The day passed by with a small group of tourists coming by for an entire hour reading about some miscellaneous information. This had earned the library 24 copper coins. Sammuel didn’t need to bother with them as he kept on reading more about Aganth’s history.

When they left, he helped Marie reorganize the books and came back to his post. This uneventful day finished when Fian showed Sammuel a dusty room.

“I’m sorry I tried to make it as comfortable as possible on short notice but-”

“Don’t worry. I appreciate it.” Sammuel checked out his new room. It wasn’t anything fancy, except for a small window on the side and a mattress, there wasn’t anything else here. He laid down for a brief moment before leaving the library.

He went out to a tailor where he purchased acceptable linen clothing. It didn’t stand out as any amazing yet as it hugged his body, it showed off his muscles. It was only at this point did he finally went back and trained.

It still wasn’t the time to rest, he still needed to grow stronger. Now that he had a safe area where he wouldn’t be bothered, he practiced [Flowing Swordsmanship]. He limited his motions so as to not unknowingly destroy his room. As such, his movements were constrained, and his ability to learn diminished.

“I’m feeling stifled.”

To feel the flow, one must let their body move as it would naturally. Moving along with this smooth movement would drastically increase the power behind his strikes. Yet the limited motions hindered this understanding.

This didn’t stop Sammuel as he kept on trying. Slowly but surely, he came to understand something, flow didn’t necessarily mean to go along with something. He used this constrained motion to the best of his ability.

[Gained Affinity Level: +1.4% | Flowing Swordsmanship: 2.6%]

He hadn’t arrived to an answer yet but he was making progress. He wasn’t close to increasing his mastery yet this was still a substantial improvement. After all, doing this also increased his own level.

[Gained 45% EXP | Star Quality EXP: 66/100%]

[Gained 0.008% EXP | Mastery EXP: 0.0346/100%]

During the month-long journey, he hadn’t been able to practice at all due to how dangerous it was. Now that he finally had an opportunity to do so, his progress greatly increased.

At this rate, he would be able to max out his level in a few days. The EXP progress bar ever so slightly increased as his levels grew. As for what happens after he hits the level 10 limit, he’ll figure it out by then.

Sammuel closed his eyes, feeling his body rest very easily. Such a soft sensation against his back was the completely opposite of the cold hard ground during his journey. Due to his [Ego: Goblin], he quickly regained his stamina with only a short amount of time needed to rest. Intricacies like these interactions slowly helped Sammuel build his understanding.

After a hearty breakfast prepared by Fian, Sammuel impressed Marie with his new clothes. The blue linen set he purchased was on the cheaper end, only needing 30 copper coins for the whole set. If not for the tailor wanting to get rid of it, he wouldn’t have been able to get it this cheaply.

“You look much better than yesterday,” Fain said.

“Thanks.”

After a few miscellaneous tasks such as reorganizing some books and categorizing recently donated books, Sammuel continued reading on about the history of Aganth. He had reached increased his understanding of the current social structure of this city.

There was no one ruler that oversaw the entire city. Instead, it was split into five factions: Salvo Empire, Vis Empire, monsters, neutral, and merchants. These five factions didn’t have an entire area all to themselves but were equally distributed among each other. Territory overlapping was a common occurrence.

As for this district, it was primarily overseen by the Neutral faction, Parthesis. Neutral in this case didn’t mean that they had no beliefs but rather, it housed its members against social and political pressure from the other factions. It was essentially a safe haven for those who had no place to stay.

With how important of a resource point Aganth was, dealing with the Parthesis was more trouble than it was worth. From the perspective of the two Empires, so what if they slaughtered everyone in Parthesis? Another would come to rise in its place.

It was more advantageous to strike a cordial balance where both parties were satisfied. Losing Aganth wasn’t worth the risk.

Even monsters had their fair share of rights within Aganth. This was primarily for one reason and one reason alone, resources. There were materials that humans would have a hard time acquiring or were too problematic to acquire. As such, Aganth was a place to trade resources from both sides.

That said, the monster faction was the greatest in size due to how many sub-factions there were within the entirety. Even the two Empires turned a blind eye to this despite how unwilling the Salvo Empire was.

Varying races would gain the medical and technological advancements of humanity while humanity would gain the required resources to produce these marvels. It was a win-win for both sides in terms of benefits. Though there still remained the stigma that humans were superior to every other race in this world, including Dragons.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Closing the book, Sammuel took a short break to observe the outside world. Despite being an arm’s reach to the outside, there was a barrier that represented what he is and isn’t responsible for. Looking at the guard from the opposite establishment, there was a small scuffle.

As it turned out, the waiter had taken the customer’s order wrong and he demanded a refund. The guard came up to diffuse the situation. The customer’s temper blew up and he decided to duke it out with everyone here.

He punched the waiter in the face, knocking him out in one hit. The customer then faced the guard, punching him directly in the gut. It didn’t affect the guard at all as he threw the customer outside. Dragging his body along the ground, he stopped mere inches away from the entrance to the library but was still considered as Fian’s territory.

Sammuel didn’t try to intervene in this situation for there was no reason to. It didn’t seem as if it would escalate into something that would be problematic. Besides, he could already see the city guards rush to de-escalate the situation.

