He led us into a nearby barn that wasn't anything like a barn on the inside. There were no animals or storage materials, or any other goods. Instead, it had been rearranged as some kind of meeting room, with a sturdy table at the center, joined by six chairs at the side, and one at the head. If I didn't know any better, and I didn't, I'd say it was some kind of council room.
Not just that, it was already prepared for our arrival, including a pot of tea and necessities.
It had me surprised, but at the same time, why was I even?
"Well, at least I know why you wanted to take paper with you," I commented as we entered and took our seats.
"I figured you'd come up with something like this," Velariah replied with a chuckle. "And I knew we'd have to see it to understand it better."
"You expect a lot of me. You know my drawing skills are horrible."
"As long as the idea is clear," Valtheril said. "I can figure out the rest."
"I sure hope so. You're mostly going to have to make this from scratch… well, except the windmills. You know how to make those. Actually, it's not going to be that hard as long as you have capable smiths."
He merely nodded as I started drawing another masterpiece. And by masterpiece I meant a windmill drawn in stick figure style. The water channels followed as well as the long screw needed to drain.
"So," I continued when I 'finished'. "There is one more thing that I think would be useful, and that would be to dig channels so that the water flows towards the mills, so that when you want to drain, there is no water left on the fields.
"Solid idea," Valtheril said as he took the piece of paper and stared at it for a good while. "Are there any doubts you have about this?"
"Plenty," I replied. "I'm no expert on physics, and while I do know this works, there may be something I overlooked. Just being completely honest here. If you want, and I'd truly advise this, try making a scale model first to see how everything interacts."
"That was on my mind already. I'll definitely do that. Thank you."
Of course it was. No surprises there.
He took another minute or two to look at the drawing very closely, taking in every little detail before unsheathing his sword, which he used to ignite the paper to burn it, not even leaving the slightest trace behind.
"Well, he said. "I trust you on the fact that this will work… eventually, even if we do need to do a bit of testing. In my mind, everything you said makes sense, so this quest can be withdrawn and things can be set in motion. I'm looking forward to seeing these farms flourish once more. In fact, if things work out the way I want them to, they will more than flourish."
"No doubt," I said. "What's in the water anyway? As far as my knowledge goes, flooding is never desirable. Even if it does improve the soil quality, and I don't think that's always the case, you'd lose a harvest."
"That is true," he said calmly. "It is never worth it. We don't actually know what's in the water, but experimentation with it has shown that it's the cause of better soil quality, but only when completely flooding the lands. Simply watering, strangely enough, wasn't enough to yield results. The treemenders have looked into that in the past, but they couldn't find out what it was."
"I see. Odd, but intriguing."
The room fell silent for only a brief moment as Velariah was the one to ask a question.
"Do you think we'll be able to revisit the dungeon soon to continue our talks?"
"Not quite," The general said calmly. "I went in recently and they aren't quite ready yet. That much I could ascertain with simple yes and no questions. We'll need a bit longer."
"Fair enough."
"With that, I'll consider the matter here closed, at least for now. You can pick up the reward from Kantasia whenever you want. I'll stay here for the day to observe and do a bit of planning."
That was it? That was far easier than I'd expected. I almost felt guilty for collecting a reward for that.
"Alright," Velariah said. "In that case, I guess we'll head back and figure out what we're going to do next."
I nodded in agreement.
"If you need more information, well, you know where to find us."
"I might," Valtheril smiled. "I very well might inquire more later on."
With that same smile, he made his way to the massive doors and opened them. Then without looking back, he said his goodbyes before walking off.
"He can't sit still at all, can he?" Seralyn commented.
"Nope," Velariah answered. "No, he cannot."
"Well, that was certainly interesting," I added as the others stood up. "By the way, did the Lore Keeper have any other quests?"
"Maybe she does. I haven't checked as I'd found this one. In fact, I didn't even get to check everything on the board. Who knows what's still there? I just thought this would be the most interesting."
"Interesting for sure, albeit a lot of traveling and very little to do, especially for you guys."
"Eh, we'll find something else. If we get back quickly, there's still time to do stuff."
"Aight. Let's get going then."
We left the building and prepared for the journey back. I managed to get a glimpse of Valtheril who was briskly walking to one of the mills and chuckled at the sight.
Yep. No sitting still for him, alright.
As we traversed the area, I couldn't help but keep an eye or two on the immense amount of water in the area. To drain all of that would be a colossal undertaking. Then again, this was Valtheril we were talking about, which had me curious about how long exactly it would take.
First things first though, he'd have to get a scale model. When that proved successful, there would have to be a multitude of mills constructed, which in itself would take an abundance of time, and finally, they'd have to be adjusted and refitted to carry out this task.
