The small islands were all farmlands with only a few houses to take care of the fields.
I saw wheat, potato, carrot, and even beetroot fields.
The road was visibly separated by a wooden fence and illuminated with iron lanterns.
Alexa sat on my head holding onto the dark helmet while analyzing the sight we were passing by.
At first, when they saw the Allay they asked if it was the same as the previous one. I affirmed it, telling them that it was my pet and that I let it stay with my friends when I was gone.
When they asked about the armor, I responded with 'Don't worry, it's just similar'.
They didn't like my response but they wouldn't complain too much abput it since it wasn't that important.
We went onto the second bridge, which was wider and better decorated all the way to the gates.
There, I saw a few guards with enchanted iron armor checking the people coming in.
I was shocked when I saw this since only rich nobles were able to afford it, not mare gate guards.
My guards showed an emblem to the gatekeepers and they just nodded, letting us pass without checking us, now we were in the floating city, and it was more different than I anticipated.
I could say that the city was closer to my home than this world.
The streets were packed with animals and carts, there were only buildings 5 stories or higher.
People on the walkway were all differently clothed but in the same tone of colors.
Most of the first floors I saw were either shops or workshops.
"Why is everyone dressed so differently in here?"
"That's because most of them are citizens."
"What?"
Then they proceeded to explain to me what all of this meant.
Simply put, each color represents a job given by the System, if you don't work, you'll have a simple colored tunic related to your job, and when people see you on the streets, if they're interested they can trade with you on the spot.
If you work for a workshop, you'll still keep the colors but you'll have a few designs imprinted on your clothing, or even given a uniform from the start.
The higher you are on the chain, the more decorated your clothing style would be, but never stir away from the designated color.
There were a few exceptions, such as the leader of the nation, the guards, and the miners or prisoners.
It was interesting to hear about this, but when I asked why did they do that in the first place, they looked at me like I was stupid.
"Because this is the Golden City, we can't look like everyone else in the world."
Well, that was a response that I didn't expect to hear.
Just to be sure, I asked about each color for the job, and they were nice enough to respond to it.
Farmer - Yellow
Butcher - Light Pink
Fisherman - Light Blue
Librarian - Red
Armorer - Grey
Tool Smith - Dark Grey
Shepherd - White
Leatherworker - Brown
Cleric - Purple
Cartographer - Green
Fletcher - Light Brown
Weapon Smith - White Grey
Mason - Orange
Those are the classic jobs, but there are a few exceptions.
Guards - Armor
Children- System given tunic
Miner/Prisoner - Black
Wondering Trader - Blue jacket
Ruler - Gold and Red
"Wait, you have wondering traders here?"
"Yes, unfortunately, we have them. But you'll rarely see one here in the big cities, since they like to trade with small settlements."
Wondering traders are only legends in the other kingdoms, I was curious how they got their job in the first place.
The guards were shocked when I told them that we didn't have wandering traders in the other kingdoms.
"How is that possible? From what I know, you'll have to get no contact with the blocks chosen by the System for a whole year at the age of adulthood. Statistically, there should be someone there that goes through this as well, what is so different?"
Is that how wondering traders get their job?
I guess that would make sense, and explain the reason why I didn't see a jobless viliger until now.
It's the System's way of getting everyone something, no matter where you are or how you are.
Now the question is if this is truly a gift or a shackle made by the System.
As they talked more about this subject I came to a theory on my own.
People who end up as wondering traders tend to live alone or in small communities in the wild.
Not only that, but they are dumb by the standards of this world since they don't know how to craft anything at all, only focusing on hunting and gathering berries.
Since they don't know how to use the Crafting table, they can't make the blocks necessary for a System job, leading them to become wondering traders.
But there's something different about the Coral Kingdome in comparison with the others.
It's much safer.
True, every night monsters would come and hunt the humans and their settlements, but they only get a quarter of the monsters the others get.
So here you could afford to survive alone until you get to 14 years old, but in the other kingdoms, you couldn't do something like this, since there is strength in numbers.
I talked with Alexa about my theory, and it was on the same side as me, since there weren't a lot of records of this process.
It knew that you could choose a specific job if you wanted to, but that was kept for influential people and not the common folk.
What it didn't know was the fact, that you could change your trading tab constantly until you got the perfect trade.
Our discussion was interrupted short once we arrived at the destination.
It was a huge mansion that was surrounded by a wall of concrete combined with iron bars.
The guard at the entrance had an enchanted diamond armor which surprised me once again.
