Ch 101 - Choosing the Route for a Trip to the Sea

"So have you decided where you plan to go when you leave?" asked the Guild Master. We were sitting opposite him in his now-familiar office in the Guild.

"We"re heading for the sea, apparently." I glanced down at Fer, lying beside my seat.

"Umu, the sea." He opened his mouth, baring his impressive fangs and licking his muzzle. "I fancy eating some Kraken and Sea Serpent." Stop drooling Fer, you"re in the Guild Master"s office, I prompted him telepathically. Some poor flunky is going to have to clean that up, you know.

"That"s why, basically." I explained to the Guild Master as Fer closed his mouth again.

"Kraken and Sea Serpent?" The Guild Master raised an eyebrow. "Those are the names of impressive monsters, indeed."

"Well yes, sorry. I don"t know myself but Fer has told me they"re very tasty..."

"Umu, they"re truly delicious. Besides, it"s good to eat seafood once in a while. If you cook it properly for me it will surely taste even better than raw." Yeah yeah, you"ve told me this before. Lots of times.

"So anyway that"s why we"re heading off to the sea." I finished.

"Oh, wait a moment." The Guild Master got up and pulled out a sheet of paper from a cupboard, spreading it out on the desk between us.

"This is a map of this country and the Erman Kingdom." he explained. It was quite a detailed map compared to the only other map I had seen in this world, the one I had bought for an inflated price from some rogues ahem fellow Adventurers some months ago. The Guild Master explained that this map was commonly sold by the Adventurers Guilds of both the Leonhart Kingdom and the Erman Kingdom. The Guild Master traced a path across the map with a finger as I watched.

"If you"re headed to the coast I would appreciate it if you would follow this route. I recommend this route because the roads are well-maintained but it also pa.s.ses through three large cities. It"s likely you would receive subjugation requests from the Guilds in those cities which would be convenient for us."

"That seems reasonable but what are the three major cities?"

"Leaving here you"ll first arrive at a city called Claire." The Guild Master"s finger paused on a city on the map, then moved on. "After that the next city is Doran which has a dungeon." He pointed at another city. "And the next city is Neihof and after that you"ll reach Berleean which is a port city on the coast."

The city of Claire, our likely first destination was smaller than our current location, Carerina. It seemed to be a busy city famous for spinning and weaving, a popular destination for merchants in search of colorful threads and cloth. The next was the Dungeon City of Doran which as its name suggested has a dungeon in it which attracts both Adventurers and merchants so it seems to be quite a big city. The city of Carerina was the fifth largest city in the Leonhart Kingdom behind the Royal capital and the three Dungeon Cities of this country. Having a dungeon means a city will prosper and grow. I was looking forward to visiting some larger cities.

The third city on our proposed route, Neihof was a pottery town with many ceramics workshops. Apparently they made baths like the one I had bought (MY bath!). Finally we would arrive at Berleean, a fis.h.i.+ng port which was a popular destination among those who loved fresh seafood.

The Guild Master explained that this world"s seas are plagued by dangerous monsters so fis.h.i.+ng isn"t a common business but the fishermen of Berleean go to sea despite repeatedly encountering such monsters in their working lives. They must be truly dedicated to their jobs, I decided. They would have to be extremely brave to face such terrors and I admired them for their efforts. The dangers of fis.h.i.+ng meant that there was little seafood for sale anywhere though, and as a j.a.panese person who naturally loved fish I was looking forward to eating fresh seafood in Berleean when we got there. Oh yes.

"I suggest stopping by the Dungeon City of Doran for other reasons." The Guild Master went on while my mind was distracted by the idea of seafood. "There are many weapons and armour stores because it"s a popular destination for Adventurers. The food there is very good too," the Guild Master said as Fer"s ears p.r.i.c.ked up, "and you can sell rare items more easily at the stores. If you"ve got time you should definitely explore the dungeon there."

"Nu, a dungeon?" Fer interjected. "I"ve never been in a dungeon in a human city before. Sounds interesting." Fer, that"s the wrong thing to say. I had a bad feeling about where this was going...

"Dungeon? Are we fighting?-" Sui started to crawl out of her satchel.

