Chapter 35: Chapter 33 – State of the World

The sun's scorching heat dried up my lips and throat. I'm tired... Walking in this kind of environment in this kind of black clothing. Not to mention, I don’t even have boots, only wrapping of cloth covering only parts of my feet. To say the sand is hot is an understatement. I have been mindlessly walking onward until I suddenly snapped out of it.

“Nuh?!”

Subconsciously opening my inventory and taking a potion out of it, I regain my composure upon looking at the bottle.

{Fatigue Relieve Potion / Tier 1 / Upon full consumption, slightly release tiredness and recover 10% of Maximum Health}

“Should I?”

‘But what if I will need it later?’

‘If possible, I want to save up all the resources I have as much as possible so I can complete this task with flying colors. Besides, will this thing even quench my thirst?’

Glancing at it.

*Chug *Chug *Chug

Eyes peeled, my body instinctively do ballet as my face smoothened like a baby, “Ohohohohoho~!”

“Whoopsies. Almost dropped the orb thing.”

Still thirsty, but I’m refreshed to my very core!

“Oooooooooiii, is there anyone there?!” an echo of a masculine voice coming from afar.

“Hm?”

Pinpointing its direction, I make haste to check it out. When I arrive there, I saw a man on top of a giant elephant-like creature. Multiple tusks that resemble a fang, three small ruby eyes, and one large eye on each side of its head. The elephant-like creature has thick black fur all around its body and a “balancing weight” carpet laid on its body, it's the symbol of a merchant.

“Heeey!~”

The man flinched as he saw me, “Holy shit, finally!”

Dressed in a vagabond-like fashion, he was quite intimidating at first glance but turns out, he’s quite nice. Since it was my first encounter with another player other than Galliano, I approach him with caution. It would be disrespectful of me to use the [Lucid Eyes]’s Maxima Appraisal on him, plus, he might have the ability to detect it.

He set up a quick tarp and pulls the carpet so he can sit, sighing as he felt relief, “Thank God, I thought for sure that I was going in a circle. About to give up on this godforsaken place,”

“GalaxBiTokua,” extending his hand, “Just call me Galax.”

I shook his hand. It's odd to think that a player can get lost in the overworld when they have [Map] screen available, 'Does his is also glitching out?'

“A merchant in this place. Doesn’t seem like a good route to take.”

“Well duh, but seriously, me and my boy Gajah over here got swept by a whirlpool when we walked to that jungle. And when I woke up, I got my boy almost turning into a ghost from that damn scorpion, and let me tell ya, it was nasty.”

“A whirlpool in a jungle?”

Nodding, “The Great Forest of Sylph.”

“Home of the Fairies,” pondering a minute, it got me thinking, ‘A teleportation barrier maybe. I wish I can hear about it more, but in case it's related to any of his quests, then it's not the best action to ask him about it. We’ve just met, after all, there’s no way he would tell me – a stranger – something so important.’

“Anyway, where are you headed? Those clothes you wear…  doesn’t seem like you’re looking for a church nearby. And let me tell you, there’s no evil-looking one I’ve seen.”

Got a slight chuckle out of me, “No, I was going to meet up with someone but I got lost in the way. Did you find ruin on the way here? We were supposed to meet there.”

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“A ruin? Nah, I found a big demon though. World boss, I think.”

“Hmm,” a problem for another time then, “Do you have a map of Ekolia?”

There are two ways to view a map. One is the [Map] screen panel which can reveal the entire world of Ekolia and the state of things like major questline, guilds, and events announced by the system. And the other is Map Items which is a physical map one can carry around but you cannot interact with it the same way as a screen.

“Only got sketches.”

“That’s alright. Do you think I can trade that with the books I have? There’s [Combustion], [Wall of Stone], and [Heal Array] I can trade.”

“Oh, that’s absolutely fine.”

“I’d like a few provisions if you have some on you still.”

“Of course, dude. Not like I ever been hungry lol, I was totally going to log out and eat if I can’t find the exit out of this place soon.”

The map he gave. It’s not the world’s sketch, but rather, this region. A place where 4 kingdoms lie.

“Uhhh, for some reason, I can’t send you the invite. Without the prompt, you’ll have no proof of the trade we did. I’m sorry.”

‘Oh? That’s odd,’ but that shouldn’t be a problem, “Can we still trade even without it?”

“I mean if you’re fine with it.”

Shifting my attention back to the map, ‘In this timeline where many places are still locked, and the fact that he has it. I can assume that we're in this region. There is a desert area around Borsuli, so we might be close to the poorest kingdom here.’

‘This map is as barebone as it gets. I might want to ditch it later for something more useful.’

Leaving the tarp while looking at the map, I see the sun up in the sky. Glancing from my left to my right, determine where is North. Where I came from, the position of the sun then. I turned approximately 90 degrees to the right and look at the map once again.

“Man, I was hoping you would have to have a Teleportation Scroll at least, but I should’ve guessed that since you’re here in the first place, you wouldn’t have one.”

‘Do people not have teleportation spell on hand these days?’

“If you head straight over there, just follow where the sun sets. I believe you will get out of the desert in no time.”

“What?! Really?!!”

I nodded, “If you head in the opposite, you will get to Bursoli, but it’ll take time.”

“Damn, dude. You’re awesome man, thank you. Oh yeah, you’re still new, right?”

“Hm?”

“Wanna join our guild? I belong to Kaliaga Phyton, a sub 10k guild, and have all members pretty much active during both day and night.”

Definitely, never heard of it before.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Ahh, you must be planning to join the top ones, ain’tcha? Don’t bother. Like seriously, even the ninth-rank Black Moon in the local guild is impossible for us mortals to be in. Crazy standards, I tell ya.”

“Oh?” come to think of it, I never actually care much about being in a group, “Can you tell me more about them? Guilds, I mean.”

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