Chương 73: Chapter 74: Where to next?

"You know, we don't have to only travel together," Ash points out.

"If you really want to just explore the city for a while, you can do that. You could meet up with us when you're ready to go adventuring again."

"I'd actually like to talk to some of the guilds," Vincent says.

"They might have access to spells that I don't know, and I'd like to get a wider variety of non-combat spells."

"What do you mean?"

"Virtually all of my spells cause damage in some form or another," Vincent says.

"But none help me sneak around or move more quickly or anything like that. None of them let me teleport. But if anyone is going to have teleportation at their finger tips, it's a guild that specializes in magic."

"Like the mage guild?" That's the one faction guild I've never bothered to visit. Though I suppose I could. I've got enough spells to qualify for a casting class.

"The mage guild has a lot of magic related quests," Vincent says.

"But most of them are generic. Get three spells to their maximum level kind of thing. And while they do sell spells, they're only for renown points, and I haven't gotten enough to unlock the level of spell I assume teleport must be."

"What level is that?" Gigi asks.

"Very rare at the lowest," he says.

"Maybe higher."

"So you want to go run with a mage guild for a while," Ash says. She nods.

"I can understand that. Maybe we should all go and join guilds, try to get what we can from them, and level up that way." El shakes her head.

"I'm not joining a guild," she says.

"I play alone or with you guys. I'm not interested in meeting new people."

"I'd like to get some further training and qualify for Crusader," Gigi says.

"If there's a knight's guild, they might be able to help me with that."

"Fine then," El says.

"Me and Ash will go out on our own, then." She crosses her arms over her chest. It does nothing to hide her cleavage. But she chose this outfit, so she must have known that. She shows off a lot of her body, and I don't think it's just to intimidate people about the fact that she isn't wearing that much armor.

"I was actually considering crusader as well," Ash says.

"Either that or qualifying for Inquisitor."

"What's that going to take?" Gigi asks her.

"Mostly more magic," Ash says.

"Does that mean," El asks, eyes wide, "that I'm on my own? Caleb's gonna be a tourist, and the rest of you are joining guilds?" I don't like the idea of us splitting up again. We do way more damage, are way more effective, when the five of us are working together. If anything, we should be looking to add to our party, not subtract. Another magic user, or another archer, would make us even more formidable than we are now. And I don't like the idea of El going off on her own.

Seems like she'll just keep going against bigger and badder monsters until one of them kills her.

"I think this just means that we want to train a bit after all," I say.

"You two need to train to qualify for those higher classes. I just want to take the time to enjoy the world around us. I'm not talking weeks or even days. I'm talking like, one day. Just a day to wander around Elmspire and soak in this city. It's not like any city we've ever seen, and I want to see it."

"But cities are boring," El says, her voice with just a hint of a whine.

"And I'm sure I'll get bored of this one in a day," I say.

"But I still want to try. Why not come with me? We might find something you're interested in."

"One day?" she asks. I nod.

"And then we can leave the city?" I nod again.

"For, like, a while?" I nod a third time.

"Fine," she says.

"One day. Today." The day is already half over. We're eating lunch right now.

"Fine," I say.

"But I get all night to explore, too." She rolls her eyes.

"Fine," she says.

"But you're paying for the inn." I guess we will be sleeping in an inn tonight. I turn to the others.

"What about the rest of you?"

"I'm going to look into joining a spell focused guild," Vincent says.

"I'll keep in touch, but I imagine they're going to keep me busy for a little while. Why don't you guys message me when you swing back this way?"

"I'm going to look into knight guilds too," Gigi says.

"So same goes for me." We look at Ash. She taps her fingers on the table as she thinks.

"I don't think Elmspire is for me," she says.

"I'm getting a lot of looks here. I think I'd rather leave with the two of you."

"Do you want to explore the city with us?" I ask.

"Sure," she says.

"I'll give that a try." I look over at Gigi and Vincent.

"You guys sure you don't want to explore with us?"

"I'm going to go talk to the gentleman over there in the robes with the staff," Vincent says, pointing to one of the three hungry looking adventurers.

"I'm going to let him sell me on his guild, and see what I can get out of joining." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I'll go with you," Gigi says.

"At least until we find a temple or a knight's guild." We finish our food and say goodbye to Vincent. I guess I'm the primary magic user of our group now. That's not great, but at least I have a big mana pool. Vincent is already deep in conversation by the time we leave the tavern, and I notice that one of the other two gets up to follow us at a polite distance. Maybe he's decided that he can pitch to the four of us, once we get away from the crowded tavern.

Sure enough, maybe twenty seconds later, he catches up to us, calling for our pardons. I look at him. Malik, forest elf spellsword, level 30. HP: 1710/1710.

"What can I do for you, Malik?" I ask him. He stops short, thrown off balance a bit by my calling out his name. I don't know why; he could see the same information over my head. Except not my level and hit points, because I'm a higher level than he is.

"Oh, yes, um." he says, patting himself down like he's looking for a script. Then he claps his hands together and smiles at us.

"I couldn't help but overhear that you were talking about the guilds over your meal."

"Yes, that's right," I say.

"And you want to tell us about your guild, I assume?"

"What's your guild called?" Ash asks.

