Chương 148: Chapter 146: the village and the castle

"Did you guys understand what they were saying in there?" I ask as we start to put the little in in the background.

"Yeah," Gigi says.

"They were talking English, far as I could tell."

"That's so weird," Ash says.

"I mean, they shouldn't be, right? They shouldn't be speaking any language that we understand."

"No one should be," El says.

"English wouldn't spontaneously develop in a different world."

"I think we got the native language translated for us," I say.

"Either it replaced our old knowledge of English or just got mapped on to it for our ease."

"Strange that they speak it here," Ash says.

"I would expect a different language in this part of the world." I shrug.

"Some things break immersion for the sake of convenience," I say.

"That's a fair point," Gigi says.

"It would've really sucked if we couldn't speak the language here." I nod. I don't even bring up the money system. We travel well into the darkness, and once again make camp close to midnight. In the ten or so total hours that we've been on the road, I think we've made a good fifty miles of progress. We should start to see more signs of civilization, I'd think, as early as tomorrow. Maybe we'll come to a city. Vincent, it seems, is still in the middle of the ocean.

He has no idea how long they've been going or how much longer they have to go. He just knows they haven't stopped to sleep yet. And that Amanda is not very talkative. He's kind of miserable. The next day, we spot a castle. I can't think of any other castles we've seen in this world, which is kind of weird. Elmspire is like a castle made of trees, but it's not the same thing. And Marketplace has a castle wall around it, but is clearly just a city. This looks like a legitimate castle. The kind you'd see in Europe.

The road leads right to it. There's a village spread out from the castle. It's designed like any other village we've seen, except there are a lot more towers. The buildings are taller, the windows are bigger, and there are pedestrians in the sky. Not pedestrians; that word means walking. What do you call it when normal people are flying around like it's no big deal? Whatever that word is, that's what I can see. It doesn't seem like anyone flies for particularly long.

As I watch, it seems like people fly from one tower to another, or from a tower to the ground, or the ground to a tower. No one seems to be just meandering in the sky, and we don't even see anything that looks like a town guard in the air. I suppose that makes sense. Every pound of armor is an extra pound of weight you have to lift with your wings. I'm guessing that the people flying are wearing minimal clothing. The streets are pretty wide, and not terribly crowded.

When they start to get crowded, people start taking to the sky for short bursts. Not something we can do, but interesting to watch. We walk into the village without being accosted by anyone. We do gather a lot of onlookers and our fair share of stares, but nothing seems all that hostile. We're just out of the ordinary. No one moves to arrest us or to attack us, so I think we're pretty safe here. Most of the doorways are a lot wider than I'd expect.

I noticed that at the inn, but didn't really think much of it; a lot of inns have big door ways. These doors aren't big enough for someone to come in with their wings completely unfolded, but they are wide enough for someone to land and have their wings still somewhat out as they walk in. It's like the wings have two settings of folded in. First the outer wing folds in, then the inner wing folds in a bit later. Only when both joints have folded in does the set of wings stay about shoulder width apart.

We keep an eye out for any symbols that might be guilds or faction houses, but most of what we see are just normal village things. There are a couple of inns, a few taverns, and a bunch of craftsmen workshops. There is probably a shopping district somewhere too. We see a group of smiths all working in close proximity to one another, but it seems like they're mostly making tools and horse shoes rather than weapons and armor. Nothing that really draws our attention as adventurers.

I start to get used to the wave of quiet that seems to flow around us. People see us and they stop what they're doing for a few seconds, watching us and trying to see what they can make of us. When we don't do anything spectacular or even interesting, they turn their attention back to what they were doing. But by then, we're almost all the way past them. So there's a bubble around us. People ahead of us spy us and stop what they're doing, and people behind us start up again.

It's a little bit disconcerting, but I'm getting used to it pretty quickly, I think.

"Why are we going to the castle?" Gigi asks.

"It's where the road leads," El says, shrugging.

"The castle is the most likely place to get information," Ash says.

"If they have any higher tech, it will be there. That's where the rich people are. We'll get to see what the cutting edge has to offer in this world." That's a really good point. When did Ash get to be so clever? Not that she's ever been stupid or anything. I mean, she's always been really smart. But this just seems even more so. Like she's put more points into intelligence or something. Not that there's a way to do that. Intelligence is not one of the stats. Did you know this story is from Royal Road?

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"They might also have quests and stuff," I say. That's really all the convincing anyone needs. We're soon walking out of the village and up a bit of an incline. The path meanders back and forth. This part of the road is paved with stones, though there is a weird furrow going down the center of the road. Maybe some kind of drainage ditch, I can't be sure.

Whatever the case, as soon as we leave the town, the stone road begins to weave back and forth, folding on itself as it takes a very long and lazy path to the gate of the castle. I wonder if that's a defensive design strategy. Make the army weave back and forth before it gets to your gate. Maybe they can walk over the space between the turns and cut the distance down, but they probably still have to have siege engines move along the turns of the road.

Maybe it gives them more opportunity to snipe at the army as it comes to the gates. When we get to the gate, I see that there's both a portcullis and a draw bridge. The moat is empty, though the bottom of it is lined in spikes, making the draw bridge the only safe way into the castle. This thing is designed to withstand a siege. But I can't help but notice that it's not designed to let a lot of people in quickly, which makes me think that they'd leave the village to fend for itself. I don't like that.

