City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

A Nameless Small Town

Arriving at the first sign of civilization in this barren wasteland, Richard stopped to observe before he walked in. The place wasn’t big, with only about a hundred buildings, and most houses had just four walls and a roof. Even the biggest building, a two-storey commercial place of some sort, looked shabbier than Norland’s slums.

It was instead the translucent black barrier that piqued his interest. It wasn’t nearly as simple as he’d first assumed, and the colour came from the fact that it was blocking the distortion in the laws all around it in the same way as a Lighthouse of Time could. Within the curtain, the town was clearly much more comfortable for beings of order.

A group of people walked out from the town, four human and three other humanoids with bestial heads and tentacled front limbs. Richard recognised them as the tanir, a void-faring race known for their stealth and teleportation abilities. They formed the bulk of void pirates and thieves, having raided a number of demiplanes and secret stores. The presence of tanir was eye-opening. This was a race rather similar to dragons in that they reproduced slowly, but their individuals were generally very powerful.

“Outsider!” one of the old humans barked, “Where are you from?”

Richard didn’t know what language the old man was using, but thankfully, a language comprehension spell still worked just fine. When the old man asked a second time, he managed to understand and reply, “Norland.”

“Norland?!” the old man was shocked for a moment, but he slowly put down his lance, “There are actually people from norland who still come around? Are you the new Chosen? But you don’t have that radiance; how did you come here? Well, it doesn’t matter. Come in, you shouldn’t stay out in this damned place too long.”

Richard nodded, following the old man inside. He intentionally slowed down as he passed the barrier, trying to experience it carefully, but even as his body relaxed from the burden of fighting the distortion he couldn’t decipher just how the filters worked.

The old man’s face seemed to be ravaged by time and hardships, but his eyes were sharp and his grip remained steady, “Few people come here from Norland. It is a primary plane with a bright future, and the people there look down on a worthless place like the Darkness. Why would you come here?”

“An accident,” Richard replied calmly, “I was exploring a secret plane, and a random rift dropped me here.”

“Accident, hmm? Alright, if you say so,” the old man shrugged, staring at Richard with his razor-sharp gaze, “No matter, it makes no difference. There are some empty houses in the town, just find one to stay in.”

"Aren’t there any inns here?"

“Inns? You think the towns in this cursed place get visitors? All we have is a tavern for entertainment, they sell some pretty strong wine. But you can’t stay there.” At the mention of the alcohol, the old man’s throat bobbed distinctly.

Richard followed the old man to the other side of town, where there were several empty houses. They were tiny shacks where he couldn’t even stand upright in, with a wooden board for a bed and rocks for furniture. A hearth was dug into the corner, but there were no pots nor bowls. The place had no windows either. They were all basically the same, so he randomly selected one and walked in, sitting on a rock and combing through everything he knew.

……

Information was hard to come by in the Darkness. The people in town knew there was a city in the distance, but that news had come from an exhausted warrior who died hours after delivering it. No one here had the power to head to the city and take a look; affected by the distortions outside the barrier, they would lose track of direction and time soon enough.

Most of those in this town had grown up in the Darkness, and had grown used to coexistence with other races. Without the strength of the group, perhaps no one would be able to live on here. Very few were like Richard, having walked through the wastelands to arrive here.

Richard sat motionlessly inside his house, continuing to analyse the changed laws. This was a strange world, and he hadn’t yet found any means to replenish his mana. Strangely enough, he didn’t feel particularly hungry either, even as his stamina was slowly depleting as well. The old man who’d dropped him off here had left moments after, and there wasn’t anyone else nearby either. This place had no birds, beasts, or even bugs, and the sky was always that unchanging grey without a day-night cycle or even a weather system to speak of.

About one day later, he had finally analysed one more law, giving him a clearer perception and steadying his movements further. Once he’d gotten used to the extra step of negating the distortion before analysing the laws, he had managed to establish an analytical model in a few days.

It would take sixteen fundamental laws to align his perception with the Darkness, and sixteen others to take control of the laws here. Richard had already finished with six, so basic movements were no longer a problem. It was only with this confidence that he decided to explore the town, specifically the tavern that seemed to be the only special place here.

The town was empty as ever, but when Richard arrived at a plaza near the barrier he heard a loud clamour. It turned out to be a reptilian fighting one of the tanir, with several other residents sitting around and watching.

Richard had seen the tanir before, but the reptilian was a stranger. Walking silently towards a human, he leaned over and asked, “What’s happening?”

The woman shrugged, “An outsider that just came to the Darkness. He doesn’t understand his surroundings at all, but started acting like he was unparalleled.”

The fight wasn’t intense at all, sloppy even. The reptilian’s attacks had no accuracy to speak of, and he wobbled around like he was blackout drunk. In no way did this seem like a powerhouse, and the tanir was laughing in mockery as he shook his tail in front of the man’s face. The lizardman desperately tried to claw or bite off the tail, but every attempt struck air and it seemed to only get worse.

Richard quickly understood that this reptilian was someone with physical strength but weak law analysis. He truly was unlucky to have ended up in the Darkness. The tanir wasn’t moving perfectly either, especially once the Field of Truth was active, but he covered the imperfections well enough.

“Had enough fun?” another tanir called out, “We’re still waiting to eat!”

The tanir nodded and unsheathed a dagger, rushing to the reptilian and stabbing into his soft abdomen and slicing viciously. Blood and organs started flowing out, but before they could touch the earth the human beside Richard had pulled out a large pot and placed it directly down below. Everyone surrounded the reptilian, with a few of them taking out their daggers and starting dismemberment.

Richard squinted, finding that the place was more violent than he’d thought. In mere minutes, the lizardman had turned into meat and blood.

The woman whom Richard had met carried the basin of blood and organs back, walking next to Richard, “You didn’t contribute, so you won’t get any. You haven’t fit in yet, but you’ll be the same after a while. Still, you’re lucky that Old Barduch is interested in you; he won’t let us touch you.”

"Who?"

"The old man you met when you arrived. You usually find him in the tavern."

The two tanir pulled each of the rear legs of the lizardman over, the stronger one staring at Richard’s sword case as he offered the leg, “Trade?”

“No thanks,” Richard declined the offered leg immediately. He wasn’t interested anyway, and his swords were far more valuable.

However, the tanir man bared his fangs and growled, “Rejecting Bloodtooth comes with consequences, kid!”

“Don’t care,” Richard repeated, turning away to walk towards the centre of the town.

Bloodtooth immediately growled with rage, pulling out his dagger, but the other tanir pressed down on his hand, “Old Barduch won’t let anyone touch him!”

The mention of Barduch prompted Bloodtooth to snort with some fear, stowing his dagger away.