《Taming Master》Chapter 273: Antiques of the Mauryan Empire (1)
Advertisement
Ian, who managed to arrive at the Altar of the King, was able to accomplish his task much easier than he thought.
He went to the location that the Chief of Secretary Sikh had given him and presented the 20 fleece, and a series of system message had come up.
Tring-
[Offering ‘quality wool’ items at the Altar of the King.]
[You have completed the quest for The Citizenship of the Empire of Maurya.]
[You have obtained the ‘Citizenship of the Empire of Maurya’.]
[Earned fame of 10,000.]
An old man with a long white beard that came down till his waist—slowly approached him.
The old man seemed to be the caretaker of the Altar, he came close to Ian and spoke.
“I guess you are Ian…”
“Yes, that is right.”
“Congratulations on becoming the citizen of our Maurya Empire. It is usually not possible to get as much quality wool in this short time… you have really worked hard…”
At these words from the old man, Ian began to mutter under his breath.
‘It was laborious work. Especially when the drop rate of this fleece was scarce…’
But of course, Ian spoke the complete opposite.
“Not at all, old man. It is an honor to be a Citizen of the Empire of Maurya.”
“Haha… it truly is a glorious feeling… being a citizen of the empire of Maurya.”
After that, Ian who was able to share a few good words with the old man had received an old wooden identity card.
Ian, who had received it had a bit of frowned expression on his face.
‘This is… This looks somewhat similar to the one that I got in Tobolldae…?’
Just a few days ago, Ian had received a humiliating status card, a D- ranked soldier.
‘Is this also specified with a D?’
But the situation here is very different when compared to that of Toboldae.
At that time, Ian was involved in the Dimensional war of Toboldae, in the northern continent to fight the monsters.
And Ian had more self-esteem than to accept that rank.
But in the Empire of Maurya, Ian was a perfect stranger.
And even if it is first class, that user would have been a commoner, and this situation wouldn’t be so bad.
Ian had opened the information regarding the wooden item he had received from the old man.
— –
Maurya Empire Citizenship –
Category: General
Classification: Goods
Citizen Rank: Sudra
Rank: D
This is proof that you are a citizen for the Empire of Maurya.
If you have this citizen card, you can maintain the basic affinity with the people of the Empire of Maurya.
This item belongs to the user ‘Ian’. This cannot be transferred or sold to other users, and won’t drop even if the user dies.
Advertisement
—
Ian carefully read the contents of the identity card by lifting it up.
‘Umm…? What is this? The ranking is a bit unique in here.’
Ian moved his gaze towards the part of ‘citizen rank’ which had “Sudra”, and his eyes opened wide.
‘Huh… this is a word that I have heard quite a lot about…’
Though the game felt strangely uncomfortable, Ian thought that it was better to be a commoner than a soldier, and he put the identity card in his inventory.
‘Now… What is the gate for the test…? Should I go there?’
Ian was relaying the information he had received from the Chief of Security in his head and left the Altar of the King.
As Ian came out of the stone building, Kaka who had been waiting for him in the front called for Ian.
“Master.”
“You have waited for so long.”
Kaka was sitting on the rocks which were floating in the air.
“No, It wasn’t that long… but, there is something that I’m curious about.”
“What?”
Kaka fluttered his small wings and flew to the front of Ian and asked in a low voice.
“Did you succeed in receiving the identity of the Maurya Empire?”
Ian nodded his head.
“Yes, I was successful.”
Kaka asked once again.
“By any chance, did you get any rank attached to it?”
“Umm… this was the first time I saw a rank of that sort.”
“Well, originally the ranks in the Empire of Maurya are a bit unusual, master.”
“What was it, was it Sudra…? I don’t know much about it, but it doesn’t seem like a good thing.”
And as soon as Kaka heard the rank, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Phuagh…! Puahah…! Keukkk…!!”
Ian had an uneasy expression at this sight.
“Yah! What is it? Is something wrong? Why are you doing that?”
Something felt very unkind and ominous!
Kaka had laughed alone for quite sometime and spoke to Ian.
“Master, do you know who a Sudra is?”
Ian frowned on his question.
“You punk, you seem to be gaining a lot of confidence lately? You are at a level where you are looking down on your master, you slave?”
Once Ian was done, Kaka began to smile and then it turned into laughter once again.
Kaka laughed and laughed for a while, and was barely able to speak.
“Keuh! Master, now you have to be friends with me. Keuh!!”
‘Sudra’, it was a word that was used to refer to the lowest class of people.
It would be easy to say, that the ‘Sudra’ of the Maurya Empire could be considered as slaves.
And in the Maurya Empire, there were people who didn’t belong to any caste and were considered as ‘untouchables’, but this wasn’t that great either.
Advertisement
So, in a sense, Kaka’s words weren’t much wrong.
Ian, who felt disgusted for not knowing what a Sudra meant, looked at Kaka and mumbled to himself.
‘Should I… check it on the internet…?’
