Not wanting to leave the castle too defenseless, the next morning Cain decides to slim down his traveling party for the journey to Behar. He will take one copy of his Companions with him, and leave the other one here. They can get to know Evangeline, Maggie, and Sora while he gets supplies. What one clone knows, so does the other, so the half with Cain won't be missing out.
The difference in numbers might also make the trip a bit quieter, but given that he's still bringing a copy of each, he somewhat doubts it. Evangeline and Laura get along way too well, both loving to fly around at high rates of speed, while Nila has taken to teaming up with Vala to tease Nemu, who enjoys playing practical jokes on them when she thinks nobody is watching.
Misha isn't going anywhere anytime soon, being caught up with her work, and everyone else seems to have headed out already, so it's just Cain and the Companions.
"Alright everyone behaves and we will be back soon." Cain waves his goodbyes and summons a flight of Dark Phoenix to carry the group.
"No fears Commander, I'll keep these miscreants in line." Maggie insists, her musical voice holding a note of amusement as she watches the three flying members of the defense team playing aerial tag. They might not look serious, but from up there they can see quite a ways, so they're fairly decent sentries.
Cain doesn't have a watch, but he's pretty certain it's been less than an hour in the strange weightless void the Dark Phoenix travels through before he arrives at Behar. The city doesn't look like much, just randomly placed wooden buildings on stilts and a pair of long stone piers where the cargo ships are tied off.
The streets of Assah at least have some semblance of districts to them, but that's not so in Behar. The only building he can identify is the palace, a stone fortress set on a cliff overlooking the ocean, where most of the city is low enough to be in the storm surge, hence the stilts to keep them from flooding during heavy weather.
"Let's go straight to the Castle. I don't see a landing point anywhere nearby, but we'll avoid flying over the city just in case." Cain instructs their mounts, who turn in a wide arc, attracting attention from all over the city. Though city might be a generous description in Cain's opinion, as there seem to be only a few hundred permanent residents at the most.
Behar exists because the other villages in the area needed a Port, nothing more.
A heavyset man with gold embossed silver plate armor comes out to greet them, watching with interest as Cain dismisses the flight of Dark Phoenix. "Welcome to Behar, that's surely the most interesting way I've seen to besiege a castle, so you must have some business with me."
He might look past his prime, but the man is well over level 400, and Cain can't even get a proper reading on him with the system's identification utility.
"If you're the King of Behar, we certainly do. I heard a rumor you've put out a quest for Royal Moon Silk. Now, I just so happen to have a little bit of it that I'm willing to trade with you." Cain sends the King a friend request, and then a copy of the item description once he accepts, proving that he's got it available.
Now, a smart man would have put that in his Guild Bank so he couldn't be robbed of it, but very few have ever accused Cain of being a smart man, and the thought it might be on his person never occurred to the King.
"That's it, that's exactly it. How did you get that?" He cheers, happy to finally see the missing item for his recipe.
"The Guild got an oddball quest from the Beastkin Dungeon in the Beginner's Valley. As you can imagine, we were more than a little shocked at the outcome." Cain smiles back, ready to negotiate the price.
"Name what you want, and I'll see what I can do." The King responds, getting down to business.
"I've got two bolts. If I'm right, it's one per Quest completion, so I will ask two things of you. One, I would ask for fifty magical Cannons, the self-loading sort. And for the second, a fully equipped galleon, or another type of ocean-worthy merchant vessel."
"Those are both reasonable prices. And I've got both, though not a Galleon. I've got a forty-meter single deck schooner that I can offer you, traded to me from the Wave Rider Clan."
Nila looks very excited at this, so Cain is inclined to agree, despite the lack of onboard firepower.
"Deal." Cain agrees, opening a trade window and offering up the cloth. The King quickly grants him a stack of Cannons and a ship deed, that says the Schooner named Queen Rose is docked here in town.
"Pleasure doing business, I'm sure you understand, I've gotta go." The King says, running back inside.
The man is a true crafter Cain decides, so focused on making something new that nothing else matters. With that in mind, they head down to the docks, planning to check out their new vessel. Only Nila knows what she's looking at or how to use it, but one expert should be enough, right?
"Dock Master, we're looking for Queen Rose. I've got the deed to her here." Cain says, showing the paperwork to the man collecting the city entry fee at the docks.
"Hard to miss her, she's that bright pink monstrosity there." And it's pink, very pink. Though that seems to be the color of the wood, not paint, there are no signs of flaking. At forty meters on deck, the three-masted schooner is truly impressive in size, and to Cain's untrained eye, looks to be a fast vessel.
"Let me know what you think, Nila. I've got the Mining Puppets with me and they've got apprentice sailing skills, so we can sail her home if she's seaworthy."
Nila dutifully checks over the vessel, even climbing the rigging to inspect the mast. She checks everything below decks, raises the sails one at a time, and checks all the winches, blocks, and lines.
"I would love to say, she's immaculately seaworthy. Any Captain would be proud to have a ship this well maintained. But it's simply not true. She's been sitting for what looks like several years. She's seaworthy, but only barely, and could use some work." She declares, looking at the vessel in barely veiled disgust.
"Not a big fan of the color scheme are you?" Cain laughs.
"If you think this is bad, go below. It's like they had a paint fight. I deserve hazard pay just having to look at this thing. The Wave Riders must have been playing a practical joke on the King when they traded him this ship."
Intrigued, Cain goes below, and his senses are assaulted by neon colors. It's all neon with black lighting to make it glow. The mere fact such a thing exists is enough proof for Cain that psychedelic drugs do indeed get manufactured in this world.
"There's a merchant vessel full of silk in the next berth," Vala says hopefully, sticking her head through the companionway.
"Get us three bolts of gray or black. That might be enough to quickly wrap the small things like cushions and drape a few walls." Cain decides, going back topside.
"Is this a good design Nila? Fast, stable, seaworthy?" It looks like it, but she would know better than him.
"Very fast. It's designed off of an Elven warship, made to ambush other fleets using wind magic." Nila informs him with a smile.
"Good. We might be short on skilled wind mages, but I'm sure I can manage something."
Something being a walk around the pier to record all the crew members he can. There's bound to be a wind mage on at least a few vessels. He's even got one in mind. There's a Wave Rider vessel in Port, if they'll talk to him he's got a good chance of recording their wind mage, who might be better equipped for the job than Nila.
"Nila, let's go meet your kinfolk. I'm going to get a Wave Rider Shaman like yourself or one that is specialized in wind magic for the ship. Any good wind mages would do though." Cain explains and the Dark Elf gladly follows, the pink vessel seeming to offend her on a deeply personal level.
"I've got to know, what's with you and the color pink?"
"You know, I'm not even sure, it's just an instinctive reaction to seeing a vessel that color. It's all wrong like it has offended the sea by clashing with it." Nila shrugs.
"Could we repaint it, or stain it a different color?" Cain suggests, not exactly a fan of bubblegum pink himself. Who even knew this world had a tree with wood that color?
"The only color that will fully cover that is black. Which is usually reserved for pirate vessels and The Wave Rider Clan. We might be able to paint multiple layers over it though."
"Well, hopefully, they'll have an idea for us, we're almost to the Wave Rider vessel."
As they approach, Cain can see other sailors turning to watch him, losing interest when they see Nila with him. Is going to visit the Wave Riders something that isn't done often by those who aren't part of the clan? Cain seems to recall sailors being known as sociable sorts, but that might be from his past life.
