Chapter 820: The Depths

There was no fighting allowed, and there was a rank seven in charge to enforce this rule. The guide also detailed the uniform and badge of the City Guards which answered directly to the City Lord. Surprisingly, this place even had a court of law. Not the Laws, but an actual judicial system. After having grown so used to the rules of might is right in this world, it was surprising for him to see. If there was a dispute between two parties in the city, they would need to seek the assistance of the law. The existence of Lawyers was explained, and then the most common alternative was listed next. Trial by Combat.

Even with a legal system in place the strong could still profit. The main difference being that such fights had to be in an official arena and both parties had to agree. If one party did not agree to the battle they would be in a weaker position in the eyes of the court, but at least they weren’t automatically trampled by the stronger party. Compared to the rest of the world that gave the weak no method to confront the strong at all, at least this gave them a chance.

Lastly, the Stone Tablet gave a little primer on what was going on here. Seems I’m not the only one who’s been sent here without having any idea what’s going on. Must be pretty common if it’s in the brochure.

It did not explain who set up this place or any of the related political implications, it was actually just a very simple premise: the most common time to improve one’s understanding of the Laws, was when struggling to survive.

Sage was not surprised. He had broken through a few times while in the middle of trouble. It also seemed to align with his own personal creed, and that fun old saying. What does not kill you, makes you stronger. So, those sent here were expected to struggle in the hopes of breaking through.

After browsing the Stone Tablet, Sage went back down the stairs and down to the bar area, then over to the door across the room and after passing through a short stone hallway he left the building and entered the city proper. He actually had to stop for a moment to admire the view. While it had been mentioned in that intro guide, he finally had the chance to confirm it with his own eyes.

Sage was standing on a street filled with stone buildings that carried the same motif he’d just seen inside. Sea shells of varying shapes, sizes and styles were all around him as well as blue tinted stone and porous bits of coral. Just like the stone, the light was tinted a noticeable shade of blue, and he looked up to see there was no familiar sun in the sky. Once his eye line lifted above the roofs of the buildings around him he saw a wall of blue. It reminded him of a giant wall of glass holding back a sky full of water. The sea in the sky was bright and diffused light from above, but it also meant he had no idea where the sun was or even how deep they were at this time.

The Depths. That was what they called this place. More specifically, this city was known as Deep Shore, and it was the hub of activity in the Depths. There were a few other cities connected to the Depths by Transportation Arrays, each with slightly different conditions. Some went to extremely deep sea locations while others led to very active tidal and shallow areas, but the majority of the cities were similar to Deep Shore. Each of them were placed to be in proximity to the common grounds of the most valuable Demonic Beast species. They seemed to care more about the local prey rather than other resources like in the Tianxia Empire.

On the streets, the population was not quite as varied as he saw inside the Merciful Mollusk headquarters, but it wasn’t that far off. Mainly, it showed that the floating squid folk he saw inside were not just a specialty of the Merciful Mollusk. They seemed to be the native people of this city. Along with them, there were also many tentacled demi-humans. These two races seemed to make up more than half of the population, while humans and other types of demi-humans were the next most common.

Sage wandered around for a while, experiencing some of the local culture and familiarizing himself with how the city operated. He bought drinks for locals and asked questions about Deep Shore with as much finesse as he could. These conversations enlightened him to a surprising fact. Many of those sent out to the Depths never leave. The vast majority die in battle, but there is also a sizable portion that decide to stay. They ditch their commitments and major expectations, and choose to stay at a place where even the weak have a voice. Of course, there are some problems with this plan. Mortals cannot really survive in the Depths.

The pressure was quite high and the air was ‘not right’. Whatever Formation Arrays and other methods they used to create this bubble city, they were not perfect. Strong Cultivators could easily handle the air pressure and could go without breathing. A mortal on the other hand required more arrays and resources for them to survive. Those who had children in the Depths had to give birth in special facilities and add extra Formation Arrays to their homes. They usually chose to move to the shallower cities to reduce some of the cost.

More importantly, Sage asked about the most reputable shops and then purchased information about the local Demonic Beasts, Natural Treasures, and geography. The constantly changing currents as well as the difficulty of moving in three dimensions made the maps less than perfect, but they were still quite helpful. Sage also bought some of the more common types of Magical Tools and Pills, simply because the usual land based versions would not be as effective in the Depths. The most glaring example of which were Alchemical Pills. While he could wrap them up in his Spirit Power to keep them from breaking down in the sea water, it was better to just use the local variety that could float around without any damage. There was also the matter of clothing, and the materials they were made out of. He purchased a few sets of clothing as examples and then he spent a sizable sum to purchase blueprints and recipes.

Since he had the chance, he expanded the library on the Inner World to cover these undersea specialties. This didn’t increase the level of his Professions, but it did expand their knowledge base. In this way, the whole of the Inner World benefitted and Sage got a wide access to any of these lower level materials and products that he wanted. For a moment he got the feeling he was a tycoon who’d just set up his own goods counterfeiting business. They’re all just lucky I don’t want to waste my time running around dropping off goods all day.

Sage had the production capacity of a whole world at his fingertips, but he had no desire to be constantly distributing these products to different stores. Given the time difference, even a casual amount of their output would create an immense amount of product for him to sell. Even when he didn’t have an overabundance of Spirit Stones he would still rather spend his time trying to improve his own strength.

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