Wild Era, Ch 10: Highmist

The road to the city was only a few miles long. 

Walking it now blended with the memories of Kelin’s younger self, but there was a sense of freedom that hadn’t been there before.

It was a new life, the wind was blowing, and the road was open. 

As he walked along, he put together what his younger self knew of this world and the greater picture that he’d known in his past. 

This world was called Lareth, and as far as he remembered, it was one of the lesser worlds in the human dominion, nearly forgotten among the greater powers. 

Fortunately, it had as many natural resources as the others. It simply hadn’t been developed as much. 

That was perfect for his purposes, since it meant Lareth was full of dungeons and had fewer people to compete with to enter them.

He’d never liked waiting in line.

His younger life hadn’t had a deep understanding of the world, but his time as a messenger in the city had at least given him a sense of Highmist’s role in the region and the major powers nearby.

Highmist was part of a loose alliance of city states called the Celadon States, a mediocre power in the middle of larger ones, all of which were on the northern part of the main continent of the world.

Most people just called the country Celadon.

The country’s borders extended about a thousand miles in each direction, touching the Sarathian Empire to the east and the Kingdom of Baralis to the south, while the western border ended at the Celadon Mountains.

The country had started in the foothills, but except for the same name they’d never had any claim on the mountains.

For the moment, the political situation didn’t matter much to him, but he did like to have a basic understanding of the forces at play.

He was heading north out of the forest and eventually the trees gave way to a plain of short golden grasses, giving him a view to the horizon and the mountains in the distance to the west. 

The peaks were a faint blue-green color like translucent jade, which gave them their name.

The Celadon Mountains and the lands past them were the province of wild monsters, particularly the Cloudmont Marches and the Solace Wood to the west and the Dragon Vale in the north.

Although the world was part of the human domain, there were a few other races that had come to populate it as well over the past 5,000 years, namely a few dwarves, some Winter Sylphs, and other allies. 

Here and there other races turned up as well, but they weren’t as common on Lareth as on more important worlds.

It was around noon and the mountains were shining as the sun rose toward its peak. It was midmorning, which was fortunate, since it gave him most of the day to get things settled when he got back to town.

The forest and the mine he’d just left were a long way from the mountains, but he would go there one day and see what that stone looked like up close. 

Before long, the walls of Highmist rose in front of him, slowly creeping up out of the plains. They weren’t very tall, only about thirty feet, built from standard mana-reinforced stone that had been heavily warded to block monsters and hostile forces.

Every settlement used basic mana stabilization wards to prevent monsters from spawning nearby, and the larger ones covered the area around them as well, but Highmist’s wards only extended for about a quarter of a mile outside the walls.

The defenses were the strongest on the river docks on the western side of the city, protecting the river trade that was the city’s lifeblood. 

That was typical for the city states. 

Their territory was dominated by a series of rivers that ran to the ocean, and their major role on the continent was to facilitate trade. Their military force was mediocre, but their merchants were some of the best.

Without trading treaties, they would have been overrun by their neighbors, so they had taken up a role of playing foreign interests off of one another, doing their best to make themselves indispensable and neutral.

Highmist was roughly in the middle of the Celadon States’ territory, situated in a large valley between two rivers, with the Sirenflow to the west and the Shieldrun farther away to the south. 

Both rivers eventually ended in the Azure Ocean to the north, which marked the border of the continent.

The city’s major trade came from produce that grew in the valley and mines like the one he had just left, but it wasn’t able to compete with the larger mines near the mountains or the more verdant lands farther to the south.

That was mostly due to the dense fog that gave the city its name. 

Banks of mana-filled mist miles long rose over the rivers and rolled across the plains almost every day during the winter. It made travel difficult for a quarter of the year and kept too many people from settling here. 

Despite that, the land was easy to cultivate in other seasons, full of fruit trees and vibrant life, and in the current late spring, it was a warm and pleasant place.

If the world’s population had been higher, the area would have been more popular, but like most of the human worlds, there was no shortage of space.

Highmist’s main claim to fame was its central location and the trade that ran along the rivers nearby, which was just enough to make it one of the twelve city states that made up the Celadon States.

