As he’d passed through the streets, countless soldiers had thanks to give him, but he brushed them off. Once he found the officer who’d ordered him down to the walls, he grabbed the man’s shoulder.

  “I have an important appointment in Tetrelta. How much do you need to let me go? I’m ready to pay you.”

  The man turned around, and put his plumed helmet in the crook of his arm. “The writ says I’m not officially allowed to release any conscripts from service until the enemy is fully defeated. However, if you were a noble, you could release yourself. If you aren’t, I’m still ready to make an exception for you. Go to the capital, finish your appointment.”

  Kyle was relieved, and he was pretty happy with that outcome. “What’s the catch?”

  The man looked genuinely thankful for Kyle’s single-handed repulsing of the Iron Scourge, and regretted what he said next.

  “In order to release you from service early, I legally have to dock your contribution pay. You can leave now, but if you do, I’m not allowed to pay you anything.”

  Kyle sighed internally. “Perfectly fine with me, good sir.” He turned on his heel and marched back up the hill to the array building. The officer followed him up to give his word.

  On the officer’s confirmation, the attendants inside emptied boxes of crystals onto the floor. The ritual chanting ensued once again, and Kyle blinked.

  ———

  For about another 20 jumps, the trip continued without interruption. Attendants would collect a few coins from him, and send him on his way.

  Things ground to a halt pretty quickly. One jump later, he came to find a room in chaos. The attendants were tied up in a corner, and men in crimson robes with swords on their belts emptied the boxes of crystals into a sack.

  Upon his arrival, the hostages saw his potential to kill the thieves. So did the thieves themselves, however.

  All but one of them drew their swords and charged at him across the floor, and the one in the back started chanting gutturally.

  Kyle understood what was happening here easily enough. The obvious cultists charging at him clearly underestimated the threat they faced. Usually, his towering armor was enough to give pause, but this bunch seemed a little crazed.

  Kyle’s fist flicked out in a lighting-fast haymaker, and the PPIE on his fist detonated spectacularly. The cultist was turned to a fine red mist, and his bottom half was sent flying into a wall.

  It had been a while since he’d been caught out like this, so he pulled out his sidearm. Ammo wasn’t as much of an issue anymore, as metals and explosives could be fed in from basic industry.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Snapping off a round at the second cultist, he sprinted towards the chanting one at the back. The man’s hands were ominously glowing red, and the chanting had reached a new fever pitch.

  The final cultist landed a solid sword thrust into his chestplate, but the strike skidded off without leaving a mark. In return, Kyle’s other fist crumpled the man’s skull like a tin can.

  As he passed the still falling and now headless corpse of the cultist he’d shot, he pistolwhipped the chanting cultist. The man fell bonelessly to the floor.

  Quickly making sure they were all incapacitated, he untied the attendants and removed the simple cloth gags from their mouths.

  “Thank you, sir knight. They came for the mana capacitor crystals. Useful for rituals, and other culty things.” Kyle exasperatedly said, “Just get me out of here. I want no part in this.”

  The rest of the trip went mostly flawlessly. Unfortunately, as he passed into the Imperial Crownlands, the predicted traffic became known.

  Whenever he would teleport in, he’d always have to wait for at least two or three other nobles or merchants asking for travel. The line still moved quickly, as the array buildings got better staffed and equipped as he moved towards the capital.

  Eventually, he reached the final stop. Upon teleporting in, he was met with a huge room full of attendants, travelers, and merchants hawking wares like it was a 23rd century free-market spaceport.

  Wading through the thick crowds, he exited the huge oak double doors at the opposite end of the hall from the multiple arrays.

  The general layout of Tetrelta, the imperial capital, was very secure. There was no teleportation of any kind allowed in the capital itself, so every chain of the array system had to end at a few huge teleportation halls surrounding the city. Decent amounts of traffic flowed from the halls to the city walls in the distance themselves.

  Kyle walked down the road connecting the teleportation array with one of the many gatehouses along the wall. The road was surrounded by huge farms of various crops.

  Interestingly, these farms seemed mostly automated-small magical golems efficiently harvested crops and applied sprays or dusts to the fields. These magically industrial farms stretched across the countryside.

  The road had decent traffic on it. A combination of merchants and nobles going to and from the array, farmers and transport carts heading to the city, and guards patrolling the city limits.

  Interestingly, most of the carriages were magically propelled. They were covered in runes and lacked an obvious animal mount. Some looked more like wooden cars than magical carts with how sophisticated they were.

  His armor drew a few stares, but not nearly as many as in Altrai. The reason quickly became clear to him-the capitol was incredibly cosmopolitan.

  From large amounts of elves, dwarves, the Folk, and golemites of various materials, to towering Minotaurs and centaurs and even slimes wearing hats. He probably wasn’t nearly as out of place here as he was on the frontier.

  At the gate, groups of powerful looking and well equipped guards attentively scanned the crowd. He showed them his adventurers guild membership card, and after a short scan, they waved him through.

  The architecture inside the city was a confusing mix of traditional Roman marble and columns, and magically-enabled apartment blocks and modern infrastructure. Clearly, a lot could be done with magic, especially when a decent urban planner was behind the mages.

  The guild quarter was in sight already, as the guildhalls towered over even the tallest private homes.

  Kyle set off across the wide and well-maintained streets, taking in the sights but thankfully not the smells, due to the airtight armor. Indoor plumbing in every home was clearly too much to hope for.