Chapter 192 - The Marsh (1/2)
The Murk Water Town was different from the all other towns as it was on the edge of the borders between the two regions. It was more of a war state and close to the Greybark marshlands. Being on the border, there would be both human and fae players in the town, though fae players are much less in number than humans.
The town was still a small town and it had forests all around it. A bit further to its east there was the border between the fae and the human regions. There was a large bay to east separating the two regions known as the Murk Water bay. It was a marine region with a log of water beasts. As one went deeper into the bay, the levels of the beasts would even cross level 100 and it was a region that could be farmed till a player crossed tier 4. This bay covered a half of the border between the Five Elements Empire and the fae region and the other half was a mountain range.
The town itself was very simple and was called Murk Water town as it was the town right at start of the bay in the Five Elements empire. Right between the town and the bay lies a forest of which a part ended up becoming a marsh area known as Greybark marshland. This was the location to which Balthazar planned to travel.
As he got into the teleportation portal of the Murk Water Town, he found that he got a friend request from someone. It was someone named 'Agua Canalon'. He had never heard of the player before, but he could see from the friend request that the player was from Divine Swords.
”Mr. Shadow, nice to meet you,” said Agua Canalon as he met Shadow right outside the teleportation portal. He was the a human elementalist who wore a pair of blue robes. ”I have been sent by leader Muramasa. I could help you with anything that you need here.”
”There are a lot of things available in the town. We have a wide variety of resources available here due to the environment and even resources from the fae region appear here often,” said Agua. ”Red moss, Pix glow, magic ash and a lot more. The magical resources here are a lot better than those found in White Heart Kingdom or Seven Swords empire. The same goes for wands and sceptres. Better quality than the rest of the Five Elements Empire too.”
”That is all good and well, but I came here for something else,” said Balthazar.
”Oh! Is there anything I can help you with?”
”I could use a map of the Greybark marshlands,” said Balthazar. ”Any suggestion for exploring that area is also useful.”
”Greybark marshlands? That is a dangerous area. The guild has actually forbidden normal members to enter the place. It is hard to even escape that place even with wings,” said Agua indicating that even fae players would find it hard. Though Balthazar knew of the place, he hadn't actually spent a lot of time exploring it. So, he wished he could get as much information about it as possible.
”What is the problem? How come it is hard? I heard that the monsters in the place range from level 15 to level 50, but it is relatively large, and one could start hunting there since most have reached level 15 now, right?” asked Shadow.
”That is true, but it is not so easy. The place is hard because it is a marshland. It is a greasy place and it is hard to have a proper foothold there,” said Agua.
”Huh?!”
”Basically, it is slippery. The beasts are covered by the same muck and one tends to find their weapons covered by it and slippery and this makes it hard to fight in the place, for all physical attack classes including archers. Magical classes might have it better, but the beasts have high speed and other than AOE attacks it is hard for most players,” explained Agua.
”So, it is a different environment,” said Shadow. The warning didn't frighten him much as he had already experienced even underwater situations. The grease is much harder to get rid of than water, so he would have it a bit harder. Still, it was not much of a concern to him. He needed to take a few precautions and he already had thought of it beforehand. Based on the description given by Agua, it was probably a shallow marsh filled with mud and swamps which had a higher density and will affect mobility a lot more than water.
”I need a team for that,” said Shadow. ”Any suggestions?”
”The main guild here is the Valhalla Raiders, they are not willing to go there. The only one that I could suggest is the adventurer team, Ardent Ronins. They are forming a group to attempt the marshlands. The Raiders have employed them to get to the place and get them information. There has already been an advance team that went ahead, but another group is being gathered to follow. They will be moving soon,” said Agua.
”There might be some quest or something for which they are going there in such large numbers. Else there is no need to have an advanced party. That is clearly there to avoid prying eyes of the independent players,” thought Balthazar.
”You want to join me?” asked Shadow.
”No. They will not allow me. They don't want to help another guild. The Raiders have employed them and will have some to supervise. They would already be aware of me and probably even you. If they realize you, you need to have some way to convince them,” said Agua.
”Ya. Thanks for your help. Please, ask me if you need anything, but I will proceed to the marshlands. I am sure that I can provide them something to join their group,” said Shadow as he took a map from Agua and made way to the place where the adventurer team was gathering up players.
The Ronins were offering a default payment for the trip plus an additional for each monster a player helped in killing. They wanted to take all the materials that could be gathered from the monsters. Considering that most players wouldn't be able to make precise attacks that wouldn't harm the usable parts of the beasts and it would be much harder in the marsh, it could be considered that this was a very good deal. But it was clear to Balthazar that they were doing this so that the independent players would act as cannon fodder for the most part and levels were important to players in guild and adventurer teams which plan to play at a professional level.