“Is that it?” Brian asked, staring in awe from atop their mogrant as the caravan slowly but surely carried the three of them the final few miles toward the capital of the Noala Kingdom. The last leg of their journey from Abingdon to the capital had only taken two days, but after everything they’d been through recently, those two days before reaching the safety of the royal capital had put Asher a little on edge.

  Having recently been cut in half and killed did that to a person.

  “I certainly hope that’s it,” Samantha chuckled, raising a hand to block the glare from the setting sun as she stared out over the capital alongside her brother. “If Brant got lost and that’s some other massive city, we’ll need to talk to him about getting our shards back for the trip!”

  “You want to try arguing with the man who can command six beasts the size of small houses to do whatever he wants?” Asher asked, leaning down and affectionately petting the back of the mogrant pulling their own wagon train just in case. “Don’t listen to her, Fluffles, please don’t step on us.”

  As usual, despite the fact that they’d all witnessed Brant whispering to his mogrants on more than one occasion and were pretty confident that the mogrants were more intelligent than regular animals, their mighty steed Asher had finally dubbed ‘Fluffles’ the other day remained quiet, continuing to plod along toward their final destination as though they hadn’t said anything. The fact that mogrants could drag entire trains of wagons behind them for days on end without stopping never failed to amaze him, and Asher was going to miss the large creatures once they finally arrived.

  “I might not have the Mogrant element, but I hope Fluffles is able to understand just how thankful we are for letting us ride up on his back during this whole trip,” Samantha said, giggling as she petted the animal on the head while they talked. “I know Brant said we were fine to keep coming up here, but I still feel a little bad.”

  “Fluffles can drag five entire wagons behind him, I doubt he even notices when the three of us come up here,” Asher reassured her.

  “Guys, you’re missing it!” Brian all but shouted, not even taking his eyes off the grand city before them as he thrust his hands forward. “Look!”

  Having grown up in a bustling city back on Earth, the sight of the Noala Kingdom’s capital and end of their long caravan journey was not quite as awe-inspiring for Asher as it was for his two companions.

  Still, even he had to admit it was rather impressive.

  A vast city nestled between a small lake and a lush forest lay sprawled out before them, stretching farther than the eye could see. Even from their vantage point atop the mogrant, Asher wasn’t able to make out the far edge of the city, and the giant wall encompassing the city’s border certainly didn’t make that task any easier.

  The capital’s wall made the defenses of the other cities they’d been to look pathetic in comparison, and even from this distance Asher was able to make out the constant patrols of guards walking along the top, along with the large number manning the various entrances to the city. There appeared to be eight different major roads leading into the city, each equipped with their own crowds of people impatiently waiting to be let in or out by the guards.

  The one cluster of buildings that stood out from the rest, as expected, was the royal palace. It had thick towers jutting up into the sky and beautifully decorated tile rooftops among the different buildings making up the palace. It was hard to tell just how big it was from so far away, but Asher had a hunch it was larger than the entirety of Horntho village-the village Samantha and Brian had grown up in-and the first place in this entire world he’d come to call home.

  Right up until a small army of demons had burned it to the ground and slaughtered everyone within.

  “Alright everyone, I have one final speech for you, and then you’ll never have to listen to me again if you don’t want to,” Brant called out, laughing as he hopped up onto his lead mogrant and turned to address the caravan as he stroked his thick beard. The jolly caravan leader’s announcement pulled Asher from his dark thoughts, and he gave Brant his undivided attention as they waited for the rest of the caravan-goers to step out of their wagons and fall in line. “For those of you who have been to the capital before, or Vonthain, as is the city’s official name, you should already know everything I’m about to tell you. For those of you who are visiting for the first time, I’d recommend paying attention.”

  More than used to Brant’s speeches by now that the man gave before their arrival into each city, Asher listened carefully, not wanting to miss out on a single piece of advice. Brian was too distracted staring at all the different buildings in the capital, but Samantha joined him, taking his hand and giving it a small squeeze as she listened right beside him.

  “While it’s not actually the largest city in the kingdom, the capital is definitely the busiest,” Brant explained, hooking a thumb over his shoulder toward the city. “Practically all goods come through the capital at one point or another, and that’s because the capital is the heart of our nation and centrally located. What this means for you, is that you should expect the prices of things to be a bit higher than what you’re used to elsewhere. Despite High Prince Donvath’s best efforts at keeping things reasonable, the fact of the matter is that most things in the capital cost two, or sometimes even three times as much as they would out of it. It can be quite the shock to the unprepared traveler, which is why I’m warning you now.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Well what good does that do us now?” a woman called out, frowning up at Brant as she walked down on the ground with the other caravan-goers. “It’s not like we can turn around and go home!”

