The city in the distance was unlike anything Kazius could have imagined. The buildings were taller than even the tallest building in Ratier. The tallest of which, were two rather notable ones. One looked like it was some sort of mansion while the other looked like a furnace of sorts. Instead of heat vents though, the large smelter had a metal sculpture of a snake that coiled around the building, its eyes glowing from the heat as it let out steam. All the building sparkled, not only because they were lit up using what appeared to be light magic, but also because the walls were decorated with precious metals. Silver, gold, bronze, platinum, and even mithril were used as mere wall decorations… It was insane. Just one bar of mithril was enough to buy an entire house, a large, sizable and lavish one at that…

“Wow.” Alice would state in awe.

“I never thought there would even be settlements over here…” Kazius admitted in awe.

“Sparkly.” Eve stated in a giddy manner.

“It seems we may be able to find people to trade with us for a more recent map… Though if these people decorate buildings with metal like that… I wonder if we could even afford it.” Kazius stated in concern.

Azanor would whistle in admiration, “Well well well… Look at that crazy thing… That building… I think I can guess who built this place… I didn’t personally know her, but she was a thorn on the side of Dragons and Greed Demons alike… More so Dragons… But this is quite something, even for her…”

‘Of course, Azanor knew something… Whether he felt like telling them though… Was another thing… He even spoke of Greed Demons… What the hell was that?’

“I see… So this is how she does it” Azanor would state, walking ahead, eying up what looked to be just air, even poking it repeatedly. When they approached, it appeared to indeed normal air.

“Will you tell us who built this place? Is there something there?” Kazius finally asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Azanor snickered out.

‘Dammit, Azanor… I bet he is still a little irked from earlier so I doubt he will tell us much for free.’

“You say things to get us curious and then you never answer.” Alice grumbled out. “It is on purpose.”

“Perhaps~ I do enjoy teasing you both.” Azanor admitted with a chuckle.

“Well that just isn’t fair.” Kazius groaned out with a sigh.

Alice would huff, “Fine, keep your secrets. I didn’t want to know anyway.” She would grumble out, quite pouty. The princess having a notable change to how she addressed the Demon. She was being grumpy rather than hostile. Perhaps she had a similar realization to what Kazius did… Something that had likely been hard, with her hero lineage.

Azanor would look at them both for a second, his expression a bit mixed. Kazius couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Azanor would then close his eyes for a second, in thought, before the red orbs would look back at the snake statue, “Remember that story I told you? About the biggest Leviathan… That snake that decorates the forge is a statue of her. I heard she would devour anyone foolish enough to cross her path and then would hoard their possessions. She had a treasure hoard that matched that of Dragons. She was always at odds with them… I heard the complaints from a Dragon once… One I knew. That is how I know about her.” Azanor would add. “Anyway, let’s go! I bet such a place will be fun, come on, Eve.” He stated, leading the Elf along. Eve looked just as giddy, the two walking ahead.

Kazius would stare at the Demon. He confused him… Why was he so obsessed about telling the truth? He even told them this much… He was not a good person, he was a Demon… He was twisted… It was his nature, but Kazius began to wonder if he wasn’t bad either… There was also the fact… With how he talked and acted… He had a realization Azanor was likely hated by his own kind. After all, a Demon who didn’t lie? Azanor’s constant talk of being different? Indeed, it pointed in that direction, but Kazius would need to think further on that before making any conclusions.

He would look over at Alice, who seemed to also be thinking about something. “Come on.” Kazius stated, motioning her over. He led the way to go catch up with the two.

Thankfully, the place was at least not hostile.

The city was filled with people. The inhabitants though all seemed to be the same race for the most part. They looked human, but had some scales peppered around their skin in a few places. It wasn’t drastic, but notable... Their eyes ranged from blue, yellow, brown, and green. They wore clothes unlike anything he had ever seen, robes, togas, and the like.

As they walked, they would see the people interact. Eventually, they would spot two residents arguing over something though. It seemed to only get worse, the two ending up just hissing at each other like angry snakes… So, they really were snake people…

“I just realized… But how will we even communicate with them?” Alice asked in confusion, “They just do a whole bunch of hissing…”

“Well, they hiss, but they use words too.” Kazius pointed out.

