Homesteading in a fantasy world

While waiting for the first portal, I was a bit fidgety. This armour wasn't really meant for me, and while I could wear it and fight in it thanks to the modifications I made, it was still not perfect. Then finally, the blue portal came into being, and I quickly moved through it with a few other people.

The next moment, I was once again in another part of this world, one that I was at least a little bit familiar with. The sight of the bay with its many sailboats once again brought me back to my youth.

This time we only had 15 minutes here before another portal would take us further south. There was a portal route that was more direct, but we would have needed to go through the queen's land. This time she couldn't have done anything to actually hurt us; otherwise, she would have broken the agreement.

But she could have delayed and asked for an unreasonable amount of money for the use of their portal. It wasn't worth the headache, and it would have only shortened the route by two portals.

It was a quick trip to Verdia, but here we had a little bit of a longer wait, but only for an hour. It was mostly for the three other people who would be jumping with me to the eastern twin city; after that, I would be alone.

They needed a bit of time to acclimate to the portal travel as it was tough on the body. That was also why in the lower ranks, regular means of travel were so popular. It was expensive to use a portal and if you were weak enough, you probably wouldn’t enjoy portal travel as it could be really unpleasant.

Verdia itself was slowly putting itself back together. It was still powerful enough not to have to worry about wars. Here you could see how the world would be slowly healing itself from the plague if there weren’t constant wars going on.

The hundreds of coliseums were filled to capacity with fighters as many who had escaped the war and came to this city didn't really have jobs left except to fight for others' entertainment. Arabella was somewhere in the city, but she wouldn't have to fight constantly; her fights would be the ones that were broadcast at prime hours as many would want to watch them.

She was still at rank two, but she was certainly advancing her skills and abilities. She also seemed to be going for a full combat build, and I wondered if I could fight her on an equal footing at later ranks.

Currently, I was able to dominate the lower ranks while I blazed past them, but I do not know if that will continue as I truly focus on a lot of things and not just put everything on my combat. Also, one of the reasons this organization was so important. We would need a lot more fighters who would be loyal to United Freeholds Company and, by extension, United Freeholds itself.

Nowadays, I was constantly occupied whenever I had free time, planning the expansion of the UF company. Of course, I would like it to grow as fast as possible. Yet, doing it like that would be really dangerous. Like with everything, it needs to take a proper amount of time. Stable foundations need to be made. Only after that can we truly start building something grandiose.

I was brought out of my musings by one of my companions informing me that it was time. We portalled to the eastern twin city and then to the western. After I said goodbye to the companions that came with me, I started walking the city, aiming for the general direction of the World Council building and the portal they had inside that would take me to the real HQ.

I had technically been to this city two times before. On my way to my hearing and back, but I was only here for a few minutes on both occasions. But now, I had more than two hours to spend here.

If I had to describe the city, I would say it’s a mix of high medieval with fantasy elements. The houses were all three to four stories tall, and most had a storefront on the ground floor. The shops didn’t look really that busy, but there were at least a few people in almost every one that I saw.

It looked like every crafter had a storefront, but I think most likely it was there just to show their wares, and the real income came from orders.

I changed my destination towards the coast. I heard rumors that you could see some of the wonder before the water got too deep. On my way, I passed numerous smaller market squares, but honestly, I think calling this entire city a Market Square would not be a bad description.

The numerous food stalls were marvelous to see and taste. Some seem to have started to employ fire-breathing creatures to bring in more business. One had quite the lazy-looking lizard that roasted the meat before it was sold to you. The stick of meat tasted quite wonderful.

To see the coast, you really needed to get to the very edge of the city; otherwise, the buildings would just block your view. It was still a bit hard to see because there was quite the busy port in the way as well.

But unlike any other city, the center of the huge port had a road going into the water. The walls of this tunnel were see-through, so you could see the people and carriages moving in and out of it. I found a small café that had balcony seating and chose to drink some tea and eat some cake as I looked at this wonder.

Unfortunately, even my eyes couldn't see too far because of the water, but I could at least see how the tunnels started to branch out, forming many different pathways underneath the water that people could use to get to the other side.

It was about 20 miles to the other side. There were also a lot of big ships not sailing from one twin city to the other but bringing cargo to further places. It was a marvelous piece of magic, this tunnel system, and I would surely like to go and at least visit one of the smaller towns that have popped up inside the tunnels.

Unfortunately, it was time to get going, so I finished my tea and made my way to the world council's building. Fortunately, I was able to bypass all the waiting when I showed my ring. Being a part of The Court of The Young was at least good for some things.

There I had to wait with many other people for about 15 minutes before the portal opened up, and we walked through. What greeted me was a familiar courtyard, and I even recognized one of the guards. I gave a sharp nod as I walked past her and was pleased that she greeted me back as well.

Now I had to go and get a room for myself. There was a good chance that I could finish everything in one day, but it wasn’t guaranteed. Besides that, I didn’t know the portal schedule, and it would take some time to get everything set up for my return trip.

The courtyard was huge, and one side of it was touching the mega-sized building where the courtroom and a lot of other meeting rooms for the World Council were.

However, my business wasn't important enough to be located in that building. No, I had to go and follow the main road and actually visit the town surrounding the world council headquarters.

It could be argued that the entire place was the World Council headquarters, including the town, but to me, that didn’t really matter. I needed to find an inn that I could stay at and then, in three hours, reach the proper building where the hearing for my organization would take place.

Now, if the western twin city was a high medieval city with fantasy elements, then this place was truly fantastical. There were buildings over 10 stories high with floating balconies and some that even seemed to have multiple waterfalls coming down the sides.

One was entirely made out of wood, and I think the only reason it wasn’t a proper tree was because of space restrictions, as I could see the stumps of branches wider than some buildings having been cut off.

Some of the buildings more resembled a modern office building than anything else, and it seemed that my destination was one of those kinds of buildings. The place where I found the room to stay in was six stories tall, and I would certainly not call it an inn but a hotel, no matter what the receptionist called this place.

In my mind, I went over the papers once again, the ones I sent them and then the ones I still had with me. There really couldn’t be anything wrong because if there was, they might not let me make an organization right now, and that would mean that I would need to join someone else's, and that would be a headache.