It was the weakest of them, but it still had a place. The next closest city was a hundred miles away to the east. 

Besides that, there were some smaller towns scattered across the valley, quite a few farming villages, and some merchants’ waypoints and dungeon outposts. The smallest ones had just enough people to provide an inn for travelers and sometimes a resupply.

The climate was forgiving and his younger self had thought many times about abandoning the city for one of the farming villages, but it was what he’d known and he’d managed to scrape together a living here, even if it was in one of the poorest sections.

The mine he’d been working in was on the far side of the Sirenflow, so he crossed over a green stone bridge that arched high above the water and headed to the gates.

Few people came from this direction in the morning, so except for a couple of farm wagons that were delivering produce to the city, he was nearly alone on the road.

There was a guard post with two Level 90 fighters protecting the bridge and keeping a close eye on the travelers. They gave him a searching glance, but they didn’t stop him.

They were there to protect against monsters and things that were more dangerous than a Level 30 traveler.

The next set of guards on the gate didn’t trouble him either, although they did give him a curious glance, probably because they were wondering what he was doing traveling alone at his level.

Within a few minutes he was in Highmist proper. 

If there was one thing to say about the city, it was that it knew how to market to visitors. 

As soon as he was through the gates, the smells of roasting meat, fragrant breads, and rare spices mingled with something light and floral, and ahead of him the city opened up on a bustling square filled with life.

Wealthy shops decorated the sides of the street, a mix of restaurants and merchants, and street vendors’ carts marked every corner.

Beyond the square, straight and clean streets stretched away into the city, sometimes passing through arches or fancifully carved beasts.

The center of the city rose in the distance, crowned by the city lord’s palace and its fortifications, like a smaller duplicate of the city itself. The twelve Celadon city states each had a lord, and Highmist’s lived there.

He was supposedly at the Third Evolution, somewhere over Level 300 and one of the strongest fighters in the alliance, but Kelin had only heard rumors about him. If it was true, the man probably didn’t spend much time here, since there wasn’t anything near that level to hunt.

The Third Evolution was decent, but he doubted he would need to concern himself with the city lord.

The smell of the food in the square did its job and his stomach rumbled fiercely, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten anything except braggan meat for days.

Unfortunately for his stomach, he knew better than to buy the food in the square. It was about four times more expensive than what he could find a few streets over.

He also didn’t have any coins on him, and while it was possible to trade monster cores directly, the price would be worse.

He hiked his backpack up on his shoulder and turned away from the temptation, heading down a familiar street as he left the square behind.

He’d have to cross about a quarter of the city to get to the kids, but he needed to sell a few things first. He also needed to register with the army and the Stars Alliance.

He wanted to make sure that his words at the mine came true, so that if the mine foreman or the guard captain asked him that the matter would end there.

There was no reason to bring trouble home.

He cut through a few side streets and came out on a much more modest trading square, and then he ducked into a store that he knew was reputable. He’d been here a few times to deliver messages and had a good impression of them.

He didn’t spend long inside, just enough to sell off some of the monster cores and all of the braggan hides that were in his backpack, along with the backpack itself. It was too crude and conspicuous to keep. 

Each braggan core was worth four silver on average, while a complete hide was worth one. The Stoneclaw Crawler cores were worth six each. The slight variation in level between the cores wasn’t enough to change the price by much.

He sold off 15 of the braggan cores and 2 of the crawler cores, along with the half dozen hides in his backpack. The backpack itself was in good shape, but he only got half price for it.

A few minutes later, he had a new money pouch and a good number of coins.

78 and a half silver to be exact.

The half came out to ten copper, since it was twenty to one for most of the coins that the city states used, a system that was the same across the entire human domain.

The coins were stamped with a fortress on one side and a mountain on the other, the two favored symbols of the Celadon States.

He kept the remaining braggan hides and cores, including all twelve of the cores from the Flametear Serpents. With levels in the 40s, those looked too high for him to have killed right now.

He could either use them for crafting or sell them later as needed.

He surreptitiously stored most of the silver in his spatial pocket and left only a dozen in the pouch, which he tucked inside his tunic.

