Chapter 27 - Main City

Once Jay had clicked this option, his vision warped once more. A blue flash covered his vision before he suddenly appeared at a totally different location. When he looked before him he saw that he had appeared in the Main City's main square. He was in a large open clearing where many adventurers were talking with their friends.

And when he appeared everyone looked at him almost instantly. The arch in the middle of the square hadn't done anything thus far. Yet now suddenly it got covered by a blue veil and a man with great gear walked out. The square went silent instantly as many of the previously seated adventurers now stood up looking at him and the portal behind him in surprise.

And so, in order to avoid being questioned, Jay immediately ran towards the main district street closeby which had enough space for 100 people to pass side by side. Despite this, the street was absolutely packed. This city had many millions of citizens and the city itself was divided in many different areas, each of which had their own wall and commercial district.

Once he made his way into the shopping lane he started looking around. The buildings here all had 4 stories, all of them consisting of shops. Nearly all buildings had 2 stores within them, with a stairway leading to the third story.

A fact that could initially surprise people was that the stores starting in the third story were usually a lot more expensive to buy than the one on the bottom. The reason for this was obviously the width of the street, as long as you didn't walk on the side of the road you wouldn't be able to see the stores situated on the bottom floors.

After affirming this was mostly the same compared to the Main City in his last life he had a closer look at the people within the street. Nearly everyone seemed to be rushed as someone bumped into him every minute or so.

Nearly everyone here had a holstered weapon with some wearing some armor. It was a very odd sight seeing mostly naked men and women running about with nothing more than a weapon and a piece of armor here and there. Jay couldn't help but feel quite surprised at the lack of cloth clothes. The lack of shoes was also something that somewhat surprised him.

Both of these things weren't exactly expensive and he knew of many cases where people got a shirt and pants before they ever got a weapon. Seeing that the initial culture here seemed to be the other way around appeased him.

Despite enjoying people-seeing a fair bit he still had a good look at the shops around as he walked through the street, pushing some people aside so that he could walk at the edge of the street.

And soon this paid off. After walking for a while a particular shop caught his eye. The reason for this was the massive sign outside of the second floor. Made entirely out of bright Lightstone the shop's name was easy to spot.

'Zodiac's bazaar'

When he walked up to the entrance it immediately became clear this wasn't a regular bazaar. Two massive Tier 3 golems were standing on either side of the door.

"10 gold entering fee"

A somewhat robotic voice came from one of the golems who put out its well-crafted hand.

At this point, he was immensely curious. They had 2 tier 3 golems as guards and someone required 10 gold to get inside? That was something he had never seen before.

And so, after paying 10 gold coins, Jay walked inside.

When he walked through the door he felt a chill. Thanks to his high instinct he immediately realized he was being scanned. And indeed, about a second later, a beep came from a machine next to him.

When he inspected it he saw a number of cogs and wires surrounding a rare ore named the 'inspectore'. Wires and cogs went all the way over the door to an identical machine on the other side.

Jay cursed when he realized the use of the machine. It was able to discern the grade of the items brought through the door. Since he had 'Blood Scimitar' on his side this could potentially cause trouble. He vowed he would ban this machine for commercial use if he ever got the chance. It really brought nothing but trouble.

And soon the expected came. A chubby man loudly made his way towards him, accidentally knocking multiple expensive items off of the shelves around him in his hurry. Despite only having run about 20 meters the man seemed totally out of breath so he needed a moment before he managed to regain his composure.

"Hello, my dear customer. Wow, you look fabulous today! Say those clothes seem a little old, way below your status, I would give you some clothes of mine but I don't think they would fit. Hahaha. Say do you want to sell your sword, I'll most definitely offer you a good price!"

Jay couldn't help but audibly sigh hearing this man speak. Merchants always gave him a headache.

"I'm just here to browse for now, my sword is soulbound so I have no way to sell it sadly."

Jay faked a sad smile as he looked at the sword on his waist.

The fat man's plan really was too awful. So the machines near the door scanned his gear exposing his sword was of great quality. Even if he knew that couldn't this guy act more composed about the matter? Even if the 2 tier 3 golems didn't have the same value as his sword, it wasn't that far off.

Also, the way he came rushing at him before stumbling through his greetings and jokes really was too pathetic for a merchant. Yet his ass-kissing did match up to the status of an experienced merchant.

At first, he thought this place might have fallen on hard times, but after seeing nearly a dozen costumers in this store this shouldn't be the case. After promptly getting rid of the shopkeeper he started browsing the shelves.

The items here were all high grade, even the cheapest item cost 10 gold while there were also many items costing hundreds of gold coins. And all this was without seeing the second floor which was closed off.

Even if there were many items here that he liked, he wasn't planning to spend his money on this. That was until, in the corner of his eye, he spotted a paper. This shop, like nearly all the shops here, didn't have any blueprints. This was a given since their customers were adventurers.

But here in one of the corners of his eye, he spotted a mechanical blueprint. On closer inspection, he noticed it was some sort of magically enhanced ballista. Surprisingly the costs for building seemed to be rather low. It worked on Magic Crystals, but other than many other devices, by using it you wouldn't break the magic crystal just empty it.

With his magic tower, he could naturally rapidly restore the magic crystals. This would take just a few hours which was many times faster then it would normally.

After having a good look at this mechanical blueprint he decided to buy it, this would cost him 300 gold, which was an extremely fair price for such a valuable mechanical blueprint.

When he arrived at the shopkeeper, the man was clearly eyeing his sword even during the transfer of money, something that made Jay a little nervous. What if this man would make him hand over his sword? He couldn't handle a tier 3 golem.

Luckily, this didn't happen. Instead, the shopkeeper was also interested in buying the Lightstone off of him. After a bit of haggling, they decided on 300 gold.

Once he finished his business, Jay quickly went outside, the shopkeeper, despite not looking like a wicked person, really freaked him out.

Once outside, the atmosphere of the busy street quickly took away his bad mood as he started looking for a magic shop, he wanted to get some more magic books after all!

Yet, unknown by him, someone was silently tailing him, hidden within the crowd of adventurers.