Chapter 32 - 30 : The Town Hall

"Shopping is fun but it's best with a lot of cash at hand. We still need money." A chubby black haired elementalist sighed as he walked out of the popular store, Grynx Merchandise, alongside a black haired swordsman.

Fudo and Sato had just been shown around the store by the branch manager, Aaron Schauks. Fudo even snickered at the sight of Sophia's stunned face when she saw her elder brother being nice to them.

Originally, they had made 1 gold, 20 silvers and 80 copper coins but after going through the store, Sato and Fudo finally understood what it meant to be wealthy as even the weapons and equipment in the stores 2nd level were each worth 10-27 silver coins. Eventually, they bought a couple of materials only, since they already earned a few equips from the Rare-Steel rank chest at the Ghost Mansion. At the end, Fudo and Sato were left with a combined amount of 80 silver coins. If not for Sato's advice on prudent spending, they would have been left with less.

"Since we are done here, left's head over to the Town hall." Pulling up his System' display screen, Sato stared at the details on it.

[[ The Goblins' Invasion (Series)

Quest rating : S

Intro : The goblins have always been waging war against humans, slowly trying to acquire more territory from them. As a result of the greed from both sides for more land and resources, the flames of war has been ever-burning, reeking havoc to both sides with no final victor decided.

1st Chapter :

You have discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Report to the City Lord, Patrol General, Town Chief or anyone of suitable/equivalent rank about this. Once accepted, further missions pertaining to this quest can't be rejected.

Reward : 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 Silver coins.

Time Remaining : 55 minutes left.

Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

Loss of 5 levels with reduction of experience gained by 50% for 2 months

Relationship level with human forces at [Unforgivable]

Mission status : Accepted; not yet completed.

]]

"Can't believe we wasted a lot of time. *sigh* the rewards might just end up basic but that isn't bad either." Hailing a carriage alongside the street, Sato and Fudo got in and headed for the Town Hall.

The Town Hall was located at the Central district; a few miles away from Grynx Merchandise store. Walking there would take roughly them 20 minutes or so but with a carriage, they would be there in 9 minutes, at most 12 minutes.

Inside Grynx Merchandise…

"Brother, why were you being all nice to those scammers?" Sophia barged into the managerial office at the 3rd level of the Grynx Merchandise building.

"In work, I'm your superior not your brother and also you can't just barge in to my office like that." Aaron responded calmly even though there was slight frown on his lips.

"To hell with that superior crap you've been spewing. If you don't explain yourself now, I'll report all this to dad." Sophia threatened with hers arms akimbo.

"...*sighs* alright. I was just trying to get close to them. I have a feeling they know something we don't and aren't normal. They sold me a batch of high quality 3 star materials and 2 star ones and though it wasn't much, they acted like they could still get more if they wished to. So I decided to keep a close contact with them in case they hope to trade more. At the same time, I had Jenny look up on their identities and but didn't find anything; it's like they just came out of thin air."

"If they have a hidden valuable mine in their possession, while don't you just force them to cough it up? Dad does that all the time." Sophia asked with a puzzled expression.

"You still don't get it do you? That doesn't work all the time." Standing up and walking towards the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, Aaron explained "It maybe that they were lucky and just found some minerals or they robbed it from someone else. All in all, there are multiple various possibilities so just capturing them wouldn't be the best. Otherwise, if news spread out, we might lose our posts. Hence, the best positive reaction would be to get on their good side and if it turns out that they have more goods to sell, they would come to us."

"And if they do have a mine wouldn't we be losing out?" Sophia looked at Aaron as if facing a dummy.

Aaron shook his head and said "Little Sophia, little Sophia. Don't tell me that you still underestimate big brother? I had Jenny send someone to watch over them for a while. He's a professional so he won't get caught." Aaron smiled before picking up the glass filled with whiskey atop the table and sipping it.

Facing the floor to ceiling window in his office and staring at the busy population going about their activities, he took another sip from his glass before saying "Riverdale is about to get busy, no, not just Riverdale. The Fallen Heart Kingdom and possibly the entire world will soon change. We either ride with the wave of change or get drowned by them. Father's ways might have worked in the past but now it might not work again. Get ready little sister, tales and legends are about to become reality."

"...are you drunk?"

"..."

. . . . .

It didn't take long for our able heroes, eh, adventurers to arrive at the Central district's Town Hall, the centre of Riverdale's politics and governance.

The Town Hall was quite beautiful and impressive. Thought it wasn't lavishly built with a mixture of 2 star and 3 star materials like Grynx Merchandise's Riverdale branch,the Town Hall was still built with quality solid materials. It was painted white and had 4 columns erected in front, hoisting up the entablature[1]. The entire infrastructure was fenced with an emerald coloured gate as the entrance.

The emerald gate was guarded by two level 35 guardians with the building being patrolled by a two squads of level 30-35 town patrollers[2] with each squad having a 7 men; enough manpower to serve as deterrent to the current whimsical players.

Walking into the Town Hall, Sato and Fudo were greeted by the sight of a imposing and grandiose interior.

"Sparkly…"

A chandelier with gems of unrecognisable name and quality; possibly being 3 star rank, columns indented with sparkling emeralds and jades and gold plated walls, one could only wonder how a City Hall would now look like.

"I was wondering how the Town Hall would be losing to a mere store; seems like I didn't need to worry. The Town Head must be a man of simplicity in the outside and hedonism within." Sato sighed at the amazement and cost of the materials and building.

"Now I get why their guards are so high levelled. Just one gem here would be priceless to the common people." Fudo said with a voice of realisation.

"Let's just be done with this mission first then you can ogle later."

The receptionist counter wasn't so far from the entrance. To avoid stalling and squandering the time of the guests due to queues, there were 4 counters with the fourth one meant for emergencies.

"Good Afternoon. How may I help you."

Arriving at one of them, Sato was greeted the receptionist with the tag 'Emma'.

"Afternoon. I'm here to see the Town Head." Sato replied calmly.

"..." Emma was a little surprised as she wondered what kind of individual would come to see the Town Head is such clothing but even still, she kept a professional smile and asked "Do you have a reservation?"

"No…but I have this. Will it work?"

Initially, when Sato had said 'No', Emma was prepared to reject him access but when she heard the later part and saw what Sato had placed on the table, she hurriedly replied "Give me a second, just a second. Don't go and wait here. I'll get back to you soon."

After which she picked the token and quickly ran deep into the building.

"What was that all about?" Fudo whispered towards Sato as right now, most of the NPCs present were staring at them, wondering what they had showed the receptionist.

"...I don't know. I just gave her the token we got after after we received the mission."

"Token we got? How come I didn't get any?"

"You didn't?…Probably because we are in a party system I guess" Sato said though not so sure of himself.

"Probably."

2 minutes later, which was by far more than the second promised, Emma arrived at the counter but this time, someone else followed right beside her.

"Apologies for taking so long. This is the secretary to the Town Head. She will take you to see him." Emma pointed at the lady beside her.

"Good day gentlemen. My name is Alice Zhiastris. I'm the secretary to the Town Head. Please follow me this way; his excellency is waiting for you."

'Zhiastris…are they related to the Triastis family? I really need to visit the library…'

AN :

Errors might be present as such, this chapter is susceptible to editing.