Chapter 75: The City of Sparta
The following morning.
The war ended so quickly that most of Olympia’s citizens hadn’t even reacted yet.
It wasn’t until the newspapers began to extensively report on the wreckage of the Crusader camp in the south and the massive corpse of the Leviathan in the north that the citizens seemed to wake up from a dream. A joyous atmosphere filled Olympia, even boosting business in the bars.
Currently, ordinary citizens were still prohibited from leaving Olympia, due to concerns about radiation from the neutron bomb. Therefore, citizens could only gather in entertainment venues, exchanging and boasting about the meager war information they had heard.
Meanwhile, after exchanging their military merits for rewards, the members of Azure Longsword planned to leave with the Spartans as soon as possible.
Since they had achieved their goals, there was no point in staying any longer.
In exchange for their military merits, Olympia provided Azure Longsword with six Sequence II potions:
Fire II, Frost II, Storm II, Meteor II, Thunder II, and Shadow II.
In addition, they were given two Sequence I potions as a bonus: Giant I and Radiance I.
The combined value of these far exceeded the merit redemption limit. It could be said that, thanks to Thira’s efforts, the City Lord had indeed given them an amazing discount.
Fire II was for Medea. Although her other personality possessed the high-sequence ability of Fire V, that was a gift from Purgatory, not a Sequence that Medea herself had mastered, and it wasn’t counted towards her own level.
Besides, they couldn’t let that pervert Medusa out every time, could they?
Frost II and Thunder II were prepared for Sidlipha. The “Titan Giant” path she chose was a rare bloodline path in this world, characterized by both physical and mental bursts, very powerful.
Of course, the corresponding potions were also much more expensive. For example, the “Giant I” potion could grant the user the bloodline of a giant, automatically making them understand the Giant language, while almost doubling their explosive power and endurance.
It was equivalent to a comprehensive improvement in attack, defense, and HP, transforming them into a super-powered heavy DPS. Therefore, its market price could reach around 800 pounds.
Shadow II was Mia’s potion, no need to mention that for now. The remaining Storm II, Meteor II, and Radiance I were obviously gifts from City Lord Appius to his beloved granddaughter.
Storm II and Meteor II were Thira’s two main sequences, which she could take all the way to level IV (level 4) along her bloodline path. Coupled with her existing cornerstone sequence “Wisdom X,” she had a total of 9 potions so far.
For the remaining one, she could choose any potion from the Arcane Sequence.
In Asker’s previous life, if a player’s main sequence wasn’t Thunder, they would usually choose “Thunder I.” The reason was simple: the Thunder ability had a fast activation speed, short aerial projectile time, and also came with a paralysis effect, making it very suitable as an opening spell.
However, Thira chose “Radiance I,” for the same reason as Eleanor before:
Since Sidlipha already had the Thunder Sequence in the team, it would be a waste for her to choose the same sequence again. It was better to choose an ability that the team didn’t have to make up for their overall shortcomings.
This way, they had collected all seven Arcane Sequences: Fire, Frost, Thunder, Storm, Meteor, Radiance, and Shadow.
Asker suddenly felt like he was playing a gacha game and collecting characters, all kinds of beautiful girls, all kinds of professions, all complete.
Fortunately, they were all living people, not just character portraits, so this couldn’t be considered game addiction, right?
However, thinking about the upcoming super war that would almost destroy half the continent, Asker felt a heavy pressure again.
Low-level Transcendents below level 10 were all cannon fodder in that super war. How many of the girls in his team would survive?
Time was running out, he had to quickly raise the team’s level!
Leaving Olympia, their next stop was the Spartan city-state. Azure Longsword chose to travel with Rudashius and the others.
The car parked in the small town of Olympia at the foot of the mountain had long been destroyed in the war.
Even if it hadn’t been destroyed, it would most likely have been rendered useless in the subsequent magic tide, its microcontroller in the electronic control system burned out.
Fortunately, Olympia had kindly sponsored two carriages…
Appius really doted on his granddaughter, even having Quintus send mage guards to escort them.
They were driving cars last month, and this month they could only ride in carriages. It felt like suddenly going back in time from modern times to the Middle Ages. The magic tide was such a pain.
They traveled along the Siris national highway. In the afternoon of the second day, they arrived at the Spartan city-state.
The Spartan city-state was surrounded by mountains on three sides, built on the central Laconian plain. In the Second Age, Sparta was one of the few cities on the Siris Peninsula without city walls, and also one of the few city-states that focused on physical Transcendental sequences.
In the words of the Athenians, there were only two kinds of people in Sparta: tough guys, and “tough guys” with female bodies.
