Dante's Immortality: Beginnings

by Antonio Terzini

  The guard just nodded, then went to the back of their cart to check what was under the canvas. “Hey Frank, we’ve finally got a new batch of carrots.”

  The other guard, who was blocking their path to the lift, had a broad smile cover his face. “Old man, are you selling these in the square today?”

  Clint nodded. “Yes sir, that’s the plan.”

  Frank stepped to the side, gesturing them through hurriedly. “Thank the Goddess.” Frank turned to the side, where two messenger boys were standing at the ready. “One of you go tell Betsy at Peaks Tavern that there is a new shipment of carrots, and that they will be sold at the square.” One of the boys shot off to the stairway, full of excitement.

  Clint didn’t hesitate to usher the horses forward, tipping his hat to the guards in gratitude as they stepped onto the lift. The chains that connected to the lift pulled taught, and they were slowly raised towards the city.

  When he had first seen Grimspeak, he had a few misgivings to say the least. The Tracker had said that it was a settlement, but it wasn’t. It was a fortress.

  There were only two ways to get to the peak of the mountain that it was located on. The first, and easiest, was the narrow staircase that ran up the side of the mountain. The other was the lift that they were currently riding on, but either way, one needed the proper documentation to gain access to the city.

  Thankfully, the farmer that had given him the information had told him the easiest way for an outsider to gain access to Grimspeak; paying someone else to let you in. Clint was one such person. For a small fee, only 5 coppers, he would sneak someone inside of the fortress.

  He actually thought that the price was somewhat cheap, but apparently, the practice was so common that no one would pay more than 5 coppers to be snuck in.

  Dante turned to Clint. “Why were they so excited that you had carrots?” Carrots were a typical food in Alazel, so he didn’t see what all the commotion was about.

  Now that they had made it past the guards, Clint had a lopsided grin back on his face. “They crammed too many people on this damned mountain. So many in fact, that the surrounding farms wouldn’t be able to support them if they grew anything other than grain.” He gestured to the carrots in the back with his thumb. “Vegetables, especially ones that are a natural sweetener like carrots, are a delicacy in Grimspeak.” Clint cackled in delight. “These carrots are worth over ten times what I paid for them. I’m practically scamming these morons.”

  That made sense to him, the less there was of something, the greater its value usually was.

  Dante looked over the side of the lift and instantly regretted it. They were already over a hundred feet in the air. “How does a mountain like this even exist?”

  The question was rhetorical, but it didn’t stop Clint from piping up beside him. “The current ruling family of Grimspeak is one of Geomancer Classifications, they built it up from nothing.”

  He had been wondering why the mountain had such steep cliffs, it looked like a massive cylinder jutting out of the earth, but built by humans? That didn’t seem conceivable. “How did they build something so large?” If the lord of Grimspeak could make a mountain, he should be in the Outer region at the very least.

  “Well, they started almost two hundred years ago. When the last campaign ended, the lord at the time recruited all of the Geomancers in the surrounding land with the Barricade skill. They came together to build this monstrosity.” Clint gestured at the mountain that they were scaling. “A bunch of fools if you ask me. There won’t even be another campaign. The last one resulted in massive losses, even for those in the inner regions.”

  Dante’s eyebrow rose. “What do you mean by that?”

  Clint shuffled in his seat, then began to whisper. “You didn’t hear it from me. But from what I’ve heard, the church was the cause of the last campaign. Their failure made them lose a massive amount of power.”

  Clint’s hesitation, even on the isolated lift, made more than a little sense given what he had just said. If a priest heard those words, he would be crucified for blasphemy. Speaking against the church in any way was a death sentence, and a painful one.

  Still, if the church really was the cause of the last campaign, it raised several questions for the upcoming one.

  For now, changing the conversation away from one that was potentially dangerous would be best. Even Clint could be secretly working for the church, and just looking for blasphemers. “What’s the easiest way to leave Grimspeak?”

  Clint shrugged. “Just walk out the front gate, they don’t check people leaving, just entering…” He paused for a moment before continuing. “The security has been a bit tighter than it usually is though.”

  The lift slowed to a halt as they reached the top of the mountain. Clint whipped his horses, leading them forward through the dense crowd.

  There was only one word that could describe Grimspeak; cluttered.

  He couldn’t even see the streets through the dense crowd, there was absolutely no space between each person. The buildings themselves were just as bad, they were just square shacks made of stone, stacked on top of each other to maximize space, likely made with the Barricade skill that Clint had mentioned. They all had carvings on the door, probably distinguishing them from each other, and the only real difference he could find was their relative size.

  Still, there seemed to be order in the chaos. The crowds had a stream of people walking through the middle of the road at a speed that was faster than a standard walk, only slowing as they moved out to the edges of the street.

  Clint seemed intent on trampling the crowd, charging forward with his large cart, and he almost yanked on the horses’ reigns to stop him. But amazingly, as soon as the cart neared the crowd they just barely squeezed out of the way.

