Tribulations Before the Capital

With an extremely basic understanding of magic under my belt, I decided to continue making my way toward the royal capital - I'd like to get moving before someone came across my roadside crusade against the rocks, after all.

Finding out any more about the ominous spell in my list was the furthest from in my mind. With so many unknowns about the world and its mechanisms still at play, the last thing I wanted to do was play around with something with a name like "Atrocity."

For a time, my trek was uneventful. A few other travelers were encountered, either moving at a pace more leisurely than my own, or were currently suffering some sort of setback to their journey. One group, for instance, was attempting to patch up their wagon, which was experiencing some sort of difficulty I could not offhandedly identify.

"CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY: REPAIR THE WAGON."

I kept walking.

"CHALLENGE FAILED."

"Objective fulfilled: Be indifferent to the suffering of others."

I ignored that.

Another person was impatiently pacing around one of the many signposts along the way, evidently waiting for someone. When I drew closer, I felt their expectant gaze for a brief moment, before they returned to their growing impatience - I imagine every passerby would experience the same, until the promised one finally arrived.

"Objective fulfilled: Be deemed unworthy of notice."

…Was Penta getting bored? These 'objectives' were becoming more and more of a stretch.

"CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY: CONVINCE THE MAN YOU ARE THE ONE HE SEEKS."

And while I wanted to say Zeta was getting dumber by the minute, I guess there was only so much it had to work with.

"CHALLENGE FAILED."

As my journey continued, and the voices in my head continued to assail me with growing absurdities, I began to worry about my odds of reaching my destination before nightfall. Almost in response to my anxiety, as I crested yet another hill, I was greeted with the impressive - yet slightly ominous - sight of a massive, sprawling city. From my position some distance away and perched atop a hill, I could see somewhat beyond the looming walls that surrounded the city, but not in its entirety.

The road forward was on a collision course with the city's gates, but I could see, just before it reached them, it split into a number of others. Where the roads converged, however, was marked with a massive amalgamation of signposts - each road carrying with it numerous different markings, presumably with different destinations in mind. The road that led onwards, to the city gates proper, was doubly wide as those that led before it, to accommodate the increased traffic.

And increased it did - a solid throng of people, feeding in from all the different paths converging into one, flowed in and out of the capital. It occurred to me, looking at the different paths, that the one I was on was comparatively small - clearly indicating how many more traversed the others day after day. In reality, the path I had followed probably only led to that one village and whatever lay beyond it, while these larger roads served more as major connection points between cities.

"All roads lead to the royal capital, I guess," I mused aloud to no one in particular. "I really hope it has an actual name. 'Royal capital' isn't very specific."

Though, of course, I had no way of knowing if that was true. For all I knew, this was THE royal capital, and I should respect it as such.

"Objective fulfilled: "

Right on cue! Fill me in, Penta!

"Stand in awe of a grand sight."

The rush I felt from the experience gain just added salt to the wound.

As my smaller path merged into another, more proper one, the traffic increased in turn. My pleasant journey, with its infrequent run-ins with other travelers, was over - now, I traveled the main road to the royal capital, and I was but one of many.

Immediately, I began to notice the sheer breadth of citizenry that comprised the people of this kingdom - while Troph may have been a human village, humans were not, as it turns out, the only race. While I was expecting the usual fantasy sort - dwarves, elves, etc - instead, my attention was draw by what I could only describe as 'animal people.' That is, humanoid creatures, standing upright like humans, but possessing of bestial - or even, in some cases, insectoid or reptilian - traits, and of varying degrees of intensity at that. Where one might be more or less a human with some fur or scales, others were as the same beast or reptile, raw and unchanged, grew to be six feet tall and learned to walk upright.

Strangely, I could find no elves or dwarves in the crowd. Then again, it was probably much more difficult to notice something as minor as sharp ears or short height - if that was even the take this world had on those races. Hell, even some of the demi-human races - which was what I was going to call them, until corrected - possessed the traditional sharp elven ears, or short dwarven height. Neither trait seemed particularly rare.

"Spare some coin, sirs? Just a single coin will do!"

My attention was drawn to the side of the road, where the desperate request for coin seemed to be coming from. Spying the asker through the ever-flowing crowd, however, was easier said than done. As I maneuvered closer, I managed to catch a few glimpses - she appeared to be a demi-human of small stature, possessing qualities of some sort of canine, judging from the ears, fur, and tail. She appeared to be of a young age at first glance, but perhaps her kind were just naturally that small. She held a small tin, which she would shove out in front of her when she made her requests. What was already inside the tin, I could not tell, but judging from the general lack of response from the crowd, I suspected it wasn't much.

I felt a pang of sympathy as she made another unsuccessful request. I reached into the pocket of my robe to see if I had anything to spare...only to be sharply reminded of why I was here in the first place.

"Objective fulfilled: Refuse a beggar."

"Like I had a choice!" I shot back mentally, scowling.

"CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY: STEAL HER EARNINGS."

"Your morality is just all over the place, isn't it?"

"CHALLENGE FAILED. CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY: ASSIST HER IN EARNING 3 GOLD PIECES."

"Thanks for the confirmation." Though, if this was considered an equivalent challenge to running off with her earnings, just how hopeless was her cause?

The desperate demi-human quickly disappeared from view as I was pushed along with the crowd. The gates to the city grew ever closer, and the path onward grew even more dense. A steady stream of wagons flowed through the center of the path, either coming or going, and all seemed loaded with a variety of different goods. Progress grew slow, especially for those of us on foot - naturally, priority was made for the wagons and their goods, rather than simple travelers. There did, however, seem to be a checkpoint at the gate, manned by a not-insignificant amount of guards.

"I really hope they're not gonna ask me for my ID..."