A Way to The Capital

Nagos was a town circled by a sturdy stone wall. Its houses were similar to those everywhere else. The only difference lay in the river nearby. Its bright colors gave the town a charm of its own.

A party of adventurers arrived in town. They all wore black cloakings that hid their faces. It was a common sight, so no one paid attention when Joshua entered the city.

The place was vivid. Especially the trade area. All kinds of stalls with food and other day-to-day things. Joshua paid attention to everything around them. It all seemed ordinary. Nagos was a town just like any other.

Khali parted ways with them to find the man they were trying to find. Hanrog went with him, as it was his job as a father to take care of him.

Joshua, Leo, and Aurora decided to see the port. All types of magnificent ships anchored there, and it was something that caught their attention.

None of them had ever traveled by ship. Joshua sometimes dreamed about becoming a pirate, but that was something for the future.

Aurora had nothing like that in mind. She went there to see the ships because they were beautiful. Leo was there because he had nothing else to do.

Different from the trading atmosphere of the town, the port had more manual labor. People there were not goofing. Strong men tied ropes, cleaned up the racks, and moved huge crates. These were probably the goods arriving at the town.

Each one of them went to do something. Aurora gazed at the ships, analyzing their beauty. Leo was virtually doing nothing. It was a mystery what happened inside that mind.

Joshua, who was walking through the port, could not help but gaze at a specific ship. Some men were moving crates to the insides of it, and all of these men reminded Joshua of gang members.

"Am I overthinking?" Joshua thought. But he decided to take a look nonetheless. His instinct was telling him something was amiss, and only a fool would ignore that.

He changed his appearance once again, trying to look intimidating. Joshua tried to copy some stereotypes of gang members from his previous world, but without the tattoos, as those were not common there.

"Hey, you there," the one that seemed to be in charge said.

"Are you one of the recruits? Get your ass here and move these crates."

Joshua did not respond and only did what the man said. In an environment like that one, one should only talk when allowed. The man saw how Joshua did not utter some bullshit excuse and only got to work. For that, he nodded.

None of the others that were already there paid attention to Joshua. Recruits come and go every day. Joshua copied their moves, grabbed some crates at the pier, and moved them to the ship.

The crates were heavy, but with the high amount of strength Joshua had, they were a piece of cake. He had no idea what the content of those crates was, but if these men were indeed a gang, it was probably bad stuff.

Now, Joshua had no idea what bad stuff was in this world. They could be transporting all sorts of things. A magical herb that could not be sold in regular means. Or maybe stolen Aetherium from the Rinidan mines.

"Wait a second." Joshua's thoughts ran wild, and he was thinking of a possibility. In the end, he decided to come back at night to see what was inside those crates.

Now that he thought about it, his skill was divine for these types of operations. He could change his appearance to any kind. Hide or manipulate the information others saw above his head, as his class and level. It was indeed a divine ability.

Joshua moved the crates without losing sweat and then left. The man in charge did not stop him, so their job should be just moving the crates. At night Joshua would sneak in and see if his theory added up.

But for now, their priority was to find a way to the capital. Joshua changed back to his original appearance and met once again with Aurora and Leo.

"We were looking for you," Aurora said. She was surprised at how Joshua vanished in front of her eyes. The port was big, but still, there weren't many places Joshua could go. Unless he jumped inside a ship.

Joshua had a grin and said. "I was just looking around."

They did not ask further questions, as Joshua was someone they trusted. Especially Leo, as they both had a secret no one else knew.

All of them returned to the merchants' district just to find Khali. He was also looking for them.

"I already found the man, and we talked. He was surprised to see that we managed to leave the city. Come, we should talk more about this inside the inn."

~~~~

Just like any other town, Nagos had multiples inns for people to choose from. This time they did not go to the cheapest one. They were not rich, but they had some money to at least chill in a good place.

It was still early in the morning, so the inn had only a few people inside. They chose a table at the corner and ordered some local food that consisted mostly of fish.

"The man is called Frederick. He is a noble from the capital," Khali said.

Joshua was not surprised to hear that. To be able to leave Rinidan one should have a decent status.

"He is returning to the capital by ship with some goods. As Aurora already knows, this river is gigantic, and it connects multiple cities by water. The capital is one of these cities."

In the end, they would not travel by carriage but by ship. Joshua liked that idea.

"I'll finally taste what is like to be a pirate." He thought.

"We can rest for a day and leave tomorrow. He said that his men already transported the goods to their ship," Khali said. They were happy that they had at least a day to chill, but Joshua was thinking of something different.

"There's no way, right?" Joshua thought of something weird.