Chapter 30

The city we had arrived at was considered a mid-city. Which meant it was far enough from the borders that they didn’t worry about stray monsters. Yet the city wasn’t close enough to the center to have high energy density.

That didn’t mean that the energy density wasn’t higher here. Even in the rural areas it was nearly as high as the dryad grove. Inside the city itself the energy density was even higher. This was due to the use of energy gathering formations. It was part of a series of formations that gathered energy towards the center of the city. At the center the energy density could easily reach ten times the density of my universe.

The center of the city wasn’t occupied with a palace or even a castle like medieval cities on Earth. Instead it was occupied by training grounds for cultivators and mages. Having access to higher energy density made it easier for cultivators and mages to reach a higher level.

That meant the guards of the city were all level six cultivators. A few were even at the peak of the sixth level. If these were clan Hill soldiers they would have been considered elites. Nearly powerful enough to be welcomed as elders of the clan. And their early level seven officers probably would be invited to become elders.

My rank of low level four cultivator raised a few eyes among the guards. It wasn’t because it was high, instead it was a bit too low. Even the commoners that lived in the city would have higher ranks than I did. By my age most commoners in the city would be nearing the peak of level four. If they were talented they may have even stepped into the fifth level.

Of course none of them knew that I had achieved this rank in just a couple of weeks. If they did they would have been shocked. Usually a civilian achieving level four would take a couple of years. Even for the nobles in the central region that had access to the best training resources would have to spend a month or two.

I found myself mildly impressed by the city. The architecture was a bit medieval. Function was clearly a priority over art. Also everything was built durable with stone and thick walls. Which kind of made sense in a society filled with people that were multiple times stronger than the average human. On Earth a bar fight may destroy a few tables and chairs. On this planet a bar fight could easily destroy the entire building.

What was impressive was the cleanliness. I knew that the central cities were clean. A common job for mages was cleaning the city. A single water mage was far more effective than any street sweeper on Earth. I just hadn’t realized the practice extended to cities outside the center of human civilization. It certainly hadn’t extended to the villages we had passed through. Likely because it was rare for someone with mage talent to live in a small village.

It was also far more orderly than I had expected. Which was probably due to all the level six guards. Under the watch of such powerful guards it was impossible for crime to flourish. It would be impossible for a common criminal to gather the resources to become more powerful than the guards. Anyone that was already more powerful didn’t need to resort to crime in order to live. There were plenty of legal, well paying, jobs for powerful cultivators and mages.

That didn’t mean that crime didn’t exist in a city like this. What did exist fell into two categories though. The first were committed by those that were weak in an attempt to survive. Mostly petty theft. The second type were crimes committed by the powerful ruling class of the city. Most people were decent. However, there was always the possibility that a cultivator could be a psychopath. If they were powerful enough then the guards would be unable to stop them. If they were also part of the ruling class of a city the guards would ignore anything they did.

My memories of being Zhao gave me plenty of examples of uncaring or even cruel cultivators that preyed on the weak civilians in the cities. I considered myself fortunate that Zhao fell into the category of not caring about those weaker than him. Some other members of his clan would have been considered evil on Earth. Too many of them had enjoyed inflicting pain on others and had viewed anyone not in a central clan as barely human.

All of this meant that while I was in the city I would be on the lookout for any nobles or powerful cultivators. Whenever possible it would be best to avoid them. The last thing I needed was to spend another week running away from a powerful enemy.

I considered going to an inn. I could barely wait to finally sleep in a bed again. I had managed to buy some bedding at the various villages we had passed through. That wasn’t a good replacement though. It was similar to camping in tents and sleeping bags.

However, I didn’t have a lot of money. Even if I did have enough money to pay for a room at an inn it would be a waste. I could use that money to buy more necessities for the clan Ashton refugees. I could also save up some money and just buy a mattress. I was sure the dryads could coax some plants to grow into a decent bed frame.

So instead I headed towards the market. During the trip the dryads had grown a few magical vegetables. They had a remarkable ability to accelerate the growth of plants. With their help it had taken the plants less than a tenth as much time to reach maturity. Unfortunately there hadn’t been a lot of free space for them to grow plants. Also some of it had gone to feeding the refugees. Which meant I only had a couple hundred pounds of magical vegetables to sell.

A couple hundred pounds may have sounded like a lot. However, it was almost insignificant compared to how much food the average grocery store sold in the city. If I was selling normal vegetables the merchants would probably just laugh me out of the store. Since they were magic vegetables I hoped they would at least make some offers to buy them.

The first half a dozen stores turned out to be disappointments. At first the clerks had been interested in buying some magic vegetables. However, when they examined the vegetables they discovered that the vegetables I was selling had much lower energy content than most magic vegetables. That was due to the low energy density of my universe. Apparently nobody bothered to grow magic vegetables in low energy density areas. Which meant despite my vegetables looking good they were inferior to nearly all other magic vegetables.

Finally I found a store that was willing to purchase the vegetables. However, they weren’t willing to purchase and sell them as magic vegetables. Instead they would label them as superior normal vegetables. I was disappointed but understood. Their customers would be upset if they bought magic vegetables and then found out the energy content was lacking. However, they would be elated if they were buying normal vegetables and then found out that they contained a tiny bit of energy.

On the plus side the manager of the store agreed that they would be willing to buy more vegetables. Also if the energy content was better they would reevaluate whether they could purchase and sell the vegetables as magic vegetables. They were a bit surprised when I simply made the vegetables appear. However, when I explained that I had a storage ability they calmed down. Storage abilities were rare but not unheard of. They also usually lacked any offensive applications. Besides for transporting goods there weren’t a lot of jobs for someone with a simple storage ability.

Despite the store paying me fairly well I only walked out with a handful of silver coins. Which was disappointing. I’d been getting far more money each time I turned in a batch of bandits. I had to remind myself that it would increase as the dryads had more room to grow plants. Increasing the energy density would also help.

My next stop was an inn. However, it was one of the cheapest inns I could find. Luckily I didn’t need to worry about getting murdered while in town. Although I’d have to be careful that I didn’t get pickpocketed. I also knew I wouldn’t be sleeping inside the inn. The beds would probably be infested with one insect or another. Whatever the equivalent of fleas or bedbugs were in this world. Camping out on my plane would be preferable.

I couldn’t help but hesitate when I handed over a few of my silver coins. I was tempted to just leave the city instead. However, elder Yui had convinced me to stay inside the city. Blatantly using my ability would draw the attention of the guards. And traveling back and forth through the gates would take too much time each day. Which meant I had to rent a room at an inn somewhere. After getting to my room and traveling back to the dryad grove I reported what had happened to elder Yui.