  “Alright, I got you here safely didn’t I? Pay up.” Clint turned to him and held out his hand, not paying attention to the crowd he was plowing through.

  Dante dug through the black sack for the 5 coppers. “Do you know where I can buy a map?”

  Clint kept his hand out. “Head straight down this road, then take a right at the fifth intersection. The cartographer’s shop is third on the left.”

  He handed the 5 coppers to Clint. “Thanks for the ride.” Clint gave him a nod, and Dante hopped out of the cart, losing himself in the dense crowd.

  The feeling of being in the crowd was… euphoric. He had never felt so invisible in his life. The combination of his features being hidden and the anonymity that the crowd gave him made him feel like he was just another person. Dante reached up to his hair and examined it.

  I suppose I am just another person now… with one of the most influential noble houses hunting me.

  Letting out a sigh, Dante began walking in the direction of the cartographer’s shop, keeping a hand on the sack with all of his valuables inside.

  He had barely moved into the street when he felt a hand in his pockets, his hand snapped out instinctively at a speed that took the thief by surprise. Then, holding the perpetrator in a vice grip, he yanked them out of the thick crowd.

  To his surprise, It was a small girl who couldn’t have been more than ten. Dirty, covered in rags, and emaciated. She stared at him with a look of mortification, she was terrified of what he would do to her.

  The sight of the girl, who seemed so similar to who he was only months ago, caused him to immediately release his grip and recoil in surprise. It allowed the girl slip out and dart off to find safety in the anonymity of the dense crowd.

  Dante stood in silence for a moment, staring off in the direction that she fled to, then took a large breath and set off into the crowd.

  Keeping a hand on his valuables proved to be a wise decision. Just moving to the center of the street he felt three more hands delve inside of his pockets, but he made no move to stop them. He had no intention of reliving the experience he just had with the small girl. Something about it made his chest tighten.

  As soon as he reached the m
iddle of the street, Dante merged into the high-speed crowd and took off down the road. Waiting until he made it to the fifth intersection, then cutting back through the crowd and taking a right.

  After that, he just clung to the slow-moving right side until he came to the third building, which looked exactly like all the others.

  The inside was nothing special either, the walls were covered entirely in large stone cabinets that were broken up into tiny compartments and stuffed with different scrolls. The center of the room had a single middle-aged man sitting at a large stone table.

  The middle-aged man didn’t even look up at Dante when he walked inside of the room, just kept his focus on the map that he was drawing.

  Deciding it would be best not to upset the man he would soon be buying something from, he waited silently.

  Around ten minutes later the cartographer placed down his quill and looked up at Dante with a somewhat kind expression. “How may I help you?”

  “I need a large map. Preferably one that covers the entirety of the noble territory.”

  The cartographer’s eyebrows rose. “Such a map would be quite large… and expensive. Are you sure you can afford it?”

  Dante hesitated, he wasn’t sure whether or not he would be able to afford it. All of his leftover money from the academy was left in his room in Housing District 1 with the rest of his belongings, and he had barely managed to scrounge together a few silvers from the bodies he looted in the forest.

  “Honestly, I’m not sure if I can afford it, and it would be best if it’s a smaller map if possible.” His answer was likely a bit too honest, but the man didn’t seem like he would try to take advantage of him.

  “A small map that covers the entirety of the noble territory?” This time only one eyebrow was raised, and it seemed like the cartographer was questioning his sanity.

  The cartographer’s tone gave him pause. Although he knew it was large, he wasn’t sure how big the noble territory was. It had never been something of importance to him when he was staying inside of Alazel, and after leaving, he had basically been wandering aimlessly.

  “It doesn’t need to be too precise, just a rough sketch of the Outer Edge territory and the location of the major cities… including Grimspeak for reference of course.”

  The cartographer rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Ah, much more reasonable.” The man had a smile on his face, it seemed he enjoyed the mention of a new task. “I’ll do it for 2 silvers.”

  Dante nodded in agreement. That was around half of his current money, but the map was his primary purpose in coming to Grimspeak.

  The cartographer stood up and rubbed his hands together excitedly. “Alright, let’s get to it.” He stood and walked to one of the compartments in the side of the room and pulled out a blank piece of paper that was a somewhat standard in size. Then, coming back to the table, he picked up his quill, dipped it into the ink, and got to work.

  Chapter 46

  Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 46

  Dante stared at the map blankly. “This is the noble’s territory?”

  The cartographer had a smile on his face as he nodded in reply. “I did pretty well, don’t you think?”

  He continued to stare at the map. The cartographer did do a good job, but that wasn’t the point. The noble’s territory was gigantic. “This is just the Outer Edge region?”

  The cartographer indicated to the small map. “Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to fit the Outer region on that tiny piece of paper, it’s far too large.”

  He would have never thought that the Outer Edge region was so vast… he had always heard it was the smallest region in Aleria.

  If there was one saving grace, it was that he was already close to the wasteland border. Initially, he thought that he was very close, only an inch away on the map. But then he saw how close Grimspeak was to Kenguard. The two cities, which were almost 100 miles apart from each other, were only narrowly separated from each other by a tiny sliver of open space. Using that as a reference he estimated that he was a little over 2,000 miles away from the border.

