20 Genesis City

As the first light of day slowly rose from above the horizon, Will could see the illuminated figure of a city right before his eyes. Built on a slightly elevated hill, Genesis City was protected by a ten meter high wall, with an even higher wall situated deep within the city. The magnitude and scale of the wall was so huge that Will reckoned that it would take him a little under a day to fully circle the perimeter of the city wall.

It was a new sight for Will, who had grown up living with barriers or sanctuaries which negated the necessity of physical walls. Although the sanctuaries and magic barriers were undoubtedly more effective in protecting a city, the sight of a giant wall of grey stone blocking his entry lit a sense of might and awe within Will.

Littered outside of the walls were makeshift huts and crooked structures. Children who seemed half starved to death would walk around with outstretched hands and croaky voices all the while begging for food. Their filthy clothes did little to hide their skeletal bodies and their eyes were as hollow as an empty skull. Most of the adults living in this area seemed to have already given up life as they blankly stared at the ground or at whatever passed them by with no intention to get up or move.

Two children, about the age of ten and twelve came up to Will and begged for food, and Will shook his head and sent the children off with a calm look. In slums, giving money or food to a child was the same as sentencing them to death. Others would kill the weak children unable to resist the strength of an adult and steal the coins off their corpses. Helping them in the form of giving was not an option.

As Will got closer and closer to the gate, he saw that three lines of people and carriages had formed. One for leaving, one for entering, and the last one for people with weapons and armor who left or entered as they pleased.

Assuming that the third line was for adventurers to utilize, Will made his way through the gate while ignoring the other two lines. When a guard tried to stop him to check his identity, Will flashed his adventure card at him and the guard quickly backed away to inspect someone else. Amused and satisfied with the automatic entry his adventurer card gave him, Will stepped into the city and took the sight before him.

Contrasting heavily with the slums, the situation within the walls were nearly incomparable to situation of the slums outside the walls. Firstly, instead of crooked buildings or makeshift tents, there were well built houses lining either side of the street in a neat and orderly fashion. The smooth cobblestone path made it easy for people, horses, and carriages to move over and flame lit light posts lit up the streets making it easy to see the surroundings. People of many shapes and colors could be seen talking to each other happily or preparing for their jobs.

He saw dark skinned people who probably came from the south, white haired people most likely from the north, and people who seemed to have abnormal features on their bodies. A few of the people around him had furry ears and tails that reminded Will of wolves, cats, and other animals that he had seen in picture books when he was young. He saw muscular men who were shorter than children handling battle axes or holding hammers, he saw beautiful men and women with different shades of green hair and pointy ears.

Will couldn't help but keep an eye on the humanoid beings. Back in the Water Kingdom, you wouldn't be able to see the sight of humanoids such as dwarves and elves. Although the king, his father, had no problems with associating with humanoids, the other royals thought otherwise and considered the humanoids to be lesser. The only way these humanoids, or demi humans as the rotten nobles liked to called them, were allowed to enter the capital city was if they were a foreign ambassador or royal visiting for diplomatic reasons or a slave. Although his father had tried many times to abolish slavery based on race, the only Demi human race he managed to erase from racial slavery was the mermaids.

The kingdom of water needed the cooperation of mermaids if they wanted to maintain dominance over the seas.

As Will walked along the cobblestone road towards the center of the city, the second wall that he had seen peeking above the first set of walls before he had entered became more visible. These walls were taller and stronger looking and had a sense of flair to it. Unlike the smaller gray wall that was built in the outer ring of the city, this wall was made up of a pure white substance. Many defensive posts sat on top of the walls and will could even see a faint transparent layer of air covering the area inside the inner wall like a dome. The absurd amount of guards that patrolled the walls, as well as the significant amount of mana emanating from inside the walls gave Will a good idea on what the walls protected.

Nobles and rich merchants.

Only nobles would be as paranoid and self absorbed to build a wall to isolate themselves from the rest of the city while only successful merchants would be able to afford the taxes for staying within such an impressive defensive area.

The white material used to build the inner wall was most likely a mixture of mana stones that were blessed by the church which would boost the effectiveness of sanctuaries and boundaries by at least twice fold and all the guards seemed to be professionals, B rank or higher.

Even the demon lord would have a hard time breaking Genesis City's inner defenses easily.