Lando was not a good place to be, Arun understood that as soon as he stepped into the city. While the great cities were clean and had proper sewage systems, Lando was where people had never heard of the word 'toilet'. The smell of piss and Stoll was emanating from every alleyway. And if that was not enough, people there were the worst of them all.
At every step on his path, he encountered either a drunkard or a whore. And for some reason, both were eager to get a drink with him. He had heard from Calux that small cities like this one treat any adventurer like they were nobles, and clearly, that boy was right. Being an adventurer in the world meant that the person would have the ability to earn coins, or at least get some meat on the table, which was a quality that every man or woman looks in their partners. Even merchants dont get the kind of attention that the adventurers get.
Dodging whores and drunkards who were acting like his old friends, Arun eventually makes it to an inn. But there was no silence there as well. The whole inn was filled with people drinking their assess off, women and men alike trying to get into the pants of adventurers, and for some reason, the smell of piss was concentrated in this place.
You know what, I should have never entered this city. He was already regretting his decision.
But Arun had his hands tied. He had learned from his solo hunting trip, that he needed a way to keep beasts and monsters at bay when he sleeps. And for that, he needs to find a dungeon and get to the dungeon shop. And for that, he needed some information that he could only get in the city.
A part was tempted to ask Old Man directly about his query. But he didnt know whether he could trust the old man or not. Which is why he was here.
Speaking of which, Adam is a fine man. He didnt force me to go with him. He just let me go, like that. I should probably thank him in the future if I have time.
As there was no other option before him, he then sat down on a stool, on the urine-infested bar. And ordered himself something to drink. There was no way in hell that he was going to even let any liquid from this place touch his lips. This is why he was going to pretend that he was drinking, most people in the place are so drunk that they wouldn't even notice that he was on his first glass for that long.
"Someone needs to take care of those fuckers!" someone yelled from behind. Arun turned around and came face to face with the people. From the tags around their neck, they were a group of three copper and one silver rank adventurer. And the one that just yelled was a copper-rank one.
"I agree. Those fucking illiterate Resistance bastards should be shown their place," another copper-rank person said.
Hearing the words Resistance, he knew exactly what these guys were talking about. When traveling with Adam, the topic of The Resistance came up, and the old man had some thoughts about it.
Barbarians, or Earthlings started showing up in this place about 2 years ago. They spawn in a ruined city in the unoccupied quadrant called Spawn City, and since then, every 6 months batch of Earthlings are thrown into this world. He belonged to 4 batches, while the Sanjay and the other Earthlings came from the batch before him.
Since their arrival, every person in this world has treated every Barbarian as an outsider. Most nobles and wealthy people enslave Earthlings to make them into their warriors. And these lucrative things for the locals, because apparently, Players can level up way faster and way more efficiently then locals. Which is why Barbarians are in very high demand.
Arun doesn't know the whole history of the Resistance, but this group consists of Earthlings who have managed to evade the authorities of the world and create a terrorist group. This group aims to free very Earthling in this world who has been enslaved and take revenge on people who had treated them badly. This was why when he saved Sanjay and his group, the first question they asked him was whether he was with the resistance…
"So what did they do this time?" the silver rank asked.
"They destroyed Hubert household and killed its every member,"
"Which one was House Hubert again?" a copper rank asked.
The silver rank shook his head in derision, "You should take your head out of your ass. House Hubert owned five dungeons. Two of them being near Lando…" Seeing the clueless face of the copper rank, the silver rank sighed, "House Hubert owns the dungeon that we cleared last week. The one with Kobolds." And the copper rank suddenly realized what the silver rank was talking about.
".. And the City Lord thinks that these people would be able to find Resistance," he heard a voice from behind. Arun turned around to see the barkeep had uttered those words. He was an old man in his late fifties, who looked rather pissed after hearing about resistance.
Which is why he decided to befriend the old man, "Tell me about it. These people won't know any difference between Mother Goblin and a Goblin," His terrible attempt at a joke made the barkeep smile.
"What is your name?" the old man asked, "You dont seem to be from around here,"
He shook his head, "Flosina. I am from Florida," He lied to the barkeep because people in this world were a little bit racist and discriminatory against people from other quadrants as well. That is partially the reason why Merchants, who roam from city to city, are not given special privileges as the Adventures.
"You are a long way from home," the old man said.
"Duty calls. What can a man do?" he said while shrugging.
"Duty? Here?" the old man looked interested, "What brought a person of your caliber here?"
Arun was a little taken aback, he had not revealed his level to anyone here. Yet the old man thought that he was a high-rank person, but why? Was this some sort of trick or misunderstanding, or did the old man have a way of discerning his strength?
"Same reason the people behind me are getting riled up," he said nonchalantly. ".. I am hunting down the Resistance,"
"The resistance?" the old man was taken aback, "Here?"
He nodded, "Some dumb guy gave my senior the impression that those bastards could be hiding in the small island, south of here. So they sent me to check it out,"
The old man now interested leaned forward, "Really? In the Forbidden Island? Do you really think that they could be alive there?"
Arun mentioned the island, just so that he could gather some more information about his destination. He didnt even know the place was called Forbidden Island. But now as he had come this far, he should at least find out more about the island…