บท 684: Checkpoints

Since Laudarkvik is structured like a wedding cake, the remainder of the journey became one long uphill climb. To get from one plateau to the other, pedestrians could either walk up steep staircases with over five hundred steps or take the spacious elevators provided for vehicles and lazy people.

The lifts were not free of charge, as if to make it clear to ordinary commoners that the luxury of the Inner City was not meant for them. Furthermore, whether it was an elevator or a staircase, a new city wall, portcullis and guard squads screened every entrance and exit. Adding the sheer height of each plateau, this city was a natural fortress.

At least on the surface.

Here and there, Jake noticed with his keen vision suspicious marks in the cliff side suggesting that the base of Laudarkvik was initially a single mountain about 2500m high that had been progressively carved by man's hand to form this rocky wedding cake.