Chapter 171: Travel Arrangements

Chapter 171: Travel Arrangements

The next morning, I awoke bright and early and hurried to the Adventurer's Guild. The graveyard shift workers, who were still on duty, were taken aback by my early arrival. When I mentioned that Thern had instructed me to be there early, they couldn't help but chuckle. However, they also confessed that even Thern's usual arrival time was still a good hour or two away.

"I can at least take your luggage so long." One of the staff members offered.

I nodded and placed my various chests on the floor. The man was startled momentarily before giving a firm nod and then rubbing his hands together energetically. He then started lifting the chests one by one, somehow balancing them in a tower formation. Some of the other staff joked about him showing off to pretty girls again as he trundled to deliver the chests.

Despite what the staff had said, Thern did, in fact, arrive sooner than they expected. Before even greeting him, I silently handed him a flask. He stared at it briefly, twisted the cap off, and took a swig. He immediately started coughing, followed by laughter.

"Ah! That's the stuff!" Thern said, sounding much more pleasant than yesterday.

"It's good to see you, friend. Again, I'm sorry for the wait." I apologized and handed him more flasks, which he eagerly accepted.

"It's not that bad. I'd be taking the long way home if not for you." Thern admitted.

He pointed to an obsidian-colored chest in his luggage, which was highly locked up with multiple chains and enchantments.

"In here is a brand-spanking new furnace heart, all thanks to that salamander you dealt with," Thern explained.

"Right... I had wondered who won the bidding war," I said, recalling my conversation with Luke. "I had hoped the dwarves would win it so I could negotiate for another silver slime core."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Ha! Well, you'll certainly have the money to potentially negotiate. Although you could also sell your services, many beasties live around us with valuable parts." Thern said.

"So I could do a bunch of hunting quests and get another core that way?"

"Aye. My pa has already told some of the higher-ups that you were the one to secure the inferno sac." Thern answered. "Just make sure to do it through the Adventurer's Guild branch, so you have some diplomatic protection."

"Diplomatic protection?"

"Just in case some scoundrel tries to renege on a deal. Then the full weight of the guild can be dropped upon them." Thern said with a hearty chortle.

I followed Thern as he led the way; we stopped off at the library, where he collected a few of his things before heading towards a deeper section of the guild. I hadn't seen this section before and wondered where we were headed. Did the guild have some sort of staging area for wagons or something? Thern unfortunately refused to answer my query and instead just chuckled with a "wait and see" response.

We had to enter through three locked doors, and my tag briefly glowed as we passed through each one. I turned my head to Thern, showing my concerned curiosity, and he smirked.

"Security. It's checking that you haven't stolen that Gold-rank tag. Congrats, by the way! Bring me something fancy to enchant, and I'll do it for free." Thern replied, showing a toothy grin.

The final door led to a large room with a massive circular dais. Hundreds of glyphs and sigils decorated the platform engraved in gold, a stark contrast to the almost pitch-black stone the main structure was made of. In the center of the dais was a waist-high column, also fully engraved but made out of pristine marble, and at the tip was a beautiful-looking crystal sphere. I briefly thought it might have been a slime core, but upon further inspection, it seemed to be an artificially made crystal.

Seeing my shock and surprise, Thern couldn't help but laugh. "First time seeing a teleportation room?"

"I didn't even know they existed..." I admitted.

"Aye. Most people don't. They are quite expensive to use and with very strict security." Thern answered and then patted the black box holding the furnace's heart. "Our trip is being sponsored by the Empire! They don't trust such a valuable object being transported by ordinary means."

"I'm not going to complain... But I'm sure we could handle some bandits between the two of us."

"No doubt," Thern admitted confidently. "But I guess all the smuggling going on here in Kaerlin has made some of them worry. Not to mention the pegasi and orc attacks... But look on the bright side; their paranoia gets us a comfy trip!"

"Sounds great. So how does it work?"

"Ha! I don't blame you for asking. Unfortunately, this is one of the rare occasions that I can't actually explain something Enchanting related." Thern admitted, almost looking slightly embarrassed. "I've spent months staring at these glyphs, trying to decipher them, but it's like it's written in multiple bloody foreign languages. All I know is that you place a keystone in two of these and then channel mana into the orb, and it works."

"Keystone?"

"And how many other coworkers have you brought home with ya?" Thern's mom snorted in response.

Thern facepalmed while fiercely groaning. "Just cause I work with the humans doesn't mean I've adopted their taste in woman, ma! I'm still a dwarf at heart."

"That's a relief on a poor mother's heart," She responded.

"Bah! The only way to relieve your black heart would be to throw it into a volcano." Thern spat.

Then, both dwarves abruptly started laughing so hard that tears began forming in their eyes. I dropped my spell and looked at the two, feeling lost and confused.

"I have no idea what's going on..." I mumbled to myself.

"My son is saying you're too skinny to be a wife. And I don't blame him. Are those humans starving you or something? You're practically skin and bones!" Thern's mom responded.

"Ma!" Thern shouted.

"Sorry... Sorry... Forgive an old bat for being brusque; I haven't had my morning drink yet."

I pulled out a flask and handed it to her, immediately making the woman burst out with a devilish grin. "Boy, I think I like this one!"

"Ma!"

"You're right. Where's my manners." The woman chuckled. "Name's Thessa; pleased to meet ya!"

"Syl. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Thessa nodded, then finally took a swig of the canteen. She kept drinking and drinking before finally stopping and letting out a breathy sigh followed by a belch.

"Well, slap my tits; that's probably the strongest drink I've ever had!" Thessa exclaimed happily.

"Did ya think I was fibbing to pa?" Thern questioned.

"I thought maybe you'd lost your gut living out in the sun with the humans," Thessa admitted. "But I'm happy to be proven wrong. Although you've clearly gotten rusty if that teleportation was anything to go by!"

"You can insult me, but never insult my work! I copied the keystone design perfectly!" Thern shouted back.

"Then explain what went wrong with the teleportation? It clearly needed more Mana to compensate for your screwup."

Thern reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment with what looked like black markings on it. He stomped over and angrily thrust it towards his mom.

"Good thing I took a rubbing of the finished product." Thern defended himself.

Thessa examined the piece of parchment with the utmost scrutiny.

"Hmm... I'd give this a less than five percent deviation... Not bad, boy!" She said, scratching her chin. "But then what the hell happened?"

"I thought maybe the guild might not have charged the mana battery enough," Thern said.

"Surely they wouldn't be that stupid," Thessa said. "Although the only other possibility is too much dimensional weight."

"Dimensional weight?" I asked.

"It's not exactly an official term, but we use it to describe the phenomenon. Basically, you can't cheat teleport costs with dimensional storage." Thern answered. "But even with the extra chests, it wouldn't have cost that much more Mana. I mean to explain that you'd need an absolutely massive amount of dimensional space, on par with an artifact storage!"