Vivi and Lotar looked at Koda city with pride in their eyes, it was their hometown after all and Maren's first time visiting it, so they had to show off.
"Welcome to Koda city, sir expert!"
Vivi waved her arms and pointed outside of the carriage's window. Maren followed the direction her finger pointed towards and was immediately stunned. He partially expected a medieval version of a city, but what he saw was completely different!
As an overlord and one of the three big cities on the island, Koda city stretched out for miles on end, it was even comparable to the big cities on earth!
Noticing Maren sucking in a surprised breath, Vivi sank back in her seat again, and Lotar had his mouth curl into a smile.
Just a short moment after, they successfully reached the city gates.
As they were both part of the big forces in the city they had the privileges to skip the line, that stretched on for a few hundred metres. Maren let his eyes wander around on the different caravans that passed and made mental notes, as there was quite a lot of them that did dirty transactions with the guards, or transported some not quite commonly seen cargo or even contraband.
When they reached the gate, a guard respectfully stopped them.
"Your entry certificates please."
Everybody already had their cards out and showed them towards the guard one by one, who nodded every time lacklustre every time one was pushed in front of his face.
When it was Maren's turn, and the guard saw that he was just staring at him without a card in his hands, he just told Maren the basic information regarding the entry system.
"Sir, first-time entry into the city costs a total amount of 20 silver coins for foreigners."
Hearing that, Maren got why the system gave him a monetary reward for the last mini-quest he did recently.
Just when he was about to take out his pouch and pay the required amount, Vivi enthusiastically shoved herself between Maren and the guard, holding some silver coins in her hand.
Seeing Maren's questioning and slightly suspicious look, she hurriedly explained.
"Sir expert, take it as a token of gratitude for your earlier help."
She flashed him a smile. After their brief exchange, the guards waved them through the city's gate and Bat Kes and his fellow guards got off their horses.
The three got off the carriage, Lotar went off to talk to a man in servant clothes, and Vivi turned towards Maren.
"Sir expert, we'll both need to report to our families, and have other matters to attend to, so our ways will have to part here."
Maren just nodded his head slightly. He didn't actually care about these people.
After a short while, Lotar came over too and bade his farewells. He and his fiancee then mounted horses, while the man in servant clothes drove the carriage away.
"Sir expert, since we guards, have free time for the next few days, and we finished our task, why not go to a tavern and get a drink together?"
Seeing Bat Kes walking towards him, Maren just denied.
"I still have matters to attend to as well, so not today. Maybe we'll have the chance at some other time."
Meeting rejection, Bat Kes didn't feel offended or angered, as he guessed that this young expert had been assigned some task by his family, that required him to go to Koda city. He just spoke a few words more with Maren, and then left together with his brothers-in-arms.
He watched the guards leave, and after seeing them disappear completely in the crowd he started to pace along the main road. That and he wore a mask and cloak didn't really appear strange to the commoners passing him, as there were a few figures dressed in a similar fashion. All of them were wandering Cultivators, and they mainly walked in the same direction.
Having asked some civilians, Maren confirmed his guesses and started traversing the crowd to get to the Cultivator market, a city district created by Koda city's Cultivator association to make trading resources easier.
It was filled with a bustling atmosphere of life and busyness, with people yelling loudly, advertising their products all over the place – which suspiciously would've looked like a rural area's bazaar if the place didn't have luxurious buildings in it.
Of course, resources sold by Cultivators of the Mortal-realm were completely useless to Maren, but he still enjoyed seeing all the different variants of spiritual plants, with forms, that couldn't possibly be found on earth. He would very much like to take a few species back with him but seeing some of the prices for the displayed items Maren couldn't help but frown, some of the rarer plants cost as much as tens of thousands of silver coins.
'System, is there a way to get as much silver coins as I need in a short amount of time?'
-Affirmative, Information: valuable parts of hunted demonic beasts stored in the inventory.
Hearing the system's answer Maren got excited.
'How many coins could I sell that stuff for?'
-unable to estimate prices, insufficient references.
The frown appeared on his face again, but after thinking for a while his eyes glimmered with the shimmer of an idea.
'System, is the quality of the materials in the inventory enough to create Mortal- and Practitioner-ranked weapons?'
-Affirmative
"Hahahaha!"
He let out a weird sounding laugh, attracting the confused gazes of nearby Cultivators.
'Show me the way to the most suitable Inn you can find right now!'
-Affirmative
Instantly a blue line appeared in his line of sight, leading him through the streets. After following it for a short while, Maren arrived in a rundown part of the town, in front of a shabby looking in with a sign saying 'Pen's Inn'. He didn't mind the location and the old look the house had, as it'd fit his desires perfectly. If people would get to know about what he wanted to do, there would be unnecessary troubles coming his way. While he could deal with that easily, it'd be quite annoying.
Entering the inn without much hesitation, he saw a middle-aged woman sleep behind the counter. After silently arriving at the desk, he slightly knocked his fingers onto it, waking up the lady.
