CH 84

Chapter 84 – Oh, it was nothing much

Horse-drawn carriages regularly go to Dotril. They weren’t able to go there back when the road was blocked, but the traffic has been normalized now that the Lich was taken care of.

And of course, in order to make sure the road isn’t taken over by the Demon Trees again, the Guild issues a quest to clear out nearby Demon Trees on a daily basis, and it pays quite well for it.

Part of the reason the payment is good, is because it takes quite a while to go from Capital Sabrina to Dotril, so the reward needs to be good in order to push Pioneers to go through this hassle.

By carriage it takes roughly three hours to reach Dotril, or one hours in ‘real time’, so it’s definitely not a short trip.

In any case, I am somewhat close to my logout time, so I might only be able to get the carriage after logging in later today. I guess it will depend on the availability of the carriages, so… Let’s check it out for now.

And well, after I reach the city normally at least once, I should be able to use the teleportation gates to move back and forth from the city with more ease. It will, of course, still consume Magic Stones, but the time spent traveling will be considerably shortened, so it will probably be worth it.

And with this in mind, I went to the north gate to check out the availability of the carriages. Their departure times should be following a somewhat regular schedule, so let’s first talk to a staff NPC of the place where the carriages park, as they might be able to inform me more about this.

… There is a carriage to Dotril that is about to depart!? How lucky!

I immediately paid the fee for it and then entered the carriage in question.

Each person didn’t have a specific seat reserved for themselves, but I suppose that’s not a problem in a wagon as large as this one.

This carriage has four lines of four seats, as well as an aisle in the middle. Totaling sixteen seats.

It also seems like we’ll be having four Pioneers working as our escorts. Two near the coachman’s seat and two at the back of the carriage.

As for passengers, it seems like only eight people, me included, are going to make the trip. We’re not filling the carriage’s full capacity, but we’ll be departing anyways.

It will take about three hours, and it will be my first time using a carriage to travel to a different city… At most, I took the carriage to move within the city itself so far.

I wonder what the trip will be like… The city had cobblestone roads with carriages that barely shook due to the game system making it convenient, but will it also be like that when outside?

This time I went out without really looking up any information on the forums, so… I’m looking forward to finding out.

******

“Thank you very much.” The aunt NPC sitting next to me said.

“Oh, it was nothing much.” I replied.

“But you really saved me, you know? Now I won’t have to feel embarrassed while on Dotril.” She told me.

“It really wasn’t much…” I repeated.

The carriage to Dotril didn’t shake much when compared to the ones I rode on the city before, so it seems like the road is being properly maintained.

As for the NPC aunt, she ended up sitting next to me, but a button on her jacket ended up falling off. I didn’t mind fixing it for her, so she ended up thanking me, and then we kinda became friends and were able to chit-chat throughout the entire travel, which led to me hardly noticing the time pass before we reached our destination.

It was quite the fun journey. At one point we saw a group of people doing the woodcutting quest, so for a small while we heard a lot of chopping noises as they took care of the Demon Trees in the vicinity.

Also, we ended up not needing the escorts’ help at all in this trip, as the woodcutting Pioneers quickly dispatched any monsters that came near them, which left the road free of enemies.

Well, a peaceful journey is the best, isn’t it? Especially because a monster attack could end up delaying our trip, which would be quite troublesome to me who has fixed logout times, so I wouldn’t be able to afford being delayed for long.

“Ah… We arrived.” I muttered to myself once we reached Dotril.

I ended up stretching after leaving the carriage due to staying three whole hours sitting and talking to the aunt, but well, it’s not like my body felt cramped or anything, since the game’s system doesn’t let us feel cramped.

Still, it just felt right to do it.

In any case, while Dotril is a city within the Zabrina Kingdom, I hadn’t really cared much about it until now, as neither Mika nor anyone on the forums has found anything particularly note-worthy within the city. No new materials or specialty products in it… If it wasn’t for the information I got from master Merget, I probably wouldn’t ever come here.

And well, as most player Pioneers probably feel the same way, the majority of the people here must be NPC Pioneers.

After all, the area around Capital Sabrina is more developed, so the player Pioneers would naturally flock to it.

The only player Pioneers that would come here are probably the ones that want to do more woodcutting to further expand the available area in the vicinity of Dotril… But as there aren’t that many player Pioneers focusing on this specific area, it will probably take a while for any new region to be unlocked.

