"This is the best breastplate armor in the whole town, maybe even the whole region! It rivals the mythril armor that the nobles of the nine Great Families wear. I guarantee its absolute quality." boasts a tall lank man with thin mustaches and voice that I can swear I heard before. His chest is so puffed up that it look almost comical.

The thick man with huge beard beside him smiles widely, enjoying the praise with his chin held high. I would have called him a usual hardworking blacksmith which you can see in any decent town, but his face is too clean and his hands look as if they have never touched a forge.

While looking at both of them, I bend the full plate chest armor with my bare hands and the busy merchant house falls silent. Looking at the bent excuse of an armor I sigh deeply. After another deeper breath to calm myself down I put the chest armor on table and start walking out of the 'best' place to buy armor, ignoring the cry of the owner and chatter of people inside.

Useless shit wherever you go.

I gathered some funds during the boat trip by playing local card game with other co-travelers on the ship. Sadly I was able to participate in the game for only a single day, after which everyone refused to join the game if I was playing. The Endless Empire soldiers, who were returning home were especially angry, as I gathered a small fortune from them. Though they did not dare to do anything after learning what I did with the automatons.

As usual, not everyone was so bright, and during one of the nights I had a visit from few shadow guests. The quite night was broken by screams of pain, which disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Few minutes later a huge crowd gathered around my room entrance, and a pile of broken and bloody bodies near it.

No one dared to pursue it further. The guards didn’t even question me about what happened.

It quite simple actually, no one does anything without the approval from the guards themselves. And it is expected, as there are always people who will attempt to acquire things using easier methods, including stealing.

The ship stopped at the harbor the next day, and everyone went on their own way.

The very first thing I decided to do with newly acquired funds was to buy a decent sword and set of armor. I fully understand that I will not be able to get a good equipment in a city, which is not the capital, but even ‘mediocre’ should not at least bend as if it is made out of paper?

After rethinking it shortly I exit the upper level market area, and walk down to the lower class area and ask for the direction to closest blacksmith. Reaching the shabby looking street I find it very noisy, but not with people, but rather work. A person sharpening knifes is sitting just few meters away from group of people skinning some kind of wild life, and just right across several young boys are running and pilling up bricks orderly one on top of a cart. And the whole street in a busy frenzy ignores each other, trying to do something.

My eyes find a half-crumbled one story stone building, with a anvil sign on, and body instantly starts walking in the correct direction.

After a small explanation of why I can’t simply go and buy armor in a shop, and few gold coins the blacksmith went into backroom and returned back with exactly what I wanted, a thick chain-mail set with simple steel plate breastplate. The whole thing does not look very presentable, as it is not polished to near mirror like state as in the shop, but I can tell that this thing is worth it’s money, or at least I think so.

Thankfully I was able to already find a decent sword with fortification enchantments on it, which was quite a hassle, as the stupid seller kept insisting that his shop has many better sword with much better enchantments, specifically, those that cover the blade in fire and lighting.

Those type of weapons look pretty but absolutely useless in real fight. Oh look I have a shiny sword, which shines so brightly that, even I, the wielder of it am blinded.

Though I can’t judge the quality of the enchantment, as I am not an expert in that. But I know that some enchantments last for decades, others just for few weeks. Hopefully it will last more than few hits though. It is quite heavy for local standards, as it was designed for ‘bigger species’, but for someone from other side of planet like me, the local swords for humans look too flimsy and tiny, calling them rapiers would be a compliment.

Anyway, the closest ship to the capital is in about a week, and all the ‘seats’ have already been bought, so I decided to buy a horse and continue the rest of travel on my own. The horse is currently in stable, being fed and prepared for the travel, while I finish the final tasks in this city.

While walking in the direction of the potion brewer shop I am once again struck by bizarreness of the Astapad city. On one hand you have enormous towers throughout the whole city, with huge white castle in the center of it all, but all of them are in quite poor state, showing just how ancient the whole city really is. They try to hide the damage with simple paint and by filling up the huge holes in walls with new bricks and stones, but fail miserably. Magic reinforced stone is not that easy to make, and it is the main reason that such huge structures can exist in the first place.

