Chapter 474: Initiative
In a corner of the material store, the two mages stared at each other silently.
Ultimately, the female black mage frowned slightly and walked away first.
Just before disappearing around a corner, she suddenly turned to look at Sein once more.
Sein was still watching her.
After a few seconds, the tall female black mage left and headed to the store’s counter to check out.
The materials she purchased were mostly umbra elemental type, including two specimens of desiccated carcasses she had just picked from the shelf.
Over the years, Sein had also dabbled in umbra elemental magic and necromancy.
Although his proficiency in those areas did not rival his achievements in pyro magic, he still found some of the items offered in this store useful.
The female black mage bought quite a few items, though their overall value was relatively modest.
Sein observed that she primarily used magic beast cores and biological crystal cores to make payments instead of energy crystals and magicoins.
As for those grayish-white biological crystal cores, Sein deduced they might be from some type of undead creature.
He surmised that this was the typical payment method for black mages in Blackhaven.
As Sein approached the counter to check out, a man and a woman suddenly cut in front of him.
Moments later, Sein tossed more than ten pieces of magicoins onto the counter.
The store clerk began to search for a few intermediate and basic energy crystals for Sein, only to be stopped.
“Keep the change,” Sein said impatiently.
The elderly, bald man, glanced at Sein, then quickly added three stalks of low-grade White Bone Grass to Sein’s purchase.
The value of those was roughly equivalent to the change Sein was due.
After putting away all the items he bought into his spatial equipment, Sein exited the store and stepped back onto the bustling street. However, the tall female mage with long, black hair was nowhere to be seen.
A mix of frustration and conflict flickered behind his Verdant Flame Eye Mask.
After scanning the area in all directions, Sein joined the main flow of people heading east.
Over recent years, Port Allen had attracted countless knights and mages from the Western Archipelago and across the Magus World.
Consequently, the prosperous port city had implemented a flight restriction policy six months ago, setting several layers of no-fly zones over the area.
Apart from Port Allen’s local law enforcers, all other outsiders, including Rank Three grand mages, were prohibited from high-altitude flying.
As for Sein, he only managed to hover one or two meters above ground, which could hardly be considered flying.
Unbeknownst to him, as he exited “Daxi’s Material Store”, the female black mage with whom he had previously exchanged silent stares now emerged from the shadows at a nearby street corner.
She watched as Sein began to blend into the crowd, then paused and decided to follow him.
***
Finding someone in a vast city filled with hundreds of thousands of full-fledged mages and ranked knights was a great challenge for Sein.
As the opening of the Knight Continent drew near, the number of knights and mages in Port Allen surged beyond a few hundred thousand.
Millions of Rank One or above creatures, powerful enough to destroy several planes, were concentrated in this city!
It was no surprise that Port Allen enforced a no-fly rule. Should chaos erupt, even beings of Rank Four or Five would struggle to manage the situation efficiently.
With the Knight Continent opening once every thousand years, many cities in the Western Archipelago faced a similar situation to Port Allen.
Sein was quite fortunate. After losing sight of the female mage, he finally found her trail again after wandering about for two months.
The sheer number of ranked beings around Sein made it impossible for his detection magic to track her amidst the interference of so many auras.
He spotted the female mage purely with his naked eyes as she moved quickly through a plaza in the southern part of Port Allen.
Mages from Blackhaven were generally ostracized by the knights and mages of the normal divine towers, so they moved in groups while in Port Allen.
Even the city’s officials had assigned a special law enforcement team to keep an eye on these black mages—not out of fear that they could cause chaos but rather to protect them.
Given the overwhelming number of Rank Three grand mages present in Port Allen at this time, vastly outnumbering Blackhaven’s Rank One mages, no matter how formidable these black mages were, they were unlikely to cause any significant disturbances.
Sein was surprised that the female mage was walking alone instead of with the other black mages.
If she had changed her mage robes to another color and removed the badge from her chest, she could have passed for a normal female mage in Port Allen—albeit one with a colder temperament.
Sein was not one to strike up conversations with strangers, but the emotion stirring in his heart, coupled with the fact that he had not seen her for the previous two months, compelled him to approach her.
He wanted to exchange crystal ball contacts with her—this was the first time he had taken such an initiative.
As the plaza grew even more crowded, navigating toward the center became increasingly challenging for Sein.
Unaware of Sein’s presence, the female black mage headed straight toward the western side of the plaza.
Determined not to lose sight of her again, Sein quickened his pace.
Port Allen, a city teeming with ranked knights and full-fledged mages, had so far avoided major chaos or battles, though minor conflicts were commonplace.
Even mages from the normal divine towers occasionally quarreled or showed hostility toward each other.
To resolve these disputes, the divine towers had provided an arena specifically for mages to settle their issues.
Amidst the bustling crowd, Sein decided against activating his magic shield, choosing instead to rely on his physical strength to navigate forward.
A knight clad in silver armor blocked his pat. His massive build and towering stature of over 2.5 meters effectively obscured Sein’s view.
Without hesitation, Sein shouldered his way past the knight, maneuvering around his side.
Thud!
A dull noise resounded as the burly silver-armored knight staggered from the impact.
“What the hell?!”
Knights were known to be impulsive and irritable, their hormonal secretion making them far more belligerent than mages.
The knight spun around viciously, expecting to confront a peer of the same rank who had shoved him.
However, when he turned, he saw only Sein, who had just sidestepped in front of him.
From Sein’s attire, he was unmistakably a mage!