“They just sound like snakes though.” Eve stated in confusion. “I don’t know how we would ask them to be friends.”

“Well, they are snake people… But they still talk normally for the most part.” Kazius stated in confusion, wondering why the group thought it was such a problem.

“Look. Excuse me, where would I find a place that sells a map? What currency do you guys use around here?” Kazius would ask someone that seemed to be selling food from a stand.

“Hello, traveler… Welcome to Veleno. You are not the usual type we get around here… Usually our guests are way, way shorter. What are they called again? Oh yeah, Dwarves… Something like that… They always come here to buy metal and smuggle it out to the west… Usually people come here for metal or gambling, but not maps… Though we do have them… As for currency… Well we usually barter with foreigners, but we use these.” The snake person would respond, holding up rectangle shaped solid gold coins. The coin had an elegant design featuring snakes. The purity on the bar was insane… That alone was worth more than a bag of the gold coins back at Ratier.

“I see… Do you think you guys would accept something like this?” Kazius asked, showing him a Ratier coin.

The shop keeper would sneer, “What is that?! I have never seen such ugly scrap metal before… No way… Maybe you could find someone that will buy scrap metal or something, but you won’t get much… If anything. You should throw those out.”

“I see…”

“Though if you are a traveler and bring food from the west… I would recommend you barter with that… You will get a good amount of coin… Especially chicken eggs, chicken, duck, oh those pheasants they have out west are especially tasty in my opinion.”

“I see, thank you. That was really helpful… We do have food supplies… We might part with enough to get a map and some extra coin.” Kazius stated. “I do think we have some cured poultry…” He trailed off, rummaging his back. It was then the snake’s eyes would go wide at the sight of cured duck. “I will buy that, name your price.” The snake person would state, determined. Did they value food that much? Or was it because they couldn’t get such poultry around here? He did see ducks a while back, but not near the forest...

“Huh? This?”

“Yes! Oh, this is why I love travelers, they always have something good. I will give you 5 gold coins. Please. That looks incredible.”

“Is that poultry?” Another passerby snake would ask.

“No, go away, this one is mine.” The shop keeper would hiss.

Oh, this was quickly becoming a mess. He didn’t want to be the source of a scene.

“Look, this guy helped me out so I will have to give it to him.”

With that, it seemed passersby left it at that and Kazius would trade with the shop keep.

If he ever got his hand on some live chickens… It may be worth to bring them here… The dwarves were likely trading such things with the snake people as well… After all, how do you trade with someone who has everything? You must find something they value that they don’t have in abundance… Gold may as well be worthless here.

He would return to his team with the 5 high purity gold coins. Each coin was worth a fortune.

“I didn’t know you spoke snake.” Alice told him in confusion and shock.

“So much hissing!” Eve stated in awe.

“Huh? You didn’t understand any of that?” Kazius asked only to remember the events back at Marv… He understood the Orcs back then while the Holy Knights didn’t… It seems he could communicate with all sorts of beings…

“Tell me… Do you understand me now?” Azanor would ask.

“Of course, I do.” Kazius would answer in confusion

Alice would stare at the two, disturbed. Her eyes seemed wide. “W-What are you doing?” She asked, seeming distressed.

“Ah, right… Well Demon is a language that freaks out those who do not understand it… Oh, you are quite the interesting and dangerous fellow, Kazius…” Azanor would chuckle out sinisterly with a wide grin.

“I… I see.” Kazius would state as he looked at Alice apologetically.

Eve seemed to not have minded the sound though… Then again… The woman didn’t have a lot going upstairs so maybe she just always smiled?

“I will try and be careful when I talk and make sure you are understanding what I am saying or not… Though to be honest, I don’t know how I am doing that… Anyway… enough about that… We should get a map and be on our way… No way we could afford an inn here. We didn’t bring anywhere close to enough extra food for that.” Kazius stated. “Let’s go.”