Surviving as a Broken Hero

Chapter 91 – The Big City (1)

Gregor leaned forward in his chair—a magnificent piece of craftsmanship enchanted to gently massage his back when he leaned into it, made from pure-white Fanged Ape fur.

Light streamed down onto him and the massive brown desk before him from the skylight, reflecting off of the black marble floor and mixing with the light blue glow of the mana crystals around the room.

It was meant to give off a calming mood, but the atmosphere in the room was anything but.

Alone with the emaciated woman standing across from him at the desk, he quickly took the purple crystal from her grasp and raised it between his eye and the sunlight to take a good look.

“Hehaghk!” The woman let out a coughing chuckle and spit out a glob of mucus tinged with motes of purple and flecks of blood onto the otherwise spotless black floor.

Any other guest, and Gregor would’ve pulverized them on the spot, but he was too enraptured by the semi-translucent crystal pinched between his fingers and the swirling aura within.

‘This is all it’ll take to bridge the gap?’ he wondered to himself. ‘Such a small thing…’

“My payment…” the woman croaked out.

Without looking away from the crystal, Gregor yanked open a drawer in his desk and tossed her a Panacea Healing Potion from it, something almost anyone would give an arm and a leg for, in an irreverent motion.

The woman caught it and turned away, a smile tugging at her cracked lips as she hobbled out of the room.

Alone again, Gregor, leader of the Lion Guild, felt a compulsion to swallow the crystal then and there, but he stopped himself.

‘No, I’ll have to save it for when the time is right. Any sooner, and it could be wasted.’

There was no way of knowing how long the crystal’s power would last, after all.

“Finally,” he muttered to himself as he carefully placed the crystal into his pouch, “I’ll finally take it all for myself.”

As famed as he was as the leader of the great Lion Guild, he had more aspirations still.

Why be a mere guild leader when he could be a king?

***

Central City of Londo, City Lord’s Castle…

Henry leaned forward in his chair, his chin resting on his clasped hands, and watched his dying daughter.

The two had been lucky enough to end up in the Merge together, but she’d never properly Awakened, and the sickness continued to eat at her all those years, despite the best System-enhanced healers doing their best to fix her.

All of their abilities, and one that escaped them was a way out of death.

The best they’d been able to do was place her in a stasis of sorts, and Henry had clawed his way up through the Awakener rankings and put his foot into the even more intimidating world of politics all so he could find a cure.

Her previously black hair was flecked with strands of white, but she otherwise looked peaceful, locked in her slumber.

The paleness of her skin could be compared to the moon, and an otherworldly glow wrapped around her from all of the enchantments in place to keep her alive.

If a stranger were to see it, they’d think she looked like a goddess or a princess from a fairytale.

Unfortunately, she was neither.

Henry considered his options: a dragon’s heart or a disgusting purple crystal.

When they’d appeared to him at first, he’d had the witches thrown out. Anyone could see what they were peddling was wrong. A perversion, disgusting.

What would such a thing do to his daughter? They promised him it’d heal her and finally wake her, but there were bound to be side effects.

No, he had another option, one that was much harder to achieve: he needed a dragon’s heart.

System-enhanced alchemists had desperately searched through their abilities and researched a method to heal the curse of death, promised anything they could wish for, and an answer had eventually been found.

He needed a dragon’s heart. As one of the rarest and strongest beings in the new world, such a thing was far easier said than done.

Luckily, the first part was already taken care of: there was a dragon that guarded the roads of the Central Cities from monsters. It showed up quite frequently to save Awakeners, especially the Unawakened, from attacks on the roads.

Of course, the problem was that it didn’t attack humans; that didn’t mean it enjoyed communicating with them either.

Since he knew where the dragon was and how to lure it out, the biggest problem would be killing it.

Naturally, he couldn’t just claim that they’d killed a dragon that helped humans. He’d have to spin the story a different way.

‘At least Gregor seemed open to the idea…’ he thought.

He didn’t really want to kill the dragon, but he’d do it if it meant his daughter could live. It was just a big lizard, after all.

‘If he holds up to his end of the deal, it’s only a matter of time…’

He’d promised Gregor a position as the vice lord of the city, a position he’d been saving for his daughter.

‘He has ambitions for power, but he’ll be easy to keep a leash on if he’s closer anyway.’

The saying ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ was repeated so often for a reason.

Henry caressed his sleeping daughter’s cheek and dreamed of the day they could smile together again.

All it would take was the murder of a dragon.

The Central City closest to Karfana, Londo, certainly lived up to its title.

While the walls of Karfana were made of shoddy stone, were rough to the touch, and were just tall enough to stop your average monster from leaping over them, the walls of Londo towered high overhead, reminding me of the dragon’s keep at the City on the Edge.

Not only that, but the walls looked smooth to the touch.

Four guards waited outside of the city gate, with more overhead and on the other side.

‘It’s definitely better guarded as well,’ I thought to myself.

Would Karfana ever match such luxury? If so, then what would Londo look like by then?

There had never been a large-scale interspecies war, though there were sometimes territorial disputes near some of the outskirt cities, so such magnificent walls were more for show than anything else.

Koise briefly talked with the guards and showed them his Lion Guild badge. Clearly, the guild was very influential in the city, as I noticed they instantly straightened their backs and gave us a newfound respect upon seeing it.

The inside of the city was just as impressive as the outside.

Blue lines of glowing mana ran along metal rails in the ground, transporting magic power throughout the city and splitting off at regular intersections.

The buildings were clean and constructed in a planned manner to make neat squares of shops and dwellings, and, most surprisingly, I even saw a sort of mana-automated carriage trundling along one of the metal railways.

“We already have trams?” I asked, somewhat in disbelief.

Koise laughed and slapped me on the back. “I guess it’s pretty shocking to be back in the Central Cities after so long, huh? The trams are the least of it. Just wait until you try the drinks.”

We headed down the central street as I gawked at just about everything in sight—the orderly manastone streetlights, the rich clothes of the average citygoer, and the almost deafening chatter around us.

I was like a country boy in the big city for the first time, only a few miles from home but feeling as lost as if I were in a different world.

Well, I guess we were in a different world, after all.

“Where are we going?” Eve finally asked as Koise led the way.

She’d been pretty quiet up to that point, her hood over her head. I could’ve almost even forgotten she was there.

“If you think everything else is impressive, just wait until we get to the guild headquarters,” Koise said.

“We’re headed to the Lion Guild?” I asked.

I heard a nearly silent sigh from Eve’s side.

“Of course. I already sent word we were on our way. It would be rude to keep the head of the Lion Guild waiting, wouldn’t it? I still haven’t given the details of our quest, after all.”

I was more concerned with selling the materials from the dragon. We needed supplies, and I just knew they’d try to recruit me into their guild.

I had no intention of joining them, as renowned as the guild was. There were bigger concerns on my mind than just leveling up and being restricted by guild procedures.

Who cared if there was some big dungeon or raid boss when the demons were practically knocking on the door?

Eve, at least, seemed to share my sentiment. In a rare show of humor, she looked at me and rolled her eyes.

Koise, having not seen the gesture, went on about how wonderful the guild was and looked to be lost in his own story.

In a district he told us was specifically set aside for guild halls, it wasn’t hard to spot.

Of course, it was the largest building, towering over its neighbors and even featuring a bridged archway over the road, connecting to a second guild building on the other side.

Some guilds had multiple buildings, but the Lion Guild, aside from the bridge connecting its premises, was entirely encapsulated in its own sort of miniature community, with white walls denoting where the guild’s boundaries ended.