Owen leaned against a wall as Riang kept asking around for any available work to do.
Riang was currently talking to a middle aged fisherman with a wrinkled face who had to tell her that he didn't need any help at the moment.
"Sorry Riang, the fish I caught are quite plentiful. Maybe it will be a little sooner until I need some assistance." The fisherman grabbed two barrels of fish tied to a wooden pole and carried it on his shoulder.
"I do thank you for offering your assistance." The fisherman added. He then waved his hand as he walked away.
Riang sighed in exasperation.
"Great, nothing again." Riang gave Owen a casual glance and with a beckoning tone, she said, "I'm going home. Follow me."
"Finally…" Owen has been following her tail for an hour now. He didn't realize that Riang underwent so much work that when there's nothing available for her to do, the day might just be a holiday for her.
Of course, for the money craved survivalist that Riang was, the words 'no work' means no money and no money means that she would have to enter a period of less food consumption.
Something like that is automatically considered bad in her dictionary.
And knowing that she would have to deal with Owen's meals gave her a headache. Looking at Owen behind her right now, all she could see was another pit where her cash would be drained into.
Owen didn't know what she was thinking about. But seeing the barely concealed resentment in her eyes, he began to wonder when he had ever wronged her.
'Is she mad about the earlier incident? This girl is too infatuated with money.' Owen thought to himself.
The two of them didn't speak for a while.
They were taking a long stone brick and cobblestone path which had several turns along the way.
Owen was impervious to awkwardness at the moment and Riang was not in the mood to talk.
This silence lasted until they reached an apartment complex of some sort.
From afar, Owen could see that the thatched roof was starting to break in some parts.
It was only two floors connected by wooden stairs.
The entire complex had 22 rooms. Each room can accommodate at least 2 people comfortably or 3 people if they can manage their space right.
The bathroom is on the ground floor. So whoever lives on the second floor would have to go down if they wanted to take a bath.
Imagine needing to take a leak and it's occupied. That would be a bad time for anyone.
"So, where's your room here?" Owen was secretly praying that it wasn't on the second floor.
Riang pointed to the 5th room from the right on the second floor.
Owen, "…"
Riang's lips scrunched up a bit once she saw Owen with a peculiar expression.
"What's wrong with your face?" Riang began to walk towards her room.
"Nothing." Owen rubbed his chin with his right hand.
Owen followed Riang to a certain room on the second floor. She took her key out from her left pocket to open the door.
*Creak…*
Owen was greeted with a room made of wooden planks. There was one bed with no bed frame, a closed window and a drawer.
"Here we are…" Riang went inside the room and put all of her stuff into the drawer. All it contained were bundles of coins, an unknown object covered by cloth and a ruby locket.
In the bottom drawer, it only had her clothes.
After putting all her stuff aside, Riang laid down on the bed which barely passed as one because it was just layers of cloth stacked together to create a soft area for her to lay on.
"Oof— Agh…" Riang leaned her head on the wall and tapped the area next to her.
"Not what you're expecting huh? I did my best to cut corners and mainly spend on necessities, so you might have to sleep on the floor."
Owen shrugged. He didn't need to sleep anyway.
When he was still in the forest, he had to keep watch for wolves and bandits. And only when he let his guard down did someone like Yuhmbir suddenly pop out.
"I don't mind at all." Owen sat down on the floor next to Riang.
His leg greaves bent in a difficult angle and his hauberk clinked noisily as they crashed down with Owen.
The room was silent.
Very silent that only the noise from outside could be heard like birds tweeting and conversations that served as ambient noise.
Riang was usually a steady headed person who had a clear vision of her goals with the motivation and will to do it.
She wasn't expecting to receive help, but now that it did, she didn't know what to do.
Riang subtly glanced at Owen. All she saw was that he was looking forward emptily.
"…"
Owen was currently recollecting his thoughts.
