Chương 121: Viswa

As Viswa came in sight I quickly identified the two amulets and four rings we got off Bogumir's party. I'd expected more from them, but I guess you can't always be lucky. One of the amulets was probably Sambor's, since it focused on Barrier and Strength. Not something very useful for me. At least not as useful as the next one, which most likely belonged to Jerzy. The medallion looked like a woman's face with two wings.

[Edge of the Alkonost - Amulet] Passive: Feather Fall Falling damage is reduced by 50% +35% Faster cast rate +6 Attunement It was good. Very good. But it didn't synergize with my build as well as Blessing of the Firemind, especially since that restored 10% of my maximum mana on kill. Definitely something to keep in mind for the future, though.

"What's an alkonost?" I asked, turning the amulet in my hand. The design certainly was interesting.

"They are large birds with the face of a young woman," Vasil answered.

"Their feathers are said to be beautiful and brightly colored. Their song is said to calm even the most terrible storm."

"Another thing to watch out for? Are they dangerous?"

"I suppose they can be. Their song can make you forget who you are. Or so they say."

"That does sound like something I wouldn't want. Are there many around?"

"Not here," Vasil said.

"They mostly reside in the underworld, so you are unlikely to encounter any. Though there have been sightings of them on some islands and near the coast. They are relatively rare, and that one of those inquisitors had an amulet related to them is interesting indeed."

"It was Jerzy's," Bogumir said.

"We found it after clearing a dungeon. He and Vulkan rolled for it, and Jerzy won." I scratched the back of my head.

"I may be stupid, but Silesia doesn't have a coast. It's surrounded by other countries."

"We don't," Bogumir said.

"But as you now know, Silesia used to be one big country. Before the whole queen suicide thing. The other countries still keep ties with the Church of Stvora. We exchange information and gear. Sometimes they will 'borrow' Dungeon Squads to clear a dungeon for them. Not sure why. Maybe to keep on good terms with the Church, since we get to keep whatever we find. Anyway, we got this one from a dungeon in Hel, so that's by the coast. You could almost call it an island, I guess."

"Hel? That is in Pomorze," Vasil said.

"Nearly the most northern part of the old country." He glanced at me.

"Hel is basically an island connected to the mainland with a small land bridge."

"Alright," I said.

"Thanks for the geography lesson. I'll keep it in mind if we ever need to go alkonost hunting. Or if for some reason need to go to an island that isn't really an island, but kind of is. You never know."

"Hmm." As for the rings, unfortunately three out of four weren't better than what I was currently wearing either. One of them gave some Strength and Earth Resistance. That would probably be nice for Kuba. He'd be happy with that, and that also meant I didn't have to go out looking for some other gift. That still left Moryana and Skelly. Did Skelly even have a class? I never even asked. Anyway, back to the rings.

[Ring of Quickening - Ring] Your spells move 20% faster +8 Attunement Pretty nice Attunement boost, but my bullets were already very fast, and my current rings did more for me. [Ilya's Band - Ring] Lightning skills are 20% more effective +5 Dexterity Good if I used lightning, but I didn't. [Rumours - Ring] Passive: Chain Your spells have a 50% chance to bounce to the next hostile within 5 meters for 50% damage. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"What do you think about this one, Vasil?" I asked.

"It's a contender, for sure," he replied.

"It applies to all spells, while your Ring of Kindling only applies to igniting enemies. They serve different purposes."

"Don't my bullets technically count as spells after I've used [Reload] to replenish them? The System is big on technicalities, right? Would that mean that if I shot someone the bullet would then have a 50% chance to bounce to the next guy? That would be a lot better than igniting them. Especially if the bullet was also infused with [Clean Entry]""I believe it is safe to assume it would work that way. You would be giving up 10% Fire Damage and 7 Attunement, though it would most likely be worth the sacrifice.

If it can even been seen as such."

"Alright." While the Ring of Kindling had made people believe I was a mind reader by spreading fire to a bunch of guys who were apparently planning on killing me, this ring was objectively better, and with my Attunement already being as high as it was it wasn't a huge loss, so I swapped them. At that moment I also realized I'd been neglecting my belt slot. Besides my head that was the only slot still open, and it had somehow never occurred to me that people could be wearing magical belts and that I could loot them.

