They had seen just how powerful a mage king was, so how much more powerful was a mage emperor?

“Can you tell me more about the town lord?” asked Helen.

“Of course!” Tom responded. “Our lordship’s name is Eldric Blackthorne. He is from the Blackthorne family, a noble Earl family of our Holy Kingdom.”

“I see…” Drake mumbled, and Tom continued.

“The next most powerful organisation in our town is Basindale’s branch of the Church of Iva, which is located next to the town lord’s manor. The branch is run by Archbishop Ambrose Everlight, who is also a mage emperor.”

Another mage emperor! The duo gasped in surprise. But after thinking for a moment, Drake realised that it made sense.

In the Holy Kingdom, the Church of Iva’s power was second only to the royal family. They stretched across the entire Holy Kingdom, having a branch in every major town and city, with its headquarters located in the Holy Capital. The church was actually led by numerous immortals!

Though the immortals rarely interacted with mortal affairs, it was no surprise that such a large and powerful organisation had mage emperors.

There should be several smaller churches distributed across the town, with the headquarters of this town’s branch located in the centre, next to the town lord’s mansion.

“After that, it is the merchants guild. They are led by the branch head, another mage emperor, Gideon Silverpouch.”

“Just how many mage emperors does your town have!?” Helen exclaimed in shock.

“Haha. Unfortunately, we only have those three lords,” Tom laughed.

The merchants guild, like the Church of Iva, was another organisation that spanned the entire Holy Kingdom. In fact, unlike the Church of Iva, the merchant guild even had some branches in the neighbouring, Southern Empire, located to the south of the continent. It was another large, powerful, and influential organisation led by immortals. Hence, along with the royal family and the Church of Iva, it made sense for them to have a large number of mage emperors too.

Thinking so, Drake calmed down.

“We are lucky to have all these lords with us. It allows us ordinary citizens to sleep peacefully knowing that our city is well protected.”

‘Indeed,’ Drake thought. If even one of these mage emperors had been in his village, the dark mages would not have succeeded.

It’s a shame, Drake thought, feeling melancholic. If any of them had known that such powerful cultivators existed in this city, they would have sent a message requesting help. Unfortunately, their village records didn’t give much information about the outside world.

The records detailing the outside world were drafted up by their founding ancestor who was the only person to have seen the outside world, over five hundred years ago. He wanted to ensure that his descendants knew that there was a world outside their village, but it was no surprise that he didn’t mention the details of any towns and cultivators as they would surely change in the future, making it useless for the later generations.

Besides, the ancestor ran off to such a remote location due to his numerous enemies. If he made his descendants fascinated with the outside world and they started exploring, they might have become the next target of his enemies.

Hence, Holt and everyone else did not know about the cultivators in these towns and so didn’t want to ask for help from such a faraway place. Even if they had asked for help, it was unlikely that they would have received any.

Mage emperors were all busy people with a lot of responsibilities which they probably couldn’t leave for a long period of time. They could only send their subordinates, who at best might have been mage kings. But then Damon would have been able to fight against them, or so Drake thought as he didn’t know about Damon’s weakness.

So, it was unlikely that they would have wanted to risk their lives for a village in the middle of nowhere, being attacked by a random demon tide and a couple of dark mages. They would have most likely just told them to evacuate and that they would try to provide a home for them in their city.

I guess there’s no point thinking about that now, Drake told himself and continued listening to Tom.

Tom introduced more parts of the town as they walked past more residential buildings. Some were private homes, others were taverns and inns, and a few were local shops and churches. He stopped in front of one particular inn.

“This is one of the best inns in town. It offers great comfort for a reasonable price, and it’s also close to the market square and the western gate. I would recommend you two to stay here.”

“Oh, thank you for the recommendation,” Drake said gratefully. That was accommodation sorted.

“No problem,” Tom replied.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” said Drake.

“What is it master Drake?” Tom asked.

“Given how far this town is from the Holy Capital, why would all these forces invest so much into it and send their mage emperors across? Is there something special about this town?”

“Ah, I forgot that you would be unaware of this,” said Tom, as if chastising himself for forgetting such an obvious thing. “Actually, this town is next to a dragon tribe, and a faerie tribe!”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The duo stopped walking and froze, far more shocked by this information than learning about the three mage emperors.

Among the many races inhabiting this world, dragons and faeries were two of them, and they were also among the strongest due to their high aptitude for cultivation. Dragons normally formed two to three mana cores, whilst faeries commonly formed three mana cores.

Additionally, dragons were directly born with steel bodies! As they grew into adulthood, they would achieve the shadow body even without cultivating. Furthermore, even though they had the appearance of humans, they had the ability to transform their bodies into actual, giant dragons.

As for faeries, although they weren’t born with a steel body cultivation, they were a unique race formed directly from the world’s mana in areas with a high mana density. In a sense, faeries were similar to nature spirits, except that they had physical bodies and consciousness.

Due to their close relation to the world’s mana, upon birth, they would be blessed by the world with the knowledge of a cultivation technique which was unique and perfect for them, allowing them to cultivate rapidly and become very powerful.

