The Developer Reborn As Archmage

Getting out of the carriage was a lot more daring an affair than getting in. Sarka made sure to listen carefully to the outside surroundings as the ferry reached the busy port. She felt the vibrations of the docking beneath her feet, but she had to trust Sarka’s verdict for everything else. The carriage rolled out down a slight slope and started moving somewhere less busy.

Sarka let her know the sort of place they were in when the horses were removed. It was spacious, likely a warehouse. She was afraid of someone inspecting the cargo soon, and she phased out with two Terminate commands again. She chained them closely such that if anyone saw her, they would only see an apparition for a split second.

It was a warehouse, just as she thought. She caught glimpses of men dressed in gray overalls hauling things from other carriages while she used Wind Step and a third Terminate command to phase out of the warehouse wall. Visual artifacting was getting worse by this time. She stretched the last one as far as she could, reaching a fairly deserted direction that Sarka had already informed her about.

It was a narrow alleyway next to the warehouse, and she immediately sank ankle-deep into greasy, blackened mud as the monochrome world faded.

“Eugh! disgusting!” She had to wade out of it into a back street and round back to the front of the warehouse, where she found Seris waiting nervously next to a tower of discarded wooden boxes.

“By the light! I was worried!” she said, clinging to her arm at once. “Don’t take risks like that again!”

“Wait till you see what I looted!” Darya said with a giggle.

“That was treasure in there after all?”

“A lot of it!” Darya said as they began walking back to the main street of the port.

She had to pause and stare for a bit. Vulture Point was a sight to behold. It was a tiny rocky island repurposed as a port with a sturdy stone foundation. Everything about it looked like a historical site.

She remembered a work trip during early Vainfall development where she accompanied a design team to tour ancient archeological sites for inspiration. They used their experience, photos, and textures to replicate the look and feel, but nothing they made back then could compare to this RLP marvel with so much life and activity.

Vulture Point had eight large piers that poked out of the port island in eight forward directions. Two of those piers on the opposing ends were the largest. Huge steam sail cargo ships were being unloaded on them, with a queue of at least ten more of them idling all the way to the horizon waiting for their turn.

This port was the main point of distribution for the whole archipelago. Resources unloaded here had to reach four regions of civilization and every settlement in between. It was fascinating to see how this all worked in a terrain feature that didn’t exist on Earth near the equator.

This is like a what-if scenario on steroids. I wonder how many years it took for people to build things I’m seeing here.

She knew the written history spanned more than 9,000 years. Taking that into account, some of these had to be built on older ruins. She was no archaeologist, but she was fascinated with worldbuilding and lore.

Seris tugged her arm, snapping her back to reality. They wove their way through the pier and the port. They passed at least three newspaper stalls, which seemed to be the most popular pastime for hardworking men. Everyone who wasn’t working at the moment was idling under whatever shade they could find. They were smoking, drinking, or gambling. Darya saw everything at every level, all at once. Handrolled cigarettes, hookahs and white clouds, beer with shiny labels, tanks of moonshine, piles of coins and torn cards, missing teeth, and blood stains on the stone pavement.

Seris was an expert at slipping through these unsavory crowds. She was quite confident for someone who had to bind their pointed ears flat. Elves were a rare sight near the equator. Darya was sure that if any of these rowdy men saw a young elf girl, things would’ve been a lot harder for them.

Eventually, they crossed the land bridge to the Galtea mainland and walked through the main archway. 

The city was overflowing with activity. Too much was happening at once, and Darya felt her brain turn to sludge trying to process it all. She was never comfortable in crowded, noisy places.

After a quick stroll through the main street, they arrived at an old hotel that Seris knew. The name had been erased from the banner over time, but the place didn't seem to have any problem drawing customers.

They managed to reserve a room on the corner of the third floor for one gold and eight silver coins. Passing by the main hall, both their stomachs rumbled when they caught a whiff of hot food. The hotel only had three meals, likely perfected over decades or centuries. They picked the one that most people were buying in droves.

