Chapter 39:- South River city [I]

South River City___

The city was located near the sea. Foreign goods were shipped to this city and from this city, the goods were transported to different cities on the Island. A huge labor force was required to look after and also to transport the goods to various cities.

Originally South river city was a small village of fishermen. But later, the village transformed into a city when foreign goods started being transported to this city.

The South River had a population of 3 million. The city was twice the size of SouthSnow city. The city was governed by David Bowen, a low-rank noble that worked under William's father.

"Rosie, why do I feel like recently your skin has been glowing? It's almost as if your dry skin is getting moist."

"Hehe! That's because of you." Rosie lowered her head and spoke in a low tone.

"Haha! I have to admit, last night was amazing. I think we were too wild. Others might have heard your moan." After saying the last part William couldn't stop himself from being jealous. He didn't want others to hear his woman's moans.

"No, they didn't. I have a gold rank artifact that can actually create a barrier around the room and prevent any noise from going out of the room."

"From where did you get this kind of artifact?"

"I have a few artifacts. Usually when a person awakens an artifact after using Star-Blaze, even if that person dies, that artifact still remains. In this world, there are countless artifacts out there. But most of these are either useless or silver grade artifacts which are mostly useless."

"For example, there is a kind of artifact that lets can balance the taste of food or there is a kind of artifact that can increase food production, there are artifacts that can increase the chances of catching rare fishes or there are artifacts that can allow someone to flight or with some artifacts one can fly or with some artifacts one can even control monsters."

"Wow"

"Also with time, gold and silver rank artifacts will start to lose their powers. For silver rank artifacts that time period is 100 years while for gold rank artifacts the time period is 1000 years."

"Does that mean Legend rank, Epic rank, and mythical rank artifacts will also lose their powers after reaching a certain age?"

"Actually no. With time the artifacts will start losing their former ranks and fall to lower ranks before completely losing their power."

"I guess this is the way nature recycles everything. It kind of creates a balance in the whole world."

Walking on the street of South Rive city, Rosie and Aditya were heading in the direction of David Bowen's house. After some questioning, they learned from David Bowen that he has been working with the assassins for a while now.

In the past, David has helped the assassins group by giving valuable information on adventurer parties. Because of his actions, 21 gold rank and 3 black gold adventurer parties have died so far. And the number will keep rising unless someone stops David from selling information to the assassins.

"Never thought someone who is working for my father would betray him." William's eyes flashed in anger as the face of David flashed before his eyes. During his 9th birthday, Joseph invited all the lower-rank nobles under him to come and see the future ruler. Joseph was doing this to let every low-rank noble know the person who is going to rule them in the future.

"William, why don't we just report the whole thing to your father?"

"No, we can't do that."

While walking on the streets, Will held her right hand and looked at her. "We currently don't know just how big and dangerous this assassination group is. Without knowing about the enemy's powers, it would be unwise for us to inform my father. Knowing my father, he is going to take action and execute David publicly which would alert the assassin group and the culprit behind all this."

"For now the plan is to get the secret object that has been transported from overseas. We can't allow that object to fall into the assassin's hands."

While walking on the streets William's eyes happen to fall on some men sitting on a carriage.

[_Name:- Corey Lewis

_Race: - Catfolk

_Age: - 42

_Level: - 69

_Class: - Thief

_Title: - Thief of South River

_Racial Skill: - Smell, agility, claws

-Star Blaze artifact: - Iron Skin (Gold rank)

_Innate Skill: - Night Vision (Gold rank)

_Passive Skill: - Quick steps (level 2), Rock Smash (level 3), Rock Summon (level 3), Sneak (level 5)

_Strength: - 62

_Agility: - 100

_Health: - 99

_Stamina: - 89

_Mana: - 89

_Intelligence: - 33

_Free stats: - 0]

"What happened?" Rosie looked to the right to see a group of 5 men sitting on the carriage. They looked like some adventurer groups.

"I can see their stats. All of them have a thief class. They are thieves." William was a little tempted to take the Star-Blaze artifact, the iron skin from the thief named Corey Lewis.

"Do you want to kill them?" Rosie asked as she also felt that it might be good to kill these gold rank thieves. There is no telling just how many people have lost their lives at these thieves' hands.

"No, let's leave them for now." William and Rosie were here to take the secret item. Getting distracted and causing a scene will only delay them and risk alerts.

After walking another 10 minutes, finally, William and Rosie saw the house of the South River city noble.

In this kingdom, the empress divided the Empire into 5 parts. The Biggest island and the island that was called the center was under the Empress's control. To make things easier, the Empress appointed viscount rank nobles to govern each big city. The 4 royal families who control the other big islands also implemented this system.

All the nobles have to answer to William's father. The Empress usually didn't interfere with the affairs of other island nobles but if she heard about any corruption, Empress took strict actions against that person.

David Bowen was a human. Other than the royal families that are only made up of royal Succubus and Royal incubus, the lower-rank nobles can be from any race. There was no restriction. David at first worked under his father for a few years and earned his father's trust. His father made David the governor of the South River City.

But Joseph still did not give David full control of the South River City. As this city is the place that receives foreign goods and disturbs foreign goods to other cities, Joseph has placed 50,000 of his personal troops to watch over the city.

While the troops made sure the export and import smoothly happened, David on the other hand began selling information on adventurers without anyone realizing it.

"Compared to this trashy house, your Mansion is 1000 times better." In front of them, there was an old, cracked, and broken Manor House. The manor was surrounded by high walls and it had two gates, one at the south and the other at the north.

"I wonder why this Manor looks so old."

"Maybe he is purposely not renovating the manor."

"Or maybe he did this to make people think that he is poor. So just no one will suspect him of being a corrupted noble."

"So how do we even break into his Manor? I am sure David has at least Elite gold rank adventurers guarding the interior of his manor." At the first glance, the Manor of the city lord might look very easy to break into, but in reality, hundreds of guards were protecting the manor from inside.

"I have an idea. Why don't I just dress as an assassin and sneak inside?" William had bought clothes that looked very similar to the assassin's clothes.

"That might be very dangerous. You can even die." Rosie was very worried. Knowing that black gold rank guards were inside the manor. A small mistake could end up taking William's life.

"Don't worry, I will act during the night times. At that time, my stats will be increased by [50%]." Rosie nodded in agreement. Only a few more hours left before the night came. It won't harm them to wait till the sun sets.

-

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Tap!

Swoosh!

A shadow teleported inside the city lord's Manor. Under the watch of hundreds of people, the figure once again teleported and appeared 15 meters away. Everyone in the manor was familiar with this ability.

"It looks like the squad 7 leader has personally come to take the item."

"Man, that man was already powerful, now he can teleport more than 10 meters. It seems his teleportation skill's level has increased."

William teleported directly inside the house without making a noise. From the house, the entire manor looked dark and gloomy, inside the manor was bustling with lights.

"Welcome Captain of squad 7." William's eyes flashed in cold light as he looked at the man that his father trusted so much yet he betrayed the Empire.

Before coming here, Rosie had changed his eye color and also made him wear a special type of shoes that can increase his height by a few inches. Right now William looked like the perfect copy of the assassin leader that he killed.

"It looks like you have become stronger since the last time we met." David was sitting on a couch while holding a young girl in his arms. He was squeezing the girls' breasts while also drinking a glass of wine with his right hand.

Seeing the assassin leader not speaking, David sighed in depression. He has tried to talk with the captain many times in the past but he always remained quiet and cold toward David. "You never change. Always cold as ever. Tell me the password and I shall hand you the secret item."

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One chapter for today. I was taking a little break