Chương 160: Chapter – 160 - Inside the Mercenary Mission Hall

As the three stepped through the large entrance doors and stood on the white stone-paved passage, the doors once again closed behind them. One team could enter at a time. There was gap of a few minutes before each team was allowed in. Which gave Rihanna and the others enough time to speculate their surroundings.

Even for Uncle Yaoi, it was his first time coming to the Main Mercenary Guild in Falanderie City. However he seemed pretty used to his surroundings, as he ushered the two towards the other end of the very wide passage.

The passage had a great height, with golden pillars half-built into the ivory walls on both sides. The pillars curved to form arched beams for the ceiling. Intricate patterns were carved onto the pillars and beams, whereas the wall was simpler, with stones of various shapes and sizes beautifully fitted together. Even in their haphazardness, they displayed a marvelous pattern.

At the end of the passage, was a large circular dais, slightly raised above the ground. There was no roof above. Instead the walls joined together to form a perfect circle above the dais, going upwards like a cylinder. Rihanna couldn't make out it's ending.

As Uncle Yaoi escorted them up to the middle of the dais, light slowly emerged from below their feet. Soon a blue colored sphere enveloped all three of them. And then Rihanna was struck with a feeling of weightlessness.

The sphere started floating upwards.

Glancing at Uncle Yaoi, both realized that this was how things worked in these mercenary halls. So they too quietened down to enjoy the passing scenery.

The sphere of light gradually lifted out of the cylindrical-wall encirclement, and then the three found themselves floating above in the air, at a great height above their surroundings!

Rihanna was feeling perplexed. Even after so many years of being in this land, she still felt befuddled by the way powers were used in to create a whole different space inside a simple looking building!

The hall, which looked so somber and intimidating from the outside, was like a high-tech city within the walls!

It was spread over a very large area, broken down into many different levels. There were large, circular podiums, each with a different color of energy, floating in mid-air, at different levels. The entire area was circular in structure, and the buildings were all on the outer periphery, with the floating podiums in the center of the space.

each podium was connected to one certain level of the surrounding buildings with a stone bridge. So people at one level could only have access to one podium.

These podiums and bridges were filled with groups of people coming and going, and the buildings around looked very full and a bit chaotic.

Looking around, Rihanna noticed five different pillars, at the edges of the space. They were large, reaching up to the top. In fact, the whole place was built up into five levels, with each level having very tall walls. And thus, the top of the whole place was not really visible from the bottom.

As their blue sphere changed course and kept moving forwards through the air, before slowly plunging downwards, Rihanna stared at the five pillars. Each pillar seemed to have broad patterns, and these patterns were lit up in one color per pillar. The color of these patterns corresponded with the colors of the podium, making her guess there was some connection between the pillars and the podiums.

But before she could ask Uncle Yaoi about it, the sphere jerked a bit and came to a halt on another circular dais.

They had been brought to the third level of the place. As Uncle Yaoi explained, the sphere would decide the level according to the average of the cultivation of all the people inside the sphere. So it had counted based on Uncle Yaoi's and Artreya's cultivations levels. As a commoner, Rihanna had been automatically eliminated from this selection!

Actually, this way of calculation was a bit disadvantageous to Uncle Yaoi and the others. All three of the Uncle's were at Sprouting Level, with Uncle Ranaba and Uncle Daogi at Mid-Stage, while Uncle Yaoi and Uncle He were at Initial-Stage.

Once the sphere decided the level, you couldn't move up to another level. And thus you could only accept a mission on the level where you were brought to. If Uncle Yaoi had come separately, he could have gone to the fourth level.

However, the three Uncle's didn't seem to care. it seemed like they were not holding the mission or its gains to heart. They only cared that this mission gave them the chance to go to Abarone-Tengai. They had a hidden agenda of their own, and were going to the neighboring country under the guise of this mission.

As the three exited the dais, the light disappeared, and the dais became ready to receive the next group of people. Most of the room built on these different levels were for buying and selling of the various resources, herbs, pills and elixirs, weapons and armors, tools, array inscriptions and rune-stones, special clothes and jewelry with inscriptions, demonic beasts...all kinds of things were being sold in the various shops lining the narrow passages circling around these buildings.

Rihanna was feeling a déjà-vu...there were so many similarities with the Underworld Abyss structure. She couldn't help wondering which had copied which.....!

There was also an Auction House here. However, Uncle Yaoi said that the Auction House here was under the Gavarnum's and the Ye Major Clan, hence there were too many stringent laws and not too much profit for the sellers.

Thus most people preferred going to the Green Dragon Auction House when auctioning their products. The profit was more than double of here. Though none of the countries were very happy with this scenario, no one dared to interfere with the workings of the Underworld Abyss...they had too many hidden supports beyond the powers of these five countries.

This was the first time Rihanna heard of powerful existences which were even beyond the control of the governments of the five countries. However, Uncle Yaoi didn't seem too interested in saying anymore. He said she shouldn't be asking about things which could get her killed. She was not yet at that level where she should know about it.

Which made both Rihanna and Artreya more curious. Even Artreya had never heard about any of these powerful existences. He had spent much of his time running or fighting against the people creating trouble for him at every step, and thus never had the time and energy to find out more about the different countries and the lands beyond them.

It made sense to Rihanna. This planet was larger than earth....so even though the countries were much larger than the countries back on earth...still, it couldn't be just five countries.....right?!

However, since Uncle Yaoi didn't seem to want to say anymore, they couldn't possibly keep pestering him. So they no choice but to wait till they could either find any relevant books, or had a chance to visit a library to figure out more about these lands beyond the five countries and the mysterious, hidden powers.

Anyhow, it explained why the Underworld Abyss was able to thrive under the nose of all the different countries.

Thinking of the Underworld Abyss, subconsciously Rihanna couldn't stop herself from remembering the face of the certain someone. The last time she had seen him....standing alone on top of a tall tree....and the sharp, dangerous expression on his face as he turned towards her. As she recalled that sudden look, Rihanna couldn't stop a shiver from running down her back.

She hadn't thought about it in all this time. She had been too busy....or was she just a bit fearful to analyze that dangerous vibe which had emerged from him as he turned towards her?

What was it about that sudden glance which had made her feel fear?! She was not exactly scared of the Ice faced man.....she was a bit wary because of his high level of power. But she never felt threatened under his aura. She even felt very comfortable and safe....yet that look had been so piercing that even now she felt uncomfortable just thinking about it!

Artreya caught Rihanna's sleeves, pulling her forward. He noticed that she had long been distracted by her thoughts, and would very probably start wandering about and get lost at this rate! This girl had a habit of being unreliable and a lost cause quite often!

The sudden pull brought Rihanna out of her reverie, and she suddenly realized that she had been thinking about the Ice faced Emperor of Underworld Abyss pretty often in the past few weeks! Whether she was analyzing the fear she felt from his sharp stare, or the comfort and familiarity she felt while he guided her in her cultivation....both ways was making her think about him. And that definitely did not feel right!

Before se could start thinking about the strange feeling churning somewhere deep inside her, making her feel weird every time she thought of him, Uncle Yaoi halted before one of the shops.

"I will need to head over to the Mission Hub of this level to check on the mission list. We don't all need to go together. You can look around this place. See if there is anything you might need for the upcoming journey. I'll quickly take a look at the mission list, then come back here. Wherever you go, keep an eye here. I'll meet you before this shop."

So saying, Uncle Yaoi quickly sprinted towards the bridge connecting this level to a podium which was lit in light blue energy. It seemed that the sphere which carried them here, the podium and one of the towers to the left from where they were currently standing, were all connected. Because all of them had the same blue colored energy illumination.