Chapter 69. City of Illithor

“When can you be done with all the random traveling and just spend the rest of our lives together?” Genesis complained as Ken got ready for his journey to Illithor.

“After I get to holy level and have the king of Yelwraek off my back. After that, I won’t have to try so hard to get stronger. By then, we can either stay here in the academy and try to get stronger or just get a job at a mid-sized kingdom and enjoy an easy life.” Ken replied as he got ready.

“Since that fake lizardman will be with you. Just stick with her instead of fooling around with anymore girls.” Alice advised.

“Stop making it sound like I’m out here trying to sleep with every girl when in reality I’m literally rejecting almost every girl that approaches me!” Ken replied defensively as the necklace activated and the young man once again teleported away from Dragonspire.

“How much better are you at teleporting since I last saw you?” Rose said as she hugged Ken tightly.

“Hi Rose! When did you get here?” Ken replied as he greeted the girl.

“I got here yesterday so I could get our living arrangement set up.”

“Thanks! And I can now teleport up to 20 feet away only needing about 3 seconds of delay!” Ken replied proudly.

“To think you could improve that much in only a month. You might already be able to use it during the next tournament.” Rose commented, impressed at Ken’s ability to improve at such a fast pace.

“Na, I doubt I want to use something half assed for the world to see. All my fans around the world won’t want to see me taking forever to teleport. Until I can do it instantaneously, I won’t be using it at the tournament.” Ken replied as he finally looked around to see where he was.

“I guess we are at Siveril’s mansion? When I get hired as a commander for a kingdom, I will build a giant mansion like this!” Ken said happily as he looked around at the giant marble mansion with a huge beautiful garden.

“Welcome master Ken. Please follow me, my master is expecting you.” A servant greeted the pair and started leading the pair inside the beautiful mansion.

Similar to the beautiful exterior, the interior of the mansion was equally elegant and beautiful. Giant chandeliers and decorations covered the entire hall, with many servants wandering about keeping everything spotless.

“Welcome!” A booming voice said happily from the top of the staircase in the center of the mansion.

Siveril Sarmyar, one of the two heroes that didn’t have the potential to reach holy level magic and was never accepted by Dragonspire, happily welcomed Ken and led the pair through his beautiful mansion to his dining room where he sat the pair down to have a chat over a mountain of delicious food.

“When I failed to get accepted by Dragonspire, I thought I wouldn’t have a future. Thankfully, I was able to attend Sraederham Academy and had professor Gilliam to guide me. It’s thanks to him that someone like me, who could only achieve divine level abilities ended up becoming a hero!” Siveril said happily.

“Mr. Sarmyar, you were originally from Sraederham?” Ken asked, as he enjoyed the delicious meal while chatting with the hero.

“Siveril is fine and I sure am! Most of my extended family still resides in Sraederham since the dry weather here in Illithor does not suit most of those that grew up in the humid rainforest.” the giant lizardman with vivid blue hair and large tail replied happily as he chatted with the pair.

After enjoying their breakfast, Ken and Rose headed for the city to spend the day sightseeing per Siveril’s suggestion as the hero told Ken to enjoy the first day as the reminder of the time will be spent following the hero’s personal training regiment and Ken will most likely have no more free time to explore.

“Nice fellow. When I was growing up and watching the heroes at home, I never thought one day I would not only get to meet them in real life but to train with so many of them!” Ken said happily as the pair rode in a komodo lizard carriage.

The lizardman kingdom of Illithor is located on the continent of Vlayria just like Yelwraek, Ostrium and Ken’s home kingdom of Miodod. While the beastman alliance is located in the colder territory above Yelwraek. The lizardman kingdom of Illithor is located beneath Yelwraek with hotter and drier weather for the majority of the year.

“Horses don’t do well with the weather here so most of the transportation is done with local animals like the komodo lizards.” Rose explained as Ken watched giant lizards pulling carriages all through the stone paved streets with mostly clay buildings similar to those in Feirveen due to the lack of mountain ranges to mine rocks or forests like Sraederham to harvest logs. Only the extremely wealthy like Siveril could afford a mansion built with white marble in the middle of this desert-like kingdom that lacked natural resources.

“How are people able to make a living in a kingdom like this? I don’t think there are many natural resources available for them to trade with others. What do people do to make a living?” Ken wondered.

“There are actually quite a few gold and silver mines in the deserts of Illithor. They also have the perfect weather here to grow certain crops for export as well. But overall, even though the land mass here is rather large, most of the population are clustered into cities with a major water source like the river that flows through the capital but the overall population is definitely much smaller than most kingdoms with this amount of land mass.” Rose replied, giving Ken exactly the information he was looking for.

