Nicola had specially forged new bracelets for everyone, the same ones he gave Kin and Gin, this time created with his new method, with them, the five could communicate easily at a distance. For the distance from Uglitch to the desert was not far.
Kolpesh was much more distant, but Nicola could find out if something went wrong quickly, as he would also leave his demon servants, the distance made communication between souls very difficult, but it was possible to see the big picture.
This was the chance to let them grow. The trio were the first to leave, a golden-eyed boy, a snake woman with a vegetable arm, and an ethereal sphere of gray fire drifting away from the house Nicola had bought to serve as the stock base.
Soon after they left Nicola also said goodbye, he put on his cloak again and decided to go out in the dimness of the night, using his concealment techniques to leave unnoticed, he didn't want to let them know he would leave or his destiny. The city of Uglitch was safe enough, but Nicola trusted no one.
The house was transformed into a magical fort covered in arrays from top to bottom, in addition to forging armor and weapons for the two girls he left a stash of his special pills to be sold regularly in the market or to be consumed by them in case of need. Also, above the door of the house was engraved an insignia of his mercenary medal. A ten-star silver coat of arms registered by the Guild as his residence, that would avert many smug looks.
Uglitch was on the side of the limestone desert, but to get to Kolpesh Nicola had to go through some small towns first. The journey was smooth, the path chosen by Nicola did not pass through any territory of gold-level beasts. In the Avec Realm, gold-level beasts were granted the right to form clans in cities and maintain their territories.
So there were no dangerous lands like there was in the forest. Typically, countries had such an organization, as gold-level cultivators were too important to the country, to be pushed aside like in the forest.
So almost no opponent could oppose Nicola's power. Being away from the AI, Nicola didn't bother collecting bandit bodies to turn them into undead, all who dared attack him died with just one blow and were incinerated by the fire of Fire Heavenly Essence.
Nicola's speed was greatly improved by leveling up, and using the abilities granted by Thunder Heavenly Essence he achieved the running speed of a quasi gold-level cultivator. It usually took two months to reach Kolpesh City from Uglitch. Nicola took only a week running, he decided not to stop in small towns along the way that had nothing to offer.
The sight he encountered as he approached Kolpesh was spectacular. When Nicola imagined a hybrid city he could never imagine something like this, being in contact with the sea, half of the city was submerged.
It was still daylight, but he could already see the lights emitted by the city buildings, the terrestrial half of the city was built like modern earth buildings, magic towers dotted the entire city, made of the most diverse materials, metal, wood or stone , many buildings floated in the air and arrays covered the entire city.
The submerged part of the water wasn't much different, buildings of coral and limestone jutted out of the water and several water channels floated in the air and carried sea creatures everywhere inside. There were rumors that the city itself was the private domain of one of the iron rulers of the Avec Kingdom. The Flame Master.
The city was directly bordered the Dwarf Union at the west, the Maritime Cities at the southwest, and the Elven Isles at the south. North and east were occupied by the lands of the Realm itself, but heading east along the coast it was possible to reach the Territory of Dragons and Phoenixes.
These were two very powerful races and very territorial, that area had been claimed by them since the beginning and was kept that way ever since, the dragons were ruled by Disaster Dragon and the phoenixes were ruled by Feathered death. It wasn't a country itself, they were more like two clans that had formed an alliance to maintain control over that territory.
That's why several of the inhabitants of these countries gathered there to trade. In this city there was no mayor with absolute power, only the name of The Flame Master kept everything under control, the biggest buildings were controlled by beings with the level of cultivation of gold, but not even they dared cause a riot there, in fact, they even they helped to maintain order so that they were well regarded and that they could keep their business there.