Their walk didn’t last much longer, but it didn’t end with a city. It ended with a narrow staircase that could barely fit one person through at a time. They had to walk up one at a time. Trek led the way while Kerik managed the rear. Mash was right behind Trek. Mash was taller and looked eagerly down the staircase. The ceiling was low and blocked him from seeing beyond it, but he believed that they would be able to see the city soon.

Kerik chatted during the entire trip. It made the five-minute walk feel much longer, although what he was saying was important. He was explaining some of the rules of the city and what was expected of high leveled adventurers like them. One of the requirements Mash found surprising was that they would need to help the city in case of a city-wide emergency. Adventurers usually filled that role regardless of the law that enforced it. That was one of their expected duties as far as he knew. But he guessed that wasn’t the case this far north. Maybe adventurers didn’t feel as much need to help other nations, so the law only applied to foreigners. He wondered if that was in place back home.

Other than rules for adventurers, Kerik also talked about some social etiquette. He talked about small things like how to barter for goods, and what to expect in terms of costs. Food would be more expensive than they were used to, although things made of metal and stone would be significantly cheaper. Magical items would also be more complex, and there would be some places that could make specially made items too. That was interesting to learn of, but it wasn’t like that was impossible to find back home. He would still check it out though.

He stopped listening when they made it out of the tunnel. They weren’t at the bottom of the stairs yet. The ceiling just receded, and Mash got his first glimpse of the city proper. The city was enormous. It filled the mountain. Buildings filled everything he could see, and some were even built into the mountain's surface at the opposite end of the city. The whole city was encased by the mountain and uneven stone walls surrounded everything. Mash turned his head around rapidly, seeing buildings along the walls everywhere.

The city was incredible. Stone buildings were erected everywhere. Some climbed along the walls, and several of them even seemed to act as supports for the mountain itself. A few buildings were circular and ran from the ground to the ceiling. It kind of looked like the wooden supports he would sometimes see on roofs. Despite the incredible city, Mash’s gaze and attention were drawn toward something else.

The inside of the mountain was hot. A light shone near the top of the mountain, almost like a second sun. Mash stared, still not able to wrap his mind around what he saw. It was light. A ball of pure light that shone brightly. It was a lot of light, and Mash felt sweat start to streak down his forehead. His body temperature had been adjusted to the cold outside. He adjusted quickly though. The others were quick in removing their coats. It was a little incredible how much hotter it was now that they were directly being hit with the light.

“Why weren’t the tunnels this hot?”

Mash asked the question as he thought of it. They had all stopped to just look at the city, and the guards had given them the opportunity to gaze. Kerik answered the question.

“There are vents at the top designed to release hot air from there. Little hot air is able to escape into the tunnels. However, the reason it was so mild in the hallway was that most of the air had flooded out when we opened the doors.”

That made sense he guessed. While interesting, he was still more focused on the city itself. Mash could see a lot of the city from the staircase, and he did just that. The city was busy despite how late it was. He was a little awed by how crowded the streets were. He could make out lines of people constantly moving along the buildings. Oddly the larger streets were mostly open, but the smaller streets that wove between the buildings could barely contain the flow of people within. He wondered why more people didn’t use the larger streets. According to what he had read, the north did put a lot of importance on material wealth. Were the roads relegated by status? That seemed annoying to maintain, and kind of stupid. It seemed like the kind of thing nobody would want to brag about.

Mash stared at the people more than the buildings now. Even the city seemed less impressive as he paid more attention to the individuals he could see. As he expected the people on the larger street wore a lot of jewelry. Even from a distance, he could see gems in their hair and clothes. The guards didn’t wear such things, and the people squirming between the buildings didn’t have any either. Mash watched that group a bit more carefully. Something about them stood out. They wore normal clothing along the lines of what he had worn when he was a kid. That was normal and it wasn’t like they were particularly unclean either. Many of them seemed rather happy too, and they were chatting among the lines. His gaze swept down more so that he could see the people more closely. They were wandering the streets just beneath him. There were fewer people this far toward the edge of the city, but some were still roaming the edges.

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They had continued to walk down the steps, but he slowed. His eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on a group of wealthier people. Although that was just a guess based on the gems in their hair. He didn’t really care though. There were about five of them, and he saw that they were chasing someone. They weren’t running or anything, but Mash knew just from looking. Maybe a hundred feet ahead of the group, Mash saw a child running. The kid didn’t have visible gems, and he kept glancing backward as he attempted to squeeze through the crowd. What was strange to Mash was how the lines opened for the group of five but did nothing for the fleeing child. That felt wrong to him, and he felt like he could relate. He wasn’t the most liked kid either.

