"come on—come on—sweet fruit sugar candy!""potatoes—potatoes!""vegetables—vegetables!"
"this village is lively."vylette woke up "hoaam~... hmm? gugugu!" she pointed at the fruit sugar candy seller.
lucius knew what vylette wanted "verion, she wants fruit sugar candy. i'll go to the seller first." verion looked back and nodded, lucius walked to the fruit sugar candy seller while carrying vylette in his left hand.
"vylette, what fruit do you want?" vylette pointed at the strawberry candy, lucius ordered "one strawberry fruit sugar candy.""ready! here you go little sister," vylette took it "5 silver coins" lucius paid without hesitation. vylette started licking the top of the fruit, prying it with her tiny fingers to peel the sugar and eat it "hyummpp~"
verion asked lucius "let's walk a bit, maybe someone sells maps about the tower region." lucius just nodded they continued walking while looking around and observing the crowded place, lucius said "this is the economic circulation activity of celesterra village, this market is quite large." suddenly a young man wearing an eye mask while holding a staff offered something as verion and lucius walked "i know you are not ordinary, are you newcomers to this village?" verion answered "yes we are newcomers." the young man said "i know you are not ordinary, i have something i can offer or maybe something you are looking for." verion looked at lucius doubtfully, "if you're interested follow me." said the young man.
they walked into a narrow alley that was not crowded, verion and lucius saw a cage containing human slaves, demons, orc monsters, werewolves, and others"this world still practices slavery?" said verion faintly in his heart, lucius "damn, they are so merciless chaining the necks, hands and feet of these slaves.." the young man asked verion "sir, did you come to this village to look for something?" verion answered "yes, we came to look for a map of the tower region." the young man stopped, verion and lucius were confused "hmm.. tower region map? are you an adventurer?" verion answered "no, we are just wanderers. looking for tower region maps is to find learning." the young man replied "alright, follow me. i have that map." they walked, until verion passed a cage inside containing a female human slave, the slave saw verion and lucius.
lucius realized someone was staring at him, he stopped and looked at the slave, the slave said "p-please..." verion saw lucius stop "what is it?" lucius just nodded and continued walking, the slave looked at lucius in despair letting her tears fall.
inside a room, the young man showed a treasure chest, he began to open it and inside was a scroll. "this is the tower region map you are looking for." said the young man, verion took it and opened it "it's real, this is a tower region map."lucius also looked "verion, this is the tower region map. this is what we need." the young man replied "special for you sir, this map is priced especially at only 10 gold coins.." verion was shocked he couldn't pay that much "can't it be cheaper?" the young man replied "no, this is the cheapest i can give." while smiling slyly, lucius bargained "can this map be exchanged with this golden apple?" the young man was amazed "this golden apple.. worth 30 gold coins! hahaha i'm rich!" in his heart, then returned to acting "very possible sir." the young man quickly took the golden apple, verion and lucius said goodbye.
they left the village, lucius opened the map "this area.. the tower we conquered earlier. the name of this tower is horn tower" while taking out the horn tower artifact, lucius said "which tower will we go to?""we will go here. galidar tower." said verion.verion walked while opening the map "on this continent.. there are 7 towers?"lucius said "shouldn't we use the fastest route to get there?" verion replied "wait, first understand the route of the galidar tower region."
a group of horse riders gathered in one place, "stop." verion replied "what is it?" verion saw the eye-masked young man with the staff who sold the tower region map to him earlier "what is that person doing?" said verion, lucius invited to hide "we should watch them first." the two hid behind bushes.
the young man and his people seemed to be conducting a slave transaction "they are trading slaves" the sound could be heard by their ears behind the bushes. "hoho! lord carn, is my order ready?""yes, this is your ordered slave. men! release it." a ferocious red-eyed mountain wolf was released "sir, this is your order. just change this slave contract to be yours.""alright." the man placed his palm on the slave contract symbol on the wolf's forehead and flowed his spiritual energy.
the slave contract officially became his but "sir, do you want the contract to be permanent to you?""haha! thank you for the reminder lord carn. this is enough, here is the money.""thank you, lordlefa." the transaction ended, verion whispered to lucius "what should we do-" lucius came out and walked, verion was shocked and immediately followed lucius. lord carn saw them "um? oh! sir we are destined to meet again here." lucius replied "nothing special, what is your name?" lucius asked the eye-masked man with a staff "my name is carn." verion nudged lucius's shoulder and whispered "what are you doing!..." lucius replied "i'm worried about one of the slaves i met earlier, she asked for my help."verion was confused.
carn asked lucius"sir, do you have a purpose? or are you looking for something you need?" lucius walked looking at the carts carrying cages. lucius saw that slave again sitting hopelessly waiting for death, the slave looked forward.. she saw lucius carrying vylette who was sleeping, but the slave turned her face away.
