Beetle has herpes!?!

After a few more days of travel, Kara Kara City comes into view.

It is massive, much bigger than the small bazaar in the games. The city is shaped like a large circle, with looming golden towers and small marble palaces in the middle, and smaller buildings farther away from the center.

The merchant caravan enters through a small gate, attended to by only one old Gerudo woman, and the various wagons go their separate ways.

Beetle, Floofy, and I pull into a side alley to plan our next move, and Beetle tells me the situation in the city.

"Due to Kara Kara being an oasis city, real estate is centered around access to water, which is why much taller and nicer buildings are closer to the center of the Oasis. There are also a few wells that are owned by extremely powerful organizations, like Hudson Construction, large Hylian nobles, and popular local establishments like the Nightnigale Inn and Kara Kara auctionhouse."

Beetle continues, "It's also worth noting the Hylian royal family appoints barons, viscounts, earls, marques, and dukes to control a small amount of territory in each of the four non-hylian kingdoms, as a way to enforce their rule as the top dogs."

After the talk, we move inwards, looking for the perfect building to be the headquarters of the Sinclair Trading company.

The outer areas of the city contain low, single-story buildings, which are patched together by random materials. Beggars line the street, asking for water as we pass by, and many of the residents of this area are carrying massive jugs of water on their backs.

Sadly, it would attract too much attention if a random guy started giving out endless magic water, especially with people on the lookout for the mysterious sixth sage.

We look right at home here, pulling our cart by hand along the cracked sandstone road.

We eventually come up to another wall, this one much taller and more guarded than the first. A tall Gerudo guard approaches our little cart.

"I'm going to need to see some identification papers, we're on high alert for some magic Zorro vigilante crap," she says, looking at us us up and down.

Beetle hurriedly shows her a couple of papers from his backpack, and we prepare to move on, but the guard stops us.

"We've got to check what's inside your cart," she says, walking around past us to the canvas tarp covering our belongings.

I freeze; under that tarp are hundreds of rupees worth of rare herbs and valuable blue bokoblin and Moblin horns that I looted in the battle. While it's not illegal to have them, it would definitely be suspicious and could put my identity at risk.

"Wait," I say, sliding down from the cart. I take a small medallion out of a tightly buttoned pocket and flash it to the guard, "Official royal business. Trying to be discreet."

The Gerudo warrior examines the Royal knight's seal given to me by Uncle Rhoam, and her eyes widen in shock.

She quickly lets us through and even gives me a red document with an embalm of two crossed spears surrounded by lightning, "I'm sorry for my ignorance sir. Please accept this document; it will allow you to enter through most gates in the city without being checked."

Beetle is once again in shock at my super cool awesomeness, and we enter the second ring of the city. Here, the buildings are much more clean, and some are even two-storied. Street vendors hawking their goods line the roads.

Stall owners call out to us, selling fabrics, weapons, and food like roasted lizards on a stick. Larger buildings have glass storefronts, and I spot a small Shiekah gear with an astronomical price in one of the more guarded storefronts.

A large building catches my eye, and I ask Beetle what it is.

"Oh, that's the old Hylian royal embassy, it's the biggest building in the second ring, but we shouldn't buy it. Its well has long gone dry, and now it's been looted of all valuables. With our funds, we can afford a medium-sized building in the third ring!"

"Abandoned embassy, huh? Me-sa likey the sound of that!"

We re-route the old embassy; around it are large abandoned buildings that, just like the embassy, no one in the second ring can afford and no one from higher rings want.

A ten-foot-tall wall surrounds the embassy, the previously sharp spikes on top of it are worn down with age, and a cast-iron gate is chained shut out front.

"I'm going in. Floofy's in charge," I tell Beetle, grappling over the wall with the Throngler.

A small field surrounds the main building. Where there used to be beautiful gardens, there is now a dirt yard. The main building isn't as large as you might think, but it is tall.

The embassy is a six-storied hexagonal building that was obviously something to look at in its prime, but all of the expensive marble and decorations have been pried off, leaving only the strong stone bones of the structure showing.

I walk inside and take in the interior. A large well is in the center of a main chamber which extends upwards, through all six floors. balconies look down upon the well from the six stories, and sunlight streams through a cracked glass dome at the top of the building.

Stairs wind up and around the tall atrium, and rooms jut off away from the main balcony hallways, making every room have windows.

The architecture is amazing, the building can completely function through the use of natural light.

When I reach the stop, a large room with a broken floor-to-ceiling window greets me, showing a beautiful view of the city. This would have a great laboratory for my crafting.

I return to Beetle outside and tell my decision, "We definitely buyin' this. As for the water, I'll just hop down the well, do some plumbing, and it'll be good as new!"