The Nine Lords Of Order - Chapter 50

Somewhere in the southeast areas of Loftycloud island were several ordinary buildings. Mars was using the map to guide himself towards this place. Apparently this was the place were the dormitories were located. However only palace members of ordinary rank or status would live in this place. Looking around Mars realised this place was as ordinary as it could be. If it weren’t because the worldly energy in this area was much higher than in Ascencion city then he would assume that even common mortals could live here.

A few kilometers away he could see there was another set of more luxurious buildings. Looking back at the map on his hands immediately figured what that place was.

‘It says it’s the dormitories for black ranked disciples What the hell are those?’ Scratching his head Mars began to flip through a few more pages from his book. However this book was quite thick so he was having some trouble finding the information.

“Cough!” Suddenly a person approached from his back and lightly coughed.

Mars ears twitched a bit but he acted as he hadn’t heard a thing.

Seeing that he was being ignored this person felt slightly awkward, giving Mars a second look he brought his fist in front of his mouth and tried to attract Mars attention once more.

“COUGH!”

This time Mars did not even flinch and just kept sweeping through the pages in his book.

Scratching his head this person was thinking what to do. Looking at the book in his hands he got an idea and then slowly walked until he stood in front of Mars. Hesitating for a bit he suddenly made a quick motion and snatched Mars book straight from his hands!

“Hey what the fudge man!” Mrs did not expect this development and finally raised his head to stare at the guy in front of him.

This person in front of him had red curly hair which hanged over a innocent looking face. His eyes were squinting as he smiled and overall he looked like a very polite looking person. However this polite looking person had just snatched his book so Mars now had the impression he looked more like a hypocrite.

The young man smiled politely and said, “Friend, my name is Charles. I was walking around and noticed that you seem to be lost. I guess you are new here, right? Well, since you seem to be confused and don’t know how things work here Err… How about I guide you through the dormitories while I explain you how things work here?” For some reason this young man looked slightly suspicious. Even as he spoke he would sometimes look as he was trying to remember what he was going to say next.

This fact did not escape from Mars perception and he squinted his eyes. However he did not say anything and decided to play along with whatever was going on.

“You call me friend but you just snatched my book!” Mars said while looking angry.

“Yes, yes!” The curly haired young man quickly gave back the book he had just snatched. Awkwardly he coughed once again and said, “Well, Don’t mind that my friend. May I know your name?

“Mars” Although he was still suspicious he still told his name.

“So it’s friend Mars!” The young man took a step forward and tried to place his hand on Mars’ shoulder, but Mars swiftly avoided him by taking a step back.

After freezing for a second the young man proceeded to Ignore what happened just now and started speaking again, “You see my friend, disciples in the palace are divided within several rankings. There are normal disciples, core disciples and there is even one Prime disciple per palace. Err The current prime disciple of Loftycloud is powerful and grand!” Scratching his head somewhat awkwardly he continued, “Normal disciples are divided in three ranks and different colors are used to differentiate them. These colors are blue, black and red.” As he explained this far the young man pointed at Mars insignia on his chest. “As you can tell, the insignia on your chest is the same color as your uniform, blue.” Then the he pointed at the one on his chest and continued, “My insignia is black, so I’m higher ranked than you.”

Then he continued to explain several matters and workings from the island. He went on for a few minutes before suddenly saying goodbye and leaving with a friendly, yet suspicious smile.

Mars was not sure what to make out of this situation. He remembered that on Ludokai’s notes it said that some dude named Charles would cough behind his back and guide him through the dormitories and give him some information. So when the young man approached him and coughed behind his back he was a bit surprised at first. He wanted to ignore him but he didn’t expect that he would suddenly snatch his book.

However he noticed a few strange things in the behaviour of this particular young man. Either way he still received plenty of useful information from him.

Ordinary members and disciples from the Palace were divided in three rankings. They were differentiated by the colors; blue, black and red. To increase in rank a person needed to use merit points. Apparently currency here worked in a similar fashion as Ascension city.

