South Sea Town

The battle was over.

The six Goblins had earned Gagnor 60 experience points.

If he had relied on practicing skills, it would probably have taken at least a year to gain that much experience.

Now, merely by killing a group of Goblins, he had gained 60 experience points in moments.

Monsters really do give more experience! Gagnor could not help thinking.

He walked over, picked up his shortsword, and gave each Goblin lying on the ground another stab, making sure none had survived.

After learning Feign Death, he seemed to have instinctively developed a strong habit of finishing off his enemies, even when facing creatures like Goblins.

As he dealt the finishing blows, Gagnor retrieved all twelve Fletched Arrows.

To ordinary people, arrows with such long fletching looked strange and inconvenient, but for him, Fletched Arrows allowed Swift Breeze to perform even better, making them far more useful than ordinary arrows.

At the same time, he cut off the left ears of the six Goblins one by one.

These things could be exchanged for money.

And they fetched a decent price, at least by his standards.

After dealing with the Goblins, nothing else went wrong on the journey. The two of them reached Duke's Road without incident and boarded a freight carriage.

After another two and a half days on the carriage, they arrived in South Sea Town.

Though both were called "towns," South Sea Town was nowhere near comparable to Driftwood Town in prosperity. In terms of population alone, it had more than ten times as many people as the latter, rivaling some small cities.

Moreover, most of Driftwood Town's residents were farmers. The vast majority did not possess even a single holy name and were ordinary people in every sense. South Sea Town, on the other hand, had relatively few farmers. Most of its residents were craftsmen, merchants, or combat professionals.

As for the Anointed blessed by holy names, South Sea Town had far more than Driftwood Town, with at least a twentyfold difference between them. After all, compared to a backwater like Driftwood Town, anyone with decent abilities would most likely prefer to seek opportunities in South Sea Town.

South Sea Town's social structure was also far more complicated than Driftwood Town's. Churches, guilds, mercenary groups, and all kinds of organizations stood side by side, while people from every imaginable place gathered here, giving the town a rather open atmosphere.

The Mosa Church was still an authority here, but it was by no means the only voice that mattered.

After getting off the carriage, Gagnor parted ways with Kalkulo, who did not reveal where he was headed.

However, judging by that guy's silence and dejected demeanor, Gagnor suspected that he would eventually choose to leave after all.

Gagnor wanted to find an inn first.

As luck would have it, there was one not far from where he had gotten off, called the South Sea Town Inn.

He pushed open the door and entered. Right in front of him, he saw a blonde girl dressed rather scantily. Her braid swayed as she walked over and warmly asked, "Hello, would you like a room?"

Gagnor glanced at the girl's open collar.

Such clothing would have been unimaginable in conservative Driftwood Town, but he had seen plenty in his previous life, so he did not think much of it.

Besides, there was not much to see in the first place.

"How much?"

The blonde girl could not help being surprised by Gagnor's indifference. After all, a dozen country bumpkins wearing this kind of outfit came to South Sea Town every day, and most of them did not react like this.

She said, "A standard room costs one Silver Coin per day, while a deluxe room costs two Silver Coins per day. Which would you prefer?"

That expensive?!

Gagnor only had a few dozen Silver Coins on him in total, and the price genuinely startled him.

"Are there any cheaper inns in South Sea Town?" he asked.

The girl immediately lost more than half her enthusiasm. "Head west from here. There's a place called the Raven Inn. They only charge ten copper coins a day."

"Thanks."

Gagnor promptly left the South Sea Town Inn and searched in the direction the girl had pointed.

But he quickly began to feel that something was off.

As he continued west, the streets gradually became more rundown.

The passersby changed from proud warriors and laughing merchants into vagrants begging by the roadside. All kinds of household refuse, even excrement and urine, could be found everywhere, while filthy, foul odors permeated the air.

Besides that, he occasionally spotted people lurking in the shadows at street corners.

Most of them were thin and shifty-eyed. Whenever Gagnor passed by, they all looked over in unison, sizing him up from head to toe as if examining prey.

Gagnor turned back before he found the Raven Inn.

No wonder it only cost ten copper coins.

With an environment like this, anyone with even two Silver Coins in their pocket would not want to stay here!

Still, he did not plan to go straight back to the South Sea Town Inn, because his intuition told him that South Sea Town should have a third inn.

After all, most people probably could not accept either an inn that charged one Silver Coin per day or a slum inn surrounded by vagrants and street rats.

With that thought in mind, Gagnor decided to look around South Sea Town a little more.

However, before he had even left the slums, a familiar voice sounded behind him. "Gagnor?"

Gagnor turned at the sound and was pleasantly surprised to see Ryan walking toward him.

Ryan smiled and slapped him on the shoulder. "Long time no see. I knew you'd come to South Sea Town!"

The two caught up for a while.

Until Ryan said, "Did the girl at the South Sea Town Inn send you over here to find a cheaper inn?"

"How did you know?"

Ryan grinned. "It's their usual trick. After seeing the awful conditions on Raven Street, most people slink back to book a room for one Silver Coin a day. I even suspect the Raven Inn has some kind of dirty arrangement with them."

"Ryan, why are you here? Raven Street should count as a slum, right?" Gagnor asked.

"Work." Ryan abruptly changed the subject. "Come on, I'll take you to the best inn in South Sea Town."

With that, he led Gagnor away from Raven Street.

Along the way, Ryan gave Gagnor a detailed introduction to South Sea Town, especially its other side.

The town was indeed prosperous, but like many prosperous places, it had an enormous gap between rich and poor. There were plenty of wealthy people and paupers here, both of whom were rare sights in Driftwood Town.

South Sea Town was laid out roughly along an east-west axis.

The western part of South Sea Town, centered around the Raven Inn, was where the poor gathered. The environment was terrible, public safety was dreadful, and most of those living there were people at the bottom of society with little hope left in life.

The center of town contained the town hall and the church, usually called the "town district." It represented the authority of the monarch and the Pope, separating the lowest class from the middle and upper classes on either side.

The eastern part of town was further divided into two sections. A small southern area near the harbor was called the "trade district," where wealthy merchants mostly lived. The South Sea Town Inn stood between the town district and the trade district and was known for its high prices.

"As for the northeastern part of South Sea Town, that's naturally the territory of craftsmen, adventurers, and mercenaries." As Ryan spoke, he led Gagnor to the entrance of an inn.

"We're here. This is it."

Gagnor looked up at the inn's name: The Eagle and Whistle.