1329 Utopia Part 1 (1/2)

Saleen stopped absorbing the black mist after seeing that the eye of the black vortex was about to show. He had no intentions of dealing with the vortex in Fycro's stead.

He was almost set up by Fycro by helping the holy masters deal with the abomination problem. If it had not been for Rafel the archangel, Saleen might have ended up falling into Fycro's trap.

Saleen did not bring Rafel along this time. Fycro apparently had his eyes on the Floating City, so Saleen was compelled to leave his most powerful subordinate to guard the place. While it was true that the Floating City itself was near-invincible, Saleen had to be careful.

There were many peculiar skills in their plane, enabling people to control the minds of others.

”Master, are we going to leave or not?” Nailisi looked at the remaining bits of mist and huge black vortex, feeling rather reluctant.

Her purgatory of purification's rules were almost completed after performing such a large-scale purification. Anything troublesome could have been thrown into the purgatory and be reduced to mindless beings through purification.

While it sounded pretty, if a person were to be purified until they lost their self-awareness, things would turn ugly. Purification was a skill originally created by the gods. When humans learned to use it, things turned rather terrifying.

”Let's go,” Saleen said. ”We'll leave Fycro be. His plans here are already ruined. We'll head back to Nature City and take the Floating City to Principality of Bitterwater.”

”Are you worried about Lex, Master?” Nailisi asked.

”Yes, I am,” Saleen said. ”Lex could have been slower and just arrived to Holy Rock City. With her brother being severely ill, she couldn't have been delayed for long.”

Saleen cast Quickcloud and brought both Nailisi and the Winged Skull with him. He threw hundreds of scrapped puppets into the black vortex before he left. The puppets were devoured by the mist before they even made it into the black vortex, becoming abominations and shrieking in the mist.

The path between Highland City and Bitterwater was extremely arduous. Only the sections at the border of Kroraina were somewhat easier.

Saleen was no longer the little mage he had once been. The amount of magic chords he possessed enabled him to fly across the entire mainland back and forth several times. It was no longer a problem for level 10 professionals to fly across the mainland. Even warriors who were not all that adept at flight had enough power to fly tens of thousands of miles when they reached level 10. While they were slow at flight, they no longer needed to walk with their own feet.

The speed of Saleen's Quickcloud could reach 500 miles per hour, enabling him to reach the Principality of Bitterwater within a day. The three of them descended from the sky and walked outside the city.

Saleen had mixed feelings coming to that prefecture again. He hadn't been there for years ago because he was afraid of being captured by adventurers and hauled off to Yaoyang City. Now, he had destroyed Yaoyang City, and there was hardly anyone left in Earl Sufonso's family. He did not even have anyone to exact vengeance.

The man who came to Lex all those years ago had never expected to be able to make it that far. His greatest dream back then was to become a sorcerer. It was a rank that could have been achieved at level seven, yet it was the greatest height he could have imagined.

The city gates were opened. Bitterwater Prefecture was situated in remote areas. If armies were to invade the place, they would need to take detours. Their presence would be known. There were soldiers who collected money at the opened gates.

That was the capital of the Principality of Bitterwater. While trade was not exactly flourishing, shops selling magic items were everywhere.

Lex was not as much of a splurge as Saleen when it came to keeping mages around. Furthermore, becoming one of the mages in the Principality of Bitterwater was very difficult. There were plenty of low-level mages found there, working in Lex's alchemy factories in order to earn magic nuclei and train in magic.

The reason why the place was able to attract many low-level mages was because there were open magic courses taught there. There was also a library that enabled them to access a wide collection of magical books.

Lex collected fees, but her fees were about one-sixth of those collected by Alchemy City. That proved enticing to low-level mages. They were allowed access to the same amount of information and knowledge by paying one-sixth of the gold prices.

The soldier guarding the gates was the one Saleen had met when he had come there all those years ago. It was anyone's guess if that was just a coincidence. Perhaps Lex specifically arranged for it to be so.

”How much would I need to pay to get through?” Saleen smiled and asked the soldier.

”One silver coin, and we don't take the ones from the Tanggulasi Empire,” the soldier roughly answered. He quickly recognized that it was Saleen asking. ”Oh, your Highness! Prince!”

”What?” Saleen was puzzled.

”The viscount is becoming empress soon, so you are to become prince in the coming days,” the soldier said. ”I do not dare to take any money from you.”

”I still can't break the rules, can I?” Saleen asked and took out three silver coins and threw them into the box at the gate.

The city did not collect a toll from locals. Foreigners were only allowed entrance after they paid. Saleen thought that Lex was using this method to gather wealth when he first arrived. He came to learn that the box at the gate was actually equipment.

When a person threw a silver coin into the box, it had a bit of its master's aura on it. Any person who entered Bitterwater Prefecture was magically recorded. If something were to happen, they would have had leads for an investigation.

Insignificant means proved to be of great use. If Lex hadn't told Saleen, he would not have learned of the box's function. It was not that there was no crime happening in Bitterwater Prefecture. It was that there had not been any criminal who made it outside. Every single one of them was taken down by mages of the viscount's office.