"Which bastard can't let a hardworking woman get her deserved break, huh???"
She glanced around furiously, but when her eyes met Maren's, her body turned stiff.
'A Cultivator!'
While roaming Cultivators might not be uncommon in Koda city, it was rare for one to settle in a second-rate Inn, much less in her's! She instantly switched her facial expression to a smiling one.
"Greetings sir expert, what can I do for you."
"I want a room for a week, food inclusive."
Seeing the Cultivator not minding her earlier offence, the woman's smile got brighter.
"Of course, of course, that'll be a price of 2 silver coins per day, coming to a total of 14 coins!"
"Hmm hmm."
Maren flipped some coins onto the desk, not really caring.
Yet, his eyes didn't miss out on the lady's face as he frowned a bit.
The lady's tempered blue eyes glanced at him with relief, obviously from seeing he wasn't offended by her earlier rebuttal. Her face was wrinkled and scratched, yet it didn't cover her fiery beauty which, unlike the women her age, still remained.
The lady's bearing was a bit rough, yet still had a bit of grace to it, reminding Maren of a few older women he'd seen before in the Mafia.
Did this lady have a daughter? Maren snickered in his mind.
"Get me some food right now, as I'm quite hungry from my journey."
"Sure, please follow me, sir!"
The woman lead him into a dining room with a few old tables spread around. Maren just sat down at one, giving his order.
While he waited for his food, he circulated 'Mantled in Night Skies' once again. Just half an hour later, a pretty, young girl came from the direction of the kitchen, carrying plates with delicious looking food. Maren didn't bother to look at her, but the moment she got near him, a system message rang out.
-[Host] is advised to use the scan option!
'Hmm?'
After he unlocked it, he actually forgot about the system's external scan function and quickly tossed it aside. Hence the system personally advising him to use it now came as a surprise.
'Whatever, system, scan her'
-Affirmative, Information:
Name: ???
Age: ??
Cultivation: Enlightenment-Mortal Level 1
Potential: Middle aptitude for Divinity-realm
Seeing the information, Maren nearly choked on the water he just drank. Middle-tier aptitude for Divinity? Wasn't that even high than Ato's?!?!? Excitement couldn't help but show on his face.
"Girl, what's your name?" Maren asked as he faked a smile and looked towards the beautiful girl.
"N-Niita Pen, sir. Mrs Pen, the innkeeper, is my mother."
"How old are you?"
"I'm 14 years old, 15 by the end of this year, sir..."
Noticing Maren's interest in her, she got quite scared and flustered. She knew exactly what her mother would be thinking right now...
"Hoho, good, good. Niita, right? Interesting."
The girl had a frightened look on her face like a doe in front of a headlight, her face however, was beautiful but looked more like a child due to her face being slightly baby like. Nonetheless, the girl's beautifully benign face looked at Maren and nodded.
Maren had to say, this mother and daughter duo were from what he could see, total opposite figures on the spectrum of behavior…
Speaking his part, Maren focused back on his food, deciding to ignore Niita for now as he had other problems to take care of, while the latter escaped towards the kitchen in a hurry.
Having eaten his fill Maren got up and went upstairs into his room. He locked the door behind him and ordered the system to take out the different kinds of materials it had gathered.
Taking a few things out of the big heap appearing in front of him, he sat down and began to meld, carve and form different parts of weapons.
Should any of the publicly recognized Master forgers and Inscriptionists see what he was doing right now, they would probably try to kill themselves in shame. While they could certainly create weapons like the one Maren made right now, he was only about 20-years of age, while most of them were over a hundred already!
While he was working furiously, the day came to an end and the sun started setting. Only after the light in his room dimmed did he notice and stopped what he was doing. Just when he was about to blow out the last candle in the room, he heard a feeble knock on his door.
"Sir, sir Cultivator, can I come in?"
He heard Niita's soft voice through the wooden door. Opening it he saw Niita standing before him, wearing a slightly revealing outfit. Feeling his gaze running up and down her body her face started flushing red like a tomato, traces of tears forming in her eye.
Her mother had forced her to commit to this harassing act, as in her eyes, her daughter was only a tool, used to better her own living standards, regardless of how humiliating that might be for Niita. The latter just bit her lip hard, she didn't really have another option, did she? Her mother was after all the only person in her life, that resembled a family, and, although Mrs Pen was an egocentric bitch, Niita was thankful towards her, for she raised her up since young.
Maren just grinned deviously. He knew what was going on, as this type of bribery was quite common back on earth too. Slightly licking his lips beneath his mask, he stepped aside.
"Do come in, my dear."
He grinned. Maren didn't mind the present the innkeeper gave him, knowing he was a strong Cultivator. In his mind, he already made his decision.
'I'll just give her mother a thousand silver coins tomorrow, that should satisfy her greed.'
His eyes glowed strangely.
'Maybe making her my toy could be quite enjoyable.'