The bridge is down, the portcullis up, so we're able to just walk right across. Of course, there are guards. Six of them, wearing chest plate armor and carrying halberds. The armor is strange, because it does let their wings free. It's strange that they don't have chain armor or anything like that, but I figure that's probably so that they can still fly for a short distance if they need to. That makes the moat make more sense. They don't need water, because someone could just fly over it.

But if someone is trying to fly over the wall and they get knocked down, if they fall, they could fall onto the spikes. Might be more dangerous than water. Okay, I'm starting to get the hang of this, I think. The guards move to stop us, and we stop with plenty of space between us. I step forward; I'm the face, after all. I hold out my hands to show that they're empty and I give the widest and friendliest smile I can manage.

"Hello friends," I say.

"We're travelers and were hoping to talk to someone in charge."

"What is your business?" the lead guard asks, looking me up and down.

"We are adventurers," I say.

"We were hoping there might be someone here who could provide us with a quest or two."

"We don't give quests to strangers," the guard says. I clasp my hands together. Maybe a bit of logic will help.

"But how can we stop being strangers if there isn't some way to prove our friendship?" I ask.

"A simple quest, one that would prove our intentions, is all I ask for." The guard looks to both sides, like he's trying to get a consensus from the other guards. No one says anything. I wonder if they're telepathic.

"You want something to do that will help the people of the castle?" he asks. I nod.

"Then go out and kill some monsters. That'll be a help to everyone." No quest prompt appears.

"What monsters?" I ask.

"And how many?" He gives a little laugh.

"Just go out and kill a bunch of 'em," he says.

"Once you do that, we'll know that you're trustworthy." I give him a good look. Guard. Very rare elite Seraph blood, level 50. HP: 25, 000/25, 000. He's a higher level than any of us. He should be able to see our levels and our hit points. Maybe he has no frame of reference for adventurers, though. Maybe he doesn't know that we have a lot of health for our kind, and are therefore more powerful than he might expect, given our levels. I sigh.

"Give me a number," I say.

"And name your beast. We'll come back with proof of their deaths."

"I don't bloody know," the man says.

"Ten. Bring back ten sets of lynxith claws, and I'll see what I can do about getting you a quest." I happen to have eight sets of greater lynxith claws in my bag. But I bet the ones here are different, and he might be able to tell the difference.

"Fine," I say. Then I turn around, and the four of us walk away from the castle.

"He wants us to kill ten lynxiths?" El asks.

"Did that give you a quest?" I sigh.

"Nope," I say.

"I think we just get the experience for actually killing them. I didn't get the impression that he expected us to be able to do it. Maybe he thinks we'll die, and then he won't have to worry about us." We step off the path and start heading away from the castle, tromping through the dirt. The soil here isn't all that much better than what we'd been walking through. I saw a few farms on the outskirts of the town, but I have no idea what they're growing.

Probably something that is meant to grow in harsh conditions, like a potato or something. I don't know; I'm not a farmer. We're maybe ten minutes from the castle when I spot the first lynxith tracks. There's a bunch of them in the group. It's so hard to figure out how many of them there are, because of the six legs. They don't always use all six as they walk, so you can't just count. I know there's more than one, but I'm not sure if that means two or three. There might be more. I think there's at least three.

Maybe five? It's hard to tell. My tracking is at 32 now, but I'm still not entirely sure how many we're going to run into. They travel more or less single file. Probably not to hide their numbers intentionally, but that's the effect that it has. Maybe we'll run into all ten of them at once, and this will be a quick battle. I'm going to use Mab's Rage. As long as there are at least five of them, anyway. Fewer than five and it's probably not worth it.

But with at least five, I might be able to keep the battle nice and short. I spot them after about forty minutes of following the trail. They're laying in the sun, a big group of them. Looks like about a dozen of them. I stop walking and count. Thirteen. That's more than enough. If we kill all of them. From this distance, I'm able to identify them, thanks to my Observation ability. Dire Lynxith. Legendary elite creature, level 45. HP: 45, 000/45, 000. Definitely using Mab's Rage.

I tell the others how many hit points they all have.

"These are the most badass lynxiths we've ever seen," El says. She has an axe in each hand, and is stretching her body a bit, loosening up her muscles.

"Mab's Rage is good for about half their health," I say.

"The rest we're on our own for."

"Let's try to stay together," Ash says. She looks at me.

"Are you going to stay back and use your bow?" I nod.

"For as long as it's feasible, yeah."

"Then El, you take point. I'll be on your left, Gigi on your right. We stay together, so they can't surround any one of us. We'll watch your six." El nods. She doesn't just sprint off into battle, which is good. The three of them start moving together, slowly making their way towards the giant cats. I move with them for a good half of the distance, until I can get within range for my bow. We're not exactly sneaking, but we're being at least a little bit quiet, so the lynxiths don't get up immediately.

I take aim for one of the ones on the flank, and I take a Power Shot at it. It does the full amount of damage I'm expecting, 5, 720 damage with the sneak attack. With bleed, that's good for more than ten thousand.