Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The City lord.

A title given to one who lorded over a city. A city that wasn't considered a major one, that is.

It was given to create a gulf between one who ruled a small city and the one who ruled over a large one, the latter being called a Governor.

A city lord's duty wasn't only to oversee activity within a city but within the area that was supported by the city; the people that interacted with the city, the region's vegetation, animals and threats.

Multiple small cities existed to carry the work delegated by larger cities which was just a bigger version of what the smaller cities did.

The situation wasn't different in Inhone City.

It was considered one of the better cities as the City lord was a man with a good head on his shoulders.

He was often compared with the City lord of Eofel, who played by his own rules, a luxury afforded to him due to the lax nature of the Royal Family's management.

At this moment, a rather lean man was slowly pacing about in a luxurious hall while listening to the latest accounts of issues that needed his ear.

He wore formal garb, his hair and beard which were a mix of black and aging white giving him a wise and reliable visage.

This man was the City Lord, Erkus Savont.

"We have also observed that many Clusters are opening up around the region, with a lot of them being lower level ones but their sheer quantity is rather concerning. This has caused the recent surge in the number of people coming to live in the city. Civil unrest is something that's slowly building up and many are coming into the city while detailing accounts of how terrible monsters destroyed their villages," a young man reported with a worried expression on his face.

"The city won't be able to hold out if this keeps going on. We need an effective plan to solve this, City Lord."

Erkus slowed his steps as he looked to be deep in thought.

"Have you liaised the Guilds Association?" he asked.

"Not yet, sir. I wanted to have that discussion with them after you had made a decision. We can't afford to put all our hopes on them."

"Hmmm. Where are the Clusters mostly prevalent? Which jurisdictions?"

The young man giving the report quickly flipped through his library of notes before showing the City lord a page that depicted the areas mostly populated with the Clusters.

"Hmm...I was hoping this was just a situation created by the sudden disappearance of Eobald and his group. His reliability and willingness to act as an agent for the City over the Guilds Association had probably made me relax. I half expected him to walk in here with this report instead," Erkus said as he sighed, the young man opposite him being struck with dejection, yet he didn't show it.

The City lord was mindful of what he had just said but he didn't show empathy, instead going on with what he had to say.

"Aright. In this instance, I feel that it's necessary to take down the jurisdiction breach clause. If we are to handle this, the Guilds will have to help each other in dealing with Clusters and that means encroaching in territories that aren't theirs. Let's first make this proposal to the Guilds Association."

The young man collected himself and started writing furiously onto his note book.

The jurisdiction clause was a part of the Guilds Association's extensive law system which allowed Guilds that had achieved a certain rank to partially control certain aspects of designated sections of the region.

Besides dealing with threats and monsters that spawned from the regions, the Guilds given the authority would also have rights to gather limited resources.

Naturally, this didn't mean they had the right to live in these places and say they owned them, as for most commonfolk, they had to issue a formal request to the Guilds if something went wrong.

The jurisdiction breach clause prevented other Guilds from entering the areas assigned to certain Guilds and this was a cause for the disbanding of a Guild should it be found out that this crime was on their hands.

"Hmph! While we have our hands full with masses of monsters, Eofel, Seprean and Dijhal refuse to adopt the Guilds system and they don't get punished for it. How rotten!" Erkus bellowed before gazing at the young man.

"Deliver my statement to the Guilds Association. Let's have a back and forth that starts from there."

***

Skullius excitedly looked at the large and clean compound with several buildings and fields outside that while torched by the sun truly felt like they held a purpose.

'This is it...' Skullius thought.

The early morning sun was still being kind and this was the time he had decided to walk around and search for the so-called Colleges that Frock had told him about.

In this instance, he truly wished that Elita's map had some other magical function that showed him the location of important places in Cities but no such miracle was in place for his convenience.

After extracting the skills from the items he had bought or rather those he had intended to, the Discount Human had spammed [Quick Strike] and [Brawn] throughout the night.

[Great Rush] was terribly hard to level up as it required his movement so he had put it off to the side on account of where he was.

He wouldn't want his heavy frame making loud noises or worse...

Midway through his session, he had tried to somehow extract the connection that allowed the mana band to store mana outside a core but he had found that it was impossible to do so and he didn't know why, much to his disappointment.

When morning came, he had used [Flesh It Like You Mean It], checked up on Red Rage who had two more days until his Null Life Essence ran out and given him some more reassurance.

His trip around town had given him rather pleasing results in accordance to his mission.

There were three Colleges within the City, each with their own designated purpose.

The College of Battle Arts, the Inhone Standard and the College of the Esteemed.

At the moment, Skullius stood before the entrance to the College of Battle Arts where even from the outside, he could see many people practising various forms and stances.

He walked up to the barred gate only to be stopped by an old man who had white hair that had begun moonwalking on his scalp, a hunched back and a single eye open as he gazed at Skullius intently.

Skullius sighed in relief when he saw the unfriendly gaze he was receiving.

"State your business," the old man said.

"I would like to enter the College. I want to lear—"

"Do you have deep enough pockets to afford it?"

"Huh?! Of course I do!"

"Heh! Not with that face you don't!"

"Bro!"

"Now get out of here! We only need serious people to teach!"

Skullius frowned.

What was with this guy?!