Chapter 365 - Dell's Gate.
Two Days Later...
Hal materialized on top of a teleportation circle in what could only be described as the most dingy-looking Teleportation circle Building he had ever been in.
The whole place had an air of deficit about it that had Hal reeling as he could not and did not bother to hold back the curse,
"Those Motherfuckers!"
His anger was obviously all directed at the attending Runemasters back in the Silva Duchy and he could not be blamed.
Clearly, they had teleported him to a location that could not be farthest from his actual goal which was the Doxon capital. However, they could not take all the blame as it should be noted that Hal also neglected to tell them where he wished to be teleported to.
Those Eight thousand Blue gems were just enough for a trip to the Doxon capital which was much farther than the crap they had sent him to. In fact, he was willing to bet that there would be unused Blue gems that those three would be all too glad to put in their pockets.
'That's what you get when you're too focused on being cheap' Grimoire said and burst into laughter.
'What's so funny?' Hal flared up at the book which actually had its hysterical volume increase,
'Oh, I love it when you get this worked up. Especially in this case where you only have your cheapness to blame.' It said.
'I'm not cheap, I'm frugal' Hal retorted.
'Same difference'
The attending Runemaster was startled awake by Hal's cussing and instinctively looked over at the building door before he looked at the Teleportation circle and saw Hal stepping off of it with a frown on his face and an expression as though he were fighting with himself.
That the runemaster looked over at the door before looking at Hal was a testament to how few visitors this building and by extension city got by virtue of the Teleportation circle.
The Runemaster cleared his throat gruffly and looked over at Hal,
"Welcome, sir to Dell's Gate City where we have been told to be proud of being an actual gate to the greater part of the Doxon Duchy thanks to this annoyance of a Teleportation Circle.
The teleportation circle you just stepped off is the only one in the city and if you wish to exit this region with the use of an exiting Teleportation circle then you should proceed to the actual Dell city which I will not hide from you is a very long journey.
A journey in which you are likely to encounter some perils.
If you wish to remain at Dell's gate, however, then I do hope you enjoy your stay.
Now if you will excuse me, I will like to get back to my nap."
And just like that, the Attendant Runemaster slumped off into another slumber.
It was official...
Hal was speechless and he had been rendered that way by an absolutely incompetent-looking Runemaster.
Since there was clearly nothing more this man wished to tell him, Hal walked right out and made sure he did not forget to shut his mouth.
Outside of the building, it was almost afternoon, the weather was not unlike how it had been in Silva before his exit but the atmosphere couldn't be more different.
It was easily clear that Elsa's dressing while provocative and indeed on a level of its own was never going to stand out here.
Clearly, skimpy dressings and exposure of flat and delectable stomachs were as much the order of the day as Hal had learned.
Everywhere he looked, he observed sights that he was sure would have the Men of the Silva Duchy having occasional nose bleeds.
And yet, this city was on the same level as the old Salmon city and was even smaller in size. The only difference was that Dell's gate was considered important enough to actually have a Teleportation circle and be identified as a gate to the greater part of Doxon. Although from the Attendant runemaster's words, that seemed more of a burden than an honor, and Hal could see why.
As it was not a departing Teleportation circle, those who made use of it were not required to pay a tax to the city it resides in, and as such its existence did not contribute to their economy.
On top of that, it was clearly essential to have an attendant runemaster there not only to keep an eye and mend any damage but to also welcome those arriving on it which in itself was a scarce occurrence.
Hal sighed and began his walk away from the building with no intentions of lodging in any inn or accommodation. He might as well pull out his chariot right now and then have Karmen come out of the Harem space to operate it.
However, when he was making those plans, he saw a notice of a bounty pinned to the wall of a building that looked to be a law enforcement station.
The notice sought out anyone who would take care of a band of bandits at the outskirts of the city that always robbed travelers and merchants and were famous for resorting to extremely violent means.
It was said that their numbers numbered at least one hundred and they hardly resorted to making use of their complete force. At least not at the same checkpoint.
Usually, they separated and hit multiple groups at the same time.
Their leader was a ferocious man known as Red Beard.
The name actually had Hal cracking up inside,
'Really, Red beard? That hardly seems intimidating. Good old scarface was much better at picking his name.' He thought.
Now, with the notice being in such a small city both in size as well as power as this, the reward was far from enticing to Hal. Even when it stood at 10000 gold coins per bandit's head. With Red Beard's worth Thirty thousand Gold coins.
The way he saw it, that was one blue gem per head and three for Red beard's head. It was hardly a very enticing offer.
However, his eyes still lit up when he saw it and it was for no other reason than the stagnation he was now facing.
He could not really advance his cultivation all that much anymore for the moment. At least not without gobbling up numerous amounts of violent and rare combination resources like the Gem flower.
Which meant, it was time to place a little more focus on another trump card he had up his sleeves in the form of the thousands of Devil Beasts he had inside the Habitat.
If this city which Hal was sure at the very least had phenomenon realm cultivators could not take care of this themselves even though it was a real bother to visitors as well as traveling indigenes, then this gang of bandits had to be quite formidable.
And then upon defeating them, he would feed their bodies to his beasts who would then use it to further their evolution and get ever stronger.
He still wanted to go to the capital as soon as he could but he could spare the time to reap some easy targets for the purpose of strengthening his forces.
And so, Hal went into the Law enforcement station since if he was going to go through with this, he might as well do so while taking advantage of all information those who had already failed had to dish out to him.