While Niphru did want to try helping people out with the tasks he had seen earlier, he felt it was best to around the city a more used to it. As such, before leaving the spire, he went out on one of the balies to get a good view of the city first.

  The spires were the most obvious part of the city, naturally, the tral o far above the others, which themselves stretched far higher than any other structures. The cathedral of the Church of flict was also easily visible, and he made a mental o avoid going too close to it, just in case.

  The streets were iing to him, being arranged simir to a wagon wheel with rings around the city at different distances, with straight roads eg the rings together. Each of the rings was quite wide, looking like several wagons could fit beside each other on them. The eg roads between them looked about wide enough for two wagons side by side, though closer to the walls, they were rger, likely to aodate the traffi the gates before it could enter one of the rings. Meanwhile, smaller roads spread out through the city, eae roughly wide enough for a single wagon and some people to either side.

  It appeared that every building except the spires strictly ed to this structure, leaving the roads almost perfectly shaped. They only diverged where they reached one of the spires that sat around the middle of the city.

  Several buildings did stand out in the various slices between the roads. A few were likely inns, judging by the number of windows at regur intervals aultiple floors. A few had wagons parked beside them off of the road, so they were likely warehouses or stores of some sort. Some areas even appeared empty of typical buildings, but with smaller carts spread out in orderly rows with crowds wandering arouween them.

  There was clearly far, far too much to visit even if he took a week to do nothing but wander around, as even just the area between this and the spire was quite rge in size, with seemingly tless buildings present. As such, he simply picked out a handful of iing-looking pces to try to check out. Taking care to memorize the retive locations, he eventually headed back down the spire, taking a few moments to wander around the inner walls.

  Niphru had already been around some of the area, but it appeared that closer to the inner se of the city, there were several buildings that appeared to be packed with small living spaces. Perhaps those were used for visitors? Either way, he didn’t feel curious enough to bother trying to figure out exactly what was going on with them, assuming he was close enough to being accurate.

  Other than that, there were openings fons and carts to be pulled into the spire on the opposite side from the entrance everyone had been using to enter. It also appeared that there was a ste area somewhere below the ground, as there iraling ramp that headed downward, big enough for a wagon to easily fit.

  There were also, of course, the tuhat lead to the sewers along the outer wall, with the guards posted at eae, though those were nothio him. Satisfied with his quick review of the outside of the spire, he headed out toward one of the closest locations he had decided to visit, though first, he set up an illusion to hide himself and appear as an older man to avoid any potential problems with people along the way.

  Several times along the eople o him and stepped out of the way to let him pass by, a somewhat odd rea in his mind. Eventually, he realized this was due to how he made himself appear, as some people seemed to respect older individuals. Sihis worked in his favor, he saw o ge anything.

  Eventually, he reached the first location, finding it to be an inn, as stated by the rge sign going across the front of the building just above the door. Not wanting to bother anyone, he simply took a moment to look at the design of the building before turning to where he thought the sed iing building was. This one wasn’t on one of the main roads, so it took a bit loo reach through the smaller roads.

  It turned out this location was one of the bcksmiths that had been on the list, though it was one of those produg ons, so he decided against going inside. Instead he looked around the building, seeing how the wagon beside it was tucked in against the building. It seemed like it would have been awkward to get it in and out of the space it sat in, but he figured those that did it often must be used to it. There didn’t appear to be any damage oher the wagon or the walls of the buildings, after all.

  The third location took a few tries to find, as he had gotten mixed up somewhere along the way. The rge pza appeared to be a gathering of small shops, cart after cart full of goods watched over by someoting in a booth nearby. These people often called out to passing individuals, trying to vihem to stop by and look at their goods.

  After a short while wandering around, he noticed he was getting an odd look from one of the merts towards the ter of the gathering, and approached the woman to ask what was wrong. After a few gnces around as he approached, she beat him to speaking, asking, “Are you a mage, by bsp; I think I feel mana from you, but I’m not sure.”

  Somewhat surprised, he firmed that he was, followed by her remarking, “I have a bit of a uall here, but I’ve got a minor issue. The sign above me is actually ohat light up, but the mana sto uses ran out. I’m willing to pay you a little more than normal to recharge it so that I don’t have to close shop. I’m having a good day today, and don’t want to leave while people are visiting so often to go to the spire to get a charged one.”

  Smiling uhe illusion, Niphru quickly agreed, pleased to find su easy ce at making money without even trying. After being led back behind the ter, the ointed out the stone and he made the illusion reach down and grab it as he split his focus to pick it up with force magibsp; Si was rather small, he was able to refill it quite rapidly and repced it in the socket. The woman smiled as her sign lit back up with a light green glow and thanked him as she reached into a drawer and began ting out s.

  The amount he gained was almost the same as giving up one of their charged sto the spire, or three times what they received for simply charging the stones aurning them. While he was surprised at the amount, he supposed it did make sense in a way. The spire wouldn’t pay as much as they themselves received from the stohey traded back out, after all. Likewise, the ohey were allowed to keep were still inally provided by the spire, evehey charged them.

  Well satisfied with what he had been given, he expanded his illusion to hide the s as they reached his hand, while also putting illusionary copies over the top of them to make it appear as though nothing unusual occurred. Ohe woman had finished dropping the s, he moved them into one of the pouches on his harness as his illusion put them into a pou his waist.

  After receiving the s, he smiled at the woman and thanked her before beginning to head to the location he had decided to visit. Given the way the pce looked from the spire, and what he had already seen, it was almost certainly aore, as it had a wagon beside it, just like the bcksmith before.