“Thanks Rose! How do you know so much about Illithor?”

“I know you will be curious and have questions about everything so I studied up.” Rose replied proudly.

“Did you take my advice and make some friends?”

“Nope. I don’t have time for that. I would rather work on my studies.”

“What are you studying so hard for? Your dad is the eternal hero Sylvester! I am sure you have more money than you could ever use. You should just enjoy life and go make some friends and have fun instead of spending all your time in your house studying.” Ken questioned loudly.

“I asked my father to get me a new body that’s not so messed up but he refused. Saying the risk is too high to let me go into a half life state again. So I am doing my best to advance in soul magic so I can do it myself.” Rose replied as the pair arrived at the town center and got out of the carriage to explore the city on foot.

“What are you gonna do? Cut some poor girl’s head off and take her body so you can sew your head on? Why didn’t your father do that from the beginning if that’s possible.” Ken asked as the pair walked through the busy city streets full of lizardman with the sun beating down on the pair.

“When this body was put together hundreds of years ago, the only thing on my father’s mind was to have a complete vessel for my extracted soul as he was afraid of what would happen if my soul was left inside an artifact for too long. He obviously wasn’t the wealthy well known hero back then so he didn’t have the means to get me something more appealing. With how wealthy my father is now, it’s obviously not that hard for us to get a well preserved body from the black market but he refuses to extract my soul.” Rose replied in frustration while Ken bought an umbrella from a shop to block the beaming sunlight.

“Why risk it when your body is functioning just fine.” Ken asked, wondering why the homunculus girl is willing to risk her life for a new body.

“Obviously it’s because of you! How do you think it makes me feel when the guy I am in love with and wants to be with wants nothing to do with my body.” Rose answered heatedly.

“I mean. You can’t blame me right? I don’t want to be mean or anything but your father is no artist and what he put together is not appealing!” Ken said defensively.

“I’m just joking that you are the reason. Obviously I know what a horror show I am, I have to see it everyday. Even before meeting you, I have always wanted a new body so I don’t have to cover up every inch just to go outside. Since my father is not willing to help, I am forced to study as hard as I could to do it myself one day.” Rose replied as the pair settled in an ice cream shop to escape from the sun and enjoy some refreshments.

“You know. Since you brought up gold mines. Unlike those materials used for buildings and whatnot, since gold is so valuable, isn’t it better to just have someone create it? Sure it takes me quite a while and a lot of concentration but even someone like me can conjure quite a bit of gold if I wanted to. If I didn’t have to focus all my energy on training and get stronger because my life's on the line, I could conjure more than enough gold daily to support all my family and have a nice living.” Ken replied as the pair got some cactus juice and ice cream.

“To hire someone with advanced enough magic to conjure gold, the cost is much greater than having miners mine for it. Besides, if you can conjure gold, would you ever work for less than the gold you could conjure? I thought you were smart!” Rose questioned as Ken enjoyed his drink.

“Hey! I am just some orphan country bumpkin. I thought of something, wondered and asked. You don’t have to be so mean!” Ken replied defensively.

“Ken. I know you still think you are some no name orphan or some average Joe but you realize you are almost at divine level right? I don’t think there are even 10,000 people in the entire world who are stronger or more useful than you at this point.” Rose replied as the pair paid for their refreshments and got back to the sightseeing.

“10,000 people! You know I’m trying to be one of the top 10 right?”

“There are over 10 billion people in the world! You are not even 19 years old yet! I know you are on a tight timeline because of what you promised the king of Yelwraek, but that’s your own fault!” Rose said matter of factly.

As the pair walked around the city, they chatted, joked and laughed while enjoying the views and sites the city had to offer and the delicious local food before the sun started to set and the day turned into night.

“Finally back inside with some nice cooling artifacts! Man this place is hot! You must be suffering, covered from head to toe.” Ken asked as the pair settled at a riverside restaurant to have some dinner along the giant river that ran through the city and provided the citizens its only major water source.

“My body can’t sweat so this dryness does feel pretty awful. Another reason why I need to study hard and get my soul magic to holy level so I can get that replacement body.” Rose replied as the pair enjoyed the view and delicious food.

“Well. I am not really interested in soul magic compared to teleport but once I get to holy level and have more time on my hands. If you are still struggling, I will help you out if I think it’s safe.” Ken offered.

After dinner, the pair chatted and walked around the city some more in the cooler night weather before returning to the mansion where they had a quick chat with Siveril, mostly to complain about the weather as the giant lizardman laughed as he listened before turning in for the night so Ken could get ready for his month long training with the hero.