Jack and Grace soon left the Guild Hall and headed to the teleportation chamber. The guild already established links with several main cities in Palgrost from its dwarven members. Jack checked the coordinates that were given by Janus for his quest. It was in a place that he had not traveled yet, so that spot on his map was still covered by grey fog. But from those coordinates, he could estimate the closest city the guild had access to.
Jack originally hoped that Jet could follow, considering that he was from that country. But if Jet said he had something else to do, he won't impose on the old man.
After checking the map, the closest main city to the coordinates was coincidentally the capital of Palgrost, Balgadur. Jack thought this was fine as well, he had been to several other countries but he never visited their capitals. This time, he could check out the capital on his first visit.
On their way to the teleportation chamber, Grace asked Jack about their purpose to Palgrost. Jack informed her about his SS-difficulty quest. Grace expressed her respect that Jack had such a high-difficulty quest. She said that it was rare for anyone to get such a quest. Most of the other players were still tackling A-difficulty quests, with a minority having S-difficulty. Jack thought if he should tell her that he had done similar difficulty quests in the past. Heck, he even had one SSS chain quest that was still ongoing on his quest page.
Jack and Grace used the teleportation chamber and appeared in the zone portal of Balgadur.
They were greeted by the sight of tightly-packed squarish buildings made of stone and glass. Those buildings appeared rather modern compared to the buildings in Thereath. The sky was dark, many artificial lights filled the streets and the buildings. The zone portal of Balgadur was similarly located outdoor on a large open square like the zone portals in other cities. Jack and Grace turned around as they took in the sight.
Four dwarven soldiers were guarding the zone portal. They only gave Jack and Grace a glance, similar to the other passersby who were walking around this square. Nowadays, many foreign outworlders had gained access to their country, so seeing a human and an elf outworlder appearing here was not strange.
"Huh, I thought it is still noon when we left?" Jack asked.
"It's dark not because it is night," Grace said and pointed up.
"Oh," Jack uttered after seeing the supposed sky. Except it was not. It was a ceiling, far above even the tallest building there which looked to easily be ten storeys in height.
"Many dwarven cities are built underground or inside a large cave hall," Peniel informed. "As for Balgadur, it was built inside a series of caves inside the biggest mountain in Palgrost, Mount Sedgebare.
"This is not a large cave hall, this is an epically colossal cave hall," Jack uttered after looking at the size of the cave. He could still not believe he was inside a mountain. The lights that he thought at first to be stars were instead also artificial lights. 'How the heck did they place those lights up there?' He thought.
While they were still admiring the sight, one of the four soldiers spoke to them, "Sir? Miss? If you are not using the zone portal anymore, can you move away?"
"Oh, sorry," Jack said and hurriedly moved away with Grace in tow.
"So, where to? Should we go out and head directly to the coordinates marked on your map?" Grace asked.
"Let's spend a day here. It's not every day we get to visit another country's capital. We will depart tomorrow," Jack answered.
The two then strolled around the capital. Since they had no idea where was what, they just walked around randomly. They found another notable difference between the city here and the ones in Themisphere. There were a lot of carriages in the street, and they were not pulled by horses but instead operated by some kind of a steam engine. Smoke came out of the small chimney at the front of the carriage as it rolled. Everyone seemed to travel around using these modern-looking vehicles.
"Let's try one," Grace proposed.
"Sure," Jack said.
They hailed one and then climbed aboard.
"Where to?" The driver asked.
"Uh, um…," Jack had no idea what to say.
"Please take us around the city and see its famous landmarks," Grace said to the driver.
The driver looked back and said, "That will cost you two gold coins."
"So expensive?" Grace uttered. The cost of using a carriage from one end of Thereath to the other was only five silver coins after the inflation.
"That will only be for the first three hours. If you want to continue, I have to ask for more," The driver said.
"Here are the coins," Jack gave the driver two gold coins.
The driver grinned when he accepted the coins. The vehicle soon moved.
Jack received a silent message from Grace, "Why so spendthrift? I should be able to ask him to lower the price if you give me time to negotiate."
"Um… I think wasting time on such trivial matters is not worth it," Jack replied.
While on their trip, Jack requested repeated stops whenever he saw a store that sold ores and equipment. He again spent a large number of coins to stock up.
"You are more shopaholic than a woman," Grace commented after lots of stops. They ended up didn't proceed far. The carriage spent more time stopping than moving. It was even almost at the end of the three hours stated by the driver.
"Uh, sorry," Jack realized his blunder. If he continued like this, they won't sightsee anything. So, Jack resisted his urge to stop at the next store they passed by. He also paid the driver another two gold coins when the time was up.
Despite being inside a cave, there were surprisingly many incredible sights to see. There was a lava waterfall at one end of the capital. The lava then flowed across the capital in the form of a river, before ending in a huge lava lake on the other side of the capital. On this lake were several cruise ships, built on top of domesticated lava turtles. People could pay a fee to get a ride on these so-called cruise ships.
Without hesitation, the two took a trip on one of these ships. The carriage's driver happily waited for them at the shore. He concluded these two would be his customers for the whole day, earning easy coins without having to move much.
After enjoying the trip around the lake, the two were brought by the driver to the upper parts of the capital. Somewhere close to the ceiling of the cave. The driver took them into one of the large caves there and came out to a large opening that was the outer side of Mount Sedgebare. From there, they could see the outside world. They saw the vast landscape down there was filled with many networks of cemented roads. Many steam-powered vehicles went along these roads. There were even several railways.
A restaurant or café was built alongside this opening. People could enjoy the view while enjoying fine meals and drinks. It was already sunset at the time, so Jack requested a table in that restaurant. He and Grace enjoyed dinners while looking at the scenery below.
"This place is truly different," Grace uttered.
"Yeah," Jack agreed. This place looked more industrious compared to Themisphere. "Hey, how about Aurebor Dynasty? What does it look like there?"
"Well, I guess it is like any typical elven country. It emphasized nature. You can say that it is completely the opposite of this place. The houses there appear as if trees that were grown instead of built. The cities look more like a forest of giant trees instead of a proper city."
"I would love to see it someday," Jack said.
"We can go there after you finished with your quest here," Grace proposed.
"Sure, if nothing crazy comes up," Jack replied. He didn't put much hope on that thought. With Liguritudum's situation still uncertain and World Maker's threat still looming, he didn't think he could afford much leisure time. Unless there was an important quest that took him to that elven country, he didn't think he would spend the time to visit it.
While they were enjoying the view, they saw a steam train coming from afar along one of the railways.
"Hey, probably we can take one of those trains or the vehicles when we go to the coordinates of your quest tomorrow. They seemed fast," Grace proposed.
'Not faster than Pandora,' Jack thought. But those vehicles did look a bit faster than Grace's rare-grade steed.
"Sure, let's take one tomorrow morning," Jack said.
"The players in this country had a much more convenient transporting system compared to us. I bet they had been able to visit other cities on their first month here."
"Not necessarily. Players were dead broke when they first arrived in this world. I don't think they can afford one of those vehicles in their first month."
"But they certainly can travel faster than the players in the other countries."
"Yes, I even heard that they had one of those trains going to the Sangrod Empire. The dwarf and vampire players are the two races that can cross countries earlier than the others."
"I heard that you have been to the Sangrod Empire? What is the place like?" Grace asked.
"Dark," Jack answered. "No sunlight there. Slaves are also legal in that country. Not recommended to visit."
After they finished their dinner, they lingered a bit more enjoying the scene. At night, artificial lights alighted the cemented roads and railroad, providing illumination to night travelers and beautiful scenery for ones who viewed them from up here.
