Thus, Theia temporarily joined Lin Gui on his journey.
With this Transcendent elven Ranger as a companion, crossing the peril-filled Audo Canyon became unexpectedly smooth.
Lin Gui gripped the reins, feeling the steady gait of the giant lizard beneath him.
At the same time, he did not forget to take this opportunity to witness Theia's true strength.
Especially her vision, which could only be described as terrifying.
When Theia suddenly raised her hand to signal a stop and pointed toward a seemingly peaceful hillside in the distance.
When she clearly stated the specific locations of three lurking basilisks four kilometers away, Lin Gui could not help but click his tongue in secret amazement.
In an open area with no obstructions, her line of sight could actually penetrate such a vast distance.
She was simply a natural top-tier scout.
Under Theia's precise guidance, Lin Gui steered the giant lizard forward along a winding and hidden path.
She occasionally tilted her head to listen to the sound of the wind or narrowed her crimson eyes to gaze into the distance.
She could always discover potential threats dozens of breaths in advance.
By skillfully utilizing the terrain for cover, they managed to perfectly avoid all areas of demon activity.
The relatively open view of Audo Canyon allowed Theia's long-range vision to be utilized to its fullest extent.
After only half a day, they arrived at their destination—Caran City.
The massive city nestled cleverly between rolling hills.
Its towering city walls shimmered with a cold, hard luster under the sunlight.
It was like a dormant behemoth that could awaken at any moment.
After presenting his adventurer's badge, the guards performed a cursory inspection of his backpack, which was conspicuously stuffed with letters, but they did not cause much trouble.
Lin Gui followed the never-ending stream of people.
He passed through the magnificent city walls, over fifty meters high and constructed from massive blocks of pitch-black obsidian.
He officially entered this true city-state.
As soon as they entered the city, Theia took the lead and turned around.
The coolness inside the gateway arch and the first beam of warm sunlight projected into the city intertwined upon her, outlining her slender figure.
She smiled at Lin Gui, her eyes—like blood jade—appearing exceptionally clear in the light.
“How does it feel to be in Caran City for the first time?”
Passing through the final checkpoint, Lin Gui looked around, his sharp gaze scanning every detail.
Aside from being several times larger in scale than New Covenant City, there seemed to be no fundamental difference.
A broad main road, paved with massive stone slabs, stretched straight toward the Lord’s castle on the distant hill.
On both sides of the main road were countless narrow, pitted, and muddy alleys that extended into every corner of the city like blood vessels.
Along these paths, haphazardly built stone or wooden houses were crammed together, looking dark and damp.
His ears were filled with a chaotic roar of mixed sounds.
The hoarse cries of vendors, the rumbling thunder of wheels over stone slabs, the crude laughter and curses of mercenaries, the impatient bellows of demon beast mounts, and the never-ending clang of hammers from distant blacksmith shops...
All these sounds intertwined to form a chaotic urban symphony.
Numb-faced commoners carried heavy goods on their hunched backs, their eyes darting as they made way for patrolling guards.
Travel-worn adventurers openly embraced scantily clad, hollow-eyed streetwalkers, joking without restraint.
Obese merchants sat in litters carried by ragged slaves, holding silk handkerchiefs to their noses in disgust at the surrounding filth.
It was all the same; there was no difference from New Covenant City.
“No difference.”
Lin Gui's voice was very calm, and a trace of undetectable annoyance flickered in the depths of his eyes.
“The same poverty, the same chaos... the same way of making one feel...”
He ultimately did not say the word "irritated."
He composed himself and shifted the backpack full of letters to his front, hugging it tightly with both arms.
In this place, one had to be exceptionally wary of those ubiquitous nimble hands.
This movement made him look like a country bumpkin who had just arrived, but he did not care.
Lin Gui's reaction was somewhat outside of Theia's expectations.
She tilted her head slightly, her silver hair sliding down her shoulder like a waterfall.
“Didn't you come from a small town? Shouldn't you feel some sense of novelty upon seeing such a large city-state?”
Her tone carried genuine confusion.
“Novelty?? Heh.” Lin Gui smiled disdainfully.
Talk about novelty to someone who once lived in a modern city?
Theia nodded as if she understood something, then smiled vibrantly.
“Do you need me to show you around? I've lived here for five years, after all.”
There was a hint of self-deprecation in her words, but she quickly returned to her relaxed manner.
Hearing this, Lin Gui did not refuse.
