The sense of wonder that'd grown when she saw the town had been largely washed away by Pollock's appearance, and Astrid suspected she wasn't the only one of her party who now approached the city's outskirts with more fear, coloring her footsteps than she'd like to admit.
As they had seen from afar, Neverwood didn't have a wall, instead just kind of appearing where there was a slight clearing in the forest. As she looked, Astrid guessed they were probably 25 buildings in the little village, but a part of her revolted at the thought of calling it a village. The buildings themselves were too large and impressive to belong in a village, in her mind, but the population didn't merit being called anything else. Maybe that was why people just called it "Neverwood".
"Is anybody else a little freaked out?" Benedict asked, pulling Astrid from getting more nervous. "Like, some squirrel starts talking to us in the middle of the wilderness, tells us its name is Pollock and that it's actually a familiar from some guy who didn't tell us his Class or his tier, and then warns us that if we make trouble, we are in for a world of pain. Do we really need to try this out? I bet we can make what we're looking for if we really need it…"
"You know we can't," Astrid shook her head. "I'm not too happy about the situation either, but there's nothing we can do about it. Now don't be idiots and we'll be fine. Most likely."
"And don't say something about being an idiot is your natural state of being," Skandr said as Benedict started to open his mouth. "We all know you're joking and what kind of a person you are, but everybody here doesn't so don't give them a worse opinion of us than they already have."
"I know," Benedict answered, his tone not defensive. "I'm willfully stupid often enough to know when I've crossed the line into actually stupid. I think. Either way, I'm not about to do anything more than maybe put my foot in my mouth trying to make somebody smile, and saying something dumb shouldn't get us all thrown out."
"You are not dumb," Muti said, reaching a hand out and placing it on Benedict's shoulder. "You simply do not have the common sense of a physical martial Class."
"And what common sense is that?" Benedict asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"That to open one's mouth is to invite a fist to silence it. We three on the front lines prevent those fists from striking you while within the Dungeon, but you are not there. Perhaps keep your mouth closed to prevent fists from flying at your face as we do not have enough shields to protect that mouth."
Benedict chuckled a little bit and stepped closer to Muti to nudge her with his shoulder, his shoulder hitting her in the ribs. As always, Benedict's words had drained much of the tension from the party, and Astrid stepped to his other side, dwarfing him between the two towering women.
"Thanks," she said as she patted him on the shoulder. He looked up, locked eyes with her, and winked before returning to jokingly arguing with Muti.
Without any real further conversation, the party made their way into the town. The buildings that made the village were just as impressive, if not more so, when standing directly beside them than from afar. Both of these closest buildings were seemingly spun from trees, wood twisting and separating to make interlinking threads of branch and trunk and leaf and bark to result in a single edifice . Unsure of what to do or where to go from there, the party hesitated and looked for any sort of sign as to where they might be able to at least find information, if not a store.
They had no such luck, with only beautiful and otherwise unremarkable buildings on both sides.
"You don't think that knocking on the door would be considered something worth getting tossed out for, do you?" Skandr joked. "You know, so long as we knock nice and polite?"
Astrid felt a faint flush on the back of her neck as she realized she'd just waited there for someone else to solve the problem instead of being a leader and taking care of things, and led the way towards the building on the left. She mentally dismissed her helmet as she looked for a door. Branches and leaves grew all over, and she couldn't tell where there might be any sort of an entrance.
"At what point does this go from trying to politely knock to being a creep?" Skandr wondered aloud as he also looked for an entrance.
"At the point when we know where the damn door is and keep looking around," Felix snapped back. "Until then, we can keep wandering around until either somebody talks to us or we find some way to address somebody."
"I'd say that's probably not a bad opinion to take," a woman's voice interrupted the party's grumbling. "Would you tell me why you came here? Obviously, you're looking for something, and it isn't just a door to get inside my house and see my skivvies."
The woman's voice came from above, and Astrid looked up to see her head popping out of what was a window of sorts, made of several dozen large leaves that were somehow held together by something underneath. Her long blonde hair tangled down in an unkempt mess, but she didn't seem at all concerned about her appearance as she grinned widely in a way that somehow convinced Astrid that this was a good woman.
"Sorry about that," Astrid said. "We recently evolved to Steel and we're looking for some Steel tier equipment to help get into this new situation. The Grove Warden we were interacting with sent us here, so here we are. That's about it."
The woman Astrid spoke to nodded in understanding before asking, "And how are you looking to get this equipment? In case you couldn't tell, the Verdant Walkers don't really do money."
That was something that Astrid hadn't quite considered. The party hadn't concerned themselves with collecting materials most of the time, since they'd been focused on getting levels and honing their Skills. The idea of returning to cutting ears and fangs free made Astrid sigh, but they had these spatial pouches. Might as well start taking advantage of them again. "Well, we have money. Do you… accept money?"
"Well, it depends. Is it any good?" the woman in the window asked.
