The guard hurriedly left, and the remaining one muttered, "That bastard left me here to attend to these wild beasts. Their mana pressure is frightening! It feels like if I made any wrong move, they would kill me for sure."
Gathering his courage, he approached them. "How can I help you today?"
"I've been here before," Damian said, looking around. When the guard came up to them, he asked, "Is this the Neutral City of Sarnis?"
The guard replied, "Yes."
"Neutral City of Sarnis?" Lucian muttered.
Damian explained, "Yes, I've been here before with my grandpa. He is a friend of this city's lord. The reason it's called Neutral is because this city holds trade and diplomacy with the other three kingdoms, meaning it isn't under the royal family. And it's at the edge of our kingdom. For us to get there, it will probably take up to a week's travel, but hopefully they have a teleportation formation that can shorten the distance."
Lucian nodded. It seemed the previous body owner didn't know much, probably because he was still a child. From what he knew, this world was called Eldraxis, which was led by three kingdoms. He didn't have much knowledge about this place other than that.
He said to himself, "It seems I have much to learn about the power dynamics of this world."
He heard Aria talking with the city guards, who were probably asking them for the fee. Since he had already passed everything to Damian, he would be the one handling the payment. Lucian was pretty sure they had enough coins to use in the city and about two low-grade etherium crystals, which were always dull gray. They were mostly rare, provided minor power boosts, and were used by apprentices. It was kind of surprising that a rough-looking bandit could have a few.
———
While all these thoughts were going through his head, inside the city, a little girl about five years of age was walking around. No one seemed to notice her as she looked around, muttering, "Where did that bastard bury that weapon? I was pretty sure it was around here somewhere, yet I've already searched around for the third time."
She looked around one last time before saying, "Hmph, these humans disgust me. I should get going now."
Just as she was about to leave the place, she felt insane malicious waves coming from the city gate. Giggling, she said, "Hehe, the human realm sure has something interesting. Let me mess with them a bit." Then she suddenly disappeared.
———
Back at the city gate, they all paid the money for the pass, which was one iron coin for each of them. This was how the money in this world was rated:
| Coin Type | Material | Color | Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper Coin | Base metal | Brown | 1 (base) |
| Iron Coin | Hardened iron | Dull gray | 10 copper |
| Silver Coin | Refined silver | Silver | 100 copper |
| Gold Coin | Pure gold | Gold | 1,000 copper |
| Platinum Coin | Rare alloy | White | 10,000 copper |
While for etherium:
| Grade | Color | Value | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-Grade Etherium | Dull Gray | ≈ 1,000 gold coins | Mid-tier cultivation, forging |
| Mid-Grade Etherium | Light Blue | ≈ 10,000 gold coins | High-level cultivation, rare trades |
| High-Grade Etherium | Deep Blue | ≈ 100,000 gold coins | Only Myth |
| Royal Etherium | Golden-Blue | Priceless | - |
With them entering the city and looking around, Damian said, "There's an inn I stayed at with my grandpa. Though I don't remember this place very well, that inn sure gave me memories, and it's not really far from here."
Everyone nodded and told him to lead the way. As they were walking, someone—or more like a child—blocked their way. A girl around five years of age with a very small stature, you would probably miss her if you didn't look down. With people around, she appeared to be a lost child, but her words left them stunned.
She shouted, "Hey! What are you people doing with my daddy?"
The group stopped. Most of them turned around to see if there was someone behind them that this little girl was referring to, but there was no one. Since Jake was a commoner, he thought she had probably lost her parents. He approached her and bent down before saying, "Little girl, did you lose your parents?"
But she replied, shaking her head, "What are you doing to daddy? Why are his legs and hands cuffed?"
Jake followed the direction the little girl was pointing to, seeing it was leading to his boss. He nervously chuckled before telling her, "I don't think you would want him for a daddy."
But she insisted, saying, "You people did something bad to daddy?"
At this point, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He just replied, "No, I don't think he's your daddy. You're probably mistaken."
The girl then shouted while crying, "NO!! You people did something to daddy! Wahhhh... hic!"
By now, this commotion was already getting the attention of people walking around, with people giving him weird glances. Jake was in a dilemma on what to do. As he wanted to turn to Aria for help, the girl suddenly ran to Lucian.
Lucian heard the whole conversation. The ringing in his head was the loudest he had ever felt in all his life, filling him with a sense of dread. He had studied how the ringing worked—it only affected his head when the person or creature had malicious intentions towards him or had powers to make him feel helpless, like what he felt in the forest. As soon as he had entered this city, he had been hearing the ringing in his head, meaning there were a lot of people around who had the potential to kill him. It was more like survival instinct, where an animal senses something strong ahead and runs away from it—that was the feeling he was getting.
But looking at this little girl, a sense of dread washed over him. Even when he faced that Emberblaze Serpent, he didn't feel this way. Feeling it, he knew this child was probably stronger than that snake magical beast by far. But he didn't do much or have much expression on his face. He just waited until the girl got close to him.
He could only put one thing on her scent—it smelled otherworldly, like something he had not smelled before. Out of all the people in this city since he entered it, none of them gave off this scent. It smelled flowery but rich, like there was a soothing sensation, like wanting him to give up everything and just lay down and make her pamper him and let himself be treated like a baby. Sensing the sensation he was feeling, he frowned, his gaze sharpened, but after a while, he calmed down.
There was nothing he could do, and he was pretty sure the voice wouldn't be able to deal with this girl—his body might even explode during the process. So he chose to play along. If someone as strong as this girl were to act, they would all die, no doubt. So he waited.
After the girl got close to him, she looked up before saying while crying, "Wahhh, daddy, did those people do anything to you?"
He felt cringe when the girl called him daddy. He didn't reply, just kept staring at her with a cold expression. Then she started shaking him while asking, "Daddy, wahhh, why don't you want to talk to me? Did they do something to you?"
Lucian looked down before thinking, "Oh, since you want to play games, I will just play along with you." Then he bent down before saying, "Don't cry, OK? Your dad is fine, alright," before going on to pat her head.
As soon as he touched her head, a huge amount of killing intent was released, and everywhere turned chilly. Then he could hear the voice say, "You just had to pat her head. Maybe now we will die."
Even when feeling all the killing intent, he just kept patting her head while looking in her direction. Even if he couldn't see, the girl had her eyes wide open. She didn't say anything. After a while, she retreated her killing intent.
Aria and the others felt it. Even the other people felt it but couldn't tell where it was coming from. Even Jake and the others could tell something was off. Lucian just kept patting her head. Even with his hands trembling, he still did it. He was sweating a lot and was shaking, yet he kept patting her head. She already had her eyes closed.
The others noticed something was wrong. Damian was the first to approach him, saying in a worried voice, "Captain, are you OK?"
Even Jake ran to his side while shouting, "Boss, did you do something?"
Lucian gave him a weird gaze, and now everyone from their group was looking at him. He looked around before asking, "What is it?" without much expression on his face.