The royal capital.

Though he had heard the stories, the place didn’t smell as badly as it had been described to him, though there was certainly a bit of an odor. But that much was to be expected when one put so many people so close to one another. Especially when moving up through the outskirts of the capital, the stench of piss and shit could clearly be felt when passing by certain alleys. It was quite amazing to be in such a place, especially to someone who had never been here before in their life. Having grown up by the eastern shoreline of the forsaken region, the only thing he had known for the longest time was the outstretched ocean on one side and meadows and forests on the other. His life had more or less revolved around a fishing community that lived in small shacks near the beach, as one wouldn’t have much luck catching fish in the meadows.

So when he made his way into the city proper, one of the first things he saw was how a great deal of these people seemed to dress almost the same way as everyone else. How boring. Maybe it was because the people here could afford the current fashion that they all looked so much alike, but to Gawain, it just seemed plain boring. Those who had less money had to make due with what they had, often giving rise to some far more interesting choices in attire. It did however make it easier to see the magic knights that wandered about every so often, their coats or cloaks or however one might call those tiny pieces of cloth standing out quite a bit. Aside from the green mantis and black bulls, most of them had some pretty flashy color choices after all. Though when he thought about it, maybe that was exactly the point. Interesting.

Wandering about some more, there was some far more interesting talk going around, something about an archaeologist putting together a team of able-bodied individuals that would be able to aid her on a fact finding mission. The nobles he heard discussing it in the streets seemed to all be of the mindset that it was a most ideal endeavor for someone to make a name for themselves, as well as some money. Both of which seemed to be the kinds of things these people devoted their entire lives to. Gawain however enjoyed money for as far as he could spend it on whatever took his fancy at the time. Good food, a new pair of loafers to replace the old, maybe a new shirt or a warm bed to spend the night in at a local tavern or inn. In many ways, the lifestyle he had adopted was much like that of Griswold, but still different enough to the point where he had made it his own.

When he found a small square where the people had gathered, it appeared that this was where the archaeologist going by the name Illhiana had pitched a literal tent. Telling people that they had a few slots for more hands, if they believed they had what it took, Gawain was all ears. Claiming people should at the very least know some of what they were going to get into, she mentioned snakes, the area of the country they were headed into and the search for a lost temple, the white haired youth really only knew so much. In the places he ventured so far, there weren’t exactly a whole lot of snakes, or reptiles at that. In fact, much of that area was entirely unknown to him, which meant that if he was to take part in this whole undertaking, he would need to head into one of the most interesting yet boring places in the known world. The library.

With the grand archives arguably being the greatest collection of literary works in the country, Gawain wasn’t one hundred percent certain they would allow him in there. It was a place that was fairly well protected and used often by magic knights, so the quickest and safest way for him to get inside was with a member of one of those squads. And so, he made his way over to the entrance of the building. Once there, he would wait until he found one that he might be able to sneak on in with, preferably without them figuring out exactly what it was that he was up to.

Waiting some time before the first magic knight that wandered by actually made their way in, Gawain’s patience was eventually rewarded when a member of the azure deer approached. Casually strolling up and staying relatively close to her, he made it seem like he was being escorted in. Made it seem like he had no business not being in that place. Honestly, it wasn’t even that difficult, body language being one of those things dictating whether you’d make or break the façade. No sooner than after they made their way through the front door did he intend to slip away and find the place that housed any kind of information that seemed in any way useful to the whole undertaking ahead of him. If he was to be selected at all, that was. Not being one to doubt his own mental capabilities in the slightest, he followed the signs and let them guide his way across the archives. If he were the kind of person that could be lost in books all day, the place would likely have been even more impressive to him than it already was now. Though he could not let that distract him from his goals.

After a bit of looking around and familiarizing himself with the place, Gawain found himself in an area with the same woman he had more or less used to sneak in with. Not sure whether or not she had even noticed him or realized what he had done, he figured that there wasn’t much to be worried about. She was in no way an accomplice to him potentially breaking the rules of the archive, nor had she seen his face when they made their way into the building. Approaching as he would anyone else, the moment he picked a book that at least had a promising title, the woman began to speak to him. Listening closely without turning his head or responding straight away, he made it seem as though he was surprised that someone would speak to him in this place. Turning to face her direction with eyes wide open and a hand on his chest as if gesturing whether she was speaking to him or not, what came next was nothing other than the truth.

“Yes, quite right. I figured venturing out into the world and looking for a supposed lost serpent temple would be a lucrative way to spend my time. If we were to find something and live to tell the tale, we’d be rewarded for our efforts. More than that, I imagine we’d become wanted individuals among other renowned explorers, leading to more rewards in the future. A classic example of a win win!”

Seeing no reason not to be upfront about his own dealings and his reason for being here, especially since the two of them seemed to be after the same thing, it was the perfect way of seeing whether or not she had the stones for this kind of thing. Adventuring wasn’t for everyone, and not every magic knight who could cast spells would be up for this sort of undertaking. As someone who had never found a lost or forgotten temple or ruin aside from the one he had been led to by his former mentor, he imagined such places to be full of the kind of creatures one would not want to run into. More than that, it would likely be strewn with bodies and deathtraps in various shapes and sizes, making it unwise to just let anyone wander in regardless of how potent their magic was.

