Tepo stared at the young woman in surprise.

That’s really… quite an honest chatterbox.

“I appreciate your help, but I don’t have many crystals on me. Can I pay in materials?”

“Hmm, ok. I’ll make an exception.”

Tepo and Yerive thanked the helpful woman before being led back to the park. The trio set down on a group of chairs before the guide began talking.

“So what world are you guys traveling to? Or do you want to know about all worlds connected to this hub city? Or all worlds connected to the Carrying Winds World?

Ah, by the way I’m Alria. I grew up in the Sword Demon City. I have been to all the connected worlds at least once!”

Yerive and Tepo looked at the young woman in surprise, prompting her to stick out her chest proudly.

“Ok, Alria. We are looking for information about the World of Nurturing Stone.”

“Ahh, really? I hope you don’t plan to stay there?”

“No, we don’t. Why are you asking?”

Alria let out a small sigh of relief, genuinely concerned for her customers.

“The World of Nurturing Stone is not a good place for outsiders.”

Tepo flinched faintly upon hearing this hated word, but fortunately no one cared about it.

“For a long time now, a conflict is raging between two alliances. If you don’t pick a side, you will be attacked by both alliances. This is true for locals as well as outsiders.

Thus, traveling through the World of Nurturing Stone can be quite dangerous. I recommend you to choose one side right in the Hub City and ask if you can do something for them.

If you can accomplish it, the alliance will allow you to follow one of their convoys, helping you to reach the next Hub City in relative safety.”

Tepo and Yerive were taken aback. The fact that dungeons weren’t the only danger during travels slowly sank in.

Carefully Yerive asked the young guide:

“Alria, can you recommend us one alliance?”

“Nah, it doesn’t really matter.

The Flood dragon Alliance, also referred to as Blue Alliance, and the Crimson Tiger Alliance, or Red Alliance, are equally prejudiced against outsiders and both are led by narcistic idiots.

The only difference is that the Lord helming the Red Alliance is originally not a local. But he has been in the world for so long, that this doesn’t make any difference anymore.”

“Don’t those names sound somewhat unusual? Is there a story behind this?”

“Sure, but I don’t know much. It something about the real succession of some beast tribes or whatever. But this is so far in the past, most of the warriors fighting today don’t even know about those reasons anymore.

The war just continues because of the piled-up grudges and the need for resources.”

Tepo could only sigh from Alria’s explanations. What a waste of human lives. Just hearing about it, the young man wished he could end this war, but this was probably close to impossible.

But as the young guide fell silent, a new question came to Tepo’s mind:

“I have another question: Have you heard about Lao Ru and Lao De? They are a pair of brothers from the World of Nurturing Stone.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Alria’s eyes lit up as she giggled quietly.

“Of course I have! They are the talk of the town recently after stealing a dungeon form two kingdoms and escaping unscathed! The armies chased them the entire way to the Hub City. It was quite a commotion.

Lao De mocked the soldiers for quite a while, daring them to come to the World of Nurturing Stone with them. But of course, the armies didn’t dare to do so. They can’t afford to antagonize the blue alliance!”

Keeping a calm face, Tepo nodded slowly. It was good that Alria talked so much. She directly provided the answer to his next question.

“Why? Do you know the brothers?”

“No. I was just curious as I heard so much about them recently, but never knew them before this.”

“Really? Although the brothers aren’t quite bigshots, but they have some fame in the surrounding worlds. People call them the Yin Yang Duo of the Peach Mountain Sect.”

Tepo only shrugged his shoulders. He knew from experience that every word more could lead to contradictions.

And he didn’t want to disclose his relationship with the brothers. Who knows if someone was overhearing the conversation coincidentally.

Fortunately, Yerive wasn’t concerned and suddenly changed the topic with shining eyes:

“Alria, can you also tell us something about the Sword Demon Lord?”

“Oh of course! This won’t even cost you anything. The city pays us guides for spreading the lord’s fame!”, exclaimed the young woman with a chuckle.

“Sword Demon Lord is the city’s guardian designated by the Hub City Alliance. He is originally from the Crimson Earth World, an extremely lawless place.

The lord picked up the sword at three years as someone murdered his parents. From this day on he trained and took revenge as soon as he awakened.

Afterwards Sword Demon Lord traveled his world with his heavy sword and killed everyone who was guilty in his eyes. But unfortunately the Crimson Earth World is full of ruthless characters who didn’t want someone holding them accountable.

Thus, they formed a big alliance and declared the lord a demon. They hunted him down, but the lord managed to escape towards the hub city.

But the alliance wasn’t content! They felt like there was strength in numbers and invaded the hub city! This was one of the few times in all of history that a hub city was directly attacked.

The city lord back then was furious. He and the city’s soldiers held back the alliance until reinforcements arrived. Afterwards the alliance was completely uprooted, decimated down to the last man!

In this battle Sword Demon Lord stood out and gained the favor of the city lord back then, getting recruited in the Hub City Alliance.

Since then, the lord has punished evil and raided dungeons until he was assigned to this hub city.”

Alria’s and Yerive’s eye shone brightly. Both of them felt a deep reverence for the powerful city lord. Tepo respected him as well, but he took the story with a grain of salt.

“The Sword Demon Lord is impressive, but too far away for us. Alria, can you think of something else we need to know about the World of Nurturing Sone?”

“Oh, of course. You might get surprised by the Nurturing Stones World’s appearance. It is divided in an underworld, which is more or less one big cave where most beings live, and the overworld, a large tunnel system blocking the sky.

I recommend you stay in the underworld as its more peaceful. The overworld has rich resources, but those are heavily fought over.

Also, remember not to get too greedy when you are there. The world has a lot of precious plants but if you take too many the alliances will stop you. Violently.

Furthermore, you will come across big flying beasts called Ronáriph. Don’t attack them! They are peaceful and even let you travel on their backs if they are in a good mood. But if they get violent, you are in deep trouble.

Once, a local sect tried to tame a few Ronáriph for themselves. They were extinguished within a single day.”

Tepo and Yerive branded this valuable advice in their minds. No matter how much Alria demanded in the end, it was definitely a good decision to talk to her.

“I hope I could clear all your doubts. I will lead you to the golden bridge now, ok?”

“Ehm… what is a golden bridge?”, asked Yerive with a sheepish smile.

“You don’t know? It’s surprising you even found the city! The golden bridge is naturally the place where all the portals are gathered.”

Alria let out a chuckle as she looked at the two friends’ confused faces. But she quickly suppressed it, remembering that those were her precious customers.

Standing up quickly the young woman signaled Tepo and Yerive to follow her.

The trio went back to the main road. Tepo and Yerive understood where they took a wrong turn when Alria made a big circle around the castle.

Suddenly the two friend’s eyes went wide. An enormous structure gradually revealed itself behind a few rooftops. After a few more minutes the trio got closer, their view unobstructed.

What appeared among a busy crowd was a vertical golden bridge. Big platforms glided along the bent surface, transporting people between multiple portals, facilitating the travel between various worlds.

“Wow, so many dungeon portals in one place!”, exclaimed Yerive in wonder.

“Yes. How many dungeon cores did they activate here?”

Alria smiled proudly as she listened to the friends’ voices.

“That’s the pride of the Hub City Alliance! Each hub city has such a golden bridge connecting multiple worlds. The alliance is the only organization which has a way to move dungeon portals!”

“What?! That’s possible?”

“Well, I don’t know the ins and outs of it. Apparently, it can only be done in a certain radius…”

Still, Tepo was surprised. It was obvious that an organization with such a technology was bound to become powerful.