"We're called the Ebony Knighthood," the man says. Gigi looks a bit interested in the name.

"Tell me about it," she says.

"What's the goal of your guild?"

"We're a guild of knights, sworn to protect the kingdom and the city."

"Say more," Gigi says.

"Do you have crusaders in your guild?"

"We do, yes," Malik says.

"And we train with the army sometimes."

"That's interesting," Gigi says. El stands behind him and makes little motions with her hands to make fun of him talking.

"Tell me more." Malik goes on and on about the knighthood, about the vows they take, and about the various things they do around the city. He talks about how they are a service organization, how they go around and make sure that the streets are safe, and how they do other things for the good of Elmspire. It sounds a lot like a fraternity in college. At least, that's the vibe he's giving off.

"And do you give discounts for equipment?" Ash asks him. Malik gives her a long look, looking at her almost as if he's seeing her for the first time. Which is weird, because Ash looks like the embodiment of something called the Ebony Knighthood. She's wearing armor complete with paldrons, a breast plate, chain mail, greaves, the whole deal. And it's all black. But her skin is somehow a darker black, and the horns that go over her hair are a black that is darker still. She looks like she's made of ebony.

"We do," he says. He seems excited to be talking to Ash as well.

"We offer deep discounts for both equipment and for improving equipment. Our smiths will help level up your gear all the way."

"How do you afford to do that?" Ash asks.

"We get deals with a few local artisans," he says.

"And also we have a few crafters in the guild that help produce things at a lower price than the stores."

"Do you negotiate those lower prices with local merchants?" She asks him.

"Yes, of course we do." Ash gives me a knowing look.

"So you force them to make deals with you?"

"We don't force anyone," Malik says.

"We make deals to buy in bulk. And we have our own crafters making suits of armor for our members."

"I don't know," Ash says.

"It doesn't sound like it's a good deal for the local merchants."

"It brings them a lot of business," Malik says.

"How many members are in your order?" I ask him. He turns and looks at me, and I can tell from that look that I am not the ideal candidate for his guild.

"We are two hundred strong," he says, standing up a little bit straighter.

"We form our own battalion in the army, should Elmspire go to war." I wonder, with all the movements of the orcs, if there will be a war any time soon.

"Do you guys fight with each other?" I ask him.

"I mean with the other guilds."

"There are skirmishes," he says.

"But I wouldn't say any fights. No guilds have yet had a war."

"That sounds like it would be fun," El says.

"Fight a bunch of other people, and know that they aren't going to stay dead. I dunno. I might be willing to fight in a guild war."

"I'd rather not kill anyone, even if they are coming back from the dead," I say.

"I'm just saying it would be fun."

"You would think so," Ash says, giving El a nudge.

"I would like to know more about the Ebony Knighthood," Gigi says. She looks at the three of us.

"Meet up with you guys later?" She and Malik go off to have more of a talk, and Ash looks at me as they walk off.

"It just seems so much like a pyramid scheme," she says.

"I don't know."

"Let's go up the tree!" El says.

"I want to see how high the road around goes." I didn't think she'd be excited to see the rest of Elmspire. She was all for just leaving the city earlier, and didn't want to go exploring. But now she's full of energy, practically bouncing around as we walk down the road, past all the shops and through another line of houses.

The road continues going up, and at first I'm worried that there won't be any kind of safety measure taken, but then I look ahead of us and I see that there are nets to catch people who fall off the sides of the road, but there are no guard rails to disrupt the view. The road winds up farther and farther. As we end up back around the tree, there are guard rails, once the fall would be more than forty or fifty feet.

They're set up not just to stop people from falling over the edge, but also just places where people can stop and enjoy the view.

"This is a huge tree," El says.

"I can't believe that everyone lives in this one tree. This is some serious Keebler shit."

"It seems like about four square blocks around," Ash agrees.

"It's insane."

"It's like walking on the outside of a skyscraper," I say.

"Kind of raises my hackles."

"We haven't even made it up to the branches yet," El says, looking above us. Then she looks at me.

"You aren't going to make us go all the way up, are you?"

"I just want to enjoy the scenery a little bit," I say.

"You know, just explore a bit."

"I'm bored," El says. I kind of am too. It's weird. I wanted to explore the city. I wanted to see the sights. I wanted to see if there was local graffiti, or local art. I wanted to walk around the city and absorb the culture. But it's the same thing as when I lived in Minneapolis. I'd been to the sculpture garden before the tutorial, and I'd been to Loring park. But there were museums within walking distance of my apartment that I never went to.

There were times when I was in school and had free passes to museums, and I still didn't go. I want to be cultured. I want to explore and enjoy the world. But the truth of the matter is, I'm bored. We're walking down the street. That's about it. There are houses. I've seen houses before. I've seen stores. It's really not that big of a deal. The houses are built into the tree itself. The tree is alive. It's still growing. Someday, this ring of the road will be ten feet higher than it already. That's great.

I don't want to stand here and watch the tree grow. I don't want to look at the brand new houses that were built a few years ago when the trunk grew to give them more space. I don't even know if that's how trees grow. Do they grow from the bottom up, or do they just grow out?

"Okay," I say.

"Screw it. We tried to be cultured, but it's boring. Let's just go."