"Hey, Sylvia?"
"Hm?"
"Open the window, will you? It's so dark and dusty in here"
The room becomes brighter as I push the wooden windows open. The fresh air caused some papers on a desk to rustle before settling gently back down in place. Sounds of metal clanging against metal from a blacksmith pounding his anvil, and the indistinct chatter of people passing below us can be faintly heard.
After a long journey, we finally arrived in Ishvea. This small village is located deep within the forest, so it's very isolated from other towns and villages. We're hoping there might be some work we could do while we're here.
"Better?" I ask.
A girl stretches as she stands up from the edge of her bed. The sunlight bounces off her golden hair in a way where it almost looks like its glowing.
She takes a deep breath and exhales.
"Very. Why did you have to pick a tavern that's so damn shitty? I'm suffocating from the smell of wine and beer everywhere."
"Adria, it's a tavern. Of course it's going to smell like that. It's what they sell."
Adria frowned when I told her the obvious.
"You know what I meant. This rundown shack doesn't hold a candle to the others we've been to."
"I think you're just too spoiled on town and city taverns. This place isn't that bad. Besides, we can't afford anything better, so just deal with it for now"
Adria just grumbles as I return to packing my bag. I hear the shuffling of metal and cloth as Adria equips her steel armor. Her armor isn't very large, it guards only part of the areas around her torso, arms, and legs.
I once asked her if she would want a full-body armor for better protection, but she refused saying that she prefers to being able to move instead of turning into an 'immobile log'.
Adria adjusts her breastplate and tightens the leather straps around her arms and legs. Afterwards, she pats herself down to check if anything is out of place. Seeing that everything is firm where they should be, she grabs her sword from the table and hoists it onto her waist.
"I'm all set and ready to go. What about you?" Adria says to me as I finish packing my bag with supplies.
"Almost. I need to double-check if I have everything we need."
Adria groaned when I said double-check.
"Well at least keep it short. You take forever to prepare."
"You're over exaggerating"
"Want me to count?"
"Are you willing to?
"No, but I'm trying to make a point here."
Adria walks across the room and opens the door leading to the hallway.
"Anyway, I'll go ahead and wait for you in the main lobby. Don't take too long."
She closes the door behind her and I'm left alone in the room.
With a sigh, I begin to sort through my knapsack slowly. It is important to always be thorough and prepared before one heads out, for you'll never know what may happen during your travels. That's what Koren always used to say.
I mutter under my breath as I list off the supplies. It helps me concentrate whenever I need something done.
"Medicals... check"
"Navigation... check"
"Restoratives... check"
"Poisons and explosives... check"
"License... check"
"Book... where's my book?"
I look through the knapsack once more just in case I might have skipped over it. When I searched through it a third time, I sling the knapsack over my shoulders and search around the room. I checked under the beds, the pockets of my used clothes, as well as through Adria's belongings.
Where is it? I know it's here somewhere...
The book is a monster encyclopedia, my personal project. I never travel around without it. It describes every monster I've ever encountered. From their appearance to their descriptions, as well as possible ways to handle them. The appearance part of the book is what I am most proud of since I personally draw each creature.
As I start to look through Marko's belongings (Since he also has his own collection of books), I notice a slight bump underneath a large parchment on the desk by the window.
When I approach the desk, the parchment reveals to be a map. The map of Nivanne, home to the largest forest in the world. A massive ravine stretches through the entire continent, splitting the region in half.
Marko must have studied it earlier this morning. But what is there to study? Nivanne is too large and dangerous for cartographers to accurately map it, so the majority of the forest is still uncharted. Apart from the cities and a rough sketch of the ravine, the map is just an outline of the entire region.
I lift up the map and find my book resting exactly where I left it last night.
The desk was the first place I checked, but I didn't notice it because it was hidden underneath the parchment. I didn't see anything while I was packing, so I assumed I must have already placed it in my bag or moved it elsewhere.
With another exhausted sigh, I store the book inside the knapsack and walk to the door. After making sure the door is locked behind me, I head down the hall to the lobby.