carn approached lucius "sir, are you interested in this item?" lucius asked the slave "what is your name?" silent for a moment, the slave replied softly carefully "my name.. aurora.."lucius without hesitation asked carn "how much for this?" carn replied "sir, do you want this slave's contract to be permanent?" lucius replied "yes""alright, this item costs 50 gold coins, plus permanent contract 10 gold coins total 60 gold coins."verion was shocked "so expensive! you're trying to scam us!" carn firmly replied "sir, this item is worth our effort." smiling slyly again, lucius took out 2 goldenapples"is this enough?" carn quickly took them "men! release this slave!" aurora came out, lucius looked at verion "you do the contract." verion was shocked"why me?!"carn explained "flow your spiritual energy to the slave contract symbol, then she will fully belong to you." verion didn't see the symbol, aurora just lowered her head. "alright, thank you for the explanation." said verion.
they left, carn laughed happily "hahaha! foolish buyers! i'm rich!" aurora walked behind verion and lucius with chains still binding her. verion whispered to lucius "why did you buy this slave!?? do we need her?" lucius replied "forget it, she asked for my help. what's wrong with helping others?" aurora heard everything and stayed silent. they stopped for a moment, verion interrogated aurora "what's your name? how old are you? where are you from?" aurora didn't want to answer, lucius reassured her. "my name.. aurora.. i'm 16 years old, i'm from the outer continent.." verion was shocked "outer continent? how did you get here?" aurora replied "i.. was forcibly kidnapped by them. i've gone through many things to reach this point." verion drew his sword, aurora fell "what did i do wrong?! master.. please forgive me." verion swung his sword, aurora closed her eyes in fear. the chains were cut, aurora was shocked "?.." verion said "don't be afraid, we're good people, his name is lucius, he bought you to help you." aurora misunderstood "master! you may whip me as punishment for misunderstanding!""no-no, stand up." said verion.
lucius: "verion, contract her first. i'll look for food."
verion nodded "aurora, just call me verion."
verion was about 17 years old, one year older than aurora"aurora, follow me for a moment." they went to a quiet place. verion said "show me your body." aurora was afraid "o-okay." verion quickly "no-no i'm not perverted!"aurora stopped "what do you mean?" verion explained "i just want to see where your contract symbol is." aurora moved her long hair and showed the slave contract symbol on her back. verion touched it and flowed spiritual energy into it, aurora closed her eyes "it's done." said verion.
verion said"you're wearing worn-out clothes, use my cloak to cover yourself for now."verion took it off and put it on aurora, aurora could only stare at verion. they returned "verion, did you change her contract?""yes." lucius brought many hunts inside a dragged light net "is this also for our supplies again?" lucius nodded.
"verion, let's stop by valkry village first. according to the tower region map, this village is often used by adventurers to prepare before going to galidar tower." said lucius.
verion replied "alright, but it will take more energy to cover the 3 kilometer distance." lucius suggested using his light energy to fly together, lucius fired energy downward forming a light carpet that carried them flying to valkry village.
upon arriving at valkry village, they saw a long queue waiting to buy tokens to enter galidar tower. "we have to queue too." said verion, lucius stopped verion "we'll just push through."
lucius walked forward pressing all the queued adventurers to kneel with his steps"sir, i want tokens for 3 people." the seller gave them, lucius paid with 1 golden apple.
lucius released the pressure, the adventurers collapsed and began questioning who lucius and the others were. "you're very bold." said verion, aurora stayed silent. lucius said "we got the tokens, let's go to galidar tower."they flew again to galidar tower guided by the map.
arriving there, they landed at the teleportation site with 3 broken pillars, verion stared at the massive ancient galidar tower. lucius distributed tokens to verion and aurora "let's go to the tower gate and enter." said lucius, they went before the gate, the gate absorbed the tokens and analyzed successfully. they entered together.. but were thrown back by an orange shockwave, lucius deployed a barrier "what happened?" said aurora, verion said "what's wrong? we all have tokens." lucius thought critically "is it.. because vylette doesn't have a token?" verion and aurora looked at vylette, lucius searched for a solution.
lucius released a technique creating golden cubes forming a white door with dragon patterns, verion asked "what is this?" lucius replied "this is a space i created, i'll put vylette inside to deceive the tower. don't worry. i've created clones of the three of us inside." inside lucius's space there was a flower garden, children's playground, and clones of verion, aurora and lucius to entertain vylette, the space could also see outside conditions.
the three re-entered the gate but.. suddenly stopped when they heard cracks splitting the air. lucius, verion and aurora looked back, they saw the cracks filled with planets and stars. a general they had met before emerged riding a dragon with chosen troops behind him, his presence made the three fall silent.
the general glanced briefly at verion then ignored him and entered galidar tower, lucius: "this will be troublesome."
the general's chosen troops ordered verion, lucius and aurora to move aside, one by one they entered galidar tower. verion activated his mask "system activated: program running."aurora was amazed by verion's unique mask, verion hurried "what are you waiting for? let's enter."