Astrid's eyes narrowed as she tried to understand what she's just been asked. "Is there any bad money? I mean, sure, there's counterfeits, but we're not dealing with counterfeits so, yes?"
"But is it good?" the woman asked again.
"Yes!" Astrid replied. "I just said so."
"Well, what kind of equipment are you looking to buy? If we had a specific product you're looking to buy, then I'd be able to give you some better information."
"A Steel tier blade," Astrid said, stepping to the side in gesturing for Muti to describe the kind of weapon she wanted.
"A Steel tier blade," she repeated, "forty-five to seventy cm long, ideally made for chopping and cutting, like this."
She held her seax over her head, and the woman nodded a few times. "What other kind of stuff do you want? Money might work for this kinda stuff, but there's no guarantee that anyone around here's gonna have what you're looking for."
"That's our main focus for now," Astrid said. "About how much would that cost? Like I said, we have money to pay for it, depending on the price, if you're willing to accept gold coins."
The woman in the window seemed to consider her words for several seconds before her serious expression broke, and she began to laugh. "I'm not the person you have to convince."
"… What?" Astrid asked. Then, it clicked. "Do you even sell anything? Or are you just enjoying making fun of us?"
"Not really," the woman smiled down. "I just live here. Though, I'm pretty happy to be the person to welcome you to the never would in our traditional fashion, though I wouldn't call it making fun of you."
"I have a sneaking suspicion that Pollock was the first of Neverwood to 'welcome' us," Astrid replied, fighting to hold back her frustration.
"Yes, he probably did. Should've thought of that, he's always watching for any movement nearby," the curly blonde haired woman said. "Anyways, the stone building two doors down is the one you're looking for. It's Olafson's trading post, and you'll be able to negotiate with them about what prices to pay and so on. If you want to wait two minutes, I can take you over and introduce you, probably avoid the teasing and get down to negotiations quicker."
"Why would we trust that you'll actually do that?" Benedict asked. "I can think of at least seven ways that you can mess with somebody new in town as they're trying to buy something, and the first idea that comes to mind is to say wait two minutes and then never come out."
"You've got a suspicious head on your shoulders," she smiled back. "But, I suppose there's no reason to have any trust in us after all we've done is mess with you. My name is Vera Greenthumb, I'm one of the longest term residents of Neverwood. Give me maybe thirty seconds, and I'll be out. I promise that, with my presence, people will keep the teasing to a minimum. Unfortunately, this is a group of people who couldn't quite go the way of the hermit and there's precious little to do around here that's new or exciting than to mess with the people who show up. All told, though, we are a pretty harmless lot, so long as you don't start a fight, and I swear that."
"Well, I hope that's the truth," Astrid replied. "Frankly, I've had enough of people trying to be mysterious and messing with me, so I can't say that I'll necessarily have a great temper about any insults that come our way."
"Which is your right," Vera shrugged. "Now, I'll be right down."
She pulled her head into her home, and Astrid sighed, trying to maintain her patience. She had no idea what kind of Class Greenthumb was, or even what tier it might be, and beyond that, they were visitors and needed supplies from the people here. Either way, she's getting sick of powerful people, or at least people in positions of power, deciding it was fun to torment her and her party.
"It's a joke, Astrid," Skandr said softly. "Might not be a very good one or one you want to deal with, but it's harmless."
"I know, doesn't mean that I'm happy having to deal with it everywhere we go."
He nodded and the party went quiet. True to her word, Vera only took about half a minute to prepare herself and come out. Her hair wasn't much more neat than before, though now it had twisting vines growing through it. Apparently she'd gotten dressed or something, because as Astrid watched, the plants in Vera's hair twisted and braided until her hair was in a pretty neat braid, though that couldn't have been a difficult task for her.
"Thank you for waiting," Vera bowed to the party. "What brings you to Neverwood?"
"I'm fairly certain we already had this conversation," Astrid spoke through gritted teeth.
"Is it truly only the equipment? Whatever people say it's just for one thing, they're usually looking for more. Companionship, a bed, just to get out of the forest."
"I don't think any of us will say no to a bed," Astrid shrugged, "but we're mostly here to do exactly what I said, to get that equipment."
"I will add, I want to demand that we stay here for the next night to use a bed, so long as the prices are reasonable," Benedict added.
"Beds usually aren't too expensive, so long as you're willing to tell a couple stories in exchange," Vera nodded. "Like I said, the people in Neverwood are hungry for news, for anything to have a little fun. If you've got stories to tell, you'll win some goodwill."
"Including draughts or potions from you?" Astrid asked the woman.
"Well, since you're dealing with the wyverns' nest, you'll need it," Vera shrugged. "I'm sure I can get something together for you, though I'll take it on credit for some wyvern materials. Eyes and venom, most of all, though if you know what its gizzard is, I want those too."
"Why do you think we're in there?" Astrid asked, refusing to commit.
