, Baby and Perses were the last ones through the portal.
“Alright, did everyone make it through with all their fingers and toes still attached?” Olaf asked with a chortle.
Not bothering to answer the very bad joke, I volunteer to look around for the portal. In truth, I asked the first Patrolman I saw and got exact directions.
Endless Savanna – Level 15-25 *Beware: higher level monsters have been known to appear*
Equal parts endless danger and endless adventure, the Endless Savanna is a nearly endless grassland filled with all manner of life and ways for it to end. Home to beasts native to warm Savanna Grasslands, this province is a favorite of the Hunter’s Guild who has a great many standing bounties. Unfortunately, members of the Hunter’s Union are not the only hunters that stalk this land. *Non-Beastkin beware, the current leader of the Bazaar of Beasts has banned access to the city to all, but Beastkin* *Chaos lies in wait for the unprepared*
Okay, so that was the most I had gotten from a province description yet. And I got two . . . no, three bits of bonus information. At this point, the Chaos bonus was kind of expected. The fact that it was the current leader of the Bazaar of Beasts that made entry to the city difficult was new. More importantly, it was a clue as to how to gain access to the city. The more interesting note was that higher-level monsters spawn occasionally. Did this mean that monsters wandered in from other provinces? Or was it that the explored region of the province only saw monsters between level 15 and 25? And if so, would it go up if we explored unmapped regions? Assuming there even were unmapped regions. It was something to consider.
“So?” Olaf prompted me, nudging my shoulder slightly.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod.
“And what’s is say? Is Chaos there?” Rose asked.
“Yeah,” I said, then read the full province description aloud for everyone to hear.
“Ooh,” Micaela cooed excitedly. “This is going to be so much fun. Think I could find an elephant spirit or maybe a rhino? Oh, I bet I could find a zebra to keep Boots company.”
“I guess I’ll go through first this time,” I said, activating my ‘Stealth’ skill and walking into the portal. The last time we went through a portal to a new province we were ambushed by a significant force of players, resulting in almost everyone dying. Going through in ‘Stealth’ was just to scout around and make sure it didn’t happen again.
Stealth
Level: 36
Experience: 71.41%
Non-Combat Movement: Speed reduced by 71.00%
Chance of Being Revealed: 56.40%
Skill Stamina Cost: 2 per second
I emerged into a sight that I would never forget. As far as the eye could see was tall golden grasses and the occasional tree, it was like something right out of one of those old African Safari documentaries. It was beautiful . . . and hot. The sun overhead beat down harshly, making me feel sweat start forming almost immediately.
Still, I took a moment to just enjoy the scenery. It was then I saw an elephant. It wasn’t even a hundred yards away. There was a herd of them. Or I think they were elephants, they had four tusks instead of the normal two in addition to looking larger than I expected. Unfortunately, they were too far way to see more than a blur for nameplates.
Thinking of nameplates reminded me why I was there. I activated my ‘Detection’ spell to give my ‘Perception’ skill a boost.
Detection
Level: 4
Experience: 13.24%
Skill Effect (Passive): Where ‘Perception’ ends, ‘Detection’ begins. Augmenting your senses with magic you are able to detect more than you would otherwise. Increase Chance to See +2.00%
Spell Mana Cost: 5 per second
World Tree Online- the Endless Savanna- 3rd Dive Page 15