On the other hand you have hundred of automatons walking around the city, ranging in all sizes, shapes and colors. Most of them are humongous multi-limbed creatures is very poor state, which rarely look humanoid and are designed for hard labor, such as carrying heavy things around.

Though I have seen few rare exceptions, such as when I saw a noble in lavishly dressed clothes, surrounded by guards and closely followed by a dream like beautiful female automatons with surreal figures and faces, in clothes that are more appropriate to call underwear.

How the hell can they have so many automatons, which are pinnacle of engineering, all around the city, but have such abysmal state of infrastructure.

This just makes no sense. If you can create automatons you should for sure be able to repair the building, or at least build new ones.

Continuing the walk I turn right, into a narrower alley, which should shorten the path a bit as I was told, and find a much more different city. Dirty buildings with yellowish moss covering them and people with clothes made out of different colored dirty patches of what could have been cotton quite a long time ago, fully reflect the stark difference between the city’s social structure.

A high pitched scream takes my attention and my eyes turn in the direction where the sound came from. My eyes stop on a half a dozen laughing guards near a bleeding body of a man on ground, and screaming woman behind it. The woman falls down on her knees and tries to stop the bleeding from a huge wound on the man’s chest as he starts coughing on his own blood. Locals around look away and resume their walk trying not to get involved as they have always done.

A huge grin spreads across one of the guard’s face as he slaps the woman across her face, sending her few meters away from the man’s body. Walking to her sobbing frame the guard grabs and pulls her by the hair up causing the woman to yelp in pain. The guard starts fiddling with his pants and they drop down a few moments later.

Some things are the same whenever you go.

[Are you talking about the behavior of guards or the people around?]

[There is simply is no reason for them to risk their lives and lives of their loved one for someone they don't even know.]

[Or maybe that exactly what they are telling themselves, that this is not their problem and that they should not get involved. Survival of the fittest, right?.]

[Injustice and corruption happens all around world, and for whatever reason people always believe that it is someones else problem, that someone else will help or fix it.]

[Why risk, right?]

[We have our own goals. Why should we waste time on these pitiful humans? One life more, one life less, nothing more. And the only reason that the tiny voice in your head is raising these moral question is that unlike everyone else you have nothing to lose.]

[Life will not change.]

[The world will not change.]

[And so won’t we.]

My sword swiped across the crowd of guards, and they exploded into messy cloud of flesh, gore, blood and armor pieces. Before anyone could react the sword moved again, and another group of guards followed their fate, with their innards painting the walls of alley dark red.

A single guard, leaped at me with his sword visibly shining with mana, only to connect with my sword and split in half together with its wielder. Not losing the momentum the sword continues in arc an connects with several more who attempted to fight or run away.

Within few moments just only two guards are left with their swords pointing at me. One of them, after quick glance at the dead bodies of his comrades decided to flee. Though the attempt was shortly stopped when I took a sword from one of the dead and threw it straight into the back of fleeing guard, who fell down as if a sack of potatoes. Turning to the last one, which is stammering something about mercy with his pants visibly soiled. Ironic that he repeats the same words that have been spoken just a several moments ago my their victim just few meters away from him.

Do they really not understand that this is exactly what they have been subjecting other to?

I grab the human failure, which tries to crawl away by the leg and slam his body against the corner of the building which causes the upper half to detach from the lower one, painting the corner same color as the wall are.

Turning to victims I find the woman frozen in terror with the same eyes I have seen many times, the ones which just saw a monster. The reaction is magnitude higher than the one she was showing less than a minute ago when the man next to her was being killed.

After a deep sigh I turn around and resume my walk in the direction of potion brewer faster than before.

[What did you expect, a ‘thank you’?]

I need to leave the city now.

After quickly buying several potions, provision for the travel and getting my horse from the stables I exit the city and start the travel to the west.

...

Looking at the map once again in order to make sure that this is not a mistake or trick of my sick mind, I helplessly sigh as I stand before the only walking path from my current location to the central island.

The island on which I am currently on, the south-east one, and the south-west one, where the tournament with Amazons will be, are divided by an ocean. The area where they are closest to each other, which is approximately forty kilometers, are connected by a road, which I expected to be a narrow path created by the low tide.

