The Earth Online

12 The Lagash Interpoint City

“Philter of True Strength here! Our mix is the absolute best, even Enki, the god of wisdom and magical arts, can attest to it!” A silver-furred cat-woman said as she was almost hanging off her stall, hoping to catch the attention of hundreds of passersby.

The group of three walked pass the cat lady and continued to look around the loud and bustling marketplace.

“Get your mana gem converters here! Mana gem converters right here! Get one in your favorite deity shade, black, gold, tan, go crazy!” One of the reptilian people shouted with his raspy voice. In his wooden stall, he had all trinkets and devices sprawled all over the sturdy table.

The mana converters basically looked like crystal gems hanging on silver necklaces. They sparkled under the harsh light of the sun, but it didn’t deter people from staring at the piece of jewelry.

Thaleos just shook his head and continued looking around the area.

They were currently inside one of the red towers, but instead of just a regular tower, it was actually a portal to the city center of the Town of Lagash. The town basically took their breaths away. It resembled a medieval town with worn-out wooden and bricked houses and towers, but what made it different, were its inhabitants and skies.

The sky seemed to be perpetually stuck in a gorgeous sunset atmosphere. The sky had three moons and one fiercely shining sun. Just like what James described as the inside of the deities’ temples, everything was beautifully dipped in orange, yellow, and purple hues.

They were stunned at the sight before them.

The inhabitants were made up of different species, there were fairies, reptilian people, minotaurs, and dozens of other creatures you only read about in storybooks.

“Hey, human, interested in buying a mana gem converter?” The reptilian man said as his diction made him chirp a bit. The two-legged creature captured Haya’s attention since it stood like a human but had the body and face of a giant lizard.

Not being able to keep his curiosity, Haya prodded the vendor, “How are you able to understand us? Is English really the universal language?”

“How can humans be this stupid. Amazingly enough, you’re a genius on your planet, but as a sack of hammers in ours.” The reptilian man snidely rasped out. Kedrick guffawed in laughter since he knew how smart Haya actually is. Thaleos also chuckled a bit as the sarcastic reply translated so perfectly in their language.

“Obviously, the Puluhtu Akkadian gods have crafted a spell to fluidly translate our language in each other’s tongue in real-time. To you, I might sound like I’m speaking this ‘English’ language of yours, but outside of the spell, you’d probably just be hearing a lot of chirping and clicking.” The reptile eloquently responded. Haya was just dumbfounded, as his heart thumped in excitement.

Kedrick groaned out, “Okay, the gods basically made an intergalactic online translator, cool. Now, unto the real questions, what is this place? I mean, we read the sign that says Town of Lagash, but what do we do here?” He finished off by scrunching up his eyebrows in curiosity.

“Uh, uh,” The reptile calmly mused, “You need to buy something first before getting an answer from me. Sadly, I’m not one of those NPCs.”

“Dude, we need to know about the town to know how to work your currency,” Kedrick grunted out in frustration.

“Fair enough. Well, the Town of Lagash is basically the interpoint of 150 galaxies splayed out in 8 different layer dimensions. We’ve been playing this game way before humans were added to the roster, and the gods had to create interpoint cities to make the game more sustainable. The Puluhtu tribe created these interpoint cities to trade or exchange all magical and other useful items in the game.”

Haya contemplated the reptilian man’s explanation and could just imagine 8 coordinate planes stacked on each other, and all of its origins combined together to form one interpoint city. After taking in the information for a minute or two, he noncommittally asked,

“What about your currency? How does that work?”

“Well, we basically buy your bagged prey or looted magical items for the appropriate amount of white crystals. These white crystals are referred to as, ‘Shekels’. Regardless of your species or race, everyone uses the same currency all across the 8,000 galaxies or 54 interpoint cities.” The reptile-like vendor dryly went on.

Haya and Kedrick found themselves nodding to the clear explanation of the merchant.

