Shadow parasite

Gorn slowly got up, being careful not to disturb Lora, and went back to the balcony to get some fresh air.

The city was practically surrounded by wilderness, making it a little uncomfortable at times.

'A trip to the outside is inevitable.' thought Gorn while looking at the gigantic wall in the distance.

The place where he was situated was very close to the exit.

'One hundred kilometers long and fifty wide, coupled with a population of around one million people is not that much. Is this all that humanity is left with?'

There was no information about other cities to the general public.

'Even if there are other cities, moving so many people through a wild forest full of monsters and other unknown dangers would be quite troublesome.'

"Good morning! What are you thinking so hard about?"

Gorn turned towards Lora, who entered the balcony.

"About going outside the city."

Lora stopped, and looked at him with weird eyes: "You are serious about this... ."

She wanted to ask a few more questions but held it in.

"Compared to the number of the city's total population, very few people go adventuring outside the safe zones, but that doesn't mean no one goes out."

Lora nodded: "That's right, someone needs to go out after different resources, and knowledge. That, however, doesn't mean it's much safer."

Gorn shrugged his shoulders: "No pain, no gain right?"

Lora raised her eyebrows: "Not really."

Laughing, Gorn suddenly disappeared. In the next moment, he was behind Lora. Taking her into his arms he did a backflip from on top of the balcony.

"Ahhh!"

Lora had no real time to react.

"Let's go eat something, I'm starving."

She looked at him with weird eyes: "Your house has doors... ."

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Lora and Gorn were currently eating a lot of good food inside a fancy restaurant.

"So, do you think I should join the mercenary guild or go alone?" asked Gorn with a low voice.

Letting out a sigh Lora answered: "That depends on what your real goal is. Going with other experienced people would be much safer, however, if you want privacy then going alone should be more advised. Again, depends on how far you want to go, and what your goals are."

Gorn nodded, what she said made sense. Since it wasn't nice talking while eating, they finished eating first.

"I would like you to accompany me to the Mercenary Guild, if you want, of course."

"Sure, no problem."

After paying their bill, the two of them got inside Lora's car and headed towards the higher part of the city. That area occupied around twenty percent of the city and was available only to certain people, and factions.

After driving for some time, the car stopped in front of a wall that had only a small entrance, which was guarded. A guard got closer to the car. Lora took out a badge and showed it to the man, after which they were allowed entry. Parking the car in a special place, they headed towards the gate.

Lora looked at Gorn and grinned. He knew that without her help it would take him some time to get inside the higher part of the city.

Once they entered, it was like stepping inside a different world. The quality of everything present, being buildings, roads, or even ornamental vegetation was miles apart from everything Gorn saw until that day. It was more like a magical city than a concrete city.

Tall trees, tree houses, sparkling small lakes, numerous paths of beautiful flowers, and much more.

"Why didn't we enter with the car?" asked Gorn, a little puzzled.

Lora smiled mysteriously: "What do you think?"

Looking around Gorn did not see even a trace of cars, buses, or anything of the sort.

"Ha, you got me real good... ."

Gorn was like a small child, looking left and right with sparkling eyes.

"I think I'm going to burn my current home and buy myself a tree house in this place."

Lora laughed: "I suggest you don't do that."

"Stop teasing me, and tell me what you know already."

"How about you give me a kiss first?"

Gorn rolled his eyes and kissed her. Lora laughed mischievously.

"Gold is useless here. Monster cores are the real currency. And before you think of exchanging all your gold for monster cores, let me tell you that it's not possible. The supply is just too low."

"Ohh..., so how much a house is worth here?"

"The minimum is a thousand low-level monster cores. In gold that would be five million gold pieces, however, gold is useless here as I already told you."

Gorn thought he was filthy rich, something far away from the truth apparently.

"Do you got a house here by any chance?"

"No. The effort is just not worth it. We do, however, handle some business here, thus we are allowed entry. The same could be said about most of the major powers in the lower part of the city."

"I see... ."

Lora led the way towards the Mercenary Guild, while Gorn looked around in awe. The place occupied around twenty percent of the city, but the population living inside was extremely small. They only met a few people on the way.

"The Mercenary Guild is close to the edge of the city. Since there are no cars, we need to run if we want to get there. Twenty kilometers is not much, but walking takes too long."

Gorn nodded. To them, twenty kilometers was nothing. As they got closer, more and more people could be seen. Gorn analyzed most of them secretly.

'Not even a single person with a power level below two hundred.'

Most of them had on average a power level above five hundred.

'One thousand and five hundred... .'

Soon, the Mercenary Guild could be seen in the distance. It was situated at the base of an enormous tree. It was partially integrated with the tree, giving off a very imposing aura.

"What do you think?" asked Lora.

"A nice piece of work, simply beautiful, " answered Gorn with sincerity.

When they got closer, he chose not to immediately enter but sat on a nearby bench.

"You said that anyone can become a member of the mercenary guild if they had the power, right?"

Lora nodded: "Yes. You need at least a power level of five hundred to become a one-star mercenary. Two stars have a power level of one thousand, and so on. The nice thing is that from two stars onward you receive a house in this area free of charge, and other exclusive benefits."

Gorn was pleasantly surprised to hear that.

"What do I get for being a one-star mercenary?"

"You get a badge that will allow you free entry in the higher part of the city, as well as the respect of a lot of people. The mercenary guild is known to be like a big family, so very few people dare to mess with any of its members."

"And what about the duty of a mercenary?"

Lora sat cross-legged and calmly answered his questions: "You have to simply hunt monsters. By doing that it's only natural that a high number of resources, and monster cores would come to the city, thus raising its overall power. You can also take different missions."

Gorn listened to Lora while also analyzing the nearby people for useful skills.

'Fuck! Nothing useful.'

Most of the skills were rather similar, or not that useful. All of a sudden he got an interesting idea.

'There are lots of monsters with useful abilities. What if I can acquire those as well?'