My broken arm healed quickly, but who cared if my childhood friend was gone?
I barely even smiled when a guild employee came to announce to me my rank-up.
It was clear they tried to coax me to stay a huntress and I for sure would stay being one.
Even if only for the small chance to see Rune again.
I talked about Silvia’s offer with my parents.
I didn’t want to leave, but they were on board immediately.
‘I totally hadn’t bothered them with my sulking.
Totally not!’ So I packed the base necessities I’d need for longer travels and the day of my own departure came.
I stepped out of my parents’ yurt and Silvia greeted me, “hey Rookie, ready to meet the team?” I only nodded.
Mom and dad wrapped their arms around me, “we love you, Aria and whenever you want, you can come back, okay?
We trust Silvia, but if anything happens, please write to us and we’ll come, okay?” Mom nodded along, tears in her eyes.
They pulled away from me and put on warm smiles.
Dad pulled out a small box and pushed it into my hands.
I opened it immediately and was stunned.
All I could squeak out was, “a pendant?” “As long as you got a shield, this will protect you,” dad said as I inspected the adamantite looking necklace with its small amulet.
It was the same one my parents always wore and positively stunning.
My face grew hot, “m-mom…
d-dad…
it’s..
it’s beautiful..
thank..
you..” I embraced dad with everything I had.
Who cared what effects it had, without game UI I had no idea anyways.
This having a stone embedded gleaming is such a beautiful dusty rose color and being the same as theirs was enough already.
Silvia then slung one of her muscular armored arms around me and pulled me along.
The handle of her massive war hammer bumped into my back.
She pulled me away from my parents as I started crying, while they waved me goodbye.
Soon we reached the northern gate.
Two hunters stood there waiting.
“Oi Silvia, dat teh ‘eart broken one?” The hunter on the left greeted me.
He was almost as old looking as Silvia, with dark hazelnut hair and wore armor made out of bone and leather.
His chest was partially exposed and…
very hairy…
A pair of massive crystalline gauntlets hung on his waist.
‘Yeah I don’t know if I like him.’ The other hunter, a huntress with a long glaive slung across her back punched him on the back of his head.
“Stop being so blunt!
Can’t you see she’s hurting?” “As if ya a’ any betta.” They started bickering.
“I’m not…” I started, but Silvia disrupted me.
“Stop it, you two.” Then introduced them, “the idiot brawler is Stonard and next to him is Irelia.
They joined me a while ago and recently both reached gold rank.
Together we call ourselves El Dorado.” The huntress with the glaive, Irelia, winked at me, “nice to meet you~, don’t bother talking to this idiot.” She was wearing a long armored skirt, fluffed out with a petticoat and adorned with detailed malazite guards.
Her open helmet had more of a princess’s crown and she wore one long braid the color of cinnamon.
“Dun call mah an id’ot!” He growled almost like an angry dog.
“Where’s Dana?” Silvia asked the two.
“She’s still getting the rented carriage ready~.” Irelia squirmed weirdly.
“She’ll come soon~.” “Dana?
I thought teams were four people only?” “She’s our cute little porter~,” Irelia answered in Silvia’s stead, but a bit fidgety.
It seemed oddly fitting for this maybe 30 year old huntress.
“She’s umm a little special, you could say~,” she straight up blushed.
What a weird group.
After a few minutes a carriage arrived with a girl around 18 or 19 sitting on a boxed seat.
Dana, I guessed as I saw the woman for the first time, had short blonde hair and freckles.
She was the only one wearing a leather overcoat, hiding most of her figure.
A set of sharp green eyes moved to Irelia before landing on the whole group I was now part of.
Then she nodded at the group, her lips moving into a tiny smile.
Irelia jumped up onto the box seat and ruffled her short hair.
It made her head bob, but she didn’t say anything, just looking content.
We left Tide village towards a route leading around Tide alps.
I sat in the back of the carriage with the others and watched the landscape.
This region was beautiful and the road wound up in serpentines.
I turned to take in the scenery and could see not only Tide village, but thanks to the blue skies, you could even see the tree tops of Scarlet forest.
From this far up I sometimes could even see Anzeros grazing, even if they looked as small as ants now.
Stonard and Irelia were bickering most of the time.
Our porter, Dana, stayed silent.
I quietly asked Silvia, “have I done something to annoy Dana?
She hasn’t said a thing since I joined.” “She’s just shy and has other things on her mind.
Just wait until she’s drunk though.” Silvia made a weird gesture.
“She gets really touchy, be careful,” she then laughed and I swear it was like I could see Dana shake her head.
We traveled this way for almost a week, until we reached the other side of Tide alps with barely anything happening.
Lazily I watched the clouds, that one looks like dad eating a massive piece of bone meat off a bone,’ I thought.
There was nothing else to do okay?!
Sure the scenery was stunning, but we drove so high up the alps, there weren’t even many trees anymore.
After even more days traveling along the alps, we reached a fissure at the side of the mountain.
The carriage stopped at a massive gate.
I’ve never seen a gated wall this big before, even in my previous life.
It was built close to the mountain’s fissure.
I had to strain my neck and couldn’t even make out the upper walk ways.
There were lots of big round openings in the wall, with every single one having cannons mounted and sticking out.
“Welcome to Marx,” Silvia said as our carriage entered an elevator.
Yes, an elevator.
It was crudely made with some sort of wood and adamantite.
“Marx?” I asked.
Of course I knew the town from the game, but there it didn’t have such an elevator or gate area.
Marx was supposed to be deep inside a mountain, leading out to a desert.
“‘Tis teh firs’ stop.” The elevator began to move down slowly and after half an hour with oil lamps only, a cave opened up.
There were glowing stones around everywhere, illuminating a sprawling underground town.
I could make out Marx’s underground waterfall in the distance.
Dana, our porter, turned the carriage towards a big wooden building.
“This is the local guild hall~,” Irelia explained.
“We’re gonna stay here for a few weeks to quest, right Silvia?~” Silvia grinned, “only if they have some good silver rank quests.” “We dun hunt Regrex’s?” Stonard asked.
Of course I knew these beasts, the were lightning fast dinosaur like monsters, running on four legs with wings between them.
Yes these beasts could glide!
I felt myself shrink a little, conscious of my now bronze rank 3.
Irelia slapped Stonard on the back of the head, “idiot!
You want to get our rookie killed?~” His eyes mustered me while he complained, “ya dun ha’e tu slap ma!
Look a’ ‘er, she’ fine.
Got g’ad up talisman ev’n.” “Dana, please bring the Peco’s and carriage to the stables,” Silvia told our porter.
The girl gave a thumbs up and went off.
I followed the group into the guild.
Inside I noticed the stark difference to Tide’s guild even more.
There were easily multiple dozen groups of hunters, young to old.
The center of the hall had an expansive canteen with a few cat eared folks in guild uniforms serving food.
To the right was a long guild counter and a wall filled with quests.
Silvia led us towards the baths first, where we split up and Stonard went into the men’s changing room.
We cleaned ourselves after our journey and I decided to explore the town.
On the small roads were more people than I’ve ever seen since being reincarnated.
I stared around like a true country bumpkin, most of the people wearing linen clothes in widely different colors.
There were a lot of tunics and lighter clothes, with a lot of the passersby exposing quite the skin.
Between them were more hunters than Tide village ever had, some in full armor and with their weapons holstered, but the majority wore the same simple leather stuff I currently did.
I got lost exploring multiple times and only after asking the way, I made it back to the guild.