When their group climbed atop a hill, they saw the dukedom that they journeyed two weeks to get to: The city of Lezatian lined the horizon, magnificent stone walls encompassed gnawing plains full of grass, buildings of varying sizes stood tall from the ground, towering over the people on the street, who looked like ants underneath the shadows of their wooden frame.

A flurry of activity was visible even from the hills that they were on, large, woolly beasts with sharp horns carried carts and their rider alike, looking no worse for wear even with all the weight. People from all walks of life divided themselves with clothing, farmers wore woolen yet breezy clothes that allowed them to work the fields and soak in their sweat without needing to change, cheap yet efficient. City folk wore fashionable yet understandably cheap clothing made of linen, leather, and the few wealthy ones; Silk.

Merchants, meanwhile, wore extravagant clothing lined with seams and embroidery, their designs often interweaving into complex drawings and stitches that from one glance, let people know that it was made by an expert seamstress- a testament to their wealth as well as their connections.

They made the cloak and simple shirt that Jacob wore look cheap in comparison. Though, Jacob reminded himself that it'd be better if he doesn't spend 5 Gold on a single article of clothing if he could help it, especially since he wouldn't really be dealing with merchants in the foreseeable future. And it's not like they'd notice the actual worth of the item, oh, most merchants would know that some clothes are expensive (and obviously ignore it because they're petty,) but unless he says the actual price, then he wouldn't get the "prestige" that he'd get from buying something like that.

Needing to speak out the price just so he can get noticed sounds like a pain and a half to do and something that he's not willing to even entertain unless he needed to suck up to a few people which, by this point, thanks to being a [Mage], people are gonna suck up to him instead of the opposite.

Alls well that ends well, Jacob supposed.

Slowly, their group made their way downhill. And as the wagons and horses went down the steep incline, Jacob saw the line at the front of the city's walls for what it truly is; a massive serpent composed of people that ran from the gate and down to the far plains, the road that the line ended on was no longer cobbled and instead is nothing more than a flattened land devoid of grass. The line of lanterns had stopped at the end of the cobblestone path and Jacob noted that he'd have the spend an hour and a half under the darkness because of it.

"If you're curious about why there are so many people," Jacob turned to Asya, who suddenly started explaining as if she'd read his mind, "then it's because this day of the month is the time when the Dungeons get cleared and thus, all three of the villages to the Dukedom's south come here to sell their wares."

He nodded at Asya, "Thanks," He replied, "The line's pretty long," he decided to complain regardless and faced the Knight leader riding next to their wagon, "You've done this a hundred times already right?" He asked Kaxa, "How long do you think do we have to stand there under the darkness before the city lets us in?"

"We won't," Kaxa answered bluntly, "you're a [Mage] and I'm one of the city's [Knight Captains], you wouldn't think the people inside of Lezatian would dare to think of making us wait would you?"

"Won't they hate us because of that?" Jacob said, knowing full well from personal experience that people cutting in line were jackasses.

"You're a [Mage] and I'm a [Knight]," Kaxa replied, "if they wanted our privileged, they should've worked hard just like us to be where we are now."

Jacob didn't say anything, mostly because he didn't really work hard for his power.

"Eh, I guess you're right." Jacob replied after a beat of silence, liking the prestige that his system handed Class had given him, "Guess the privilege never really disappears huh?" He turned to the girl sitting right next to him, Asya, who was smiled at him calmly in reply.

She'd explained that she was the one who shot the arrow when he told her about the Warbeast stopping its mad cackling because someone shot it in the mouth while also adding that the tip was poisoned.

That last part did make him worry about how power works in this world because if the Warbeast is already so powerful, then what the hell is out there? Luckily, he was told that something like that is the exception by one of the Knights because Gnolls get their leader first instead of any other variant- who only come after the leader, - and because of that, Warbeasts are basically max leveled Gnolls that pop up around lower leveled ones.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Well, sort of- Gnoll groups are pretty hard to study because of how aggressive they are but Asya refuted what the Knight claimed about the Warbeast "appearing out of thin air" and explained that many of the Gnoll variants simply leave their groups when they think that it's too boring, and some of these are the "vice-leader" of the group- which is to say, they're Warbeasts but not really, - and said variants would often take over a Gnoll group that they encounter and turn it into a Warband that's basically so aggressive, the Gnolls have no other choice but to evolve, including their leader.

