The Ship Seems to be Powered by an Ancient Relic
「So this is the port town.」
The day after I earned enough money to get to the royal capital.
Not wasting any time in getting there, I immediately made my way to the port town of Minatan which was about a five-hour travel from Elia. It was a peaceful journey with no incidents whatsoever.
The entrance to the town was elevated, giving a good view of the entire place. Three ships were anchored at the docks with countless smaller boats. One of those ships was probably the one used for travelling between the continents.
「I want a general ticket for the ship bound for the capital. Where do I buy one?」
「You can buy one at the Maxia trading company, but it costs a fortune.」
「If I remember correctly, it costs three million gils, right?」
It was a lot of money, but I managed to get it. If for some reason it cost ten million, then I’d have to go back to Elia to earn some more again.
「Yeah, something like that.」
「I’ll head there, then. Thanks.」
I guess Teresa was right, I thought as I made my way to Maxia.
◇
「…Damn.」
The Maxia trading company’s office was huge. This was my first time seeing a five-story building in this world. I headed inside. As soon as I stepped into the building, I spotted a fancy-looking counter right by the entrance labelled “Royal Capital Ferry Ticket Window” . It was going on a luxurious ferry which you’d have to pay three million gils just to get on board—save for noble’s attendants and the guild’s top brass—so it only made sense that the ticket window was fancy as well. Am I allowed to be here? Me, an F-ranked adventurer?
I spoke to the man standing by the window.
「I want to get on the ship.」
「Do you have letter of introduction?」
「I don’t.」
「Then you’ll have to pay for the general ticket which costs three million gils. Do you have the money, Sir?」 the man asked.
He was polite even to an adventurer which showed that the company was thorough in training their staff. But he wore an expression that seemed to assume I didn’t have the money. It was certainly hard to believe that an adventurer who was barely equipped would have three million gils with him. It would be quicker if I just showed him.
「Will this cover it?」I asked, showing him three platinum coins.
In that exact moment, he bowed deeply in a ninety-degree angle.
「Yes, Sir. Are you perhaps a famous adventurer?」
「Not at all. The exact opposite, in fact.」
「That’s a good one, Sir. How soon do you want to depart?」
I wasn’t even joking, though. My rank was still F, the lowest. Apparently I would’ve been rank E by now if I actually accepted the Army Spear Mouse kill quest.
No matter. I can rank up when I really need it. I’m not really having any trouble being rank F at the moment.
「The sooner, the better.」
「The earliest trip leaves in thirty minutes. You have to get on board immediately if you want to make it. Would that be all right, Sir?」
「Yeah. 」
I actually wanted to check out the town a bit but it doesn’t hurt to get to the capital as soon as possible. After all, I won’t get anywhere unless I change job classes first.
Right now, being attacked by a group of Army Spear Mice was enough to leave me covered in wounds and bruises, but once I change class, one magic attack should be enough to blow those mice away. There’s just that much difference before and after changing jobs.
For some reason, monsters that can be taken down by a Novice were classified as rank C. I have a rough idea now though why weaker monsters were treated as strong, and that reason was simple. The people of this world simply didn’t know how to fight; they’d lost to weak monsters even. There was no way they would know how to properly engage in combat when they had no idea how to use Self Cure or land critical hits.
Despite that, they still survived. That just goes to show how weak the monsters in this world are. What a peaceful world. Still, there could be powerful A and B rank monsters.
「Please come with me, Sir. We don’t have much time before the ship departs, so we must make haste.」
As I was thinking about monsters, a guide came to lead me to the ship. Service sure was different when you board a ship that cost three million gils for a ticket.
「There’s ten minutes left before departure. Have a nice trip, Sir.」
The guide left as we arrived at my cabin. On my desk was a brochure for the trip.
Apparently the whole cruise will take three hours. The ship uses an ancient relic called a Water Ferry Gem to obtain high speeds and stability not found in normal ferries.
Ancient relic, huh? Now that sounds exciting.
「Guess I’ll have a look.」
Passengers could apparently go see the stone themselves. I didn’t have anything better to do for the entire trip so I might as well check it out.
I went up to the deck and saw a large magic stone of sorts attached to the huge mast. A magic gem is a stone which only a few monsters possess and it has an incredible amount of magic stored inside. In BBO, it was used for creating magic tools, so it was traded at high prices. Then again, I wasn’t entirely sure that the Water Ferry Stone was indeed a magic gem.
Was it really all right to put an important relic in a place with poor security? The stone would fall off if the mast broke. It would be a lot safer in a heavily-secured cabin.
「Is something the matter, Sir?」a sailor asked me.
The sight of a lone guy staring at the gem seemed to have caught his attention.
「There’s something bugging me. Why is the Ferry Stone in a place with poor security?」
「Oh, that. We actually get asked that a lot. The stone has to be attached there or it wouldn’t work properly.」
I see. Sounds like ancient relics are not so easy to use. There should be nothing to worry about since the mast is made out of thick wood.
「Thanks.」I said as I turned to return to my cabin.
On my way back I spotted a few people—a young lady in lavish attire and two girls who appeared to be her subordinates—on the deck surrounding a table with dejected expressions on their faces.
「We failed again…」
「Maybe we were too early?」
「That cannot be right. The recipe says to make it between 5pm and 7pm.」
Judging from what I heard, they were trying to brew a potion. I glanced at the table with herbs scattered on top of it. Those were apparently the ingredients they needed to make the potion.
Red spirit’s flower, vitality berries, and green corals…
「Pale Green Spirit Potion…」
It was sometimes a quest item in BBO. I knew what they were making right away. After all, there was only one kind of potion that required green corals as ingredients and a specific time of the day to brew it.
It wasn’t particularly difficult to brew so they should be able to do it by themselves, I thought as I made my way back to my cabin before a voice stopped me.