Billie and Zoey continued down the path, encountering no other humans until they reached what looked to be a large city, easily five times larger than Greenwater.
"Wow," Billie grimaced as she looked at the crumbling city before smelling rotting meat and sickness. What a…" She failed to think of something nice and tired again. "It's very…It has a nice…no," Billie frowned before shaking her head. "Oh, this is gonna be something," she decided as the two approached the entrance. Nothing prevented them from entering.
"Hmm," Billie looked around and could tell that there were no monsters in sight, "Zoey, what do you think of this city?"
"It smells like sick," she said, her nose scrunching hard at the air's smell.
"Yeah," Billie groaned. "Belin made this nation sound nice. It's possible we found the wrong road." Her suspicions were confirmed when they saw one of the city guards wearing an identical suit to the one she had seen on the man attempting to take over Greenwater.
"Seems we followed the road in the wrong direction," Billie held her hand to her face with a groan, "I suppose in retrospect we should have left from Greenwater instead of trying to go out on our own,"
"What should we do?" Zoey asked as she looked around.
"We should ask for directions to Greenwater, check how things are doing, then head off to do our mission and see what the other nation is like," Billie looked around before adding, "Maybe I should ask for some names, calling them by their kings and the word nation is starting to feel mindless,"
With scarcely any Information Billie and Zoey looked around the city as they attempted to find a place they could obtain information from and, thanks to her discovery that Universal Translation also worked on writing, Billie was able to direct them to the local adventurers guild.
There was only one person in the guild. At first glance, she assumed they were either low on requests or that this area was for clients only. Billie walked to the commission's counter, where the building's only resident was a woman reading a book. Bland weapons and old, chipped armor pieces surrounded the counter in a little display area.
"Hello," Billie waved with her free hand, giving an exhausted-looking smile. The woman behind the counter gave her a half glance and then returned to her book.
"Whatever you're after, you probably can't afford it," She said casually. "But feel free to ask; I'm required to hear out all clients until they fail to provide coin,"
"Well, what kind of currency do you accept?" Billie asked politely.
"Coin, preferably made of metal and not plastic." The tone of her voice told Billie that the speech wasn't personal; it was very obviously rehearsed. Billie reached into her inventory, pulled out a gold coin from her time in the game, and presented it to the woman. One side had two snakes wrapped around a Juniper tree, and the other side depicted the full moon with its left side partially hidden behind a mountain.
"Are these coins acceptable," The Woman raised her right hand.
"Appraisal," A ring around her finger began glowing green.
"100% Pure gold coin," a female voice declared.
"Hu, teach me to judge based on appearance," without looking up from her book, she began listing the basic price, "a 100% pure golden coin is worth double the standard currency so that coin is worth two coins if you have more then feel free to make a request,"
"I would like to be taken to the town of Greenwater, then to the next nation over,"
" Travel from Irenfell to Ozama will cost you 13 pure gold coins," The Woman replied simply. A pit stop in Greenwater is up to you and won't cost extra. Please give your name when you pay." Billie produced the required gold and her current alias. The woman held her hand up, and a circle appeared around the gold. With a dim flash, a letter replaced it.
"Please take a seat," She said, motioning to a set of chairs. "Please note the gold you have paid is for the guild to post your request; adventurers of rank five and up are allowed to ask to be paid extra to take the job; six and below are not,"
Billie and Zoey were about to take a seat when Billie saw something that caught her eye. Sitting among the poorly cared-for weapons and armor well past their prime was a single beautifully crafted katana, its blade finely tempered and impressively well-kept. It had a dragon's head engraved onto the end of its hilt with ruby eyes; it had a leather grip and gold trimming running along the handle; next to the blade was its sheath, which also presented a gold trimming shaped like a Chinese dragon.
"What a marvelous sword!" Billie said in awe, her long history of hoarding weapons in the game based purely on how they looked swelling up within her. She could already see the sword hanging in the hallway of the second floor, the place where she had made custom rooms for all her NPCs. The woman behind the counter looked over and then returned to her book.
"That sword was reposed when a guild member failed to pay his tab for three consecutive months; its price is…" The Woman was silent momentarily before deciding, "Seventy-four of your gold coins." Billie could tell she was being taken advantage of, but she didn't hesitate to produce the gold. The Woman took the coin and put the sword in its sheath before handing it to Billie, who happily took it.
"I am quite sure we could find our way to Greenwater," Zoey said confidently.
"Well yeah, we just go the other way down the road," Billie replied as she put her new blade into her inventory, "But now I know this place is called Irenfell, that our destination is Ozama. Furthermore, I now know our coin is worth double here," Billie smiled, "Also, these adventures should prove a basis for you; if we get into a fight, I want you to try and lower yourself to their level,"
"I understand," Zoey said with a sparkle in her eyes. And I am sorry for questioning your information-gathering skills." Billie waved her off when she saw the Woman from the counter walking up to them.
"A group of Level Seven Adventures would like to take your request; I am required to inform you that the group in question has failed several missions in the past and have assaulted more than a few of their clients,"
"How comforting," Billie shrugged, "I'll accept them regardless,"
"Very well," the Woman walked back to her counter and Both Bree and Zoey waited for the Adventurs to arrive.