I have never seen the city of madness with my own eyes. but I have legends about that place. if these legends were true then these guys held my respect for them.

the city of madness was a city of warriors. I was surprised that even this group of warriors could be corrupted.

the city of madness was surrounded by not only the beast clans but the tribes that were native to this location. they were savages and one of the few humans that still participated in the slave trade, at least on the surface. if we were to consider below the table every so-called noble still participated in the slave trade.

it was a lucrative business after all. if slave traders did set themselves in this place then, acquiring slaves would be pretty easy. as for selling, it would be easier than acquiring. the surrounding clans normally used slaves as their main fighting force ( cannon fodder) and as sacrifices. that's why there was always demand for slaves here.

the only reason that a slave trade empire has never been set up in this region is simple, the slave traders just can't handle the nearly weekly beast attacks from our surroundings.

the slave traders had relied on the protection from the three old men to grow their business over there. according to my estimates, the slave market here can compare to the slave market of flower city, which was famous for its underworld. once the old men left, they were already beginning to abandon the place.

I would get there in the next six hours and there I will do a lot of unsavory stuff. but that was the way of the king. you had to be the monster when the situation demanded it if you.

( after six hours )

me - you guys take my dagger and leave from here. find the inheritor of that book and have him break the enchantment. it fine if the dagger is destroyed, just destroy that damnable will.

phantom - are you sure you want to take up a post again, the last time wasn't particularly good for you.

rock - phantom, go to the side, once. you don't want to make me angry now.

phantom - fine.

rocks anger was enough to scare anybody, especially us who have been on the receiving end of it quite a few times.

me - go easy on the kid Rock, there is no reason to scare her like that, now is there? I get it you don't want me to use that book, there is no need to be grumpy about it

rock - fine ( after phantom left ), are you sure you want to take that book again, the last time you had the book in your hand, it worsened the dagger's influence over you.

me - that was because I used the dagger and the book together. find the owner of the book, destroy the dagger, and return. I have a feeling that I will need your help. there is something wrong with all this.

rock - fine, but take care. no matter what another bloody banquet must not happen. stop using the book if even the smallest sign of the voice returns. to be honest, don't use the book only.

me - don't worry about that, I think it better if you leave now. the city definitely won't appreciate a demihuman like you In the city and I don't want to antagonize the top levels yet .that would have to wait.

after that conversation, he left with phantom.

now that I think about it, I never really told you about rock being a demihuman. rock appeared mostly human, at least compared to beings like Minotaur.

he was a part giant and part human. even pure giants appeared mostly like humans if you neglect their ridiculous size. to most of us, he would appear as a large human. only the experienced slave traders could tell with complete confidence that he was a demihuman, which according to my reports was what the city was full of.

well, there is no point in wasting my time anymore. there was an extremely old bell, placed there a very long time ago, I am sure.

I had to go and ring that bell.

the fact that a bell was hung at the city gates meant that the city could be taken over by any person belonging to the nobility.

the bell rang with a clear sound. the bell was enchanted with magic, which allowed it to make a sound only when somebody with a suitable qualification rang it.

within five minutes of the bell ringing, an old man dressed in the attire of the nobles appeared.

me - under the title ' brother of the emperor ', I want to take over the position of leader of this city. ...

( it is a long ceremonial verse that goes on for quite a bit. but once one completes the verse and nobody comes to challenge my leadership. I can take over the place of ruler of this city )

( as for my position ' brother of the emperor '. I am not a young man. let's just say I have a long bloody past and I and the emperor are old friends or at least used to be good friends. anyways, only the position of emperor is considered to be greater than my position.

so naturally, nobody could come to challenge my position. the old noble that came must be the manager for this place.

old noble - respected lord my name is thunder lord. I am the present manager ...

( he continues into another big speech. he is telling me his name, his family, his job, and a lot of other boring stuff related to the town. )

( after a while, me and thunder lord settled in the leader's palace. )

thunder lord - this is your palace my lord, do you need anything else, milord.

me - I want a detailed report on every force in the city, the ones which swear allegiance to us, the ones which don't and the ones that seem very eager to run away. after that, I would like to see your painting collection later. and by the way, give me the latest reports the scouts have. any sign of attack and I wasn't to be the first to know.

