Conquest

Chapter 2 No decent people in Primal Wildfire Town (Part 1)

Translator: Tchu

Editor: Scar

If someone wanted to find the most chaotic place on the whole continent, then the title surely belonged to Primal Wildfire Town.

The real name of this Town was not actually Primal Wildfire Town. In fact, it had several unofficial names – this current confusing state was caused by the ownership issue of Primal Wildfire Town.

This small town was located in the southern part of Primal Wildfire and was under nobody’s jurisdiction. If it came to the question of ownership, it could be said “whoever’s flag was flying over the town, owned it”.

The northern Odin Empire, the southern Byzantine Empire and even some large bandits and thieves groups were the masters here before.

The geographical location of Primal Wildfire Town was not very good. It was actually founded at the most delicate spot on the continent. The Town did not have any resources that were worth mentioning. It was mostly surrounded by forests, mountains and valleys. The land here was barren and the climate was mostly bizarre.

Every year, the cold air coming from the north brought a cold winter to Primal Wildfire Town. It lasted for three months each year . When the winter passed, a warm southern sea breeze started to mix with the northern wind. This wind resulted in making people lazy. When the hot and cold air met each other, it caused ample rainfall and made the land muddy in the summer.

As the result, winter was cold and dry and summer hot and wet in Primal Wildfire Town.

People from the northern Odin Empire were accustomed to a climate of ice and snow and had problems to adapt to the hot and damp summer here. The inhabitants of the southern Byzantine Empire hated on contrary the winter with its biting cold.

Coupled with the low economical output and tough livelihood, it could be said that this was a region with little value.

Even though the Primal Wildfire Town did not have many resources, it was surrounded by many ferocious beasts and many big and medium native tribes. These big and medium tribes had both a bright and a dark side. In war times, they would fly a banner and work as a mercenary band and in peaceful times they would mask their faces and start robbing people.

In the vicinity, dwarf tribes and also a lot of dirty, cowardly goblins had spread in the forest and swamps like ants...

In this place, only when both big Empires prepared to go to war, would they treat it as the buffer zone. In peaceful times, they would never even bother to look at it.

The two big Empires had formed a somewhat tacit understanding. If some Byzantine troops are stationed here, Odin would certainly invade this place and if an Odin army occupied this location, Byzantium would also follow up and dispatch its troops. Neither of these sides had occupied this shabby place for a long period. As long as the enemy had not seized this area, they would turn a blind eye on it and thus it simply turned into a location which was under nobody’s jurisdiction.

Since it was the only town in Primal Wildfire, it had an influx of different and complex personality from the continent. Criminals, most wanted terrorists, petty thieves, burglars, profiteers, adventurers and so on. It could be said a “colorful” community resided here.

An anarchic paradise would be the most fitting description of Primal Wildfire Town.

Recently, several large southern merchant groups from Byzantine were suffering massive losses from robbery of local thieves and bandits. It forced them to raised funds and recruited several mercenary groups from the capital to deal with the robbers and bandit groups. Right now, they were treating this location as an important goods distribution center and announced to the locals that this small town was under their “protection”.

In Primal Wildfire Town you could find anything, cart sellers, inns, taverns, gambling den, brothels and even some secret strongholds of some bandits and thieves gangs. In the black market, all kind of prohibited goods could be bought and also the service of mercenary tribes could be acquired here......

Here was the paradise for adventurers.

This place was not suited for a cautious and prudent person.

Even the tailor in the town was probably a fleeing criminal, sought by both big Empires and was evading arrest warrants for many years.

............

When Shaar Thunder entered the town, nobody paid any attention to him. The tattered clothed and the ragged wolf fur coat he was wearing gave him the vibe of a beggar. Furthermore, because he fixed a charred black pitchfork on his waist as a weapon, most people thought that he must be one of those “mentally retarded” beggar.

While Shaar Thunder was walking down the street of Primal Wildfire Town like a hungry wolf that just escaped the mountain, a pair of greedy eyes were staring at him from a store entrance on the roadside.

............

If only one word was used to describe the looks of Tatara and it had to be in the most accurate way, then this word would certainly be: Wretched!

