Chapter 149: Tempest Ranger

  The night passed without incident, though Teresa still took some precautions. Primarily, she blocked the door to her room with her extremely heavy sword. That had been pretty difficult since the weapon was heavy enough to crush through most furniture just by having the sword lean against it, but she just had to lay it flat and it was still able to block the door from opening easily.

  She also rested a few arrows against the window so they would clatter if opened, laid arrows out along the ground all over so it was difficult to walk without stepping on one, and moved her bed to be out of sight from the window.

  Was this excessive? Maybe, especially since nothing happened, but it couldn’t hurt to be too careful. Sure, she’d probably wake up from the slightest noise inside due to her Perception, but what if someone had a skill to reduce sound? What if someone managed to shoot her through the wall or something?

  Alright, even Teresa could tell she was being a bit excessive in her worries, but complacency could result in her death. Even her acknowledgement of her excessive measures was laced with anxiety, but once again to be fair she had just killed some pretty important people.

  Once morning came, they convinced Zackery to let them teleport Eli and Mitsuki back to The Mall. Teresa needed to spot both of them the cash to do so, but since they were so low level it was practically pocket change to someone like Teresa.

  Stormwreck had ultimately agreed to keep Teresa’s involvement in New Haven secret, so they had less to worry about on that front. Once Mitsuki and Eli were sent away to The Mall, it was time to continue their travels.

  Next stop, Preston’s dad. He was southeast of Arconette and east of Stormwreck, likely in a city named Nouarosso. It was relatively close to Stormwreck, but apparently they had less than positive relations with one another. Nouarosso had rejected any and all attempts at diplomacy with other cities, and they had the least amount of external activity of anyone Stormwreck had met including New Haven.

  As Teresa and company were being led out of Stormwreck by Patrick, he seemed genuinely worried for them.

  “When you get there, they aren’t going to willingly let you into the city. We know nothing about the interior of the city itself, as it’s contained within a mountain.” Patrick explained as they walked. “We attempted to send an Ambassador there in the past, and they were turned away by the guards. This was two weeks ago, and at the time they said they spotted someone level 45. Given the time that has passed since and the fact that it didn’t seem to be anyone particularly important, it’s safe to assume they have a few powerhouses in Nouarosso.”

  “They don’t let anyone in or just diplomatic parties?” Saylee asked.

  “Not sure, we didn’t really stick around long.” Patrick replied. “From my understanding, the further south you travel from here the higher the human population density. If Nouarosso doesn’t want any outside interaction, we didn’t see the need to force it when it’s not that hard to find more people south.”

  “What about nonhuman life?” Teresa asked.

  “There’s still plenty of Portals and a few cities made up of nonhumans, but a lot of them got wiped out.” Patrick answered. “At least that’s how I understand the situation. We haven’t had a lot of time to get the lay of the land, but we know of two nonhuman settlements that got taken over.”

  “Does it ever go the other way?” Teresa continued. “Like, aliens conquering human cities?”

  “If it’s happened I haven’t heard of it. We interact mostly with New Haven, Camelot, and Arconette at the moment. New Haven doesn’t like us very much either but it’s not bad enough to completely stop trade. They buy a lot of wood from Camelot, and we buy a lot of products New Haven makes with said wood.”

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to tell us that?”

  “I don’t see the harm in demonstrating we’re open to trade negotiations.” Patrick said.

  “Fair enough.”

  Once they reached the edge of Stormwreck, it was time to head out. They thanked Patrick for the information and began running. According to Patrick, it had been a two day trip for their Ambassador who had been level 39 at the time with a light warrior archetype class. Saylee and Jake were the slowest in the party, and since both were being carried in typical fashion it shaved their expected travel time down a good deal.

  Sarah, Preston, Jake, and Randall were each levels 46, 48, 46, and 52 respectively, and they all had the title giving a small percentage boost to their stats. This all excluded Saylee, of course, as she was only level 15. Despite Saylee being the lowest level herself, she had one of the highest class levels of anyone present.

  She had the class Exploratory Cartographer, which was one of the few classes Teresa had encountered that wasn’t focused on combat. She got a lot of experience from traveling, making maps, and collecting data. Saylee was capable of fighting, but most of her skills were related to mapmaking and exploration. While she had less skills than Teresa, she had more than anyone else in the party.

  Apparently, maps she made were System recognized items now, and a lot of the reason behind her traveling with Teresa was related to her class. Of course, she had a lot more formal experience with meetings and discussion than anyone else present, and she was also an Ambassador since The Mall had leveled up a while ago already, but her traveling was extremely beneficial to her class.

  “What does a skill for making maps even look like?” Teresa asked. They were going to be traveling for a while, and she figured she might as well learn about skills related to other classes. She would be able to change Scavenger out for another class pretty soon, though admittedly Teresa wanted to get a few more skills from it first.

  “Ironically my most useful one is