[NR] Lonely Roads - Chapter 521

Once Jason is back in NeoRealm, things move fast. The group had been ready to leave the day before and were ready and raring to go. While they didn’t have quite as defined of a route as when leaving the nine bamboo kingdom, they knew where they wanted to go.

The kingdom of Steelford, creatively named after the capitol which was positioned in one of the few places a particularly large river could be forded. As for the steel part of the name? The founding king thought it sounded good. Which, fair enough, if you found a kingdom, naming it something you like isn’t the worst idea.

Now, technically, the group wasn’t going to Steelford proper, though the kingdom certainly liked to claim the area was theirs and it might one day be. As it is though, the strip of land is more properly neutral territory on the edge of the Deep Wilds. There were more than enough locations like this for the trio to head to, most kingdoms looking to expand preferred to grab land from the wilds instead of their neighbors.

Steelford, in particular caught their attention because the attempt to expand had only recently begun. So, to draw people to such a dangerous location, the kingdom went with the usual stuff such as allowing people to claim land by homesteading. Another is that those on the edge don’t have to pay normal tithes, instead being considered to have paid in work.

Useful benefits since the group is planning to settle down in one place and allowing the Deep Wilds to bring the adventures to them. Not that just traveling on even well used roads isn’t an adventure already. Jason had mostly ignored it, but the roads were practically empty.

Not just now, but ever since he started out. During his time traveling, while there had to be more times, the only time he could clearly remember meeting another person was that one merchant in that forest of grass. Jason really wasn’t sure what was up with this.

It wasn’t the danger, either. In his last life, there was plenty of danger on the roads, yet the roads still had more traffic. Though even if the locals in NeoRealm were too afraid to travel, what about the other players? They might as well have just been pieces of set design while they’re in any of the larger towns.

Courtney had some answers, though she felt the situation was weird. Players were easy enough to explain. Except for the dungeon they had just left, the areas they had traveled through weren’t the most popular. Swarms? Who would want to deal with that kind of mess?

In fact, while heading to the dungeon, Courtney and Rosha had passed by players more than once. Jason, on the other hand had gone down the road less traveled. Though in the end, the main reason for the dearth of players is the direction they traveled.

Starter towns are all over the place and are much beloved by the locals because of the boost to the economy that players provide. Even nearby kingdoms receive some benefits. In particular, if any particular grouping of starter towns is close enough together, an intermediate town will tend to form in the center of them.

This isn’t some official term or anything, but everyone recognizes their existence. Put simply, they’re a location tailored to players who just graduated from their starter town. The only reason Jason didn’t learn about them is because of how quickly he headed off on his own.

While not every player will head to one, nearly all players looking to make or harvest things will, and anyone looking to join a group would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn’t. Some common things to see in such a place are as follows. Haphazardly placed fields just outside of town. Non-stop construction projects and buildings are being demolished. Large buildings devoted to the various crafts and the products produced. Plus, so much more!

Of course, there is a method to the madness. It is all focused on letting new players train their skills. Such places will even have multiple monster dens nearby, similar to how the dungeon town they just left had the chupacabras. The intermediate towns even provide free hauling services for people out hunting said monsters. After all, it would be a waste to let the hide and meat rot when players back in town could use it to make stuff.

Now, none of the stuff made in such a place is all that high of quality. What makes it worth it is how cheap it is. So yeah, something made in an intermediate town has the same stereotype some countries irl have when it comes to cheap products.

One other detail about this was that Jason learned from Courtney. Towns need to be a certain distance away from the Deep Wilds to become a starter town. Add that all together and of course Jason hasn’t seen anyone.

The only players they would likely see on their current path would be high-level players and they wouldn’t be on this stretch of road. That, however, still leaves the locals. Neither Courtney nor Rosha knew why they hadn’t been seeing any.

Sure, most long distance travel involved massive trade caravans for safety reasons, monsters being what they were. However, they hadn’t even seen one of those recently. Besides, local traffic should still exist. It was honestly creepy to them once they fully realized how dead the roads were.

So creepy that despite having just left town a couple hours ago, they make camp right away. Then Courtney logged out to make some inquiries about what was going on.

Left by themselves and Courtney’s unresponsive form, Rosha and Jason only felt the creepiness of the situation escalate. The only reason they weren’t worrying more was because this wasn’t a new thing. Though Rosha ended up giving her burden to Jason when she realized it was probably because of him. After all, when she was traveling with Courtney, they met some people, even if it wasn’t quite as many as expected.