360 Onward to Rocket Mountain (1/2)

Madeline was very busy. After the queen announced that a new shrine was to be made in Freya's name, the artisan worship received a flood of orders. Everybody wanted to order objects of worship of the new goddess and her husband. Camie had to help her mother out so she was unable to accompany Truen and Zero for their journey to Rocket Mountain.

”Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it,” Zero said. Truen also told Camie to help them pass a message to the Chieftess when she saw her.

”If Schaf doesn't win the contract tell lady Zenobia that Zoe can turn him into mutton soup.”

Zero laughed at that and didn't stop Truen from expressing his dislike for the trader. From the very moment that Truen knew about Schaf and what he did in the abyss to the moment they met in the village, the wood elf had always disliked the goat and would find ways to make his disdain known. Nobody stopped Truen because the wood elf still knew where to draw the line. Still, it was entertaining to see Truen find new ways to rile the trader. Camie giggled.

”Sure, I'll tell him that you want him seasoned with Cleo's special spice mix too if that makes you feel better.”

Truen gave the giantess a thumbs up and prepared to leave. Joseph escorted them to the borders of Magnus Hilda that would have taken them days on horseback. The garrison guard ran and walked for a long time to reach it in a few hours and Zero was amazed by how small Magnus Hilda's borders were.

”That's because we need a lot of living space and farming space. Most of the territory that has liveable conditions are used so this is what our borders look like, just a huge wasteland with nothing but rocks and a bunch of weeds.”

Zero and Truen didn't comment about it but thanked the giant when he let them down. Joseph sighed. ”Come back safely. The queen might have given you a letter that you can use to see the dwarf king but let it be known that their king is not the same as ours. He's a real stubborn one and you need to win him over to convince him to let you take any of his people away. No amount of money can move that man if he doesn't want to be swayed.”

Zero nodded. They did not have much information about the king of Rocket Mountain but from the bits and pieces that they knew, the dwarves didn't really have a king. It was more like a figurehead to represent all their guilds.

The dwarves were a rather advanced civilisation compared to the giants. They had dwarves in all kinds of fields but they excelled most in smithing, carpentry, crafts, mining and wine-making. The dwarves were rich even though they didn't like to display their wealth. Zero didn't think the dwarves were very short either. Initially, he thought that they would be half his height but when he learnt that some of them were only a head shorter than him, Zero sulked.

Zero was happy enough to know that he was going to be a C-rank adventurer right off the bat. Truen didn't tell his friend that he was already a registered adventurer and was currently a B-ranked one. For Zero, C-rank was more than enough for him to travel anywhere he wanted to.

”Truen, how come you're already an adventurer? When did you register?”

The archer smiled mysteriously and didn't answer him. Zero pouted. Truen was full of secrets but he didn't pry further when his friend showed no indications that he wanted to share. To fill in the silence, Zero asked another question.

”What does the different adventurer ranks mean?”

This time, Truen entertained his friend. They had a long journey to Rocket Mountain and if he estimated it correctly, Bob would have been done with his training by the time they were ready to leave Magnus Hilda for good. The duo had spent about two to three weeks with Camie and her family treating the plague. It would take about another month or so for them to find a craftsman in Rocket Mountain, bring him back and commission a Freya statue.

”There are seven different rankings for adventurers with the lowest being F and the highest being S. I'll start explaining from the lowest ranking.”

Zero nodded but stopped Truen from explaining anything yet. ”I want to summon a horse so that we can talk on the way. It's ridiculous to walk all the way to Rocket Mountain on foot. We should have brought horses along instead of accepted a ride from Joseph.”

Truen didn't mind and waited as Zero pulled out a whistle from his inventory. It was going to be his first time calling such a fine steed for their travels and Zero was nervous. After waiting for about a minute, the doctor wondered if the horse wasn't appearing but his worries were for nought when he heard a weighing sound coming from the clouds.

Truen should have known something like that would happen. ”Do you really have to summon Pegasus?”

Zero shrugged and patted the winged horse before asking it to transform and hide those wings away. Pegasus complied and Zero got onto its back before jerking his chin to indicate that Truen should get behind him.

”It was the only horse I had,” he explained and Truen relented. Apart from being snowy-white and breathtakingly beautiful, Pegasus looked like any other ordinary horse. The wood elf would close one eye for now.