"There is no ruin in the Sherefiah basin. But I caught wind of some disturbing rumors from mercenary mages. Apparently there is a weird energy accumulating in that area. They don't know what that could mean though."
It was definitely disturbing.
Why was there no ruin in the Sherefiah basin?
Instead, at least three more ruins emerged in Damai where they did not appear at all back in the reality I knew.
This weird energy Jeanine mentioned. We could probably figure the phenomenon out if we went there.
But Sherefiah basin took two weeks and a half to reach on horseback from Seraphold.
From the duration of our exploration mission at the moment, we would not make it even a quarter of the way.
It would only take half an hour flight with a slow airship. Though how we would get an airship was beyond me.
The landing port in Seraphold did not serve one of those rare commercial flights.
Even if it did, we could not afford it with the money we had, nor we could make the ship fly to the basin since they only fly from one port to another.
In any case, Sherefiah basin was not something we could deal with at the moment, but should not be ignored either.
We would deal with it later once the chance presented itself.
"What do you think it is? Should I worry about this rumor?"
Jeanine asked anxiously.
She knew I was a mage who probably would know what to make of the weird energy.
"I'm not sure, Miss Caramille. But I would suggest you avoid the place for the time being."
I told her.
The merchant let out a grunt. It was uncharacteristic of her to be shaken in this manner.
"First the invasions, now this. I got a Serpent Festival coming up. Prince Marua is meant to visit and commence the celebration. Goddesses knows how rare those royalties come to the Zeref's neutral domain. Lots of people will come to the city to see him. New customers and potential connections! What if the visitation is cancelled because of this rumor?"
That was right.
The Loro invasion did take place sometime before the Serpent Festival.
If I remembered correctly, due to the fall of Loro, the emperor did not allow the royalties to visit the cities during that year.
Since Loro was saved and no words of Prince Marua cancelling his visitation, I supposed the emperor had decided not to forbade the visitations after all.
But I was uncertain how the rumor of Sherefiah basin would affect things.
If the same weird energy occurred in place of the ancient ruins of my reality, there would be many hotspots emerging all across the continent.
The Tower of Circle would definitely notice them and raised an alarm of some kind.
Still, I would not be able to know how everything would develop given I would return to the lobby soon.
Jeanine would have to deal with it as things went.
After paying the remaining two coins I promised, Jonah and I left the anxious Jeanine with the trunks of maps safe in our hands.
I had made clear to my comrades this morning that we would return to the inn as soon as we were done getting what we set out to find.
After acquiring the maps, the elemental stones, and the Replay Stones, we no longer had anything to do in Seraphold. Hence, we would spend the rest of the time awaiting our return in the inn.
It was sometime past midday when Jonah and I arrived at the Lightland square.
[Exploration Location – Damai]
[Time Remaining Until Return – 16:39:47]
Jonah stared both the timer and the inn with plotting eyes.
"You know, simply waiting can be quite dull."
The shepherd said. The edge of his mouth was curling mischievously.
I smirked, reading his intention.
"What do you suggest we do?"
I asked while playing with the collar of his shirt.
"How about we continue the less-"
"There you are, lady! I've been looking all over for you!"
A young girl's voice interrupted Jonah.
That darned little cretin!
I turned around and found Deria walking up to us with little Hamsin following behind her.
They were both in clean, intact clothing of black and white instead of their pitiful rags they wore yesterday.
Despite her pretty dress, the girl was carrying with one arm a huge burlap sack full with roundish objects by the impression they created on the bag's surface.
Deria dropped the sack in front of Jonah and I.
The sack actually sounded a loud thud as it landed and even slightly cracked the pavement beneath it.
The girl had quite a considerable strength for she did not even broke a sweat wielding the thing around.
"You weren't lying. That orphanage you mentioned does teach their children to become clerks and knights!"
She said to me.
Did she actually thought I was lying to her?
How dare this little cretin!
I did not like this girl.
"I assume you took your friends there?"
I said while eyeing her new set of clothes.
