Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

The group quickly stopped at one of the inns in this city of over 100,000 inhabitants, getting six rooms in all for their battalion, a place for the animals and spaces for their carriages.

The inn was in the busiest part of the city, on the other side of the central square, where Irondom's two most important buildings were located, the offices of the local Blacksmiths' Association and the Runemasters' Association.

There were other important buildings in this part of the city, from the local guard, the seat of government of the noble family behind Irondom, as well as important stores and restaurants in the area.

Irondom was a border town, belonging to the Vevell Kingdom, where the royal family was the great power behind the state, with a network of vassal noble forces maintaining their domains.

From what Liam had already learned, there were four types of territories in Twin Land. The first were centralized states in the figure of a tyrant who ruled with force, followed by areas governed by sects, then areas governed by coalitions of smaller forces and finally free areas—sometimes not so free, given the presence of beast tribes in these areas.

There was also a distinction whether the rulers were cultivators, but usually the classification above served well even for analyzing the mortal domains further to the southeast of the continent. Find exclusive stories on empire

Vevell Kingdom was obviously part of the first classification, the most common to see around Twin Land.

According to what little Liam had heard of Vevell Kingdom, this state had several forces with similar powers to Demon Gate. In particular, the sect considered the local noble house to be powerful. Whenever disciples went on missions in the kingdom, the sect recommended caution if they had to get involved with local royal forces.

Demon Gate was usually very confident and arrogant, so this behavior said a lot about the real power of the royal family.

With that in mind, Liam followed with his group, walking through the city's central square, crossing the area towards the Runemasters Association building. As his primary mission was to officially become a Third Class Runemaster, the most urgent thing was to register for the next promotion exam.

There were two possibilities in front of Liam. One, the most recent test had just taken place in the previous few days or two, the last test had already taken place and there should be a new one soon. The first option wouldn't be so good for him, as it could kill his time locally. As he could only take the test for Fourth Class Runemaster when he was already a Third Class Runemaster, waiting longer for the test could give him less time between his exam and his departure date from the city.

He could work with different timings, but to know the best strategy to use, he needed to know exactly when the next promotion exams would be. So, before stopping by the local stores and trying to understand what kind of opportunity he would have in Irondom, he made his way to the entrance of the formidable Runemasters' Association.

They passed through a crowd of people going from one side of the building to the other, with the flow speeding up in the late afternoon.

Magic lamps were already illuminating the city's central square and the entire association building was glowing, reflecting the opulence of the continent's most important organization.

"Welcome to the Irondom Runemasters Association. How can I help you today?" A pretty attendant asked, not failing to realize who the Runemaster of the group was.

Liam had the symbol of Runemaster Second Class on one of his chests at the moment, still dressed in the beautiful red uniform of the Division Chiefs of Demon Gate.

"I'm here to take the Third Class exam." Liam said as he greeted the attendant with a nod of his head, his gaze relaxed as his group stood in formation around him.

People like him received a lot of support from the sect. It was no coincidence that Demon Gate Runemasters were treated as valuable possessions that had to be guarded by strong groups—as was the case with Liam's team.

The Officers and First Officers maintained defensive positions around Liam, not as combat-inclined as if there was an enemy near them, but sharp-eyed, ready to act if necessary.

The attendant and other people around the main counter at the entrance to the building could easily see this, but no one found it strange. Just like Demon Gate, several other forces, from outside and inside the kingdom, replicated such behavior.

Runemasters were, after all, the continent's leading professionals, capable of raising and destroying entire regions!

Few knew of the ancient Runemasters empire, but among those few, most of the continental leaders had knowledge of how powerful that ancient Runemasters state had been!

The attendant in front of Liam dialed something from behind her desk before answering him. "We have a test in three days. Can you give me your credential?"

Liam did as he was supposed to, handing over the item he'd gotten from the sect, but which was related to the association and not the sect.

"Very well, I can register your name for the next exam, Senior Porter. But there is a fee that must be paid to the association beforehand at the time of registration."

Liam knew this and the amount, having already received the fees for both the Third Class and Fourth Class promotion exams from the Hall of Records beforehand.

Besides these fees, his faction and his master had given him coins and other resources to use during his stay in Irondom, each of them interested in his growth.

For the time being, Liam wasn't able to influence these groups or specialists. But once he became a Fourth Class Runemaster, things would change. As such, everyone involved with him had given him gifts before his departure.

With the registration fee paid, Liam received his Second Class Runemaster ID back from the attendant.

She said to him, "All right, you're all set, Senior Porter. In 3 days, you can return to the association and follow the directions to the promotion exams wing." She indicated, showing the direction of the signs at the top of some corridors with access to this entrance hall.

Liam spotted the paths and then asked, "Thanks for the information, but one last thing, when is the next exam for Fourth Class Runemasters?"

The attendant was not surprised to see a Second Class Runemaster asking such a question. It wasn't uncommon for professionals of different classes to have contact with other, better-ranked professionals and to seek information or even products for their more powerful colleagues.

"There's still no date for the next exam. So it should take over 10 days for it to happen, and it could even be an entire month before the next exam takes place."

Liam thanked them again and then sighed with concern. The association hoped to gather a minimum number of Runemasters to take the exams and then scheduled the test for a few days later, giving enough time for those enrolled to prepare for the day of the exam. If the next exam wasn't even scheduled, it meant that it could still take a long time for it to happen.

But Liam remained optimistic, leaving the registration desk, then going to walk through the areas he was entitled to access in this unit of the association.

The sect had its own association post inside the headquarters, but because it was a post staffed only by sect members, the sect's rules and resources had influence there.

Liam knew that there could be important differences between this post and the sect one, so he quickly began to familiarize himself.

In terms of space and areas of the association, there wasn't much difference between what one would find in the sect. This association post was much larger than the one in the sect, but even the design of the interior of the building and some of the decorations were similar to what the Demon Gate disciples would find.

Liam had basically the same level of access there as he had in the sect, but in less than half an hour of looking around, he realized where the big differences were.

The collection of books and techniques available to someone of his rank at this post was at least three times richer than the one at Demon Gate. Not only that, the Association's in-house store had more important resources in greater quantity, for prices up to 50% cheaper than those Liam could find in Demon Gate.

But he didn't make any deals straight away. Before going into depth with buying and investing locally, he continued his investigation of what was available to him in Irondom. Starting from the association building, he made his way through the town's central square to pass the stores that were still open.

As Toby and Isa had warned him, Irondom focused on the art of rune inscription and just 500 meters away from the association there were four huge stores and a large building where one could rent enchantment rooms, tools for Runemasters and even pay for advice from a superior Runemaster.

Everything there had to be paid for with coins, which didn't have to have symbols recognized by the royal family. There were even coins registered in the kingdom and in other Twin Land domains, but given the active movement of travelers and cultivators across the continent, stores in practically every city accepted any type of metallic currency.

Checking the density of gold, silver, or bronze was very easy and even ordinary mortals could distinguish the value of coins without any problems. Because of this, as soon as Liam found the resources that he thought were most worthwhile for him to acquire at the beginning of his stay in Irondom, he found it easy to do business locally.