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Chapter 174 - Forge Quarter
🕑 Added 2024-11-21 07:00:05 +0000 UTCAfter the quick comedy skit, they approached the south city gate where they could see mercenaries going in and out of the city.
Leyvi noticed that their presence differed from that of the cultivators he usually met. They looked fierce, sharp, focused, and ready to engage in a battle at any time, even the ones who had just come back from hunting.
After paying the fees to enter the city, they finally arrived inside the Mercenary City after almost two weeks of journey.
The architecture in the city was quite different from what Leyvi had seen before. Most of the buildings here were made from large and thick square bricks, so the buildings seemed bigger than normal.
"Where should we go first?" Leyvi asked.
"How about we go sightseeing first? We are not in a rush after all. Are there any interesting places here, Nala?" Anda suggested and turned to Nala.
"There are quite a few places we could visit as tourists, but we probably don't want to go to the most popular one." Nala smiled a bit at the end of her sentence.
"Oh? Why is that? Are there a lot of scammers or something? Don't tell me it's a big garden? Yes, we can't go to that place or we might never see Lilian anymore. Hahaha!" Leyvi cracked a joke.
Lilian stomped her feet, causing her melons to jiggle. "I'm not like that anymore! You can ask Sayu!"
"Yes, yes. You are a big girl now." Leyvi continued the teasing.
"Hehe, it's not a garden. The most famous tourist attraction in the city is the Beast Bones Grand Park. A place where the skeleton of rare demonic beasts were being displayed." Nala giggled as she explained.
Leyvi, Anda, Lilian, and Valenia all rolled their eyes. Not the demonic beasts' skeletons again. Nala wasn't wrong. They wouldn't want to go to this park. They were still traumatized by what happened in the Holy Cat City.
"Maybe we should destroy the skeletons in that park so that incident won't happen again." Leyvi joked.
After what happened last time, the Protectors had most likely informed all the cities and prepared countermeasures to prevent the same thing from happening again.
"If you don't want to see dead demonic beasts, then how about living demonic beasts? The city has a Demonic Beast Arena. Unlike beast tamers fight, this one is just pitting wild demonic beasts against each other, letting them fight to death while people are betting on the outcome." Nala suggested second place.
"Hmm....how about it? Do you want to see it, ladies?" Leyvi wasn't sure, so he asked their opinions.
Anda, Lilian, and Valenia all shook their heads. None of them were interested in betting and seeing meaningless violence.
After getting their answers, Nala got into thinking for a few seconds before she suggested the next place.
"Then, how about we go to the Forge Quarter? It is a district where skilled blacksmiths, craftsmen, and inventors live and create their products. In other words, a big market specialized in selling spirit weapons, spirit armor, and spirit artifacts."
When Leyvi heard it, he was instantly interested. He had seen how alchemy was done, but he had never seen how spirit equipment was made yet.
It wasn't just Leyvi, the ladies were also interested.
"Can we see them create any equipment? Do they sell tier-3 or higher equipment?" Leyvi asked.
Nala smiled. She had expected their reactions. After all, this is the best chance to buy high-quality equipment at a cheaper price. Way cheaper. If the items here were brought to other cities, the price would multiply by several times.
"Yes, Darling. Some of them would showcase their expertise from time to time. So, if we're lucky, we might be able to see them in action. Tier-3 equipment is plenty there. You could even find tier-4 and tier-5 there, but only at auction. However, I don't think we could afford to buy any tier-5 item. The price is too astronomical."
Nala remembered that time when she saw the price of a tier-5 spirit armor, she almost had a heart attack. Even the current Leyan Family's wealth couldn't afford one. And that was just the base bidding price in an auction. She could only imagine how high the final price reached.
When Nala spoke about the tier-5 items, Leyvi recalled that he had obtained a tier-5 metal bat recently. Did he really get something that expensive? He hadn't properly tested the metal bat yet.
"Nala, if I remember correctly, you don't even have a single tier-3 equipment except for the earrings you won from the beast tamer tournament. Are you sure only the tier-5 items that are too expensive?" Leyvi teased.
