Chapter 22: Mistral City
Chapter 22: Mistral City
~Albus POV~
*Rustle*
*Rustle*
"Ah! Finally!"
After moving around the edges of Mistral forest and avoiding the Grimm in the process I began to finally move ahead to reach Mistral City.
But hot damn it was annoying to get past the literal monsters festering in the area.
Annoying honestly but at least I survived and missed the encounter with Raven at least I have room to breathe.
Although it did take me a few days to move around her as well as avoid her going to the forest edges out of her sight but hey at least I won't have to worry about being captured right?
Stupid sticks almost fucking me up.
Note to self-caused a forest fire by 'accident' in the VERY near future.
Fuck nature.
Now that I left this forest, I'm met with another whole thing to deal with.
Mistral City issues for example.
Mistral is divided into multiple levels; the higher one goes, the nicer it gets. A massive platform in the middle of the city acts as an elevator to descend and ascend through Mistral.
The city is full of various buildings and vendors selling merchandise legally and illegally. Haven Academy rests at the top of the tallest point.
The lower levels of the city, called Mistral Below, however, are shown to be worse than the upper levels and full of criminals.
Many criminals like Lil' Miss Malachite have buildings that they use as their base of operations like bars. Most of the Huntsmen that weren't working for the Kingdom's council were also stationed here until they were all killed.
At least in the future they would but for now, I have to take care of surviving the criminal underground here.
The Spiders huh?
Spider is one of the most powerful crime syndicates stationed in Mistral, under the leadership of Lil' Miss Malachite.
Lil' Miss Malachite and her criminal organization are also stationed in Mistral's lower levels due to her being one of the most powerful people in Mistral. She usually resides in her bar and gives information to people who pay her.
Hmm…
An information broker could work for me but…
Shaking my head I don't want to trust the Spiders because they are untrustworthy for reasons that I could be sold out and…
Just glancing at the people under my eye patch I began to analyze my foe's weakness and information through the use of my Ultimate Eye.
Have to hand it when the eye is being useful for gathering all the information and who to beware for.
Helps out to keep my neck away from them.
Still reaching this place has been rather good although the people giving me some weary eyes filled with Greed doesn't help my situation out at all.
Think…
Hmm….
Maybe later how about leaving this place before jumping the gun on anything yet.
/////
YES!
FINALLY!
My luck has finally changed to good finally I get to leave this god-awful place to where I originally wanted to go to!
Vale.
Oh man, so many problems in the short span of my life and I finally get to go to Vale a safe area for me to train up.
The station has a large hall with ticket booths, a food court, a gift shop, and mailboxes. Holographic departure boards listing 28 trains at once are in the middle of the hall.
Each end of the hall is flanked by two rows of five black columns, reaching from floor to ceiling. In the center of the hall is a fountain with a statue of a stylized King Taijitu.
The station has at least 12 platforms. Passengers access different platforms using overhead bridges.
There are additional food courts above and adjacent to the track level.
The station is built into the mountain and there are train tracks that go off into other nearby mountains.
Waiting in line I finally reached the ticket windows line as I saw an attendant here as she began to speak, "Hello sir. What would you like to aboard today?"
Smiling at this I began to pay with the amount of Lien I have as I asked for a ticket out of this place, "Simple. I would like a ticket to Vale."
"Vale huh?"
"Let me go ahead and get it for you."
Waiting and paying for the ticket I saw the attendant begin to give me the ticket as I smiled happily at this seeing the next ride won't come for at least the next few hours for the ride.
Finally, after all the trouble I got through just to get to Mistral City and get a ticket out of Mistral to Vale.
I could use this chance to train my body and mind using the time to think things through what I should do next?
Hmm…
Maybe I should take the chance to see if there were any underground fights or join a part-time job as a grunt in Vale.
Sigh…
Shaking my head for the time being I'm just glad I can leave this place and people wanting to hunt in I could relax a bit as I began to sit down enjoying my peace.
What – NO!
No, no.
NO.
Don't even finish those words or think it.
I won't let it screw me over not when I'm so close.
For now, I can just relax and leave to head for a better moment of my life without the off chance of Murphey fucking with me because I'm so glad. Nothing and I mean NOTHING will ruin this day for me.
Nope, nothing -
*BEEP*
"Sorry, but train rides to Vale will be closed off for today and will be offline for the next week."
"Please have a nice day."
….
…
..
Why me…?
Fuck my life.
After all the bullshit trouble I have gone through has it all been for naught?
Facing against literal monsters and losing as well as nearly dying multiple times without the help of my Cursed Restoration of those times I would've died.
Damn it.
But at least I got my money back but now I have to deal with this issue again.
Sigh…
Guess going with the original plan then.
Heading out in the winter nights in the mountains to find out more about the barn and a place of stay for the time being.
At least it's isolated enough for me to train in peace as well as some canned food that could be useful to use.
Got to clear out the Grimm of Apathy but hey nothing is ever easy for free now isn't it?
Getting up from my spot I began to get myself prepared for what's to come in the harsh cold winter and have thus far no Aura to protect me but I have my magic, cursed energy, and alchemy to help me out.
Shaking my head a bit I began to search around the place of Mistral City as I haven't decided to head to Argus just yet as I began to have my stroll around this place.
At the very least though I won't have to worry much except for the normal criminals that live here as I began to move ahead.
Moving forward seeing the nicer parts of Mistral City is that everything is just as they say.
The higher you are the much nicer it is while the lower regions are the much uglier it is.
I wonder if I can work part-time as a grunt here and join the Spiders but in return when I leave I'll have a gang wanting to kill me.
Frowning at the idea I really don't like my chances here so…
How about taking my chances of training a year or two in the woods and returning after I have some full mastery or at least attempt to be good enough to train myself to defend myself bad news is I miss the chance to meet Neo.
But…
Meh.
At this point it's more survival for me at least I can meet Emerald early and possibly get Mercury…
MERCURY!
My eyes widen at this as I forgot about him and he might be able to work as a sparring partner for me.
Trained assassin and had a horrible father that he willingly killed but I could help return his Semblance because of my Cursed Restoration 'restoring' his semblance by forcing it out from his Father.
Yeah…
Yeah, and out of everyone his the one that has the darkest history in RWBY when he had nowhere to go and followed Cinder even if he didn't have anything useful to do in his life.
He could've probably become a Huntsman if he wanted to with his skills or continue his father's work.
Hmm…
Well, I better start working on recruiting him than before Cinder has… actually Cinder would be an ideal training partner as well honestly.
Because currently, I don't know if she's with Salem yet nor did the source material explain it when it happened but she was trained under a Huntsman and she won as well.
Albeit killed him in the end but given her story and my zero fucks killing people gone away now considering the constant danger as well as willingly using the philosopher stone yeah…
Morality might be there but about life though?
Mine is the first priority above everything else.
Power is must to surivive.
Maybe I should spend my time locating them first.
And who else would know more than the Spiders?
Guess I'm going to make attempt to meet with them.
Tomorrow first though as I'm dead tired and I don't want to keep my tired state like this.
Going around the place I began to hurry down to the lower sections of Mistral as the hotels are cheap but sketchy with criminals.
Not much I can do but have something to sleep over for the night.
And later I'll head over to the bar to ask for more information about Mercury Black and Cinder Falls.
Training partners are needed if I need to grow stronger.
I could've asked the Spiders where Ren and Nora are at but out of fear of them doing something drastic it was best to deal with the villains that haven't become villains yet.