Chương 556: Chapter Five Hundred and Forty-One - Go West Young Bun

We could have left early the next morning... but it would be a bit lame to come all this way and then leave less than 24 hours later. Besides, once we started to think about it, it wasn't hard to come up with valid excuses to put off our departure until the early evening. For one, I wanted to take the whole crew out for a nice lunch. Something like a mini-party. That involved finding a nice eatery not too far from the docks that could handle all of us at once on such short notice.

In the meantime, there were other things to take care of in the morning. Amaryllis wanted updated maps for the region around the Ostri desert, and Awen wanted to check the Beaver's... everything, really. We had a few bits that needed maintenance, because airships seemed to always need some amount of that, and Awen warned us that if we were heading west and near the Ostri desert, then we'd definitely need better filters for the engine and some additional equipment and water.

Bastion had some suggestions as well, which led to him and Caprica heading out to buy some loose-fitting clothes that would better serve to wick off the heat. They came back mostly empt- handed though. That kind of stuff wasn't popular in Deepmarsh. It wasn't like they had deserts here. The entire country was basically one big swamp. Amaryllis' and Awen's initiatives worked out better.

Amaryllis popped over to the Deepmarsh branch of the Exploration Guild with Calamity and returned a few silver poorer but with a tube container filled with detailed aeronautical maps of the region. In the meantime, Desiree and Ifound and booked the entire back of a restaurant, with enough seating for the entire crew. We also hired some guards from the docks to keep an eye on the ship while we were gone, just in case. That had been Amaryllis' idea, though. I was too trusting, according to her.

We came back just in time to fetch everyone, then it was party time! A rather subdued party, actually. The Scallywags knew how to have a good time, and Gordon brought a little banjo-like instrument along to play some tunes for dancing to, but too many of my friends were the shy, introverted sort that didn't know how to just let loose and goof off.

That was okay, though, it meant that there was a slight split in the group, half of us dancing and clapping and making merry, while the other half watched, enjoying the food and having highbrow conversations about... taxes, I guess. Somehow, we ended up back at the Beaver four hours later than we had planned and half the crew was a little bit inebriated and all of us were stuffed full of local foods that we just had to try.

Still, we were all there, and enough of us were sober to get the ship unmoored from the docks and moving along. We flew west. The first night was mostly getting out of the airspace around Deepmarsh. Unfortunately, the winds kept shifting, coming first from the north, then from the south at a bit of an angle. It was a weird twisty air current that we either had to fight through or slow down to handle, and it was easier to just slow down.

By the time the next morning came, we were still so close to the capital that I could make out the lights around the city against the morning sky. Still, the next day wasn't all bad. We gained some altitude, gained some speed, and soon were cruising at a respectable clip towards the south west.

The fastest route to where we wanted to go actually had us skirting the shore and riding along an ocean-side air current that would have us skimming past a port city called Fort Tempete and then heading past the Darkwoods and towards Needleford. I'd been there before, to Needleford. It was where Awen was kidnapped for the second time, and where we met the Scallywags. I had time to ask the three of them if they wanted to return to their old home, but they seemed more than happy to stay on with the Beaver's crew.

They were learning a lot about adventuring, making steady progress with their levels, and visiting the occasional dungeon, which wasn't an opportunity that they might otherwise get. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! Their plans had changed a little, actually. Now all three of them were planning on eventually joining the Exploration Guild. They had a decent resumé now, having worked with us for a couple of months, but we could make it even better!

Speaking of levels and the like, I decided to train up my own. Mana Regeneration and Thick Skin were taking a while to get there, but I did have access to one entire Paladin, and Paladins were very chivalrous. I asked Bastion to help me train my Chivalry skill, and we ended up using Caprica as a guinea pig to test the skill on. Mostly, that involved me walking up to her, bowing, and doing things like helping her across imaginary puddles or giving her my arm to walk more steadily.

I think she only volunteered because Bastion would show me how to do it with her first, and that involved hanging off his arm and acting like a 'proper lady' around him, but Bastion was too professional to notice her batting her eyes at him. Poor Caprica. Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Chivalry skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up! Rank C is a free rank! But not poor Broccoli!

I was actually getting to the point where most of the skills I had were levelled to the point where I'd need to spend skill points to get them freed up for more levelling. It took the rest of the day to make it to the shore near Fort Tempete, and from there, we coasted westwards through the night. The next day, we sailed past the southernmost edge of the Darkwoods, where the thick forest tried hard to cling to some rocky terrain next to the ocean.

Desiree said that if we flew a few hours south, we might be able to see her home way out in the distance, but she was happy to continue with us. By early evening of the second day, we made it to Needleford. I hadn't had the nicest experience in that city, so we swooped in quick, docked, and restocked on food, water, and fuel, all without stepping off the ship unless it was necessary, then took off again, this time aiming straight west towards the open ocean and skirting around the south of the Seven Points.

We weren't going to stop by Port Hazel, the capital of Mattergrove. Instead, we refuelled so that we could make a straight flight all the way to what passed for a capital city for the ostri. The Ostri Desert's ostri people were always friendly and respectful to me, but I was a little worried about visiting their desert's only city. Its name was Come Here and Die, which I found to be a less than welcoming thing to call your home city. Why couldn't they name it something nice and welcoming?

Happysands, or Come Here and Try Our Yummy Desert Fruit? Apparently there was some historical reason for the name, but I never got to hear the full thing. In any case, we had two days of sailing ahead of us. The season was cold, but that also meant that the winds were calm and somewhat predictable around these parts. We'd be flying into the warmer wind coming off the top of the Ostri desert, but that was fine! If anything, a bit of warmth would be nice. I was looking forward to arriving at Come Here and Die, too!

Ostri food was super spicy, but also very yummy, and every ostri I met was cordial and polite. Flying over the ocean was weird. For a while, we couldn't see any land at all, just endless lapping waves below and the open skies above. We did get to see some flying whales dip down close to the water for a drink at some point, and some normal whales swimming just under the surface in big schools of darkened shapes. Two days later, we spotted land once more.

It wasn't the lush green of the fields around Mattergrove, or the deeper green of the Darkwoods, or even the muddy browns of the Deepmarsh swamps, but an endless sea of golden-yellow sand. We'd made it to the Ostri desert, and from here, we were only one big stop away from our final destination! Come Here and Die would be our next stop, then, we'd sail straight towards that island that Professor Celiga had talked about!