69. River Tour

Seth spent the time until their departure collecting information on the continent. He had roughly known the character of this place after he had talked with Simon, the priest from Starta. However, the church did not give him a lot of info upfront. After reading and skimming through a bunch of books in the library he had a better idea of the place he had entered. The books helped him to fill his <Map> with names.

The world was called Namia and as Cerno Bolk, the Ivicer had told him, roughly 500 years it was almost destroyed by a war between the gods. That was when the system intervened and the Chrona Empire entered the world. The small continent he was currently on was one of three and was called Chrona, after the empire it belonged to. The other two continents a mess split between local factions and people from the Pathwork.

Chrona was a giant landmass spawned from the volcanic mountain range spanning from the northwest to the southeast, effectively splitting the continent. The dwarves and humans shared the continent, while the former preferred to stay along the mountains and within their subterranean cities.

Ora was one of three big dwarven cities on the surface at the foot of the mountain range.

The desert to the south of the continent was their current position. The linear distance between where Seth and Fin had landed and Ora was almost negligible if one ignored the giant mountain range in-between. The Airship they would take in Oriekot would need to circumvent the mountains by flying along the shores.

There was also a big island to the east called Quendel, which was the territory of the elves. Seth had originally planned to travel there after he was done in Ora. Obviously, if you enter a fantasy world, you would also want to see the beautiful elves, right? And they might have special materials or enchantments Seth could acquire. Now that their journey was close to being back on track, Seth could finally think of his original plans again!

First, they would get to Ora. And once he had sucked the city dry and grinded out everything he could, he could go and visit the elves. And then return home. After reading the stories of Namia`s entrance into the system, he was sure that there had to be groups of surviving and whole cities who managed to cope with the situation.

As magical as the territories of the Chrona Empire were, nothing beats being a rich weapons trader, lazing around in a comfy modern home, and playing video games! In the best-case scenario, he could even get Fin to stay with him and play coop-games.

The small Ivicer gave him a mental nudge. How dare he exclude it from his future dreams! In the past few days, the small guy and Seth had hit it off well. They kept sitting in the sunny library and Seth told it more about the continent and his own world.

It had inherited its racial memories, but this did not mean it was not eager to learn more. It listened to Seth with great interested, when he told it about mega cities with millions of citizens, devises to drives around in with high speeds and building so high they touch the clouds.

The loyalty had increased to 50% and their intimacy reached 70%, they had become good friends. Fin was a little jealous of the time they spent together, but she found the library to be a terribly boring place.

Another gain from all the reading was, that his INT finally increased to 20! He had not many skills that actually needed Mana, but it did not hurt to have more! The only difference he felt from the increase of intelligence attribute, was that he could memorize more information faster, than before the system.

"Seth! We have to go!", Fin flew into the library. All their things were packed and stored away in their inventories. They just needed to farewell to the Lord and Ikram. They also make a stop at the guild, where they met not only Asso but to their surprise Yudrid, too!

They said farewell to Olivia, Mary, the lizardman, and the dwarf and went off to the harbor. The active harbor was close to the commercial district opposite from the side of the old district. Here the wall of the city was in better shape and the portcullises were intact! This was the place the river exited the town.

Their ride was the only big ship tied to the quay wall. It´s flanks were covered in steel plates that protected the wood from the smaller monster of the marshland. The vessel was wide with little draft, so it could travel through shallow waters. They were greeted by the happily smiling merchant. He was big man with a bushy black mustache and wore robes in light colors made of thin flowing cloth to stay cool in the marshlands hot and damp climate. After a warm welcome he led the party on to the boat and showed them their cabin.

On deck they met the adventurer party tasked with the protection of the vessel who introduced themselves as the B-Rank party "Star of the Desert". They were made up of 4 B-Ranks and their leader an A-Rank adventurer. This meant all of them had a higher level than Fin, with their leader beating her by almost 20 levels!

Seth and Fin relaxed a lot knowing this and if they really came across a problem these guys could not deal with, they were most likely doomed anyway.

Soon the ship set off. Sin and Seth stayed on deck to watch es they passed the river gates of the city and finally left Zhiqe behind them. Down the river into the marshlands. These wetlands were just as, if not even more dangerous than those on their way here. When left the city behind the two magicians of the B-Rank party took action and cast a cognitive inhibition spell on the boat.

Only a few beasts even reacted when they slowly passed them. It was unexpectedly nice to be able to travel along the river without fearing an attack. It felt more like a safari tour. The terribly giant hippo creatures, Magna Buzzy, they had met before reaching Zhiqe, were swimming in herds some distance away. They also saw the big versions of the tiny crocodiles. And the creature that had eaten the Magna Buzzy....

Lying in the sun on a dry hill sticking out from the surrounding swamps was a gigantic reptile. Not as big as the Titanoboa Matriarch, but easily overshadowing the juvenile. What he immediately thought of were the giant monitor lizard coined with the name of dragons.

"That´s a swamp drake.", said someone from behind. The leader of the B-Rank party had approached them. It was a man in his early thirties. He had short blonde hair and wore tight-fitting leather armor.

He had seen them stare at one of the most dangerous predators of this region and wanted to preemptively tell them. If one of them had used a skill like <Observation> on this beast, it would easily kill them all.

"A swamp drake? Is it a dragon race?"

The leader leaned against the guard rail beside them and also looked into the distance at the giant lizard.

"No, they are a completely separate species. Within these wetlands, they could even beat most low-tier dragons. But they resemble ground dragons in appearance, that's why they are named like that. The one over there is still young. When they reach adulthood, they can easily hunt the Magna Buzzi. And they never stop growing... So, don´t mess with it."

He left them a warning and returned to his party members. The blacksmith and the fairy returned to watching the scenery.