…
March 7th, 1001
"It took us seven days to reach Kingdom of Napre. The ride was quite rough, the waters were filled with many tidal waves. Sea dwellers activity was oddly active into attacking us. But remembering our destination here is Napre, it made me and the others remain spirited. Now, my heart is pumping even more, I'm so excited to enter the kingdom. That feeling to start a new life in another world and I'm overhyped for it!" told Marco in excitement as the ship about to reach the port.
Finally, Drugo's ship docked in the seaport beside three ships. The party prepared themselves to touch down the brick road. Marco inhales the air, "This place reeks of newness! Okie-dokey! Time to go! I'm so excited at this! a new place means many exploration opportunities! I won't miss this out," said Marco to the party.
"Well, then! Let's get going," said Nina. "—Oh, one moment." Drugo suddenly jumped off near the party.
"I know how much excitement you have, Marco. But just before you go, I'd like you to take this," said Drugo. He handed Marco one of his amulet. "Um... what's this?" Marco asked in curiosity. "Huh? Oh, it's a 'lucky-charm'. I know you guys haven't known about this yet but here's the situation…"
Drugo thought to himself, "Gah! I couldn't allow them to get themselves involved in the current situation here at Napre. I believe 100% they'll be retarded should they join the mess," he then thought and thought over and over, "Should I tell them about the situation or not… should I tell them or not, should I tell them or not… GRAAARGH! Damnations, I'll just tell them now!"
Drugo decided to tell the actual situation to the party.
Marco thought his adventure would be less-harmful at the start, turns out that he's partly wrong. Drugo told them that Napre is actually in a very bad terms with the empire. In fact, they're in a conflict with them. Drugo told that Marco and the rest of his friends should avoid involving themselves in the conflict.
"Alright, then, uncle, we'll not trouble ourselves, hehe," said Marco. "Don't worry, we'll be alright, Mr. Drugo," Aily then added.
As an experienced explorer, Drugo feels a visible rebel in front of him.
…
The Kingdom of Napre… it is a home to more than 200.000 people. It is a small kingdom on the southern coast of the eastern mainland. That was supposedly to be like that, until the Dimensional Impact strikes, changing their location slightly in the merged world, but somehow deep inside a terrorizing region. They're originally from the other world, Tellus, the same world where Nina and Aily came from.
Even being lacked in terms of size and firepower, Napre Kingdom holds the title of maritime kingdom. Many ships come by and depart from the kingdom. The island's position is incredibly strategic for them to become a transit and trade route for any merchant ship that passes by.
The kingdom houses a group of elite knights known as the Vanguards, led by a powerful general and is directed by the king himself.
The party takes a stroll into a set of staircases going up. After reaching the top, they waved goodbye at Drugo and they're off to start their adventure immediately. The staircase led them to a market place. As the place is, this area is very crowded. People are swarming around the market. Most of them were merchants and sailors.
"Marco, Marco! Let's check out one of the shops!" said Aily to Marco excitedly. "Geez, we just reached here and you wanna spend some cash already? Really great, Aily…" Marco funnily retorted.
"Why don't we just check them out, who know we might find some interesting stuffs…" Nina persuaded to me.
"Huh… kinda rings right, since we're in a new place, let's see…" Marco looked around him, wondering what kind of things that look new. Scias then pats his shoulder and pointed out a building not far from their fix. "Huh? AHA! There!" Marco pointed out to a shop with a 'sun' and smith symbol on the wall sign.
"U-Uh, that's not the place I—" Scias words were cut short by Aily.
"Goody! Come on! Let's go!" said Aily in great excitement. "Coming, Scias?" Nina asked kindly. "…Uh… fine," he nodded slightly and joined them into the shop.
The party was greeted with an extreme pressure coming from inside the shop.
They just opened the door and an immense pressure barraged at them. Everyone's sweating like waterfall, even the shopkeeper himself is gasping. Amidst of the small chaos, Marco took the liberty to go near the shopkeeper while avoiding to get in everyone's way.
Marco and his friends tried to start a conversation with the shop guys. The shopkeeper turns around as soon as Marco rings the bell on the counter. The shopkeeper gasps as he speaks.
"Bwhat? Ooh! Welcome! Huff… To Naprean Magismith. What heff… can I do for you?" The shopkeeper said in tiredness.
"Erm…" Marco begins to feel reluctant, he stared at the workers, "Poor guys... they're so tired," But Marco wants to make his effort not in vain. "Um… we're kiiinda new here, what kind of weapons you sell here?" Marco asked politely.
