Greed God chapter 118

February 23rd 2016 Gemworld 10:00 AM EDT

The  walk to the Amethyst kingdom's capital was more time consuming than  expected. I briefly considered flying there, but a dragonkin soaring  through the sky on a green hurricane seemed like it might grab  attention, and I wanted to avoid drawing the ire of any big wigs before I  met with the princess. So I ran. A lot. With my Vital Tempest bloodline  I had energy to spare, so even at a dead sprint I didn't really flag  too much. It took me three days to make the run to the capital, and only  that because I stopped to sleep during the nights.

I  could have made the run straight through probably, if I pushed it and  was willing to run myself ragged, but I wasn't and a few days was hardly  the end of the world. I called to check in with Barbie twice while I  was gone, just making sure none of the Emerald nobility had dropped in  yet. Apparently they hadn't, so I was still in the clear. At about ten  in the morning on the third day I came within sight of the capital of  the Amethyst kingdom, and when I saw it, I had to come to a stop in  shock because it was definitely not what I was expecting.

As  I had assumed, the capital was very...purple. But that was about where  it stopped conforming to my expectations. The city was huge and made of  dozens of towering buildings, but more than the size the biggest shock  was the material. I knew the Amethyst kingdom would use Amethysts in  their decorating, but these buildings were MADE of Amethysts. All of  them. Just huge opaque spires of purple gemstone spearing into the  clouds. The gleam of the city in the morning sun was incredibly  mesmerizing, and I stood there and stared for a bit, just taking it in.

I  was on the road, and I sat there staring for WAY too long. I heard a  voice shout for me to look out, and I moved without thinking. Rather  than jumping or rolling though, I called the tempest under my feet,  cushions of air buoying me up off the ground and letting me skim over  the grass quickly and soundlessly. That trick was one I'd been  practicing on my run when I had a free moment, and it definitely came in  handy as I gracefully spun out, doing a complete about face to turn and  face the person who had yelled.

I was ready for a fight  in case it was someone planning to try to rob me or something, but I  needn't have worried about it. The person who had yelled was a man on a  wagon being pulled by a pair of weird purple cows. When he saw I was  safe, he initially looked relieved, but as his eyes focused on my feet,  still suspended off the ground, his face paled. He pulled the wagon to a  stop, hopped down, and dropped to his knees to debase himself in front  of my. "My Lord. Please forgive this unworthy one. I nearly harmed your  noble person." I raised an eyebrow, doing a quick appraisal.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Abner Mccullough- H rank  gemworlder. A peasant farmer coming in to town to sell a crop of violet  cabbage, Abner is a hard working and humble man. Despite his confidence  and worldly attitude, Abner is terrified of nobles due to the cruelty of  his local Baron.]

Huh. Well that explained the  horror when he saw my magic. Any reasonably strong magical power here  belonged to some kind of noble lineage. I wasn't actually flying, but my  wind manipulation was pretty impressive, and also it was green, which  probably made him assume I was from Emerald. I let the tempest retreat,  dropping a few inches to land effortlessly on my toes. I put up both  hands. "Stand, friend. No need to be so nervous. No harm done, and I'd  happily call out accounts settled for a short ride into town."

I  kept my voice amiable and pleasant, knowing he would be easy to spook.  While I could have taken offense, I gained nothing from that. The poor  old guy was going to sell cabbage, it wasn't like he was a rich guy I  could rob. In these circumstances, making a good impression would be a  far better idea. I could see guards at the entrance to the city even  from here. If this guy was a farmer who regularly sold his goods here he  could get me into the city, and that was worth more than venting at  some rando for an accident that hadn't even happened.

Now,  some might have expected him to be suspicious or fearful when I said  that, but those people didn't really understand power. As someone who  had theoretically unlimited power over him, if I'd just waved away the  insult he'd have been nervous. If I could decide it didn't matter I  could change my mind. However, people instinctively trusted that others  would act in their own interest. By framing the trip into the city as  repayment for the slight, I gave him a valid way to work off the debt,  which was much more trustworthy than some random nobles good nature.

As  I figured, Abner's face lit with a wide smile. "Of course! You're  welcome to ride in with me my Lord, welcome indeed." He scrambled up to  his feet, holding up a hand. "Please, give me but a moment to arrange a  suitable seat for you." He turned and rushed back over to the parked  wagon, climbing up onto the bench and knocking over a few things before  brushing the wooden seat off. He then reached back into the wagon and  pulled out a blanket, which he folded into a cushion and set gently on  the seat.

