Chapter 232 - To a new city (1/2)

Another five hours took him to finishing enough antidotes for him to finish the contract that he signed with Karma. Once done, he decided to follow the road to the city of Wightbarne. He planned to get a few reputation points in the city so that he could get back to city when required.

There was a slight chance that he might stumble into the tier 1 quest accidentally, but he understood that it would be fine if he didn't go to the temple in the city. So, he planned to avoid the temple at the city as much as he could.

Apart from the temple there are few other good quests he could receive in a city currently. It wasn't the same as White Heart City where he was able to pioneer the development or Rudra's guild as they were the first to get to the city. A number of players already populated the city, and he didn't want to waste much time by doing the routine quests to get city reputation. The reward from it are too low and not much exciting. Thus, he wanted to get as much information about the city as he could.

Balthazar also wanted to reduce the time he would take to get to the city. A four-hour trip is considered a lot of time waste. Luckily, he was level 20 and the other thing that he could do was to get a mounting skill as mounts would be available from level 20 onwards. It was much easier and faster for him as he already had an acquaintance of a tamer, Kiran in the town.

He went back to the tamer's residence in the town and asked the receptionist about it. He had expected some kind of quest to get the skill required. The receptionist just held out the skill book for him.

”Having received the tamer's acknowledgement and considered his in-name apprentice, you can purchase quite a few animal related skills in exchange for money,” said the receptionist.

Though it was different from what he had experienced in his previous life, it was true that he had different experience in the game this time. It could be acceptable that having a tamer as his guide was quite useful and pet mounting could be considered a very basic skill for tamers. So, he quickly paid an amount of 2 gold for it though it could be considered very high for a basic skill

Though Agua provided him with a map to the city, there wasn't much other information he could provide to Balthazar. Agua and his team were in the town and didn't get much involved in the politics of the nearby Wightbarne city. So, he decided to ask Kiriti for more information. As the Valhalla Raiders managed to establish their guild strongly in the town, they were bound to keep an eye on the other player organization in the nearby towns and cities. He had Agua arrange a meeting with Kriti and as Kiriti heard his question, he was quite surprised.

”Why do you want to go to the Wightbarne city? That place is on the border of two nations and the players are a lot more competitive there than the town. Here, we have a very good amount of control on the guild. There you might be bullied or even pulled into their fights unawares. There are a lot open PvP happening at the city,” said Kiriti clearly advising him to not go there. He had to create antidotes for their team and Kiriti was very concerned about him not being to complete his part of the contract. Though the contract would force him to pay renumerations, it would delay their mission which was not good.

”I know that a city would be more dangerous as it is on land and unlike this town, it has no bay separating the two countries which makes fae players coming to fight a commonplace. But I have a tier 1 completion quest for which I need to go there,” answered Balthazar.

”Fine, I will gather all information that I can get on the city. Just don't get into much trouble and keep out of sight till we are done with killing the knuckers,” replied Kiriti. ”You have enough reputation to portal back to the town, right?”

”Yes, I am a citizen of the town. I can get back. I even got a map to the city but need more information to complete my quest without getting into much trouble. I guess you understand what I am seeking from you, right?”

”Yes, you can start on your way to the city. I have a few adventurer teams whom I have been in contact with. They are the best at collecting such information about whom to avoid and the relative strengths of the different groups. I will get Salket to meet you at the gate. I guess you make haste, you would need some time to get there. It takes about four hours on foot,” said Kiriti as he cut the call.

”I better have someone I trust follow you. It would give me a chance to know about your true capabilities,” thought Kiriti as he called Puba. He didn't have much influence, but he knew that the Ardent Ronins being an adventurer team would be in contact with others nearby. A few minutes, later he had made the required arrangements and went back to killing beasts with his team.

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He already had a pair of horses in his pet pouch and those could be mounted and ridden. He quickly learnt the skill and made way to the city on the horse. Until now, most players didn't see any player ride a horse and all that they saw were NPCs. So, his exit of the town caused quite a bit of commotion among the players especially the Valhalla Raiders who were surprised that someone not in the guild already managed to get a mount.

The information quickly disseminated to almost all the players through the forums and a bunch of discussions about getting mounts soon popped up. Unexpectedly, he brought the attention of the players to the tamer profession to Agua and a few other players who had come to know of his quest with the tamer and soon came to the conclusion that it would be a fast way to get mounts.

Horses at the same level as a player were at the very least 5 times faster than the player on foot when moving at a constant pace in the game and they could maintain a constant pace compared to human at their normal movement speed. The players lose their SP at a fast pace by maintaining their highest speed mentioned in their characteristics of the player, but it isn't the same for mounts. They can maintain their movement speed constantly for a long duration with much smaller gaps than a player which would reduce the travel time quite a bit. A tamer with a good number of proper potions can make the travel time much less.