Chapter 95

I looked back at the towering headquarters of the Lion Guild as we walked away.

We were headed down the main street from the Guild District to the Market District. Along the way, I couldn’t help but be caught in a tourist-like stupor at all the different people we passed.

Instead of walking the entire way, which would have taken hours in such a large city, we boarded one of the many mana trams transporting people around the city.

Entering the tram, I noticed the pristine-looking cushion seats and polished floors reflecting the pale blue glow of the overhead mana crystals.

‘Are they that good with maintenance, or are the trams just new?’ I wondered to myself.

Koise pressed a round token lined with a trace amount of mana crystal against a small metal inset near the tram’s door after we entered and handed me a token.

He motioned toward the metal inset for me to do the same.

When I held the token out toward the metal rectangle, though, nothing happened. A few wandering eyes turned toward me, curious.

‘Right… it probably operates on mana.’

As much of a blessing as the Second System was, it still had a few drawbacks.

Koise huffed softly and took the token from me.

“Here,” he said, pressing it against the metal inset himself. That time, it glowed a faint blue.

He simply gave a short nod and we took a pair of seats near a window, settling in as the tram glided forward with unnatural smoothness.

“She’s a bit of an odd one, huh?” Koise asked.

“Eve?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Yeah, the elf. I know she helped you clear that dungeon trap, but you have to admit she’s a bit suspicious. Think about the timing.”

I shrugged. “Sometimes, a coincidence is just that.”

As if hiding my answer humorous, he leaned forward and chuffed out a little laugh.

“Come on, Aizen. Think about it. An elf appears out of nowhere just when you fall into a demon-corrupted dungeon, claims to be a demon hunter, never shares her class, and then tags along with us all the way back to Londo, where she probably just passed through?”

I sighed. “Would you share your class with her if she asked?”

“No, but I’m not claiming that Gregor, the head of one of the largest human guilds, is under demon influence.”

“Can’t argue with that logic…” Our conversation trailed off, and I found myself lost in thought and the wonders passing by the tram.

It was hard to believe that we’d advanced to the point of mana-operated trams in only a few years. What other innovations were being worked on? We even had illusion devices that worked sort of like televisions, though I’d never been wealthy enough to purchase one.

Enormous towers strung with faint, glowing glyphs and tubes of mana-carrying crystal lined the main street, giving me a view of human ingenuity as the tram trundled by.

The crowd pressing in on all sides felt claustrophobic—a cacophony of colors, voices, and races. While it’d been rare to see other races in Karfana, I saw a mixture of everything as the tram passed.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Koise asked. It was probably hard to not notice my slack-jawed stare out at the city.

I nodded and struggled to voice my surprise. “I knew Londo would be big, of course, but we have mana carriages and trams after only a few years. What’s next, the equivalent of a sports car?”

He scoffed. “We’d need proper roads first. The city might look grand, but you’d be surprised at how little the human cities cooperate with each other. It’s like each lord is competing in a show of wealth, and the cities barely run below the surface.”

‘Then it’s not too different from any tourist trap city back on Earth.’

Was that all the Central Cities were? A collection of tourist traps competing with each other?

The tram eventually glided to a stop in a wide boulevard lined with shops and stalls, and the scents of baked bread, unwashed bodies, and barbecue wafted through the tram windows.

Koise gave me a nod, and we stepped off of the tram into the market district, an expansive section of the city with each square dedicated to different types of goods.

I followed Koise, squeezing through the crowd and trying to keep him in sight while also taking in as much of the surrounding area as I could.

Judging by his determined pace, he already had a destination in mind.

If left to my own devices, I would’ve been hopelessly lost, so I didn’t mind being the follower in a place so familiar yet alien to me.

Koise had mentioned the terrible state of my gear just before we left Karfana, and I couldn’t help but agree with him when I saw the Awakeners in Londo.

Many wore well-used equipment, yes, but there was a sort of base quality behind most peoples’ equipment that mine lacked, save for the gauntlet Krylla had made for me.

While some Awakeners had minor dents, fraying, and small tears in their armor or clothing, mine was like a patchwork quilt next to a uniform blanket—it was just barely hanging together.

