Chapter 631
I walk down a small curving path within a well-maintained park on the edge of the city.
It's dimly lit, leading to a portion of housing that looks like hundreds of people live in, near one of the local markets. Like most cities, the outer edges are less crowded than the center, where massive apartment complexes, towering association-run businesses, and the main dungeon hub sit.
I keep my stealth skill fully activated, and Raven does too, walking next to me and communicating telepathically as we move into the more populated areas of town.
"Tell me more about this island... I'll be the one taking control of it soon, after all."
As we walk further into the large city, it's a little eerie how clean and orderly everything is. The housing communities are identical, and even the level of hunters asleep inside are nearly the exact same, all sectioned off to certain districts.
There is about one guard awake, slowly surveying every block for every 100 residents, and the average level of these residents increases more and more as we get to the center of the city.
They all range from level 100 up to roughly 450. Most of the B and A-rank hunters are on the finger islands.
Raven's response to my question makes everything on this island make so much more sense but disgusts me all the same.
"It's as close to slavery as you can get. Over 70,000 residents all trapped on an island kilometers above sea with the closest bit of land nearly a thousand kilometers away. They may get to live somewhat normal lives, but the Kingdom of Palmyra is one of the highest-grossing raw dungeon loot exporters in the world. I've visited a few times over the decades; they often use raw luminite and pure mana farmed from central to trigger the creation of unique dungeons. In exchange for free housing and stable pay, long hours of dungeon farming are a mandatory weekly quota for residents."