Chapter 89: Blue flame city
The next day before Dawn, Watt and Sam got ready and met up outside the mansion. Falck is with them and when Sam made it disappear with a wave of hand, Watt was stunned but he didn't ask any questions, when he looked at Sam's expression. The latter seemed to be in a hurry.
They went to the Northern City gate where the Trading Carriage is waiting. This is the carriage of Golden- Horse trading company. They trade resources from this type of backward area and sell them to the merchants and other noble families who require them.
Along with this trading, they also provide the transportation for a small number of people.
The carriage will take 17 days to travel to the Marquis city.
The Marquis city is called Blue flame city. The city is under the Maverick family which holds the Marquis title.
The Maverick family is one of the noble families which was there since the establishment of the empire. The General Blue flame from the Maverick family made great contributions with a neighbouring empire which shares half of the western continent with them.
After the empire has been established the first emperor, gave this Marquis title to the general while promoting the Maverick family name which is the last name of the general to the Aristocracy.
These family members have a special blood line which effects the spiritual core and everyone of them have fire type spiritual core, but in every generation, there will be a person who will awaken the power blue flame and that person will become the next marquis.
Sam got all this info from the person in-charge of the trading carriage. After all, this is the common knowledge in the Blue flame city.
When Sam asked about Zeke, the person said something interesting. The Marquis has three wives and even more amusing thing is that three of them are sisters. Marquis married them because, he has promised something to the three women's father, and he has no way to avoid it.
Marquis has a child with each wife and all of them are sons and this Zeke is the son of the first wife.
After awakening their spiritual cores, the third son is the one who activated the Blue flame blood line and was crowned as the Young Marquis. The second son Luther has no problem with that as he isn't interested in that, but the eldest son Zeke is ambitious.
Since, he was destined not to inherit the title, he wanted to grow through business. So, he recruited some Artisans and Inscription masters to start his own business of weapons and Articrafts.
When Sam heard this, he smiled lightly.
The carriage went on with a moderate pace, without any hurry. The horses used are Level 2 beasts, so their endurance is also quite high. They only stopped once a day. Even though, they can go on for days without any food and sleep, they still stopped to not to tire themselves out as they might encounter beasts or bandits on the way.
Sam maintained a complete low profile as they travelled. He didn't want to interact with the rest of the passengers or the people from the trading company. Right now, he is really on the edge as he could feel himself turning back to his previous self. Particularly, in this last days, Sam developed a strong repulsion against the young masters.
Since, the one who initiated the attack on him is also a young master, his murderous intent is kicking in and he is trying to restrict it as much as possible.
After a week of travel, the carriage entered the Insect Canyon. Anyone who is travelling to the Blue flame city, must travel through this Canyon. The carriage increased its speed as they tried to cross the Canyon as soon as possible. Sam looked through the window and found that there is a lack of greenery. The canyon is area is almost like a desert.
Both sides of the canyon are filled with woods and grass, but the canyon is completely bare. There is not even a single blade of grass in the canyon.
After more than half-an-hour, they crossed the canyon and went into the woods and halted for rest.
Sam came out of the carriage and inquired why they halted and came to know that the area around is place where a type of grass which is used in some potions is usually grown and all the passengers and even the trading company members will try to find it here. So, they will stop here and wait for half a day before starting their journey again.
Sam wasn't interested in the grass and walked around and when he came to vicinity of the Insect canyon, he found something and immediately understood why the canyon is like a desert.
There is a peculiar looking grass in front of him and it is a different shade of green almost like emerald. The grass is like a border between the canyon and the surrounding woods.
The grass has no special effects of medicinal effects, but it has one function and it is to deter a certain insect species and that is called Zoi termite.
This insect is a peculiar one, because they live and roam in large groups. Just like ants and they all work on the orders of the queen Zoi termite. The queen will have a special metal connection with them and the communication range is very huge.
These Zoi termites feed on spiritual energy of any organic or living substance, but there is one huge problem. When they bite into something and suck the spiritual energy they will leave their saliva in that body and this saliva is actually quite dangerous. Because, it will start draining the life force of the body.
Their target can be anything, human, beasts, plants. They can get their food from any living thing or from fresh flesh.
The only good side is that they are quite controlled and not greedy. They are easily satisfied. Even though, they can increase faster if they eat more, they won't over do it to avoid being target of a powerful beast or cultivator.
A beast in size of Blazing earth bull will give them enough food for more than a month.
So, they won't seek out to hunt after they had their prey, but why are all the people avoiding the insect canyon? That is because, the Zoi termites are a quite superior insect species and they won't prey on other insects making all types of insect species to take shelter in their territory.