That done he turned and hopped down, gesturing  solemnly for me to climb in. I gave him an approving nod and climbed in.  I wondered exactly how much of a dick this Baron was, for this guy to  be this terrified after just seeing me use a little wind magic for  mobility. Regardless it was useful for me so I wouldn't question it.  Still, even I had limits to how much of an asshole I would be for no  reason, so I made a point to smile at him and try to come across as  friendly as possible. He was already doing what I wanted, so terrorizing  the poor bastard didn't get me anything, and he seemed like an ok guy.

I  climbed into the wagon, and as we rode up to the city I made casual  conversation. I did my best to tease out any information I could get  from him without being too obvious about it. I was able to identify a  few key points about Amaranthine, which was the name of the city  apparently. Firstly, there WAS a princess here. She was the daughter of a  capital P princess and not a duke, but she was eighteen and still  maturing, she was currently a Marquis as I had hoped she would be.

I  don't know why I hadn't considered it might take gemworlders time to  grow into their power, but in my defense, all the ones I'd met so far  had been older or too weak for it to matter. Still, it was actually  inconvenient for me, because harder or not it would have been nice to  get the much bigger chunk of points for subduing her. Princess Amaya was  the daughter of the current capital P princess Graciel, and from what I  could gather was probably the Amy Winston mentioned in the description  of the pendant, which made her my target.

Graciel was in  charge, and she and her sister Mordiel (who was only a Duchess in terms  of power) were the two eldest members of the Amethyst bloodline right  now. I wanted to get more, but aside from this basic knowledge the poor  farmer I'd caught a ride with didn't really have anything to tell.  Finally we came to the gate, and Abner pulled to a stop before hopping  out to approach the two guards I'd seen.

The guards were  wearing thick purple plate, and when I appraised them they were  apparently both Barons, which was impressive. I'd gotten the impression  while common Barons were still rare enough you wouldn't usually find  them as gate guards. More like squad captains. Then again the dynasties  had a much deeper pool than most, and this was a big city. It did make  sense to put strong guards at the gate. Abner traded a few comments with  them and then passed a small rough spun bag to one of them who opened  it up to look inside.

The guard gave a pleased smile and  nodded, purposefully ignoring me, which I suspected was what the money  was for. I wasn't sure if Abner had been planning that from the start or  if he needed to do it for me, but either way, we made it through  without much trouble and finally entered Amarthine itself. As we  trundled through the gates in the wagon, I looked around slowly to take  in the city, and it was all I could do not to whistle at the sight.

The  city was absolutely stunning. I wasn't really one to get all agitated  about a few buildings, but this place was on an entirely different level  from any city I'd ever been in. A few appraisals showed that most of  the huge towers of purple stone were at least the same level as  Shadowcrest, with several of them being B ranked buildings. The city as a  whole was probably A ranked at least, though I hadn't appraised it from  outside so I wasn't actually sure of that.

The  streets were made of gleaming purple cobble stones and lined with shops  and buildings that even individually blew my whole damn town out of the  water, with even most of the lower level buildings and random roadside  shacks being E rank. I could see numerous people around here at G rank,  and even a few F rankers walking around with entourages. I was pretty  much immediately glad I'd decided to do things the way I had and build  up for a meeting with Amaya. I had absolutely zero chance of siegeing  this fucking city down without like, a decade of accumulation. No  fucking thanks.

Once  I was inside I made my way to the nearest tavern I could find. I didn't  know jack shit about information gathering in a fantasy world city, but  I DID know that drunk people never shut up, so I figured the old saw  about taverns being a good place to find information might have a grain  of truth.

Once  I got inside I bought myself a drink with some gold coins I had lying  around my pouch from the bandit fortress and sat back to listen to as  much gossip as I could. The moon berry wine I bought was fantastic,  though the berries didn't have a patch on mine. While I drank I listened  to a bit of the talk around me. I stayed there for a few hours,  listening and occasionally buying someone a drink or two, before finally  getting the information I needed. When I was done I got up and headed  for the door.

As  I made my way outside I formed the rough outline of a plan (which I  could do effectively because apparently this fucking vital tempest  bloodline made it impossible for my ass to get drunk now). Once I had  pieced out my next move I turned down a side street I'd gotten  directions to and headed for the marketplace in the center of the city. I  needed an in with the royal family, and I'd managed to figure out  enough about their magic that I was pretty sure I had a damn good way to  bait that trap. I just needed to pick up a few things first, and then  the Greed System would solve my problem for me.