Chapitre 57: Japing
Gè Míng was a little annoyed at riding in a beat up looking fishing ship after finding out that they could be riding anything but found it amusing that Tral and Darick dressed up in fisherman's coveralls so decided to play along like it was a game.
They were headed to the nearby island of Japing where the massive towering city of Kalsar stood with its skyscrapers reaching above the clouds.
This city was one of a couple on the island and boasted a population of a few billion people all crammed together in these great buildings that held everything from living space to wonderful malls filled with bright lights all around.
The locals were mostly a mix of southerners and traditional islanders as the place was quite the trading hub where many came from all over the world.
The group didn't have a hard time getting there as it was fairly close but spent some time fishing off the coast as an excuse to dock with products to sell. This also gave them time to continue their lessons from the venerable Gè Míng.
While getting to know his new disciples he found out that Tral's "health condition" was in fact vampirism which was yet another surprise for him to deal with. Tral tried to convince him again to share some blood but his attempts backfired as his new master ordered him not to drink anyone's blood unless they were "baddies that deserve to be punished for their crimes".
Tral grudgingly relented on this swearing to his friends that he won't wantonly feed off of people any more and they were able to get past the issue fairly easily especially after Darick shared the rest of their story about how their life long friends had been captured while a crazy old man had convinced them to seek the mysterious power within the mountains that lead him to his current state.
After that Tral began sharing what he had learned of Japing from the old shaman's blood "They have all kinds of crazy culture and technology on this island. One of the big ones to remember is hair, for some reason they think cutting hair is extremely unpopular so we will likely see all kinds of crazy long hair styles there which reminds me as we should probably wear wigs so as to not stand out."
Darick just facepalms at this "You have to be kidding me right? You're saying one of the few parts of my body that can get damaged these people think shouldn't. Wigs are weird but if you're putting anything on my head it better look cool like some war braids cause I know you're going to do something ridiculous for yourself."
Darick wasn't wrong either as Tral had already made a stacked coil of hair for himself that went back down to look like a conical hat held together by pins with a dyed red straight part that reached past his shoulders which caused the other two to laugh hysterically.
As they neared the island they could see many other ships coming and going of all shapes and sizes. The waters got more clustered with them when they could finally catch a glimpse of this technological wonder of a city which seemed to carry it's own clouds of pollution hanging in the air all around it.
Once in the thick of naval traffic they could tell that Tral was indeed right about the hair with many fishermen having theirs done up in reels to dangle by the sides of their head to stop it from getting caught while quite a few had intricate braids of incredible designs that put Darick's war knots to shame. There was even one captain that had his hair coming out the top of his captains hat to wrap around the brim in a similar fashion to what Tral was doing going so far as to give eachother nods as they made eye contact.
Tral just casually mentioned after that "You should probably watch out for short haired people here as it is the cultural norm for criminals or other scum to have their hair cut by the local authorities or by other citizens if they are caught doing something immoral."
This concept made the other two understand at least a little of the value of these wigs now going so far as Gè Míng asking for extensions so that he could look more regal in the area.
They soon found a mid-ranged dock that had some space near a fish market so that they could blend in. As the moored the ship to tie it off an excessively fat business man with braids woven with fishing hooks waddled over to them with a clipboard.
"That will be two gold docking fee followed by three silver an hour or a gold a day sailors, A fine catch you got yourselves there I also happen to have some boys who can take that off your hands to cover your fees for the day while paying you for the effort a whole two gold if that seems fair" He says after taking a quick look at some of the cargo.
The other two were about to agree but Tral immediately came out with a rebuttal "Two gold for a days work! You have to be out of your mind, how can I keep my crew and ship running off of that this is blatant robbery! If you want all these fish then I'll give it to you for twenty and you cover our docking fees three days so we can have some fun on the town a little."
Instead of getting mad then man laughs heartily "Twenty gold oh how bold you are, I should tell you to haul this all into market yourself for that comment but I'll tell you what, I could do five gold tops and give you two days of docking if that will satisfy you eh?"
Tral just flashes a gold coin in his hands as he looks over at Darick to say "He says to carry the fish to market then we can easily make over twenty for this catch." Darick long used to Tral's antics immediately grabs the netting full of fish a few times bigger then himself and easily lifts the whole load over his shoulder to step onto the peer as if to walk into town with it.
The businessman panics a little at this point "Hold your horses there I was just fooling around with ya but can we be reasonable here? I give you lot twelve gold per load and a pass to dock here for three days to be renewed with new loads."
Tral smiles at this and signals Darick to hang up the netting on a nearby hook before money changes hands. While the businessman took down their fake names Tral had prepared ID for.
With this they had entry into the great city and a place to come back to if needed.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone