Horizon Odyssey, Chapter 1, A hopeful fresh start

[Rothene]

"Ah, warpstones. Explorers can never get enough of them. Unfortunately due to low supplies, the price of a warpstone is strictly a hundred En. But, as a newcomer there is..." lowering her voice, "an unannounced promotion of elemental jars given to fledgling guild explorers. We limit it to one per guild. Just make sure you take a jar from the shelf," Sui pointed at the small three row shelf with about a dozen red, blue and yellow jars in total, "and purchase it with the warpstone, it'll be free of charge. Don't mention out loud or tell anyone of this promotion."

***

"Well, you came just at the right time. Aaron here was just about to set off to grab some supplies. You can accompany him to help with the selection of..." Robin was cut off mid sentence with Ihsan's quick return, "...now that was quick." And those do look like map tools, could she have had them tucked inside her clothes all this while?

With a surprised tone, Robin spoke to Ihsan, "Wow, that was pretty darn fast. Are you up for another trip to purchase goods?"

[FrankerZ]

"Much appreciated." Victor beamed. He took a small red jar and placed it on the counter along with 100 en. "This and one warpstone please."

Recalling what he had heard the keeper say, the price of the map bundle was 120 en. Ishan only received 100 en... The gears turning in his head, Victor tried to envision every practical scenario. Best case Scenario Ishan managed to haggle or use some pocket money to get it...Worst case scenario, Ishan pocketed all the money. Everything in between ranged from her stealing to buying shoddy equipment. 'The negatives outweight the goods...' He thought. 'Prepare for the worst and hope for the best...' If she had pocketed the money or purchased less than desireable goods, Victor was confident he could scare her straight if they wandered about the labyrinth lost for a while. But, if the stores sold out of map materials, who knows how long it will be before they get a new shipment? No, he had already arrived to the scene over two months late, he couldn't afford anymore delays. Every second that passed was a second ahead countless other guilds were to finding whatever be at the labyrinth's heart.

"Actually... I'm having second thoughts about that map... I lack the funds on me right now nor do I know if we'll need spare parts at the time. What say you this? I can pay you 30 en to hold a map kit for a day or two, and if it is deemed a necessity we need replacements, I will come back and purchase the materials at full price, totaling 150 en for your time plus goods. And if I don't, well you can still sell the map to any other guild."

[CD-Man2021]

Emile De Escalade. The name stuck out in some outer recess of Aaron’s mind. He had read about it somewhere. It was just about to come to him when Ihsan returned. How long was she out? Surely it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, could it? He wished he had some form of time keeping like Victor’s pocket watch, but he would have to make due with nothing. More surprising still was the fact that the dancer had brought back the map supplies they needed. Ihsan had asked for the newcomer’s name when it struck Aaron.

“Emile De Escalade…Duc De Tempest.” He repeated before taking a step back in surprise. “Wait, seriously? From the kingdom of Albis? Why is a duchess joining a guild to enter the labyrinth?” Aaron didn’t hide his shock. He was, after all, a simple farmhand from an unheard of village that wasn’t even a blimp on the map. He wasn’t prepared to encounter any form of blue-bloods during his time in Horizon, let alone join a guild with one. Was something like this normal? Should he bow? Will he have to every time she entered the room? She wasn’t dressed as a noblewoman, did she not want to be acknowledged as one? Aaron’s mind raced with questions that didn’t have any answers.

[Rothene]

Sui paused for a moment upon hearing Victor's suggestion, then decided it was not her call to accept the money. Calling her boss, and explaining everything in detail as soon as he arrived, Chen nodded.

Addressing his customer, Chen said while noting down in a record book this extra scenario of the day, "That is acceptable. We will hold it for up to two days. By the third day, we pocket the money and the tools will be up for grabs. Which guild are you from and your name please?"

***

Hearing Aaron's sudden burst of information, Robin scratched his head. He did not realise he was dealing with a noblewoman. And I rather it had stayed that way for a while. Despite the knowledge, the guild master did not see fit to start being formal. Unless the noble actually tries to buy off his guild, he was the one who decides how formally he wants to run the guild.

The lack of any nearby retainers or herald told him that this noblewoman was perhaps not the type who wanted to flaunt her status. No, she probably wants to be treated equally like everyone else, a fellow explorer I hope.