It resembled to the ones often given to the children of the orphanage.
"Of course! One of the guardians is apparently a retired knight. Some of the older boys and I are going to train under him. The rest of the children are receiving lessons on other things too."
She said.
I raised my eyebrows upon her news.
"You wish to be a knight? It won't be easy, though. The Zeref's knight order has a very high standard and harsh training to go with it."
"Oh I will succeed, lady. My name will be recorded in the history of the empire. You just wait and see!"
Deria said confidently without a shred of doubt.
"I wanna become a knight too!"
Hamsin shouted closely after her.
He pulled out his wooden horse doll and made it fly around with his hand as he went on.
"I will have my own horse! And a lance! And those big shiny armors! And a big red cape! And a horse! A fast one! I will name him Ace!"
Deria brushed the boy's head with a smile.
The expression melted as soon as she turned back to me.
"As I said yesterday, lady, we don't owe things to strangers. But we owe you greatly for telling us about the orphanage."
She bent down and unstrapped the huge sack, revealing more than a dozen of elemental stones and a number of Replay Stones.
"We already gave the bulk of these to the orphanage. But we want you to have the rest. These are all we could get from those ruins we discovered as we travelled from Loro. We could get more if some ruins we found did not already have guards standing over them."
Jonah and I bent down to join the girl around the sack and examined its content.
Four fire stones. Five wind. And six water.
We almost recovered our supply from before our climb to the tenth floor.
I would probably be able to start remaking the golem cores as soon as I returned.
There were also six Replay Stones. Enough to make three newcomers watch all the Quintal Trial records.
"Are you sure we can have all of these?"
I asked the girl.
"Why would I bring it to you if I'm not letting you have it? Take it!"
Deria pushed the heavy sack to us as if it was a mere pillow.
Jonah grunted slightly as he braced the impact for me.
The girl grabbed little Hamsin by the hand, preparing to stroll off.
She went on.
"We don't need the money anymore. The orphanage is well funded, especially after we gave them a bunch of those shiny rocks, so we're living comfortably. Anyway, our debt is now truly settled. I wish you well, lady."
Deria said as she and Hamsin vanished among the crowd.
Performing good deeds without expecting anything in return was nice and all. But Jonah and I could not help but smile over the great bounty the girl just gave us.
The two of us then proceeded to wait the others at the inn.
To our slight disappointment, it was not that long until the rest of our comrades returned.
They really could take some time looking around the city.
As long as it was not the dungeon. I would definitely not mind!
Darius, Shanny, and Trudy managed to buy two fire stones and one wind from the mercenary guild store. And they were pleasantly surprised by the sack Deria gave us.
We then spent the remaining of our times lounging away at Lightland Hut.
When the timer was about to run out, we gathered together inside my room, since it was the biggest, with our luggage in hand.
We feared some of the objects would not return if we just left them in the same room with us, so we made sure that at least a hand was holding them.
Once the timer runs out, a window appeared and we were engulfed in the familiar bluish-white light.
[Mission Complete!]
[The heroes will return to the lobby!]
[Items Obtained:]
[Replay Stone x9]
[Basic Water Elemental Stone….]
[…]
The light eventually vanished and we all found ourselves back to the mirrored chamber. All of the objects we held came back with us too.
"It was only two days, but the exploration mission was nice! Having visited a beautiful bustling city, I feel really refreshed and invigorated!"
Trudy said with a beaming smile.
"I enjoyed the trip as well."
Jonah joined her.
"I'm sure you did."
Shanny said with a grin on her face.
Jonah's quickly reddened after hearing her. Darius chuckled watching the shepherd's reaction.
We all then stepped through the rift of space time.
It was time to continue with our work in the lobby.
Time to prepare for our next stretch of the climb.
Upward till the fifteenth floor.
To our third Quintal Trial.
My comrades and I poured into the first floor square and found ourselves gaping at what welcomed us.
Trudy had to swallow to wet her tongue again and spoke.
"Did the lobby got…bigger?"