Having a local lead the way was much more efficient than asking for directions the whole time.
“Does Caran City have a Labor Dispatch Center?”
He asked directly, his gaze finally moving from his surroundings back to Theia.
“Of course, it's in the slums in the southwest of the city,” Theia answered, then looked at Lin Gui in confusion.
“What are you going to do there?”
“The commissions there are specifically for the poor; the pay is pitifully low, only a few coins.”
Her tone carried obvious bewilderment, as if she did not understand why an adventurer would go to such a place.
“Looking for someone,” Lin Gui said succinctly, offering no further explanation.
Theia raised an eyebrow but did not press further, simply making a "follow me" gesture.
“Let's go then, though that isn't exactly a nice place.”
Under Theia's lead, they traversed filthy and occasionally nauseatingly foul muddy paths to enter the slums of Caran City.
The buildings here were even more dilapidated, with garbage piled in the streets and sewage flowing slowly along the roadside gutters.
Fortunately, with the giant lizard clearing the path and a half-demon elf beside him, the crowds along the way actively moved aside, unwilling to look for trouble.
The gazes people cast at Theia were full of fear and loathing, but no one dared to openly express their discontent.
Before long, they arrived at their destination: the Labor Dispatch Center.
It was a wooden high-rise building that appeared quite large but was very old and simple. A crooked sign hung by the entrance, with the words “Labor Agency” blurrily written on it.
At this moment, the inside was already bustling with noise, crowded with commoners who had come looking for work.
The interior of the Labor Dispatch Center was even more crowded and noisy than it appeared from the outside.
The smell of sweat, cheap ale, and the aura of despair mixed together, thickening into an indescribably stuffy and stagnant air that was nearly suffocating.
Lin Gui stood at the entrance, his gaze sweeping across the room.
Rather than a dispatch center, this place was more like a noisy and chaotic human labor market.
Heads bobbed in a dense mass, mostly sallow-faced commoners in tattered clothes. They crowded in front of several small bulletin boards, craning their necks to try and identify the few yellowed papers posted there.
Those were the rare job opportunities.
A fat man in a greasy apron stood on a stool, shouting at the top of his lungs in a voice like a broken gong.
“Heavy lifting! Includes one lunch! Daily pay of eighty copper coins! Only need twenty people! If you have the strength, come quickly!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd erupted like a boiling pot, and countless arms were raised frantically as they surged forward.
“Me! Choose me!”
“I have great strength! Boss!”
“Seventy copper coins! I only want seventy!”
In an instant, the price was drowned out by cries of self-exploitation.
Eighty copper coins—in Caran City, where a loaf of black bread had risen to twenty copper coins—was not even enough for a family of three to eat two meals that barely filled their stomachs.
This was the tragedy of a walled city-state.
The limited land could not produce enough grain, but the taxes from the noble lords and the threats from the wilderness never decreased.
In the City-State Era, the value of commoners was pushed to its absolute lowest. Human life... was often the least valuable thing.
Lin Gui watched this scene in silence.
A thin youth was pushed to the ground by the crowd, yet no one leaned down to help. An old man with white hair reached out a withered hand, his voice raspy as he attempted to catch the labor official's attention.
Theia's voice sounded softly beside him, carrying a trace of undetectable indifference, as if she had long since become accustomed to the sight.
“It’s like this every day. To survive, people are willing to do anything.”
Then, she suddenly took a step forward.
A trace of invisible battle force flared slightly around her, causing her silver-white hair to flutter faintly.
She raised her head, and her clear, somewhat authoritative voice instantly cut through the noise of the scene.
“Move aside! A respected adventurer has business to attend to!”
Her voice clearly reached every corner of the bustling hall.
Many people subconsciously turned their heads to look. When their gazes fell upon those signature, demonic, blood-jade-like slit pupils, their expressions instantly turned into horror and alarm.
“H-Heavens! It’s that half-demon!”
“The red-eyed harbinger of calamity... Why did she come here?!”
“Back away! Don't catch her bad luck!”
The crowd that had been packed tight like water behind a dam suddenly parted as if sliced by an invisible blade. People scrambled to both sides in panic, forcibly opening a narrow passage.
At this moment, fear overcame the desire for work.
Theia seemed entirely oblivious to the terrified gazes around her. She only tilted her head and gave Lin Gui a smile that said "everything's handled."
Lin Gui blinked, forced to admit that the deterrent effect of Theia as a half-demon was far stronger than he had imagined.
Rate on N.U.