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he has left almost as soon he came to this place. as he left, he left a book. the book contained the information that I needed.

it was a superstition among the nobles that a lower-ranked noble must never stay too long in a higher noble's personal quarters. thay why he left so quickly.

if I needed to meet him in the future, there was a conference room downstairs that I would use to hold the conference.

(after a while )

the situation here was worse than my expectations. the city had a private army of four class three's, twenty-five class two's and one hundred twenty-five class ones ( as for what the classes were I will tell it to you at the end . ). this was lower than my expectations.

the city was supposed to have a minimum of ten class fours, a hundred class three's, a thousand class two's and to be honest, there was no need for class ones with such an army.

luckily, the beast clans won't be attacking anytime soon. the old men had given them enough reason to be wary. most beast clan leaders were about as smart as us. that fear will keep them at Bay for some time at least.

for us, the more important concern was the surrounding tribes especially the black fang tribe.

they were the closest to us and the ones with the most intimate connections to the slave traders. I had a feeling that they would attack soon. the slave traders needed a quick exit, which meant that they needed to leave behind most of the slaves, slaves with valuable information.

an attack from the black fang tribe would wipe away those leftovers. the tribes of this region had contact with the totems, which meant they would have unpleasant tricks up their sleeves.

for now, I needed to craft my army and for that, I needed the book. it was time to see thunder lord's art collection.

( after a while)

thunder lord did have a very high-grade collection. some of those paintings were nearly impossible to get. the fact that he managed to collect showed me that he held his influence, for all I know this guy is directly in teacher's pocket. teacher holds a scary influence you know. I never want to make an enemy of the teacher if possible. he was everywhere. maybe this was his way of making me bow down to his influence .no wonder he seemed so worried about this city. while I agree that the teacher worried a lot about the people of the empire like me, that guy's motives never made sense.

that's why I hated politics, something that could be said directly to the face was made so twisted that it made no sense.

me - I must say, you hold quite a few precious paintings, thunder lord. it must have been hard to gather.

thunder lord - it was not my lord. to be honest most of them are family heirlooms. the others are ones that I have spent my life collecting.

me - regardless, I must say that your collection is vast. I would like to see your collection's most precious piece now.

the book of thousand armies was a precious national treasure .the only way we could hold it was illegally. so while even if everybody knew I had the book, I had to keep it under wraps. if I were to openly proclaim that I have the book, it would be equivalent to threatening the authority of the empire. that's why we had to do all this drama. the painting I was about to see had the book hidden inside. it was called the " raising of an army ", which showed the scene of a lord, motivating his people to war.

a pretty ironic name, if you think about it. teacher had a very cruel sense of humor, if you were thinking about it.

anyways this masterpiece was mine, which I would have to hang over in the safest possible place. after all, every blade needed its sheath.

me - then I will be taking this painting, It has piqued my interest. I will be taking this interest.

right now, I am sure you must be confused as to why we were going through so much over action.

we were alone and no enemy was spying on us. the problem was with the third emperor. the third emperor was omniscient. his powers ensured that nobody ever managed to break the fundamental laws of the empire.

I am sure right now also he was putting an eye over me, waiting to see me mess up in some way. if something wrong happens now and the book's existence is revealed. I would have an ex-emperor knocking my doors in half an hour and by the end of the day, my head would be buried under some tree in the forest.

the painting was a sheathe, blocking out the surveillance of the emperor. it would be revealed in the open again if I were to remove it now.

( as for what classes were. they were the power classification of the human.

every species naturally had its power classification. it was the only way we can quantify our existing power. to explain how our ranking work is a very hard affair. it was like guessing how fast the carriage next to you was moving while you were moving with your speed.

while this classification worked for those in the carriage, explaining it to those outside the carriage was close to impossible.

for now, think that the power of a first-class is one unit. the power of a second class will be ten units .the power of a third class will be a hundred units and so on till the ninth class.

naturally, this was just a classification, a way of identifying the power a person held, the threat he possesses, nothing more than that.

there were cases where a person could go from second grade to ninth grade, just because he had an inspiration on how to use his power more effectively or he figured a way to mutate his powers, making it stronger.

there is a part of the imperial government that assigned these levels to people. it was led by the third emperor and could be considered as the most accurate class that each person is assigned to. at my peak, I was ninth class just shy of reaching emperor level.