He remembered the familiar house where he grew up. He saw his mother's smiling face, his father's encouraging laugh and his two beloved sisters talking to each other without any troubles in their eyes.
Owen covered both of his eyes with his right hand. He moved it upwards slowly as he slicked his hair back while focusing his gaze on the wooden ceiling.
'Wait for me, I won't take long.' Owen muttered in his mind.
Like Riang, he also had a goal he wanted to accomplish.
In that way, they were the same in some sense.
He brought his hand down, causing his hair to fall back in place as well.
Riang coughed to break the silence.
"Hey, since you're here, I think we should talk about future developments…" Riang straightened her posture as she sat on the wool sheets.
"Hm?" Owen redirected his eyes towards her. "Sure."
Riang held up a finger. "First of all, I want to talk about food. I cannot earn enough money for the both of us, so in the first few days, I will only be giving you enough for three meals... Is that good enough for you?"
Owen shook his head and told her, "Don't worry about how I eat. When it comes to food, focus on yourself and I will do the same for me. Is that good enough for you?"
Owen returned the question.
Riang paused. She wasn't expecting Owen to give her such an advantageous condition.
Without hesitating, she agreed. "Sure? If I don't have to spend a coin, then I'm all in for that."
"Now since that's settled, keep talking about other terms you may want to propose." Owen waved his hand in a circular motion to gesture for Riang to continue.
Riang went with it and said, "The rent isn't going to change at all even with two people, but I think you should also help me pay half for it because you're living with me."
"How much is the rent for this place?" Owen looked around the room and he could see that it wouldn't cost much.
"It costs around 5–, erm… 60 copper coins." Riang didn't waste the chance to get extra money from Owen.
Since he didn't hear the previous digit, all Owen knew was that he had to pay her 30 copper coins per month.
But just because he didn't hear the full thing doesn't mean he believed her.
"Are you sure?" Owen raised an eyebrow. "I'm being sincere right now. Don't try to scam me because I can go my own way without you. We're on a mutually beneficial agreement, so don't break it for a few copper coins."
Riang sighed in resignation. "Fine, it's 50 copper per month."
"See? If you want me to follow your terms, at least have some integrity." Owen was a bit irked, but decided to forgive her on this one.
"I understand. I will not do that again." Riang decided to reign her greed in so that she wouldn't lose such a precious opportunity to return home. She even felt a little ashamed.
Well, it mostly stemmed from the fact that she couldn't earn money out of Owen.
Owen however, felt that Riang was too naive to be tricking him.
"So? Any other terms?" Although Owen was unhappy that there was an attempt to take advantage of his cash, he didn't lose sight of what's important.
"Nothing much… That's all." Riang replied desultory.
Noticing her change in tone, Owen proposed something to do, "Let's talk about our plan to get from here to Silmoun. I'll forget about what you were trying to pull earlier, so let's talk about important things that would affect us in the long run."
Riang's expression revealed a flash of surprise. She was relieved that Owen didn't put too much offense on her small scheme.
"I'm glad you asked." Riang's hair was covering half of her left eye, so she fixed her hair and faced Owen.
Even though there was seriousness on her face, she revealed an eager smile.
"Oh, but first –" Riang rushed to her drawer and took out a map under her pile of clothes and went back in front of Owen.
She laid out the brown map evenly on the floor.
"– I should get my map ready for this." She then chuckled, "I wasn't expecting that one day I'd be talking about my plans with someone else. This will come in very handy."
Owen leaned over to look and saw that the map was a bit too detailed.
He wasn't particularly familiar with certain aspects of Wiunlen when it comes to average income or how much the expenses were. But he knew that a high quality map like this would be out of budget for Riang to acquire.
So he wondered, did she steal this?
"Hey Riang, I couldn't help but notice that this map is very well drawn. How much did you spend on this?" Owen tapped his finger twice on the map.
Riang shook her head.
