Episode 2 – Growing Up Chapter 7 – Finlay City

The Yulan Continent, to the west of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, was divided into the Holy Alliance and the Dark Alliance, of which the leading kingdom in the Holy Alliance was the Finlay Kingdom!

Finlay City was the royal capital of the ‘Finlay Kingdom’.

At the same time, it was also the ‘Holy Capital’ of the Holy Alliance, as the headquarters of the Illuminati was located in the western part of Finlay City.

The entire Finlay City, was mainly divided into two major parts, East City and West City. The East City was managed by the Finlay Kingdom, while the West City was managed by the Illuminati. Precisely because Finlay City was both the royal capital and the holy capital, the prosperity of Finlay City was just second to none in the entire Yulan Continent.

Finlay City covered an extremely vast area, and its interior housed more than a million residents, making it a top five super city in the entire Yulan Continent.

In the evening, Linley and Hillman entered Finlay City.

“Wow.”

Walking on the main street of Finlay City’s eastern city, ‘Champs Avenue’, Linley only felt like he was looking at his eyes, and the little shadow mouse ‘Bebe’ was asked by Linley to hide inside his own clothes, and Bebe also sneaked out an eye to look towards the outside. “Squeak, squeak,” the little shadow mouse was also excited.

Fortunately, the entire Champs Avenue was so busy and noisy at the moment that no one paid attention to that sound.

“Quiet.”

Linley immediately gently patted the little shadow mouse, which obediently stopped making noises, but spoke of its excitement to Linley through soul communication.

The entire Champs Avenue was paved with leveled bluestone slabs that could accommodate several horse-drawn carriages running parallel. On both sides of the street were hotels, clothing stores, weapon stores, bars, and other business establishments. At the same time, there was a row of neatly erected pine and cypress trees on both sides of the ‘Champs Avenue’.

The noblewomen and ladies were all dressed in trendy clothing, talking and laughing with each other as they strolled along the street.

When some of the surrounding noblewomen saw Linley’s reaction, they all snorted and laughed at each other in low voices and pointed at Linley from time to time. Obviously, Linley’s reaction was that of a ‘country bumpkin entering the city’, and the nobles of the royal capital had an innate sense of superiority over country bumpkins.

“Hmph, uneducated.”

Linley frowned, displeased with the noblewomen’s pointing and laughing.

Having been educated by his family from a young age, Linley let his excitement remain hidden in his heart for just a moment, appearing much calmer on the surface.

“Linley, how is Finlay City? Among our Holy Alliance Finlay City is the number one city.”

Hillman sighed as he walked along the streets with Linley, seeing some of the warriors walking by, or the occasional magician or two, “Linley, powerful warriors and magicians are very common amongst Finlay City.”

Linley smiled and nodded, “It is written in the books that Finlay City is the political and economic center of the Holy Alliance, as well as the center of the arts.”

“It’s a paradise for the rich and well-heeled.”

Hillman nodded and sighed.

On the bustling Champs Avenue, there were often some luxury carriages passing by, and Hillman brought Linley with him as he strolled around Finlay City’s main road, the ‘Champs Avenue’ before directly looking for an ordinary inn to reside in.

There was a small restaurant next to the inn, and Linley, Hillman and the two of them had their dinner here.

That night, inside the inn.

Linley was sharing a room with Derinkelwalt in the middle of a room with two beds, and as soon as they entered the room, the little Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’ jumped out from within Linley’s chest clothes, and immediately circled around Linley, barking incessantly.

“I know you’re hungry, eat.”

Linley threw the entire roast duck he had brought back from the restaurant aside on the ground, and Bebe immediately tore into it excitedly next to him.

“Linley, rest early, you still have to go for your magic test tomorrow morning.”

Hillman instructed.

“Got it, Uncle Hillman.”

With his mouth full, Linley nevertheless walked over to the window and pulled open the curtains.

The inn had three floors, and Linley and the others were residing on the second floor. Three-story high buildings were simply not found in Wushan Town, but they were very common in the royal capital, ‘Finlay City’, where seven- and eight-story high buildings were found.

Looking outside through the window, people were still coming and going on the streets outside.

“Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a big city.”

A misty stream of light flew out from the Ring of the Coiled Dragon and transformed into an old man with white hair, as Derin Corvette and Linley looked out side by side at the streets below.

“Grandpa Delin.”

Linley immediately greeted.

“Linley, how does it feel to be in the big city?”

Delinquent said with a smile.

“It’s not much.”

Linley said with a deflated mouth.

Derinkelwalt, however, sighed, “You’ve only been here for how long, you don’t know anything about large cities, there are all sorts of lavish places to spend money here, such as large auctions, where some tycoons can even spend hundreds of thousands of gold coins or even millions of gold coins to purchase an item.”

“Millions of gold coins?”

Linley could only feel a dryness in his throat.

What kind of huge sum of money was that? I’m afraid that he couldn’t even take out a hundred thousand gold coins within his own family.

“There are still many rich people, money, power, and beauty, the competition is so fierce that people die every day here. Some corpses are often found in the stinking ditches in the slums of Finlay City, and those corpses might be some nobles.”