Clearing his throat, Robin stated flatly, "There is nothing strange about young nobles being part of explorer guilds. Heck, they sometimes bring in more weight than others by funding explorations. I know of a guild or two with nobles in their ranks. They have some really nice starting capital. Not sure if they are still active anymore or not."

[FrankerZ]

"Much obliged." he said with a small bow "I am Victor Avary and the guild is ITL." Completing the transaction, Victor bid the shopaid farewell. There was 70 en left. Thinking it wise to use whatever was left on medical supplies. As he turned to leave with the items, he was startled to find Reo standing behind him.

"Oh, Reo... I didn't notice you come in." He said rather surprized. "Anyways, now that we have a warpstone, I think it would be most wise to go use the remainder on a few more medicas." He was still slightly unnerved by her threat not even fifteen minutes ago, but the ronin was infinity more tolerable to be around when she wasn't exuding an air of hostility. "If you'd like to come I don't mind, but I'm by no means obligating you to stay." He said thinking it would be the courteous thing to do. Referring to the talk on their way here, he continued: "Afterall, we did get the 'important' part finished..."

[Skele Von Mann]

Emile winced at the realization that she accidentally spoke out her full title. She shrugged this immediately however. It was bound to pop up eventually, and might as well do it at the very start. She turned towards Aaron to respond to his question. "Because the military got licked like all the others, the nobles are too busy getting fat, and the guards are a bunch of lazy arses. Might as well do something before the whole kingdom crumbles from all these damn quakes". There were a lot more reasons to her coming on impulse, but the rest felt a bit too personal to share, even for her.

Turning back towards Robin, she responded to his comment. "Yeeah, don't think I'll be able to provide any "extra capital"; I'm out of my seat of power, so everything temporarily belongs to a regent unless I go back." The regent could provide help she supposed, but considering said regent being her sister..."Anyway, what were you saying about buying stuff?"

[Rothene]

"Aww, that's a too bad, anyway, here is a badge to signify your status as a guild explorer," Robin said handing over a guild badge to his newest recruit, somewhat relieved that he would not need to worry about his guild being potential bought out by the sheer Ental nobles can bring. "Regarding the matter of buying stuff, Aaron was about to head out to purchase some supplies and maybe some equipment too. One can never be too prepared for the labyrinth afterall."

Returning to the desk with his fifth guild sign up, the guild master smiled as the current head count of guild members have reached the optimal number of a party. At this rate, they could start venturing into the Labyrinth the next morning. Then he promptly placed the guns on his desk, fairly certain that they would be returned to the owner soon enough to not warrant putting it in the store room.

With all those steps performed, Robin sat at his desk and began filling in his guild book entry on the guild members and preparing a written report to the councilman in charge of guild activities that ITL has enough recruits to begin safely venturing to the labyrinth and that their badge purpose as labyrinth entrance passes is now active effectively.

[Riseatrance]

Reo yawned and shrugged.

"OK, I'll leave you be, then. I don't want to be a bother or a nuisance. See you later." he nodded off and left Victor to his own devices, soon making his way back to the guild halls of ITL, where he returned to see an unfamiliar face and Robin doing some drat goddarned paper work again. Reo figured he might have to ask Robin or someone for some lessons in good ol' Latinized writing, because all these words didn't seem to mean very much to Reo. His stilted manner of speech for the most part were retained from his original language, and he seemed to be picking up colloquialisms only from his interactions here. Reo felt for the most part he would be learning a lot of new things, and thought Well, I'll take it. The ronin, now back at the halls, yawned and stretched in place as he looked for Robin.

"Warp stone... is secured."

[CD-Man2021]

"Oh, uh yeah." Aaron said, still slightly off balanced. "Everyone else is focusing on getting a warp stone and medica. We already have the materials for a map thanks to Ihsan here. I was mostly going to go off to search for a wand or staff considering I’m empty handed at the moment.” He brought up his gloved hand and wiggled his fingers. “In a matter of speaking, anyway.” He closed his hands, still unsure of how to act. He stayed silent for a few seconds before finally clearing his throat. “Right then. I’ll just be off before everyone else arrives.” Aaron was about to make his way to the door when Reo entered, expressing their success in getting a warp stone. So much for that. He excused himself again and headed outside. Some fresh air would clear his head right up.

