Meeting Hulio

She kept Regulus in her inventory, in case any of the guards saw him. There were barely any puppets within Vrenze City, although the instance was technically located in Vrenze City's granary, not everyone could enter the instance. NPC puppets only appeared in the outer ring of the map.

[Info : There are three rings within Hyouka's map, Beginner's city is inside the inner ring, Vrenze is located at the inner ring, then the middle ring and the outer ring.]

They came to Vrenze City with peace, to find Roderick's daughter and then they would be on their way. No more fighting, no more tension, unless the situation forced them to fight. The guards allowed them to go in after multiple procedures. Everyone received their temporary visitor tokens andwas allowed in.

Vrenze City was bustling with activity, people were shouting left and right promoting their products. Some were selling fresh milk, some were selling flowers. Though, they each had an individual shop. Thinking that they had to stock up, Dye told the others to look around and buy what they needed. She gave them each several gold coins (Julian's gold coins), and they split up after agreeing to meet in a certain location.

The shops were colourful, everyone had colourful flowers outside their houses and stores. Finally, she got to the one shop she wanted to go to ever since she came to Hyouka.

The toiletries shop.

Sometimes, things in real stores are much cheaper than things from the system shop. Even though the system shop was more advanced and had a lot more varieties. The toiletries shop was open and there were several items on sale. She knew there should be toiletries shops in Vrenze if they could get some for Jaglash. Finally, finally she could take a proper clean bath!

She knew that the system provided several hygiene services in exchange for money, she could also use spells to clean herself, but since she came here, she had not once felt squeaky clean out of the bath. She would take one very soon. After getting the items she needed, she left the toiletries shop. She noticed that she indeed took a long time to browse the toiletries shop. Checking everything (although everything is within her inventory), she immediately walked over to the spot they all agreed upon.

The heart of the marketplace.

In the middle of the heart was a single pale flower in a locked pavilion. Everybody revered this flower, they say it was a Vrenze bloom. Vrenze City used to sell only flowers, their specialty and their lifetime commitment. Someone who disliked the beautiful flowers Vrenze City had, set fire to the city, taking lives and the original beauty away. The Ponto family was the last family alive from the old Vrenze City, along with several orphans and the people who weren't in the city.

Out of the beautiful flowers, there was only a single Vrenze bloom left, which was protected by a woman who died after telling the survivors of the flower's existence. In the current timeline, people only heard of the legend, and the single Vrenze bloom was the only proof of the old Vrenze City glory.

But as soon as Dye saw it, she knew that something was not right.

There was something wrong with the flower, as it kept interfering with her MP. Her maximum MP decreased whenever she came near the flower, but it increased whenever she walked away from the flower. The closer she was with the flower, the weaker she was. Her HP didn't change, but her MP became very low.

"It is facinating, isn't it?" A deep voice could be heard from behind her.

Dye turned around, shocked. Following the decrease of her MP, her senses and abilities also decreased. The transition was too shocking. It felt like returning to level 1, but being more healthy than others...

The man behind her was middle-aged, and quite tall. He had a pair of sharp eyes but the slight wrinkles showed his age. Despite that, his eyes were filled with wisdom. But one thing for sure.

If not for the wrinkles, this man looked exactly like Julian!

"Hello young miss, I am Hulio Ponto, the mayor."