It took some time, but Jordie and friends eventually made it through that awful queue and finally passed through the gate. It was at this point, it finally sunk in to Jordie just how...majestic this place was.
"Welcome to Jade Spire City! Enjoy your stay!"
"Holy crap...," Jordie muttered as he walked through the gates, "this place is crazy!"
Spellpunk.
That was the best way Jordie could describe the city as he made his way through it's crowded streets.
All manner of colorful dress and strange shops were set up along wide avenues made of cobblestone that were decorated with mysterious looking flora in all sorts of wild colors, lining along waterways filled with a lightly glowing blue liquid. From what Jordie remembered from the System info dump, this was the liquid mana that flowed from the dungeon and powered the city, as evident by all the pipes that crisscrossed the buildings and infrastructure. He never thought he'd see a magic pipe powered lamp, but hey, new world, new rules.
'It smells like...honey? Does mana taste sweet?'
[Kinda, but it also has a tendency of burning out tongues. So don't drink it,] the System warned.
Jordie immediately removed any thoughts of trying to drink pure mana, and made sure Minos didn't try to either. The baby minotaur on Jordie's back had this weird glint in his eyes as he stared at the glowing blue liquid.
"Moo?"
"No, just stick to your milk."
"Moo..."
"Klik."
Detecting his companion's sadness, Silva proceeded to transform his tail into an even more elaborate rattle. Noticing the new dangling bits, Minos was immediately enamored.
"Moo!"
"Thank you, Silva."
"Klik."
"Wow you are from the sticks," Marianne playfully mocked, "I can only imagine how'd you react if you saw an A tier dungeon city."
Jade Spire was apparently only a D tier dungeon/city, which was a step above the bottom E tier. Jordie could only imagine how absurd higher tiered cities were if a D tier city already looked like the Emerald City from Oz.
'Too bad I'm not allowed inside the dungeons...yet. Just need my disk and I'm good to go,' Jordie thought to himself.
"Alright guys, I'm going to go ahead and bring these three to the bounty workers office. Take care of whatever business ya got and we can meet up at the plaza for dinner. That sounds good to y'all?," George proposed.
"Yeah, sure."
"Sounds fine to me, it probably won't take us too long to get Jordie his disk," Marianne reassured.
As soon as those word left Marianne's lips, a "ding" sound went off in Jordie's head.
'What the...'
[The System will now be taking bets on the foreshadowing punchline that Marianne just set up.]
'I...what?'
[You heard me...read me. Just wait for it.]
'I'm pretty sure nothing weird is gonna happen, life's not a book.'
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"What do you mean he's not here?!"
[Called it.]
'I stand corrected.'
"Like I just said Marianne, pops ain't here right now. He went into the dungeon this morning to restock and won't be back until tomorrow."
After Marianne and Jordie left George to his own devices, Marianne had brought Jordie to a craftsman's shop on the commerce district called "Dalgo's Disks."
It never really occured to Jordie until now, but making something as insanely otherworldly as a pocket dimension disk, probably needed a dedicated practice and facility.
Marianne had described Dalgo as, and he quotes, "a cranky old boar with surprisingly steady hands and damn good disks who owed her a favor."
Apparently said favor would allow her to get a custom disk for free from him, which normally costed an arm and a leg.
Excited over the prospect, Jordie now looked forward to seeing who this"old boar" was exactly. However, when they finally arrived at the shop, they found not an old man, a but young, twenty something year old muscular tanned skin woman who was at least a head taller than them.
From what Marianne had told him, this young lady was Dalgo's daughter/apprentice, Jira. Jordie could only imagine how the mom looked.
"You have got to be kidding me right now," Marianne muttered in a frustrated tone. "I'm so sorry Jordie," she said with a mournful face.
"It's cool, it's cool," Jordie reassured while waving his hand, "What about any pre-made disks? Got anything that we could just take?"
"Hmmmm."
Jira began to eye Jordie up and down, as if she was an appraiser discerning the value of a jewel. Jordie wasn't sure why, but he swear he could feel a burning sensation going through him.
"I was going to say yes, but none of the disks we currently have available are a good fit for your particular line up of monsters, if not, downright detrimental," Jira explained, "if you want something appropriate for you and I assume of the 'modular' type as well, you're gonna have to wait until pops get back tomorrow with the materials."
Jordie became dejected over having to wait to get his disk, but he understood.
"Alright, we'll come back tomorrow then. Have a nice rest of your evening."
"You too."
Marianne and Jordie left the shop, mildly dejected at the prospect of waiting. Jordie wanted his disk, and Marianne wanted her khalkotauroi milk. But alas, patience.
Besides, it's not like they could into the dungeon themselves all willy-nilly, right?
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It's an unspoken tradition that whenever a dungeon city is officially established, that it gets a name in relation to the dungeon that powers it.
For example, the Snow Haven dungeon is surrounded by the city of Snowy Veil, while the Thundering Maze dungeon is watched over by Thunder Cloud City.
Jade Spire was no outlier to this trend, but it was a bit unusual that a city called Jade Spire would have an underground dungeon known as "The Jade Vaults".
As the name implies, it is deep within these vaults that one could find a variety of precious metals and stones, being guarded by monsters that were also attuned to precious metals and stones.
This meant that the Jade Vaults were the perfect place for craftsmen of all types to come and gather materials to hone their crafts, that is...if they can make it through the dungeon alive.
_________________________________________________
"Alright Ferro, cut him down!"
"Grroar!"