"Umu, that"s right Sui. We"re going to a dungeon." Fer said recklessly.

"Dungeon~" Sui said, jumping around excitedly.

"Hey Sui, stop jumping around. We"re not going to any dungeons." I said telepathically. My previous experiences of dungeons had soured me on going down one willingly. I"ll never enter another dungeon ever again.

"Yeah Sui, a dungeon." Fer went on, ignoring me completely like always. "We"ll be there soon."

"Yay, Sui wants to go into a dungeon too-"

"No, no, I said I won"t go." Change the subject quick, I though desperately. I turned to the Guild Master who was laughing since he hadn"t heard the part of our conversation where I was speaking telepathically to Sui, only what Fer and I had said out loud.

"Once we"ve received the price for the Wyverns purchase and subjugation as well as the last six monsters Johan-ojisan is disa.s.sembling now we"ll be leaving. That should be the day after tomorrow." I told him abruptly.

"I can see you"re really in a hurry to get to that dungeon," he said with a smile, misunderstanding my disagreement with Fer. I forebore to correct him on the subject, reserving my efforts for the future discussions with Fer and Sui about the non-entry of dungeons. "I will ask the Guilds in the other cities about suitable requests for you on your way to your final destination of Berleean. I"m sure there must be some requests in Doran because of its dungeon which, as you know, attracts high-ranking monsters." No I didn"t know, I didn"t need to know that...

"I understand." Fer said. "Any piffling requests like that won"t take me any time at all to take care of. After that we can go into the dungeon there?"

"Yes, of course." the Guild Master said. "I will inform the Guild Master of Doran of your plans."

"Good. I"m looking forward to conquering a dungeon in a human city."

"Sui is also looking forward to it-" Battle maniac Sui chimed in.

"No no no, I will not enter the dungeon," I protested telepathically but Fer wasn"t listening, his eyes closed and starting to snore. I wondered if he was just pretending to sleep to avoid listening to me. He"d go to great efforts to do that, I had started to notice. He really was a pain sometimes.

"Ha ha ha, you have your own problems, Mukouda-sama." the Guild Master laughed.

"Yes, it"s not easy travelling with these two." I agreed.

"Since you"ll be needing this map on your travels I"ll entrust it to you." he said, rolling it up and presenting it to me. I accepted his gift with thanks.

"I understand and thank you. Please contact the Guild Masters of the various cities on our journey to let them know we"ll do our best to a.s.sist them."

"Oh, I will." the Guild Master said. "Thinking about it there"s a possibility the Adventurers Guild in Doran might be able to disa.s.semble that Earth Dragon for you. I"ll inform Doran"s Guild Master about that as well."

"Thank you very much." I said. "Oh, is it possible to pa.s.s on a message to me if the merchant Lambert-san wishes to get in touch?"

I had found out earlier that the various Adventurer Guilds could transmit messages back and forth using some kind of magical tool and they"d be using this to inform other Guilds we were coming. I hoped I could use this messaging service for my own purposes. Hopefully Guild staff member and intercontinental blabbermouth Sandra-chan wouldn"t inform everyone about our plans...

"Ha-, are you acquainted with Lambert-san?" the Guild Master asked. It seemed he was familiar with Lambert-san, another indication of the merchant"s high standing in the city.

"Yeah, we"ve got a business arrangement. I"ve asked him to make me a cloak with Wyvern"s skin but it will be some time before it"s ready for me to collect."

"I understand. We"ll pa.s.s on a message if Lambert-san wishes to get in touch with you."

"Thank you. We"ll come back the day after tomorrow then." As I said that, Fer woke up from his pretended sleep and we left the Adventurers Guild.

"Right then, will we head back to the inn?" I asked Fer.

"Yes. Today"s dinner is Wyvern meat." he declared authoritatively, drooling again.

"Yeah, I know." I agreed, starting to wonder myself what Wyvern"s meat would taste like. I had no idea but Fer had been very emphatic on the subject. When inspecting the Wyvern meat we had collected from the Guild"s warehouse it resembled well-marbled j.a.panese wagyu beef more than anything. How could something looking that good not be delicious? I was looking forward to it too.