Chapter 67 City Lady
The first thing Sylas did after giving the two won a nod was take a glance around. The shack was simple, just a desk, a bed, and what looked like a barrel used for simple baths. It was all completely normal except for one object.
A floating cube glowed a dull grey color, hovering above an altar in the corner of the small shack. It could only be one thing.
'City Stele…' Sylas thought to himself.
His brows raised. This was definitely not an area you should casually allow anyone to enter. These two were probably the only ones who knew that the City Stele was located here. Technically speaking, Sylas only had to put his hands on it to trigger a conquer sequence.
Sylas' brows lowered, and he looked toward Cassarae.
Olivia's jaw almost hit the floor. 'Is that a smile?'
It definitely was. She hadn't known Sylas for long, but even Morgan cracked a quirk of the lip or two at Alex's antics. Sylas himself almost pretended as though he hadn't heard anything at all.
Well, calling it a smile was probably pushing it. Sylas' expression just seed to be a hint warr than the stone cold she had beco used to.
"Sylas, you're here," Cassarae nodded, "that's good. I heard from Olivia that you helped us gather up so very important strategic resources, so I wanted to make sure that you were properly compensated for your efforts."
"Oh?" Sylas didn't seem too surprised by this. He felt that this was an expected outco.
Cassarae rolled her eyes. "Can't you react with so gratitude? Maybe an: 'oh my, City Lady, you're so generous.'"
Sa Sylas, pretending as if he knew everything.
Sylas gave an exaggerated formal bow. "You're right, the esteed City Lord has done
a great service."
"City Lady," Cassarae corrected.
"There's no such term in history," Sylas stood to his full height again and replied without missing a beat. Well, City Lord wasn't an official historical title either, but she didn't need to know that.
"Who cares? My city, my rules."
"Your Rudintary Village, you an."
"You trying to pick a fight, Sylas?"
"If you want one."
Cassarae looked both irritated and amused at the sa ti. She never understood people who said Sylas wasn't funny, his words themselves were, it was just that delivery was almost too quick and lacked flare.
Olivia looked back and forth between the two and suddenly let out a sigh.
"Holy shit, I completely misread this situation."
Sylas and Cassarae looked at her at the sa ti with accusatory glances that seed to say: "What's that supposed to an?"
Olivia held up her hands in surrender, not even quite knowing what she was apologizing for.
Cassarae cleared her throat. "Anyway, like I was saying, we appreciate your efforts. We spoke about it and think that a good reward is giving you access to the Nexus."
"Nexus?" Sylas asked.
"It's a hub you can access through a City Stele or during Quick-ti Events in the wilderness. It's essentially a place you can pay for information, form connections and, maybe most importantly, access the system store. One of the perks of being a budding City Lady."
Sylas' brows raised again.
"What are these Quick-ti Events?"
"Has your head been buried in the sand for the last three months?"
Sylas spread out his hands. "I've been occupied by so things."
"Not occupied by getting armor or better weapons than…" she looked toward the dirtied and bloody wraps still tightly wound around his hands, wrists, and forearms, "… whatever those are.
"Anyway, Quick-ti Events are like open-air Dungeons. In this region, they basically happen once a month. Leveled beasts are usually hard to find outside of those events, unless you're risking your life and adventuring particularly deep into the forest. Those that reach a certain threshold during the event can usually access a Nexus afterward."
"But you have perpetual access to one," Sylas said as less of a question and more of a statent.
"Yes, and no—" Cassarae started before being interrupted.
"Cass!"
Cassarae waved a hand and told Olivia not to mind it.
"Not all City Ladies have access to a Nexus, and the one we have access to is gated. Technically, the Quick-ti Event Nexuses are gated as well, depending on the difficulty and your performance, but they tend to be less so than ours.
"This is all to say that what you can buy through our Nexus is very limited."
"Okay, I understand."
"Then feel free," Cassarae pointed a finger toward the City Stele. "So long as you help us to gather more intact beast furs, you can use it whenever you need it. Just keep it under 500 coins."
Sylas nodded and didn't say anything as he made it to the City Stele, sinking his mind into it.
He imdiately saw several options.
---
[View City Status]
[Conquer City Stele?]
[Enter Nexus]
---
He chose the last option, and his mind was warped into a white space.
On the outside, Olivia sighed. "Tell
the truth, 'Lady,' what elixir did he force-feed you?"
"Huh?"
"You're a little too trusting, don't you think? He feels more powerful than us all and that's without all the easy access you're giving him."
"I know him," Cassarae said, sowhat defensively.
Olivia raised an eyebrow as though she were looking at a crazy person. She really wanted to say: "No, you know the Sylas of ten years ago, not this one," but she bit back her statent. It was hard not to feel like a third party getting in the way of a love affair right now. All things considered, she had only known Cassarae for three months.
However, in that ti, they had truly had each other's backs. They had gone through true life-or-death events when either one of them would have already had the opportunity to backstab or betray the other. Olivia, likely rightfully so, felt that that was worth far more than whatever childhood love Cassarae had experienced.
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