A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 854 The Capital, Taur (1)

"You never seize to surprise." Solvi mumbled, leaning on her hammer as she process the news Eldrian had just shared. "First you wanted to use the Night Terrors to make a morphable weapon. Now you say a goddess descended to meet with you?"

If anyone else had told her this, she would have laughed in their face. After all, it was well known that at most; the gods sent divine revelations through oracles. Speaking to them on equal terms was impossible. These revelations were always just a one-way transfer of information.

Yet, Eldrian was a known exception. If not for the fact that Solvi knew he had met not just with one, but two divines before, she would have never believed him.

In fact, this was easier to swallow than believing he had met with the ultimate divine who the entire planet was named after.

The goddess of magic was but a normal divine. GAIA was the ultimate. But of course, to Eldrian they were all AI and not divines. However, he understood he should never underestimate them. Nor should he blindly trust them. Hence why his first visit was to Solvi.

"More or less." Eldrian replied, downplaying the significance of the event despite knowing just how shocking it was. He didn't know why, but the gods rarely visited the physical world.

He could only assume it was similar in reason to why Two disliked being in control of a physical body, and perhaps why Skepsi had referred to their alternate consciousnesses as identities. 'Perhaps the experience is too shocking?' He pondered, but quickly returned to the subject at hand.

"I believe she is a friend of Ziraili. You know, the goddess who regulates the Chosen's special abilities. However, her intentions weren't as pure as Ziraili's."

"Still, meeting the goddess of magic sure is something..." Solvi paused, imagining if she were to be granted the opportunity to meet Dragos, the god of smithing. She would be able to die without regrets—after using the god's wisdom to make a masterpiece, that is.

"Do you think it will really work?" Eldrian asked as soon as Solvi returned from her daydreaming.

"I suppose so. Rank 5 materials are all really strange and special. Heck, just consider the abilities of magic crystals... Something like it forming an internal dimension. You called it a pocket dimension? Yeah, I don't see why not."

Eldrian nodded. He didn't really doubt Skepsi. But he wanted to get a friend's opinion before doing anything. "And a Mov Crystal?"

"Can't help ya there. The entire kingdom is low on mana crystals, not to mention Mov Crystals. Even the dwarves don't have enough to make any new dimensional storages."

"How much do you think it will cost?" Eldrian asked.

"Thinking of rather making a new weapon, are ya?" Placing her hand on her chin, Solvi tried to get a good estimate. "If you can use one of the defective Mov Crystals, it will put you back about 1500 gold. Though, I guess such a crystal might crack under the pressure."

"Think I will be able to get enough from bounties?" Since Eldrian hadn't been claiming his, nor keeping count of his kills, he had no idea how much he could get.

"With all the killing you've done, sure. Probably well over. Won't be surprised if you can get a complete set of Tier 5 or higher gear, either."

"In Elomir in three days?" Eldrian asked. He already had some info on the capital thanks to Elizabeth and the other players, especially those in the guild who took the logistics work seriously.

They were basically merchants. And just like merchants, they had gathered plenty of information over time. Some even had some small shops in the capital, Eldrian planned to visit one of them and have them act as his guide.

—

'It really is something else...' Ceph mumbled telepathically as the capital came into view. From up high, they could truly get a sense of its grand scale. Much like the ducal cities, it was a massive, gargantuan city. Spanning well over a hundred kilometers in every direction, it was insane just how large the capital was.

Unlike the ducal cities, the fortification was far, far more impressive. Even the outer wall had a magic tower every three kilometers. Whether these were the same as in normal cities, Eldrian could not tell. Regardless, their presence made it clear just how difficult it would be to assault the capital.

Even if they are weaker versions of magic towers, perhaps relying on a magic grid instead of their own magic crystals, it was still impressive.

The walls, too, were astonishing. The outmost wall was already over a hundred meters in height with many ballista and catapult towers spread every few hundred meters.

Naturally, because of decades of peace, farms sprawled outside these walls. There were plenty of small hamlets, villages, and towns dotted between here and the ducal cities.

In fact, the entire core area of the kingdom appeared to be vast farmlands. Evidently, the kingdom would not fall in any short amount of time, even if they were forced back to just their three ducal cities and the capital.

Unlike with normal cities, Eldrian and Ceph dared not fly over the walls. They had already noted the ballistea pointed at them, despite still being far away from the walls. The two only noticed the danger because they were studying the walls in fascination.

Despite not having faced any dangers in ages, the soldiers were clearly extremely alert. Perhaps owing due to the recent chaos caused by the devil infiltrators.

Lowering their altitude to convey that they were not a threat, they landed a short distance from the walls and moved to the gate among the main road connecting Taurtania and the capital, Taur.

Meeting them was an elderly centaur, though Eldrian only knew he was a centaur because he did not obey the normal ethics of not observing other's information.

'Someone with thick royal blood acting as a gate captain -and the furthest outer wall at that-, and Tier 7... Shees, the capital really is something else.'

Luckily, Eldrian did not encounter any problems. Handing the documentations that Pelaros had prepared for him, he was soon welcomed into the city. At least, into the outermost district of the city.

The capital, Taur, was so large that it was separated into districts defined by what wall they were between. The district Eldrian had just entered was district four, section three. Apparently, there were twelve sections in the district.

Naturally, the locals had actual names for each area, but to Eldrian numbers were easier to remember—his map also conveniently labeled them as such. Though, he could get find what the locals called it if he wanted to fiddle with his settings. But he saw no point.

The captain also used numbers as part of the military. Thus, Eldrian never even learned the proper name of the area. But that didn't matter. His aim was the second district. A long way away.

The next wall started about 30 kilometers from this one. Much like in normal cities, this part of the capital, the outermost area of the city, was focused on agriculture.

Unlike normal cities, the creatures making up the herds here were all magically evolved. The most common were certainly normal evolved creatures equivalent to a wolfbeast in strength, like the hexihorses or even agimae. Strong creatures, but tame in nature.

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