The team finally reached the top. But what they found shocked them.
The top was covered almost entirely with large wooden and stone buildings, all poorly made and mostly just wood or other things mashed up together to make a structure. The structures were extremely tall, reaching the top of it would be an entire climbing trip in itself. The look of it all made Colton assume it was a poor area.
For now, the team focused on trying to rest from the climb. Poorly made wooden walls surrounded the edges, preventing anyone from falling off, with the only area open being the ropes.
A road lay in front of them, with broken rocks leading the way ahead into the city itself. The inside was dark with only a few sources of light illuminating the dilapidated area. From the looks of it, Colton had expected to hear hundreds of voices or atleast noises of people walking around, but the area he stood in was almost silent.
While regaining their energy, Celestine began to laugh happily.
"That was fun!" She exclaimed.
"Fun? I nearly died!" Marcus replied, at a loss for words and mad.
"Do mercenaries not know how to climb?" Knowing Celestine, Colton was unsure if she was serious or sarcastic with her question.
"Stop talking, we're in unknown territory. For now we must search for suitable people to disguise as. Follow me." Everyone stood up and began following behind Calliope. Walking down the road into the dark area ahead.
The place smelled of garbage and death, with an almost silent atmosphere and a general sense of unease. Celestine and other members of the group covered their noses in disgust while Quill walked on without problem. Seemingly unbothered by the disgusting smells.
"You ain't sick from the smell?" Marcus questioned her.
"I hate heights, but I had my fair share of living near the heaps." She responded. Marcus returned to looking forward, getting an answer to his question.
They began to see people walking around along the way, walking around slowly. Walking with a limp or dragging their body forward, heavily malnourished. Colton was disgusted and felt bad for them at the same time, now deep into the town that they settled in.
Piles of garbage rested all around them, near to the doors of a few structures. Everyone had the same desire to leave the place quickly, but for now they needed to gain intel on where they were exactly. A knowledge book perhaps.
The people wore ragged attire, similar to the prisoners Colton fought earlier. Colton was unsure on what this place even was for. Is it meant to house the poor of this world? Is it meant for prisoners?
"Colton, follow. I managed to gain a few disguises we could use." Calliope pointed at an empty dark corner. The team quickly went inside, waiting for Calliope to bring in disguises for them to use.
Clouds enveloped each of them, taking a few seconds for the disguises to appear on their bodies.
After a few seconds, the clouds vanished, leaving them with tattered clothing and different faces.
Everyone walked back out, now as one of the people. They walked deeper into the city, and the place only seemed more tight, with roads becoming smaller, being consumed by structures in a bid to get more space for people to live.
"For slums, this place is rather quiet." Marcus commented, pinching his nose tighter than normal while going through.
Along the way, they stumbled upon one man in particular, sitting next to a wooden wall.
"Spare some change?" The man asked in a calm and clear voice. Unlike the rest, he looked more clean and his clothes were not as tattered. And his clothes were familiar. But barely managed to blend in with the other people that walked around.
"I recognize your faces, still the same as the last time. Been a while huh?" Soon, he and the team realized who it was. Myo.
"Myo!?" Marcus spoke with surprise. In disbelief that the man they met from before was now standing in front of them.
"Yup, in the flesh." He stood up from the ground. His body had no signs of any wounds, to the shock of Colton.
"How did you escape that place?" Calliope questioned.
"Well, let's just say I had to fight my way outta that place. Let's talk in a more quiet place." Without talking, everyone followed behind Myo, moving deeper into the place. With how far they went into the city, Colton was unsure how big this place even was.
After walking for a while, Myo arrived at one structure, opening the door to a small room inside with a hatch and ladder that went up.
The room held a bed and drawer, with nothing else.
Once everyone went inside, Myo closed the door and looked at the team.
"Well, I managed to fight my way out. Then I decided to leave the place and landed myself here." He explained. Colton and Calliope only had more questions than answers from what he said.
"Sadly, I don't know much about this place. Other than the fact its meant for the poor in this world."
"Are there any other knowledge books?" Calliope asked, Myo simply shrugged his arms.
"Not to my knowledge."
The high pitched ringing of a bell echoed through the streets outside, piercing through the door, wanting to grab the attention of everyone.
Suddenly, the hatch above them opened, and a few men jumped down with excited faces. Even in this place, the bell somehow gave them joy.
"What is that?" Marcus asked.
"Don't know, best we check." Unsure of what was ahead, Myo quickly disguised himself like the rest.
Crowds of people rushed down the street in front of them towards the sound of the bell like animals.
The group joined in the wave, moving closer and closer to where the bell noises were coming from.
The crowd abruptly stopped in their tracks, looking ahead, Colton could see a large pole with a rope attached to it, connected to a place out of sight. Near the bell was a well dressed man.
In a few seconds, more people in decorated clothes arrived from the rope, ziplining down the rope and reaching the city. A few of them carried swords while one held a stack of scrolls in his hands.
"Announcement to all. Today is the beginning of the monthly commission completion. They will be posted on the board at once. Those who complete these commissions must present the scroll to us when we return, along with what the client wished for." After speaking, the man walked away from the pole, and to a wooden board filled with nails and torn pieces of paper still stuck to it.
He nailed each one to the board, everyone in the crowd seemed eager, as if ready to rip each of those papers from the board.
"Commision completion?" Quill asked, but got no response.
"We shall return in a day or two, by then we expect that the commissions are completed. To repeat, those who complete them may be given the chance to be sent to the higher mountain." After talking, the men attached their hooks onto the ropes, and in an instant, began moving up the rope at high speeds. Returning to where they came from.
The only ones left were three people with swords.
The crowd wasted no time, they rushed to the board, almost causing it to fall over as they tried to grab the papers.
Colton tried to piece together what the man said, and what they might need to do. Calliope though was far ahead of him.
"Seems we need to do a mission from there if we want to leave." She explained.
"Why? We can just use the rope that guy used." Marcus pointed at the rope.
Almost on cue, a man suddenly rushed out of the crowd, carrying a makeshift hook, as he slammed it onto the rope, the guards began attacking him, quickly taking him down and removing the hook. His body quickly vanished, and the guards returned to standing around, as if nothing had happened.
Marcus looked on in acceptance. "Alrighty then, how do we get the job?" He asked, Calliope pondered. With the amount of people swarming and possibly killing each other to get the scrolls, she was unsure how to grab one quickly.
As they pondered in thought, Myo ran back to them, the team had not realized he disappeared for a brief time.
"Alright, I understood what they wanted. Next thing to do now is just do what they want, and we can get outta this trash heap." He pulled back his torn tunic, revealing a rolled up scroll he managed to take from the board without anyone noticing.
The crowd suddenly began running backwards, rushing somewhere else.
"Guess we follow em." Myo spoke. With no other option, they joined with the crowd, unsure of where they're headed, Colton only hoped it was safe, or at least away from the smell.