When he left the shop, he was feeling cheerful.

The price meant a single braggan paid for a week’s rent with the Blade and Shield. Whether they were overcharging or not didn’t matter so much now.

Since his stomach was still rumbling and his pockets were full, he followed his nose to a nearby street vendor with more reasonable prices. The food smelled just as good as what was in the main square, but this fellow sold to locals rather than to tourists.

Three copper got him a hefty slice of grilled bread filled with roasted meat and vegetables, all of it covered in a savory sauce. He leaned on the side of the cart and chatted with the street vendor as he ate, catching up on the local news.

“Have you heard about the new war between Sarathia and Baralis?” the vendor asked, her eyes glinting with amusement. “The grain prices are going to skyrocket again, the same as what happened a few years ago.”

Those two were the empire to the east and the kingdom to the south, respectively, and Celadon’s largest trading partners, so any news about them was a hot topic.

“They always burn each other’s fields, don’t they?” Kelin asked in between bites. “Or was it a flood last time?”

“Both, I think,” the vendor agreed with a laugh. “Either way, it’s good for us. Prices across Celadon will go up to match. The merchants are going to be happy.”

“They always are,” Kelin said with a chuckle as he finished the food and summoned a stream of water to wash his hands. He let it splash onto the cobbles, where it would run away into the city drains. It was the normal method in the city. 

“Let me get a few more to go,” he said as he handed over a silver. 

“Keep a full belly while adventuring. That’s the way,” the vendor said with a grin as she swiftly packed up a few more wraps inside a bit of waxed cloth for him to take with him.

“Now don’t you join up with either of those two,” she added as she handed them to him, looking concerned. “They have mercenary contracts out and are looking for adventurers. That’s not the place for a handsome young man like you to lose his life.”

“No worries,” Kelin said with a laugh. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

He carried the wraps until he was around the corner and when no one was watching he stuck them in his spatial pocket, which would keep them as hot as they were now. Time didn’t really pass inside of spatial storage, so it was a nice way to keep food and drinks fresh.

They were for dinner with the kids when he got back, if they hadn’t eaten yet.

He headed around the edge of the city and then back through a shortcut to the center. 

Before long he was in front of the army headquarters, a building which did double duty in the city for the army and the guild.

It was a towering edifice five stories high, one of the largest in the area, which was saying something for the central plaza of the city. Every building here was at least three stories and most of them had white marble facades and arched porticos to protect visitors from the rain.

He ignored the grandeur as he headed inside.

He’d only been to the message desk here before, but he knew his way around, plus the design of these buildings was pretty much the same across the entire galaxy.

One half of the interior was reserved for the Army of Silver Stars, and on the first level it primarily served as a registration point for new recruits, as well as a few officials who oversaw them. 

It was the flashier of the two parts, but he ignored it as he headed for the other side, where the Stars Alliance was based. As he walked through a white arch, the tingle of analysis spells tickled his skin, and then he was there.

The archway opened up into a vast interior room that was divided into several sections with different desks. Most of them were for quest turn-ins, equipment, and crafting requests, but there was also a counter that served drinks and food, turning the area into something of a relaxed pub where a good two dozen people were lounging around.

Some of the upper part of the building had rooms for rent, mostly used by passing adventurers. The service was good and safety was guaranteed, but the prices were usually higher than the local inns. 

It was part of a contract that the adventurer’s guild had with the city at large. They didn’t want to stifle trade, so they encouraged adventurers to spend their time elsewhere. 

Only those who were too tired to go elsewhere or who wanted a guarantee of their safety stayed here.

He glanced around the area, but there was nothing of special note except that the food smelled tempting. It seemed he was already hungry again.

He ignored it as he headed to the registration desk.

It had been something like 2,000 years since he’d last dealt with the guild registration process, not long after it had been formed, and things had been significantly different back then, but he doubted the basics had changed too much.

Name, level, class... What’s your preferred method to make money and kill every monster nearby?

Pretty straightforward, really.

“Are you new to the guild?” the clerk at the desk asked as she gave him a smile. “I can help you register if that’s what you’re here for.”