We pressed farther into the chaos of the market and its clash of colors, smells, and sounds.

Eventually, Koise took a winding stone path between buildings off of the main market.

It was nice to have room to breathe again.

The rhythmic clank of metal on metal echoed down the path off of the shorter buildings around us, and a faint hint of smoke floated along on the breeze.

With the sun slowly setting overhead by then, the dim orange hues of fading daylight intertwined with the gentle blue light flowing from the mana crystals that were set into regular sconces along the walls.

‘Did they purposefully build it like this, or is it a relic of when the city first began construction?’

A faint layer of soot clung to the rough stone walls. It was relaxing, in a way. The area felt much more like the winding alleys and stout buildings of Karfana I was used to.

The clinking of metal grew steadily louder until we reached our destination—a squat, two-story stone building with a thatched roof. The windows were small and stained with a layer of soot, and iron bands reinforced the open wooden door.

Above the entrance was a simple wooden sign showing a hammer and anvil without so much as a word.

“This is where we’re trading our equipment?” I asked. The place didn’t exactly inspire confidence or scream ‘luxury’.

Koise smiled as he looked at the sign clinging to a jutting wooden beam from the top of the doorway. “I know how it looks, but Brevnar is one of the best smithies I know. He also happens to be a friend.”

We stepped inside, and the glow of the forge washed over us in a wave of reddish-orange light. Sweat beaded on my brow.

Half-finished blades and armor lay stacked around the smithy, accompanied by piles of different ingots, raw leather materials, and tools such as hammers and tongs.

The rest of the place might’ve had an old-school feel like something from medieval times, but the runes blazing with brilliant blue light on the stone floor around the anvil and forge itself showed it to be a true artisan’s workshop.

The figure hunched over the anvil, pounding away at a blade with his blacksmith hammer, didn’t even so much as look up when we entered.

Koise tried to clear his throat, but the ringing echoes of the hammer were deafening. Looking exasperated, he took a few steps closer to the blacksmith.

Only then did who I assumed to be Brevnar, a heavyset man with hair braided against his scalp, look up.

Rather than the smile I might’ve expected to see from two friends greeting each other, Brevnar’s expression remained neutral as he set his hammer down and leaned back on his stool.

“Koise! What is it this time? Gregor trying to get me to make him another sword? You know I’m done with that son of a—”

Koise cleared his throat, interrupting the man. “Funny story, that. I don’t think Gregor is going to be an issue.”

“Are you going to tell me he finally went and got himself killed?”

“No, but I don’t work for him anymore…”

Brevnar nodded. “Good, and what about this guy? You join his guild or something?” He eyed me critically, gaze lingering over the holes in my armor and the patches on my clothes. “I didn’t think it was possible, but you somehow downgraded.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” I sighed. “I’m Aizen.”

I stepped forward and held out my hand in greeting. He smiled as his hand clasped over my own.

“Hmm, you don’t look to be the guild leader type. Friend of Koise’s, I take it?”

“Only recently, but yes,” Koise interjected. “Sorry, Brevnar, we’re a bit short on time. He needs some new equipment, and I wanted to offer a trade.”

Koise showed him the Lord’s Sword and the Crown of the Lord.

He was planning on trading the dragon loot for my gear?

I took another look around the forge and didn’t see anything that would even be close to the value of the two items.

Seeming to read my thoughts, Brevnar let out a deep chuckle. “What, you didn’t think I’d just keep my prize goods laying in the open like this, did you?”

He gave the half-finished weapons and armor lying about the forge a dismissive wave. “Let a man have his fun every now and then.”

‘Your idea of ‘fun’ is littering your workshop with half-finished garbage?’ I wouldn’t say it to his face, but his idea of fun was a little… odd.

“Come on then,” he said, pushing aside a rug so infused with dust I didn’t even notice it blending into the floor at first.

He lifted the wooden hatch beneath and gestured for us to enter.

“Let me show you why I’m the best blacksmith in this damned city.”

My suspicion was well-warranted. After all, who would have expected the best smithy to be in some ramshackle stone smithy to the side of the market district?