Even though these insects are not strong individually, they have a huge advantage in numbers and particularly in their own territory, they can make the whole trading carriage vanish.
Many people will compare weak ones with insects, but Sam thought otherwise. Even in previous life Sam felt that the insects are one of the most superior species. Why did he think that way?
Well, if we think about it, an ant is strong enough to lift many times its weight and imagine if an ant is in size of an average human.
A grasshopper is so fast that we can hardly touch it with most effort. Imagine if it is just half a size of an average human. It will toy around with a special forces soldier like it was playing with a kid. They have one of most superior genetics.
Even in this life, Sam has same opinion about insects. Insects should never be underestimated.
Sam started plucking some of this emerald coloured grass and squeezed the juices before applying it all over his body. This grass is the only thing that deters the spread of the Zoi termites. It is their natural repellent grown by the earth itself by adapting to the changes caused by the termites.
Sam entered the valley slowly on his hover board. He didn't dare to walk normally in the valley. If any of the insect horde caught his feet by surprise, he will be done for. No matter how good his spiritual sense and awareness he has, he didn't dare to take this risk.
While he is hovering slowly inside, he noticed that there is some movement underneath the ground surface.
He closed his eyes and is looking for the Zoi termites. If he can get these insects, things will be very easy for him in the future. He wants to see if he can get the queen ant herself and if he could get her, he can control the whole swarm.
But just as his spiritual sense entered underground, he felt an immense sense of pressure. He saw a huge white termite in the size of volleyball and could feel that the insect looking at him.
The insect is in far higher level than him.
Sam is sure that even the amount emerald grass in the boundary can't deter the queen if she wanted to move herself. He immediately turned around and the hover-board moved in its top speed. Luckily, the queen didn't put him in its eyes, otherwise he would have been done for.
Sam came out of the valley in less than two minutes. The ant queen gave him goose bumps all over. He immediately went to the nearest water source to wash over his skin to clear of the emerald grass juice. But he didn't stop sweating.
He went back to the carriage and sat beside Watt who is meditating. Sam really felt like running away from this place. The image of the termite queen is making him nervous.
The enormous sense of danger made him feel uneasy all over. He really wished that the carriage will move soon.
Sam heaved a sigh only when the carriage is started moving. But he still couldn't get the termite queen out of his mind.
The remaining days, he didn't try to get out of the carriage and stayed inside meditating continuously. He only came out to have an occasional meal.
After another ten days, the carriage finally arrived at to the Blue flame city. After registering at the city gate and entering it, Sam straight up went to the Golden-horse trading company's branch office to buy a place for himself.
The Blue flame city is also divided into five zones. The first zone is the Academy zone. It took up one fourth of the city and this is as big as Falcon-cliff city.
The academy has all kinds of necessities inside. It is completely isolated by the outside world and could be said to be a city by itself.
The next zone is known is upper class zone. The upper-class nobility and the Marquis live here. It is a complete noble residence and there are no shops, businesses and other kinds of establishments except the profession towers and the residences of the Artisans, healers, inscription masters etc.
But those professionals also must be of upper ranks and must be at least rank 3.
The third zone is commoner zone and the biggest area of all. All the commoners live here and there are some minor establishments like shops of daily necessities and some cheap weapon shops etc.
The fourth zone is a rich zone and the residences are high-class. Here, if one has money one can have a house irrespective of status.
The final zone is market area and the biggest business area. Every merchant, noble family, a rich commoner has stores here. It has all kinds of business establishments. Food, weapons, Articrafts, etc. Even the Golden-horse trading company has their branch here.
Sam went to the Golden-horse trading company to buy a mansion. Even though, they didn't have a direct business of selling real estate, they have some connections in the area and found a buyer.
Sam and Watt went to mansion in the Rich zone to look at the mansion. The mansion isn't as big as the one in the Falcon-cliff city, but it has a good yard and there is even a lake in it. The yard has a lot of trees and lush grass.
Even the interior is more exquisite than the previous mansion.
Sam immediately bought the mansion for 150,000 spirit stones. The price is higher than the pervious ones but the greater the city the higher the price.
After settling in the mansion and resting for a day, Sam left Watt alone in the mansion and went out. He stood on his hover-board as he moved faster and without walking. His lazy and frustrating aversion to the walking in crowded streets was finally satisfied.
All the people are looking at him with surprise and shocked expression. Some of them even followed him due to greed and desire.
Even though they didn't see any other uses of his hover-board other than the floating a little higher from the floor. They know one thing, some rich noble will like this to show off and they can make money off of it.
