The sun remained omnipotent as its rays rained down further parching the cracked lips as over in the distance a long queue of farmers and merchants looking to sell their wares lined up at the temporal gate leading into the city of Liberia.
It was a mid-day in summer, so the sun was blazing hot. The RRE calendar was split into 12 months each averaging 30 days.
It was the end of the year and the people were preparing for festivals. Earth salamanders drove forward carriages of wares. The queue extended into the distances with more than 100 people gathered there as sighs ran rampant in the air.
" Whoosh!" A gust arose and shadows rapidly descended making a dust storm.
" What is that?"
" Hey, do you see that?"
The people exclaimed as they craned their necks as a dozen snow white Pegasus landed on the road scattering blades of grass. The road was massive stretching 30 meters wide.
The Pegasus neighed as behind them another dozen griffins landed forming a sight rarely seen. Knights mounted the majestic beasts.
The griffins were golden and proud as their sight never fell beneath their beaks.
The crowd watched. 'Nobles.' They all thought even the merchant straightened their backs as bellies of fat wiggled at this opportune moment.
" Forward!" Shouted the captain of the Pegasus knights. The griffin company also followed suit.
This sight brought murmurs as seeing nobles was never a pleasant experience.
In the long queue, after about 55 paces of people stood a tall skinny man, the man constantly let out coughs. He coughed so much he stood alone as people distanced themselves afraid to catching whatever was killing the man.
This man was Nathaniel Wilton, his real name Maxwell Beaufort. Former slave to the army of the Rynberg empire and currently a man confused about his state just like the people around him.
Nathaniel awoke after suddenly falling unconscious due to the stabbing pain in his chest. He awoke all skin and bones as if he hadn't drank yggdrasil's vitality potion. His lean muscular figure was gone but his dim silver bracelets still hung loosely on his bones.
A major change however was his now dim silver hair, it had lost its luster. It was marred with bits of black, it gave him a vague look. Nathaniel went back to his thoughts about his situation.
Cleary something had changed but he didn't know what. He felt sane.
' quintessence.'
[ Name: Maxwell Beaufort
Age: 36
Rank: Mage apprentice III
??? : 203
??? recovery: 20/hr
Strength: 43
Agility: 31
Endurance: 61%
Affinities: Ice (96%), Wind (89%), Lightning ( 91%)....(space 89%)
Spells: Ice lance, Ice spear, ice shield, ice shards, wind blade, wind barrier
Static domain, petals of life, parallel mind.
skills: Sword mastery( 55%), Tracking( 67%)]
'mhmn. I have gotten stronger. I still don't know why though but regardless this is good.' Nathaniel's mind quickly went into motion analyzing the situation.
' So I don't have mana? Is it anti-mana? Well whatever it is, it clearly strengthens both the body and magical capabilities. However this is a surprise, a good one at that.' Nathaniel smirked in surprise as his gaze fell on his affinities.
His unknown affinity turned out to be spatial magic. Though he didn't know a lot, he at the very least knew that very few if none at all had affinity for spatial magic.
Despite his skinny frame his muscles held power. Nathaniel extended his arm, slowly the air churned as multicolored sparks appeared. A subtle dust storm arose as the wind circled around him.
Seconds later it dispersed as he clenched his hand. Very few had noticed the disturbance, the air was still rife with discussions about the nobles.
Nathaniel raised his eyes forward, he was closing in on the dome.
...
" Next!" The guard shouted, he was visibly irritated. Sweat trinkled slightly outside the helm of his helmet.
Nathaniel walked forward, " ID badge." The guard said. Slightly distracted by the pool of swirling mana in the gate Nathaniel slowly handed out his adventurer's badge. The temporal gate had only a single door and mana in whirlpools swirled at the center of the gate. Runes lined the gate controlling its expansion and compression.
After authentication," Head to the center of the city, the city hall and collect an Id bracelet." Nodding Nathaniel took his badge and went into the temporal gate.
He felt dizzy after stepping out the gate however the liveliness of the city quickly washed away the misgiving of having to stand for so long. The first thing he felt was the mildness of the temperature unlike blazing hot outside, the inside of the dome was cool. Lazy blues stretched to the horizon as faint clouds moved casting shadows over triple story buildings.
Momentarily the look astonishment vanished as look longing flashed on his face, looking at the smiling and joyous faces of the people he could not help but recall his family. Nathaniel clenched his fist and walked forward towards the city hall.
The street unlike in Rosewood was lined with stores rather than stalls of merchant, he didn't know if it was due to being on the main street or not. The limestones on the path were finer and more robust as the heel of earth dragons stomped furiously charging forward. Despite the cluster of people, he found himself moving smoothly.
" Growwl~" He suddenly stopped to his grumbling stomach and looked around. An aroma led him by the nose, he started walking towards a store that sold grilled beef sandwiches that dripped white sauces on the display tray. " Hello, how much for the sandwiches?" Nathaniel raised his voice over the group of people clamoring for the sandwiches, " Hey! Line up. Stop covering the menu board!" A young man scowled gritting his teeth in frustration, the youth shouted dressed in cooking robes. He held in his hand a tray of sandwiches, the inside of the shop was so full that he had to deliver them outside.