[FrankerZ]

Victor let out a sigh. He wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or concerned now that Reo was gone. Since the ronin wasn't with him, Victor was far more at ease but at the same time, he wasn't positive on what Reo was doing or if she had actually returned. Reo attempting to tell anybody of his plans was hardly worth fretting over, afterall he hadn't done anything yet... But being unarmed, Reo attempting something was certainly a worrying prospect. 'Hopefully she'll be true to her word about taking no action yet...'

Victor pulled out the map of Horizion once more and began heading his way down to the clinic. Luckily it wasn't too far from where he was; getting the medica would only take him fifteen minutes at the most. Walking briskly, he made his way to the clinic and entered.

[Rothene]

The clinic was filled with a mixture or explorers and soldiers seated, waiting to be called in and be treated. The recent push for a new floor in the labyrinth made explorers more reckless for the day. Which meant more accidental occasions where a human concentration of more than five in one area triggered aggressive monster activity. Today was a bad day in the labyrinth.

Noticing Victor, and how healthy he looked, the apprentice medics continued tending to the various injured people without bothering the gunner. Even Zoey only spared him a short glance from her paperwork. The clinic only sold their medical supplies in limited stock to explorers who ask for it out of legal obligation. Saving lives right before them was a higher priority.

[FrankerZ]

The clinic was busy. There were at least a dozen people in the waiting area with minor injuries ("minor" meaning they weren't fatal wounds). Knowing this fifteen minute endevour just got a lot longer, Victor took a seat next to a young adventurer with a cast on his arm. Quickly scanning the room, Victor noticed the majority of those waiting seemed to be novices, all of which were swapping stories. There were at least 3 people claiming their party was attacked by a fifteen-foot monster, others telling tales of how their party fought off a thousand venomflies, another person claiming he single handedly dueled with a dragon... All these stories amused him. It wasn't all that long ago that Victor was in a similar situation; trying to turn a story about a careless mistake into an epoch fit for a troubadour's tale. Despite being the place where every adventurer dreaded to be, everyone seemed to be in high spirits.

"You're a new face... I haven't seen you here before." Said the young man sitting next to Victor.

"Oh? Do you come here often? I'm just here to get some medicine." Victor said half mockingly.

"You could say that... this is I think my sixth time this month. Heh, I've got a bad habbit of pushing myself too hard in the labyrinth. But today, I'm not here because of a personal injury." The man said half halfheartedly.

"Let me guess, you're here for a friend then? Or maybe this place is starting to grow on ya?" He said again.

"That transparent huh? Yeah. I'm here to see one of my guild mates, she's supposed to be getting out today. Ha... I bet you're wondering what happened to her. She's one crazy bitch... she managed to poison herself testing out some sort of experimental medicine she made. Don't get me wrong, she's saved all of my party's lives a number of times... But she's kinda nuts. I mean one second she's preparing a salve for us all and the next she's dissecting a monster's corpse mid battle. 'For science' she says..."

'There's only one person that could be...' Victor thought to himself. There was no doubt in his mind that this girl was Clorette, one of his five "real" guild members. "She sounds like a tough girl. She'll pull through."

"Aw man, you have no idea! As she was on the ground dieing, she just starts mixing herbs that haven't even been identified with our medica. I don't know how she did it, but it kept her alive long enough to be brought here. I've never even heard of somebody doing that! She even claims she hasn't even had any formal medical training... She's just unreal."

"I wouldn't doubt that, not one bit..." he said trailing off. That sounded exactly like something Clorette would do. "Well, since you say you've been in here a lot, could you tell me if it's always this crowded?"

"There's always a few people in here, but this is the most crowded I've seen it. Rumors are saying that some guilds are getting close to a new level in the labyrinth."

"Forgive me, but I don't put a whole lot of stock in baseless rumors..." Victor said, skeptical of the man's information.

"Well would you believe me if I said I'm in one of the guild's that are closing in on the next floor? And it's all thanks to that girl I was talking about too." The man bragged.

"I'd be a little more inclined to believe you if you'd say that." Victor replied. The man confirming that it was thanks to Clorette definitely made it more believable. "I actually just got into town and joined a guild today, you mentioned there was more than one guild competing for this new floor? And I don't suppose you could give me any tips on the labyrinth?"