Sam knew this, but he didn't care. Because, even though his status as a rank 3 Scholar artisan which is the highest, he has now might be not so much in this city, but it isn't something that a normal commoner can offend.
The few people who have their eyes on him followed him. Sam moved without hurry and went into the Noble zone. He hovered his way to the Artisan tower. When staff from the tower saw him coming on a weird looking floating board, they wanted to stop him, but Sam flashed off his three artisan badges to them they immediately made way to him.
Sam went to the reception, he asked where the examination room was. The receptionist is very polite as she saw his badges and immediately assigned an attendant to send him to the examination room and at the same time, the receptionist moved from the reception and went to the highest floor of the tower to meet the tower head.
Sam's age, three professions, one pseudo rank- 2. One pseudo rank-3, one rank-3. These ranks may not be too big in the Marquis city as the highest ranked artisan in city is rank-5.
But at Sam's age the rank 3 is actually very big thing and a genius like that should be reported to the head of the tower.
When the head of the tower, who is a rank 5 Artisan heard this, he is immediately surprised and came downstairs.
By this time, Sam is already in the examination room.
Sam isn't taking the weapon Artisan or Tailor Artisan test; he is taking his test for the scholar Artisan.
Because, he didn't want to go through all the process by forging an equipment and other things. He didn't have patience for this now. Scholar Artisan test is a bit different though.
All he has to do is, place the finished product or the design on the testing platform. When his conscious enters the dimension. The conditions will be in such a way that, the candidate just has to imagine the whole process accurately and the process will be visible in the dimension and it will be simulated.
If the virtually finished product really did work, he will be considered as passed in the exam. But there is one thing, the idea must be fresh, and the information of the product will be compared with the data base of the Artisan association.
It is just like a patent data base in the modern world. The tower spirit will approve only if the idea is new.
Sam took out an arm guard he made and placed it on the platform. The arm guard is has a circular energy cell inserted in it on the top of it. This is one of the by-products of his experiments.
This arm guard is a device Sam designed to let a normal mage or warrior have some back-up spiritual energy.
This is just like a fiery ruby, but the main differences are, the fiery ruby is only used in a direct spell or technique.
But this energy cell has a small formation inscribed under it at the junction of the cell and the metal guard. This will help a cultivator to not only use it in a spell or battle technique but also to absorb and cultivate.
Sam used eight cores to make this energy cell and he wants to commercialise the product. Because, the feature of having a backup to cultivate with a huge amount of energy which is easily accessible than a normal spirit stone as well as choice to use the energy directly in an attack is a very useful in battles and hunts.
The platform glowed with brilliant light and after more than an hour, Sam regained his consciousness and the result appeared on the screen. A rank 5 Scholar Artisan.
When Sam saw the number he was pretty disappointed. He thought that he might be ranked a bit higher. But he didn't think much and immediately walked out of the room after placing the number on his badge changed and walked out.
Everything he did is in a lot of hurry.
There isn't a lot of crowd around the room, as they were pretty used to Noble youngsters taking the exams. Only the tower head who seldom showed his face was standing there in daze as she looked at the hurried young man.
When she was about to call him out, Sam took out his board and stood on it and immediately disappeared from the spot. She opened her mouth wide and after a second followed him.
Sam went to the business zone which is the centre of the city and entered a restaurant. This is a restaurant which serves high level beast meat. But Sam didn't sit on any table and walked straight to the counter where manager is sitting and immediately kicked the other party squarely on the chest.
The counter was destroyed as the other party looked around in confusion and rage.
"Who the f.u.c.k is that? Do you even know whose place is this? Do you not want to live anymore?"
But just as the manager finished this, Sam held the other party's collar and punched him on the face. But this time the other party retaliated.
After all, the other party isn't some pip squeak. He is a Level-3 Novice. But just when he was about to swing his sword, he felt a hit on his nape and lost conscious for a brief second.
The whole restaurant is silent. But when Sam took out his hover-board and was about carry their boss away, the workers prepared to make a move, but Sam flashed his newly acquired badge and they immediately stood in their place.
Not only them, While Sam was moving on his board in a rapid speed, and when the city guards were about to stop him, he did the same and with flash of his badge, they moved away. Even though, some of them suspected that it might be fake, but if it is real, they would be in deep shit. Anyway, the party who got abducted isn't a noble child or something, they can just report to higher ups first.
And just like that the second day, he entered the city, Sam made the whole city bustling with new of him. He made his presence known in a very high- profile way.
Zeke and his lackeys didn't even know that a person who they ambushed and didn't even bother to remember his face is already here in the city.
The hunter has already taken away his first prey and the remaining are quite oblivious to it.