This is truly the most rich kingdom of them all.
"Halt, is this the guest we were expecting?"
"Yes sir, he looks exactly as described, it's just that he has a weird armor."
"That doesn't matter, you'll have to take it off, and If you have any dangerous weapons, please give them to me so we can proceed further."
What is this guy talking about?
"I don't know why I was called here in the first place, and I don't trust you or your company enough to let my life in your hands. So no, I would not give you anything."
The guard only grunted in annoyance.
"Then you 3 stay here, and I'll escort the guest to the president."
"""Yes sir!"""
The man nodded and signaled me to follow him.
I got off my horse and followed him while admiring the mansion.
There were statues sculpted by hand with different rulers or knights of this nation, there were also small animals running or jumping here and there, such as arctic foxes, pandas and turtles.
There were also a few pieces of art made with precious materials such as gold and emeralds all on display in the open.
When we entered the mansion something caught my eye, the light source wasn't lanterns or torches, instead, it was glass blocks powdered with glowstone making them into beautiful chandeliers.
All the servants wore either enchanted iron armor or colored leather armor, giving the air of tight security
We went deeper into the mansion and stopped at a huge door guarded by 2 big and muscular guys who stopped us from getting any closer.
"Tell master the awaited guest is here."
They looked at the Allay with confusion and then saw me underneath which made their eyes get wide.
But they didn't say anything and opened a hidden trapdoor sending a letter that was written by him.
A few moments later, a latter came back and the two guards opened the huge door with great effort.
Beyond the door was a huge room illuminated by tall colored windows, some of them were golden, while others were red, but the combination of those two gave a royal atmosphere.
In front of me was a custom-made throne with gold and other precious ores.
Besides the throne were two desks with two librarians who were ready to record every detail of this meeting, making me feel a lot more pressure than anticipated.
On the throne stood a man with red and golden robes, he had a black beard with white strands making him look more handsome.
His eyes were green filled with wisdom and greed, trying to determine my worth only with his looks.
We stopped around 10 blocks away from the throne, and another two guards with enchanted diamond armor came from behind the throne ready to defend their leader.
"Greeting Trader, I'm glad you finally decided to visit our humble capital. I heard a lot about you, how you trained the hero and defeated the Monster Lord, how you have forbidden knowledge from the ancient times, connections with the Witches Clan and even infiltrated into the Iliger outpost to free it's prisoners. I'm quite a fan of your work."
So he knows some information about me, which was to be expected.
What I didn't expect, was the fact he knew about my infiltration mission, since I only told Bobby about it.
Did they speak with the prisoners?
"It's an honor for me to be invited here as well King Gold Salamander. Why have I been called for?"
"Oh please, call me President from now on, we're trying to move away from such rigit structure. As for why I called you here, it's pretty simple, I'm trying to understand why are the Piliger attacking us all of the sudden. And since you've infiltrated their camp, maybe you know the reason."
Silence was sitting for a few moments in the room as I was thinking on how I should respond.
"There could be multiple reasons for why they would attack the viligers, most of them result in changing them into Iligers like themselves, or even use them as slaves for Crafting or Brewing since they don't have the ability to do that."
Then I took a pause acting like I was thinking about something.
"But from what I heard, they destroyed the viliges not taking any prisoners. I can't fathom why they would do that."
Until Alexa told me the real reason why they were roaming around the land, I would be as confused as them about this.
Plus, I didn't know how to help them in the first place, it's not like I have a compass that would point me in their direction.
"That's what the others told me as well, it's just that they keep hitting our storage facilities and stealing our items. We don't know if they're looking for something ot just preparing for a big attack, what do you think?"
It would be advantageous to take over the capital of this place or at least a city with a port, but that would take too much time and manpower to manage so I don't think they'll do that.
"I don't think they would take over any city since it would require too much man power to take it and mange it, they only place it would be worth taking over is the capital. But I think both of us belive it's not going to be an easy endeavor, so they're most likely looking for some items. Did anything out of the ordinary got stolen?"
This time it wasn't the president that answered the question, but one of the librarian that was sitting on the site.
"Now that you mantion it, they're usually stealing food, potions and weapons, but all of them are made by the System, they don't take the man-made ones, even if their better. But there was an incident where an auction house was robbed and their prized man-made weapon was taken as well."
"What was that weapon called?"
The librarian looked through a few papers until it stopped at a certain one.
"Yes, it's here, and it's called a trident apparently."
Well that's no good, looks like I'll have to help them now.