Enas City

When Dane opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of a plaza with a teleport portal on his back. Important cities all had them, and that was the case of Enas. Although the portal aesthetics seemed quite rough around the edges and it was way smaller than the one inside the tower, it was still considered a luxury. And as such, it's prize was equivalent.

"Huh? New location? Wait… Why is it hidden?"

A few seconds after Dane and company arrived at the portal, a voice sounded next to them.

"You will have to provide the exact detail of your origin and pay the register fee. Also, you will have to pay the transfer fee as well. It amounts to a total of 100 gold coins."

The owner of the voice was a fat middle-aged man dressed in standard magic clothing. He had an annoyed expression on his face and he wasn't even trying to hide it. Dane couldn't tell at all his level, but that was because he was just too weak. However, he should be around rank 4. Or that was what Dane thought, considering his clothes and job.

"What? You aren't going to say anything? Don't make me call the guards. Just pay and stop… bothering…"

The reason for his abrupt stop was none other than the fact that his brain finally clicked. In Zeryann, being a bully was not frowned upon, but you needed to know who to bully. For example, if the son of a baron mistreated a commoner, the commoner was indeed in the wrong. If the same man bullied one of his same status, like a rank-1 being, they would call it quits since there wasn't any way to determine an absolute victor. However, if he decided to bully a rank 6 magician, he was done for.

What this man realized after talking so much nonsense, was that the situation was way too strange. A portal received signals of the place from which the user teleports. So, he felt it strange that the portal did not recognized the location and deduced Dane and his companions were first timers. As such, he was charging the teleport fee and the register fee. It was a rule that every unknown location had to be registered. He was annoyed, so he was not exactly polite about it.

However, short later he realized what an unknown location was. It was a magician powerful enough to have his own tower and block his data. This was not something he could compete against. So, when he thought of this and saw Randwen dressed as imposing as he was, he immediately got frightened.

"May I ask why the total is 100 coins? I was under the impression that the travel was only 25 per person."

The plump man shot a fierce glare at Dane. He was awestruck by Randwen's clothing and the situation, so he was indeed respectful to him. However, a kid with no aura what-so-ever was the one talking to him. This led to some disgust on his part. Of course, Dane noticed all of this.

"Sigh… Randwen, talk to him. Apparently, he thinks I'm not good enough."

"NO! No, of course not, sir. I was just thinking of something else… heh." Of course, the plump man noticed that Dane was the one with authority and Randwen was his follower. This was even more scary that if Dane was just as strong. What kind of background could he have? "As for the fee, it was indeed my mistake not to clarify. It is a total of 50 gold coins for the transport fee, but every new location has to be registered, and that's a total of another 50 gold coins."

Dane frowned and took exactly 50 gold coins from his spatial ring. He gave them to the man in charge of collecting the portal fees.

"We have no intention of registering. So here is the fee for the transport. Anything else, we are not interested."

Dane knew the rules, but it was inconvenient to have people know they came from a place close to Blackrose, especially when there were already magicians from that institution investigating the surroundings of the tower.

"Sir, I… I am afraid I must insist. This is a rule of the portal's owner as well as the royal palace." At this point, he was very conflicted and anticipated trouble. He gently pressed a rune on his forearm calling for backup.

"I already told you, we won't register. It isn't convenient." Dane was acting his part as a spoiled young master. Anyway, it would be too long until he returned to the city, and he was currently disguised, so it didn't matter that much. Of course, he wouldn't have acted like this if Randwen was not by his side.

"Hm! You think you can easily just get what you want? This is a rule of MY creation, and you, pitiful brat, are not exempted from it."

An angry voice came from not too far away. There, another middle-aged man was walking towards them. The difference was, mainly, his clothes and demeanour. He was wearing the clothes of a rank 8 magician. He should be quite high on Enas' social ladder.

Poruo was indeed enraged. Moments earlier, his subordinate had sent a help signal. This disconcerted him greatly. Since when is there someone who dares disrespect him in this city? He was a mighty rank 8 magician, and he would soon advance to rank 9. As for transcendent… that was just too far away. But it didn't matter, since the status of a rank 8 being, especially a magician, was extraordinary.

He thought it should be some minor matter and he so happened to be walking towards the portal anyway, so he saw Dane being contemptuous and refusing to register. This utterly enraged him.

"You… who the hell are you?" Dane asked with a dismissive glance.

"Hmph! I am the rank 8 magician Poruo Terel, you stupid brat! Who the hell are you that you aren't paying the transport fees?"

"Hm, rank 8…"

That's right, little brat. An all-mighty rank 8 magician!

"So, you were indeed nothing… As for the fees, I already payed the transport fees, you got it wrong."

After hearing that Dane didn't think much of his status as a rank 8, he was seriously contemplating killing him, but then he paused upon hearing the fees were already payed. Poruo glanced at his subordinate, waiting an explanation.

"B - Boss! They payed their transport fees, but not the registration fee."

Registration fee? That meant a wizard tower. This spoiled brat had a wizard tower? No wonder he was so arrogant. But he still could feel nothing from him, so he decided to treat him as a nuisance.

As he was so enraged by Dane, he completely overlooked Randwen's existence. He didn't even get a hint by the words of his subordinate.

"Kid, I'm warning you. Pay the registration fee or suffer the consequences."

This was not a matter of money, of course. It was pride. Since when have people refused to pay him? One time was insignificant. But if this event was used as precedent, soon a lot more people would defy him. That was why he was blowing this up.

"Geezer, are you deaf? I'm not paying you. I don't want It registered, so it won't get registered. Don't you understand?"

"Geezer?" Poruo stared at Dane blankly, until he recovered his senses and got enraged once more. "Agh! You little bastard, you are dead!" He started gathering mana for a spell but was suddenly interrupted.

"Hmph!" When Randwen sensed him casting a spell, he unleashed his mana and directed his pressure towards the magician Poruo. At Dane's order, he was limiting his abilities to a high-rank transcendent, around level 170. But still, that was a difference of 90 levels as well as an existence threshold. Poruo was completely unable to do anything about it.

When Poruo received all the pressure from what he could only deduce was a transcendent, he was already deadly pale. He turned his face towards Randwen. What he saw scared him even more. The aura around him was something he could not even read! He had met low-rank transcendents before and was able to tell their rank, but he was utterly unable to do the same with Randwen. To him, it only meant one thing.

"Mid-rank transcendent…" Poruo's words froze all spectators as well as his employee. As Randwen noticed this, he recalled his pressure and got back to being an ordinary old man. Of course, nobody would treat him like one.

"I am here escorting my client. If he says there will be no registration fee, then there will be none." Randwen said as he walked towards Poruo. Somehow, he found the rhythmic sound of his staff hitting the floor was even more scary than a demon. "Don't you agree, magician Poruo?"

"Ye… Yes! Of course! How could we not?" Poruo was regretting ever facing them. Someone who could hire a transcendent magician, and such a powerful one at that. He wanted to kill him? He might as well kill himself!

After he said that, Randwen nodded towards Dane who started walking away. It was only at this moment that Poruo noticed the cat in his shoulder. Silver-eyed car. A cub. How stupid… For someone to have such a young exemplary of that beast, he was no normal person.

As Dane and company walked away, he turned towards his subordinate.

"Get to the tower and report this matter to the court. Tell the everything." Poruo stayed quiet for a while before adding. "A transcendent of at least mid-rank. A rank 0 who can hire him and also owns a silver-eyed cub. An unregistered tower. Report everything."

"Yes, boss." The plump man who collected the fees started running away clumsily.

"Just who could it be…" Poruo sighed and walked away. He seemed to have aged 20 years in the past 5 minutes.