Sea Dwelling City lay in the south of Gofrey Province in the Southern Desert Kingdom. Its permanent population neared three hundred thousand, while its floating population reached a million. Merchant ships came and went, their masts like a forest and their sails blotting out the sky.
The docks were built from rough yellow boulders, scorched burning hot by the blazing sun and gnawed day and night by salty seawater. They were covered in pale salt stains and dark green moss.
Numerous dark-skinned laborers bent their backs into taut bows as they crawled along trembling gangplanks.
Heavy wooden crates dug into their shoulders. Beads of sweat struck the scorching stone slabs and evaporated in an instant, leaving only dark marks behind.
Hundreds of dried corpses hung from wooden poles standing on either side, all of them Southern Desert natives.
Three military camps also stood near the docks. Judging by their scale, each housed no fewer than a thousand soldiers.
Each dock was patrolled by varying numbers of troops depending on the size of merchant vessels it could accommodate, ensuring public order.
Outside the Port City, near the docks, a red-light district covering more than three square kilometers was bustling with activity, forming a stark contrast to the dead silence of the docks.
The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder with passing merchants, foreign nobles, and powerful adventurers.
On the city wall, Velin rested his hand on the battlement and watched the scene in the distance. He had already understood the most fundamental logic behind how this city operated.
They spared no expense to ensure outsiders' safety and profits, using their hands to bring foreign goods into the Southern Desert Kingdom while transporting the kingdom's goods outward.
Of the women he saw in that luxurious district, two-thirds were Southern Desert natives. The