Badge in Azure

Without anyone spying on him, Fycro felt comfortable moving around freely. He noticed that this city was bustling with business even though it had just around one-hundred-thousand people. Most of the people that came over from Phoenix were merchants and reputable clans.

Although the tax system in Metatrin City was complicated, the rates were actually very low and any business could be profitable. Most of the things available here could hardly be found in most other cities. Even the Qin garrison in Phoenix had took notice of the existence of Metatrin City.

Due to the Holy Rock City’s acquiescence on top of the inaccessible location, the garrison of Phoenix had no intentions of attacking. Instead, they sent caravans over to buy magic nuclei and wood.

After Saleen left, Daniel organized manpower to hunt on the seas, so the supply of magic nuclei was still sufficient. He had two combat vessels which used up a lot of magic nuclei whenever they were used for hunting, but the sea provided a rich amount of resources. Whenever they went out to the seas, they were guaranteed huge returns. Including the magic nuclei that Saleen left behind, it was no wonder that Metatrin City had developed a reputation as a business city.

If Fycro arrived at the west gate instead of the north, there might not even be any patrols around to question him at all.

Fycro’s pace was neither too fast nor too slow, but very soon, he had almost walked the entire perimeter of Metatrin City. He did not explore the core of the city as even more skeletal soldiers would be patrolling there. What puzzled Fycro was that the people in the city did not show any signs of fear towards the skeletal soldiers. To mages, skeletal soldiers were like a motley crew that they could destroy easily. For normal humans to be unafraid of skeletals was strange though.

He could sense the aura of the Three Kings. He was not afraid, but in any case, he came to Metatrin City for other reasons and not to destroy it. He pretended that he was just a grade-2 mage and patiently waited in the city for Saleen’s return.

On that day, Fycro was exploring the east side of the city and came across a shop that sold shells of sea monsters. He thought they were interesting and wanted to buy them. These things were useless to most people since there were too little of them. Fycro had his own way of refining and could still create miniature weapons from them.

Just as he was discussing the prices with the shop assistant, someone dashed in from outside. His face had traces of blood and his clothes were torn and tattered. The moment he entered the shop, he immediately grabbed one of the long swords from a shelf. His face looked ferocious. By now, tens of soldiers that were on patrol had blocked off the entrance of the shop.

Fycro could tell immediately that this man had the abilities of a grade-1 swordmaster. With a long sword in hand, there was a sturdy and fearless aura about him. The soldiers at the entrance were all only at the level of swordsmen. The moment they saw that the man was armed, they quickly drew their crossbows, but did not rush in immediately for fear of hurting the customer and shop assistant in the shop.

The shop assistant who was discussing prices with Fycro was panicking by then and retreated to hide behind the counter. The fugitive armed with the long sword glanced at Fycro and was shocked to realize that there was a mage there! Immediately, he dismissed the thought of using Fycro as hostage.

“Why are they after you?” Fycro was indifferent and began to question this man. He was stunned and clearly did not understand what Fycro said.

Fycro spoke in the Qin language with a Sikenqinyan accent. The man clearly did not understand and appeared flustered while holding onto his long sword.

The man’s expression did not arouse any suspicions in Fycro. He was very clear by now that within Metatrin City, as long as one did not get too close to the core of the city, security was quite lax. Based on the fact that the person who was supposed to be spying on him had already left long ago. Metatrin City was developing into a business city, so there was no need to scrutinize a grade-2 mage. When human traffic in the city increased in the future, how many spies would be needed in order to carry out spying activities on such a large scale otherwise?

“Mister mage, save me!” The fugitive opened his mouth and spoke a strange version of the Common Language.

Although the Common Language evolved from the Myers Language, the difference could be huge. Needless to say, it was almost unrelated to ancient the Myers Language. Luckily, Fycro was well-learned and although this man’s accent was very strong, he was able to understand quickly by using his calculating ability. It was just some changes in the scale of sound. All mages were proficient in this, much less a Holy Master that mainly cultivated his spirit as his training.

Fycro looked out of the shop’s huge window and saw that more soldiers had gathered, and even a magic apprentice had arrived with a few skeletal soldiers. Skeletal soldiers did not have strong fighting abilities if the battle was on a major scale. In a close combat like this, skeletal soldiers were not afraid of knives and could use their bodies to control the enemy since they were of no loss even if they were sacrificed.

Fycro walked out of the shop and waved to the captain of the soldiers. The captain was a swordsman of a high level and was extremely young. He used to be a private soldier of a reputable clan, which then defected to Lex and the whole family moved to Metatrin City. Since there was no need to have so many soldiers at hand anymore, more than half of the private soldiers were bought over by Lex.

This captain was well-trained. He saw Fycro’s attire and did not dare to be rude. He took a few steps in front and bowed to Fycro, saying, “Mister mage, that is a fugitive. Please do not interfere.”

Fycro frowned and said, “I heard that Qin has banned the slave trade.”

Fycro was not wrong. The Qin Kingdom had banned the slave trade and although Metatrin City was not a land of Qin, it was close to Bitter Water Prefecture. The laws of the prefecture were no different from Qin so slave trade should not be occurring here either. Fycro also hated the slave trade because he felt that slaves’ faiths were unpure. Once they were freed, they were more likely to betray the Gods compared to normal humans.

