Angor’s Infinite Reticence would help him get inside in no time if the entrance were only protected by some guards. But as he just saw, there was another patch of special barrier blocking the entrance. Each time someone walked through, the barrier would flicker briefly.
“Putting that aside... they sent supernaturals to guard the door?” Angor pointed to a pair of merman guards behind the barrier.
“This section was built by supernaturals from the Fey Continent,” said Brulee. “You know how Mermaid Shells sell for a lot of money, right? Many wizard clans and organizations have settlements here so that they could get those shells at the lowest price. You can consider this place as a smaller Wizard Fair.”
This made sense—Wizard Fairs usually hired supernaturals as sentries.
But this meant Angor wasn’t going to be able to sneak inside by normal means.
“So... your nice master knew this would happen and still sent me here?”
Brulee didn’t seem concerned. “She always used a plane passageway to get inside. We don’t need a pass.”
“Guessed as much.”
While ignoring Brulee’s rambling, Angor kept observing the checkpoint to think of a way inside.
Forcing his way in might sound like a bad idea, but it was actually doable. With his sequence of gravity, the guards probably wouldn’t catch him.
But before he could make the decision, a team of mermen led by an extremely fat one with a black tail suddenly attracted his attention.
This particular merman had a pair of funny-looking catfish beards that moved along with the water current. Due to his size, his eyes appeared as slits. Also, he was wearing all sorts of shiny charms on his body, probably to show off his wealth.
Angor grew interested in this merman because he saw a pass in the merman’s hand.
“Just in the nick of time.”
...
A while later, Angor entered the water-free section using the pass he just got while disguised as the fat merman using Glamor cantrip.
As for the merman... he was having a nice dream inside a beautiful illusion and was not going to come out any time soon.
Angor never planned to stay in Lloyds for too long. He just needed to get Eureka’s items and come back out, then he would return the pass to its rightful owner.
The “harem illusion” was a payment for the fat merman. Inside the illusion, there were lots of top-class mermaid beauties made possible by nightmare energy, and they would undoubtedly satisfy their “customer” both body and mind.
Such a sweet experience in exchange for borrowing the pass for a few hours sounded like a fair trade.
The water-free section looked more like an ordinary settlement made by humans. Without the occasional sea elements such as corals and shell lamps, one could easily mistake here as a common city.
The residents in the section, as Brulee said, came in a great variety including races native or non-native in the sea. Also, all mermen and mermaids living here seemed to be from higher social classes, probably because they were better at controlling their hunger and not eating humans on sight.
Angor found a concealed spot. He changed his disguise to that of an ordinary human traveler and came back out. He kept his Infinite Reticence activated just in case.
“Where are the traders you mentioned?”
“Find the Gully Sector,” said Brulee.
“Gully Sector?”
The owl pointed to a large tower built at the center of the water-free area, which was the most noticeable landmark. “You’ll find it in the shadow of the Tower of Peace.”
The Tower of Peace was a signature structure built by the Rogge Mermaids, as a sign of peace among mermaids and other races. Although this was an unlikely ambition when “peace” was so hard to achieve even among friends and allies of the same race.
Visitors, especially humans, would often express their disbelief about it.
Ironically, the “Gully Sector” was the biggest and the most chaotic trading zone in the entire Lloyds. Here, everyone trusted in strength and dominance over everything else. Rules did not keep people in check. It was fear and corruption.
For this, those living inside the water-free zone had another name for the Tower of Peace, which was the “Tower of Crimes”. It used a pretty name to hide the filthy facts underneath.
Angor felt the change of atmosphere as soon as he stepped into the Gully Sector. In fact, there was an ongoing robbery not far from him right now. The victim was an apprentice, probably level-1, who was hastily running away from the area while holding a fish-skin pouch in one hand.
Before he could make it to the outside, a muscular man in a green vest came down from above and kicked him back.
“Pay up if you wanna leave the Tower of Crimes. You know the drill.” The man cracked his knuckles.
“Here-here...” The apprentice had no choice but to offer his bag.
“Good.” The bandit checked the content of the bag but without leaving. “This is not enough to buy your freedom.”
Angor heard someone screaming and saw the apprentice’s head being tossed away from the dark alley while his body was discarded into a dust bin.
The killer saw several people looking his way and shrugged. “Well, he paid something, so I partially let him go. Nothing’s wrong ’bout that, eh?”
People continued their business without minding the dead apprentice or the merciless criminal. There were a few people looking, who had been enjoying the sight from comfortable spots, as if they were watching a show.
Angor glanced at the bright Tower of Peace and understood why everyone disapproved of the ideal.
Light and dark always existed along with one another, and people could find a balance in the “gray zone” between them. But there was no such zone in Lloyds—once you stepped over the boundary separating the two parts, everything turned upside-down.
The killer who disposed of the corpse came too close to where Angor was standing and suddenly noticed Angor.
“What the-is this guy always here? Huh... he’s weak. Another level-1.” He inspected Angor head to toe. “Not carrying anything... Is he someone’s student who wants to take a tour?”
Angor cast an indifferent glance at the man and headed further into the Gully Sector and toward the trading zone.
The thug’s eyes twinkled in delight. “He’s off buying stuff? I may find a bigger fish if I follow him...”
The man thought he was whispering to himself, but Angor’s heightened senses easily registered his voice.
“Bigger fish? My word. Who’s the fish anyway?” Brulee, who had been looking at Angor from the sky, shook its head.
On their way to the trading area, the bandit failed to notice how everyone else didn’t see Angor’s presence at all. Instead, his odd movement of a stalker drew a lot of attention from people.
Angor stopped moving inside another dark alleyway and looked above. This was where the Ashen Traders stayed, according to Brulee.
Behind Angor, the bandit also moved into the alley without a second thought. Although he was getting a bit suspicious because he heard about a particular trader group recently settling down in the area ahead, and these traders offered lots of interesting goods at ridiculously high prices.
“Is that bloke going to buy things from here? Lucky me. This will be a big haul!”
But on second thought, those who could afford items from the Ashen Traders couldn’t be helpless apprentices who he could easily rob.
The bandit considered his options and still decided to follow Angor. He was a level-2 apprentice who almost reached the next level. He was confident that he could deal with complications.
Angor waited for a while. He made sure the bandit was coming after him and kept walking deeper inside the alley.
The end of the narrow way was occupied by a number of broken buildings, where a group of people in black robes were watching over several iron cages.