Chapter 196 - Nodentius (2/2)
Those words were the very ones that Balthazar wanted to hear. The coastal guard would be the only NPCs that would be moving in the coast in patrol. If he wanted to get to the coastal guard station it would be best if he chose the time when the members of Valhalla Raiders retreated. He had to just follow any coastal guard he would see. He considered contact with those NPCs less dangerous as any patrolling NPCs would be low-level characters and it was better than contact with members of the Raiders. If the NPCs are seen, he could have a chance to negotiate as they didn't discriminate between all adventurers, but if the members of Raider see him, they would definitely try to kill him and hunt him even in the town as they had plans on monopolizing the beach near the town.
”OK. Thanks for your help. I will see if I can do anything,” said Balthazar. ”Where can I find you if I want to contact you again?”
”You can message me anytime. We are hunting in the forest behind the town in the direction opposite to the coast,” said Agua as he bid his farewell.
It was already past noon in the game and the next chance he would get is during the dusk. He decided to check the market and the town before the dusk. He went into disguise as the Dormant Blade character he had previously used and asked around for a few minutes and found the shop owned by Valhalla Raiders.
Looking at the shop, he found that there were quite a few things being sold by them, but it was limited to consumable and a few normal weapons. No armaments looked like they were made form the materials that could be found from the coast. So, it was one thing that Balthazar realized he could still use. He knew that there would definitely be items that the guild kept for themselves and wouldn't sell to help increase their number but expected some lower level special armaments at the very least. He was disappointed by the items he found there.
He went around the rest of the market to check the various items that are available at the NPC shop. The thing that he found most attractive were the underwater breathing potions. This were the best thing that he could stock up on as most players weren't using them because they couldn't get in the Murk Water bay due to the Raiders maintaining a monopoly of the coast and they knew that waters actually had beasts at a much higher level than them.
He would have emptied the entire stock if he had a decent way to carry them back to the BlackRock Town. Lack of such means, he just took a few to attempt a looking into the Murk Water bay. He also checked the rest of the marketplace along with Agua to get a decent idea of all the available stuff.
Apart from the coastal guard, the town head and temple of the twelve were his next best option for getting town reputation points. He went to the town headfirst and checked for quests. There was a common quest that allowed them gather reputation and contribution points by providing the town head with food supplies. The contribution points are easy to acquire, but it is much harder to increase reputation points which would require a lot of meat. He had collected the meat from the beasts at the marshlands, but most of those were poisonous and not edible.
Most towns had such quests after the upgrade of the game, but he had hoped for something better. This kind of quest was extremely time consuming and was the last thing he wanted to do. Still, he took the quest as he knew that he would be fighting some beasts and might as well get a little reputation out of it by taking the quest, before he made way to the temple of the twelve.
The temple of the twelve was an entity that would be there in all the towns in the light faction and he had an iron-grade membership of the temple. He would have the privileges for membership in every place in the light faction which could get him better quests. He put on his badge of iron grade membership as he entered the place.
The temple was right in the centre of the market area like it was in Jarko town. But instead of stone and metal, the temple was made of marble that was greenish brown almost the same color as that of the Murk Water bay and was made as a tower with four floors.
As he went inside, he found that the first floor was a large white walled meditation hall with ten-meter-tall statues of the twelve lords opposite the entrance. The distinguishing feature was that there was thirteenth statue behind them of an armed knight kneeling front of them and the walls of the temple had paintings that depicted this person fighting beasts of sea on the coasts and the waters of the Murk Water bay.
This was clearly different from the temples of the Black Rock Town. Such pictures usually depicted the story of some important person in the lore and was the method used by the game to indicate that a special treasure or quest could be found in the region. He began to observe the paintings and after some time came to the statues to have a closer look at the knight when he heard a voice.
”Greetings adventurer,” said a deacon who had come close to his side. He had white hair and looked very old. ”You seem to be interested in the statue of Nodentius, the knight? Are you one of those who had travelled to this town in search for his inheritance.”
”Yes and no, deacon. I am traveller who came to this town recently. How did you guess that?” asked back Balthazar.
”The badge signifying your membership, I haven't given that to you in this town and I am the only one who can,” said the deacon. ”And there was another adventurer who had come here a day before who was on a quest to discover about our protector, the knight who made these coasts a safe haven for humans.”
”So, Nodentius. He was a pupil of the twelve lords?” asked Balthazar who intended to find out more information about this person. Even, if he already had an inheritance, he was sure someone else could make good use of it.
”Yes, he was a resident of this very town back when it was a village,” said the deacon pointing to the pictures on the walls. ”There was a constant danger of the beasts during that time. He grew up fighting these beasts and hearing of his deeds, he was recruited away by the army. He didn't forget his roots though. He came back a captain and commandeered his men to push back the beasts.”
”That was a time when there would be no men on the coasts. He set up a coastal guard and showed that the bay was a treasure that could help develop the nation and thus, the present coastal guard and town came into being. Even this temple was made only due to his assistance. He was one of us. The town was renamed into Murk Water Town after the bay as he had his hometown as his base. Alas, after his disappearance the situation changed and the town that almost became a city once is in this state,” said the deacon in a sad tone.
”Where did he disappear to?” asked Balthazar.
”A mystery, son,” said the deacon. ”Some say that he went into the lands of the fae, some say that he died doing what he always did and was lost to the waters of the Murk Water bay. There are also some who say that he had fought under the command of the twelve lords and decided to continue following them to wherever they had gone to.”