And the time for Ian to log out had come. And he thought that this would be a great opportunity to search about this before re-connecting into the game.
* * *
‘Ahh… I’m a slave! What the hell…’
Ian was angry.
‘Does it make sense for a game that is based on money to create such ranks?’
However, there wasn’t much that Ian could do even if he was angry.
This was a goddamn neighborhood with a guard who had a level over 350.
‘Huh, but… need to see if this quest will be able to change the ranking system.’
Indeed, it would have been nice if the caste system was properly implemented, but the rise of status was the most impossible part.
However, this was just a scenario in the game, and only the name of the class was similar to the caste system.
It would be easy to process if it was considered as a form of identity presented to Ian, a user rank that was very commonly used in the Empire of Maurya.
Depending on the status, and the affinity with the NPC’s it would change, and the quality of the quests will also start to change.
And this is basic, depending on how a user plays, it will impact on how great the chance he will get to ascend.
“Yah! Kaka. Stop laughing.”
Ian threatened Kaka who was still laughing.
“If you continue being like this, I won’t give you food. I won’t give you meatballs anymore.”
However, Kaka responded with confidence.
“I’m not Bbookbbook, master. I’m not scared, not even the slightest.”
At those words, Bbookbbook went stiff.
“Bbook, don’t ignore the meatballs bbook!”
“…”
Even though Bbookbbok had evolved, it’s love for meatballs hadn’t decreased, not even a bit.
And Ian, who was walking on the street, had managed to get downtown towards the ‘Kapila Castle’, a huge city in the Empire of Maurya.
The castle of Kapila was on the same scale as the empire of Luspel, this wasn’t even a tiny bit smaller when compared.
Ian, who was just walking around by observing his surroundings, suddenly had a different line of thought.
‘By the way, how many people does the Kailan have in the development? These hidden areas are so massive and meticulously designed, they have a wide view of the world.’
Like Ian had thought, there was no place that could be hidden from the eyes of Kailan.
Ian was still in admiration.
‘This will be the first time for me to play a specific gaming content for such a long time. This is getting very interesting.’
If the LB’s planning team would have heard Ian’s thoughts, they would have fallen down into a slump.
Ian was needed to go straight towards the Gate of Test to proceed with the quest, but he had decided to take a little detour and look at the town.
‘Quests are very important, but I need to look at these places once. Who knows what hidden items reside in these places.’
And in the downtown that Ian had entered, there was a small antique store right at the beginning.
* * *
Ian didn’t like the word ‘Temple’ that much.
But it didn’t mean that he dislikes the nice items that it held.
Having a powerful equipment played a vital part in being a top-ranked player, and Ian was very concerned with that part.
But, the word ‘Temple’ that Ian disliked meant, ‘No gaming skills, just have good items’.
In that sense, Ian had never considered himself as a Temple user.
Rather, Ian thought that he was at a level where the item was not measurable compared to his skills.
‘The Judgement of the Spirit King was a great destruction weapon. Hmm, but even then…’
Ian and his endless amount of confidence!
And the reason that Ian had moved to the other streets was because he wanted to get a good item.
Ian looked at the antique shops with attentive eyes.
‘Hmm… just a thing would be nice…’
Inside Kailan, the antique shops were called as, ‘Luxury Gambling stores’.
Probably because the information about the item buying cost will be confidential, and the item would be sold at a price that is 10 times higher than those of the general stores.
But the good thing about an antique shop is that the users can look up the information and judge the items within.
In a gambling store, the payment of the items will be fixed in a random manner, and the shop will be buying them from users…
However, in an antique shop, they look into the appearance of the item and then purchase it.
At least a hundred thousand gold was needed to buy a ‘Rusty iron sword’ or an ‘Old leather armor’.
‘Hmm… this is the first for me to come to such a town, there should be a lot of amazing and interesting things in here, right? It could be a bit expensive but…’
To be honest, the price of the goods didn’t matter.
And these days, money wasn’t a problem for Ian, plus he had a lot of resources.
On top of that, due to being the first to discover the Empire of Maurya, Ian could enjoy a swooping 30% discount from all the stores in the Empire.
As he was looking at the items in the antique store, Ian’s eyes began to shine.
And just behind Ian, was a creature that was looking at these items with excitement that was thrice more than Ian’s.
Advertisement
- In Serial108 Chapters
Mother of Learning
Zorian is a teenage mage of humble birth and slightly above-average skill, attending his third year of education at Cyoria's magical academy. He is a driven and irritable young man, consumed by a desire to ensure his own future and free himself of the influence of his family, whom he resents for favoring his brothers over him. Consequently, he has no time for pointless distractions or paying attention to other people's problems. As it happens, time is something he is about to get plenty of. On the eve of the Cyoria's annual summer festival, he is killed and brought back to the beginning of the month, just before he was about to take a train to Cyoria. Suddenly trapped in a time loop with no clear end or exit, Zorian will have to look both within and without to unravel the mystery before him. And he does have to unravel it, for the time loop hadn't been made for his sake and dangers lurk everywhere... Repetition is the mother of learning, but Zorian will have to first make sure he survives to try again - in a world of magic, even a time traveler isn't safe from those who wish him ill. ********************************** If anyone is interested, I have a story-related worldbuilding site that can be found here. I don't update it as often as I should, but there is a fair amount of content there already. It also contains a page with all the fanart, fan translations, audio books and the like - you can reach it directly by clicking this link. I have a patreon account for those kind people that want to give me money. It also contains info for those who want to donate via paypal. The story was originally posted on fictionpress, back in 2011. When I reached chapter 91, I started uploading the story to RoyalRoad, one chapter per day. The story will continue to be updated on fictionpress as well as here, and can be reached by clicking on this link if somebody is interested, though at this point there is nothing there that isn't also on RoyalRoad. ********************************** The cover you see on the side has been made by a fellow RoyalRoad user Sydorow. Thank you for your time and art skills.
8 132 - In Serial20 Chapters
Plastic Bones
A sentient generation ship slaughters a few hundred thousand passengers. Scientists implant part of her mind into an android to find out why. Things don't quite go as planned, and the android who calls herself Ina Kurosawa joins a crew of scrappy smugglers trying to survive at the edge of humanity's reach. Deep space is populated by criminals and the disenfranchised alike. Something else is out there, too. The darkness is hungry, and the darkness wants to be worshipped as a god. (c) 2012-2021 biocageCover Art is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Cover Art is based on "Hologram scheme" by Anto
8 206 - In Serial8 Chapters
The Right Place At The Wrong Time
"What will you feel if, by inevitable circumstance, you never see your most beloved ever again?" ~~~ In the year 2000, 18-year-old Steven Vincenzo moved from the Philippines to the USA due to his father's promotion. They settle down in a small neighborhood known as Izzaya, in a city called Haggrew. Just a few days after moving, he finds out about a dark past from the Prohibition Era that still haunts the neighborhood, a dark past full of grizzly murders and kidnappings. Determined to know more about it, he finds out that there are ties to an old abandoned house he always passes by in the neighborhood, seeing it as a lead. Hesitant at first, due to the fear of breaking and entering. In order to find out more, he needed to go into the abandoned house where he finds a mysterious door that isn't like any other in the house. The infamous door that was presumed to be "The Culprit's Room." He enters the room where he suddenly got sucked in by an unstoppable force. He wakes up outside the abandoned house, to a confused girl in front of him trying to get him back into his senses. This girl was wearing vintage clothing and had quite a distinct accent that Steven had never heard of before, except in movies and TV series. Looking around, he knew something was definitely wrong. The abandoned house looked newly built along with other old houses in the vicinity. Trying to understand the situation he's in with all the clues he has, he eventually asks the girl what year it currently was to confirm his speculations. To this, the girl replies with a serious tone, "1927." Steven doesn't know what to do with all this information. Will he be happy that he could know more about the dark past and possibly try preventing it? Will he be distressed in trying to figure out how to come back to his own time?
8 192 - In Serial18 Chapters
Alive
At the center of a now unmoving battlefield the remains of a corpse rose from the others. A pile of bones held together by unknown means looked over the cadaver covered soil into the starry night. "What are those? Where am I? Who am I? What is my purpose?" Words formed questions in its head, none of which had an answer... For now, as a thought creeped up in its mind giving a reason to its movements: "I want to know" [Hello everyone, before you start reading this, if you want to read this, do know that this is just an idea that suddently appeared in my mind and I wanted to write it down so I'm not sure when the updates will appear though I did imagine the whole story {More like the beginning and the end}. Other points to know are that this is my first story {Yay!} And that english is not my first language, so please give me a lot of advices. Have a nice read~]
8 174 - In Serial13 Chapters
Aqua Requiem Bloodlines
Lordol died out of heart attack, suddenly he finds himself into the alternative world where ship girls rule the world, while captains are a merely supportive role where they can only command and order the construction of new ship girls
8 164 - In Serial86 Chapters
After Treason [BOOK ONE]
Twelve years ago Remo Kipling led a rebellion against king Avalon, causing the bloodiest treason in Alexanderia's history. Moira, exiled from the Mage Academy, and Eclipse, a panther entrusted as her guardian, stumble upon a terrible secret. Kipling lives. Worse yet, he has a deadly plan. Caught between her duty to protect the Innocent and her distrust of the Order she serves; she is forced to face her nightmares, self doubt and the corruption of the Alexanderia's Royal Court in order to protect her friends from Kipling's furry. Zack Dawson, Captain of the Alexanderian Knights, is not only the youngest knight in the army but the deadliest. His regimented life of right versus wrong is all he knows. But when Moira drags him into her plans his world shifts, from black and white to a dangerous grey. Can he uphold his honor and virtue or will the magic in his sword turn him into the monster he fears he is? Will both of them survive the monster haunting their nightmares or will they succumb to the darkness. Author's note: Not a sequel to A Thief's Wager.
8 186