After talking to both sides, the customer demanded to have another witness speak up for him. Seeing that Sammuel was watching on, he pulled him in.

“Listen here, just take my side and I’ll give you two… no, three silver coins! Just tell them that he threw me across the road into your side. That’s breaching the city rules. There’s no harm to it at all.” He came closer to talk to Sammuel.

It was true. This was considered as an act of breaching territory. Conflicts should be restained within their own respective territories. The person who initiated the breach would be held liable. A dumb rule but a rule that worked on this rude customer’s side.

“So? What happened here?” A well-armed soldier came to deal with the situation. The symbol on his armor showed that he was part of Parthesis, the neutral faction.

“He tried to bribe me. That should be against some kind of rule, right?” Shrugging it off, Sammuel refocused on his book.

“You’re not an authority figure so it doesn’t matter. So, what is it? Was this guy sent inside your territory, yes or no?” Blatantly ignoring the unjustness of the world, the soldier was clearly on this guy’s paycheck as well.

“Think about this carefully, kid. Be smart.” He was rude yet he clearly held the power to turn wrong into right. “Five silver coins, just say the word. And you’ll never be in trouble again.”

Perception was Sammuel’s strongest innate ability. As such, there was only one logical conclusion to this. “That guy was sent into our library and caused a ruckus.”

“Smart. Here.” Throwing five silver coins on the ground, he left with a malicious smile on his face. In front of the city guard, it was clear that no one cared to reinforce what was actually morally right.

Sammuel wasn’t ashamed at all. He stood up, gathered the five silver coins, and went about his day. The guard of the opposing establishment was immediately detained. His terrified expression as he realized how much of a mistake he made ruined him. Even the chefs and servers of the restaurant trembled as they were shut down within the blink of an eye.

City guards came in and detained every single person working there. Tables were smashed, and chairs were broken in half. Nothing remained at the very end of the day. The small restaurant on the opposite side of the street was no longer there.

Marie slowly walked up to Sammuel still casually reading his book.

“You could’ve… saved them.” Her eyes were slightly teary. It was clear that she believed Sammuel did something evil. “Why didn’t you?”

“I was hired to protect this place. And that’s what I’m doing.” Sammuel tried to come over and pat Marie’s head. She was still a small child, untainted by the cruelty of the world. Shaking her head, she smacked away Sammuel’s hand and ran off to her mother. She snitched on Sammuel.

He merely accepted it as something that was bound to happen. He didn’t have the power to do anything about this world. After all, seeing what level he needed to be at to have any right to say anything was suffocating.

[Combat Power: 1403]

The head city guard who came to deal with this situation was well beyond what he could even dream of. He was capable of wiping away Sammuel with a single wave of his hand. Against such an overwhelming force, he could only bend his knee.

The door to the staff room opened up. Fian came up and sat right beside Sammuel.

“She’s tired and finally got some rest.” Fian sighed. “For the record, I thank your quick thinking. If Marie was looking at me when answering this, I think I would’ve made a mistake. That silver coin was already worth it.”

“Here.” Sammuel gave away two silver coins to Fian. “I want to eat something more nutritious. If Marie just so happened to eat most of it, then I don’t mind.”

Fian held the two silver coins in her hands and gripped them tightly. She wanted to give them back as it was morally right to do so yet… she couldn’t. She desperately needed the money. Life is tough if you don’t have the power to fight back.

“Then I’ll make sure Marie doesn’t eat all of it. Our humble protector needs to eat his fill anyway.” Fian fiddled with the two silver coins in her hands. This was enough to tide by for a long time.

Fian had always been trying to hide it yet Sammuel could tell that her hands were shaking. Every single time Fian left the staff room, she would be quite tired. Since the mood had settled in, Sammuel took this opportunity.

“What have you been working on?”

“A way to make ends meet. I’ve been trying to get into becoming a seamstress but practicing with my mind isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world. I can only try with so much fabric. With this silver coin then I could get better at it.” Fian no longer concealed her tired hands.

She had been repeating the same actions again and again while using her mind to fill in the gaps. It was a feeble attempt but it was one nonetheless. Saving anywhere they could was important to surviving.

“Why a seamstress? There are a few other ways I could think of that’ll be much easier.”

“It pays pretty well with relatively low skill, not to mention how little seamstresses there are in this city. I think I can make a lot as soon as I get the bare necessities down.” Fian was more resourceful than she seemed. Finding a gap in the market and targeting it was how the mind of a great merchant worked.

“It’s a waste, in my opinion.” Sammuel shook his head. He could already see what would happen if she was given the opportunity.

“What is? My time? I need to try my best if I want Marie to live a comfortable life. I guess that’s just how parents are. Haha.” A dry laughter came out of her mouth.

“Your talents are. Have you tried talking to the merchant faction? An analyst like you will surely be welcomed. You have accumulated a lot of knowledge, it’s best to make use of them.” It was genuine heartfelt advice. Just like Sammuel’s perception of how things and people worked, Fian had an eye for what was and wasn’t important in a market.

“I’ll think about it. I don’t want Marie to grow up without a parent after all. It’s getting late, it’s best for me to head to sleep.” Fian got up and walked away.

Sammuel was left there thinking on his own. Instead of thinking about Fian’s future, he was thinking about his own. “Using your mind, huh?”