The group moved and a wooden board fell into Nathaniel's view.
{ Basic beef grilled sandwich( Toasted herb crusted bread+ shredded beef+ Palmani sauce : 7 silver coins
Deluxe sandwich ( grilled onion+ lettuce+ shredded beef+ Verbago bread + palmani sauce+ red beer) : 15 silver coins....}
Nathaniel's mouth watered, wiping the drool he turned to the cook, " 2 Deluxe sandwiches." His left silver bracelet shined as he took out 30 silver coins. " Coming right up!" The man took the money and went back to serving.
15 minutes later....
Nathaniel licked his fingers as his gaze turned to one of the few 4 story buildings in the city, the city hall. One would think it was a competition between nobles and the guild.
Nathaniel walked forward, despite his shabby look his stature and posture had decency, the guards let pass through. Notice boards guided the way as he finally found himself at the receptions section.
Just the first floor of the city hall extended over 15 meters, stairs cascaded down with servants shuffling about and calming music reverberating off of the walls. Adjacent to the reception was a 5 diameter magic circle that Nathaniel assumed transported the nobility to any floor of the building.
" Afternoon, how can I help you?" asked the male attendant.
" I'm new to the city and I was instructed to city hall." Nathaniel said as he held out his adventurer's guild card.
" I see, well It's like this... all citizens of any kingdom are required to wear vambrace bracelets. This unfortunately does not extend to all villages. So it is a procedure that those from villages have to undergo but it is a simple screening is all. The vambrace bracelet is mana linked and caution is warned to not fiddle with it. Doing so is grounds for imprisonment."
Immediately caution was instilled into Nathaniel, this device was to observe its wielder. Record information and transmit it, to where? Unknown. However by deduction the kingdoms lacked the power to enforce this then the only plausible scenario was all major powers are privy to any collected information and can monitor all of civilization. However there were upsides to the conclusion.
Illegal organizations had means to temper or at least inactivate some functions. Some things must be kept in the dark and however the person in charge of the data bank must be neutral because not all recorded information is useful thus must be screened. So tempering is plausible. Gears churned in Nathaniel's mind.
" I understand." His reply gave no inclined reaction and he proceeded with the screening.
Nathaniel walked aimlessly as he thought about what to do now.
' The first step is to understand my power, its limitations and weakness. Then how to increase my power. For that I need further understanding of the magician and warrior combat systems. So ultimately the last question will be whether I join a force or not. I will keep being an adventurer for now. It has less restrictions and I can move freely for my future goals with this identity.
But trouble is on its way. Baron Dalton, the inquisitors from the empire, the recent movements of nobles. I can't grow complacent. Rose really helped me but that also has its strings. The dark legion.'
" Haa...So many trouble some things." He sighed , he moved approaching an inn. Another branch of Silver sparrow inns.
Meanwhile in the on the 4th floor of the city hall things grew tense as the lords of the noble's coalition assembled for a meeting.
The lords waited impatiently for the leader of the coalition as their voices hushed about.
" Lets begin." An even more impatient voice resounded drawing the attention of the 16 lords present. " Good, no one is absent." Taking count duke Marcius proceeded to take his seat at the helm of the table.
" Its been a while duke Marcius." Count Von Stein said as he took a sip of George Neville whiskey, a brand of whiskey famous amongst the nobles for its strong bitter and dry taste.
( A/N: Count Von Stein appeared in chapter 8, during Emperor Edward's battle with Duke Marcius.)
" Yes, it has been a while." Though civil now, the two noble men had competed for the leadership of the noble's coalition.
" We are here to discuss 3 agendas, the first one being the destruction of the Wales kingdom and the Ostriana kingdom. While the Wales kingdom due to its geographic position did not have much of an economic impact on our Belford kingdom. The destruction of the Ostriana Kingdom due to its massive flat and fertile land will have a massive impact on our rations and economic functioning.
Currently I have deployed 2 forces to the border, a reconnaissance squad and a medical relief team to save any survivors but as a neighbouring kingdom, I believe everyone felt the level of the magic attack. The probability of any survivors is low." The room shuddered recalling the tempest of magic energy that day.
"I plan to send another squad to erect magical barriers to stop the spread of the cold magic dissipating into the former Ostriana's kingdom. This will inadvertently affect our agriculture in the long turn so I plan on stopping it here and now. I will require more forces from each noble as reinforcements. Any thoughts?" Duke Marcius finished speaking and turned to the noble lords before him.
The Lords were lost in thought. The duke was right however the most concerning fact was the shortage of food. The one thing the major cities of the Belford kingdom suffered from was overpopulation. The demand for food was high, since the war 15 years ago the amount of habitable and fertile land was decreasing in the Vlaris domain.
" How do we deal with the food shortage? The empire will not help us. They barely have any fertile land themselves. Although we are all vassals that does not unite us. A steep price will have to be paid for securing food from the other kingdoms. What is your plan former king of the Belford kingdom, duke Marcius?" Baron Wright asked smirking at the duke.