Drinkwater smiled indifferently, “However, to stand in this world, all you need is your own strength.”

“Don’t ask for mercy from others, everything, you can only rely on yourself.”

Drinkwater looked towards Linley.

The dragon blood warrior bloodline in Linley’s body actually made Linley belligerent and bloodthirsty at heart.

“Whoever threatens me, threatens my loved ones, I will kill him.”

Linley said firmly, having read quite a few books about the ups and downs of his family, Linley knew very well that to be merciful to your enemy was to be cruel to yourself.

If you let the enemy go, the enemy could kill your loved ones.

“However, my current strength is still very weak.”

Linley also couldn’t help but recall in his heart the contempt that some noblewomen had shown himself when he had just entered Finlay City. In the eyes of those upper class people, he was nothing more than a poor boy from the countryside.

With a bemused smile, Linley went to bed and sat down on his knees, beginning to meditate to exercise his spiritual energy.

Meditating to exercise one’s spiritual energy was actually using various methods to consume one’s spiritual energy until it was consumed to a bottom line, and then recovering through sleep!

In the middle dantian of the chest.

The misty earth-colored mist was floating in the middle dantian, this earth-colored mist was the earth system magic power after the earth system elements had been refined. According to Derinkelwalt’s narration, from a first level magician to a sixth level magician, the magical power was in the form of mist. As the level increased, the ‘quality’ of the magical power would improve and the density would increase.

Upon reaching a seventh level magician, the magical power would condense into a liquid.

So a rank six magician to a rank seven magician was a hurdle!

“This kid Linley, he’s so hardworking that he’s exercising his spiritual power at night.”

Hillman couldn’t help but secretly marvel when he saw Linley sitting with his knees crossed and his eyes closed, whether it was a magician or a warrior. Spiritual energy was very important to them all!

The next morning, Greenleaf Road in Finlay’s East City, Greenleaf Road was also one of several main roads in Finlay City, and most of the buildings on both sides of the entire Greenleaf Road were luxurious mansions, as well as a few buildings belonging to the Kingdom. One of the tallest buildings – the Church of the Illuminati.

There were six kingdoms and fifteen principalities in the Holy Alliance, and the Holy See controlled the entire alliance.

The Pope of Light had the highest status, and the Pope had the right to dismiss the king of a kingdom! So even in Finlay City East, the highest building was the Church of the Illuminati.

This morning, many people had gathered at the entrance to the Church of the Illuminati, and the vast majority of the people here were nobles in noble attire, and a carriage had nearly filled the empty square in front of the church as the nobles exchanged pleasantries with one another.

Linley and Hillman had also arrived here at this time.

“Uncle Hillman, there are so many people here today, many nobles have brought their children.”

Linley said to Hillman with a smile, and at this time, the little Shadowmouse ‘Bebe’ was also shrinking inside Linley’s clothes, occasionally revealing his small eyes to peer outwards.

Hillman nodded and smiled bashfully, “Nobles? Any magician who graduates from the highest magic academy, the ‘Ernst Academy’, is easily able to become a count in a kingdom.”

“A count of a kingdom?”

Linley understood as soon as he heard it.

It wasn’t too difficult to obtain a kingdom’s count, but it was harder to obtain an empire’s count. After all, any of the four great empires were comparable to the entire Holy Alliance, far from being comparable to the Kingdom of Finlay.

“Oh, Lord Doyle, you’re here too?”

“Heber, I came here, of course, for my son, Hess, to meet Uncle Heber.”

Only to see a group of nobles not far away exchanging pleasantries with each other, the magic enrollment test, the enrollment fee for the test alone requires ten gold coins. And once one is admitted, by a certain magic academy. Then the tuition fee is even higher. The general magic academy, the tuition fee for a year is hundreds of gold coins! The average family couldn’t afford it at all, but as long as their children were accepted, there would naturally be nobles to subsidize them.

However, not all magic academies had expensive tuition fees.

For example, the number one magic academy, ‘Ernst Academy’, had very few students, and as long as they belonged to the children of the Holy Alliance, the tuition was completely free! After all, those who were able to enter the Ernst Academy were all geniuses. Their achievements in the future would be unlimited.

“Hmph, those commoners and country people come too, what a daydream?”

Some nobles in the distance snorted.

Among the hundreds of people gathered at the plaza, there were also some commoners, or small countryside nobles like Linley. Generally, small countryside nobles were also looked down upon. Most of those nobles who were in the royal capital were more proud to look down on people.

“Linley, don’t talk down to them.”

Hillman whispered.

Linley looked at the group of nobles and smiled lowly, “Uncle Hillman, I won’t be general with those people.”

Under his father Hogg’s many years of education, Linley would not yet care about those nobles of the royal capital who thought they were above the rest.

The entire square was clearly divided into two circles, one was the circle of high talking nobles, and the other was the commoners or small countryside nobles.

At this moment, there were two warriors in battle armor at the entrance of the church, blocking outsiders from entering.

After a while, a magus in black robes walked out slowly, and stopped when he reached the entrance of the church, and said aloud with a smile, ”The magic test, which will now begin, and the recruiters of the major magic academies are ready. Anyone who wants to take the magic test, please follow me into the hall.”