Chapter Nineteen: The Visitors!
Overseas Islands, Modo City.
A medium-sized merchant ship docked near the harbor, and soon a group of sailors rushed off the deck, flocking towards the taverns in the port area. These men, who had been drifting at sea for years, inevitably sought pleasure as soon as they made landfall; many spent their life savings on the tavern’s delights. A few minutes after the sailors disembarked, a team of cloaked individuals came down. The people responsible for covertly monitoring Modo City’s port area observed them and quickly relayed the information upward.
Modo City has many Wanderers.
However, theft cases are quite rare in Modo City, which is a curious situation.
Occasionally, when outside thieves commit crimes in Modo Harbor, they are quickly approached by some ‘mysterious individuals’ and subsequently taught a lesson, with some going missing while others were transformed into hidden sentinels of Modo City.
“It looks like a wizard.”
“Report to the higher-ups to avoid any trouble that might come from our negligent oversight!”
Modo Harbor is a free port, meaning anyone can come here. There are basically no restrictions, and they don’t conduct thorough checks on each person’s background. Under such circumstances, it is inevitable that various types of people mix together, which is why Modo City requires sufficiently strong gray forces to ensure security. However, this freedom is limited to Modo Harbor, as moving from the harbor into the city entails more restrictions. This is to prevent outsiders from infiltrating the interior of Modo City, which could create some troublesome issues for Soren.
It is not surprising for wizards to visit.
The Northern Witch Council recently established a branch in Modo City, managed by a council member close to legendary level. The Overseas Islands have their own specialties, and many spellcasting materials from marine creatures and mutated plants attract visits from wizards. Recently, the residents of Modo Harbor have seen more wizards and have grown accustomed to it, but a certain degree of awe should still be maintained. Even the most daring sailors would not easily provoke a mysterious wizard.
“Master.”
“Is this really Modo City? It’s indeed as bustling as the legends say!”
A group quickly descended from the deck. One young man looked around in surprise and whispered, “Although it can’t compare to the City of Wizards, it’s quite remarkable for a burgeoning city to have developed to this scale.”
The harbor was bustling with people, and various goods piled up in warehouses.
Merchants gathered near the guild to haggle, with apprentices of Lady Wealth responsible for witnessing transactions. Unless it involved larger sums, the priests of Lady Wealth generally would not get involved.
A trade worth over ten thousand Gind would bring a priest to act as a witness.
The Ocean Temple area was also lively.
In front of the temple was a large pool filled with different copper and silver Gind, and occasionally a few gold Gind could be seen.
These were thrown in by believers coming to pray and fulfill vows.
Under the sunlight, the entire pool shimmered like gold, but even the boldest thief would not dare to take even a single copper Gind.
This is an offering to the temple and the deity.
“Don’t say too much.”
“Our mission is to investigate the realities of Modo City. We’ve heard that they have begun to extensively use Golem Puppets, and the upper echelons of the Wizard Alliance suspect that Modo City has mastered certain techniques from the Arcane Empire period.”
“Our task is to confirm this.”
“If they truly possess such knowledge, perhaps the higher-ups of the Wizard Alliance will consider some collaboration with Modo City.”
The Wizard Alliance stands high above.
Their power surpasses that of the Northern Witch Council, and they have inherited the core alchemical knowledge of Arcane Puppets and Arcane Guardians. This is an organization similar to a city of knowledge, rarely getting involved in the affairs of the Church of the Deity. Regardless of the rise and fall of many kingdoms, what interests them most is to research the items from the Kingdom of Arc and explore the boundless Astral Realm.
Astral exploration.
Over the thousands of years, most of the legendary wizards of the Wizard Alliance have focused their energy on this.
The wealth of the Wizard Alliance is astonishing!
However, the exact amount is impossible to estimate. Describing them as rich enough to rival nations does not suffice, as they still hold the most advanced alchemical techniques in the Material Plane. The City of Wizards is the only place in the Material Plane where legendary equipment is publicly sold on a regular basis, albeit with values reaching terrifying sums in the millions of Gind. In recent centuries, one of the most astonishing actions of the Wizard Alliance was discovering a completely diamondized asteroid in the Astral Sea. Approximately three kilometers in diameter, the higher-ups of the Wizard Alliance worked together using some magical means to intercept the meteor and bring it back to the Material Plane.
The value of this meteor is immeasurable; it is said that they have yet to deplete the diamonds within it.
Arcane Golems are an advanced version of Diamond Golems, requiring large amounts of diamonds and high-purity crystals, and the current research direction of the Wizard Alliance is quite similar to that of Modo City.
