NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 - To The City
Free from the clutches of my household, I started my journey towards the main hub of the city. While we lived in the section outside the formal city gates, we were only roughly a 30min walk to the main entranceway, so it was best I get started early. Along the way, I would gradually loosen my muscles from the light exercise and meet up with my friend Drogan, who would also be joining me.
Like myself, Drogan had also recently come of age and shared similar dreams of becoming a famous adventurer in Solara. While we’ve been friends since we were no more than children crawling on the ground, our personalities were nothing alike.
My type of style has always been the “super flashy, look cool while you do it” swordsmanship. You had to look cool while fighting, and being super aggressive and taking the initiative was always the correct option in my mind. Drogan on the other hand, was more of a defensive reactionary type. Instead of using a sword and shield, he invented his own style of offence by using two shields!
That’s right, my best friend was obsessed with making two shields in combat work. Granted, he did put a lot of effort into honing his body to be a pure wall of muscle, so any monster or bandit looking at him would appear to be staring down an impenetrable, mobile fortress! From the few times we’ve spared, I only managed to beat him once. This victory spurred him to work even harder and perfect his style even further.
Since then, all our battles have ended in draws, where neither of us could force the other to surrender. While I thought it was lame his hyper focus on defence, Drogan made it work. So, we agreed when we could eventually become adventurers, that Drogan would be the one standing on the front line, while I attacked our enemies with the openings he made, a perfect combo!
Taking in the scenery and enjoying the nice, cool summer breeze, it wasn’t long until I found myself near the towering city gates to Solara, standing tall and magnificent as usual. Speaking of usual, there was the never-ending line to enter the city. Begrudgingly, I queued up behind the diverse assortment of townsfolk, adventurers, and other visitors to the kingdom. Merchants and nobles also had their respective entrances to wait at for inspection. While I was jealous of the priority given to them in entering the city quicker, I also understood that efficiency for commerce was vital to the kingdom’s growth. Disappointed this would be the most boring part of the journey; it didn’t take long for my mind to wander.
As I looked around to keep myself occupied, I noticed along the city’s perimeter, was the new extension being developed to meet the needs of the ever-growing population. I could see large, marble-like stone slabs being hauled and brought near the development to be worked on by the many talented stone-smiths of the kingdom. Of course, the ones doing the strenuous labour of transporting these immense slabs were the many slaves under the protection of Solara.
Being blunt, protection was indeed the correct term to use here. A lot of the slaves used in the kingdom were those punished under Solara’s laws and condemned to death. However, the previous king had the genius insight that many of these individuals would be more useful alive building the kingdom as repentance for their crimes against it. Under this change, the kingdom grew substantially and developed into what it is now. In fact, the current reigning king took this thought a step further and permitted households within the kingdom to keep their own slaves. This further helped reinforce Solara’s laws and served as a stark reminder the penalties for breaking them.
Needless to say, a lot of the slaves in the kingdom were of a particular race. Not that it was due to any particularly targeted discrimination, but the beastkin race was easily found breaking many of the kingdom’s laws and consequently found themselves in this situation. While possessing intelligence similar humans, they were considered by many to be ruthless, barbaric, and often ignorant of the laws of the land, wherever they traveled. It was no surprise that many of the criminals punished in Solara were in fact, beastkin, traveling to the kingdom seeking fame and fortune. If I had to give a rough estimate, I would say about 80% of all the slaves in Solara were beastkin, with the reminder 20% being split between demi-humans and humans.
Honestly, its not like it was even difficult to stay in compliance with Solara’s laws. One just had to simply speak the language of the kingdom, pay proper respects to the reigning monarch, and pay taxes when demanded by the officials. This is why even though I grew up in Solara, I at least tried to learn a little bit about the other countries surrounding us in-case my adventuring would take me there. Ending up in prison, slavery, or dead, would bring a quick end to my goal of becoming the best adventurer, and was something I wished to avoid.
Bringing my thoughts back to my position in line, I was happy to see that things were moving smoothly. Actually, I was rather close to the front now that I fully clocked back in again. Before I knew it, it was my turn to show identification to enter the main city hub.
Sure enough, waiting at the gate for today’s inspection duties was none other than Captain Harold. I didn’t know him all too well, but during my travels into the city to meetup with Drogan, I would often talk with the guards on duty. When I found out that the captain was a retired adventurer, I made sure to ask him about his adventuring days and for any advice. After all, I wasn’t going to become the best unless I spoke with those who had more experience than me! Overtime, this led to a mutual recognition of one another and had the extra benefit of making my entrance into the city slightly easier.
“Ah, morning Jake! Heading into the city today again?”
“Hey Herold, sure am! Actually, today’s kind of a special day. You see, the amazing Jake Valkin turns 18 today! I’m heading over to register at the adventurer’s guild with my mates and start our journey to become the best adventurers in Solara!”
Herold’s brow wrinkled as he looked me over from top to bottom. I could tell he was examining me for any signs of weakness or a general lack of preparedness. After what felt like a good minute of silence, he finally spoke up.
“A’ight Jake, you’re clear to enter. Be careful though ya hear? Remember what I said and stick to the simple gathering quests firsts. The outskirts of the city have become much more dangerous lately and aren’t exactly the best of hunting grounds for newbies.”
“That’s right Jake, there’s actually a current request in with the royal guard to reevaluate the safety of the city’s outskirts. More and more merchants are falling prey to goblins, bandits, and all sorts of unusual monsters not normal for these parts.”
One of the other guards chipped in to offer his comments to the captain’s advice. While it was true things have gotten worse lately, my personal opinion was everything was being over exaugurated by the merchants visiting so they had some type of justification to charge higher prices on arrival. As for the increased risk to new adventurers? Pfft, clearly, they just weren’t skilled to begin with.
“Thanks Herold, but don’t worry, you ARE talking to me, the incredible and future best adventurer in Solara, Jake Valkin!”
Clearly my confidence was lost on Herold. After hearing my reply, he let out a huge sigh, shrugging his shoulders, almost as if he meant to say “I tried to warn ya kid”. I guess he finally realized convincing me otherwise would be a lost cause.
“Suit yourself kid, you’re all clear to enter. Best of luck, and tell the ladies at the guild reception counter I sent you, should help make your registration a bit easier with a known reference at the branch.”
“Yes sir!”
And with that, I had finally made it inside the great city of Solara!