“Wow, I’ve got to say, the Puluhtu gods’ real-time translation spell is pretty solid.” Kedrick approvingly confessed—to which Haya animatedly nodded in agreement.

Thaleos was silent throughout the whole exchange since he was mapping out in his mind where a certain shop was in this town.

After determining the exact coordinates using his spatial abilities, he led the two other men straight into the tower found at the very center of the market. They looked up at the hanging sign that had the word “Šul-šagana Store” engraved in golden letters.

Cautiously entering the small but clean shop, they heard gentle sounds of wind chimes and ocean waves.

“Humans. How odd, one of the weakest species across the 8,000 galaxies, here in the Lagash interpoint. Interesting, indeed.” An aged voice croaked out from the corner of the store. When the turned their heads around, they saw a brutish but ancient-looking orc. Its green skin covered in black tribal markings.

Thaleos merely c****d his head at the statement, since James did mention in his journal how this old orc was somehow connected to the Akkadian gods — granting him some sort of immunity to the game.

Aside from that piece of information, the only thing they know about the orc is his name, Gunura. A mystery to even to the gods.

“Apologies, I grow weary of the news about the gods’ absurd Godly Gambles. Your kind must be the latest victim of this ludicrous game.” The old orc sympathetically said as he stroked his chin in thoughtful reproach.

“Life happens y’know.” Thaleos chimed in, in a miserable manner. Ganuru solemnly nodded his head in regretful agreement.

“So, how may I be of service to your little congress?” The kind brute asked as he slowly stood up.

“We would like to exchange these white critter hearts for some shekels.” The bearded man uncertainly proposed. Although he knew that James’ journal was pretty spot on, on the most part, money was always a tricky thing to remember. Not to mention a whole currency system.

“Wonderful. How many hearts can you offer?” Ganuru calmly replied as his face scrunched up in a wrinkly smile.

Kedrick and Haya took out all the white rat hearts they had from their backpacks and proceeded to hand them over to the giant orc.

After gaining thousands of shekels in exchange for dozens of hearts, Ganuru then spoke,

“Also, since you have an abundant number of shekels, you are free to use them as energy sources, if needed. You merely need to absorb the mana stored inside the gem.”

Thaleos smiled faintly in gratitude, then gently prompted if he could buy something else,

“Do you happen to have a rudimentary map of the Lagash province?” Ganuru’s eyes twinkled in approval, as Thaleos was quite smart in terms of choosing the best store with the best deals.

He might be a wise magician, but a merchant, nevertheless.

“I happen to have one hidden in one of the Akkadian dimensional cubes here.” The old man presented. After scouring through hundreds of drawers, he finally brought out a brass cube, with interesting engravings of humanoid animals and winged gods. It was basically the size of a Rubik’s cube.

“Ah, there, found it!” He pressed a little button in the back, and the cube showed a blue screen with a list of hundreds of items. Haya’s mouth went slack in amazement. After watching the same invention being constantly shown on sci-fi movies and kids’ shows, his hands twitched with the eagerness to reverse-engineer the cube.

Ganuru scrolled through the screen and pressed the picture of a map. Thaleos and Kedrick were pretty much stoic, for the most part, but deep inside, they were amazed by the nifty little box.

A rolled-up map suddenly appeared out of the box, and Ganuru carefully grabbed it. After unrolling it and checking its content, he rolled it again and handed it to Thaleos.

This must be the reason why the aged orc-kind only needed a small shop, most of his items are stored inside the dimensional cubes.

“Fortunately, you manage to snag the last rudimentary map in my shop. Other species pretty much stack up these maps for their guilds and tribes.” The orc-kind dryly expressed.

“That sucks, even in other galaxies, the monopoly’s still a thing,” Kedrick muttered in dismay. The orc stared at Thaleos for a full minute before speaking,

“Just a word of advice, Blood-Fighting Potions look useless, but you’ll need it as a Tyrannical Beast Tamer.” The aged orc mysteriously commented and shooed them off their merry way.