Magic Made Simple

Chapter 23: The Great City

Before leaving the outpost, I'd let Ben know to tell my "students" to meet me at the staircase the next morning. I'd neglected that particular responsibility for a bit too long, and it was time I caught up with that a bit.

After that, I'd headed straight to Hassan's camp to grab some food. I would have used empower to speed to trip up, but I was still pretty low on mana after my fight with the King, and it would be better to just let my mana recover for now. It would take a long time to refill my aura anyways, so it would be best to get a head start on that.

After arriving at my destination, I was greeted by a much more busy town than I had seen before. Most people seemed to be busy doing something. I made my way through the city, eventually getting to the central building.

I knock on the door, and a few moments later somebody answers. It is a short man with a clipboard in his arms. He looks up at me. "Did you need something?" He asks, sounding impatient.

"Is Hassan here?" I ask, glancing over his shoulder into the building itself.

"Not at this moment." The man says. "He left for a trip to the great city a day ago. He should be back tomorrow."

"Oh. Well, thanks." I say, and the man goes to close the door. "Wait." I say, putting a hand on the door. "Can I ask you something?"

The man sighs, looking somehow even more impatient. "What is it?"

"I'm a little out of the loop. How come the place is so busy?"

"People are trying to get as many levels as they can before the tutorial ends for the d ranks. A rumor has been spreading that you are rewarded for reaching a high level once the tutorial ends. There is only a bit less than two weeks until it is over."

"Ah, thanks." I say, nodding. I take my hand off the door, and the man closes it the rest of the way.

Well, there goes my plan for the moment. I could still eat some delicious food here, but what the man had said planted a seed of thought in my head. I wince, knocking on the door again.

"What!" The man says, opening the door again, his voice louder than last time.

I look at him a bit sheepishly as I ask my last question. "Which direction is the great city?"

After a solid hour of running at top speed, I finally caught sight of the massive city in the distance. It didn't take very long to realize why it was called the great city. It was over a mile long and just as wide, sprawling out to accommodate the massive amount of people that lived within. From what I remember Hassan had told me there were about 500,000 people in the city, and that number has probably grown at least a little bit since then.

The entire city was surrounded by a large wall. It was about eight feet tall, and didn't seem to be doing very much in terms of actually protecting the city. There were no monsters on the first floor anyways. I could just jump over the wall, quite easily too, but I felt it would be better to just go in through a proper entrance. I didn't want to make a bad impression on what may very well be the largest collection of people since the system came around.

After finding an entrance to the city, I walked in and immediately noticed the distinct feeling of somebody using an identification spell on me. I turn my head to glance in the direction of the one who had done it, and notice a man with a notebook and pencil looking back at me. I give him an identification of my own.

Human (level 18)

Nothing to write home about. Probably just somebody stationed here to keep track of who comes in and out of the city. That was fine by me. Nothing wrong with making sure the city is safe. As I begin walking through the city, I realize very quickly that it had taken a lot of work to build it up into what it is. With the sheer number of people around here plus the new stats they all had, the kind of workforce they could bring to bear was incomparable to whatever we had before the system. They had erected an entire city in just a couple weeks.