Using big spells with bigger destructive force was never a good idea when beneath the surface after all, as a cave-in was going to be just as fatal for a mage as it would be a bear or a dragon. That was when he reached for the outstretched hand and met it with a fairly firm shake.

“I’m Gawain, and I’d also like a chance to join her team, even though I might not be old enough.”

“Unfortunately, what little I’ve figured out so far won’t do either of us a whole lot of good. From what I can tell, there aren’t any mentions regarding any lost temples in that region… which checks out, as it’d hardly be a lost temple if it had already been found.”

He could tell just by scanning the covers of the books that there was nothing there that would be able to aid them, not really. They could open a bunch of books and read up on ancient Cloverian architecture, though all that would do was tell them the kind of interior they could expect. Nothing substantial would come out of this, though that much was something he had been aware of beforehand. At best, he had hoped to rule a bunch of things out before heading out and signing up, which was more or less what he had been doing since he entered into the archives. That, as well as marking a few titles in his mind to read at a later date. Records of certain historical events, interesting individuals of the past and present, the usual stuff one would do well to be aware of. But as for anything that could be of use to him right now, that much was simply not to be found here whatsoever.

“Snakes however, quite a bit. Turns out there are plenty of them, constrictors, vipers, serpents, though again, nothing that seems like it’ll be of any real use to us. Sure, it’d be a good thing to be able to differentiate between venomous vipers and large, bulky constrictors. But at the end of the day, the options remain the same: Don’t get close enough to get bit or strangled. Seems simple enough to me.”

And that it was. With animals, it was often as easy as not approaching them so they would not be able to bite, rake or maim you along with everything that entailed. Some vipers however seemed to be able to spit venom as well as inject it through their fangs, which meant that some additional caution was of importance. Apparently aiming for the eyes in an attempt at blinding someone, often permanently, losing his sight was not very high on his bucket list. Still, there wasn’t a whole lot about this whole thing that sounded in any way scary to him. Honestly, it sounded interesting to him. Interesting because it would allow him to do things he had never done before, not willingly at least: explore. Exploration had been a part of his former life, however short that one might have been. Though that means of exploration had been performed for the sake of finding new places to raid and pillage, not for the furthering of knowledge for the sake of knowledge.

In a way, it was almost sad that not more individuals sought knowledge for the sake of it. Not even he himself did. He was more clever than that. If there were more things to be gained from a single endeavor, settling for just the one thing was silly and small minded. No, if there was money and renowned to be gained along with the knowledge they sought to find, not taking everything that could be gained was foolish.


WC: 546
Total WC: 1972

“Hmm... interesting. The last time I entered a lake, I was attacked by a foul bunch of witch-trained monstrosities trying to drown me or bleed me dry, whichever came first. I honestly would have preferred snakes.”

Sharing just a little bit of one of his recent adventures that had taken him into the forest of witches, the Grindylow that had swarmed him could have killed lesser men. But Gawain wasn’t lesser, nor was he a man. He was still just a teenage boy, though he was not to be underestimated based on age and height alone. The whole ordeal had been a rather bothersome one, as the creatures had come upon him mostly unexpected, for as far as that was possible these days. Thanks to his training and understanding of Ki, it took someone or something special to truly be able to sneak up on him when he had his guard up. Hell, even when he had his guard down, the same remained true. But that much was to be expected of someone his age who had lived through the sheer amount of strife and misfortune he had. But for all of that, he had managed to come out strong in mind, body and spirit, all things that made his life a lot easier at this point in time.

“But your request does make a lot of sense. If they’re looking for a crew, I imagine they would sooner take two people that have some form of prior affiliation over a rag-tag bunch of rando’s that have never seen one another before in their lives.”

It was true what he said, at least for the most part. If the two of them had any prior records of teamwork in some way or shape, like having some sort of a receipt of a job well done, it might have held a bit more weight. But since they didn’t have that, as the two literally just met, he wondered just how much of it was going to hold up in practice. Given what he knew, he had a bit of experience as an explorer, what with having been in and out of the witches forest, having spent several years on the skjaergardian archipelago and having been all over the land of Clover and the basin of Aristaeus. In that respect, he didn’t exactly fear not being picked. What might become an issue was his age, though he hoped a renowned explorer and archaeologist would be able to look past that and see him for what he was: a gift from the heavens.

“That said, I doubt we’d find any useful information regarding the things were looking for here, let alone any we haven’t already figured out on our own.”

With that said, there really wasn’t a whole lot left that needed discussing. They established that nothing here would really be aiding them in their search, what little they needed to know about snakes and serpents was really already present in their minds before they even came here, and since they had decided to do a team up, staying here any longer wasn’t entirely beneficial to either of them. While part of him still wanted to browse through the place and see if he could land his eyes on some more interesting books for his own devices, he imagined that since he got into this place once before, he could just get himself back in again at some later time. What mattered now was securing a spot on the team of this Vones character and her archaeologic expedition. Once the magic knight was ready to head on out, he’d allow her to lead the way as he’d just follow behind her towards where Vones was at at this time.



