29 Learning more about the world

" Old man, where can I buy skill scrolls in this village? Also I have some other crafting materials to sell such as wolf teeth, do you know who might buy them?" Leo asked the old tailor who scratched his chin and thought carefully.

" As for skill scrolls, I'm afraid you won't be able to buy them in this small village, scroll shops can only be sold in tier3 towns and higher while this is only a tier2 village.

The nearest town from here is at the foot of these mountains and if my memory does not fail me, it does have a skill scroll shop, however, it would be best for you to buy them at the royal capital.

As for the other crafting materials, I'm sure any blacksmithing shop here would buy them from you as long as they can be used to make jewellery or ornaments" the old man answered as Leo learnt new information about the world of Terra Nova.

In Terra Nova, the classification of settlements was done in tiers.

A settlement of less than 1000 people was designated as a tier4 village.

The people of such settlements had a very nominal obligation in the form of annual taxation towards the empire and they usually enjoyed autonomy in internal affairs.

Tier4 was the lowest evaluation for a village and it went up to tier1 when a village had more than 10,000 residents but less than 20,000 residents.

When a village crossed the 20,000 resident mark, it had to formally apply to become a town after which some important government buildings were erected in the settlement and a small garrison of royal troops were stationed inside.

The village was then promoted to a tier4 town and was appointed a mayor who was the government's point of contact in the settlement.

The people of a town contributed more to central taxes and while they still elected local officials, they also fell under government purview.

But being promoted to a town was still beneficial to villages as becoming a town meant that the government would find infrastructure projects to connect the town to the main road network and would invest in the local industries to give them a boost.

In 9/10 cases the settlement saw modernization of the economy and rapid expansion that led to the locals becoming wealthy and living a better life which was why most tier1 villages pushed to become proper towns.

Becoming a town was also important because certain businesses were only allowed to operate within towns and could not be opened in remote villages.

A skill scroll shop was one such business alongside libraries, government schools and professional universities.

This trend continued upwards and the benefits only increased as a tier4 town upgraded to a tier3 town all the way up to a tier1 town which was pretty much the ceiling for most places.

To officially be given the status of a City, a settlement needed to have at least a million inhabitants and a robust economy and even then it took years for most settlements to get that status.

Living in a city meant that the security of traders and citizens was guaranteed by the empire itself and it was a hotspot for job opportunities and quality of life.

Taxes were high when living in a city and government intervention was direct in its policy making and governance.

'Lord's' looked over cities and usually they hailed from influential families or were great war heroes.

Living in a city was the dream for most and some features unique to cities were places like auction houses, merchant associations, banks etc.

Most well known universities for higher education were located in cities and owning land inside a city was considered to be prestigious within the NPC social circles.

The city tier list also went from tier4 all the way up to tier1 when it was given the title of 'Metro City' of which there were only four in the entire empire.

Finally, there was the royal capital itself, the city which was the heart of the empire and housed over 250 million people.

It was the residence of the royal family and was responsible for close to 40% of the entire empire's trade.

There was not a single reputable adventurer group or merchant union that did not have a branch office in the capital and the more prominent one's even had their headquarters there.

It was the place of dreams for most commoners and the place where most action in Terra Nova Online was bound to unfold with time.

Ofcourse Leo who only partially learnt about this tier system did not understand it fully, however, what he did pick up from the old man's wordings was the fact that this small Silverpine Village and all the others on this mountain were too small a place to give him opportunity for growth.

If he wanted to achieve something big he had to head off towards a bigger city and to do so he needed to buy a map of the surrounding areas.

"Old man, where can I buy a map that guides me to the nearest city? I'm planning to leave this town tomorrow since my work here is already done" Leo said as the old man immediately guided him towards the local shop that sold regional maps.

Thanking him, Leo left his store and after selling the remaining wolf parts for 1 gold coin he bought a regional map for 2 silver pieces which was automatically fed into his system map which expanded dramatically after his purchase.

[ System Notification - You have acquired a map of the western mountains, since your level exceeds level 10 you are free to leave your beginner village and travel as you please ]

A system notification informed Leo that since he had acquired both the regional map and had crossed level 10, he had satisfied all the conditions to leave the beginner village and was free to travel as he pleased.