On the outskirts of the city of Erham, a green and orange horizon fell over the grassy plains. And in the center, a path forged by the passing of the years led a path towards a sun that was hiding behind the landscape.

Except for the sun and the time of day that closed the orange effect, both the grass, the plains; everything was artificial.

The royal wizards—under the command of Gavriel of the Six Faces—who had ordered that 53 percent of Erham's 41,000 square miles of avant-garde territory be altered so that the city's exterior image looked idyllic and, above all, defenseless; with the basic purpose that the envoys of the kingdoms, empires, republics and theocracies will arrive with the idea that the city was easily a besieged target and also a place of apparent peace, order and security.

The latter was certainly one of the most important points of this whole façade created by Gavriel. Since in these times and especially in this jagged cluster of so many civilizations and cultures —both hostile and different—, it was extremely important to let possible allies know that the Erham Capital of the kingdom of Eion was a prosperous and safe land.

And all this had been paying off in an efficient, practical and, above all, subtle way.

Rumors of a promised land and apparent paradise called Erham had spread throughout the southern continent like fire over a wheat field.

And soon, travelers, merchants, adventurers, leaders, missionaries, believers, students and doctors. All of them from different races and ethnicities came to the promised land in search of life and bliss.

With this, not only Erham's economy had won. The impact of the population increase had brought in so many resources that Erham began to export directly to other neighboring kingdoms. The birth rate had gone through the roof, and the rural or savage races who had never lived under a regime of humane laws and policies never once complained when the taxes they had to pay for living in Erham knocked on their doors. Thanks to this, public order without riots or protests was so stable that the city began to issue itself procedurally and without end.

However, good things always come with a fee.

The suburbs that Erham had never seen arose in the outlying districts, and the slums were a sector the nobility had never before imagined seeing. With this, individual crime had become a latent problem and with the number of magical races, it was difficult to interfere with the mere physical strength of a human guard. Therefore, the city had decided to offer a suitable payment to those adventurers willing to take the position of 'Watchers'. Over time it had become a profession, and its effectiveness had taken root in the slums, lowering crime and increasing protests over the abolition of the profession itself.

For this reason, something called 'Social Rights' had been created, which was an organization founded by Eros von Krainn and financed by foreign and neighboring nobility to combat the violation of civil rights. Its main objective was to extinguish the 'Watchers' and to appeal for the criminals of the different races under the ideal that discrimination did not give them the same opportunities as humans, and that for this reason, they should be free and Eion should create a sector safe and trained to instruct all non-human criminals with education and the necessary resources.

However, and although they did not say it publicly, everyone knew that they wanted humans to pay through their taxes for the construction of this entire system.

Over time, the Social Rights organization had gained so much support from Eion's enemy contributors that the capital city had been divided into two sectors: those who wanted to pay but were hampered by lack of resources, and those who They refused to cede those resources.

But Bell, an average traveler, had little to no interest in all this and currently, he was standing in front of the horizon.

Sabie had already made prior arrangements on the various establishments in Erham that one of his group would have a better chance of shopping at.

Therefore, Bell had spared no expense in indulging in all the luxuries the city had to offer. If his assumption that Sabie was the daughter of nobles was true, Bell wasn't going to hold back when he had the chance to use her as a bridge over his own misery to buy what he most wanted but didn't need.

Chain mail made up of small interconnected rings surrounded every part of his body. The hooded cloak was an abysmal black dye, the pants, gloves, and shoes covered in enchanted molten metal. He had shed his old half-dead hobo garb and now clad in the armor a rich kid would first buy for his adventures.

He had also thrown away his sword, his dagger, and his knives. He now had a bronze sword forged with obsidian parts and a complete set of chain knives. He had taken his time choosing his dagger, and in the end, he had settled on a copy of his previous dagger, but made with third degree enchantments.

The degrees of enchantments ranged from the least, the fourth degree, to the greatest, the first degree. It was publicly known that enchantments could vary their functions depending on the blacksmith, but commonly the basic enchantment was about reducing the weight of the enchanting object and increasing its efficiency; in this case, the sword that Bell had bought would normally weigh 4 kilos, however, with the enchantment this was reduced to about 1.2 kilos. In the other hand, efficiency translated to sharpness.

But in the general plan of things, rarely did an adventurer of even Gold or Platinum have enough funds to finance an enchantment.

To give you an idea, there were 8 ranks in total, from the lowest to the highest: Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Mythril, Orichalcum and Adamantite.

In his entire life, the highest ranked adventurer any human could ever meet would be Platinum ranked. Since from the Mythril rank, the adventurer would be considered a hero among men and onwards, we could only be talking about legends and myths.

Through this, one would naturally assume that if an adventurer as incredible and powerful as Platinum rank couldn't finance a simple enchantment, the purchasing and combat power that Bell carried on him was of paramount importance and value. Luckily, the charms were not visible to the naked eye and unless some spell was used, it was practically impossible to tell whether or not he was charmed.

—But how wealthy and influential is this Adylet's family to afford these expenses?

The only answer that came to Bell's head at this point was that Sabie had relatives involved in politics. It was obvious that she couldn't have made such an amount of money through a dungeon, at least not on the southern continent, and if we went so far as to assume that she had stolen it, it would mean that she was vastly more skilled than Bell without her having it the killer class.

If this was true, he might have stepped into a pit that he couldn't see the bottom of...

Maybe there were poisoned quills waiting for him down there…