A couple days of nonstop walking down a road, the group finally stopped passing villages and came across a moderately sized city which reasonably could have passed as a town. However, what mattered most was that the guards at a low wall were Bronze ranked, meaning that a certain level of resources could be expected from here.

In fact, it was rather luxurious for any small city to place such guards here, especially in a kingdom like Remelo where Gold ranked warriors were highly valued.

However, techniques to reach that level are completely different for the group. Pretty much every city held a few stores which collected various books on skills, spells, and techniques, and anything below the training for Mithril ranked warriors is considered easy to obtain, to a limit of course. The number of techniques is far lower to start off with, and there are rarely any more specialised ones available on the market for people like them. However, the Nexus didn’t make rarer evolutions stronger by any amount, rather, it was just more likely for such bloodlines to naturally revolve around some special effect.

For example, consider the Spiritcaller giants’ ability to utilise souls in attacking, from what he’d read in the ruins. Or the Warborne giant becoming an unstoppable machine of momentous fighting power over the course of a lengthening battle.

As the bloodlines evolved, their effects deepened. And for humans, techniques were a necessity in moving further along these pathways.

Anyway, that meant that Korridan, Rebecca, and Jaren all left for the low-walled city in front whilst the group camped out not too deep into a nearby patch of trees. A few scans revealed a few bronze tiers but nothing of serious concern, and they ate some rations whilst discussing magic somewhat.

Well, Mala did at least. What the two discovered over the past couple days was that she held in a considerable number of questions about literally everything he did. Compared to the far more prim yet kind attitude she generally wore, the current her appeared to be a devouring maniac for all things magical. Or rather, she encapsulated another term pretty well.

Every successful wizard.

Therefore, seeing how she would question him on the build-up of mana in a very specific self-created rune whenever he completed a cast in Draconic, then immediately ask about the magical limits of an entirely different spell as well as a test to see what about it failed, he wasn’t the least bit surprised by her attitude. Though, because he knew so little about the regular form of spellcasting it was tough for them to talk about magic in general, instead focusing on various effects and their applications with each other.

Well, a glutton for knowledge is never underappreciated… Unless they used every bit of spare time on research instead of producing minor yet physical results.

No wonder she was forced to leave after graduating.

At some point on the journey as well, Raccelline started to just sit on his back as well. She wasn’t heavy, even to his weak body, although it was strange that she actually found herself ‘tired’ in her own words. Being ridden isn’t exactly the most appreciable thing for anything though, so when she first climbed up he gently nudged her shoulder with his tail and said aloud, “Please do not sit on me.”

Not that she listened though, as her heavy yawns forced her to lie forwards and fall asleep. It didn’t even seem like she acknowledged what he said right there, and it really put him in a dilemma whilst looking at the rest. Not that they helped in the slightest.

But he caved in the end. What was he supposed to do? Push her off?

After that matter though, Darak talked about his own point. Mostly since he had a question of rather grave importance unbeknownst to the group.

He asked, “Why do you have a god invading your body?” As a priest who stayed around Raccelline all the time, he could subtly sense the existence of Divinus runes, and right now the dragon’s body wasn’t just full of them but contained an overwhelming number which made her divine relic look like a child’s toy. Naturally, it concerned him most as the dragon becoming a tool for some outside god imposed a grave threat on the group.

He replied honestly, “Did Raccelline not tell you? When her uncle collected the relic from the mountain, the demigod gave me its divinity. I can awaken the status at master tier, and I’m sure you know what it means to be one.”

“Indeed, but it makes you a tool to that god, nonetheless.”

“Only if the god is alive. And they’re very much gone from this world.” He provided a small correction to the priest, it was a fair mistake since few gods liked spreading specifics on how divinity worked. A common factor is that many try to invoke fear in their race about accepting foreign divinity, with reason since Darak’s point was completely correct in his context. It never applied to Icy’s though.

The three didn’t have much else to do besides talking though, so Mala pulled out a pack of cards from a small dimensional pocket. There were 60 cards, 62 if the two wild cards were included, and they ranged from one to twelve with three face cards.

In the end, they played some poker with a few minor additions for further strategy in the game. Besides the more obvious no magic rule, there were two new types of straights added which only accounted for odd and even numbered cards. In this case, the face cards are treated as numbers thirteen through to fifteen.

“Two pairs, unless you have something better?” Icy revealed his five cards, the pair of sevens and nines weren’t the strongest but it could easily be a winning hand.

Mala’s blank face revealed a smirk as her hand was revealed too. “Did you know you’re really bad at bluffing? I’ll be taking that.” She grabbed the small pile of coins they were all using for the fun of it. Being just some cheap copper pieces, it was more so something to determine a winner and include stakes. But still, he huffed at her hand this game, a full house.

It wasn’t even close.

In his defence, he only learnt how to play the game half an hour ago.

“Quickly Lintel, they’re definitely coming. If we don’t escape into the forest soon…”

Their whole group instantly quietened as a young but gravely concerned man’s voice came from nearby. Afraid of being located, they released any senses or quick scanning spells to find that source, the dragon found two spots of mana moving through the light patch of trees but both were so weak he doubted they trained more than a week in their whole lives.

“I know. I know! I just can’t run faster.” The second person, a girl whose voice was staggered between heavy breaths, replied to it in a grievance.

A few seconds later, the dragon sent the two adults a message about what his mana sense happened to catch. A rather sizable group of Warriors and even one Bronze ranked were heading straight for the fleeing pair… With weapons drawn.