Overall the only thing that the palace provided for free was a place to live. Everything else, including the training facilities could only be used through the use of merit points. The way to obtain merit points was slightly different from the city though. Charles mentioned that aside from accumulating merit points from the completion of missions and through the exchange of rare materials, there were several test facilities around the island which rewarded merit points when achieving outstanding results.

The difference between the disciples of different ranks might not look as a big one. The main difference was that higher ranked disciples were given better residences which possessed a higher concentration of worldly energy. Even so this was enough for most disciples to want to increase their rank as soon as possible. After all, progress would be faster where the worldly energy is higher. Charles had also mentioned that to obtain a personal residence you had to become a core disciple.

Mars also learned that the Palace provided Core disciples an specific amount of resources each month and they also owned rights to buy several items at cheaper prices. Since he himself had passed the 5000 meter mark in the bridge trial he also happened to own this right. However because still hadn’t achieved the strength requirement to become a core disciple yet, he still had to live in the dormitories for ordinary disciples. If there is something he forgot to ask was if he actually needed to become a red ranked disciple before becoming a core disciple, however that was not too important yet.

After assimilating all the new information he decided to head towards the registration area. Then he would be able to settle down and figure out what to do next. However after taking a few steps he pulled out the piece of paper which contained Ludokai’s predictions.

He looked thoughtful for a second before continuing on his way. He suspected that the meeting with the guy named Charles was not a coincidence. Specially because he looked suspicious and his sentences sounded… rehearsed. As Charles was speaking he often looked like he had forgotten what he was going to say next and would get nervous all of the sudden. However he didn’t want to jump to conclusions yet, and he wanted to see if the theory he was formulating in his mind was heading towards the right direction.

Mars quickly settled down in the dormitories. Initially he had a room of his own, but after a few days he got a roommate. To Mars suspicions, this happened just as Ludokai had described in the piece of paper.

Thinking it was just a coincidence Mars decided to ignore it and feeling curious about the island Mars decided to do some investigation and exploring on his own. He spent a few days checking out the facilities and the beautiful sceneries around the island. He couldn’t help but be fascinated by this place.

Although his dormitory was not that great As he continued traveling around the island he kept discovering several areas and structures which were beyond impressive. He saw roads made of profound gold which shined with soft light at night. As he walked through this roads he felt calm and comfortable and even his power level increased a little.

There were beautiful towers which were kilometers tall and he even lakes filled with liquified worldly energy, unfortunately he had not right to get close.

At night, magical gemstones illuminated the streets. Each one of these gemstones was beyond priceless. Mars guessed that just a couple of these were enough to accumulate a million merit points in ascension city.

The value of merit points within the island was different from the one in Ascension city. A hundred merit points from the city were just worth as much as a single merit point here. However Mars still owned a few hundred thousand merit points so he went to exchange them as well.

As he travelled through the island he happened to encounter several ‘suspicious’ events and individuals.

Although sometimes Mars had trouble noticing anomalies in these encounters, every so often he would still encounter people who acted nervously and sounded as if they were repeating some rehearsed lines.

Each one of these encounters was in line with Ludokai’s ‘predictions’. Even though Mars wanted to avoid them, he found that he couldn’t Ludokai had written about the events and people he would encounter, but he never mentioned exactly when he would encounter them.

“Something weird is going on” Scratching his head Mars refused to believe that Ludokai could actually see the future! So he started to test the people he encountered and even asked them if someone had payed them to approach him.

There was a time when he decided to go out with his mask on, and nobody approached him. But as soon as he took his mask off… a bald man went up to him and tried to seek trouble for no reason whatsoever!

What was the most suspicious was that this encounter was also written in Ludokai’s notes!

As the days went by he kept trying to uncover the truth. Sometimes he would follow the ‘suspicious’ individuals after he met them. Other times he would just run away when he saw someone approach him

By the fifth day he was more than convinced that these encounters were… all staged!

He was completely sure that this was all a play from Ludokai in order to convince him that he could actually see the future.

Even so, he couldn’t help but be awed by Ludoka’s influence! To stage so many events and get so many people to cooperate with him was incredible. Unfortunately these people were warriors, not actors. So Mars was still able to guess what was going on.

However there was still something in the list which left him unsettled, ‘How did he know about Eanred and his wife Clair’