Chapter 14: getting a room

The first thing to do after getting to the city was find a place to stay. We had some money on us, so I planned to use that. I had no idea how much things cost around here, but I was sure I could make it work.

I had read enough of the Tera Online wiki to know what to do. Sky Palace City was not just popular because it was large. It was especially popular because it hosted one of the two known palace dungeons in Draconis.

Tera Online hosted a ton of dungeons that players were meant to enter, gather resources, fight monsters, and face trials. These dungeons were divided into four known ranks: Base Dungeon, Awakened Dungeon, Ancient Dungeon, and Palace Dungeon.

Palace dungeons were considered the greatest, and they were extremely difficult to tackle. Only two existed in Draconis, one in Sky Palace City and one in the capital of Draconis, known as the Dragon Palace.

From what I had gathered, the Sky Palace had 100 known floors, with only about fifty ever being fully explored after many hundreds of years.

The Sky Palace would be where I rose to the top.

We walked through the town while I thought things through, and then I saw it, the Sky Palace. It was right there in the air. Massive, it looked like a giant spinning top made of silver and black metal. It looked like something you would see only in sci-fi movies.

"Is that the Sky Palace?" Lia asked curiously.

"Yup. That’s the very place where we’re going to make the best of our lives," I replied.

I stared at it for a while longer before we finally walked into the inn.

The inn had no name. It was owned by an older man who stood behind the counter. The moment he saw us, his eyes lit up.

"Hello, welcome."

His attitude was pretty light and friendly, so I let my guard down a bit. I walked up to the counter and spoke to him.

"We want to book a room for a week."

"Oh, will that be two rooms or one?" he asked while glancing over at Lia. He then gave me a look with two winks. I understood what he was saying. Any guy would.

"One room is enough. She is my partner," I said casually. I had no time for games or trying to be coy.

"Oh, nice to see young love," he said and picked a key from under the counter. He walked out from behind the counter and led us up the stairs to where the rooms were. He walked down the corridor to the last room and opened the door.

"This room costs one silver for a week," he said with a simple smile.

I looked at him with complete confusion. Even for somewhere that was very cheap, having a room at that rate was absurd. I didn’t know much about the town yet, but from what I knew, it should cost a lot more to get a room.

The old man noticed that I was skeptical, so he spoke.

"You do not have to worry about it. My rooms are very cheap and well maintained. I do this not as a real business but as a fun retirement hobby, haha." He let out a genuine laugh.

I couldn’t argue with his logic, though something still felt wrong. I collected the key and headed inside. I needed a rest more than anything right now.

The room was pretty simple, with a bed, a wardrobe, a study table, oil lamps, and a washroom. Nothing fancy, but it was very clean and well maintained.

"I guess this is where we start," I said as I stretched my body.

Lia walked to the bed and sat down.

"Those slave traders are in this town," she said casually.

"Yup, and we’ll handle them. But for now, we need money, strength, and more people," I replied.

"More people?" she asked, looking at me.

"Yeah, more people," I said as I approached her.

I leaned in for a kiss. Our lips locked for a second before I pulled back.

"But you don’t have to worry about that. You’re my first, my ride or die," I said with a calm smile.

Her face lit up when I said that. She wrapped her hand around my neck and pulled me in for another kiss. Her boldness had grown. We kissed for a few minutes, and when I felt the blood rushing, I knew we needed to stop, or else we would go at it for hours again.

I pulled back and saw the sad look on her face.

"Don’t be sad. There’s still tonight. But for now, I think it’s better we get some new clothes and whatever else we might need when we enter the Sky Palace. There’s no room for wasting time," I explained to her.

She agreed to it reluctantly.