"Spend money on this? I'm sure you could tell that I couldn't have bought it." She snickered to herself before explaining,
"But that doesn't mean I just snatched it from someone else. I'm not that bad of a person."
Owen pieced together the meaning behind her words and asked, "So it was given to you?"
"Also no."
"Then how did you get it?"
Placing a finger on her lips to gesture a shush, Riang said, "This was supposed to be a secret, but a few months ago, there was this cartographer that stayed here in Wiunlen for a while."
"He is quite old and spends too much time inside the local taverns to the point that he is usually seen drunk by the regular customers. So when I worked as a maid in that tavern that he frequently goes to, I happened to spot that he had a map of the Eslahai Kingdom and the other neighboring kingdoms as well."
"So I bought this piece of paper and used coal and leftover ink from the library. And after that, I'd take a peek from his map whenever he's drunk and copy it exactly how it is drawn." Riang seemed quite proud of herself.
"Nice one… That's how you maximize your gains without much losses. I like that." As a gamer from heart, Owen tends to conserve as many resources as possible, so this was a quality that he liked about her.
"I had to do what I had to do. If I don't do anything, I might as well be dead." Riang weighed the map down with her hands.
"So, what's your plan? I can see hundreds of possible routes we can take." Owen looked at the two kingdoms separated by three large rivers, a mountain range and a valley.
It wasn't easy to cross such treacherous terrain on foot. But because the map included other kingdoms, it looked small even though in reality, the distance is very far.
Being told to share her plans, Riang was excited to tell Owen what she had been tinkering for the past few months of her free time.
Placing her finger on the small spot representing Wiunlen, Riang began speaking.
"So, right here is Wiunlen. Surrounding it is the Flor River, Rikas Plains and the Undbok Deep Forest. If we were to go south, we'll be seeing Mysteriea City after two weeks or so. However, since our goal is to reach Silmoun, we have to go through the Undbok Deep Forest and survive the bandits, wolves, bears and rock crabs lurking around at all times."
The four factors that Riang mentioned were the most common threats encountered in the forest. Owen almost died from two of them, so it left quite a deep impression on him.
What if he encountered rock crabs and bears during that time? Well, let's just say that even if Owen survives, he would have lost more than parts of his face and his left hand. And that's already a big 'if'.
"Soon, we'll have to cross the Grand Piurma River which is going to take a boat to cross. But I found a spot where the river is the thinnest. The only way to cross it is by swimming through, which isn't going to be easy."
"After going through the river, we have a major obstacle. And that is the Masgracia Mountains. This is a natural defensive wall of the Eslahai Kingdom against other kingdoms. It wouldn't be held in such high regard if it weren't for the hauntingly large amount of True Undead and True Spirits wandering around the mountains. All I heard about these mountains is that they are exceptionally difficult to cross."
Owen's eyes flashed after briefly recognizing the area in the map.
The Masgracia Mountains is a land rich with soul energy. This means that the vitality of living creatures here is very high. But that also equates that the available resources there are abundant.
What kind of resources specifically?
Acters are abundant in the Masgracia Mountains. That may come off as an unfamiliar term, but acters are classified as anything that can be consumed to boost a living being's physical qualities and their soul to be tempered further.
But there are also harmful acters. It can either harm the body but nourish the soul, or damage the soul and strengthen the body. If a resource can only destroy the body and soul, it isn't an acter at all. That would just be poison.
And because of that, Undead creatures and Spirit creatures would take advantage of these acters to further strengthen themselves and repopulate, making the Masgracia Mountains a high risk, high reward area for those who seek to use acters for themselves.
Owen pressed his finger on the Masgracia Mountains.
"How do you plan on crossing the mountain range then?" Owen wasn't just going to go with the plan. He had to express his doubts so that the plan would actually work and not send them to their deaths.
"You must be aware of the Beisena Blood I possess, correct?" Riang subconsciously held the side of her neck to feel the grainy blood flow inside her veins.