Artificially synthesized diamonds.
Refining high-purity crystals.
Due to the slow progress, they were forced to shift many resource acquisition methods to the Astral Realm.
Wizards are always the most money-burning profession!
The group advanced along the Modo Harbor, naturally having other means to avoid inspection, with their forged identities sufficient to fool ordinary guards. Soon, they stepped onto the main road leading into Modo City.
A ten-meter-wide stone-paved road.
The roads in Modo City are extensive, built with significant human effort, and while cement roads have been successfully researched, production capacity remains an unresolved issue.
Alchemical civilization and technological civilization indeed differ, and the issues of production had already been exposed during the research on fertilizers.
“I didn’t expect the roads here to be so well-built.”
Another middle-aged man sighed and slowly said, “I can’t believe that this city, founded by pirates, could manage urban planning so well.”
Modo City’s origins are not good.
In the eyes of many old powers, Modo City has always been labeled as a ‘city established by pirates.’
Therefore, even though Modo City is wealthy, many old nobility and powers perceive it as a chaotic place, assuming that urban construction and planning are surely messy, and that it only grew due to the wealth of overseas trade.
All of this is merely a castle in the air; if such a city loses its source of wealth, it will ultimately fall apart.
However, what they saw today completely overturned their previous understanding.
These individuals from the City of Wizards realized for the first time that aside from the City of Wizards, there was a city so full of civilization.
Civilization.
That’s right!
In the view of those from the City of Wizards, many cities in the Material Plane are primitive, filthy, and ignorant.
“Wow!”
Several horse-drawn carts carrying goods approached, the drivers shouting as they progressed. A bearded merchant sitting on the side opened his mouth just as they passed by: “Huh?”
“What happened to that mountain to the north?”
“When I ran the Eastern Sea Route, that mountain was still there, but now it seems to have vanished.”
Hearing this from the middle-aged merchant, the cart driver slowed his speed slightly. Pointing at the flat ground to the north, he said in a voice filled with awe, “That mountain was there just a few months ago!”
“However, I heard that mountain obstructed the planning of the City Hall.”
“Then they sent people down to say they wanted to flatten it. That really stumped those foremen; how could a mountain possibly be flattened?”
“There was no choice.”
“They could only try to blow it up with gunpowder, but the speed was just too slow.”
“Later, it seemed that the City Hall disliked their slow pace, so they managed to involve the mysterious wizards. I heard that the wizards used a spell called ‘Turning Fossil to Mud’ to flatten that mountain.”
“In just about a week or so.”
“The entire mountain was flattened, and now there’s talk of building a workshop there.”
“Not just that mountain.”
“More than a dozen mountains near Modo City have nearly all been flattened. You probably haven’t been back for a long time; recently, the City Hall has mobilized quite a few Golem Puppets.”
“Those things are incredible!”
“Weighing thousands of pounds, they can easily move things, and their strength is truly astonishing!”
“I heard they are even more powerful than the guards.”
The cart driver spoke passionately, while the nearby merchant was also astonished, unable to close his mouth. Running the Eastern Sea Route back and forth takes close to half a year. After being away for half a year and returning to Modo City, everything he saw presented a shocking change to him.
The convoy quickly surpassed this group.
However, after these merchants left, a team from the Wizard Alliance wore serious expressions. The elder at the forefront pondered for a moment and muttered, “Modo City actually possesses such capabilities?!”
“It seems we have underestimated them too much.”
Mountain-moving and sea-filling.
At the level of civilization in the Material Plane years ago, achieving something so easily is no joking matter.
At this moment, one rather handsome young man suddenly spoke, “Master, I sensed something as soon as we arrived in Modo City, but I didn’t dare to confirm it.”
“However, after just hearing what they said, I am somewhat certain of my discovery!”
This young man’s status seemed to be not low. Upon hearing him speak, the others listened attentively, and he scanned the surroundings before slowly saying, “Did you notice that the energy fluctuations here are a bit unusual?”
“It seems to maintain a peculiar frequency! And the mountain they mentioned that got flattened is actually a node of the earth vein here!”
Hearing his words, the elder at the forefront frowned and pondered for a long time before gravely asking, “Are you saying?”
“Modo City is laying out a very large magic circle?”
The handsome young man smiled and shook his head.
Others showed puzzled expressions, seeming somewhat confused.
“No!”
At that moment, the young man finally spoke with utmost seriousness, “The entire Modo Island is a great formation!!!”
As soon as the words fell, everyone in attendance was struck with shock!
And the elder at the forefront slowly uttered two words: “Mystic Lock!……”
………………
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