  “No, but I’m telling you now so that I can offer a few suggestions to try and ease the stinging of your shards,” Brant said, smiling warmly at the annoyed woman. “Like any city, the capital is loosely broken up into different sections, though none of them have any official names. No levels or rings or anything like that in the capital. That said, if you head to the lake-side of the capital, you’ll find things like food and lodging to be generally cheaper. If you head to the woodland-side of the capital, most goods and materials will be easier to find and less costly. Basically, if shards are tight, you should focus on not just shopping around in any one market, but shopping around within the entire city for what you need.”

  “At least that’s one thing we don’t need to worry about,” Samantha muttered under her breath to him, and Asher nodded. He’d managed to take down the greater demon that had attacked the royal guard academy, but not until after the demon had slaughtered a good handful of their instructors. It turned out, retired royal guards who had devoted decades of their lives to protecting the High Prince and other people of note within the royal palace carried quite a lot of shards on them.

  Shards: 1,823,841

  Glancing once more at his ridiculous shard total, Asher couldn’t stop grinning as he dismissed his interface. Even with shard decay, they had made out like bandits from their last battle. The average worker in a regular city like Whikoga could expect to make somewhere around thirty or forty thousand shards in a single year. Based on what Brant had just told them, it sounded like a similar worker in the capital might make roughly two or three times that, or somewhere around a hundred thousand shards in a year of hard work.

  Asher now had just shy of two million.

  He needed to keep four hundred thousand of those in reserve to evolve his final four skills once they finally hit level 20 to continue progressing down the steps of elemental advancement, but that still left him with nearly one and a half million shards to play with. Of course, they already had plans to part with a hefty number of those shards before long.

  “Speaking of goods, some of you might have even come to the capital with the intention of hitting the Grand Auction,” Brant continued, chuckling as he received a handful of nods and eager looks at the mention of the auction. “I figured as much. There are plenty of things to do in the capital, but according to the last census, more than thirty percent of visitors who come to the capital listed the Grand Auction as the primary reason for making the trip. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the Grand Auction is a massive series of buildings in the center of the city, larger than even the royal palace itself, and only slightly less impressive. Within its grounds, tens of thousands of auctions are held each day, with goods ranging everywhere from common farming implements to the rarest of elements. Different buildings within the grounds have different things going up for auction, so if you’re looking for something in particular, I’d recommend first learning which of the buildings will hold what you’re looking for. Many of the more common goods will only be listed each morning, but the really good stuff will be announced up to a week in advance, to give time for the heavy bidders to prepare.”

  “That’s one of our stops,” Asher said, feeling Samantha all but vibrate with excitement as she held on hungrily to each word coming from Brant’s mouth. “If the capital has a Wing element for sale, that’s where we’ll find it.”

  “Are you really sure you want to spend so much of your new fortune on my third element?” Samantha asked, having the grace to look embarrassed at her own excitement. “I honestly can’t even fathom the wealth you’re carrying within your soul at the moment. Thinking about even just a chunk of that being spent solely for my benefit…”

  “What’s the point of having a stupid number of shards if I can’t spend them on a dream my girlfriend has had since she was little?” Asher teased, grinning at the conflicting emotions on her face. Her dream of soaring through the sky and exploring unknown lands was clearly warring with her inherent hatred of feeling like she was indebted to anyone. Samantha had spent eight years of her life struggling to pay off a predatory loan she’d been all but forced to take in order to support her younger brother after their parents died when she was only sixteen, and even now, she still hated taking handouts from people. Asher had finally gotten her to come to something of an understanding that taking his shards to unlock her new skills or improve her equipment was an investment in both their futures, as he relied on her more than she would ever know, but it was still hard at times.

  “Don’t forget, the greater demon was able to lock down my Recall skill,” he reminded her, shuddering at the memory of having his arm torn off the first time he’d been forced to flee from the greater demon. “If we get into trouble again and I can’t teleport us out, I’ll be relying on you to fly us the hell out of there. Getting you the Wing element only makes sense with what we have planned for the future.”

  “Well when you put it like that… I guess it would be smart to have that option available to us if we’re really going after The Council of Death once we drop Brian off,” she said slowly, looking like she’d finally made up her mind. “Okay. I won’t second guess buying the element anymore. But please, can we agree on some sort of limit to how much you’re willing to spend? If you drop a million shards on this element, I think the shock alone might kill me.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much about shards if I were you,” Asher said, grinning as Brant wrapped up his other instructions before informing them they’d be upon the capital within the hour. “Don’t forget, we’re heading straight to the royal palace to speak with High Prince Donvath once we’re in the city. Something tells me the man in charge of the entire kingdom might be able to spare a shard or two.”

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