The path is actually a long stone bridge, which is at least sixty meters in width and twice of that in height.

They could not fix main buildings in one of their major cities, which means that they simply could not have build something of such scale or grandness. Another relic of ancients more likely.

How is it possible that there was so much made, so much known, and still every single kingdom lost that knowledge? Everyone at the same time...

The horse under me neighs and reminds me that I have been standing idle for a bit too long. And the weather isn’t getting much better either. I sigh once again.

After about a dozen minutes of ridding I arrive at the the colossal structure and find it in extremely bad condition. This explains why I have not seen any carriages going on this path between the islands. The path exists, but I don't think that a big carriages will be able to pass here, but a single human should be able to.

The further I walk the more destroyed I find the bridge, whereas in the beginning the road itself was cracked, with potholes throughout it, right now though, around me there are huge chunks of bridge simply missing. And a single misstep may lead me falling down into the wild ocean underneath and the fierce waves that continues to crash against the stone bridge.

I continue the travel through the half-destroyed bridge, carefully evading the hole for about another hour until I come to a full stop. A deep chuckle escapes me as I look at the ‘end’ of the bridge. Well technically it is not the end, it just that the rest of the path continues about two dozen meters away from the cliff. Looking down I find few part of the missing area of the bridge laying near the base of columns which act as support of the bridge.

Is this the reason that there were no carraiges?

Why didn’t they fucking update the maps then?

[You didn’t ask anyone. You just assumed that the map was correct, and that you didn’t need help.]

I can return back to the previous city, hide myself in the city, and take the next ship going west and I could theorectically make it in time for the whole thing...

The alternative is to try and jump over.

People think that there is always an option to turn back and return where they started, to try again and again until they succeed. But that is a lie that they are telling themselves.

In real life there is no second chance.

Taking everything valuable from the horse I slap it and send it away. While fastening everything on me tighter, I start circulating mana and sending it to the muscles in my legs. There were few cases were I was able to do things beyond what human body is capable of. Now I need to simply jump over a small cliff, just a bit over twenty meters, nothing more.

Just a simple jump.

Stretching the muscles in my body I start increasing the blood pressure in my arteriae along with the mana circulation intensity. I start walking away from the edge until I reach a good acceleration distance. Taking deep breaths I make the final preparation for the jump, and when the body is filled with enough energy and air, the stone floor under my feet cracks as start quickly gaining speed.

Just a fraction of a second later I find myself at the edge and my legs explode sending me into the air. The loud whistling of the winds eclipses the sound of the ocean as I fly through the air for several long seconds. By trajectory of my travel and speed I determine that I will make it, and just few moment later I land on the stone floor with a roll on the other side, only for the whole area to audibly crack and fall apart.

Of course.

How could I assume that they things would go the way I expected them to?

The water is not as cold as it looked from the bridge, but the waves, counter to that, are even more threatening than they looked from above. Fighting the current I grab unto the closest pillar and look around to determine the current status. Thankfully I grabbed onto the correct pillar and the only thing I have to to is climb up.

Easier said than done.

After about a minute of climbing I reach the top of the bridge. Cursing under my breath I continue walking near the railing of the bridge trying to keep myself close to the area which stands on the pillars. The walk continues and slowly the clothes on me dry under strong wind.

About two hour later I come to another issue.

The bridge simply ends.

Focusing on my eyesight I look around and find the continuation of the path about a kilometer away.

Great.

Looking in both direct I determine that I am approximately in the middle of the road between the two islands, stuck on a piece of rock, with no path forward.

Sighing deeply I look back.

[Just go back. Try again. Maybe the city guards are not searching for you.]

[Maybe you will find a nice ship, filled to brim with good people, they will help you and point you in the correct direction.]

[What has ever made you think that things will become complicated. We always met only happy faces]

Tightening the gear on my body once again I look forward.

Nothing changes.

I leap into the ocean and start swimming in the direction of the other side of the bridge.

...

This explains a lot.

Far away I see outline of the Syena city, which sits on top of small hill, just about a two dozen kilometers away from the ocean. The city is connected to another, at least ten times smaller city, which as far as I see acts just as a port. There is a huge road connecting the 'port' and the city, where a lot of traffic is visible. The port itself is filled to brim with ships, with several times more of that number anchored outside of the port.

