The Nine Lords Of Order - Chapter 15

Late at night Mars, Ena and Luis were sitting around a bonfire outside the city. Not too far away from them were many other people under the same circumstances.

“Who would have thought everything was so expensive?” Mars couldn’t help but complain with a frown. His mission was to search a residence However everything within the city could only be bought exclusively with merit points. He had thought of exchanging merit points with energy crystals but the exchange rates were insane! A thousand low tier energy crystals could be exchanged with a single merit point and one middle tier energy crystal could be exchanged with 10 merit points.

Mars only had a dozen middle tier energy crystals. He thought he could be considered wealthy with that but that wasn’t quite the case. The cheapest residence within the city was worth ten thousand merit points. Hotels and inns also had high prices for renting their rooms.

In the end, he couldn’t afford anything within the city.

However there was a benefit to living within the city! A great force field surrounded city and gathered all the worldly energy. If Mars were to make a guess, the worldly energy within the city was around 20 times denser than what it was within the kingdom of Lugasta.

Downside was The energy outside the barrier was several times thinner.

The way things worked in the city was not too complicated. Every shop which provided a good or service within the city was under the direct control of LoftyCloud. Exchanging merit points with other people, or stealing a token to take away merit points was not possible.

However there were several ways people could earn merit points. The most common method was by the completion of quests. There were several quest towers around the city. How much merit was obtained through a quest depended completely on how dangerous a quest was.

Second method was by opening a shop. However very few people resorted to this method. To open a shop you required to obtain permission from LoftyCloud which was very difficult. Also, renting a shop was very expensive and taxes were very high. The shops which were placed in the city by LoftyCloud dominated the market, so competition would be another issue.

Third method was through battles in the arena. Battles occured all day within the several arenas around the city. However you needed to be at the very least a rank 3 to participate in the arena. Nobody was up for watching boring matches among rank 2s.

A victory in the rank 3 category could earn a combatant ten merit points and a hundred in the 4 rank category. However this method was also rather slow. People could at most fight 2 or 3 times a day if they don’t get injured. To ascend the islands, they would have to obtain 3 victories everyday for ten years in order to obtain a million merit points. But who could win consecutively so many times?

However, the reason the arena was so popular was due to a betting system. Before a battle started, the participants wouldn’t know who their opponent was. At that point they could bet their merit points with their unknown opponent.

Although this method was risky, there were many stories about people suddenly earning a hundred thousand merit points after a battle.

Fourth method was through the exchange of rare materials or information in exchange centers within the city. This was one of the most popular methods to earn merit points. People would go out of the city and seek opportunities. There were times when someone brought some valuable gemstone and instantly obtained enough merit points to ascend.

Truth is, if this was a normal city, the economy would had already collapsed. The only reason the system worked, was because of the people’s desire to ascend the islands and because the city was actually a very good place for people to train.

Another discovery they did while investigating was that to ascend the island, you had to achieve rank 4 before the age of 30. However, because the city offered great training grounds, people still decided to stay. This was the main reason why there were so many people in this city. Many people here were young geniuses with hopes and dreams, the others were failures who ran out of time.

“Mars, while I was investigating I found information about a place called the Lightning Valley, apparently it is a very dangerous place were even rank 4 beings threat carefully. I heard that although that place is usually filled with fierce lightning storms, in the recent weeks the lightning storms have suddenly increased.” Louis spoke for a bit before hesitating. “With the recent changes, only the strongest rank 4 beings dare to go there. However the reason I mention this, is because the increase in lightning storms might be the result of a new natural treasure appearing. Although we are weak, you posses the lighting attribute! If you can absorb or redirect all the falling lightning, we would be safe while traveling through that place! Or we could chose to join a group… lightning users are being sought after big expedition groups. Are you interested?”

As soon Mars heard the words ‘Lightning Valley’ His eyes started to shine. If he was exposed to more lighting, his strength would rise considerably faster! Since those lighting storms are dangerous against rank 4 beings, he calculated he would reach rank 3 in no time! He had to go! Who would expect this guy would be so useful? Not even a day had passed since they teamed up and he already brought him great news!

“Of course we’ll go! As for joining those crappy expedition groups That would be counterproductive! We are going by ourselves.” After ignoring other possible dangers, Mars decided on his own.

“But What if we encounter other dangers over there?” Louis couldn’t help but ask again.

“Bah! What dangers! I’m the chosen of lightning! In lightning storms my strength is far greater! Don’t worry, I have my trump cards!” He confidently smiled and gave Louis a reassuring look.

Then he turned his gaze towards Ena. He already thought of a method to raise her strength.

“So when are we leaving?” Ena asked innocently.

Louis was worried that this girl would be killed in the Lightning Valley but seeing how Mars planned to take her, he did not say anything against it. “First we need to obtain a map from the city and the Lightning Valley. Those cost quite a lot merit points so I propose to complete a quest first and they buy all the necessary things for our expedition.

Mars frowned for a bit. He actually wanted to go to this Lightning Valley as soon as possible, but it did made sense to obtain a map first. In a place filled with lightning storms it wouldn’t be too difficult to get lost.

There were other preparations which would be necessary. However he decided to not think about them. This Louis guy seemed quite capable, he was sure he would prepare anything necessary for the trip. “Alright I agree with your choice. Let’s go to a quest tower tomorrow morning and”

“No need! Before reuniting with you I had already picked a quest.” Louis interrupted him with a smile as he passed a piece of paper to him.

Mars was startled and picked the piece of paper. ‘As expected, this guy is quite capable. I must praise my foresight for taking the initiative to befriend this guy’ After thinking some nonsense Mars started checking out the quest.

It was an extermination quest. Some bandits had been raiding a few villages and they had to search and exterminate these bandits. They would receive 5 merits points for every rank one bandit killed, 20 for every rank 2 bandit killed, and 50 merit points for every rank 3 bandit killed.

“Rank 3 bandits?” Mars frowned and looked at Louis.

“Don’t worry. I gathered more information about this quest. Apparently these bandits should only possess 1 to 2 star path gems at the early stages of rank 3. Dealing with them should not be a problem.”

(1-star Rank 3: 200-1000 / 2-star Rank 3: 400-2000 / 3-star Rank 3: 600-3000 / 4-star Rank 3: 800-4000 / 5-star Rank 3: 1000-5000 / 7-star Rank 3: 1400-7000)

“Alright, it’s decided then” After hearing that they only possesed low level star paths Mars stopped worrying.

.

After a few days passed, but Mars and company hadn’t found the bandits yet. They seemed to be quite capable at hiding. However today they finally got lucky. They found a group of ten bandits walking through the forest.

People might wonder, how could they tell they were bandits?

They looked like bandits, that’s why.

There was also a guy who was cleaning a bloodstained golden medallion with a piece of cloth with a wicked smile on his face. They probably just robbed someone.

Splatt!

Suddenly nine arcs of lightning streaked through the forest. Before the bandits could react, they all fell to the floor with a bloody hole in the middle of their chest.

The only one who survived was the guy who was cleaning a bloody medallion with a wicked smile. However that smile was now frozen stiff. “W What happened?”

“Hehe! We finally found you! Now will you tell us were your hideout is located? You see I’ve been wanting to become a bandit since I was a kid. Why don’t you help me a bit and tell me where your comrades are? I’ll have a nice chat with them!” A cold laugh which the bandit couldn’t even tell where it came from echoed through the forest. He didn’t know if it was luck or bad luck to have been spared.