***Ryan's POV***

***Narmae***

I stumbled a little as a brief moment of weightlessness passed, rather than travelling through a blue tube I looked around at the enormous pearl white gates in front of me.

'Wait why is there a statue here?'

A statue of a tall man draped in a greek style cloak holding a staff was looking towards the clouds. I looked around and admired the scene. The teleporter was situated at the edge of a cliff, and considering that this was a floating island, the only way down is this teleporter or if you could get a flying skill.

'The statue though wasn't there last time, maybe this is the ruined emperor?'

I looked at the statue closely and used the All-Seeing gaze.

Statue of the Ruined Emperor 45

One of the statues commissioned by the ruined emperor to allow him to gaze at his territory and beautify his territory with his presence.

'sigh'

I shook my head and walked towards the gates, the outside of the city looked like a giant palace, with white marble walls, a locked wooden gate, with a watchtower to my right which probably has a peak E-grade archer ready to shove an arrow up your ass you make a scene at the gates.

The guards let me pass without saying anything, within the big gate at the right corner there was a smaller gate cut out to facilitate, day to day departures. I felt the guards eyes assess me as I looked at their alien-like features. The male one had long appendages sticking out of his head like an octopus, his skin was green and smooth, like light-glistening smooth, and he wore a similar armour to that of the guard back at the island but rather this one was made up of gold. The Female, on the other hand, was not only purple in colour but the appendages on her head were short, so short that one could confuse them as a spiked hairstyle for very very smooth hair...

'Why are there menaces guarding the gate? what the fuck is wrong with the emperor...'

The race of the gate guards had a long ass name that when the system translated for you ends up 7 words long, most of the people just called them menaces, these were elite soldiers, their bodies genetically superior being a silicon-based life-form, 'why are the most powerful soldiers that should be employed under the emperor guarding the gate, draped in gold armour was beyond me.'

I nodded at them before ducking my head into the city and I got my first looks at the floating city, well first looks in this life? it was the most aesthetic sight I had seen, even better than the previous city, it was beautiful with vibrant colours surrounding me, the walls and houses were pure white marble, the road was wide enough for two houses to be placed and instead of a footpath, the roads were lined with bushes with yellow coloured leaves instead of green.

'This looks grander than before, there are also a lot more statues of the emperor...' I looked at the numerous people flying to their destination, with the wind ruffling their clothes, 'wait... the clothes are off-' I looked around at all the people present and most of them were garbed in cloaks reminiscent of the Greek style of clothing.

'This was a Norse dominated area last time, shit I was hoping to get the same quest and talk to Muninn about the situation...'

"Are you from Earth?" a sweet voice caught me off guard and my instincts screamed to summon my daggers, my hand twitched slightly before I relaxed and turned towards a blond-haired girl, her hair locked in a tight ponytail, her blue eyes wary as she fiddled her hands nervously.

"Oh yeah, Ryan" I extended my hand forward which she gladly took.

"Thank god! I'm Ellie" She replied and I felt her eyes glow golden for a second as she analysed me with the Eye of Truth skill we got during the tutorial.

"You know that's rude right? sneaking a look into my stats?" I frowned as I activated the All-seeing gaze.

Name

Ellie Storm

Level

2 (45.10%)

Race

Human [G]

Alignment

Human (Earth)

Attunement

Wind(0.00%)

Titles

-

Strength

8

Perception

6

Endurance

5

Vitality

8

Intelligence

6

Wisdom

8

Luck

12

Free Stats

0

Credits

345

'Hmm, decent stats-'

"How did you know that?" she appeared startled.

"You do know that your eyes glow when you use that skill right?" I asked her and turned away walking towards what could only be the mercenary guild.

"W-Wait! I'm sorry" She reacted quickly as she rushed beside and apologized.

"What is it?" I appeared mad, I didn't want to waste any time in Narmae, time was precious here.

"Can we talk? or party up? Strength in numbers right?" she tried to appease me.

"Why are you trying so hard? you don't even know me?" I was curious, no matter how dangerous our new reality she shouldn't be that desperate to trust an unknown person.

She hesitated before saying, "I can't read your stats, you just appear as question marks, only strong people whose level is greater than 11 can't be read by our skill..." She mumbled towards the end but still looked at me hopefully.

'huh, Odin's blessing is more useful than it appeared, at least this way anyone a grade above me won't be able to figure out my strength just by looking at me.'

"Don't waste your time in the city roaming around, the time you get to spend in Narmae is special, complete some quests in the city and grind contribution points and citizenship points, the faster you can become a citizen the better it will be." I wasn't interested in babysitting someone, If I want to get stronger I need to go look for treasures. I waved her off ignoring her as she mumbled something and walked towards the mercenary guild.

'Alright, I need to get a quest that lets me stay in the city and then map out every location.'

I arrived into a spacious hall after entering the guild, there was a reception desk on the other end of the room and the walls were riddled with various requests submitted by the citizens of the city. I started searching for the requests that included staying in the city when I noticed some absurd requests made by the empire.

Quest: Patrol our grand city decked as a city guard

-Rewards based on level

-EXP = 10* level

-CP = 10*level

-Credits = 10*level

Quest: Gaurd our glorious gates (Minimum level 50)

-Rewards based on level

-EXP = 100* level

-CP = 100*level

-Credits = 100*level

'Wtf... Don't tell me those guards at the city gates and all the guards in the city are free mercenaries... what is wrong with this emperor? don't tell me he has no standing army?'