"Did anyone on your team wear an enchanted belt?" I asked Bogumir.

"I don't know," he said.

"It's not like we sat around discussing our gear. That stuff's private."

"I thought you were a team? And you knew Jerzy had that amulet."

"We were, but discussing your gear is stupid. What if someone gets jealous and decides to kill you for it? I only knew about Jerzy's amulet because we found it together and he and Vulkan both wanted it. Unless you have a death wish you keep your gear and your skills to yourself."

"Wow," I said, genuinely surprised.

"How can you work together if you don't even know what your colleagues can do? And why would you have to be afraid of your buddies killing you for your gear?"

"I'm not saying my team would have done that, but it's best not to take any chances."

"You know the more I learn about you guys the more you seem like a bunch of assholes. Killing your friends for their gear is ridiculous, I hope you understand that."

"Do Graecians go around telling everyone what skills and gear they have?"

"Well, no," I said.

"But you can tell your friends. They aren't going to kill you for your gear. And they wouldn't blab about your skills to anyone either. You don't have to always look over your shoulder, worried someone will put a knife in your back."

"Hm," he said.

"That worked out well for you, didn't it."

"Look, Bogumir, my situation was completely different. I was fucked over by a corrupt Archon in a fraudulent trial."

"The more I learn about you guys the more you seem like a bunch of assholes," Bogumir said smugly.

"Maybe Silesia is not as different from Graecia as you'd like to think." That gave me some pause. Maybe they actually weren't. The people in power back home were a bunch of corrupt assholes, same as here. The ones with the power and influence decided what was true and what was false, who got what, even who got to live. If they were trying to hide it, they weren't trying very hard. Maybe it was the same everywhere. We arrived at the town gate of Viswa. It was wide open, and I didn't see any guards.

That was suspicious. I glanced at Kasia, who gave me a concerned look. When we entered there were no people, no one at all. The place was eerily silent. The note had led me to believe we'd find the aftermath of a massacre or something. Blood and corpses everywhere. But that couldn't be further from the truth. The place looked clean, extremely so. There was no trash anywhere, and the houses looked perfectly maintained. No blood, no guts, not a single corpse.

It was probably the cleanest place I'd ever seen in my life. The beautiful mountain views surrounding the town made the whole place look idyllic. I had never even seen a painting that looked this much like a painting. This place would be great for holidays, but I still had no idea what that map was all about. I pulled out the note and looked at it, hoping maybe the lines would give me a hint. They didn't. I turned to Vasil.

"Uh… what's going on here?"

"This is the cleanest town I've seen in my life," Bogumir remarked.

"Where are all the people?" Kasia asked, concerned. Vasil hopped ahead.

"I have a bad feeling about this." I couldn't pick up anything funky through [Mēnē's Watchful Eye], so maybe there was nothing to worry about. I scanned the area. Some of the larger buildings appeared to be made of stone and brick, though the majority was still made of wood. While in Graecia most buildings were made of stone, it was the opposite in Silesia. That made sense since Graecia was a pretty rocky place in general and limestone was a lot more common than trees big enough for building a house.

In Silesia gigantic trees were everywhere, and the place was nowhere near as rocky, so it made sense to me that people would use that over stone. Stone was probably expensive in a place like this. Maybe Viswa was just a wealthy town? Maybe that's why it was so clean? The fact that a town being clean and peaceful made us all wary spoke volumes about the state of Silesia in general. The people seemed to have little respect for their surroundings… or other people.

I spotted what appeared to be a tavern and pointed at it.

"Let's do what we always do. Check the tavern and ask some questions… if there's anyone there." The sign above the door had a picture of a golden wheel. The text surrounding it said: The Golden Wheel. Perhaps that was another indication of their wealth. The note could have been some kind of prank for all I knew. Besides the place being nice and exceptionally clean, nothing seemed off. I put my hand on the door and glanced back.

"Everyone ready?"