Chương 71: Chapter 70 — Making Sugar Figures

Oasis City was the Sword Dynasty's only fully open city. Here, apart from Blade Dynasty folk, anyone who paid enough and completed a simple registration could enter. You'd see wandering knights drawn from across the continent—each with real skill, not to be underestimated.

"How many days will you two stay in Oasis City?" At the gate, the guard handling registration asked, frowning.

"One."

"Ten gold a head—twenty gold total." He held out a hand.

"By the records, this is your first visit, so let me make something clear: Oasis City is the Sword Dynasty's open city, true, but some things you'd best mind. In Oasis City, money is king. There's nothing money can't solve here—and put the other way, if you've no money, you'd best keep a low profile, or… heh heh."

"Thank you for the warning!" Ryan smiled and produced thirty gold.

"The rest is a small token of thanks—please accept it."

"Ha, the lad knows how things work." The guard pocketed the extra ten without a flicker.

"In that case, here's more advice: a newcomer must learn to bear and to stay low-key, or the old hands will toy you to death!"

"Many thanks!" The corner of Ryan's mouth curled, and he pressed another ten gold into the guard's hand. This was a strategy he'd gotten from other players in his last life. The guard handling registration was, in fact, the Oasis City Lord's own nephew—he knew much of the city's hidden lore, and a first-time registrant who kept bribing him could pry loose plenty of wanted intel. Ryan did this, of course, not for trifling gossip—but for the Sword Casket.

"Ha, not bad, kid." The guard took the gold and began feeding Ryan tidbits about Oasis City. Ryan already knew all this from his last life; he kept bribing only to reach one final question. Bribe after bribe—until, after Ryan had spent a thousand gold, the guard's face bloomed like a chrysanthemum in full flower. Done—the hidden mechanic's finally triggered. But what a rip-off; a full thousand gold!

Ryan thought, and, striking while the iron was hot, drew out a coin-purse holding a hundred gold and pressed it on the guard.

"You little—hahaha! You've damn well left an impression on me! Hahaha! I like you!" Pocketing the purse, the guard at last stopped volunteering intel; he jerked his chin and asked, "Kid, I won't lie—I'm the current Oasis City Lord's nephew. Since you know how things work, I'll be generous and answer you one question—anything about Oasis City, I'll tell you!" Here it is! A thought stirred, and a smile surfaced.

"I'd like to ask… about the Sword Casket!" The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"What?" The guard frowned, hesitating. Ryan smiled knowingly and drew out a purse of a thousand gold.

"What I want to know is simple. Just tell me… and all this gold is yours."

"This…" The guard eyed the bulging purse hungrily and finally caved.

"Fine—whatever you want to ask, I'll tell you."

"Too many people here. Let's talk somewhere else."

"Sure!" The guard followed Ryan, winding this way and that, to a secluded corner outside Oasis City.

"No one here now—ask away."

"Gladly." Ryan's gaze sank; the Mysticfire Staff manifested in his hand and cracked down on the guard's brow. System: [Ding! Skill "Sap" used! Target stunned for 3 seconds!] At the prompt, Ryan's mouth lifted; he whipped out the Mighty Battleaxe and, with Ambidexterity and 10x attack speed, launched a furious assault on the stunned guard. System: [Ding! Bone-Shatter triggered! Target stunned for 1 second!] System: [Ding! Bone-Shatter triggered! Target stunned for 1 second!] …

He'd gone to all that trouble luring the guard out precisely for this moment. My gold isn't so easy to swallow! Under chain control, decent stats or no, the guard fell fast to Ryan's relentless combos and dropped, dead with eyes unclosed. System: [Ding! Plunder successful! Strength +10!] System: [Ding! Plunder successful! Constitution +10!] Beyond twenty attribute points, the guard gave Ryan nothing else. But he did get the one thing he wanted off the corpse.

[True Oasis City Pass: A pass granting entry to Oasis City's Inner World. Hard to obtain.] That was it! With this, he could skip a great deal of trouble and go straight for the Sword Casket. Why was Oasis City so wildly popular? Put bluntly, because it was an underground black market dressed in pretty clothes. Each nightfall, the passage to Oasis City's Inner World opened briefly, and only those with an Inner World pass could enter the underground black market to trade.

And the Sword Casket—able to seal the Forbidden Sword—was kept in Oasis City's Inner World. The reborn Ryan knew well that the Inner World was, in truth, a mysterious space the Sword Casket had evolved over ten thousand years to protect itself—only for scheming people, over the long years, to turn it into a vast underground market.

"Tonight, then." Ryan sighed, then led Lillian into Oasis City. Though the Inner World was a giant underground black market, on the surface Oasis City remained a pleasant, livable place, full of local color.

"A rare bit of leisure—let's take a good look around Oasis City."

"All right." Lillian nodded and walked at his side. Revisiting old ground, reborn though he was, still stirred a wistful ache in Ryan. In his last life, when he'd come to retrieve the Sword Casket, he'd been Level 70; this life, he was under twenty. Whether things would go as smoothly as planned, he couldn't say. By the normal route, obtaining an Inner World pass took at least a month—so with one already in hand, his plan was going quite smoothly so far.

"Wow, sugar figures!" Suddenly Lillian's delighted voice drew his notice.

"If you like them, I'll buy you one." Ryan smiled and was about to pay for a sugar figure for her.

"I want to make one myself!" Lillian was eager to try.

"Boss, can we make our own?" Ryan asked.

"You can—only, the price…"

"Ten gold—enough?"

"Enough! More than enough! Come here, tell me what figure you want, and I'll teach you till you've got it!" The vendor's eyes lit up, his face blooming into a flowery smile. In Oasis City, no one quarrels with money.