539 Oracle Fycro Part 2 (1/2)

Without anyone spying on him, Fycro felt comfortable moving around freely. He noticed that this city was bustling with business even though it had just around one-hundred-thousand people. Most of the people that came over from Phoenix were merchants and reputable clans.

Although the tax system in Metatrin City was complicated, the rates were actually very low and any business could be profitable. Most of the things available here could hardly be found in most other cities. Even the Qin garrison in Phoenix had took notice of the existence of Metatrin City.

Due to the Holy Rock City's acquiescence on top of the inaccessible location, the garrison of Phoenix had no intentions of attacking. Instead, they sent caravans over to buy magic nuclei and wood.

After Saleen left, Daniel organized manpower to hunt on the seas, so the supply of magic nuclei was still sufficient. He had two combat vessels which used up a lot of magic nuclei whenever they were used for hunting, but the sea provided a rich amount of resources. Whenever they went out to the seas, they were guaranteed huge returns. Including the magic nuclei that Saleen left behind, it was no wonder that Metatrin City had developed a reputation as a business city.

If Fycro arrived at the west gate instead of the north, there might not even be any patrols around to question him at all.

Fycro's pace was neither too fast nor too slow, but very soon, he had almost walked the entire perimeter of Metatrin City. He did not explore the core of the city as even more skeletal soldiers would be patrolling there. What puzzled Fycro was that the people in the city did not show any signs of fear towards the skeletal soldiers. To mages, skeletal soldiers were like a motley crew that they could destroy easily. For normal humans to be unafraid of skeletals was strange though.

He could sense the aura of the Three Kings. He was not afraid, but in any case, he came to Metatrin City for other reasons and not to destroy it. He pretended that he was just a grade-2 mage and patiently waited in the city for Saleen's return.

On that day, Fycro was exploring the east side of the city and came across a shop that sold shells of sea monsters. He thought they were interesting and wanted to buy them. These things were useless to most people since there were too little of them. Fycro had his own way of refining and could still create miniature weapons from them.

Just as he was discussing the prices with the shop assistant, someone dashed in from outside. His face had traces of blood and his clothes were torn and tattered. The moment he entered the shop, he immediately grabbed one of the long swords from a shelf. His face looked ferocious. By now, tens of soldiers that were on patrol had blocked off the entrance of the shop.

Fycro could tell immediately that this man had the abilities of a grade-1 swordmaster. With a long sword in hand, there was a sturdy and fearless aura about him. The soldiers at the entrance were all only at the level of swordsmen. The moment they saw that the man was armed, they quickly drew their crossbows, but did not rush in immediately for fear of hurting the customer and shop assistant in the shop.

The shop assistant who was discussing prices with Fycro was panicking by then and retreated to hide behind the counter. The fugitive armed with the long sword glanced at Fycro and was shocked to realize that there was a mage there! Immediately, he dismissed the thought of using Fycro as hostage.

”Why are they after you?” Fycro was indifferent and began to question this man. He was stunned and clearly did not understand what Fycro said.

Fycro spoke in the Qin language with a Sikenqinyan accent. The man clearly did not understand and appeared flustered while holding onto his long sword.

The man's expression did not arouse any suspicions in Fycro. He was very clear by now that within Metatrin City, as long as one did not get too close to the core of the city, security was quite lax. Based on the fact that the person who was supposed to be spying on him had already left long ago. Metatrin City was developing into a business city, so there was no need to scrutinize a grade-2 mage. When human traffic in the city increased in the future, how many spies would be needed in order to carry out spying activities on such a large scale otherwise?

”Mister mage, save me!” The fugitive opened his mouth and spoke a strange version of the Common Language.

Although the Common Language evolved from the Myers Language, the difference could be huge. Needless to say, it was almost unrelated to ancient the Myers Language. Luckily, Fycro was well-learned and although this man's accent was very strong, he was able to understand quickly by using his calculating ability. It was just some changes in the scale of sound. All mages were proficient in this, much less a Holy Master that mainly cultivated his spirit as his training.

Fycro looked out of the shop's huge window and saw that more soldiers had gathered, and even a magic apprentice had arrived with a few skeletal soldiers. Skeletal soldiers did not have strong fighting abilities if the battle was on a major scale. In a close combat like this, skeletal soldiers were not afraid of knives and could use their bodies to control the enemy since they were of no loss even if they were sacrificed.

Fycro walked out of the shop and waved to the captain of the soldiers. The captain was a swordsman of a high level and was extremely young. He used to be a private soldier of a reputable clan, which then defected to Lex and the whole family moved to Metatrin City. Since there was no need to have so many soldiers at hand anymore, more than half of the private soldiers were bought over by Lex.

This captain was well-trained. He saw Fycro's attire and did not dare to be rude. He took a few steps in front and bowed to Fycro, saying, ”Mister mage, that is a fugitive. Please do not interfere.”

Fycro frowned and said, ”I heard that Qin has banned the slave trade.”

Fycro was not wrong. The Qin Kingdom had banned the slave trade and although Metatrin City was not a land of Qin, it was close to Bitter Water Prefecture. The laws of the prefecture were no different from Qin so slave trade should not be occurring here either. Fycro also hated the slave trade because he felt that slaves' faiths were unpure. Once they were freed, they were more likely to betray the Gods compared to normal humans.

The Holy See allowed for slaves in Tanggulasi Kingdom in order to reduce the power of the kingdom and at the same time, give the Holy See sufficient freedom and empowerment. This did not mean that the slave trade was beneficial to the Holy See. In the long term, the slave trade should be demolished, or the Holy See would start to experience a bottleneck and would be unable to expand further.

In the past two years, the war between Tanggulasi Kingdom and Qin had proved this point. Usually, more than ten-thousand slave troops would be massacred by a Qin flag group, even implicating the elite troops that led these slaves. Qin presence in Loulan consisted of only local forces and their abilities were nowhere near the Qin royal swordsmen's camp. Even so, the battle in Loulan was still locked in a stalemate.

If Qin was against the slave trade, why would there be an occurrence of slaves being bought or sold here?