WC: 627
Total WC: 2599

“I’m not entirely sure if that’s the best thing to do. If we go in asking a lot of questions, they may consider us a bunch of amateurs. And I can’t speak for the both of us here, but I’ve actually seen my fair share of dungeons, as well as a good chunk of a rather hostile archipelago. Thing is, I’m fifteen, which might become an issue for me.”

Not so much hiding the fact that he hadn’t been a Cloverian for his entire life, but had also spent some time on another island, he did press the fact that the woman looking to hire more hands might consider them to be unworthy. Maybe if they asked nicely, she might take them on as beasts of burden so they wouldn’t need to load up the donkeys too heavily. But all jokes aside, Gawain imagined that asking directly would eventually end up working against them, so he chose to disregard that entirely. They needed to get in another way, which would perhaps work best if they mixed in the truth with a couple of white lies. With lying being one of the things he had gotten rather good at after his return from Skjaergard and becoming a citizen of Clover again, he had come to find that the best lies had a solid foundation based in truth.

If Amy would be willing to share some of her past activities as a magic knight with him, depending on how much work she had done that might be fitting with the current job description, he might be able to spin a tale that might make taking the both of them on for the task more enticing. Because if she had no prior experience with exploration, he’d just make it sound like the things he had done had been done together. Why would he bother doing that? Honestly, he wasn’t all too sure himself. But in a land like Clover, it couldn’t hurt having some friends here and there. This was especially true within the magic knights, as they were essentially the enforcers of the law and the protectors of the realm. With that thought in mind, going somewhere to sit down, eat, drink and have a discussion about how best to go about it, as it would allow him to hear whatever it was that she might be able to tell him so that he might come up with the best solution.

“Alright, I’m on board with that. If you know a place we could go, lead the way and I’ll follow. Also I’m broke.”

Slipping in the fact that he had no money to speak of right now, the life of an unaffiliated explorer such as himself meant that there were a good amount of times where he was just flat out broke. This meant that he had to venture out into the wilds to forage nuts and berries, hunt an animal here and there in case the hunger really started setting in, or in the worst case scenario, had to steal from others so as to not die in a ditch somewhere. It was funny how even someone his age who had already managed to climb to the level he was at right now was still choosing to be bound by the laws of the country to some extent, and how he might actually starve at some point if he chose to keep abiding by them. It was either that or become a magic knight, as those guys seemed to earn a ton of money by just sitting on their asses while looking at a wall and calling it work.



WC: 609
Total WC: 3208

Arriving at the coffee shop, Gawain didn’t bother with the actual coffee. Something about the bitterness never really resonated with him, though the same could be said about tea. Perhaps it just meant that hot beverages were wasted on him. But while the woman explained her reasons for exploration, one of the things she mentions was the fact that she was a witch. While stuffing his face with one pastry after the other, he listened to the stories while thinking about how he had never met an actual witch before this point. He had been to the outskirts of their forest for the sake of finding some rather specific herbs needed to create an antidote to vampirism, but he had never seen what the actual inner forest was like. Before everything that had transpired, the witches had been rather closed off and didn’t allow outsiders in, least of all men.

But now that the reigning witch queen had shown herself as being a demon in disguise, the forest itself had been invested by her kind, meaning any witch that got out before that time could count themselves lucky. Though even as he pondered on that much, the stories of diving in a place he would more than likely never get to see in his lifetime was quite magnificent. The fish, the serpents and their glistening scales, it sounded like the kind of thing he might enjoy seeing, even if only once. Not being much of a fan himself, it seemed that Amy was quite into snakes herself, which seemed like one of the reasons as to why she had put herself forward as being one of the members taking part in this expedition. Truth be told, the only reasons he had for joining were rather simple. He wanted to see if there was anything fun that they might uncover.

More than that, he wanted to know if there was anything interesting there that he might get to test his skills against. Perhaps more importantly, he wanted the reputation that came with being an accomplished explorer, as one well executed job might lead into another, and then another. And finally, he wanted the pay. Because where Amy was a magic knight that received money on a monthly basis just for being alive, he only got paid when he managed to complete the odd jobs he was being charged with. Gobbling away at yet another pastry, he thought about ways in which he might incorporate what he had heard here into a coherent story that might make the two of them more attractive to take on as a pair as opposed to being picked and chosen on an individual basis.

“Thank you for sharing that much with me, it helps me understand why you’d want to go out exploring even though you’re a magic knight. If I may be so bold as to ask, I’d request that you’d let me do the talking when we meet miss Vhones. I’m quite confident I’ll be able to let her take us on.”

That said, he imagined the next best thing to do right now was to just keep eating his fill so as to get his energy levels up as high as possible. Once they got picked by the female archaeologist, which he was rather confident she would, having his batteries filled to the brim was going to help him in expending as much energy and mana as he wanted, as much as he had. So if it did come down to them having to work hard for the sake of protecting the expedition team from threats, he at least could say that he was ready. Now all that remained was to wait for the best time to meet with their soon-to-be benefactor.



WC: 629
Total WC: 3837

End of Thread