Chapter 235
During the last seven days of travel before reaching the city of Homura, Anton reached level 80 on his druid character. His leveling up was faster since he was using the on-screen option which was just like playing his character in front of a computer. One major difference was he didn’t need a mouse and a keyboard since he could control his character with his mind.
Anton still preferred to play personally by entering the world of Sanctuary since his body would get used to the flow of mana and would be able to master the act of casting his spell using his mind but he decided from the start that during regular gameplay of completing the acts, that was when he would play the game personally but when it comes to grinding for level and items, it would be better to use the on-screen option.
Anton’s father told him that he should dismiss all the animals summoned except for the mini pets that the ladies were carrying and they would just let the three Dire Wolves and two Spirit wolves summon from the tablets to guard them while they were in the city.
The walls of Homura were larger and thicker than the walls of Zalnothel. They reminded him of the walls from that anime where giant monsters attacked the citizens and chomped them all to death.
Anton had an inkling that the walls were made not only by men but by magic since he couldn’t fathom how something so large could be built by regular people although there were pyramids on Earth so he knew that regular people did have the capability to build something humongous.
From what Anton had heard, Homura was a monarchy but there were traces of culture from people that lived in the desert since to the south of Homura was the desert of Armunda.
Anton found it weird that the city was a mixture of medieval Europe and the ancient cities of the Middle East like the one from Alladin which was the city of Agrabah. Even the citizen’s clothes reflect that mixture of cultures. It was a bit jarring that he was looking at Alladin then suddenly he would be looking at Lancelot in his full knightly armor.
Anders told them that there was a need for them to stay in the city longer since they would need to dispose of all the items they had collected from the villages and towns that they passed through. Anders, Nemina, and Lucas would handle that business followed by Lucas’s dire wolf.
Lunelle, Anna, Ramona, Belinda, and Colin followed by Anders’s dire wolf and Colin’s spirit wolf would purchase necessities for their travel while Devon and Frederick followed by Devon’s dire wolf and Frederick’s spirit wolf would gather relevant detailed news that would affect their next decision.
Anton would be by himself either meditating or doing whatever he wanted to do but right at that moment, they were looking at Anders who was busy filling out documents assuring the guards that the three dire wolves and the two spirit wolves summoned using the golden tablets were tame enough to be their guards. Anders, Devon, and Lucas had to give some complex demonstrations involving the animals, and when the three men allowed some of the officers to give commands to the wolves that the wolves followed even the most difficult ones some of the officer's eyes twinkled in greed.
But when Anders informed them that the animals would rather die than be separated from them some of those greed disappeared but Anders had to demonstrate that the wolves would disappear if they were far enough away from them and would reappear by their side. They had to demonstrate that as well, which took a long time since some of the officers wanted to see that and commanded one of them to bring the wolf somewhere far away.
After around 20 minutes, the dire wolf that one of the guards brought somewhere reappeared by Anders’s side. That confirmed that the huge wolves weren’t ordinary animals but magical ones.
They didn’t declare Anton as an archmage since they didn’t want eyes on them but they did inform the Homura guards that Frederick, Anton, and Anna were mages.
Anton had an inkling that the guards thought Anton and Anna were Frederick’s students which was true enough since Frederick was their teacher once.
After several hours they were finally released by the Homura guards. The first thing they did was to search for a nice enough inn that they could stay in and the moment they selected one, it was very late, around two in the afternoon.
They still all went outside to conduct their assigned business after they secured their rooms. They didn’t even eat lunch since most of them wanted to eat in the eateries in the city.
Anton started one of his favorite things to do which was city roaming. The first thing that he wanted was to increase his funds so he could purchase more golden tablets for enchanting purposes.
The people walking the streets pointed him at the place where one of the bazaars was located. Anton was amused while watching the people walking around the city. Not only they were composed of different species, but their clothes were also different from each other but the difference was still part of one of the two themes prevalent in the ancient Middle East on Earth and medieval Europe.
When he arrived in one of the bazaars of the city, Anton became excited by the strange and wonderful things that he could see. He browsed the wares in the street but finally chose a merchant who looked jovial.
Anton talked with the merchant and asked for wares that would sell a lot if they were new or if they were not broken. The merchant was delighted to dispose of what he considered garbage products to him for little coins. At least, instead of throwing them away, the merchant would earn coins from those defective products. One good thing about the talk between Anton and the merchant was he was able to ask the man what the price of the items would be if they were new or working perfectly.
Anton was impressed by himself to be able to memorize what the merchant had said about the items’ prices if they were new and there were a lot of them. He knew that it was because of his increased stats that improved his memory. After that, he went to another merchant and did the same thing. After three merchants, he spent a total of two hours so Anton decided to leave the bazaar and go to a new market one far from where he started.
While he was walking, he repaired all the items that he purchased from the first bazaar, and after an hour of walking, he reached a new market that was pointed to him by the people walking the streets. Some of them even became annoyed with Anton when he was just asking for directions but he didn’t mind.
One thing different about Homura from other cities that he had been to was the smell. The city’s smell was a mixture of spices, perfumes, body odor, and an underlying stink of shit. Anton wondered why the other cities didn’t smell like that. He knew that in Zalnothel, the government was very strict when it came to street hygiene, and with the use of magic, it was simple enough to clean things and locations but why was Homura not implanting the same thing?