I look back at the city, where the competition should be hosted, and where the Amazons should be. It looks shockingly similar to the Ancient Capital of the Sun Empire, and is approximately the same size. But unlike the Ancient Capital the city is divided into mere three rings of walls, with the outer one around thirty kilometers in radius. Still, even with ‘mere’ three rings, calling the city enormous would be an slight understatement.

In the very center of it is massive tower a bit less than two kilometers in radius, whose top is not currently visible, as it hidden behind the thick clouds in the skies.

On the outer ring of the city are six towers, which are about a tenth of that size, which are connected to the central one with gigantic arcs. Unlike all the other cities I have seen before on this side of the world, this one looks to be in near perfect condition.

I stop analyzing the city structure and turn my gaze to the huge queue of people trying to enter the mega-city visible even from here. After about a half an hour of walking I join at the end of the queue, only to find that it moves so slowly that it could take days just to get to the gates.

This will take some time, but I think that it will not an issue at all, as people around are all talking about the event, and that it will take few more days. That means that the Amazons should still be there for at least for that amount.

The day moves slowly, with the queue moving forward.

Several colorful carriages have passed by, ignoring the queue all together and the people standing in it. But not everyone is simply waiting, as quite few stall around are selling food, clothes and more for people who are in desperate need of it. It seems as if there is a tiny city based around the queue into the city itself.

There are quite few guards walking around, mostly in the direction of one of the several brothels formed around the queue. And by the talk it seems the reason there are so many guards here is because the prices here are much lower than in the city, and they can freely move in and out of city without the need to pay the massive toll.

The queue would be a good way to hide myself and quietly slip into the city, but the issue is that I stand out too much. Even if I cover my head full of gray hair with hood, I am still standing out. The huge sword on my hip and my height are hard to hide. I am standing about a head higher than anyone else around, and nearly everyone around me have made at least few glances in my direction. And I already marked several suspicious ones in the crowd which will more likely act soon.

And as I expected they acted.

A simple diversion on one side of the queue and a small pickpocketer from the opposite side, which softly collided with me in the place where the wallet usually is. Standard action, and standard strategy.

After I caught him red-handed his friends joined in to help him and teach me a lesson. Few mangled bodies and a crushed skull later created a small circle of emptiness around me. Quite soon 'righteous' guards appeared and started questioning people about what just happened here.

As if they were not watching the whole thing from afar. I would even go as far as to call those very guards the ringleaders.

The half a dozen guards surround me in a half-circle and start the theatrical play, with stupid question, answers on which they already know and fake exaggerated emotions. Some of them react passively as if they have seen this many times before, one even has a smirk plastered on his face, as if he just saw something amusing.

It is always the same damn thing.

[We should do this quietly. Attention is something that we do not need right now.]

Of course.

Simply allow them to do their stuff.

And I will do mine.

[Wait no-]

The next instant I appear before the lead guards and grab his hand which was just about to pull his sword. It took few more moment for the guards around to understand what is happening and grab their swords.

"Either arrest me or fuck off." my voice comes low and cold.

His eyes freeze when they meet mine. He attempts to say something but only stutter sound comes out. He audible gulps, and releases the hold of his sword. In the next few moment the whole thing deescalated quite quickly, and before I knew it I was standing alone, with mention that the guards will find and contact me after the investigation is finished.

There are people like that. Puffed up chickens, which bail as soon as things start moving south, or when they see that their bluff failed.

Within few hours I was able to enter the city, and the first thing that became shocking is the number of automatons, and their types. Every human looking automaton I have seen in previous city pales in comparison even to the worst ones here. It is as if people have been trying to create the aesthetically perfect bodies, and succeeded in that.

There is just one problem with these automatons. Their either wear fully transparent nightgowns or pieces of clothes that would not be appropriate to even call underwear as they barely cover anything. I somehow feel that this small pieces of cotton make them look even more naked than if they were naked.

The non-human looking ones look as if they mix of different wild animals and a huge chrome slime. They all have mirror like shining armor, with you face reflecting in it if you look at them.

This city is just too strange.

But I am here not for the city.