"Hoho, uh… tourists?" The shopkeeper asked, "Pardon our looks, mate, but the current matter we're facing is enough to cause a pretty damned hectic work!" he said hoarsely.
"If you're asking about what kind of work we do, we're working on smithing and magecraft... or those elementalists would call as 'arsenal infusion'," he explained quickly.
Arsenal Infusion is a technique owned by certain blacksmiths in the mainland, they're mostly Level 2 Elementalists that could forge armor and weapon while giving them a touch of their element to further empower it.
The shopkeeper continued "But unfortunately we couldn't accept new orders, yet. But if you people wanna buy some new weapons, I'll gladly serve you the best we have yet!" he said gaspingly.
"Welp, just as I expected. They're too busy with their job. I wonder what they're doing, though..." so Marco thought in his mind. Marco, especially the two girls don't want to make the shopkeeper angry because they don't buy anything. Marco then asks kindly whether they sell guns or bullets.
"Ah? Guns? Bullets? Bwahaha! Good choice, I'll show you our best gun," said the shopkeeper as he stood up and headed into the back.
Marco's party only glanced in a tense expression. The level of tension inside this room could break their mind anytime soon. "It's a living hell in here," they thought.
A moment later, the shopkeeper who wore a fancy white suit returned with a rifle and a pouch of bullets. He passed it on the table.
"Whoa... this looks awesome!" Marco happily said, "Haha! Glad you liked it," the shopkeeper replied gladly as well. Marco's amazement was legitimate, he was purely interested in buying it.
The shopkeeper then tells the party that the weapon costs 4000 zennies. Marco instantly halted his sense of interest, "Holy molly," Marco thought in his mind, he was surprised to hear the cost. It's four times the cost of the Arquebus.
Marco didn't want to waste their cash on something like that, so he asked something else, "Um… oh, yeah! What about the bullet, yeah, the bullet?" Marco asked, "Huh? The bullet? Oh, this here is the best bullet. It has a sharp edge that could penetrate through armor. Not even the Imperial troops' heavy and thick armor could resist it, haha!" said the shopkeeper with a visible sweat coming down from his forehead.
Scias whispered silently, "This must b-be what Drugo worried about,"
The Imperial Soldiers are attacking the kingdom as they speak. The Imperial Army is dug up to the north ridge using long range cannons to 'threaten' the kingdom.
"Our forces comprised of earth elementalists could deal with 'em, but... without these, I doubt they could withstand much longer." The shopkeeper proudly stated about the unique bullets.
"Then, I'll take the bullets," said Marco quickly.
"Eh? What about the gun? You won't be able to fire those shells without one," The shopkeeper explained. "Ah, no worries, mate. I have a 'gun' that will do the bidding."
"You 'ave a gun that can fire these bullets? Well, if that's the case, I won't mind you buy the bullets only. But don't blame me if your gun blows up," said the shopkeeper warning Marco.
Marco then reaches out his pouch of coins, "So how much would it—
"500 zennies for 20 bullets." The shopkeeper cuts.
Marco made a quick decision and accepts, "Deal!"
Marco and his party exited the shop. Aily and Nina didn't buy anything. The reason? They couldn't peacefully look at what they sell here. Besides, they've bought a bunch of new stuff back at Areda.
Scias didn't buy anything either. He said that nothing caught his interest.
The ground's sudden tremor caught their attention, they turn their eyes at a man standing on a rock pillar about the same height as one story building, beneath him appears a sand-colored magic circle with some stone chunks spinning in spiral.
"Good gracious! Is he nuts? He's gonna scare everyone around him!" Marco stated in panic.
But when he looks around him, nobody seems to care about the man. Instead, another man equipped with construction tools raises another earthly pillar to assist his friend. Everyone's careless about those two.
"You know, Marco... I DID hear about Napre back at my home in Meridia," said Nina.
"If I remember it right, my father told me that the people here are mostly Earth Elementalists. But I never thought they'd use their element to do their daily activities…" she added.
"Oho, really? Wow..." Marco said in impression. Aily herself felt a bit disappointed for not knowing about Napre as much as her sister.
Aily didn't really know because she's not the type to study hard like her sister. She gathers knowledge when being practiced directly instead of doing researches. But she'll study if her sister forced her hands to do so.
"Hehe, first time?" A middle-aged merchant giggly said, "No wonder you're surprised to see an earth elementalist at work. You know kiddo, the power of nature helped us a lot in this kingdom, everyone wanted to become an earth elementalist, even children alike!" He explained thoroughly.
"Yup, thanks to good ol' General Rhun, learning earth element is now top priority if you want to become a proper worker," He added.
"That's why Napre is called 'the Home of Earth Elementalists' hahaha!"