Owen nodded and replied with a very uncaring tone, "I know… magic blood gives soul energy and faster regeneration blah blah blah…"
Riang frowned in annoyance.
He stopped speaking so bluntly and then asked, "What I'm getting from your implication is that it can provide some level of concealment?"
Riang nodded affirmatively.
"Correct. Although True Undeads are able to acutely sense soul energy, they aren't omniscient. They rely on physical senses too, but are considerably much weaker. So unless I make noise or intentionally get spotted by them, it would be equivalent to sneaking around normal humans with partial deafness and blindness."
Owen got the logic behind her plan. But there's another issue.
"What about me?" Owen pointed to himself. "I cannot conceal my soul energy, so that would mean that I'm a glowing flame in front of them."
Riang was visibly lost before nodding. "That's right, this plan was just made for me… I haven't taken account of anyone helping me."
Owen swept his hand through his hair as he developed a plan for this problem.
"Maybe we should focus on the entire plan first. Problems like these can be resolved later." Owen urged for Riang to continue.
Riang stowed away the huge number of words that she wanted to say and went on with her plan.
"After crossing the Masgracia Mountains, we will now be inside the Ruins of Tarmat that used to be a grand and respectable kingdom, only to be broken down and only be left as a lawless place filled with criminals." Riang seemed to show some sympathy to the fallen kingdom.
The Ruins of Tarmat is a large area filled with broken houses, large crumbled statues, fallen monuments and large stone cathedrals that now served as houses and temporary bases for bandits, thieves, illegal merchants and mercenaries.
No kingdom would be willing to waste their manpower to fully purge this place because of the difficulty and lack of benefits that it would yield. So, as long as the outlaws don't do anything too rash, they wouldn't be attacked all of a sudden.
"If we get through this place, we will have to go through the twin rivers of Nenda and Siena. Because this place is very watery, crocodiles, eletals and skinworms are the most common threats."
Skinworms are exceptionally terrifying because of their nature to burrow under the skin to lay eggs.
Riang then smiled as she pointed to the final area that separates her and Silmoun Kingdom.
"Here. This is Silver Moon Valley." Riang then began to speak proudly about it.
"There are so many garrisoned knights from different battalions of the Silmoun Army that once we reach this place, we're safe… And after that, I'd be home." Her tone softened as she felt a trace of longing.
Owen sighed audibly that it shattered Riang's daydream.
He looked at the map and shifted his glance to her slowly. Owen clapped his hands and said, "Congratulations, I only found about 57 glaring problems in your plan. It's a good thing I can solve them."
"What?" Riang wasn't sure if Owen's words were trustworthy.
Sure, her plans weren't foolproof, but he spotted 57 problems just by looking at it? All she saw were at least 2 problems that would be a bit difficult but not impossible to overcome.
She crossed her arms and with a doubtful tone, said, "Alright then, tell me all of the problems that you spotted."
"The first problem with your plan is going straight to Undbok. We aren't strong enough nor do we have enough resources to last us a month to leave that place." Owen knew to himself that he was lucky that he first 'spawned' somewhere around the periphery of the forest instead of being in the middle.
"So what are you proposing?" Riang raised an eyebrow.
"We should go to Mysteriea first to gather supplies, weapons and equipment to deal with the wolves and the stupid rock crabs." Owen knew how much of a run killer wolves were to players.
But compared to rock crabs? Even more so! They can even kill a middlegame level player if they weren't careful!
This was because they swarm injured creatures and use poison and incapacitate them slowly until they can no longer run. Meaning, if you're a player who's slow and injured, rock crabs will be able to pile debuffs on you until you're no longer able to move or outrun them.
Their venom prevents wounds from closing and it even rots bone marrow according to the in-game dialogue.
Although debuffs are welcome for Owen, what about Riang? What about Oslan? They would die the moment they get that kind of venom in their bodies.
"Mysteriea?" Riang frowned. This wasn't linked well with her plan.