  Dante let out a sigh. It could be worse, far worse. If he wasn’t already close to the border, it could have taken him several months to get there, but given his agility and endurance, he could make it in less than a month easily… if unhindered.

  There were two cities in between Grimspeak and the border. The first was Iraedon, which was located directly in his path and about halfway to the border.

  The second was Vrita. Vrita was out of his direct path, if only slightly, but it was practically touching the wastelands border and may be a good supply point.

  Dante glanced up at the cartographer, he had dozens of questions to ask about the map and the cities on the way to the border, but they would all give his destination away if the Calmans found out that he had been in Grimspeak. It was the reason he had a map made of the entirety of the Outer Edge region.

  “Thank you, it’s perfect.” He rolled the map up and slipped it into his sack, then drew out enough coppers to equal the two silvers he owed and paid the cartographer.

  The cartographer got up to get a blank piece of paper for a new map and sat back at his table. “The pleasure was mine.” After that, the cartographer dipped a quill into the jar of ink and completely dismissed him.

  Dante shrugged and turned to leave, he didn’t mind the cartographer’s lack of interest in him. Quite the opposite actually, he preferred it. The less interest the cartographer had in him, the less likely it was that he would be remembered.

  Stepping out onto the street, the first thing he noticed was that the sun was no longer up. It had taken far longer to make the map than he had realized.

  It messed up his plans slightly. He was going to use the rest of the money he had to buy supplies for the road, then leave Grimspeak before the gates were closed for the night, but that no longer seemed to be an option.

  Not only was it unlikely that any shops selling road rations would still be open, but there was also no way he would make it out of the fortress that was Grimspeak unnoticed when the gates were closed.

  Letting out a sigh, Dante began to walk the streets of Grimspeak aimlessly, looking for an inn that he could stay at for the night.

  The streets were still packed full of people, and all of the buildings looked exactly the same. He found himself just looking around Grimspeak, and the people within, wondering how the entire thing could even function.

  What do they even do?

  He couldn’t understand how so many people could sustain themselves. None of them were farmers, they couldn’t hunt, and there were too many to just be shopkeepers or craftsmen. It raised the question, how did so many people even make enough money to sustain themselves?

  Regardless, there was no way he would find an inn when every building looked exactly the same. Dante cleared his throat and grabbed the attention of the man to his side. “Excuse me, do you know where I can find an inn to stay at?”

  Instead of an answer, he was awarded a look of irritation, then was completely ignored.

  Thinking it was a one-off thing, Dante turned to the woman on his left instead. “Excuse me, but do you know where I can find an inn.”

  The woman glanced back at him and flipped back her long brown hair, just as irritated as the man he had just asked. “Get away from me.”

  He asked three more people after that, but received similar results.

  It seems as though my appearance wasn’t the only thing stopping people from talking to me…

  Giving up on asking for directions, Dante walked to the side of the street, then stepped into an alley.

  Gritting his teeth, he stepped through the mush of human waste at his feet, it seemed like people just threw their chamber pot waste anywhere that people didn’t walk through.

  Then, when no one was watching, he Blinked upward.

  Thankfully, the stone roof was completely flat, and although it wouldn’t provide the luxury that a bed would, it was g
ood enough.

  Deciding now would be the best time to assign his world essence, Dante opened up his Status. He had ended up killing six groups of combatants in the forest, which had netted him slightly over 3,400 world essence. But so far, he had held off on assigning it in favor of saving it for specializing his Chronomancer class. Now that he had a moment of respite, it would be foolish to not gain the extra attributes that leveling his Classifications would provide.

  He looked over his Classifications, both the Revenant and Blader Classifications were worth leveling. The Blader Classification would speed up his journey, and the Revenant Classification would stop him from getting killed.

  That line of thinking done, he leveled the two of them.

  World Essence waiting to be assigned: 3,432

  Chronomancer lvl 10/10 (0/10,000 world essence)

  Blademancer lvl 7/10 (0/700 world essence)

  Blader lvl 7/10 (0/700 world essence)

  Revenant lvl 6/10 (0/600 world essence)

  Recent World Essence gain:

  2,476 World Essence for Killing: Warrior x 24

  931 World Essence for Killing: Ranger x 6

  Revenant has reached level 8

  Attributes have been added:

  +2 Strength

  +2 Constitution

  Skill description for Rebirth of the Revenant has been updated

  Blader has reached level 9

  Attributes have been added:

  +2 Dexterity

  +2 Agility

  Skill description for Blade Dancer has been updated

  Leveling both of them twice left him with a little over 600 world essence leftover. Dante closed his Status.

  Finding comfort on the flat stone roof, he curled up to protect his valuables and drifted asleep.

  * * *

  Andrea Calman

  Andrea was in the middle of bathing herself when there was a knock on her bathroom door. “Come in.”

  Vicar stepped through the doorway with an uncomfortable expression on his face, which amused her greatly.