Chapter Forty - Wanted

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Rosario loved places in games. Some places in fictional worlds were instrumental to her younger self. There was something incredible about arriving in a city for the first time and just being entirely lost. 

Then, bit by bit, she’d learn to know the place. The NPCs, the shops, the banks, the teleportation and transportation hubs, where players hung out. At first it was always a patchwork. She’d know one street, then another, then a location somewhere else, until, eventually, everything would connect, and she’d learn the shape of the entire city, gaining a proper understanding of how to get from any one part to any other, and at that point the city may as well be part of her.

She supposed that was true of real places as well, but... well, it was different.

Arriving in Bramsloekr late in the evening, hours after the sun set, gave her that same sort of feeling. The city was at rest, but it was still alive. Bramsloekr was the largest city to the south of Lithos, it was just past the mountain chain that separated the majority of the nation from the rest, and so it had become a trading hub with the rest of the world.

There was another city further to the east, but it was just a day’s walk away, and not nearly as big. 

They found an inn, and much to Cricket’s chagrin, it had three rooms available for the night. She was too tired to complain for too long, fortunately.

So, Rosario left the two in the inn, keeping a few alert spells active just in case, and then she switched to [Rogue] and left to make a stealthy circuit of the city.

It wasn’t anything too special. Large, certainly, with a footprint almost as big as Alpta’s, but it lacked much of the verticality, and a lot of its size was simply due to wider, lower buildings and wider roads. At least there was some attempt to allow for some natural spaces in the city, which was nice.

She wandered the rooftops through the early evening, smiling as she spotted some others doing the same in the distance. 

Rosario even waved at some of them who noticed her, but like rats spooked by an unfamiliar cat, they scampered away. Not the friendliest bunch, she decided.

It did make for some fun. She gave them chase, though only while staying in the shadows. As it turned out, the pair of [Thief]s she was shadowing were doing what people with that job did best and were greeting into some of the nicer homes and sneaking back out with a few odds and ends. 

She observed from hiding until some guards showed up and started to shout at them. That was her cue to scamper off herself.

It was worth the effort. 

[Rogue] has leveled up!

[Rogue] level 11

Dexterity +1

Charisma +1

Rosario was grinning to herself as she returned to the inn. That was several days worth of effort, and in truth she didn’t know how far along her [Rogue] class was before coming here. For all she knew she might have been on the cusp for a while. Still, it was just as probable that she wasn’t, and that she had earned her way through an entire lever.

Mostly it proved that non-combat actions in line with a job still helped it along.

She returned to the inn with some time to spare and decided to sleep a little more than she had the previous nights. Yesterday, with Cricket... well, it was nice, but she had a difficult time sleeping at all. She was afraid that in her sleep her hands might wander and that would be unacceptable. 

The moment her head was against the pillow, she was out. Fortunately, her new ears picked up the inn staff preparing for the morning, and she found herself awaking a little before the sun rose.

Today was going to be busy.

First, a meeting with Lucky with breakfast. Unfortunately this inn had no place that was appropriate for training, but that was fine, they talked theory instead. Surprisingly, Lucky didn’t know anything about edge-alignment beyond the utterly obvious ‘hit them with the sharp end.’ So explaining that took priority. 

It was nice to talk to someone so attentive, especially when she was going on and on about one of her niche interests. She did have to quickly explain the concept of a ‘hit-box’ without dipping too hard into game terminology when she slipped, but that was fine. 

Once Cricket finally deigned to wake up, Rosario had her stuff down some food for breakfast, then they were off.

She had a list of items to buy. At the top of that was clothing for Lucky and Cricket. She hadn’t expected bells to feature so much, but she should have guessed as much. She stopped at a  haberdashery and bought some tough fustian cloth in a darker shade as well as some brightly dyed cotton which set her back a few silver crows. She also topped up her sewing supplies and had to resist the urge to buy more stuff. There were so many colours of thread, and soft fabrics, and who was to say that she only needed three new sewing scissors? 

Her extraordinary Willpower allowed her to leave the shop without buying out its entire stock.

They stopped by a bladesmith’s shop to have an expert look over their gear, specifically Lucky’s swords which had both gained a few nicks on the edges and Cricket’s many throwing knives which she did not pay any attention to the maintenance of. 

The smith spent half the time ‘tsking’ at the condition of the weapons--especially Cricket’s--and the other half staring at the sword on Rosario’s hip. It didn’t need anyone to look after it, however. She had skills that prevented her weapons from deteriorating from normal use. 

They left with orders to return before nightfall which suited Rosario just fine.

A quick dip into a mage’s tower (more of a three story building, really) which sold magical implements allowed her to pick up some very basic enchanting equipment designed specifically for clothes. Her general stuff wouldn’t quite do, and she wanted to test the reagents and magical powders that she could buy in a shop as opposed to the rather expensive ones she had in her bank. That turned out to be the most expensive stop yet, though it was for good reason.

Enchanting required that the thing being enchanted have some degree of magic. Some metals were magical, as were some plant-derived clothes, and obviously the magical materials harvested from some monsters were magical as well. 

Most items were not made from these. 

So, if one wanted, say, a magical sword but couldn’t afford an ingot’s worth of orichalcum (which, by the ounce, was worth more than gold) then they could inscribe some runes directly into the metal of a steel or iron blade and fill that space with a powered substance that was magical, then that gap could be filled with something like an epoxy to protect the runework.

It worked. It wasn’t as impressive as, say, the mithril-adamantium alloy blade at her hip, but there was some versatility to enchanting that way. Though it was obviously not cheap. Those powders came in a hundred varieties, some better for certain types of spells than others, and some reacted to natural elements in interesting ways.

There was one cheaper powder used for weak defensive enchantments that was mixed into pre-made bundles of thread. That same powder reacted to salt to create a heat reaction as a byproduct. It also stank when reacting.

People sweated. 

So, clothing with that kind of enchanted thread woven into it could literally catch its user on fire. And make them stink. 

But it was rather cheap...

Their next stop was the Adventurer’s Guild, though it was somehow almost noon already. They deposited their quests and the cargo that Lucky had been lugging around all day, then looked over other quests, but there were few available that suited. Their goal was a city barely a day’s walk away, so naturally the space between the two was well-patrolled and garrisoned. 

Cricket was the first to notice, and she froze up so hard that she doubled over and crashed to the ground, so stiff that for a moment Rosario imagined that someone had cast [Petrify] on her. Of course, Cricket then bounced back to her feet and darted across the room to rip something off of one of the walls by the entrance. “Hey!” The clerk at the front called out, but Cricket ignored him and walked out of the guild.

Rosario followed, very curious about what had caused that reaction.

She discovered soon enough as Cricket handed her a folded paper. It was the poster, and on it was... a rather poor caricature of her own face. An elven woman looked back, drawn in charcoal, with a stern expression.

WANTED DEAD

THE FAITHFUL MAID

REWARD: 7,000 GOLD.

The Faithful Maid is a high-level Titled, member of the former Great Generals of the Demon Lord. She is to be assumed to be armed and dangerous. She is wanted dead. 

Information about her whereabouts will also be rewarded, as will information about any persons resembling the criminal.

Race: Elf

Height: Unknown

Hair Colour: Grey/White

Eye Colour: Red

Age: 150+

Jobs: Unknown

Level: Presumed 300+

“They got your brows all wrong,” Cricket said, though she kept it low enough that Lucky, who was still catching up, didn’t overhear.

“I see that,” Rosario said. They really had done her dirty. “No matter. I’m sure we’ll be long gone before people really start to search. Come on, we still need to buy a few things. Let’s not linger.”

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