"Because you said you're Steel and that the Grove sent you our way," Vera answered immediately. "The only branch nearby that's Steel is the wyvern's nest, so far as I know. I can't imagine the Walkers would have trusted you with a branch they don't trust their neighbors with, so there we are. Anyways, the gizzards?"
Astrid shook her head in denial as well as surprise at what the initially flighty woman was able to learn in so little time, but Muti stepped forward and said, "I am familiar."
They continued talking about such things as Astrid looked around. There wasn't time to get into deep conversations at the time, only long enough for the party and Vera to make their way slowly to the building she'd called Olafson's trading post. Instead of her treelike house, it was one of the buildings built of solid stone, and as they drew closer, it was obvious that some Mage or Wizard had created this building, as there was no Stonemason or Carpenter that could do anything like this. They would have to take the materials and then build it, so Astrid was left wondering just how possible it would be for a Steel tier to build. Once they'd drawn closer, Skandr ran a hand along the wall.
"Can you see anything interesting?" Astrid asked.
"Perhaps," he answered. "I'm not as familiar with any wizardry that deals in solid things like this, but even when I'm creating my clouds, I don't make the water out of nothing, so I'm just thinking about how they're doing this."
"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," Astrid admitted. "It's not like you're taking water from one place and putting it somewhere else, is it? So you are making water out of nothing, right?"
"That's exactly what I'm doing. There's water in the air, though I would imagine that I would still be able to do things similarly even if we were near a volcano by spending additional mana to transmogrify the mana to water. There is a fair amount of substitution made by spending additional mana as well as to convert the ambient mana in the air, so it could be the origin of a fair amount of the stone being created, but it doesn't make sense. After all, I need to have plenty of moisture in the air in order to create the clouds and then to freeze something is something else entirely because that's a change of temperature, though I haven't conducted extensive experiments."
"Skandr, you're rambling again," Astrid cut him off. "Talking about the building, what might be interesting. I don't need a whole lot of specifics right now, just wanted to know what you were thinking."
"Yes. The point that I think is interesting is that I'm sure that the creation of so much physical material with mana is very difficult and extremely costly. The ambient mana here in the air is denser than most places, but nowhere near dense enough to support the creation of this building entirely from mana, much less seven of them. It would take all of the mana for dozens of kilometers in every direction to make one of these buildings, and I'm fairly certain that would permanently damage the forest. However, we are also not in a place that has much stone under the soil, so I'm just curious how this happened, especially since the buildings seem to be made of various types of stone that are also connected seamlessly."
"Good thinking," Vera cut in. "If I was to give you a quick answer, it would be this: magic." Skandr started to open his mouth too, to call her out for the same teasing that she seemed to always engage in, but she continued, "I think it was a combination of the two. This happened before I got here, so over twenty years ago, but the stone buildings were the first things built here and are a large part of the reason why there is less stone found in the ground nearby. There's other parts to it as well, but that's not my secret to tell. Anyways, the mage who made these buildings pulled the stone from all over underground over the course of several days to build what you see here."
"And then they supplemented what they had with magically created stone made of mana," Skandr nodded. "That explains the difference in types of stone, since the stones were taken from various places and then melted together through magic."
Vera nodded, smiling. Now that she was more forthcoming, Astrid felt less critical when she looked at the other woman, and had to admit that she was cute. So much of Astrid's self-doubt from her years spent as the too-tall, dark skinned, bright haired girl returned, and she forced herself to blink that childish emotion away. She couldn't say just how successful that attempt was, but fortunately, they walked into the trading post of that time and Vera started making introductions.
"Olafson! I've got some clients for you. I have to warn you, I did promise to stop messing with them so you better be on better behavior than me."
"I'm always on better behavior than you," a rumbling voice greeted her before Astrid could see him. With a name like that in that voice, she pictured a broad-shouldered, swarthy man with a massive beard and scarred forearms. Maybe balding? He continued, "If you've got real clients for me, give me just a second."
About half a minute passed before he made himself known, his steps heavy as he made his way into the room. The skinny, mousy man that made his way in had Astrid squinting in confusion, though she took note of the huge, stone boots he wore as he walked forward. He wasn't human but a Kin, though his animalistic traits were much more hidden than usual. Instead of a furry face, scales, or fangs, his face was narrow and long, his nose protruding and his ears rather large. Both his arms and legs were remarkably hairy, but Astrid couldn't tell what animal his ancestors had been merged with through mana mutation.
"Heya, Olafson!" Vera said, stirring Astrid from her thinking. "We're looking for something some nimble fingers can find for us. Can you help us out?"
"I doubt you're a part of this, 'we'," Olafson answered, his throat swelling like a frog's as he spoke, "but you've found your way to the trading post. If I can make it, easy, if I can buy it, less easy but still doable. My name is Olafson Craftsman, Mithril tier. What can I do for you?"