“Thoma. Wake up, we’re about to go through customs.”
“Huh? When did I fall asleep?”
“Not too long ago, maybe two hours.”
Looking outside, we’re in front of a big gate with only one cart ahead of us.
A soldier then loudly yells, “Next!” and we move a bit further ahead.
“Hello and welcome to Skar, what is your purpose of entry?”
Rayla answers, “Work and travel.”
“I see, occupation?”
“We’re adventurers.”
The soldier looks at us and opens his hand, “Allright, hand me over your guild cards please. I see...Three D-Ranks and a C-Rank so you won’t need a visa. Why does it say ‘Probably Human’ on your card Mr. Ahad?”
“Because we don’t know. I’m cursed.”
“Cursed huh…Well with a mug like yours I’m not surprised. Oh, I see two of you are citizens, welcome home! You’re all free to enter, as for you Ms. Rayla and Mr. Ahad if you wish to stay longer than three months you’ll have to apply for residency.”
Rayla waves her hands, “Ah, we don’t plan to stay that long, we're just going to take a few jobs then move to the NU.”
He gives us a doubtful expression, “In winter? Good luck with that.”
After checking our wagon for contraband, he gives us back our guild cards and waves us through. As we pass the gate, the scenery rapidly changes from snow covered wilderness to snow covered farms with multiple Inn’s and stores right next to the gate.
“Oooh, should we go rest here, oki?”
John interrupts, “No way. All of these Inn’s are way overpriced and in horrible condition. There’s a village about four hours from here, we can stay there and restock.”
Giving him a smile, Rayla answers, “Ooooh~ Look at Mr. Local over here with the insider knowledge!”
“Please, all border stores are overpriced, everyone knows that.”
“Still it’s good knowledge to have!”
We then follow John's advice and travel northeast until evening when we come upon a nice small village with an Inn just how John told us. We get two rooms for the night and in the morning have a bit of a strategy meeting in John and Sher Aka’s room.
Sitting in front of a sheet with numbers on it, John tell us, “Alright, I’ve been calculating the amount it will cost us to get to the NU. If we want to take the safer guided tour then, together with the supplies, it will cost us about four Big Silver per person to successfully get over the mountains. Today is the second of November, so if we want to pass the mountains before your guys’ adventuring visa runs out, we need to go this month or else it will be too dangerous to pass the mountains. It will take us about one and a half weeks to get to the mountains themselves, which will cost us about two silver per person, so the total minimum cost is four Big Silver and four regular ones per person. How much do each of you have saved? Sherry and I together have 9 Big Silver and 6 regular left.”
“I have 4 Big Silver and eight regular left, how about you, oki?”
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“I have Five Big Silver and a few copper.”
“So between the four of us we have 2 Big Silver and 8 regular as emergency money…That might be fine if we’re just staying somewhere but since we’re traveling long distances, we need to be sure we have enough for wagon repairs and replacing the goats if we need to. We also need to be wary of any unknown price changes for the mountain crossing. Because of that and because we have about two weeks of buffer time, I'd recommend we either attempt a C-Ranked quest or a D-Ranked one that pays well before we go over the mountains.”
Rayla leans back in her chair and answers, “I trust your judgment on this. How much money do you think we need to earn to be safe?”
“At least 2 Big Silver.”
“Hmm…That is a lot of money but it’s probably doable…Where is the next town with a guild branch?”
“About half a day from here.”
“Huh…Let’s see if we can find a good job there and decide from there.”
After breakfast, we leave the Inn and travel to our first real town in Skar. The architecture is quite similar to Berk but people in Skar do seem to use a lot more stone for their construction than the people in Berk. They don’t even use wood for their roofs. The biggest difference that I notice is that a lot more people here seem to openly worship the northern pantheon. Most people are carrying some sort of holy symbol and temples are more common.
Even the Guild has a symbol of the northern pantheon hanging prominently on the outside which seems to anger John, “Tsk I’m definitely going to report these bastards for code violation once we’re done here.”
We enter the Guild and just like the capital, it is filled with only humans, which instantly awakens bad memories of that day and the following Forest Orc ambush. Rayla and John then quietly look through the quest board as my anxiety swells up more. I don’t want to bother Rayla but I also know she’s sad when I’m not feeling well so to soothe my anxiety I hold her hand.
Rayla whispers to me, “Are you not feeling well? Should we step outside for a bit?”
“No, I’m fine like this. This place just reminds me of the capital guild and everything connected to it…”
“I see… I’m glad you told me. You can hold my hand as long as you want.”
John picks out a quest, “We have a C-Ranked subjugation quest here for two sapphire tigers. It’s about a week away from here but it’s mostly on the way. The reward is two Big Silver, meaning it’s the minimum money we were hoping for and it’s also quite dangerous. But the upside is that it’s on our way and so we won’t have to spend much extra time in Skar.”
“Hmm, I don’t know much about Sapphire tigers, how about you Sher Aka?”
“I have heard of them but I have never fought them.”
“Let’s go look them up first then before we accept.” We then walk up to the reception and Rayla asks, “Hi there, could we take a look at your monster encyclopedia please?”
The secretary, a middle aged woman with brunette locks, answers, “Sure, I just need to see your guild card first.”
“Alright, here you go.”
She looks at out cards kind of impressed, “From Berk, huh? Are you here to stay or just visiting?”
“Neither, we’re going to travel to the NU.”
“I see, I see,” the receptionist lady then pulls out a heavy book and lets us look through it.
It’s an encyclopedia of every known monster with a drawing, description of its behavior and abilities as well as known strengths and weaknesses.
“Alright, let’s see…Elementals, ruby, no, emerald, no, sapphire, there we go. Okay…’Sapphire tiger, a water elemental of the ice sub element. Known to be quite aggressive but stealthy, prefers to ambush.
Abilities, Snow Storm: ‘The sapphire tiger has the innate ability to create a snowstorm around its vicinity. This snowstorm, while not actively an attack, can cause disorientation and lack of sight, it is recommended to stay close or use bells to signal your location’.
Ice fang: ‘The sapphire tiger has two long fangs infused with ice element magic. When bitten the wound will develop frostbite and possibly freeze over. It is advised to not approach this monster if your armor can not withstand one of its bites.
Strengths: The sapphire tiger is a heavy monster and will use both its weight and speed to overwhelm their opponents. Using their perfect eyesight and their prey’s reduced field of vision they like to strike from behind and quickly take out their prey one by one. Additionally its crystalline body is hard to damage and requires a lot of force to break.
Weaknesses: The sapphire tiger is highly reliant on its stealth tactics, if you have a way to reliably see the approaching monster its lethality drops considerably. Additionally even though its body is very hard once you do manage to crack it it will almost always die on the second hit.’
Hmm, I think we can do that. If we scout ahead and set up Thoma’s dark crown he’ll be able to tell us where they are at all times. Sher Aka should be able to damage them enough that I can finish them as well. Do you guys have any objections to taking this quest?”
“Nope.”
“No.”
“I do not.”
“Alright, I’ll accept it then.”