After thinking about it, she shook her head. "No, no way. Time's ticking. If you managed to find me, that means my pursuers are also close behind. We cannot keep delaying or else I'll be caught sooner."
Until now, Riang had no idea what organization was after her. But Owen clearly knew who sent them, but not how strong the pursuers were.
This gave her the misconception that they were close by, causing her to urge herself to move faster.
For Riang to know her pursuers, she must have encountered them at some point.
So, Owen decided to ask her about it.
"Say, how did you know people were chasing after you?" Trying to be subtle, Owen chose an easygoing manner of speech.
But his attempt didn't go as well as he thought. When he saw that Riang was gritting her teeth, it must've struck a deep nerve.
"It was because they said so!" Riang scowled, showing an ugly expression.
She recounted her experience during the past years about that time when she was still in Silmoun Kingdom. As her mother was training her troops in three straight lines, she was allowed to play around in the capital while her mother dealt with important matters.
Suddenly, she saw swift figures wearing black cloaks approach her only for her vision to suddenly turn dark.
When she regained her sight, all she could see was that she was in a cage being transported in the middle of the mountains with nothing but trees surrounding her. Strange four legged beasts pulled the carriage with her in it.
When she pleaded and cried to her captors, all they did was laugh in her face and scare her. They even stated that she was merely an item for their own use and that Silmoun will be out of her reach forever.
At that moment, Riang thought that she wouldn't be able to return home.
But as fate would have it, when nighttime struck, a few dozen corpses with illuminated bodies of blue mist and azure wispy eyes attacked the people who were transporting her. This chaos allowed her to escape and make a run for it temporarily.
However, those who captured her didn't want her to do so that easily.
They chased her down to a cliff with nothing but a river below. She jumped down without hesitation and was swept by the water.
She tried to swim away, but she soon grew tired and lost consciousness.
When Riang woke up, she was in Wiunlen.
From that point on, even though it took two years, Riang never stopped working hard trying her best to go back home.
She swallowed her pride, she started to partake in work that used to disgust her. The sharp insults she received in the tavern, the dirt and smudge that she cleaned from the restaurant tables, the oily scent when she caught fish, that didn't deter her from continuing.
In fact, she continued to practice how to fight in those circumstances.
And that was when Owen came in.
Listening to the story, Owen's eyes sparkled as he figured out some important details.
He happened to know a thing or two about True Undeads.
Owen probed, "Do you have a rough estimate for their strength? How powerful are they? Can they use soul energy effectively in battle? How many were chasing you?"
Riang tried to remember that time during the True Undeads attacking the transport carriages. "I saw that they could take down the undead with some effort. As for their numbers, around twenty five? And yes, I remember that all of them could use soul energy in combat and there were others that used it for defense or healing."
"Now what about the undead that they fought? What did they look like?" Owen placed more emphasis on this question.
Riang didn't see the importance of this, but since Owen asked, she answered, "They were all humanoid, some of them were missing limbs and a few of them could fight well."
Owen's eyes widened for a second. He now had an outline of the enemy's strength.
True Undeads are a type of undead who has self will. They can decide for themselves and are true individuals unlike revived undeads from necromancers.
The way they increase their battle strength is interesting. Whenever they kill a living creature, they can attach a severed limb to themselves so that they can gain the abilities and power of that part.
This means that they can attach as many arms to themselves and it will all count as battle strength. However, it isn't instantaneous. They have to spend time and 'seep' their soul energy into the attached part in order to control it.
That would mean that the more parts they have attained roughly indicates the strength of a True Undead. Equating that into another term would mean the size of a True Undead can be equated to strength.
And from Riang's description of their lack of limbs, the True Undead were somewhere within the level 18-30 range. So if the people from Ardlew who came for Riang can fight them and win with some difficulty, they would be around level 21-33.
If they were around that level, Owen knew what they were up against.
They were at the level of foot soldiers!
Escorting Riang back to Silmoun is very doable!