Even before he did anything, he saw Red move to grab his arm. He let her and leaned closer to hear her as she whispered.

“This is not our home or our place to get involved.”

She said the words quickly. Mash didn’t nod or anything. He just looked at her waiting for more and realizing there wasn’t anything else to say. She was right. It very literally was not his place to get involved, although he wasn’t really sure if he would’ve either way. He wanted to a little bit, but he wasn’t that reckless. His abilities weren’t the kind that would let him get involved without it being noticed. With all of that being said, there was someone who could do something without much visible interference.

[Send a message to Jill. Tell her to trip up those people with the gems.]

Mash told Priscilla to send the mission and watched Jill within his domain. She jumped a little at the message, and her head swung down. She had been staring at the fake sun, and only now seemed to remember the city at all. Mash could almost tell when she saw the people in question and noticed the chase. He certainly felt the slight shift in her mana. The way the magic in the air shifted, and he smiled as he saw almost everyone trip and fall. One of the people with gems actually fell backward as if his head hit a pole. Although she didn’t just target the few with gems. Many of those that were walking around the small group also fell.

The whole scene quickly grew chaotic, and Mash saw Jill wince. She probably hadn’t meant for all of that to happen, but she had succeeded in making it near impossible for the wealthy men to follow the kid. Much to Mash’s relief, he noticed several of the older people that were in the bigger lines take advantage of the chaos to hide the kid. Red was still gripping Mash’s arm and her grip noticeably tightened.

[Red tells me to remind you that we will not be in this city long. Doing anything to greatly disturb the peace would be careless.]

Mash subtlety nodded, but his initial impression of the city had fallen quite a lot. There were still a few things he wanted to see in the city. He would try and get everything done tomorrow. And hopefully, they could leave the day after or something. It was a simple plan. So, that meant that it was probably pretty likely to fail.

The rest of their walk to the inn was uneventful. It did give them the opportunity to see the city though. They were able to walk through the larger main road, their levels seeming to give them the right to it. Kerik had told them that anyone over level 100 was allowed to use the larger main roads. If they were citizens, they would be free to use any form of travel they had available. As foreign adventurers, Kerik let them know that flying or teleportation would be considered illegal. However, the only punishment they would receive was fine. Mash guessed that they wouldn’t really punish a high-level foreigner for something small.

While the walk itself was peaceful, it wasn’t boring. They were able to see many different stores and buildings as they walked. Everything seemed available along every street. They had passed three different blacksmiths and a nearly endless amount of food stalls and restaurants. Mash hadn’t been particularly hungry, or rather, he was not any hungrier than normal. Now his stomach rumbled from the passing scents.

He stopped around one of the stalls, and a particularly pungent spice filled the air around the shop. It was a stall though it was made of stone. It had an open counter that faced the street, but the building could obviously function as a restaurant as well. Mash could see a few empty tables inside behind the lady who was standing behind the counter. He didn’t really notice how much he paid. He just dumped a handful of gold coins on the counter and glanced at the shopkeeper.

“Hello there, I’m Mash. How much of what you make can I buy with that?”

The woman standing in the stall stared at the small pile of gold. Then she glanced at Mash and then swung back to look at the gold. She wore a black apron that was speckled with flour across its entirety. However, she seemed young for the position she was working. She was probably around his own age, and he wondered if he would be working some mundane job had he not become an adventurer. He couldn’t really picture it. Then she stammered a response while still looking between the two.

“Um, I’m-m sorry uh young master, we don’t have enough to match this amount.”

Mash nodded and winced at the address. The shopkeeper had begun adjusting a white headband. She had long brown hair and kept fiddling with it as she stumbled through her words. It was probably a nervous tick.

Mash felt like an idiot. He had just made himself seem like some kind of stupid lord. Realizing his mistake, he focused more on the food, trying to come up with a more reasonable order. He saw a small wooden plank, and he noticed seven different dishes listed on them. They were all wraps of some kind. Each had a different meat base, so he decided to just some of each.

“No, I’m sorry, that was my fault. I will take four of each item on the menu. How much would that be?”

The lady behind the desk relaxed at his apology and Mash tried his best to give her a friendly smile. She didn’t return the smile. Instead, she looked away quickly. Mash tried not to watch her reaction, but he couldn’t divert his attention away. The lady raised a hand to her chest and took some obviously deep breaths before turning back to respond.

“Yes, let me get that ready.”