163 Goat Tail
The next day, Luke decided to go to the Lower Town to look for Matthew and Alexis, because they had not given any sign of life.
Initially, Ayumi was totally against this rash action. She knew that after the failed terrorist attack by the Chaos Followers, the First Servant would be more vigilant, especially in his region of the greatest influence which is the Lower Town. In addition, there was a chance that both Alexis and Matthew had been captured and were being used as bait to lure Luke into their territory. However, Luke didn’t care if it was a trap or not; after all, the Lower City had once been his home as well.
Seeing how determined the half-wolf was, Ayumi offered him military power. Naturally, Luke was tempted to accept, but he didn’t. He feared that should there be high-level combat in the city’s most populated area, there were sure to be casualties of innocent people.
“I’m going to go to investigate and find out. I don’t like the idea of staying home with my ass sitting on the couch. Wait for news from me…” Luke spoke to relieve the woman’s stress and kissed her.
The half-wolf knew that Nathalia was spying behind the next wall at that moment, but he didn’t invite her to accompany him because their paths were now parted. Luke needed to find his friends, and Nathalia needed to decide what she was going to do with her life from that point on.
Then, the half-wolf left to the Lower City.
Located in the south of Oukiwa, Lower Town is the most densely populated district in all Oukiwa and corresponds to approximately 22% of the entire territory of the city.
Many wonders why a city as prosperous as Oukiwa, with so many Dungeons, does not take care of this significant portion of its territory, and for this, there is a simple answer. Like any other city, the wealthy need to profit, and for this, there must be poor people; it is a simple concept. But in Oukiwa, this difference is even more accentuated because of the Adventurer’s Guilds, Clans and Noble Families. Instead of taking the money to invest in the city, take the beloved gold coins elsewhere.
In other words, Oukiwa is like a money pit for the rich, and its poor population gets poorer and poorer.
The most obvious alternative for a poor, illiterate person to get out of poverty is to become an Adventurer, becoming part of the Guild. When this person realizes that he needs to become stronger to earn more money, he buys Genes Skills, equipment and even joins a Clan, which makes the system even stronger.
Luke and his friends never wanted to be part of this system, so they went into the thieving business. As thieves, they believed they were truly free; however, now Luke understood that true freedom is not doing what you want, but wanting what you do.
While he didn’t hate stealing from people like his friends, he didn’t love that either.
*
The first thing Luke wanted to do in the Lower Town was to go towards a big tavern called ‘Goat Tail’. In this place gather the most wicked people in the whole town and also the man who has the most things to talk about.
Luke’s initial plan was to use his influence and money first, and if need be, he would also use his strength to know about the latest goings-on throughout the neighborhood. He knew that this could attract the attention of crime bosses, but he didn’t give a damn about that.
The half-wolf was wearing new clothes bought by Martha the day before. This new outfit was simple: black reinforced pants, a simple jacket, steel-toed boots, and a black overcoat with a turtleneck. In the belt of his pants, he again stowed three throwing knives, which he had stopped using since fighting against the Sun Apparition.
Since Luke also did not choose to wear a hooded cloak to cover his ears, he was easily recognized by dozens of people on the way to the Lower City. Many jokingly asked about what Luke was carrying in his large side pouch, but Luke didn’t answer anyone once.
To some, Luke was simply on a level above, and to others, he was simply a half-beast who was feeling more superior than he was. In reality, Luke didn’t know how to handle the sudden fame and just ignored all the onslaughts from his fans, who didn’t dare to insist on disturbing him.
When he arrived in the Lower City, the onslaught of fans decreased stratospherically. The people looked down on him as if the half-beast were part of a different world.
People on street corners whispered as they watched him approach and enter narrow alleys to escape his presence.
‘I don’t blame them for acting that way; after all, I would act the same way if I were in their shoes.’
Before finally entering the ‘Goat Tail’ tavern, Luke sighed because he was about to do something he had never done before, and it would require 100% of his mental capacity.
The next moment, Luke kicked open the door, and with a small bag of gold coins in his left hand, he shouted:
“Who’s up for a bet!?”
Before the half-wolf realized it, he was already sitting at a round table in the tavern, surrounded by dozens of people.
“Go! You can finish this guy off!”
“Destroy the Champion’s arm!”
“Come on, archer! Until yesterday you said you were the best in town!”
Luke proposed a simple game to the polite patrons of the ‘Goat Tail’, which was basically a reflex test. In this single-round game, two people must sit facing each other with their hands outstretched. Each has only one chance at a time to hit the other’s hand. If Luke was hit, he would pay a gold coin; If Luke got it right, the person would have to drink a whole pitcher of beer.
To many in that tavern, Luke’s invitation seemed like a presumptuous provocation, but a gold coin was still too much money to pass up for a simple slap and a pitcher of beer.
TAP~
The sound of the intrepid slap from the half-wolf hit the hand of the archer who had tried to confront him, and was also the announcement for the waiter to bring another pitcher of beer.
Then, in place of the skinny archer, a man with quadruple the body mass of a normal person sat on the bench, which creaked. The fat man looked at Luke and smiled unpleasantly, showing some gold teeth.
This was the man known in the suburbs as the ‘Human Goblorc’, someone suspected of being involved in drug dealing, but as Luke used to be an inhabitant of these surroundings, he knew that this was not the only kind of crime this man used to commit.