The Flying Emporium

‘So, no leaving until the System got its will. Meaning a dungeon core. That’s what this notification is really meant to say, huh?’

Following this realization, one might think Severin thought the System was being unfair. Unreasonable.

That it had broken their tacit understanding.

It had taken away a well-earned reward from him. More than that, even. After all, the flight capabilities had not been unlocked as the result of just some quest he had finished, but because of his own initiative.

Because of the risk he took.

Because of the gold he spent; his own gold.

One might expect Severin to feel-as was the case so often in the past- shortchanged by the System.

One might expect him to take personal offence at the System’s blatant taunt that was asking for his understanding.

One would be right.

The only reason he didn’t explode and throw a fit, and be it only out of habit, was because of the fatigue; the monotonous work had taken its toll on him.

In reality, at this point, any kind of distraction was welcome.

In that regard, maybe the System’s overbearing attitude, compelling him to take a break and to dedicate his attention to those new tasks, wasn’t really all that bad a thing.

Of course, that thought was not something Severin would ever admit out loud, but it was enough to cause him to pause and consider things more calmly.

The supposed trigger, as well as the wording of both new quests, had been very similar. And yet, upon closer examination, he noticed their contents were all but.

That was to say, to accomplish the first, the seemingly easier of the two quests, he would probably have to win over the local populace.

But the same wasn’t necessarily true for the dungeon core. It didn’t say he had to get hold of one of the local ones. Or even one that was still active; alive?

No, his best bet would be to aim for the bare minimum requirements and settle for another expired one.

Surely, that wouldn’t be too much of an issue. Surely, he could simply buy one of these.

Back then, trading one of his V.I.P. cards was all it took. And that was at a time at which those cards had been far less valuable than they were now, with their upgraded functionality and the store’s expanded product range.

Even if those orbs were rare, Andreas had called it a mere trophy with no inherent value. Severin strongly questioned this point- otherwise the System wouldn’t go so far out of its way to acquire another one - but felt if this was the general consensus on the matter, then his chances might not be all that bad, after all.

At least, better than expecting a bunch of adventurers to hand over one of their proverbial golden geese.

Confident in his own conclusion that he hadn’t just been given an impossible task and that he wasn’t stuck here forever, Severin allowed himself to, for a moment, forget his grudge and to shift his attention to more positive and exciting matters.

Like the real Golden Mountains that were waiting for him outside.

Severin quickly resumed his work on the half-finished metal sphere that had been interrupted when the notifications demanded his attention.

Few minutes later when the job was done, together with his tools, he deposited it into the store’s inventory.

He looked up and-

“Also got the notification?” The moment he noticed Emily’s urgent stares on him, he immediately understood. At least, he thought he did.

And a cautious nod only confirmed his conjecture.

“Sooo, wanna go check it out, then?”

“Yes!”

He had not yet finished his question when the girl, in stark contrast to her previous restraint, shouted in excitement.

‘Silly girl. Why hasn’t she said anything if she…’

Only then did it dawn on him. The way she had looked at him.

These last couple of days he hadn’t been especially approachable, had he?

And forced to work right opposite him and with his nonexistent attempts to even try to conceal his bad mood, meant the girl must have gotten the worst of it, intended or not.

Determined to better himself and to somehow make it up to the girl, he forced a smile onto his face and tried to sound as enthusiastic as his sudden feelings of guilt and shame allowed him to.

“Let’s go then!” He invited Emily to go check out their new neighborhood.

Severin walked towards the backdoor- or in this case rather the hidden underground passage that connected to the remainder of his premises.

A few steps and a short look towards his minimap later, he stopped and turned around and towards the normal exit; by now, barely any customer was still inside the store or anywhere near his establishments.

Instead, there was a bustling coming and mostly going at the westerns part of the mountaintop.

Severin might have only noticed their arrival a short while ago and only thanks to the notifications-not to mention the time he had wasted since then brooding and finishing his work-but more than a few people had apparently not only noticed, but had been actively looking forward to this moment, with many of them setting off even before the mountain came to a stop.

Considering that to many adventurers these parts of the Mountains were akin to their second home, it wasn’t all that surprising.

Snippets of conversation confirmed this as Severin and Emily fought their way through the excited crowd.

As such, sentences like, “Finally, we’re here”, and others which expressed similar sentiments, could be heard in abundance.

“No need to hold back with the consumables anymore. Just get in there with no restrained and see how far we can get. Then get back out, restock, and repeat. Easy.”

“There certainly are some records waiting to be broken!”

“No more camping inside dungeons, either.”

“What? Why would you do that in the first place?“

“Because it beats paying for those overpriced shitholes most of the guilds down there call inns?”

“Fair enough.”

Severin wasn’t sure if he quite understood what these people were talking about, but once they reached the edge of the mountaintop nothing of that mattered anymore.

The layers of clouds weren’t quite as dense as back at their old spot, but more importantly, the increased traffic of flying artifacts stirred them enough to reveal the sight below them.

Unlike what Severin was led to believe, there wasn’t just one or two encampments below them.

They were basically everywhere.

For as far as he could see, there were countless camps of various sizes and design, many of them only separated by a short distance of a couple dozen meters.

From what looked from a distance like medium-sized roman forts built out of wood, over impressive looking tent cities, to more permanent settlements made from stone, such as the vertical villages carved into the faces of the many mountains raising from the ground.

Almost everywhere he looked, there was some sort of outpost, each with hoisted banners proclaiming the identity of their occupiers.

All the more pronounced were the spots of land that weren’t.

On a closer look it appeared that each of these settlements which initially gave off the feeling that they had been placed randomly and without much forethought, had in fact been purposefully built in the proximity of these blank, empty spots, in the form of concentric circles around them, with the larger encampments located closer to the center.

“Those are the dungeon entrances?!” Severin realized and pointed towards one of said spots, a black pit in the ground that was surrounded by some especially imposing fortifications.