Since they had a very long lifespan, some dragon and faerie tribes had been in existence for tens of thousands of years and had dozens of immortals, which was enough to rival even the top forces of any other race. It was commonly thought that if all dragons or faeries worked together, they could rule the world.

Fortunately for the other races, dragons and faeries were non-aggressive and normally dedicated their lives to cultivation. They were also extremely territorial. So, they formed small tribes throughout the continent, each occupying small areas of land which they would defend over generations, rarely venturing outside.

The only exception was for tribes located next to the settlements of other races. In that case, the tribes would attempt to interact and form friendly relationships with those settlements. Those settlements could then benefit from the wisdom and resources gathered by the tribe over the many generations of their existence, which often spanned thousands of years. Not to mention that the tribe might even become a powerful force that would help defend them in times of need.

It was no wonder then, that so many different forces had chosen to invest in this town, making it grow prosperous.

Drake wondered if he would come across any dragons or faeries while in this town.

“There are actually three more organisations you should know about in our town,” Tom spoke, interrupting Drake’s thoughts. “The mages association, martial arts association, and the hunters guild.”

“Oh, what are they?” Drake asked curiously, remembering that the guard also mentioned some of them.

“Like the name suggests, the mages association is just an association of mages. Any mage can sign up and register their skills, such as summoning artifacts, refining pills, or put up any treasures they want for sale. The association will record these so members can look through what others are offering, and if anyone’s interested, get in touch with the mage offering the service, through the association by just paying them a small admin fee. The association will also keep your identity a secret if you request them to. Essentially, they work as a middleman to allow different mages to communicate easily.”

“That… sounds very useful,” mumbled Drake.

If he had his mana core intact, he could have made money easily by summoning his numerous artifacts and selling them, especially rank one artifacts which he was sure would be valuable, all while keeping his identity hidden.

Drake knew that selling artifacts was actually a common way that mages made money in this world, but he didn’t know about the existence of the mages association.

“The martial arts association works exactly the same, except for martial artists.”

Drake nodded, that much was obvious.

“Once you sign up with the association, you will be given an identity token to indicate your membership, which you can then use in any branch of the association, in any other town or city as well,” he paused for a second then added, “They have a branch in pretty much every major town and city across the Holy Kingdom.”

“We should definitely register with the association, master Drake,” Helen said excitedly.

“Agreed. And what about the hunters guild?”

“The hunters guild is where people go to hire cultivators for particular tasks. This could be missions such as attacking demon settlements on the outside, protecting merchant caravans in their journey, and so on. The rewards are usually good, so it is a good way to make money for those who are confident in their combat ability.”

“I see, thank you for the information,” Drake said. “Could you please show us where these associations are?”

“Of course,” he replied.

For the next few hours, Tom took them to the locations of the different associations and helped them register. Drake didn’t register with the mages association for now, but he did check it out.

Tom then showed them other key areas in the town, such as landmarks, places which sold particularly good food and wares, or just areas which had a good view where one could relax. Tom really seemed to know everything about the town and was happy to explain it all to them.

By the time they finished, it was almost evening. As a thank you, Drake decided to invite Tom for a late lunch and pay for his meal. Tom was surprised at the offer, but gratefully accepted it.

Hazezel had given Drake a pouch full of money, worth around fifty gold coins. Even though the town was more expensive than their village, it was more than enough for them to live on for a year at least.

Another main difference between the town and their village was the currency. Although bronze, silver, and gold coins were popular among normal citizens, cultivators preferred to be paid in mana stones.

Mana stones were physical condensations of mana and effectively worked like mana recovery pills in the sense that they could be absorbed to replenish mana, making them useful for emergencies in the middle of a fight or cultivation. Hence, they were inherently valuable for cultivators. They came in four grades depending on the purity and quantity of mana stored in them - low, medium, high and supreme, each worth a hundred times the previous grade.

A single low-grade mana stone was equivalent to ten gold coins!

Thinking that his fifty gold coins were only worth five, low grade mana stones, Drake felt poor and became a bit depressed.

When he joined the martial arts association, he had a look at the kinds of things they had to offer. Rank one artifacts and pills were the most common. Rank two was a little less common but still available, whereas rank three was quite rare. Rank four and above were basically non-existent.

Unfortunately, Drake couldn’t find anyone offering the Three Leaf Healing pill or any other pills that could heal his mana core. Either they were extremely rare, or low in demand so no one bothered to make them. Drake wondered if he’d have better luck in the merchants guild and decided to pay it a visit in the future. However, he didn’t get his hopes up.

While eating, Drake was wondering what his plan for the future should be.

He was desperate to heal his mana core, but it seemed unlikely for that to happen anytime soon. Unless he got lucky and found the pill or an equivalent one in the merchants guild, and it was affordable enough for him, he would have to refine it himself. That meant he had to practise pill refinement, which would require time and money.

Even after becoming a rank three alchemist, to refine the Three Leaf Healing pill, he needed a number of other rare herbs and materials, such as the corpse of a commander class demon.

It was basically impossible for Drake to kill a commander class demon himself. Hence, he’d have to either buy it or hire a cultivator from the hunters guild to get one for him, both of which would be very expensive.

Drake thought about it and decided that there was only one good plan for him to follow for the near future.