"Hahaha, here I was thinking I was the newbie. I can't really tell you anything about the labyrinth, -team leader is really strict about that. Sorry. But, I can tell ya a little bit about who's competing for what. The guild I'm in is called 'Marks' and we're competing with the guilds 'Sol' and 'Gear'. I've met a few members of our rival guilds... They've got people equally as impressive as our medic. But I tell ya, Marks will be the first to reach that next floor! Oh, my name's Braid. What's yours stranger?"

Victor introduced himself and the two continued talking as Victor patiently waited for his turn to order some medicine.

[Rothene]

As the the influx of injured people dwindled, Victor's turn came up and he was called over by the bored tone of Zoey. It was approaching noon, and that meant her shift was almost up.

When the gunner reached her, the girl asked, "I suppose you're here to purchase medical supplies explorer?" Behind the counter were the labels of twenty en for a medica and thirty en for the various individual status remedies, such as antidotes, stimulants, nerve relaxers. There was an entry for nectars but it was labeled as sold out where a price tag of two hundred en was covered.

[CD-Man2021]

“Though alchemists can have the chemical reactions occur without any outside help besides the glove, having something to latch on to while performing them can greatly increase their size, force, and overall power. For this reason, many alchemists choose to carry staves or wands to use as a focal point. Simple sticks will do in case of an emergency, however they will quickly disintegrate as they are not suited for dealing with the massive surge of energy. Depending on the quality of the weapon, it may eventually begin to break down as well. The difference between a staff and a wand is minimal at best, and is mostly down to personal choice. A staff allows the user to use both hands at once to unleash more powerful spells, as well as assisting one in walking dangerous paths. However wands are better suited for those who prefer to save chemicals and use one glove’s supply at a time, or even those with only a single glove.”
-Ruckus’ journal

It was a brisk walk to the North wing of the city. Aaron still found himself enjoying the bustling lifestyles that surrounded him, being much more accustomed to the quiet life of tending to cows and crops. He checked his pockets again and for the first time pulled out the en given to him by the blacksmith earlier that day. It totaled to 120. That seemed like a lot to just give away, but maybe even the blacksmith had just grabbed a random amount of coins to give. At any rate, he was confident he would be able to find a decent wand for that price without having to resort to using the guild’s funds. The young alchemist saw many stores offering weapons, but they all appeared to be far too crowded for his tastes. Eventually he found one that seemed specialized for alchemists and walked in. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as crowded as the other stores were. In fact, there were very few people shopping there, and those that were seemed to be more interested in reading large tomes that were lined against the wall. He made his way to an employee--a girl with a brown ponytail--and smiled.
“Hello.” He said getting her attention. “Ah, yes hi. I’m interested in purchasing a wand? What would you recommend for a beginner alchemist such as myself?”

[FrankerZ]

"Well, it was nice chatting with you. Give your medic my regards." Victor bid the young man farewell as Braid returned to his seat in the waiting area.

Quickly looking over the selection, Victor tried ti anticipate what would be most useful in the first few floors. Medicas were a necessity, he was certain of that, but the more specialized remedies he wasn't sure on. He'd have liked to have a dose of nectar or two but they were sold out. Knowing he was holding up the line, he quickly settled on buying an antidote. "Yes, I'll take two medica and an anti-poison." he said as he placed the items on the counter. The total cost was 70 en, and that was luckily the exact amount he had left. He thanked the clerk as he purchased the medicine and left. He hoped he that every trip here would go like this, him just buying medicine and not being a patient.

With the warpstone and supplies in tow, he started making his way back to the guildhall. The entire way, he was thinking. He was thinking on how he would best go about obtaining his goal, becoming a hero with his 'real' guild. From how the adventurer described who Victor believed to be Clorette, she seemed to have assumed control in having a leadership role in the group. That would be the preferable approach for Victor... but that would require him being a unifying force. With a character as volatile as Reo, that may prove difficult. The Ishan girl seemed like she would be a challenge for Victor to win over aswell. The alchemist boy however, Victor convinced himself that he would have little difficulty winning him over, but the other two there was no easy solution.

He hadn't even made it out of the west wing when he noticed Aaron entering a weapon store. 'Heh. Gotta start somewhere...' he thought to himself. Getting Aaron on his side would certainly be a step to becoming a unifying force... Victor sat on a bench across the street and waited for Aaron to come out.