"Hehe. Darling, I'm not a broke single lady anymore. I have used my sexiness to charm you and become your concubine. Furthermore, Big Madam has given me enough money to buy a full set of tier-3 equipment. So, darling, I am now a rich, sexy lady. I have leveled up." Nala replied to Leyvi's tease with a proud tone while making a few sexy poses.
Leyvi became speechless. It seemed that Nala's thick skin was on par with his. It wouldn't be easy to tease a woman like her.
After that, they rode their usual carriage to the Forge Quarter. Along the way, they saw a familiar pavilion building that they had seen many times before — the Treasure Pavilion building!
The Treasure Pavilion was exceptionally thriving in the Mercenary City because they paid the highest price for the hunted demonic beasts. They had branches throughout the continent, so by supplying the demonic beast parts to the place with high demands, they could make multiple times profit from what they paid.
No other merchant groups could compete with them because they simply don't have the networking and logistics capability as widely as the Treasure Pavilion.
"Leyvi, maybe we should visit the Treasure Pavilion later," Anda said as they passed through the pavilion.
"Why? You have something to buy?" Leyvi asked.
"I want to see if we can find another lady like Layla here. She has become the city lord now, so you need a new secretary." Anda replied mischievously.
Leyvi rolled his eyes. He knew something like this was coming. It was predictable at this point.
"No need. Why find someone new when we have Val here? Right, Val? How about you become my new secretary?" Leyvi changed target after he failed to tease Nala.
"No! I don't want to be a secretary! I want to fight!" Although she respected Layla as a secretary, she absolutely didn't want to be one.
"Then you can be my fighting secretary. Every time I needed someone to fight, I will send you out." Leyvi made up some bullshit.
"Really? Is there something like that?" Valenia began to be interested.
"Hmph! Val, don't listen to him. I've never heard of this fighting secretary. He's just tricking you like usual," Anda interrupted. If Leyvi wanted to make up a new role, he must search for a new girl for that position.
"Hmph, I knew it. Always tricking me. I don't want to talk anymore." Valenia turned her body in another direction.
"Hahaha! When did I trick you? It's a real position that I just created. It doesn't mean it's fake. Ah...my heart hurts. Nobody believes me." Leyvi made a painful expression while clutching his chest. His acting ability had reached a top-tier level now.
"Darling! Don't worry! I can be your fighting secretary! You can fight with me in bed every night! I'm always available!" Nala came near Leyvi and started to flash him her nipples.
"Uhh... that's not what a fighting secretary should do." Leyvi disagreed, but he still enjoyed Nala's display.
The weird skits in the carriage continued until they reached their destination, the Forge Quarter.
When they arrived at the Forge Quarter, after getting off the carriage, they could immediately see a large furnace in the distance. It was already night now, but a burning furnace lit up the surrounding areas brightly, even overshadowing the other light sources.
Everywhere they passed through, there were constant activities. They would also hear constant sounds of hammering, see the glow of the forges, and smell the pungent scent of heated metal in the air.
"Why is that furnace so big?" Valenia asked.
"That is Central Furnace Plaza, the heart of the Forge Quarter. It's a grand furnace that symbolizes the Mercenary City's relentless spirit of fighting demonic beasts every day. It would remain lit every day and night, so the plaza tends to be hotter and brighter." Nala explained, entering her role as the sexy tour guide again.
"So it's just an ornament? Nobody uses that furnace?" Valenia asked again.
"It's not an ornament. They used the grand furnace as a ceremonial furnace to melt down all the broken weapons or armor before they used the materials to forge something new. You can say that it is a form of respect to the dead equipment." Nala replied.
Valenia was in deep thought. She asked Nala a few questions, but her mind was actually elsewhere. Since they arrived here, she was considering getting a new broadsword, but there was a conflicting problem.
She cherished her broadsword very deeply and wished to use it forever, but in the end, it was just a tier-2 spirit weapon with the most basic array inscriptions.
Soon enough, her cultivation would advance to the Core Formation realm and her tier-2 broadsword wouldn't be suitable anymore.
So, she was in a dilemma. Was there no way to upgrade her broadsword without remelting it?