In any case, Dotril is about five times smaller than Capital Sabrina, and its population seems to be even smaller than what you’d expect from its size.

Well, player Pioneers have much more reason to be at the capital, so I guess it’s a bit unfair to make this kind of comparison.

Still, in this world that is constantly being invaded by Demon Trees, small villages just can’t survive, so even if smaller than Capital Sabrina, Dotril is definitely a city that can sustain itself. One can only survive if they have a good amount of Pioneers regularly cutting all the nearby Demon Trees away.

Dotril is one of the few cities that was able to withstand the invasion of the Demon Trees. It is honestly impressive that it was able to survive while having a population this small.

But well, that doesn’t really matter to me, as I didn’t come here to cut Demon Trees.

Unfortunately though, I’m about to have my lunch log-out, so let’s just look at the city’s information board and then leave?

Even if I already have a town map, the information boards that exist in every city have quite a bit of information on them, so they can be quite helpful.

I never used the information board of Capital Sabrina though… Well, this is my first outing, so it wouldn’t hurt to try it out.

******

I logged in after finishing a variety of things, such as eating lunch.

I could learn quite a bit from the city’s information board, but just like Mika and the people on the forums said, this is a city with no specialty products, so there wasn’t much that could interest me here.

But well, as master Merget told me that there was a crafter that could expand the inventory in this city, I have to check it out.

Let’s go!

Dotril does have carriages that allow us to move within the city, but as the distance to the crafter’s workshop isn’t that large, I guess I’ll just walk there while enjoying the scenery.

Though its architecture is quite similar to Sabrina’s, so there isn’t that much to appreciate… Even the items sold are very similar, after all.

Not to mention that Dotril feels a bit lonely when compared to the capital due to small numbers of stalls on the streets.

I mean, there are some stalls here alright, but they’re spread out throughout the city instead of being crowded on the main streets like in Capital Sabrina… I guess there is just no way Dotril will get crowded unless some sort of special good or some form of unique development happens here.

Well, at the very least, this city will probably be a good relay point to stay at before going to the next city or even the next county… It will be hard to move to farther away places without a stopping point like this one, after all.

******

I gave up quickly on the idea of enjoying the scenery and decided to just move quickly towards my destination. There really wasn’t much to enjoy here.

The place I was going to go to was near the area where bars and inns were located.

It seems like one can get an increase on the speed of their magic and health recovery if they sleep at an inn, but it’s really rare for player Pioneers to use that, as the city already gives a bonus to recovery that is almost as good as the inn’s bonus, so it doesn’t feel worth it to actually sleep at the inn.

Well, I spend almost all my time in the city, so I never paid much attention to those buffs… And well, I have no plans of fighting in the future, so this kind of thing doesn’t matter much to me.

In any case, the destination is a cheap apartment-like building that is behind a bar. It may be a two-story building, but it’s also fairly old and not that well maintained.

Still, this seems to be a workshop… Well, differently from how it works on reality, Frontiers has multiple system benefits, so even this kind of building can work as a workshop.

Still, I don’t like it.

But well, according to master Merget, this crafter isn’t the kind of person that stays in the same place for too long, so I guess they don’t invest much in making a good workplace.

Moreover, I might have actually missed the chance to meet this person if they moved to a different location by the time I heard them, so I guess I was lucky in having a font of information as reliable as master Merget.

But well, this crafter seems to be eccentric, so I don’t know if they’ll really expand my inventory…

However, I’ll just be wasting time if I don’t try it, so let’s charge forward!

“Hello.” I knocked on the door, that didn’t even have a sign next to it… But there was no reply.

I tried knocking several times, but there was no response… Could they have left? That would be disappointing…

“Shut up! Don’t keep on hitting it over and over again!” A voice came out from inside.

I was about to give up, but it turns out that they were there after all…

Seems like my patience paid off.

But well, let’s apologize to them properly. Things might get messy if this person tries hitting me.

“S-sorry for the trouble! Could this be Haldrin’s workshop?” I asked.

“Huh? Yeah, that’s my workshop, but who are you?” He replied.

“Oh, sorry for the late introduction. I’m a Pioneer, Bucket.” I told him.

“Hmm… Not bad. Come in.” He looked at me from top to bottom, then let me in.

“Eh? Uhn… Yes.” I replied.

He was angry at my knocking, but he is now letting me in… Just what is ‘not bad’? I’m not sure what was it that he acknowledged.

Well, I guess nothing will happen if I don’t move, so I followed him inside.