Yet, he seemed optimistic, or rather, excited about it. The opportunities this would provide were immense, and I was almost certain that was a large part of his drive.
By the time we got back to Dawnleaf, the sun was almost at its highest point. It was as Velariah had said, there was still plenty of time to do things. As soon as we appeared in front of the guild hall, Kantasia took it as her cue to come around to the back and open the doors to the storehouse. Inside, Velariah was quick to ask questions about new quests.
"I have just received a few new requests that I've yet to look into. If you don't mind waiting a bit while I sift through them…"
"That's fair."
And so we ended up waiting in front of the desk, after making sure no new requests had been added to the board. Though, I wasn't sure if Kantasia was happy with all the attention that was suddenly on her. Draco noticed and gently pulled Seralyn and Nira away, leaving just me and Velariah to watch as she sorted quests in separate piles.
"I daresay things quieted down around here, for better or worse" She muttered as she worked. "Sure, there's a bunch of quests to transport materials now, but I know that's not the type of work you're looking for."
"Ideally not, but if there's nothing else… I wouldn't mind lending a hand, if the others are okay with it."
"I guess it's okay," I added. "For today, just to have something to do."
"Hold on, this looks more up your alley," The Lore Keeper suddenly called out as she held a fresh piece of paper closer to her eyes. "That is, if you don't mind traveling a bit again."
She suddenly looked quite confused and turned the sheet around, narrowing her eyes onto some sort of marking that was on the back.
"How did this end up in Dawnleaf?"
I figured that the marking had something to do with the origin of the paper.
"Strange," She commented, turning the paper one more. "There's a hunter requesting aid in felling a, and these are his words, mythical creature that he's been trailing for years. Says he's finally tracked it down but underestimated its ability. Those interested are to meet him tomorrow morning at the intersection to the Darkwoods."
Darkwoods, now that's a typical fantasy forest name… I think.
"Hunting some kind of mythical creature does sound interesting," Velariah replied quickly. "The Darkwoods, though… I know where it's located, but I've never been there myself. What do you say, Elania?"
"Hey, don't ask me. You know I'm fine with whatever. We're talking about a forest here, right?"
She nodded.
"A dangerous one?"
"I don't know. Again, I've never been there. What rank is this quest in?"
"Well," The Lore Keeper hesitated for a second. "He's requesting gold rank and up, and considering he knows the strength of what he's up against, I would qualify it as such. Though, I too am unfamiliar with that area as it's outside my scope."
Velariah sighed deeply.
"Well, let me ask the others. If they're fine with it, I'm gonna have to ask if we can borrow that cart… again. I don't think we'll get there in time otherwise. Kind of strange that it's all on a short timetable. How did that happen?"
"Well," The Lore Keeper replied. "As I said before, I'm not even sure what this request is doing here. There are other adventurer guilds much closer than ours. In fact, this paper is from the one in Darkleaf, which is at most an hour from the forest."
Darkleaf? I think I'm starting to understand where the name Darkwoods came from. There seemed to be a certain trend, after all.
"Anyway," She continued. "That cart is free for use, but I'm afraid that this time, I'll have to ask a fee for it."
"You can deduct it from the amount the guild owes us. We completed the other quest."
"I see."
The knight nodded and hurried her way to the others. Seralyn looked taken aback by the sudden news, but none of them seemed to have any objections to heading out again so soon. It had become a bit of a standard these past few days, but at the same time, it was exciting to see things.
"I take it that's a yes?" I asked.
"Yep. Time to start packing… again. Well, good thing we already have most of our things prepared."
"Would you like this with you?" Kantasia asked, waving the quest sheet around.
"Sure, we'll take it." The white-haired accepted the paper, looked over it once more, and then stashed it away in her pack. "Might be useful to show that hunter."
"Because otherwise he'd start hunting me?" I asked with a sly smile.
"Who knows?" She simply shrugged before grinning afterward. "I mean, you're pretty mythical alright."
I grinned with her as we made our way to our friends, thanking Kantasia for her efforts.
Within thirty minutes, we had everything, including things we needed for extended travel, packed and ready once more. We had no idea how long we'd stay away for this time and informed Elly and Minia of the situation. Soon enough, we were on the road again, the northbound one this time around.
It had me amused. This was more like the life of an adventurer than what we'd done so far, at least, in my book it was. I mean, they were supposed to be out and about pretty much all the time, without staying in one place too much, right?
"I'm gonna trust you to navigate us there," I said once we were outside the walls. "How far is it?"
"Far, as in, hopefully, we get there before nightfall."
"And you know the way?"
"It's easy enough. We're going to come across multiple intersections with this road, and they are marked. When we come across one with a road leading to Goldleaf, we know we're almost there."
"Goldleaf? Will we come close?"
