Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Hello! We just reached Oriekot and wanted to ask for the general information about inns, dungeons, and what else would be important to know."

He put his adventurer card into the tray on the counter. She checked his information and was mildly surprised that he was an ori huma. A C-Rank human and a B-Rank fairy traveling together would be an odd pair anywhere else, but Oriekot was the hub of many races. C-Ranks were quite common in Oriekot and B-Ranks were not rare, so their strength was no big thing, either.

People like Seth were a common occurrence so the guild actually had brochures for new or traveling adventurers to save time. The receptionist put a small booklet into the tray, together with Seth's guild card while explaining.

"This is a brochure printed by the guild. It lists all the dungeon with their specific information you can find in Oriekot. There is also a list of Inns and shops the guild advocates to new adventurers and explanations to most public facilities in the city. Here you go!" with this, she spun the tray so Seth could pick up his things.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Seth shook his head. "Great! Please have a good day. Next!"

With the little booklet in his hand, Seth and Fin entered the café to the left of the hall. Looking at the menu Seth was glad he could actually read what was written here. Some of the things were definitely NOT safe for human consumption. He ordered 2 cocoa and started reading the brochure.

First were the dungeons, Oriekot had 5. Two were caves outside the city. One had grown in the sewers, was this a kind of standard? The fourth was a portal leading to an alternate space located in the middle of a square in the city. The last one was a tower dungeon. It had 5 stories above ground and an unknown number of basement floors with the level of monsters increasing the lower one got.

The booklet mentioned several inns of ranging prices for any adventurer whether they were poor newbies or people ready to pay extra. They did not plan to stay long so they chose a moderately priced in close to the guild. Well, it was moderately priced for Seth McMoneyBags. 10 silver a night was considered pricey even for a good C-Rank party.

Other explanations concerned different shops where to find system institutions like the bank or the auctioneers. The booklet recommended the different shops for adventurers of different levels, but two names always mentioned were the Arcane Emporium and the Desert Dragon Pavillion when it came to weapons, equipment, or materials of any kind. Those had to be the big shots in this business. Seth wanted to visit at least these two before they left.

The location of the airport, where the airship would dock was also mentioned in the booklet. It was not too far from the commercial district so they could walk there today, after booking a room at the inn.

The inn was quite luxurious and clean, but it lacked a sympathetic figure like the hairy Harmond. The personnel was very polite and distant, it was not bad, but also not very noteworthy.

After the days on the ship, Seth and Fin were happy, they could finally wash up in a bath again. Even fin had gotten used to having a private bath, after living in the palace for several weeks. Even the little fluffball liked floating in warm water!

The little Ivicer had told them that he would probably be able to hatch in the next few days. Maybe they could finally see what a baby Ivicer looked like before they set off on the airship?

After washing up, shaving, and donning a freshly washed set of travel clothing. The lord had been nice enough to lend him everyday clothing during their stay in Zhiqe. He had all his clothes washed before setting off.

Looking clean and wealthy they set off to look for the airport. It was not hard to find. The airport was a big open field with a giant ramp and cranes to move goods onto an airship. After asking around a little in the vicinity they quickly found out what merchant company was selling passenger tickets.

But when they arrived there and stated their desires-

"I′m sorry, but we are fully booked. There are no free seats for the next airship."

"What? How can this be? Look agaiN!", the tiny fairy swayed between panic and anger.

"Ah! Errm, well, that is. it′s because there will be a big noble conference in Yisivi! Even the commoner places are booked!", looking at the angry fairy the clerk feared for his life. Even so, she looked small, she had the aura of a B-Rank adventurer, which was like a terrible wild beast to a normal person.

Seth held the wild Fin back with his hand and gesture to her to let him resolve this. He said two words.

"How much?"

"Ah! No, you don′t understand. We really-"

"How much?"

He leaned forward and looked the clerk deep in the eyes. The man shrunk back even more. Why was this calm gentleman almost scarier than that wild beast beside him?!

"I think you misunderstand how important this journey is to us.", his finger drummed on the counter between them. Oriekot looked interesting, sure. But he didn′t want to stay here for another 4 weeks.

"How about go and get someone who can make an actual decision, hmm?", a stack of silver coins had appeared in his drumming hand and slowly pushed it towards the clerk. Fear is gone, once bribes were involved!

"O-of course. I will immediately get you an appointment with Mr. Shiri! Right now!", after Seth raked over another small stack the clerk actually wrote down the current date into a book and went off to tell his boss that he had an appointment today.

"See, as long as you throw money at people, they will comply. It a lot more effective than violence."

"Please come this way, Sir.", soon the clerk led them to the office of his boss. Mr.Shiri was one of the owners of the merchant company and the one in charge of the air travel and logistics. He was the kind of character that perfectly fit the description of a businessman.

"OH, I'm glad to meet you, Mr-?", the other greeted Seth friendly.

"Smith. I′m also glad we finally meet.", he implied having waited for the appointment.

"Ah, yes. Mr. Smith. How may I help you?"

At first Mr. Shiri also said that there were no open seats on the airship. Did it stop Seth? Nope. To cut a long story short, they got a cabin on the next ship for the price of 50 gold. Was it a lot of money? Sure. Was Seth poor? Not really. He could even pay in cash if he wanted to. But they decided to do it via the bank. The money would be transferred after Seth left with the airship.

Seth McMoneyBags struck again and actually stole the place of a member of lower royalty that would have boarded in one of the later stops. Not his fault, nobility was poorer than him.

Seth left the merchant company with a big smile. It was actually quite nice to be rich and throw one's weight around.

With this everything important was settled and the next few days in Oriekot were pure vacation!

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