Chapter 111: Red Coral City
The next day the group left on the carriage. As soon as they left, Jack asked.
"If you really just want to teach them how to do, you could have demonstrated at a small tier city, we would have managed to save some time, why did we have to come this far."
Sam didn't say anything and just smiled. In a few moments the golden-fist ape came from the nearby woods, with a huge leather bag on his back and at the same time, there seemed to be some extreme moment from the woods.
Within no time, tens of beasts came from the woods, carrying some type of trees. All of these are fruit trees that can aid cultivation in initiation stages and later, they can at most supply some spiritual energy to Acolytes and early stage Novices.
Jack was dumbfounded as he saw all the beasts dragging and carrying these trees.
Sam casually stored them all and even the golden ape away in the divine dimension.
Since, this village is far and the cultivators in this area aren't too strong they don't venture into deeper zones and possibility of these trees which aren't much desirable existing here is high.
Sam's purpose of coming here is collecting these types of trees. Even though, they might not be highly useful, he can still use them to introduce the alcohol at his restaurant.
So, Sam planned one thing. He will collect as many resources he can as possible to make profit out in his businesses.
After storing away Sam took out his hover board and at the same time let Yanwu and Sky out.
Jasmine and Jack boarded them and Sam stood on his board. When he unleashed the thrust and floated Jack spotted some words carved on the side of the board.
"Harbinger." He read out loud and looked at Sam.
This is the name Sam gave to the board.
With the high thrust, even though his altitude isn't high, it is not low either.
Yanwu and Sky also flew at the same altitude as him which is around forty feet above the ground.
This way of travel is very fast as they reached the Red coral city in two days even when they rested at nights, but the price Sam has to pay is a set of Energy cells of his board, but he didn't feel the pinch.
Because, his cost price is high and he also gained a lot in this trip. He plucked every fruit tree he or his beasts spotted on his way and the ape planted them inside the divine dimension.
He even found some wild herbs which are beneficial for Novice levels. But since, he didn't have much benefit for them, he just let the beasts eat them.
After all, their cultivation is beneficial to himself.
After they reached the vicinities of the Red coral city, three of them started walking.
They entered the city and after some enquiries, they went to some low-key inn.
As soon as they entered their rooms, Sam let the remaining shadow mice out. He has five of them with him and he left the remaining five with Watt, to use them in the small tier cities.
Even though, the five mice sound like the investigation might take longer, but the main thing is that mice also improved and their ability is also enhanced.
With increase in the cultivation level, the shadow mice can perform a myriad of techniques, even though they don't have much use in battle, their control over shadows and their eavesdropping abilities are not to be trifled with.
If they had any way to attack, they will make the best assassins and Sam is even thinking of making it possible.
If their cultivation is high enough, the shadow mice can even access the shadow world. And about the shadow world, that is the story for another time.
Sam didn't leave the mice aimlessly, the three of them first went to the dining hall of the inn and in the same way, Sam caught some news on a small local gang.
He is slightly missing the Vickers guy, where he can buy the info as he liked.
So, after finding a guy from the small gang, he left the shadow mice, to do their work.
Last time, it took him more than a month to gather all the intel and there would definitely be a black water branch here also.
So, shadow mice had one thought in mind, they should get the monthly report of the branch as soon as they find out.
Sam also felt a little depressed when he found out, that there is no establishment known to public named Black pond in the city. But with the shadow mice abilities he didn't have a doubt that he can't find him.
And two days later, Sam, Jack and Jasmine. All of them are sitting in a dark room and in front of him is man in his thirties with some beard. He is injured considerably.
He is the leader of small gang that Sam let the shadow mice investigate.
"So, are you going to tell me the info I need or not?" Sam asked with a slight impatience. Just as the man was about to reject, Jack took out his black sword and immediately pierced into the other guys shoulder.
"One more rejection, you can lose a limb." The other party.
"I will tell you." The man finally gave in.
At first, they came normally and just asked for the info, but this guy had some loud mouth and Jack beat him to pulp.
After that, when Sam asked him again, he rejected two times and third time led to this situation.
After more than thirty minutes, the man laid lifeless on the floor and so were the other gang members in the area.
Anyway, their task is to eliminate all of them, since Sam got all the info, he doesn't have any use for them.
Now, he has an understanding on the forces of this city. Unlike, Falcon cliff city, the gangs in this city are quite scattered and there are ten small gangs. Along with that ten small gangs, there are two big gangs which have most control over the city.
He also learnt that there are some officials in ties with these two gangs and the two gangs are also said to be the rival gangs vying to get a chance to occupy each other's territory and business.
One of them is responsible for settlements, assassinations, missions and even hiring for teaching someone a lesson, they don't even care about the protection fee and the name of the organisation is snakehead.
The other gang is related to prostitution, slave trade and also something Sam never expected he would face in this world. Drug dealing. They are called the Tiger fish.
Sam found something off, when they heard the names. They are just like Piranha and Candiru. Both of them are fish names and are related to the black water's branch. In falcon cliff city, both of them didn't have any connection to the public eye, but they didn't have a conflict either.
But here, these two are fighting each other and there is even a place that they have chosen to fight it out.
They even sell tickets to that event. Sam was quite curious. He even thought of a possibility that the two gangs are making a façade to not let others find out about it and them being the part of the black water.
And there is one more organisation that transitions between black and white and that is the 'Arena'.
This is an entertainment zone where the people fight for the spectators and the fight between the snakehead and the tiger fish are also organised by them.
But they aren't open to the general public and timings are also closely constrained to the underground society only.
So, Sam decided one thing. He will investigate slowly. He felt that there is only piece of puzzle that is missing and if he can find this, everything will be sorted out.
But he is in no hurry. He has two months for each city and he can slowly collect the info and take them down.
By the time he can slowly wear down the forces here, or even better he can use the same technique he used in the Falcon Cliff city. He can target them and make use of poison.
But this time, Sam has other ideas. He wants to use the underground forces to wear each other out.
Previously, he only has to deal with Black pond, so as a single entity, he can target them, but this time he has to take down remaining gangs as well.
If he uses the previous method, the other gangs may go into hiding.
So, he has to think of a different approach and he has already got the rough locations of the remaining small gangs and some contact points of the Tiger fish and the Snake head.
If he uses his shadow mice from these points, he can trace back to the headquarters of the two big shots.
Before that, he has to check out this 'Arena' and determine whether it is illegal organisation or not.
That night, Sam went to the location of Arena alone. Tonight, there is going to be a battle between the two big gangs.
He came here alone that is because, he is using the special pass of the small gang boss, they killed earlier and that pass can only allow one person.
When Sam went there is no fee because of the pass. So, he sat in a corner as he observed the ring.
At the centre of the team, two men are looking at each other and the referee is announcing the conditions.
The thing is, these big shot organisations also have some legal businesses as a façade for their members and also their secondary source of income.
Today's match has a bet of some businesses from each side. They are using this strategy to not incur most losses in an all-out war.
And soon the match began, both the candidates are Novice Level 4 and both of them are warriors. They are fighting tooth and nail while people are cheering to the person they bet on.
At this moment from a special spectator stand a great mage looked at Sam who is sitting in a corner.
"Why is he here?" He muttered slightly.
Sam might not recognise him, but the other party has seen him in the Marquis city that is why he recognised him easily. Sam isn't exactly low profile in the city.
Sam didn't know that a great mage is curious on why he came to this city. He waited until the fight is over and left the place, but three small shadows entered deep into the arena. Two of them followed the two fighters and the third one went to follow the referee.