Exploring Technology in a Wizard World-Chapter 1269 - 1267: Shaya

July, the Flame Month.

On a road outside the South Capital "Shaya" of the Soma Alliance, Richard stepped forward, approaching the city praised by many.

As he got within a few miles, he could clearly see the appearance of the city.

At that moment, Richard’s eyes showed a bit of surprise, not at its prosperity—after all, he had seen metropolises far surpassing this era on Earth—but at its dilapidation.

He hadn’t expected that a place referred to as the "City of Glory" and "Golden City" would look even more neglected than Farro, a second-rate city.

The city’s protective walls were indeed grand, like an unending mountain range stretching across, with height and thickness enough to make ordinary armies despair. Some wizard apprentices and three-pattern magic knights couldn’t forcibly scale it; only wizards could ignore it.

However, considering the patrol soldiers atop the walls, the magic knights holding magic rune spears, and the massive mechanical crossbows, even wizards dare not too overtly challenge the city’s majesty as this is the place where the Alliance Emperor resides.

But aside from that, the rest of Shaya makes one involuntarily frown.

Visible from outside the city walls, about two hundred meters away, are some dilapidated wooden shacks built without any planning, scattered in patches and rows. Around the shacks, the ground is littered with trash and filled with sewage, with sanitary conditions extremely poor, even worse than some villages.

Inside the wooden shacks live all sorts of people: good people, bad people, men, women, children, the elderly, vendors, thieves...

Their only commonality is they are very poor, so they can only live here.

But compared to the poor in other places, they all have a hint of pride in their eyes, as if being able to have a place outside Shaya City is more knowledgeable than being a landlord in remote rural areas, even if they are poor enough to skip meals.

And some young people look at Shaya City with undisguised ambition, as if entering this city and getting residence inside would be a huge success.

Richard walked along the road, passed through the large slums where these people lived, had his feelings, and slowly entered the city.

Inside the city, compared to outside, it’s visibly better, at least no slums existed, all buildings were planned, and no outliers were allowed.

However, these buildings don’t look particularly prosperous; most are ordinary two-story stone buildings, and some are even single-storied houses.

The ground is not paved with stone, because it is summer, it rained not long ago, the ground has visible wheel ruts. The surface is covered in light yellow dust, and a light wind immediately stirs up a sky full of dusty yellow.

Pedestrians walk amidst the dust, seemingly accustomed to it, and some carry baskets, occasionally stopping at the roadside to inquire about the prices of goods sold by the street vendors.

The street vendors mainly sell daily necessities, fruits, and vegetables. At a stall dozens of meters away, vegetables are piled high. At a glance, one sees large radishes, small radishes, long radishes, short radishes, white radishes, yellow radishes... oh, those are carrots, in short, all sorts of radishes.

Is it because this season is just the right time to harvest radishes? Richard scanned a glance, retracted his gaze, and continued along the road amidst the rich breath of life.

After walking several miles, a new city wall appeared, more magnificent, with tighter guard.

From the city gate, upon entering this new city wall, the view greatly changed.

First was the ground, paved with smooth stones, the roads became very wide. On either side of the ten-meter-wide streets, there were no more vendors in sight, only formal shops. Stone buildings stood closely together, most were three-story, a few reaching four or five stories high.

Every so often, there were theaters, bathhouses, and other public entertainment venues, bustling with people at the entrances, with the look of a large city.

However, this prosperity merely matched Farro, not much exceeding it, so finding the reasons behind people’s praise for this city was hard.

Richard pressed his lips forward again, and after walking a few miles, the third city wall appeared, entirely black, seamless, like cast iron.

Upon entering this third city wall, a truly bustling atmosphere greeted him.

One could see, stone buildings spread like trees in a forest, densely throughout the field of vision, each taller and more luxurious than the last. Squares, gardens, fountains, and sculptures seemed to be embellishments, arranged on either side of the roads or at the ends. Tall buildings were everywhere to be found, theaters, bathhouses were widespread, and establishments like taverns and hotels lined whole streets.

The most iconic were the clock towers spaced apart, tall and slender like a toothpick, proudly standing among the many buildings.

"Dong!"

A copper bell atop one of the clock towers was struck, and soon after, copper bells on the city’s clock towers rang altogether, informing the city’s citizens of the current time.

Listening to the sound of the copper bell, surrounded by a prosperous scene, Richard had an epiphany.

It seems that Shaya is truly prosperous, but not all of Shaya is prosperous.

If put in Earth’s terms, the slum scene seen outside the city at first should be counted as the suburbs outside the city’s Third Circle, naturally in decline. Once inside the city, within the Third Circle, it begins to look somewhat proper.

Continuing deeper, entering within the Second Circle, it becomes akin to an ordinary big city.

Entering the city center, Shaya’s real prosperity is fully displayed.

This city is so large, it’s significantly divided into zones, with developmental differences. From one angle, one could see this city is continually expanding. Perhaps when expansion hits a bottleneck, as time acquires coherence, it would slowly become like Farro or other cities developing uniformly.

Richard thought about this, and after the copper bells on the clock towers rang eleven times and quieted down, he brought his mind back.

Then Richard felt a perception, turned his head, and looked to one side. A middle-aged man in a white robe slowly walked over, noticing Richard’s gaze, nodded slightly as a greeting, and then continued walking off into the distance.

Watching the man leave, Richard was slightly surprised, for a reason no other than feeling the man’s mana fluctuations, seemingly a second-level wizard.

A second-level wizard?

Immediately after, he felt another perception towards another side, where a gray-robed wizard apprentice hurried by.

Blinking and glancing around, he gathered more targets in his sight.

Behind, a first-level wizard walked into a jewelry store, inquiring about jewel prices. Ahead, a first-level wizard stepped out of a tavern. Further away, a second-level wizard, accompanied by a wizard apprentice-level girl, pointed at shops along the street.

"Ta ta ta..."

A series of footfalls arose, and a group of more than ten people walked by, wearing uniform attire, seemingly members of some organization. Every one of them had mana fluctuations, all were wizards, and not weak, with the lowest being high-level first-level wizards. The leader, moreover, had the cultivation of a third-level wizard.

The center of Shaya City has quite a few wizards, even though one couldn’t claim "wizards are as common as dogs," you could certainly say they’re "as common as walking on the ground."

In this situation, there’s hardly anyone thoughtless enough to cause trouble, because no one knows if they might run into a powerful wizard.

Wizard City... Richard muttered to himself, recalling Shaya’s other title.

Then he shook his head slightly, turned a corner, and walked towards a location, the purpose of his current visit to Shaya.

...