Chapter 2136 Zaneta
?That said, Dyon didn't plan to stay here for long. In fact, he would already be making plans to leave if he wasn't still waiting on the Dragon King who seemed to be taking his sweet time. 60 years and he still hadn't found this place. It humbled Dyon with the knowledge of just how vast this Immortal Plane was.
"Which city would you two like to go to?" Dyon asked with a smile. "There are three prime candidates, they seem to be rival cities considering I counted three separate military systems and uniforms.
"Zaneta City, Blazen City, Metodej City. The first has the best economy, but it seems almost like a puppet state of both Blazen and Metodej. Not only are many of its industries occupied by citizens of its two rivals, but its military is also the weakest. I suspect that it's a pawn used in order to keep a veneer of peace.
"Blazen is located near one of the two main resources of this world: volcanic ore. Metodej is near the other: mist glass. It seems that both are subordinate states of powers from another world, so they both have transportation arrays going out, but they don't seem robust enough to send living objects. So it's either I'm right, or they're importing and exporting from other worlds, something that seems far less feasible…"
Dyon had his reasons for thinking this, but he didn't say them aloud. Saru and Lilith were both intelligent enough to understand why it was more likely that these arrays were used to send tributes and not trade.
"Go toward whichever has the best alchemy guild." Saru suddenly said.
Lilith smiled in agreement. "The best choice is to make money, right? From what you said, there aren't any arrays here capable of sending humans or beasts in and out of here, so we'll need to build one ourselves. Plus, my husband can't be too poor, how will he support my lavish lifestyle?"
Dyon laughed at Lilith's joke. Something about her demeanor made him forget his worries.
"Alright, Zaneta it is."
...
Many hours later, a crude laughter entered Dyon's ears.
"Since when did mortals dare to cross the endless desert?"
Maybe it was only now Dyon felt he had forgotten something important. The segregationist tendencies of the Immortal Plane had completely slipped his mind. Dyon had become very used to standing at the top of the food chain. When did he ever spare thoughts toward being considered a second-class citizen?
They were a band of what could only be called desert pirates. There were about a dozen and a half of them, riding on large snakes that had their bodies half submerged by the sand and glass beneath their feet.
These three large brown-scaled snakes carried large cube shaped wooden containers on their backs. Those containers were likely what these band of pirates used for their living arrangements, and also likely what they stored their treasures in.
"Boss, what's the point of robbing these guys. They clearly have nothing on them."
This so-called "Boss" was a man of large stature. His skin was scorched heavily under the heavy sun of this world and he stood on the head of the largest brown snake.
Dyon had expected the beasts of the Immortal Plane to be quite large, but they were surprisingly much smaller than he expected. Dyon's own beast companions were kilometers in size already, but these brown scaled snakes were only about twenty meters in length. The largest was only thirty.
However, Dyon could still tell that they were a level above mortal creatures. His former self wouldn't be able to take any one of them on casually.
"What do you mean? A pretty boy like that would sell for quite a lot. He has quite a strong body just judging by the fact he's made it this far without collapsing. Those young noble women are hellish fiends with no moral standards. They'll pretend to be prim and proper on the surface when they've already lost count of their number of male whores.
"Plus… look at the little flowers by his sides."
An uproarious laughter shook the band of pirates.
Usually, they instinctively disdained mortals so they hadn't given the group of three a proper look. But, upon closer inspection, their eyes lit up when they saw Saru and Lilith.
In truth, the two women had suggested to Dyon that they wear veils, but Dyon fiercely rejected them. Maybe in the past before he awakened his vajra body, he might have agreed. But his current self had no patience for such nonsense.
Those who wanted to act on their beauty could just die.
"Good timing, actually." Dyon said blandly. "I was wondering how I would be able to afford the city entrance fee. I hope you're not too poor."
Before they could laugh or even be stunned by Dyon's words, his arms had already slipped out from Saru and Lilith's, appearing on the snake head the Boss stood on.
A tremendous weight descended from the skies. In that moment, gravity increased several fold, the high, arching neck of the brown-scaled snake plummeting into the ground with a vicious boom. One didn't need to check to know that it was now dead.
In the past, Dyon's weight was already oppressive, but it was enough to cause such damage. Now, though, his body mass had actually returned to normal. However, he could change it at will.
Mass and weight were two fundamentally different concepts. After entering the Fate Silk Realm, Dyon's mass remained the same, but he could change his weight at will. This subtle change in ability meant that Dyon had grasped the strength of gravity. Not only for his own body, but a limited portion of his surroundings as well.
The Boss' eyes widened. "You…"
"You probably should have stopped at calling me a pretty boy. I might have let you live then. You actually came at a pretty good time, all things considered."
"S…" The Boss caught himself from saying something embarrassing. "This serpent is the property of the Sand Serpent Battalion. Yet you've actually killed it?!"