She was young for a guild clerk, not much older than him in this life. She had the light bronze skin and black hair that most of the Celadon people shared, including him.

It wasn’t that much different from the people of Irian in his first life. 

A people of wine and fruit...rolling hills and sun.

He shook the memory off as he focused on the clerk.

“First time, yes,” he said with a smile. “Lead the way.”

The clerk’s smile turned into a grin as she looked at him, and she hid a slight blush on her cheeks.

“Right, just touch the crystal there and we can go through the basic questions, the guild contract, your badge, army registration and rank, quest and hiring orientation, and all the rest.”

Kelin hid a sigh as he let her show him through the various forms, filling out one after another with a magical signature.

As with almost everything in the galaxy, the Path of Stars verified all of the documents and saved the signatures, but it seemed that his soul’s aura was slightly different in this life, enough that it didn’t trigger any recognition.

“That should be all of it then,” she said cheerfully almost an hour later. “All that’s left is the combat assessment and your army reserve rank. Let me call over an official to help with that. I think it’s Captain Sandren today. She’ll give you the rank authorization and finish that registration. 

“Almost everyone enters as a Private in the army and Copper Rank in the guild, which are the lowest ranks, but if your combat assessment is high enough, she can authorize one step up for you. That would be as a Corporal and as Bronze Rank, so do your best. I just earned those myself, but it took me three years of training here.”

Kelin hid another sigh, but he couldn’t stop a sense of amusement from rising in his chest. 

He dared to say he knew the rank system better than she did.

He’d held a General’s rank in the army and Star Rank in the guild in his past life, as well as the title of Archduke. 

General was a rank normally given to those at the Sixth Evolution, and was as high as they went, while Star Rank was the peak of the Star Alliance, reserved for those who had incalculable contributions.

Archduke was an even more special rank that was granted by the Sovereign of Silver Stars. It was the one that had granted him a unique connection to the Path and allowed him to talk to it directly.

It looked like he would be starting over at the bottom again.

He wasn’t too concerned with it, however, since a rank in the reserves was more a matter of your power level than it was an administrative position. It was something that only came into play if you were organizing forces for battle or if you joined the more structured part of the regular army.

It was only a way to record accomplishments in case he joined more officially later, and it would naturally rise as his strength increased.

The guild’s system of Copper, Bronze, Steel, Silver, and so on was more important, with each tier granting more access to the guild’s resources. 

Like with the clerk, it normally took several years to cross a rank, and sometimes decades, so it was in his interest to jump directly to Bronze. It would make things easier and come with a slight discount to the guild’s various services.

“I appreciate that,” he said simply. 

The clerk seemed to be surprised by his composure, or perhaps the fact that he didn’t have any questions, but she didn’t say anything about it. She probably thought he’d been briefed by a family member of someone.

“Okay, the captain will be here soon,” she explained. “I’ll get you the right badge as soon as she approves it. If you want to take a look at the local quests or prepare for the combat assessment, you can.”

Kelin nodded his thanks as he stepped away from the desk.

He spent the next little while browsing local quests, which were mostly for gathering monster cores and other crafting materials for local crafters, investigating strange sightings, or hunting down and suppressing criminal activity that was outside the city. 

The mercenary contracts for the neighboring kingdoms were posted here too, since the guild crossed all borders, but he only read through them out of curiosity and then shook his head. 

He had no interest in them.

Before long, the captain showed up.

She was a graceful and slightly statuesque woman who had the highest level he’d seen since he’d awoken. 

He didn’t directly analyze her, since it would have been rude, but he could sense most of the details from her soul, and he estimated her strength at roughly Level 210. 

Impressive for this area, but normal for a captain.

She had the same appearance as most of the locals, which suggested she might be back home for a temporary rest, but Celadon wasn’t unique in having that skin tone or hair color. It was quite common across the human domain.

She could just as easily have been from another world, since teleporting between postings was common for the army.

Whatever her origin, she seemed relaxed and fairly easy-going as she came over, which was a mark in her favor.

It was also good for recruiting. 

Yelling at potential recruits before they signed up didn’t help. You had to save that for later.