"Nope, but the way to the provincial capital is made clear well in advance."
"I see."
"So," Draco spoke calmly as I watched the trees to my right pass by and wondered how different the other forest would be. "Miss Velariah, are there any other details you are able to share?"
"There's not much I know. We're supposed to meet this person. I reckon they will tell us what they're after. With the wide variety of weapons we provide, we should be able to fell whatever they're after. That is not even considering the others that may show up."
"I'm not so sure whether I like this quest," Seralyn stated clearly. "There's something off about all this."
"Let's hear it," Velariah replied.
"You said before that they've been hunting this thing for years. How come they suddenly need help? Like, wouldn't they know they'd need help much earlier?"
"It wasn't so much as hunting," The white-haired elf corrected her. "The way I understand it, he's been tracking it down. I doubt there'd be people interested in joining someone just for that. It'd be like going on a quest, and you never know when you'll finish it, if you finish it."
"That does make more sense," The archer admitted. "I can live with that."
"And the name of the woods?" I added. "Is that because of the name of the nearby village or because it's actually dark?"
"If you guessed the first, you would be correct. Though, for all I know, it could very well be dark there. I hope not, but we'll see."
The thought of a gloomy forest with unknown dangers wasn't a pleasant one, but at least I'd have capable friends to accompany me. If I didn't, I feared that I wouldn't step inside, despite my strength, not voluntarily at least.
I still watched the forest at my side, which stretched ever forward, and was silently thankful that it hadn't been the kind you'd see in horror movies. There were plenty of open places, and it was fairly well illuminated. Even the darkest areas weren't dark at all.
"Well," Seralyn let out after a while. "I hope this will be a challenge. The things we've done lately haven't been that thrilling."
"Says the one that didn't get hit by a hammer," I lashed out with a chuckle.
"I could teach you how to use a bow, if you'd like to stay at range," She replied slyly.
"Thanks for the offer, but I fear that's pointless. If I want a ranged weapon, it would be much easier to practice with the gun, and besides, I'm much more effective as heavy cavalry. Jeez, I can't believe I just said that."
"The cavalry part?" Velariah questioned.
"The part where I'd prefer to be in close quarters. It still sounds ridiculous to me as that's where the danger is. Though, I suppose it helps to have strong armor that I can trust… and then a lot of power in the form of my inherities behind that."
"We should continue expanding that arsenal of yours with that leg knife idea you had. If nothing gets close to you, you have much less to worry about."
"True."
The journey proceeded smoothly, with the forest eventually ending and the road taking a turn. I followed it as instructed and we soon found ourselves traversing fields of green, with the occasional flowerbed. It didn't take long before we reached the first intersection where there were two signs. One pointed towards our village and had its name on it, and the other pointed to and was marked 'Duskleaf'.
"We should visit it someday," I said after moving past the marker. "The name has been mentioned so often, yet we've never gone there."
"If you wish, I'm all for stopping by on the way back," The knight said in agreement. "Though, keep in mind, it's not much of a special place. It's even smaller than Dawnleaf, but hey, who knows if they have any good quests?"
"My thoughts exactly."
"And they have good booze. I'm gonna get some of that!" Seralyn eagerly replied to our suggestion.
Of course.
I took in our surroundings with both my eyes and nose. Some of the flowers growing in the fields at my sides had such strong fragrances that I couldn't imagine them not being used in soaps. Not only that, but they seemed delicious too, as a bit further on, we came across wild, roaming brown cattle that preferred them over grass.
I assumed they were wild, for there were no fences or farmhouses in sight. Yet, they didn't seem unfriendly or territorial as we crossed through their lands. Curious, sure, they lifted their heads in our direction and watched us closely, but there was no sign of aggression.
It was interesting to me, as I'd heard stories about cows and how they killed more people every year than sharks and a bunch of other animals you'd expect to be more dangerous. To just allow roaming groups like these through areas that were traveled by foot and carriage was incredible to see.
"I'm pretty sure you have cows, don't you?" Velariah asked as she caught me staring.
"Yeah, we do, but they are always fenced off of roads… as far as I know that is. I heard they can be quite dangerous."
"Dangerous?" She asked incredulously. "For real?"
I could tell I genuinely surprised her.
"Yes?" I replied with more of a question than an answer.
"Huh, that's interesting. These are as tame as kittens. Never hurt anyone. Hell, you can even go to them and pet them if you like."
"Amazing."
That was all I could say. It made me wonder what other animal species that could be considered dangerous would fall into the same category here. Obviously, there were stark differences between domestication here and on Earth.
Yet, there was one species that I knew of that had a very interesting story behind them regarding their temperament towards humans, and I doubted my friends had heard of it before, let alone seen it for themselves.
"Have you guys ever heard of penguins?"