My last checkpoint before reaching the next waterfall was the mining city downstream from the waterfall that now lay ahead of me. The city was a large and sprawling mass of buildings and properties spread out between four or five hilltops and even parted down the middle by a shallow gorge roaring with swiftly flowing water from upstream. The water passing through the city actually made me feel a bit like I was back at the bridge village.
From where I sat on my wisps on a rising portion of the road, I could look over the twelve-foot earthen wall surrounding the city. Around the outside of the city were several small farms rearing both crops and cattle to help take care of the city while just inside the walls were about a hundred yards of empty parade grounds for fighting during a siege.
Beyond these parade grounds were large warehouse buildings and then came some industrial properties for handling construction materials before finally reaching what looked like residential and shopping areas.
The homes and businesses closer to the highway were all middle class areas before reaching the upper class center of the city with a few small castles, official buildings, and manors for the wealthy. After this upper class area that was cramped around the largest parts of the river were lower class areas comparable to a large slums where laborers and miners lived. Outside the city and further upstream were networks of small caves and clay foothills in which people mined for precious stones.
Further back in the mountainside proper was where people pulled ores and natural metals from the ground.
This city was actually quite famous as a trade hub for precious inorganic materials for the entire northeast of the Imperial Continent. On top of this were the precious materials acquired from magics beasts and other wildlife from the surrounding areas. By all rights, the entire city should be no less than middle class because of all the export with minimum import.
However, it was pretty clear to me that the people in the big manors who likely owned the mines were using poor practices and ethics to increase their profits. Some of which were probably just immoral and not illegal, but it still felt wrong to see such a large slum in such an otherwise harmonious world. In fact, is was the first slums I had ever seen.
The people and families in the back third of the city all wore clothes of rough quality with discolored patches of cloth displaying darning and mends. I could not tell if people were going hungry from outside the city but I could tell from the people passing in and out of the back gates that this was where miners and laborers were paid. Not all of the laborers seemed happy about their pay as the reentered the city, though.
I actually started to wonder why such a large and wealthy metropolis would be one of my destinations but then something I did not like seeing caught me eye. At the back gates there was a man being paid for his shift but something did not seem to add up because he started arguing with the city guards. After a few moments, people who wore basic leather armor instead of the chainmail of guards walked up from somewhere out of sight and just started beating the man.
"Grimm," I say darkly while wondering what the fuck I was watching. "Those three in leathers, bring them to me."
The gritty carbon black mass of Grimm's mass of energy body split out away from the hoverboard I stood on and then flashed forward across the sky. While I had only just gotten here and did not know what was going on, I was familiar with imperial law and law enforcement. Just like cops, guards are not allowed to beat people and there are incredibly strict armor and uniform codes that must be followed.
The style of armor the three attackers were wearing did not belong to any guards I knew of and for any guards to just stand by and watch somebody be beaten was definitely not in the job description. From the looks of things, it was an argument about the man being underpaid. This alone supported my suspicions of bad business practices but to see THIS meant full-on corruption.
"Old Man," I mutter with a chagrined smile. "This shit you're sending me keeps getting higher and higher above my pay grade. What the hell do you expect me to do here?"
I knew I would not get a response and thus I simply watched as Grimm flew through the back gates, opened its face wide in a massive circular maw of just needling teeth, and swallowed the three attackers. The guards barely even had time to react before Grimm was flying up and away back to me. If not for questionable legality, it would have been funny.
When Grimm returned to me just two minutes later and spat out three naked men and all of their belongings on the ground, I simply stared down at the screaming and bewildered people until they realized they had been freed from the darkness and slowly quieted down.
Then I grabbed the closest one by the throat, slapped either side of his face with the front and back of my hand, and then slammed him bodily onto the ground. The other two started screaming again but one was silenced with a swift kick across the face that sent them sprawling into the highway below my hilltop before the other simply got a mouthful of the heel of my boot. "Fucking trash," I scold angrily as the person who was just stomped in the face coughed up teeth and blood.
Waiting until the men quieted down again, I appraise their stats to find that the strongest among them had an even lower base Strength than I did. They really were trash! Worse still, their armor and gear were in shit condition and the rest of their belongings were worthless.
Coupled with their unkempt bodies and rugged natures, they might as well have been outlaws.
When they were finally quiet once again, I patiently said, "I just watched a laborer being paid for the day only to be cheated out of his money. Why, pray tell, when that laborer tried to seek justice did the two of you beat him so mercilessly? That man has things people like you probably can't even imagine, such as a loving family who rely on that coin."
Neither of the men seemed to want to answer me, choosing instead to clamp their mouths shut and stare down at the ground as if awaiting death. Would I make things that easy on them? Not after the shit I just saw.
"Well, I have ways of making you talk..." I say threateningly with the biggest and warmest smile I could put on my face. Raising the head of the man whose mouth I ruined by grabbing a fistful of his hair, I simply reach into my purse and draw out a handful of candies. "This is a very special medicine that I made all by myself, it will help you recover form your injuries. Say 'ah'."
Of course the man refused to open his mouth so I simply jammed my thumb into his cheek, tearing the inside of his mouth on his broken teeth so that he opened wide with a scream. As soon as his mouth was open I shoved all five candies inside and clamped my hand over his mouth. He gagged and retched from both the quantity being forced into his throat as well as the harshly mouth-numbing bitter flavor of the candies themselves.
To keep him from simply swallowing the candies I used telekinesis to resist to keep his tongue, pharyngeal, and laryngeal muscles from swallowing the disgusting candies. We fought for nearly ten full minutes as they struggled to wrestle away from my grip and rid themselves of the choking candies but in the end they ended up losing the will to fight and slumped to the ground from oxygen deprivation.
I let the man fall face first and the candies just roll out of his mouth. It honestly looked like the man had been strangled to death by a demented child from his widened but unconscious eyes and pale complexion. I did not care, though, with his teeth and mouth I their previous condition they were more useful as an example than as a source of answers.
Clapping my hands together once and humming brightly, I look down the hill to find the other man I had kicked struggling to his feet and staggering away with a broken jaw and severe concussing. Flashing the man I had slapped around a brief smile, I hold out my hand toward the third assailant and snatch them off of the ground with magic. Their throat fit easily in my hand and I just stood there holding them off of the ground while watching the man with the reddened and swollen face.
The man I held by the throat now was kicking and crying, beating his fists upon my arm and head, but my Endurance was leagues above his Strength and he could only succeed in mushing the skin of my face a little. The swollen faced man sitting on the ground numbly watching his companions 'die' could only sit their and whimper piteously while blubbering incoherently.
I almost felt bad but then remembering the man on the ground stomping on the back and ribs of the laborer swiftly reassured me that what I was doing was at least fair if not righteous.
Once the man I was holding off the ground passed out under his own weight bearing down on his throat in my hand, I simply tossed their limp form aside to let roll down the hill. Crouching down in front of the only person still awake, I smile briefly before soundly slapping them once more across the face and watching them roll downhill. "I won't ask you again, little trash boy, so you should just start telling me everything you know about everything."
*