If one had to add an adverb to it, it would be “extremely” Wretched!!

He was thin, extremely thin. It could be said he was only skin and bones. He had deep cheekbones, a pair of thick, mean looking angled eyebrows and triangular eyes. Coupled with his wretched and immoral atmosphere, when he smiled he looked like one of those uncles who would seduce innocent kids with lollipops .

It could be said that with his looks, if he walked on the street at night, even if he did nothing wrong, patrol guard would still look at him with suspicious eyes.

In the past, he had once a very “proud” encounter. While studying in the Royal capital, on a casual night he met a woman by chance in an alley. He found himself face-to-face with the opposite party and looked at her. That woman only saw the look of Tatara, became frightened, her beautiful face instantly turned pale and she started yelling “Molester!”

As a result, a patrol indiscriminately tied him up and arrested him. Tatara tried to defend himself, but they only said one thing: “You awfully resemble someone who would molest young little girls.”

Luckily, the current Tatara no longer needed to suffer such a humiliation treatment again.

The current Tatara had the most prestigious occupations on the continent. There was no position with more prestige than his!

His current occupational status was: Honored Magician Sir Tatara.

Of course, this title was exaggerated. In matter of fact, Tatara was only a low-level magician. Moreover the unfortunate part was, he was not young anymore and during the magic assessment, it was identified that magic potential would not continue to grow. Therefore he would not get the chance of promotion again.

Although the occupation of a magician was prestigious, it was only referred to those high-level magicians who could control the forces of nature. Low-level magicians like him with no potential of magical growth, were only left with the option to seek a career in a mercenary band and act as a fighting force. It was enough to cover his living expenses, if his luck wishes so, maybe he would meet some ignorant countryside noble who would recruit him as an honored guest.

Therefore in Royal capital and other big cities, Tatara did not have any advancement opportunities. He could only go to remote villages like Primal Wildfire Town to try his luck.

Another reason for him to come to Primal Wildfire Town was an absolute accident – he went bankrupt.

This was a very absurd matter: How could a prestigious and rich magician unexpectedly go bankrupt?

Nevertheless, this very matter actually happened to Tatara – Out of pure coincidence, Tatara obtained an old book that described a type method to increase one’s magic strength tremendously. This discovery stimulated the ambition of Tatara and he purchased many magic materials in order to conduct this magic research. He borrowed a massive loan from a moneylender to cover the costs. Then.....unfortunately, his magic research failed and almost all the material were consumed.

The most unfortunate part was...He later discovered that this old book he obtained was a forged antique sold by relic peddlers!

He was cheated by these despicable profiteers and bought a forged antique as a magician! That was simply the greatest shame for Tatara.

To make things worse, the moneylender was operating legally and was protected under the empire’s legal constitution. In order to recover the debt, they went to the Royal capital magician guild and sued Tatara.

Not only did they sue a magician who did not have any money, they also had to bring this case to the magician guild?!

In all these hundreds of years there was never such a big scandal! Tatara was disgraced in the Royal capital and became a huge joke in the magician community. In the Royal capital, this young low-level magician had become more famous than those long serving high-level magicians.

Thus he could only conceal his identity and go into exile. He hoped to try his luck in Primal Wildfire Town which was under nobody’s jurisdiction.

Right now, Tatara saw Shaar Thunder walking down the street.

To be more precise, he saw the thing that was hanging on Shaar Thunder’s neck!

In the eyes of a magician, as soon as he saw that thing dangling on Shaar Thunder’s neck, he could not help get overwhelmed with greed.

It looked like a greyish stone without any gloss.

However ......Tatara swore on the almighty god, it was a superior magic soul crystal!!!

............

Shaar Thunder was suddenly blocked from his path.

Although he was dizzy from hungry, after clearly seeing that fellow who had blocked his path, he immediately grasped the meaning that something was not right!

“Hello young man, do you want to make a deal?”

Tatara tried to put on his most genuine smile, but obviously his efforts were in vain. Seeing that smile, Shaar Thunder’s face became vigilant and his first reaction was to simultaneously grip one hand on his weapon while another hand quickly covered his pocket.