Chapter 404

The Inn that the tea merchants lead them to its a humble brick building, made of blocks of the same inky black stone as everything else in town, three levels high with a large tavern on the main floor. As promised, it overlooks the common market which shows no signs of calming down as night approaches. In fact, with the number of soldiers that were sent out today, it is even busier than the merchants say is normal, with everyone wanting something special for a victory dinner. 

The slender Lamia woman behind the desk looks stunned to see the group come in together. She might cater to the traveling farmers, but demons of wealth and heritage like Cain and Vala appear to be would very rarely have anything to do with commoners like her or the farmers. 

“Greetings Duke Cain, how might I help you today?” She asks hesitantly despite the friendly look on his face. 

“These fine gentlemen say that you should have some rooms available. We don’t mind sharing if you are nearly full.” Cain informs her, and the innkeeper nods.

“We do. The whole third floor is empty. It costs a little more than the second floor, but the rooms are quieter.”

“Then we will take two double rooms on the third floor after we have dinner. I’m not sure how long we will be in town, but it might be a while if the rooms are going to stay available.”

Two beds to a room is common for traveler rooms almost everywhere since most business partners and adventuring groups aren’t quite close enough to be sharing one bed if they can avoid it. The same is true here, and the lamia passes over the keys and gestures toward the tables

“Pick anywhere you like and my daughter will bring out your food. You boys too, I know you are hungry.” She says the last bit to the tea merchants, tossing them room keys of their own. 

A small lamia with black and orange scales brings them bowls of stew a few minutes later and Cain orders a round of mead for the table, passing the server a gold coin that sends her slithering away at a rapid pace. 

“You know, in this city, that would buy everyone at the table’s food and drinks for a week.” The taller merchant with light blue horns in his black hair whispers and Cain smiles. 

“And if you tip an obsession demon well they will look out for you all evening. I don’t know anything about this city, but I’m pretty well versed in lamia.” Cain answers with a smile as their drinks return on a rapidly moving tray above a small lamia head. 

“Anything else you need, just let me know. I know a lot about the city if it’s your first time here.” The waitress tells Cain with a huge smile only a lamia could manage. 

The farmers look on in awe at what they view as Cain’s talent with the ladies, not realizing that his luck with the server is simply him exploiting a common trait to all Obsession demons and not a skill unique to Cain. They’ve never had the spare money to try such a tactic, plus the city folk look down on them a little to begin with. 

“Are the crazed a regular problem on that scale?” Nemu asks, stretching out on her chair once her dinner was finished. 

“If they always attacked on that scale there either wouldn’t be any crazed or any city residents left.” A burly Wrath Bringer at the next table answers her with a grin, clearly not bothered by either outcome, as long as there was a fight.

Cain looks over his status and sees an oddity in his description. The demon known as George is Epic Quality, but lists as Awakened Mythic. All of Cain’s companions increased in quality, so he thought that was the natural way, but looking at this, simply knowing a Mythic skill won’t increase their body’s quality, which would increase their modifiers.

Looking over the room, that is the case for most of them, only one Captain is actually Mythic Quality among the tavern patrons, other than Cain’s group.

A closer look reveals that the awakened all have the same damage reduction buff though, so they must go through some level of change, even if isn’t enough for the system to increase their quality ranking. 

The tales that the guards tell get more and more embellished as the night goes on and the drinks flow, to the point that even Cain is almost convinced that he was on par with some avenging hero wading through the battle.

Nemu has been taking notes of the stories as they progress, preparing to make an epic ballad about their adventures for when they go home. Everyone loves a good song about heroes rescuing cities from villainous invaders after all. 

The tea merchants are scheduled to take over the stall at first light, so they retire early to catch up on their sleep, while Cain and the others drink until last call. 

Alternating their equipped items might have cleaned their clothes, but it didn’t clean the body underneath and Cain is happy to see that there is a large shower in the room when they finally retire for the night. The water is cold, but there is a lot of it, and that is precisely what they all needed to feel properly clean again before bed.

Laura wakes everyone up just after dawn or at least forces them to get mobile since they weren’t actually sleeping. Now that there is enough light to see, the Dragon wants to tour the city, and she has a plan.

There is a storage vendor in the city nearby, where they can obtain more storage boxes like the chest that Cain has. Killing the Mythic beasts has a chance to drop the item needed to enchant larger storage containers that can be put in inventory, so they are supposedly easier to get here, and Laura wants one to expand her inventory capacity. 

It’s honestly a great idea. The Companions’ lack of storage has been a headache to them all for a while now. 

After that, they can tour the area and see if there are any quests or missions available for them to do. Anything that might give them an unexpected reward. Random rewards are pretty common for the system side of the Quests and perfect for their objective here. 

The same young lamia that served dinner is serving breakfast this morning, looking pretty worn out after the long night of celebrations. She is almost guaranteed to be the owner’s daughter, but Cain still commends her on making it to work today. 

“The full breakfast special as requested. Honestly, I’m surprised that you are not only awake but in good enough shape to eat. The other guests who stayed here until closing time are still asleep, and even the tea merchants only got up half an hour ago.” She sighs. 

“I have just the thing for your condition. You can only use it on occasion or your body will collapse under the strain, but it is just right for the aftermath of a special event.” Cain chuckles, casting [Refreshing Wind] on their waitress and wiping away her weariness.

“Oh, I haven’t felt this good in months. I don’t know where you got that spell, but it is a lifesaver today.” She cheers quietly, before heading back into the kitchen to grab more plates for the customers that have just come in. 

Other than bar snacks, there is no menu at the Inn, the options for food are yes or no. ‘A little bit’ might also work, but you risk the cook thinking you don’t like their food. They do offer both tea and coffee, served either in a small cup or a wooden beer stein, which seems more popular among the coffee drinkers that are headed to work. 

There is well over a liter of coffee in those mugs, but to the tired laborers it is only just enough to get them functioning for the day.

Unfortunately, there are no other adventurers in this place, so they can’t really find out much about quests and such, but the morning chatter has given them a lot of insight about the current events of the city, especially about the plans to improve the road that Cain and the others came in on. 

It is the main trade route for food coming into the city, and the wet season is coming up. The path is already heavily rutted and muddy, Cain knows, so if the wet season is only about to start, it will soon be nearly impossible to make the journey in a day with the wagons from the far end. 

Another day might not be the end of the world for the farmers, but it means the city needs twice as many soldiers on patrol if they are going to escort the wagons for a two day journey. 

Last winter they did week-long shifts from the outer villages to the halfway point, going back to the furthest village every morning until another patrol took over for them after a week, but that cost the city more than they were willing to pay. 

Sending out Earth Mages to build a gravel road is the plan, but it will take weeks to finish since high-ranking mages aren’t willing to work for what they’re paying. That will make it the largest construction project outside the walls in twenty years, according to the patrons of the Inn.

There was talk of having the earth mages stay in the city and sending the gravel in wagons to build the road with cheaper labor, but if the road base isn’t good, it would be a lost cause, plus they would still need even more extra guards to protect the convoy of workers. 

That gives Cain a good idea of where to start his search for rewards though. The road crew will be looking for adventurers to clear the area before they send workers out, Cain is certain. They wouldn’t risk not being able to find labor because the crew got killed by the Crazed after all.