“Kelin?” she asked as she saw him.

When he confirmed it, she gave him a brief smile, more for the fact that he hadn’t analyzed her than for anything else he suspected. Then she gestured that he should follow as she headed for an assessment room.

There were several of them in a training hall at the back of the guild, but all were unoccupied, so she chose the first.

The room was a long rectangle and the walls were engraved with formidable wards that hummed at the edge of Kelin’s senses. He glanced at them, assessing their strength and to see if anything was out of the ordinary, but they were what he expected for the room.

The captain smiled as she saw him look around and waited for him to finish.

“All in order?” she asked with a grin.

“Looks standard,” Kelin agreed, smiling back. “How would you like to begin?”

He’d been in similar training rooms many times when he was younger. The wards hadn’t changed much.

“You’re one of the most relaxed I’ve seen here in a while,” she said, her smile growing. “I’m guessing you already know all of this, so I’ll be brief.”

She pointed at the end of the room.

“This is a realistic combat assessment, since the army doesn’t like wasting time. A series of monsters will appear in this hall and attack you. They are constructed with monster cores collected from the local area, so they might be familiar to you.

“It’s the same as most training halls that are used by academies and wealthy families, and it’s capable of creating monsters up to Level 200, however for this test, it will be limited to Level 75 at most.

“For this initial assessment and because you are a low level, the cost is covered by the army. You will receive experience for your wins, so do your best. In the future, you’ll need to cover the cost yourself as part of your ranking tests.”

Kelin nodded.

“What’s the requirement for Corporal and Bronze rank?” he asked.

“If you can defeat monsters at Level 50, I’ll authorize you for Bronze rank,” she said. “If you can defeat monsters 30 levels over your own, I’ll authorize you for Corporal.”

“Level 60 then,” Kelin agreed. “And if I hit Level 75?”

He wasn’t planning on using soul attacks, but if the terms were good enough, he might be interested. Soulfire alone should get him pretty far and this would give him a chance to train the skill against higher level targets.

“You’re that confident?” The captain raised her eyebrow, but she seemed amused. “I like it. If you can manage that, I’ll authorize you for high Bronze rank quests. Those start at Level 75 usually. That’s all I can do though. The rest of it is just free experience, if you can last that long.”

“Sounds good.” Kelin nodded.

Her promise was simple, but between the experience and the ranks it was reason enough to show off, as well as the larger picture. 

The guild would treat him better if they saw he had talent, and that would save him some paperwork in the future, particularly with rising through the ranks.

Each rank had a required assessment, but they also required approval from witnesses, guild masters, and so on, depending on what level they were. 

The captain’s authorization would speed that up until he was closing in on the Steel assessment, which wouldn’t be until the First Evolution, at Level 100 or higher.

The guild’s ranks were fairly straightforward and based on level, as well as demonstrated accomplishments to manage them. 

Copper was Levels 0-49, Bronze was 50-99, Steel was 100-199, and so on, with a new rank for each Evolution after that. The ranks were further divided into tiers by thirds, with Low, Mid, and High subranks, like Low Steel, Mid Steel, and High Steel. 

After Steel, it was Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, World, and then Star Rank, although he doubted he would be seeing any of those in the area.

World rank was for guilders at the Sixth Evolution, while Star Rank was reserved for Level 699 and higher, as well as for contributions that could no longer be calculated.

“If your vitality drops too low, if you’re knocked unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, or if you surrender,” the captain added, “the wards will end the assessment. Are you ready?”

“We can start whenever,” Kelin agreed as he walked forward to the starting position, about a quarter of the way into the room and at the center. 

She just nodded when she saw that she didn’t need to explain where it was.

“The assessment will start as soon as I touch the wall over there,” she said, pointing to a corner of the room that was separated off by a low stone wall. A series of runes on the wall there controlled the formation.

“We’ll start low,” she said, “at Level 10.” 

With that, she finished speaking and walked over to the command post, waiting for his signal.

“Go ahead,” he said, smiling once he saw that she was in place.

Then he turned to look at the end of the hall, his smile growing wide for the first time that day.

It was time to see what a Soulfire Warden could really do.