After a bit of time Jay, at last, found a decently sized magic shop. In the last hour he had already entered a couple but they didn't have anything decent. Only some common grade garbage.
But he realized the shop he had entered now was different the moment he walked in. This 2-story shop only had 11 items in total right now. 10 entry-level books on the ground floor and a single intermediate book on the first floor. The prices were non-negotiable and so the books cost him 150 gold, a significant amount less than what they cost on the system market.
He was rather happy he was able to buy magic books in regular shops right now. The 'spawned' that arrived within the main city didn't always know the importance of all items right away. Magical books, in particular, were items wanted by every human Lord, Guild leader or mage.
At this point, the sun was starting to set, yet this city never slept. Right now all stores that had them were proudly displaying their lightstones. This caused the mood to shift over a short period of time. The people on the street were less hurried compared to earlier.
It took a moment before Jay realized this wasn't only due to the lighting. The further he went the better-dressed the people walking were. Right now the people around him were wearing proper clothes and some didn't even have weapons.
Seeing he had gotten closer to the center region, which held the 'spawned' rather than those who came from earth, Jay decided to leave the main street. Right now he still had something he definitely wanted to do.
He still wanted to break through to become a First ranked mage within this city. He was confident that if he found someplace calm he could break through within an hour or so. And so Jay started wandering through the sidestreets. But it wasn't long before he could feel something was wrong.
He had been able to faintly hear footsteps behind him ever since he left the shopping street. Even if it was likely to just be a coincidence or a regular adventurer, in a place like this he had to be extra careful of any potential enemies. It was possible that one of the 'spawned' on the shopping street had it out for him since he came from earth. Another possibility was that someone had spotted his sword and decided to take it for themselves.
Right now he would barely be able to match a regular guard here, and so he had to assume that whoever was following him was stronger and faster than he was.
Making a run for it would be absolutely idiotic. It was possible whoever was following him intended to follow him to his house and rob him there. He was also lacking in skills or techniques that would allow him to run silently
Using magic was obviously also a bad idea. The use of magic within the streets was forbidden and he would quickly get arrested, something he wanted to prevent.
The single thing he changed was his direction as he slowly made his way to the teleportation portal. Right now all that mattered was his safety, and once he got to the portal they wouldn't be able to follow him.
But it wasn't meant to end this easily. Shortly after he walked through a particularly long alleyway he stopped. In front of him stood a masked man with a morningstar in his hand. When he looked back there was another man with a flail.
Well, this was a rather peculiar situation. He had only gone shopping for half a day and he already had 2 people trying to rob him. They were trying to rob him right?
Contrary to his expectations, the men didn't say anything, running at him with raised weapons instead. This surprised Jay even further, getting robbed wasn't all that rare in the main city, but murder? There must be a really good reason to do something as dangerous.
Since he hadn't done anything too special the people who would do something like this were limited. Thinking back on his day he could only think of the Bazaar and the magic shop.
After seeing the dangerous situation he was in, he decided to directly run towards the guy with the flail. This alleyway was too thin to effectively use a flail in after all. Sadly the thug seemed to notice his plan as he quickly backtracked, remaining just outside of the alleyway.
This man's quick thinking really surprised Jay, it was probably the smartest move he could have made, he could still easily block Jay's passage while utilizing his entire moveset. On the contrary, the man with the morningstar continued rushing at him. Right now Jay also managed to guess his enemies' strength. Both of them seemed to be First Grade warriors with decent talent. He knew that if he were able to use magic in this situation he would surely be able to force a way through though.
Magic… MAGIC! The thought of magic immediately allowed a plan to be created within his head. Regular people weren't allowed to use magic within the city. To the point where the sentence could very well be death. There were a few exceptions to this rule but those were only in place for people with a truly high position in the city, this was a fact everyone knew.
Even though the man with the morningstar was soon to reach him, Jay sheathed his sword. The attacker didn't seem to mind as he made a wide swing, planning to kill his enemy with a single blow.
Yet when the attacker was about to swing down his eyes widened, Jay had put his hands forward as he did when casting spells, and in the next moment, a thin red line buried his way into the enemy's chestplate, unable to pierce through.
Despite the lack of damage, the attacker was instantly stopped in his tracks. He seemed to be terrified as he immediately jumped back.
"HE JUST USED MAGIC!"
Not even a second after he had yelled this the man with the flail bolted away from the scene trying to get as far as possible. Meanwhile, the man with the morningstar was unsure what to do. If the man before him didn't have a magic permit the guards would arrive within the next few seconds. If he did have a magic permit, it would mean he had a great deal of power and influence.
Little did this guy know he had been tricked. His sword instead had the extraordinarily rare specialty 'true talent', allowing him to emit sword intent without using his sword.
"Run or I'll kill you."
These words terrified the man terribly, causing him to promptly turn around and start running, as fast as he possibly could.
If he had fought Jay, he would have had a high chance of winning, Jay had noticed his sword intent was barely able to scatch the enemies chestplate. Even if he could probably pierce through it with his sword, he didn't have any protective gear strong enough to take one of the enemy's attacks.
And as the enemy seemed to be faster and stronger than himself, his attack would probably be able to attack first.
Satisfied, Jay promptly headed for the warp gate. He was rather annoyed he would be unable to break through here at this time, but he wasn't willing to risk staying here any longer. It was possible they weren't alone after all.