Chapter-6 | Future Plans...

After everyone reached the tower, they split up. Some explored inside the tower and some strolled around the city looking at what the city had to offer.

While all these children were from the same clan Adrien barely knew anyone else. Inside the castle, every year was divided into many batches, and the possibility of two children from the same group possessing talent was minute.

Adrien walked and stood in front of the board with the city map and the area around it. On the map, other than some significant locations there wasn't much else.

Inside the walls of the city, only two places were identified on the map. One was 'Sygnis Tower' and the other was a resource site called 'Eartherngator Blood Wine Distillation'.

Outside the walls of the city were three more resource sites namely, 'Eartherngator Breeding Lake', 'Eartherngator Bone Flower Garden', and 'Eartherngator Leather Treatment Site'.

In the 100km north of the city there was no city only forest, but 20km south there was another city with an Adept Tower called Trilek City. However, the map showed an obstacle which was three mountains making a mountain range called Genpfir Mistia Mountain Range.

This mountain range and a particular valley in it called Esmit Valley were famous in Apprentice circles for their wide range of resources.

Every city with a tower would have resource sites developed by Master Adepts and managed by Apprentices. Apprentices would be paid by selling products produced on resource sites, and merchants traveling to other regions would buy them while offering Apprentices products from other regions.

This was how the economy worked, after all the resources in this city were of the earth element. No matter how favorable the circumstances were for apprentices with earth element talent, for other apprentices, it was not enough. So, merchants played an instrumental role in apprentices' lives, but they still had to pay a higher price than earth element talents.

On the map, only four floors were detailed and there was no description of the floors above. The ground floor had a teleportation formation and was the place where traveling merchants set up shop. The first and second floors had rentable rooms available for apprentices. The third and fourth floors had various facilities like an array of inscribing rooms, a senior potion lab, a testing lab, a mission center, and so on.

Outside the city were either resource sites or green forests. If one can clear the space and keep ownership of it, then one can do whatever one wants on that land. These were the rules of this place, or so written below the map in small letters.

All Adrien thought after seeing the map and various sites were, 'this place doesn't make full use of the place.' There were so many ideas for business in his head, but unfortunately no money.

After lamenting for a while Adrien walked into the tower. Just after the entrance was a huge circular teleportation formation covered by a barrier. As for why it was covered, he didn't know. He didn't see many merchants. In a large enough area to set up fifty or so stalls, there were only two who set up their stalls before the stairs. 'Maybe they were workers under those merchants?'

Adrien walked near one such store and asked, "Is this place always so... desolate?"

This man, who was sitting idly, noticed Adrien coming. He grinned showing his missing front two teeth, and answered, "You must be a newbie here. What do you want? Short story or a long story in detail?"

"Story?..." Adrien felt confused by such an answer.

The man behind the table waved his hand and said, "Never mind... Short story, conflict is brewing between this tower master and the one across the mountain. Long story, there are two ways to get here from Trilek City. One is Esmit Valley, which is risky for people like us. The other is the mountain pass, which is unfortunately blocked by Trilek City's Adept Tower. No one is allowed to use the pass until the conflict is resolved. I have been staying in this city since a month ago when the conflicts started escalating. We thought this might be an opportunity and crossed the mountain risking my life but here?"

The man scoffed and continued, "One-third of the apprentices have already moved. Most traveled north and some headed south, to Trilek city. The remaining apprentices are either forced to participate in the conflicts or baited to participate by giving rewards. Resource site stocks have started piling up and the tower is paying from its pocket to keep the sites running. You can see the situation yourself... after all, even the apprentices have started complaining."

As Adrien heard the man speak, he felt the situation was troubling.

Seeing Adrien's face the merchant continued, "Ah, don't worry. Today the Bio-AirShip came with supplies and helped relieve the stagnant situation."

'So the ship didn't just come to transport us here...' Adrien thought.

"I know you will ask the same questions as the two who came before. I can see the Xilos family insignia on your t-shirt, so you are exempt from paying to live in the tower. Lucky, I must say, but I have one question... Didn't your family teach you even the basics? Everyone asks the same questions. The keys can be found on the wall near the middle of the stairs. Show your insignia and get it! I don't know anything else, only say another word if you want to buy anything!" The merchant cut him midway when he was going to ask another question.

In truth, Adrien wanted to ask more questions as he still had questions in his mind.

After thinking for a moment Adrien asked, "Do you have something convenient to store items?"

Adrien had already planned what he was going to do. Studying his lighting patterns and lightning grimoire was a priority. As he delved deeper into their secrets, he realized they could help him much more. After all, this system was an even deeper mystery for him.

Unfortunately, all he had was ten energy crystals. He wasn't sure if he could buy enough resources to conduct research with his meager wealth.

So the first thing that came to his mind was scavenging in the mountains. Equipped with movement ability, he could escape dangers but carrying too many things is never a wise idea, especially in the wild. Therefore, Adrien asked for such an item.

"There are no spatial rings or inter-spatial bracelets in my collection, but dimensional bags are no problem." The merchant thumped his chest and declared, "Plus, it has approx space of three cubic meters!"

"Great! How much is that?" Adrien asked in excitement.

"Very cheap, just one hundred fifty-nine energy crystals!" The merchant grinned and continued, "Want to buy?"

"Do you have something cheaper? Like, below ten energy stones?" Adrien asked with an embarrassed face.

"Yes, but it only has one cubic meter of space." Saying that the merchant turned and looked around before taking out a casket. When the merchant opened the casket, Adrien saw a completely black small snake coming out of it. Its eyes were closed but it kept smelling the environment curiously.

"It's this guy. You can keep it for just nine... no, seven crystals. Both win!" Adrien did not notice the last words as his attention was on the little snake. The more he looked the more he thought that he was forgetting something.

Then a thought struck him, he could try using his system ability on others too!

In such a way, a terrifying existence came into existence...