Before anyone moved, Darak told him through the Soul Link, “Do not get involved, you never know who’s side is right. Besides, it’s not really our problem.” Whilst some adventurers were known for their desires to uphold justice, it wasn’t viable in reality. Eventually, they crossed someone stronger, and then another hopeful soul met their end. It didn’t take much to indicate Raccelline to stay silent and focus on what the large group of Warriors intended to do with the pair.

Unsurprisingly, they easily caught up and completely surrounded those two.

“You actually thought you could escape your debt? Who do you think you are?” The leading Bronze rank of the group spoke as though he saw a pair of failing children who didn’t know any better, chiding them for an obvious mistake that could’ve been avoided. But with the young woman clearly hidden behind the guy, who was shaking regardless, their reason for escape seemed a bit more obvious.

“There’s no way she can pay off the debt. Just take the house and let us go!” He tried to bargain with the group, but a few jeers and laughs didn’t exactly help their case…

Out here there was nothing stopping the group from using their lives as collateral. At the least, the city wouldn’t particularly care for a couple lower-class individuals like themselves, especially if they died outside the walls. At least, the guards never showed much desire to help with cases involving the poor inside the city proper, so why would they do anything that required more work on their part?

“We have another… Avenue of income. She’ll be paying off the debt, regardless of how long it takes,” he chuckled at the crappy euphemism he used whilst drawing a weapon to kill the man if any trouble occurred. Meanwhile, for a girl her age, it wasn’t hard to figure out what the staring eyes and grins of some men around her thought.

However, to the group of four nearby, with Raccelline who didn’t understand what exactly was meant beyond something bad, the dragon was surprised when he received a follow-up from Darak. “Just kill them all. They just had to do it.” There was evident annoyance in the priest’s message, and a short addendum explained why. “Vows with gods are a very serious thing. Which means I now have to enter the city to report this.”

Unsurprisingly, the group with merely a single Bronze rank was slaughtered in a matter of seconds, leaving the pair, likely a young couple, to thank them repeatedly with teary eyes. However, Mala sent them off straight away with some coins on the bandits whilst disposing of the corpses with the exception of the leader’s head. That was instead handed over to the priest to help the church identify which faction in the city was responsible for all this.

Meanwhile, Darak headed into the city quickly. He didn’t hate upholding the rules of the god he served, just that so many were happy to fall to such levels. Manus barred slavery of his own race so long ago like every other god for a reason.

It never benefits the gods themselves.

* * *

“I’ll give you five pounds of gold for each one. How many, did you say, were in that coffer?” The three people stood in an arrow with Korridan at the front. Whilst not the most intellectually charged, his demeanour and size reduced the number of hagglers compared to Rebecca or Mala’s attempts. Although, it equalised a lot more when any of them revealed their mana.

“Really? We just received an offer for eight pounds of gold. Looks like we should find another opinion,” it was a simple bluff that both the merchant and the group knew, but there remained a small chance that what these three just said was the truth. In fact, such a thing is far more possible if the bluffed price is still within bounds for whatever their store could make on the product…

And while the Empire of Man had been on a slight tumble the past few months, such an ancient currency held value to some collectors, but primarily its value stemmed from being made of slightly rarer materials from long ago.

But after so long, coins of the same value changed to be made of far cheaper metals.

“I’ll pay nine per piece, how many did you have?” The female appraiser and merchant ended up sighing at the price, having reduced her profits by a third in a single sentence, but she didn’t doubt that some might even buy the coins for far above her own price.

If she secured them now, the sale likely equaled that of selling a High rank magical tool, no small payout to say the least.

Korridan released a surprising fifty of the coins in front of her immediately, with all of them still more or less maintaining their mana. Not secured perfectly, in the slightest, but whatever their environment, it stopped too much degradation occurring to the coins. She bought them all on the spot at their agreed price, and immediately placed them in a dimensional storage box for safekeeping.

However, on the way out, she only then noticed the strangely mana dense weapons at the leader’s waist but dismissed it right after.

Not that it was much of an option…

A short while after the three adventurers left, the female merchant laid against the wooden counter whilst awaiting customers. And while she perked up when one finally entered, that expression soon switched to fear as a familiar face greeted her. One which functioned as a source of her nightmares for the past few years.

“Well… Well… Well. Your extension’s up! Where’s this month’s payment?” The overweight and sleazy-looking ‘collector’ just had to be the one assigned to her, but she didn't have time to think about that as the realisation of the great mistake she just made.

“I don’t… Wait! Just one day, please. I made a huge deal and I’ll have all of it tomorrow. I only have enough for half of it on hand!” She knew how badly these lot hated being led around a bush, and simply stating everything up front had the slightest chance of working out. It was how she even received a two day extension… And then she stupidly took another huge deal!

“Not today. I had to pull a string to get that for you, on account of your… timely appearances. But not this time round,” his head shook back and forth much to her dismay until it finally centred onto her face and dropped to her chest. He followed up with, “Unless you made it worth my while.”

Every last one of those bastards felt like this, sometimes she wondered if they promoted members purely on the number ‘bedded’ as they so eloquently put it.

Barely hiding back disgust, she needed to provide something to make up the payments. Those coins she just bought? Perhaps, but these lot handed her their looted goods to sell constantly, in what world would they have a wizard to help melt down and recast the coins into fresh ingots?

A fresh thought immediately came to mind, and while she felt somewhat guilty for the action… She simply wouldn’t survive the aftermath without doing so. “How about a high-rank magical tool? Is that good enough?”

“Now we’re talking. Where is it?”