Even the Spartan women were very fierce in battle, so the Spartans often mocked the Athenians with this sentence:
“You can’t even beat my wife.”
After Quintus escorted them to the outskirts of the Spartan city-state, he left with the mage guards. After all, the Spartan city-state’s custom of despising spiritual supernatural powers had a long history, and he didn’t want to be ridiculed by these tough guys after entering the city.
Before leaving, Quintus also gave Thira something.
Mia saw it clearly, it was a thick stack of banknotes…
After Quintus and his group left, Rudashius eagerly pulled Asker into the city, wanting to treat him to the local specialties: roasted lamb and black soup.
Asker declined. Roasted lamb was fine, but Spartan black soup was a no-go.
It was a dark dish made of pig’s blood, salt, and vinegar. The Spartans didn’t know how to add cooking wine, ginger, and Sichuan peppercorns to remove the fishy and gamey smell like the Chinese did. It tasted incredibly disgusting.
Before they even entered the city, Rudashius saw a group of Spartan warriors standing outside the city, holding shields and spears, surrounding a corpse on the ground.
“What happened?” Rudashius pushed through the crowd. Having a Spartan killed outside the city right after returning with his friends made him lose face.
“Rudashius!” Some of the surrounding Spartan warriors recognized him and immediately pointed at the corpse on the ground, saying concisely, “Someone was killed.”
“Explain clearly, damn it! I’m not blind, can’t I see that someone was killed?” Rudashius said, exasperated. Although he had been in the Spartan city-state for nearly ten years, he still couldn’t adapt to the locals’ laconic speech style.
“The killer was a snow monster from Mount Taygetus in the southeast.” Another Spartan warrior said.
“Then go and destroy its lair!” Rudashius said.
“We can’t beat it.” The Spartan warrior shook his head.
Rudashius: …
I just brought my friends back, and you let them see that you were beaten by a snow monster at your doorstep, and you can’t even beat it?
How embarrassing!
“Rudashius, did you win?” A Spartan warrior asked.
Obviously, in the eyes of the Spartans, going out to fight either meant complete annihilation or a triumphant return. Since Rudashius, who went north to aid Olympia, appeared here, he must have won.
“More than 600 people went out, only 21 returned, that’s not considered a victory.” Rudashius sighed.
“Victory is victory, even if it’s built on blood.” This Spartan warrior rarely quoted a proverb.
“No more talk, I have to go see the Spartan King. You take care of these guests behind me, they are my comrades who fought alongside me in the north.” Rudashius pointed behind him and then hurried into the city.
Comrades? The Spartan warriors turned around and were immediately shocked by the disproportionate gender ratio of the Azure Longsword mercenary group.
However, Spartans respected their comrades, so they didn’t say much. One of the warriors stepped forward, gestured to Asker, and said:
“Please.”
Led by the Spartans, Azure Longsword was brought into the city and given a place to stay.
As a militaristic city-state since ancient times, the Spartans implemented military management. Their living quarters were also dormitories. Apart from separate bedrooms and bathrooms, the kitchen, dining hall, balcony, etc., were all shared on each floor of the dormitory, even for guests.
The Azure Longsword group was brought to a large room, and the Spartan warrior leading the way introduced:
“This is the largest room in all our dormitories, with ten beds and three bathrooms, enough for you and your wives.”
The girls were greatly embarrassed. Asker didn’t mind, because explaining to the Spartans was troublesome, and once he explained clearly, they would arrange other rooms for the girls, making them live with the unmarried Spartan girls.
It would be too troublesome to gather again later, and besides, they had Furnace Island.
Speaking of Furnace Island, Asker suddenly noticed that Hood was missing.
“Where is the young man who came with us?” He asked.
“Your son is almost an adult.” The Spartan warrior replied. “We have arranged a separate accommodation for him in the boy soldiers’ barracks.”
(Due to the Spartans’ dormitory system, children, upon reaching the age of 7, would be arranged to live in the boy soldiers’ quarters. Otherwise, it would be inconvenient for parents to do their business in the same room.)
That’s not my son… Asker was completely speechless, then suddenly realized. Boy soldiers?
“Please be sure to arrange for him to receive your boy soldiers’ training.” Asker said seriously.
Be well-trained, you brat! So you won’t slander me for having a harem all day long!
The Spartan warrior was stunned. Although it was Spartan custom for parents and children to live separately, if the guests had requests, the Spartans would usually make other arrangements.
However, guests usually requested to “live with their children” or “let him live in the room next to mine.”
This was the first time he had met a guest like Asker who “respected Spartan customs.”
He is indeed a comrade recognized by Rudashius!
The Spartan warrior immediately put on a serious expression: “Please rest assured, we will definitely train your son into a true warrior!”
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