The meal was steamed fluffy rice, some oily greens, and an oversized portion of braised spicy pork. Everything was hot enough to cause third-degree burns, but it was undeniably delicious once cooled. Darya ended up eating three times as much as she thought and devoured two cups of pudding that filled her up to her throat.

Undressing in their bedroom, Darya dropped all the treasure that she had been hiding. Seris’s mouth hung open, out of words to say.

“By the light! How much is that!” She asked, sifting through seven bricks of gold.

“More than a thousand gold,” Darya said, dropping the dagger as well.

“You would’ve been executed on the spot if you were caught!” she said, opening a box and touching the gold cylinders.

“I could’ve taken more, but I wasn’t sure about the added weight. There were at least a couple of hundred of these in that carriage. What a shame.”

“Th-this can keep us going for a while!”

“I need more. Hopefully, something else comes up while we’re here,” Darya said, wearing a smug smile.

“You’ve become a bandit!”

“Bandit! No! We are Desert Rose pirates! We take what we want!” Darya said proudly.

“Please don’t make that official! I’m not ready to have a bounty on my head!”

Seris was even more surprised by the dagger. She was sure it was cursed, and she didn’t like that it had something to do with the Eternal Demoness. Apparently, Dovarists weren’t big fans of religions that worshipped her.

Whatever. It’s a lady with horns that looks like a dominatrix. I’ll use the dagger as I please.

Even Seris had to agree that having the dagger was better than not having any weapon. She had her wand, and Darya needed something to defend herself with. The last thing any of them wanted was another bare fist brawl that resulted in broken bones.

Taking their dirty dresses off, they washed themselves clean of grease and grime for the first time in a while. Darya wore a new brown dress with a white overcoat. Seris wore a silky yellow head covering to flatten her ears, a brown half cape, and a white hat.

“We need to find where the auctions are. The only lead I have is one in the colosseum, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be the one.”

“The girl could’ve already been sold if she had been captured weeks ago,” Seris said thoughtfully. “We’ll just follow the sea crystal. Auction or not, we’ll be led straight to her.”

“You’re right,” Darya said. She had already forgotten about the necklace Lurim gave her. Seris took it out of her bag and dangled it from one hand. It came to rest at a slight angle to the right.

“Once we know where it is, we can go to the guild hall and look for someone selling information.” Seris covered her arm by shifting her cape around her neck. It wasn’t a good idea to roam around with a valuable crystal out for all to see.

They began walking the Galtean streets before it could get too late in the night for women to meander on their own. They could handle any problems, but that would get in the way of keeping a low profile.

Turning right from the old hotel, they walked until they met a junction. Seris checked the crystal standing at the crossroads. They repeated this over and over again, more than fifty times, until they made it to a corner of the city. Seris made sure to stick to populated roads since alleyways could always be dead ends. As they continued, it became rather obvious where the girl was.

A very distinct building loomed above others in the distance, telling them their initial suspicions were correct.

The colosseum of Galtea was at the foot of a mountain at the edge of the city. It looked older than the current civilization, having been renovated multiple times. The latest additions were thick wooden beams, and pillars scaffolded all over it.

It seemed the stone base had been extended upwards for more seating. The place was mostly free of crowds, except for a few gatherings here and there.

People worked on scaffolds, putting up giant banners for the next day’s fight. The main fight seemed to be between two popular fighters, judging by how dusted and torn their portrait banners were. Newer faces were pinned at the bottom under each fighter’s banner. The two fighters were headlining a team.

Darya saw guards at every entrance, exit, and window. They wore similar black uniforms to those of the RCMF thugs that Darya saw on the ferry. They carried more weapons, and the few that had rifles roamed the very top, keeping an eye on everything.

“She’s definitely in there somewhere,” Seris said, opening her cape just enough for Darya to see. The sea crystal was pulling at least forty-five degrees in the direction of the colosseum.

“That wasn’t that hard,” Darya said. “Where to next?”

“Guild hall. We’ll look for someone who knows about tomorrow’s fight.”

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