Chapter 48: Toad

With a few questions, all the blurry things related to the city became clear to him. After it became clear he looked at the light coming from the cave with amazement. From the information he knew that people can come here through the carriage which was the giant eagle or by themselves.

But the carriage would cost a silver coin. Credits didn't work here but the value of coins dominated the market. Everything was exchanged by coins, from foods to precious treasures it was exchanged by the coins.

100 bronze coins were equivalent to 1 silver coin and 100 silver coins were equivalent to 1 gold coin. The bronze and silver coins had the picture of number nine along with three lines crossing the number while the gold coin had 9 entangling circles.

The gold coin was a value that worked in all nine of the cities while the bronze and silver coins were exclusive to the city, it didn't have any value at another city.

The cities were far away from each other as the pit was very large. It included nine different important terrains. Two terrains had a city between them, which the Nine Claws City was between the Gorge of Death and Claws Forest.

To enter the city one would have to pay a fee or pass through by himself. Obviously he didn't have the money right now so he could only rely on himself. His nails grew to three inch long before he scratched the surface of the cliff.

A screeching sound was made as his nails sliced through the rock, but only little. Transferring his energy to his nails, the energy within the rock was sucked and its hardness softened a bit.

Scratching once again his nails went through easily.

This time he would be able to climb using his nails. Like that he climbed up and looked down. The parts where his nail traces were had healed completely. Surprisingly this wall had a self healing function.

But it was also expected, this test was for limit-break or special maturity stage monsters. They would have various strange powers so if it had no self healing ability it would've been destroyed long ago.

Looking forward his eyes met a long corridor within a large cave entrance. The corridor was lit and stones were embedded on the walls. The light wasn't too bright nor too dim. This kind of light was enough, limit break monsters and creatures could clearly see the surroundings.

Walking down the corridor he soon reached the end. Looking forward it was a forest. Tall trees, on it would be the nests and homes for many creatures. There were also ground buildings and many creatures walking around. With just his perception he couldn't see the end of it.

Above there was a sky with a cloudy weather. It looked very vivid but he knew that it was an artificial weather, environment made by rune masters.

The large cave, no he even suspected that he entered a secret realm. Thinking this his expression became grave and also excited at the same time. These secret realms could be natural or artificially made.

They were secluded from the outside world, a separate realm. The reason they were called secret was because of how well they are hidden while also containing great treasures.

Great existences would usually decide to create their inheritances in these secret realms.

This secret realm was obviously artificially made. Nine of these in a single pit while they were also between the nine terrains, there is no such coincidence. The creator of the secret realm had absolute control over it. Within his fingertips any lives within it would be at its mercy.

That meant that if the creator had the will, he could kill him at anytime. Fortunately he believed that he wasn't that unlucky.

A secret realm also represented a chance to comprehend the dimension rune. A natural one would be better as they wouldn't be hid and revealed.

But in artificial ones they would be hidden in their cores as the owners wuldn'twant anyone to comprehend their runes and learn their secrets. Every rune was different, even if they were of the same type due to their nature and other comprehensions there was no chance of two appearing at the same time.

Still it represented the chance of comprehending a space rune. Ghosts were creatures who lived in the void, wandering and occasionally entering planets to get their source. So they naturally had an excellent aptitude for dimension and space type runes. Their spirit, bodies were perfect for space and dimension type runes.

So naturally his first planned rune was dimension, then he would see if he could comprehend the death rune. If he can't he would just go with dimension, it was one of the top tier runes anyway.

Entering he encountered a bustling city. If considering except the slaves all of the people here were peak 1 tier and above, it was truly a terrifying force. But most of it are animals and creatures who aren't in a human shape.

Wolves, bulls, creatures with tentacles horns and more. Gigantic, tissues and limbs that shouldn't be there, rays and fluctuations coming out from them. Flowers, grass, trees on their backs, they were abnormal.

After all it was a place where humans hadn't inhabited, monsters were the main residents while a minority were people who were sent to this place for management.

In the trees and below the tall trees, shops and buildings were built as people went to these shops to bargain.

Going to a random shop he started scanning the items on it. There were various items and most of them were things that weren't processed. After all the monster race's intelligent creatures were too few compared to humans, and with the difficulty of becoming a blacksmith or alchemist, they were as rare as a phoenix feather.

And the refined artifacts or weapons would be the things people dropped it. Especially the guns, their power was obviously weak so it should be the items dropped by trainees.

With the space compressor he could store his weapons, the sword made of mithril and the guns he had were all stored in there, it was really handy.

If he sells it it was obvious that its price would be very high.

But he would obviously not sell it, he needed it for survival and various reasons. Instead he could try to sell his old guns and swords.

Among the things a wooden toad caught his attention. It had a stick in its mouth and rubbing its back with the stick would make a guag guag sound just like a toad. He was somehow very interested in this thing and he didn't know why. But he grasped this feeling very well, it was a sign of detecting a treasure.

Sometimes his perception couldn't perceive a very well hidden treasure, but this didn't mean that his subconscious couldn't perceive it. This situation happening just meant that he encountered a treasure that hides itself very well, the smell of treasure was evident.

Looking at the giant squirrel with a horn on its head, he pointed at the wooden toad. Suddenly the shut off eyes of the squirrel opened a bit and looked at him. In a strange language it said something, he obviously didn't understand it but recently he had discovered a good way to communicate.

Revealing his soul he transmitted a word 'Price'. This was directly communicating with the soul and no matter how different their races were they would understand it. It was quite hard and tiring but his soul could bear it.

Looking stunned the squirrel opened its mouth full of sharp teeth. But also quickly it raised 3 chubby fingers.

Taking out his old gun from his storage he pointed at it first before pointing at the wooden toad. Handing it over to the squirrel, it examined it for a bit before nodding.

With a delighted expression he got the toad and left.