With a new day upon us and the girls having gotten their supplies together and using my inventory to collect the stuff so they didn't need to carry it. We set off to the guild to register Drakia and Rose as adventures and part of my party.
"Alright, you girls get registered, while I snag a couple missions for us." I said with both girls nodding and going to fill out the paperwork and do the ultra-short interview.
But now with a party, I could actually snag bronze-ranked missions instead of just wood-ranked missions which were just chores. [Clear Goblin Village X 38] My lips twitched seeing the literal stack of goblin-clearing missions with the reward being even worse than what Isha had offered for her private request that obviously no one was dealing with. 'Or at least fast enough to matter.' I thought with a small frown.
I looked away from the stack of goblin missions while mentally reminding myself to sort them out with a map to see if I could do the missions in a line or efficiently somehow as goblins were easy to kill.
Looking at the other missions I certainly saw some interesting ones. [Harvest Arachne Webs, 'Warning only Gold Ranked adventurers are suspected to be capable of surviving should you offend an Arachne'.] ['Red Knife' Bandit Extermination][Demon Race Base Removal]
I raised an eyebrow at the last one and picked up wondering if the Demon Army was getting closer to New Atha or something.
[Demon Race Base Removal][A parade of imp demons led by a 'blood drinker' lesser demon have moved into the lands of New Atha and have killed several nearby villagers and farm animals. Goal- Kill them all, burn down their encampment, retrieve their divine effigy within a bag of treated salt with holy water by any New Atha goddesses church poured over it.] [Reward- 2 Gold coins for proof of kills, and the divine effigy is required regardless of proof of kills.]
I chewed on my thoughts before shrugging and taking the demon genocide mission while mentally reminding myself to check the average levels of those beings, before going to check other missions.
There were actually a lot more bronze missions than there were wood ones as New Atha was clearly under pressure by the resurging monsters and the roaming demons, orcs, and the other monsters gaining power with these dark times. So with plenty of low-ranking missions to clear out small groups of monsters or singular stronger monsters around level 25 with a party, I picked through them and snagged another interesting one.
[Escort to Lundhaven.] [A caravan needs adventurer's to ride with them and deal with any bandits or monsters that attack the caravan.] [Payment- fifty silver coins to be delivered at Lundhaven.]
I nodded and took the mission. as according to my to my map of New Atha. The demons were not far from the town of Lundhaven and thus I could get them on the way.
"Rose, Drakia, I got some missions for us." I said handing over the missions for the two to inspect.
After reading the missions and seeing that the caravan departure was at noon they nodded with Drakia adding on. "The missions are fine, if not rather good for our current levels."
Which was very much the truth. As I was like level nine after turning in the previous missions, Drakia with our bonding was level one, and Rose as a healer priestess who was basically raised in the church, she never really saw combat and was firmly at level fifteen despite being twenty years old.
"Let's go check in with the caravan then." I spoke as I led the girls out of the adventurer's guild as I noticed that people were leaving lasting glances on me.
'Has the news about my identity gotten out to the common populace already?' I thought wryly as we made our way through the busy fantasy medieval streets of New Atha and on the way to the caravan company at the gates of New Atha city, I got Drakia a leather chest jacket to give her some more protection.
Without much issue or pressure after showing off my Bronze adventurer tag and saying the girls were in my party. The caravan leader accepted our protection with him only giving me a couple warnings as we got into the leader caravan and while the girls sat back in the covered cart, I listened to the old man ramble along.
"This New Atha is going down the shitter young man. I tell you, ever since Queen Tilda and her sisters have had all their bad blood. They have been tearing at each other in the shadows with 'bandits' commonly attacking the merchants carrying supplies between the capitals and the two other major cities in which the other cites rule from." He complained but I raised an eyebrow in interest.
"I thought Queen Tilda was the undisputed queen of New Atha. What happened between the sisters and if it's so bad, why are they 'ruling' in other important cities?" I asked trying to get an idea of the politics of the land.
The merchant snorted and responded gruffly. "Queen's Hadena, and Iyana, are Tilda's older sisters. And were very ready to kill the other to become the queen before the previous king died after being struck down by the Light and Darkness goddesses for consorting with eldritch entities to the world. But instead of either older sister becoming the queen, the youngest in Tilda was named the queen of New Atha instead of her sisters. And with all sisters having different mothers and different backgrounds, the older sisters who had powerful family backings that ruled those areas."
The old man took a breath and then continued "They used that strong family background from their mother's line to suppress Queen Tilda. Who is in the center of the kingdom of New Atha."
I frowned at the news as that sounded like trouble. As I could see those 'Queens' not liking my presence here at all in all reality.
"But, those Queens, especially Queen Hadena are facing their own issues honestly. They cannot suppress Tilda much if at all anymore especially with the news of Lady Tilda summoning a powerful hero from another world to help our nation." He said and disregarding my summoning bit, I asked for clarification.
"What is going on in the border cities then?" I asked and in response, the merchant brought out the map of the Continent that New Atha, Ecesh, and Rechuyland were on and pointed out the break in the northern forests past the inlet where the northern country of Rechuyland met New Atha's land.
"See young man." He said pointing at the spot cutting off the two nations. "The Ice Queen of Rechuyland is pushing her icy domain to the south with the help of her Ice God who is her patron and is in competition with the Light and Dark Goddesses. And Queen Hadena who is a very powerful disciple of the Dark Goddess is busy fighting off the Ice Gods approaching domain through mortal forces." He explained and then took a drink to wet his throat while my mind whirled with that information.
Though my mind then moved onto another subject that maybe this worldly merchant could have news about as none of the guild staff would tell me, a bronze level adventurer anything at all. "So do you have any information on the Ork and Demon armies? Like where are they even?" I asked frankly.
The merchant grimaced and shook his head leaving a silence before he said slowly and with obvious heartache. "The demon army... Is halfway across the world in Yecrea of Spring fighting the elves and are trying to tear down the Light Goddess and Moon Goddesses temples to weaken the world's holy energy. But are having major issues due to the elves being extremely effective at fighting demons with both goddesses supporting them." He said more easily and once again he got choked up about the orc army.
I patted the man on the shoulder and offered a bottle of cheaper whiskey I picked up to keep me warm at night. "Sir, if you don't wanna talk about it. It's fine." I said softly and the man nodded but still continued.
"In the massive mountain range separating the lands of New Atha and Ecesh the Orc Armies are growing in power there as that's where they live. The Dead Mountains are aptly named as they are a terrible land filled with the remains of dead eldritch beings that died during the shattering of the Atha empire when the true demon god died and tore a hole in the weave allowing the void monsters in... Either way the Orc Chieftaness is a terrible, terrible necromancer and has been using her talents to raise grand armies of the dead and her own hardy orcs to raid and slaughter surrounding towns and villages on the New Atha and Ecesh sides of the mountain range."
I grimaced at the news, as the man hauntedly talked about his family being in one of the towns that the orc queen led a genocide upon, and even worse... Whether it be an orc, human, animal, or any other corpse. The orc queen would raise all corpses as her slaves to do her terrible designs upon the living.
"And Queen Iyana rarely meets the orcs in open battle for the most part due to the orcs being so tribal. It's only when the orc chieftainess calls for a grand battle that they come together, so Lady Iyana is only picking off smaller orc villages on the outskirts of the mountains." The merchant finished explaining and then began silently drinking leaving me with an obvious feeling of him wanting to be left alone now.
So I just went quiet and took in the surroundings around the cart, watching the countryside of New Atha pass us by.
Until trouble finally reared up its head as we hit the half way mark.