Everyone had the level system, it was a way to measure someone's strength, and too large degree their value. Nobody questioned it, for it was as old as humans civilization and as natural as breathing. It was like another organ.
--
Bounty
(A drawing showing the face of a white teenager. HIs face was round, with a round chin. His eyes looked roughed up, but still immature. A short nose, small ears and thin lips. There was an outline of a mustache growing.)
A slave has escaped, if brought back dead you will be awarded one silver coin, if brought back alive you will be awarded ten silver coins.
He is short.
No money.
16 years old.
--
The quest looked foul but it rewarded handsomely. Noah snatched the paper off the wall, it ripped through the paper and left a small part on the wall. He walked out of the adventure hall and headed for the slums.
A slave, one with no money and he seemed rather docile. Noah had lived in this city enough to know this was a catch and he knew exactly where he'd find him.
The cities path was wide, there existed small wooden stalls in the middle. To the sides, there was established buildings. The air tasted well, it swift and cooling. It was midday, the sun was at its peak. The inhabitants walking the streets, were large and small, fearsome and chubby.
A lot of them had weapons on their backs, whether it be a large sword or a small bow. It only made sense, the world was crowded with monsters and when they died they would leave valuable resources. These resources were what ran the world economy, it was only natural that the adventurers was the most popular job.
It was a unique type of job, there was no expected prestige in it but it was strongly necessary. Noah had taken the safest possible quests for quite a while and he'd risked his life at least four times, nonetheless, nobody cared.
It was similar to many other professions, at the lower skill levels it was crowded, and there was little to no respect in it. But when you reached the creme of the crop, you became a hugely respected and admired individual. Everyone aimed to become that, it morphed the culture.
Might be right in many cases, the guards wouldn't step in to stop altercations in most cases. It wasn't a good move, let it happen. Rage breeds revenge, and revenge was a strong motivator for strength and strength was necessary.
The guards mainly protected the infrastructure in the land, they also served as protectors for nobles.
As Noah went down the street it became rather obvious who the strongest was. There wasn't a physical trait that made it obvious or a large number of followers. There was one thing that made it obvious, their aura.
See, no matter how well they hid it, a small trace would always leak out and people would naturally make space for them. So it was easy, the people who other people walked around, should be walked around.
In Noah's vision, there were two of these, a tall swordsman, bearing multiple scars, the largest one ran all the way through his face and even over an eye. The eye was completely white. The sword he bore on his back looked sharp and extremely heavy, like thirty litres of water heavy.
The other one was a medium-tall figure, it wore a black cloak covering a large part of her face and body. The only thing visible was their red lips and a smug smile that showed how cocky they were.
Noah hoped he would someday be able to make people walk around him, and the reason for it not being because of his smell.
He was close to the worst part of the slums, the streets had gotten more narrow and the alleyways more plenty. A lot of figures were wearing a black cloak here, and the few who didn't look really roughed up. The windows to the stores were cracked and had a stone shaped hole through them.
In front of the stores stood tall fierce men, they were unmoving and stared at the void in front of them. Noah thought about how they managed to do it, he couldn't stand unmoving like that for more than 30 seconds before dying of boredom.
He had reached the poorest part of the slums, it was the part that was furthest away from the river than ran across the capital. Here, even the streets had cracks in them. On his way here, he had felt hands pat down his lower pockets, each time he would quickly turn around to find nothing.
Noah leaned against one of the walls and took out his quest paper looking at the face again.
Now he simply had to wait, every unfortunate fellow would end up here, it was almost a foretold prophecy known only to the rats of the community.
Leaning against one of the walls like this got him unwanted eyes, Noah felt dry saliva run down his mouth. He didn't want to gain the attention of anyone here, he felt himself being watched. His quickly cleared everywhere his eye could reach, he saw no one looking at him.
Suddenly, whilst caught up in his thoughts, he saw his prey walk in front of him. He was rather easy to spot, he had beaten down clothes, a clear metal ring across his neck, and a polished, clearly stolen sharp sword. His eyes were nervously scouring the area.
Noah started approached him, suddenly, their eyes connected. Noah saw fright in his eyes. Once the slave realised that Noah was approaching him, he sloppily pointed his sword at him. "Don't come any closer" he shouted.
Noah brought out his shabby sword and slowly approached the slave. After realising that his early attempt at scaring Noah away failed, he ran away. "No, you don't" Noah thought as he started chasing after.
The slave ran alleyway into alleyway, he was quicker than Alexander had originally thought, but Alexander was gaining on him, he had 16 points in agility after all. There was no clear pattern to the alleyways, they were sloppily made, but what did he expect coming to the slums.
The slave was purposefully avoiding alleyway with others in it, but Noah clearly knew that they were gaining unwanted attention running through the slums like this. The slave turned a corner and Noah quickly followed after.
Noah saw that the slave had stopped running, a dead end. He turned to face Alexander, his sword shaking in his hands. There would be a fight soon.