After climbing down the stairs to reach the main floor of the tavern, I'm greeted with the sight of patrons enjoying themselves with beer and wine.
Unlike in the cities, town and village taverns have their lobby's double as a bar. I can imagine why Adria wanted me to hurry. She doesn't want to sit alone in the middle of men who are drinking themselves drunk in the middle of the day. It's not like she can't handle them, she probably just doesn't want to start a ruckus so soon after we arrived.
I see Adria wave to me at a table near the corner and I join her. As I sit down, she looks at me with her head propped up with an arm. She's clearly been bored for a while now.
"Took you long enough"
"Sorry. I lost my book so it took me a while to find it." I say apologetically.
"Your monster book? You know there's no point in that right? The Grand Library has all the information there is about the monsters and creatures."
"I know that. But it doesn't show what the monster looks like, and the Library has been known to be inaccurate sometimes. It's just something I want to do for personal reasons."
As we talked, a man wearing a brown coat and leather armor walks up to our table. A bow hangs from his back and a crossbow is strapped behind his waist. The standard attire for a ranger and rogue.
"Hey, Marko. You find anything?" Adria asks as Marko pulls a chair to the table.
"I talked with some of the locals around the village and obtained some information about the forest" Marko starts. "Apart from a few things, there shouldn't be a need to worry."
He then reaches into his coat and pulls out a stack of paper before continuing. "Look at this. I went over by the notice board and found all these quests still untaken. Most of them are just the standard find and retrieval types, but there is one that caught my eye."
He flips one of the quest papers to face us. It's an extermination request.
"An earth golem? I didn't think they could be found inside the forest." I say as I flip through the other quests available.
Earth golems are normally located near large rocky hills and mountains. They are small, consist only of dirt, and tend to hibernate until something activates them. They usually create a distinct mound when in hibernation, so if you know what to look for then the earth golem should pose no threat.
But for an inexperienced traveler, the earth golems are magical landmines that could potentially injure them. It's rare for an earth golem to kill someone, but they are still a target to help travelers feel more at ease.
"I didn't think so either. Regardless, something as weak as an earth golem we can easily handle. But there is a problem"
Marko points to the section that describes the approximate location of the monster. It's blank.
"Well, that's just great" Adria groans. "You sure it's not some paranoid person who thought he saw something? I don't want a repeat of Falencia." Adria rubs her temples as she says this. She must be thinking of what happened in Falencia. It's something I don't want to repeat either.
"It's precisely because of Falencia that I made sure to be extra thorough. The mayor of the village is the one who made the request. However, he made it on behalf of the villagers who claim to have seen evidence of it. The reason why no location was listed is that the golem was spotted deep within the forest. There was nothing to reference the location with."
"How are we going to find it then?" I ask.
"When I asked around the village, I managed to get an idea of the areas it could possibly be in. However, something is off. Earth golems rarely move, if they move at all. Yet the villagers all gave different locations on where they have seen it. Either this is a very active golem, or we may have to deal with more than one."
"Do you think it could be something other than a golem?".
"No, the evidence is clear. Torn ground, gems and rocks being eaten, a body consisting of earth. The signs of an earth golem."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Adria says as she stands up from the table. She cracks her neck and pounds her fist together. "Let's go hunt already! I'm dying to beat something up."
"Calm down princess, it's still not certain we may find it," Marko says as he pockets the quests back into his coat.
"I'm going to turn 'something' into someone if you keep calling me that."
"You can't stop me and you know it." He smirks.
"Sylvia? Permission to beat the shit out of him?"
"No. But you're going to do it anyway, won't you?
"...In due time"
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A: What's this? Dialogue apart from Gaus and Pefus? Heresy!
A: Alright, I'm kind of conflicted on whether I should show you pictures of what the characters could look like. While it may be a good idea, I don't know if it's better to just leave it to the imagination.
Whats your opinion on it? I've done it once with the Carnivorous plant, but that's mostly because it was an inspiration. This time it's going to be the opposite where I have to find the image that closely matches what I have in mind. And to be honest, it's actually pretty damn hard.