[CH200+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

Chapter 359

"What's this? A city tax? I thought there were no extra taxes in this city! That's what the fight arena is for... What's going on here?"

Sia turns to me.

"The citizen tax is standard. It's only business owners and city officials that are exempt from paying it. However, even for visitors, it's not mandatory. The tax can be avoided as long as you leave the city before the local time hits midnight. Whatever wall you're standing in, you'll get taxed 1 credit of that specific coin."

Max sighs and replies under his breath.

"It's another one of Valor City's new rules..."

He leans in closer.

"They've really been cracking down since last year. There was a big shift in the way the Royal Guard protected this city. It seems like every year they want less and less people coming closer to the inner walls. This tax definitely keeps people away."

Ace talks for the first time in a while.

"I agree, the guards have been getting way too close for comfort in the last few months especially..."

He pauses, staring up at the shimmering purple and white lights for a moment before speaking again.

"You know what? This all started when Monk beat the first stage 7 monster. I don't want to point any fingers, but I never even saw a single guard pass the platinum walls until then. Now they're watching matches in the silver gates."

Sia laughs and responds.

"It's true, but you weren't even a fighter in the ring at that point; were you really paying attention to all this?"

"Hey, I was studying the arena for a while before I entered..."

He crosses his arms and sits back in his seat, fading out of the conversation again.

I speak up.

"How strong were all of you before you started fighting in the ring? You're all pretty young at levels of strength most could never dream of achieving."

Max replies.

"I could ask you the same thing."

He smirks and continues.

"We were all under level 400 when we started; we could hardly pass the 4th stage. Sia and I started around the same time, then Ace joined from the crowd like one of the newbie fighters we saw in the ring today and rose through the ranks pretty quickly."

I turn to Ace, expecting an eye roll or a snarky comment back, but he's checked out. The swordsman either doesn't care or really wasn't listening to Max's remark.

Max continues.

"There are no dungeons free for public use within over a hundred kilometers from here. I grew up in one of the villages near the border of sector 1 and sector 2. It's easy to grind levels and make money from the unregulated dungeons out in the wilderness, but not many of the smaller village dungeons ever pass more than level 200 or so for mobs. It's known that if you have the talents, you have to move to Solara and use their dungeon hub to reach your full potential here in the dark continent. Everyone that passes level 300 has trained in that hub; it's well known."

I nod, replying again.

"So why aren't there any public dungeons here? Wouldn't it be in the city's best interest to let people farm them? Just using the monsters for the fighting ring seems like a pretty wasteful use of materials and energy."

Max shakes his head.

"It used to be that way. The mountains this city was built on used to be inhabited by farmers, miners, and hunters that respected the land and many men like my father got wealthy off the rich resources."