Mining Town
"Ahh, I did not expect to meet you here!"
The owner of the Paw Armor Shop said as he pulled on the reins.
"Ah, speaking of which, I don't believe I've ever given you my name. It's Nick. Owner of the Paw Armor Shop. It's a pleasure!"
He then invited Daniela and me to take a ride in his carriage. And so we massaged our tired feet as we talked with him.
"What are you doing here anyway?"
"I'm making some deliveries to Alessa. It's a mining town you know, and they go through clothes faster than anywhere else. And so I bring them some simple clothing made of scraps."
Scraps, huh. I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to wear that. Unless they were slaves. The ones that worked in the mines… Just thinking about that made me uneasy. I didn’t want to talk about anything related to that if possible, and so I changed the subject.
"So, the owner of the clothing store, what's her name again?"
"My wife's called Kyuna."
"Ah, I see…"
(Translator: There is a stupid joke here about Nick + Kyuna = Paw that doesn't translate)
I did think it was strange. Why was 'paw’ in the name when it wasn’t in any of their branding. Apparently, it was just because of their names.
"But we do consider it the symbol of our store. But we discussed the matter and decided it was a little too much to have it on clothes and armor."
But they did use it on their banner. And it wasn't a cute paw made with four circles. It was the paw of a lion, claws and all. Pretty cool. It was a store for Adventurers after all. A cute symbol wouldn't attract the right clients.
We continued on our way to Alessa in the carriage. It had rickety wooden wheels that would cause us to jump every time it rolled over a bump. It was just as I was starting to feel sick, that we reached the road that led into Alessa. The mountains on both sides of the road were quite a sight. I sat stupefied as I looked upwards, which made me forget that I was about to barf. Then Daniela placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Asagi, enemies."
"Mmm…yeah, looks like it. Nick, stop the carriage!"
I increased the range of Presence Detection and saw that several monsters were descending from the sky up ahead. I pulled myself up to sit next to Nick and pointed at the sky.
"Monsters. It shouldn't be too dangerous, but it would be better for you to move away."
"I understand. But I am a 'Crystal' you know. I can protect myself!"
Huh, so he could fight. Well, it made sense. Or he would not have left the city without a guard. A Crystal wouldn't be too bothered by the weak monsters around here.
Satisfied with that answer, I nodded and looked at the monsters ahead of us. They looked a lot like birds. I couldn't tell how big they were from this distance, but they were probably the size of raptors.
"Ah, those are cliff eagles. They like to nest in the cliffs around here."
Daniela explains as she takes out her bow and nocks an arrow. I listen to her as I create some ice arrows of my own. It was a neat little ranged attack I devised during the fight with the mega mole. As this didn't look like it would be much of a fight, I just made a few and launched them at the same time that Daniela shot her arrow. The arrows flew straight to their targets, and the corpses plummeted to the ground. But one of them escaped the arrows. It was bigger than the other. Was it a parent?
"It is the leader."
Daniela says as she shoots another arrow. So it wasn't a parent…well, that made me feel a little better about it.
Daniela's second arrow seemed to move faster than the first as it caught the leader in the chest. It was dead in an instant, and like the others, fell down to its grave.
"Won't be easy taking anything back as proof, when they splatter all over the ground like that."
"The proof for killing a cliff eagle is their biggest feather. It should be fine as long as it is not bent or scratched."
The carriage continued to move as if nothing had happened. I walked cautiously next to it.
When we arrived at the place that the monsters had fallen, we saw that a few of them still had feathers that were undamaged. I was hoping to get the feather from the leader, but it was ruined from the fall. Daniela picked some of the smaller feathers to make arrows later on.
Now the large gates were visible. The gate was the same width as the road. And the town that was our destination should be right up ahead from here. First, it was a town within a forest, then a city in the plains, and now a mining town. I wondered what sight awaited us here. I wondered what Daniela was feeling with each new place. I looked at her curiously as we walked. When our eyes met, she tilted her head, returning my wondering look. She looked cute when she did that.
Once we got closer to the gates, we saw that there were guards stationed there too. A man who held a spear approached us.