There were apparently other Gnoll variants (the largest among them being the Gnolls who knew how to use bows, who would otherwise prefer melee,) in the group that attacked them and Jacob just didn't spot anything.

Well, it's not his fault that they basically look the same.

Looking back, Jacob saw that he, Asya, and the rest of the knights were now way past the start of the line where the merchants and their servants started waiting, he didn't know how long it'd take for the last of them to reach the gate since their group was already so large but a quick peek at the irate-expressions people waiting in line to his right told him that the time it would take for them to reach the gate would be- 'Painfully long.'

Jacob wished them luck and went back to thinking about the Gnolls, he tried to remember if there were any different looking ones from his memory but he stopped thinking about that time because he shuddered, the only memory that came back to him was him almost dying again. Ugh, and wasn't that an odd thought?

His musings were stopped when someone from the line tried to throw a stone at him, only to miserably fail and hit Asya. Jacob glared in the direction where the stone had come from before moving to Asya's right and raising a [Shield] directly in front of the people waiting in line. That somehow encouraged them hard enough that they started throwing more stones at them but that didn't really matter now that his [Shield] has reached level 2, their attempts couldn't damage his shield, even if they went at it for the entire day.

Deciding to ignore the people waiting in line, Jacob checked on his friend, who was ignoring him because she was too busy rubbing the side of her stomach. Jacob grit his teeth and stood up, he faced the people to his side, who by now have stopped throwing stones at his shield. He didn't care that they were all pale when they saw him stand up, he channeled [Sharp-Bolt] regardless.

He waited for it to be a quarter full, then fired it straight at the people, uncaring if they dodged or not. This was the weakest version of his spell and if they wanted to throw stones at him, then they better be ready for him to throw back, and besides, they kept throwing even when they realized that he was a mage, so jokes on them.

The bolt flew and struck the stomach of a man who stood in front of it because he wanted to protect the girl right next to him. "YOU DARE TRY AND HIT A WOMAN?!" A person yelled right next to the bleeding man. "YOU WERE LUCKY THAT HER HUSBAND PROTECTED HER!" Snarling at the hypocrisy, Jacob started firing his spell over and over again and the people started running away.

After five [Sharp-Bolt]s, they came back and started throwing stones at him again but Jacob raised another [Shield] to protect himself and Asya, who was now staring at him with a pained expression.

After the people realized that attacking them was useless, most of them joined in on the others who were targeting the Bastillion who dragged their wagon. The creature, seemingly oblivious to the pain, didn't really care and simply continued to walk unimpeded.

Someone from the crowd rushed out, the guy was surprisingly wearing a full-body armor made of what Jacob assumed is silver, one that looked like it could take a hit. The sword in the man's hand looked sharp, too and Jacob cursed as he stood in front of Asya and threw his shield down, stones immediately started to fly around him but that wasn't what he was worried about at the moment so he channeled [Sharp-Bolt] and pointed his palm at the chest of the armored man, he waited for it to become full before releasing it into the world.

His spell hit the man in the chest and the sound of grating metal entered his ears as he cast another [Shield], when everything became peaceful, Jacob saw that the man had fallen on his ass but surprisingly hasn't died because, in the next moment, he stood up, took off his helmet, and coughed out blood.

But then he wiped his mouth and looked fine, so Jacob readied his spell again and pointed at his now exposed head, the man somehow went an even paler shade and took a step back, "P-please-"

Jacob decided to pop his head like a watermelon.

He didn't need to raise his [Shield] again because the rain of stones have stopped and when Jacob turned to where he last saw Kaxa and his band, he saw the knight nodding at him. When they caught up, Kaxa simply said, "It's good that you fought back, giving them an inch and letting them push you around will only make them more confident and before you know it, you wouldn't get treated as a [Mage] but as someone they can belittle and call to whenever they need help."

That sounded way too personal so Jacob simply nodded, silent.