Chapter 9.25

Chapter 9.25
Interlude – Adventurers (Pt. 3)	Chapter 9.26 F
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Chapter 9.25 is the 36th chapter of Volume 9.

tl;dr[edit | edit source]

Erin meets more of the Adventurer's Haven's name ranked adventurers and Mrsha attends school.
The two inns initiate an exchange where Barnethei attempts to win over Ishkr and steal him from Erin, but Ishkr ends up refusing revealing himself to be a [Head Server of Tales and Fables].

The chapter contains many small scenes and resolutions of previous plot points. One of those is Erin meeting some of the other adventurers at The Adventurer’s Haven. Beyond those we'd already seen in detail, the north also has Caleis Berkesson, an adventurer whose class revolves around helping the nobility of Izril thus he is traveling south towards Izril's new lands to help them there. She also met The Champions of the Coast, a married named-rank duo. While at the haven, she chatted with Larra about their progress towards Izril's new lands and ended up making a deal with Barnethei to send Ishkr over in a temporary worker swap for some of The Haven's staff.

While Erin is at the Adventurer's Haven, Mrsha is tricked into attending school much to her chagrin. She along with Visma, Ekirra, and other children from areas connected by Erin's door are a trial-run for a full-time classroom setting led by Shassa. Mrsha is initially devastated since any previous attempts at tutoring her by Erin and Lyonette were extremely boring, but she is won over when Shassa taught them using fun activities like foraging and ranged combat.

Colthei also came over to The Wandering Inn to discuss the state of Facestealer's and Stalker's hides. Both hides had been through rigorous cleaning done by Larra at Colthei's expense. He'd also paid out the others he'd brought in for the job using gold or the death magic swords they found. The hides were more of an issue though. They were graded at minimum at a top-tier artifact level if not relic grade and had enough material for multiple sets of armor, but hide that strong was almost impossible to cut by normal means. They'd need to find and transport the hides to a high-level tailor and Colth couldn't find someone at the right level. He brought the news to the Horns and Larr of Vuliel Drae provided a solution. His uncle made Kraken Armor and therefore should have the skills to handle the tough material. The Horns volunteered to bring it there since it would be closer to the new lands. As they came to this conclusion, the staff from The Adventurer's Haven arrived which included 8 people all over level 20 with three being over level 30. The staff and Lyonette were slightly combative from the start but Erin felt no pressure and was more so curious about them and their equipment.

At the Adventurer's Haven, Ishkr had started to work, but first we saw more of Barnethei. He and Larra had come to an agreement that Barnethei would build a new inn in the new lands under the umbrella of Larra. This would be done to gain more levels and more profits for both of them. Larra wanted these to let herself and her friends live in peace for their last years. Barnethei wanted this so he could get away from these close friends of Larra's and get his own group. Larra's friends were somewhat present. Some had already left, but Mihaela and Valeterisa were still at the inn. Valeterisa was there to peruse the library and work on a project while Mihaela busied herself in training potential couriers like Fals as well as five other city runners. Both of these were distractions for Barnethei as he helped set up money making opportunities for the inn and calm down a brewing fight between a northern [Lord] and Relc and Menolit who had been invited to the inn.

The haven's staff at Erin's inn were trying to understand Erin and her inn, but didn't see anything nearly as impressive as the Adventurer's Haven. Erin knew this, and against all odds, Ishkr showed back up, fleeing from the attention he had been getting at the Haven. Since Ishkr had come back, this ended the employee exchange and Erin offered the staff to come into the Garden of Sanctuary. She also asked Ylawes and his team as well as Stargazer’s Promise if they could come with. She showed each of them she could find one for a statue: Ylawes saw Yderigrisel, Falene saw Sprigaena, Lehra saw Chieftain Seru’nial, Emper saw Merindue and other legends of Chandrar, and Suxhel saw The Witch of Eyes. There was overlap between who saw what and the staff also saw some statues, but Erin knew some of her adventurers were leaving soon, so she wanted to show them these statues in the hopes that they might level from it and that they might be able to find stories to bring back to her about these figures.

While Erin was showing statues/terrorizing her friends, Barnethei found Ishkr back at the inn and finally had the chance to make his full pitch to join him. Barnethei offered a lot to Ishkr but Ishkr was very evasive. He was offered gold, levels, fame, a place for his sister, and much more until Ishkr finally said outright that he preferred the culture of the inn here as opposed to the grueling amounts of work that seemed common at the Haven. He said that he was made by Erin rather than Erin wasting his talents. Erin came back and the two revealed that Ishkr was a [Head Server of Tales and Fables] who likely wouldn't be able to stay very anonymous much longer after he revealed his amazing skills that managed to outdo Barnethei's.