The Holy See allowed for slaves in Tanggulasi Kingdom in order to reduce the power of the kingdom and at the same time, give the Holy See sufficient freedom and empowerment. This did not mean that the slave trade was beneficial to the Holy See. In the long term, the slave trade should be demolished, or the Holy See would start to experience a bottleneck and would be unable to expand further.

In the past two years, the war between Tanggulasi Kingdom and Qin had proved this point. Usually, more than ten-thousand slave troops would be massacred by a Qin flag group, even implicating the elite troops that led these slaves. Qin presence in Loulan consisted of only local forces and their abilities were nowhere near the Qin royal swordsmen’s camp. Even so, the battle in Loulan was still locked in a stalemate.

If Qin was against the slave trade, why would there be an occurrence of slaves being bought or sold here?

“Mister mage, this man is not a Myers.” The captain was a bit embarrassed, but still explained to Fycro patiently.

Fycro understood immediately. Holy Rock City had created war puppets and from what he knew, they destroyed the Eastern Sea Allied Army. Even the millions of troops in the Eastern Sea Allied Army could not stand against the swarms of soldiers from Holy Rock City. After a few major battles, the number of captives from the Eastern Sea Allied Army were more than two-hundred-thousand. These captives, according to the laws of the Qin Kingdom, could be bought and sold.

Since they were not from Myers Mainland, to foreign invaders, Qin was considered merciful by not executing them.

“Mister mage, please save me! I don’t want to go to the mine. I am willing to become your follower!” The captive from the Eastern Sea Allied Army shouted loudly from inside the shop.

Fycro smiled and said, “How much do I need to pay to buy this man?”

The captain seemed to be put in a difficult position and said, “Mister mage, originally he would not have cost much, but he escaped and injured a few of our soldiers in the process. If you are Qin, it will be difficult to buy him.”

“I am Sikenqinyan,” Fycro said honestly.

“Then that would require one-thousand gold coins as a deposit. If he does not create any trouble for our country within a year, you will only receive a return of five-hundred gold coins. It is not worth it,” the soldier tried to dissuade Fycro, out of goodwill. Using one-thousand gold coins to buy a grade-1 swordmaster was indeed too expensive. Usually, gold coins were still extremely valuable to a low-level mage.

“Where can I sign the contract for purchase?” Of course, Fycro did not care for the one-thousand gold coins. Now that he heard that the swordmaster was supposed to be sent for mining, there were some questions that he wanted to ask him. With regards to the Eastern Sea Allied Army, he was also interested to understand more about that too. The Holy See had never had any control over the seas, and to Fycro, that was a huge miscalculation.

If they could develop fleets like Cloudflow, the Holy See would have expanded to the mainland long ago.

“In that case… Mister mage, please follow me to the town hall.” The soldier had already tried his best to dissuade him, but since Fycro was still insistent, he could not be bothered to persist any further. Mages usually tended to be strange people, so who knew what he was thinking.

Fycro managed to purchase the swordmaster successfully and spent a total of more than one-thousand and two-hundred gold coins. Amongst them were one-thousand gold coins’ worth of deposit. It was unlikely that he would get the deposit back.

Fycro brought the swordmaster back to his room and signed a follower contract with him before questioning him.

Fycro was a bit disappointed after the questioning. Although the swordmaster was the military officer of one of the Eastern Sea countries, that country was a small one and was not even able to construct its own vessels. The situation in the Eastern Sea was ideal. Hundreds of small countries located on more than three-thousand small islands, such places were perfect for the spreading of faith.

The countries of the Eastern Sea suffered huge losses in this expedition. If the Holy See could seize the opportunity, they would definitely be able to convert a lot of new disciples.

The only trouble was that the Eastern Sea countries also had a religion of their own. Their faith did not lie in any Gods, but with a royal family. According to legend, a noble family from the first dynasty came over to the Eastern Sea islands and built a unifyed kingdom. The empire did not last long and broke apart soon after. Nevertheless, the subsequent emperors or kings all acknowledged this noble family to be their spiritual leader.

“The descendants of the first dynasty?” Fycro analyzed and decided that it was still possible. If this family was that powerful, it would not have allowed the kingdom they built to collapse.

The issue about the mining was simple. There were quite a few mines in the northern part of Metatrin City. The Supreme Court had conducted reconnaissance of the area before, but did not treat it with importance since it was so far away. Metatrin City laid claim to these mines and allowed noble families and merchants to invest and mine.

The noble families of Phoenix had escaped here, but the journey was not entirely a rush and they had time to bring along all their family properties and were still very affluent. The only thing they lacked was manpower.

Irene was in charge of organizing the manpower, so she bought many slaves in Lianyun City and then sold them to the investors of the mines. The slaves were sent to the northern side for mining.

Due to a lack of suitable mining machines, this method was the fastest way to earn profits.

After what the swordmaster told Fycro, he thought to himself, “Since I did not kill the swordmaster and have already spent more than one-thousand gold coins on him, I might as well keep him as my runner.” The purpose of him coming alone was to strike a deal with Saleen. He left all the fighting and killing to the Pivotal Council and the Supreme Court.

In any case, the deal that he was trying to strike was a major one. If he succeeded, he would no longer be restricted on the Myers Mainland.