The City
Every place has its own culture, different from the others. Whats more for a planet. Most of a planet's inhabitants would not have the chance to leave their own home planets, thus keeping their own culture and their way of life to theirselves. Back in his home planet, round, pillar like building are the norm. He didn't consider the goblin's city previously as a real city in this world as it is commonly known that goblins' cities looks like the same everywhere with the difference being the building materials.
Speaking of cities, he's quite admiring the city here. The building are tall with four corners and their height was varying. Of course that was what it looked like if you were looking at it from afar. He casted the tier III spell Magnified Vision as he saw the suburbs of the city. There is a saying that says "If you want to know how prosperous the place is, just look at how many inhabitants it has." Judging from what he can see, the place is definitely flourishing. From his estimates, there could be about half a million people living in there.
The city gates loomed over him as he waited in line in the city gates. There are 5 gates in the city gates. The main gate, the biggest, followed by a gate to the right which is seemingly used by merchants. The most extravagant is the one on the left of the main gates, which looks like its built for the ruling elite. Then next to the left most side is a small gate for commoners. The fifth gate is also a small one which is seemingly built for people with special status.
He is now standing in line to the gate with special status. Mages may be considered special and when it was his turn, he produced his identification that was from his planet. The guards then called a translator and a verification officer and a couple of mages as they verified his papers. They gave him a green badge made of unknown material which he tossed at his pocket while he was brought to an office and they told him it was for questioning. Inside a room with stone walls, stone chair and stone table, a man wearing a leather armor came inside as the man took the seat opposite of him.
"Your paper says that you are a soldier?" The man asked while flipping his papers.
"Thats right." He replied while nodding.
"And your from another planet?" Another question came as he looked at the ceiling.
"Yes." He replied once more.
"So whats your deal? Your service isn't finished yet." The man inquired with an indifferent look.
"A ruin came, tried prying the spatial crystal on a teleportation circle, didn't worked well cause' I got sent to somewhere far away." His explanation that he came up with. He had been preparing it for a long time and he's hoping for it to work.
The man just nodded his head and wrote something in a piece of paper. Mages prying something in a ruin that they shouldn't have is a common thing everywhere else. Its not just mages but almost everyone. Its just that those events always caused catastrophes at its worst. If an ordinary person tried prying of an unknown seal for no apparent reason, nothing happens most of the time, but for mages, its the opposite. A mage's magic power is potent enough and if they don't have the prior training or if their excitement shot to the roof, their magic power turns chaotic for a while shit happens.
The man now has a weird look on his face. Based from the papers, the mage in front of him is a soldier, and a suspicious person. The mages that their kingdom employed already confirmed the story of coming from another planet. But the fact that the mage is now a deserter isn't a happy fact for their own kingdom. Who wants a deserter anyway? But then again, unlike most soldiers, mages who became soldiers are known to escaping in the most dangerous times instead of fighting to their deaths. Everyone knows that if you are in a disadvantageous position in the battlefield and you need to send word to people behind you fast and quick, the mages is the best messengers for the job. For them, their lives are more valuable than loyalty so finding a truly loyal mage is a headache for anyone who plans to hire them.
In the end, he let the mage go as he tasked others to keep a look at their new guest, as any kingdom is pretty welcoming to such individuals. The reason? There are only two kinds of people who can most of the time kill someone that is stronger than them. Assassins and mages. Both of them have various tricks up their sleeves and unlike in the past, assassins of modern age and modern mages have various methods to keep theirselves alive. You cannot judge both kinds of people based on what they showed you on the surface.
He was now walking on he city's main street looking left and right at various stalls and establishments that lined the whole street along with the bustling activities of the people all around him. An extravagant inn came in his sight as he walked inside and saw its luxurious appearance. The inn's patrons looked at him in disdain as they clearly showed their looks of disgust.
"May I help you?" A maid or a waiter asked him in an unfriendly tone. He knew why. If you have a business aimed for rich people and you saw a ragged, dirty man walk in, what would you do?
"I need a room and a meal." He said as he produced his golds.
"Your identifications . . . sir?" The waiter asked as she looked at him suspiciously at which he produced his papers along with the badge given to him.
"I'm sorry sir but we can't take you in!" The barkeeper at the bar ran hurriedly towards him fearfully.
"The reason is?" He inquired as he saw the other patrons look at him in amusement.
"Sir, you may not know that green badges are for mages only and not every inn in this city accepts mages because they tend to have some . . . special affinity towards . . . trouble?" The barkeep muttered as the other patrons chuckled.
He knew why they are unwilling to let him in. Mages are prone to suddenly trying their new spells every time they like, well not every but that thought is already in anyone's minds. Most accidents of the past which involves inns have been caused by brawls and mages. Brawls are easily dealt with but mages are difficult. There are times where the whole inn is vaporised and times where an important figure dies suddenly due to some experimental mistake that most mages currently does so its not that hard to figure why the barkeep is afraid and anxious right now as he must have been involved in such a scene.
"Where can I dwell then?" He asked calmly as being angry over such things is the specialty of warriors, mages should be composed all the time after all.
"The northern district of the city have inns specially suited for mages, if you don't mind, sir?" The barkeep replied meekly.
There are mages that turns nasty if you piss them so the attitude of the barkeep is reasonable. He heard that a mage turned a waiter in a restaurant to a pig because the waiter accidentally splashed water on him. There are quite a number of those accidents and he knew that the perception of common people to mages is respect and fear.
The northern district of the city is much quite and peaceful than from where he came from which apparently is the eastern district. Earlier, he pinned the badge on his clothes so that everyone could identify that he is a mage, which resulted to the common people staying away from him. Its not that mages are isolated but he is ragged, which looked like he came from somewhere and his dirty appearance also caused his looks to look like a mage that is looking for someone to experiment with. He once smiled at a beautiful lady, which caused a panic as the lady shouted for help which drew in a dozen city guards and a mage. The moment the guards saw his appearance and his badge, they returned to their post, as this scene is happening almost once a day.
He saw someone with a green badge entered to what looked liked an inn so he followed that man towards the establishment.
The reception this time is friendlier and he was able to get a lodge, a meal and a clean pair of clothes. The cost of a room here is a gold coin per day, which is a luxury for a common man. He paid a hundred gold to the counter and told him to keep it for his future expenses and his meals and told them to look for him if they need more then went off towards his room. This is how mages usually are if anyone is asking a question.
The room isn't that luxurious nor it is shabby, but what he can confirm is that the materials on the furniture is probably made of anti-magic materials and enchanted to withstand magical damage. A typical set of furnitures in a house of a mage. The room is about 50 square meters with the furnitures occupying only a fifth of the room. The rest of the space is probably set aside for the mages.
He piled up the books he got to the floor as he began studying them one by one.