Chapter 1779: Asikeer, The Jiaodouchang

Asikeer.

Walking on the uneven flagstone road of the dark alley, Xia Duo could not help but feel a bit disappointed; in his original expectations, Asikeer should have been an incomparably prosperous port city.

As an important trading city in the Northland, not to mention compared to elven capital cities like Ailintar and Evereska, it should at least have been more prosperous than Seventon.

But the actual situation was—

This place was more like an enlarged marketplace than a city.

Although there were Dwarves settled in the city, they were clearly separated from other districts, forming small, relatively independent communities; outsiders found it very difficult to enter, and they were not welcomed there.

The dark alley where Xia Duo was currently located was not in a Dwarven community, but near the port, mainly where human Merchants temporarily rested and stayed.

Elven Merchants, on the other hand, mainly gathered near another port to the east, and there was not much interaction between the two sides when there was no trade.

As for the Underground Passage leading to the true Danzo in the Underdark, it was located in a district within the mountain, and that place was open to both humans and Elves.

But it generally required advance declaration, and only after a certain number of people had gathered would the Danzo authorities arrange for a guard team to escort these Merchants to the underground world, nominally to prevent the Merchants from being attacked by dangerous creatures of the Underdark.

Of course, if one's status was different, the conveniences enjoyed would also be different.

When Xia Duo first arrived in Asikeer, he chatted a few times with a steward from the Jilan Tower station here; that person revealed that only High Mages could set off at any time.

Otherwise, one could only wait for the passage to open, and this time was uncertain because it was arranged according to the number of personnel and goods.

If one was lucky and caught it that day, one could leave that day; if one was unlucky, waiting for half a year was not impossible.

Xia Duo guessed that Danzo might be using this method to control the inflow speed of foreign goods, avoiding having too much profit snatched away by foreign Merchants.

The Reality was unknown for the time being, but one point could also serve as side evidence: nowadays, when foreign Merchants came to Asikeer, most would not choose to enter the Underdark, but would instead dump their goods and purchase new ones on the spot.

It could be said that in such an enlarged marketplace as Asikeer was today, more than half of the transactions were directly handled by the Danzo authorities.

It was similar to the nature of a special zone.

Noticing this point, it was actually not hard to understand why the proposal by Crown King Helien of Yierlan to fully open trade among the Northland nations was rejected.

It was by no means just because Xia Duo had whispered a few words in front of Huo En; in reality, whether it was the Seven Towers, Danzo, or those small nations, none wished to see such a thing happen.

Like here in Asikeer, once a comprehensive trade agreement was passed, this place might not decline, but it was easy to predict that a large number of Merchants and a massive amount of goods would pour from here into the Underdark to snatch up huge profits.

How to choose was almost self-evident.

……

Unknowingly, guided by the Spell, Xia Duo had passed through the dark alley and entered a district that was tidier, but whose style also leaned more toward the rugged and grand style of the Dwarves.

This was not an independent community where Dwarves lived, but a commercial street mainly operated by Dwarves; Xia Duo finally stopped at the entrance of a very conspicuous open-air Jiaodouchang.

A Dwarf at the entrance carrying a long-handled broadaxe saw someone lingering, looked at Xia Duo with some suspicion, and asked, "Human, this is a time when it is not open to the public; do you have an invitation letter?"

"I do."

Xia Duo handed over the invitation letter he had obtained from the Jilan Tower station; the Dwarf took it casually, rubbed it vigorously, and nodded, "It's real, go in!"

After speaking, he moved aside from the dark passage behind him.

Xia Duo did not take it to heart, took back the invitation letter handed over by the other party, and walked straight into the passage; just as he entered the passage, the light in front of Xia Duo brightened, and he subconsciously squinted his eyes—the inside of this passage was completely different from the outside.

The outside looked pitch-black, but the inside was indeed bright; the passage was a full five meters high and wide enough to accommodate four or five humans walking side by side.

The walls on both sides were carved with various battle scenes, and Xia Duo noticed that the vast majority of the backgrounds were in this Jiaodouchang.

As for the protagonists, they were mainly Dwarves, of course there were also Elves, and humans were the fewest; if he hadn't discovered one just before reaching the end of the passage, he would have thought there were no records of human gladiators here at all!

The gladiators who could be recorded on both sides of this passage were mostly extraordinary people, and their opponents included everything from those running on the ground, flying in the sky, to even those swimming in the water.

Of course, there was no lack of scenes of their own kind fighting each other.

What Xia Duo was more interested in was the only recorded human battle scene; the human gladiator's opponent was tall and strong, with a slightly hunched back and fangs in its mouth—it was clearly a powerful female Troll.

The battle scene was very concise; in the center of the relief was the victory scene of that human holding a sword in one hand and the Troll's head in the other, lifting it up to cheer.

The edges were surrounded by specific battle scenes; it was not by using a Spell to kill the enemy, but by single-handedly killing the Troll with just a sword. Xia Duo had practiced the Sword Art of the elven Sword Singers.

He could roughly tell that this human's fighting style was completely different from a Sword Singer; it should be said that it was closer to the Dwarven fighting style, just without the various Magic abilities of a Dwarven warrior.

It should be said that it was just a powerful ordinary person.

However, from the closed eyes on the Troll's head in the center of the relief, it could also be seen that the sword used by the human gladiator was not an ordinary sword, at least it possessed the ability to suppress the Troll's recovery.

If it didn't, then this human gladiator would have had to guard against the Troll becoming a "headless warrior" and continuing to fight when cutting off the Troll's head.

Even before cutting off the head, he would have been exhausted by the Troll's tactic of trading injury for injury.

But in any case, just by using a sword to single-handedly kill a Troll that was stronger than him in both strength and speed, this human gladiator was worthy of being called powerful.

Xia Duo was very curious about who this person was, because before today, he had never heard of such a human; perhaps because the Magic atmosphere in Netheril was thick, it was difficult for non-Spellcasters to ascend to the hall of elegance.

But the future would not be like this; with such powerful combat talent, armed with Magic or Magic Equipment, their deterrent power might not be inferior to several High Mages.

……

Soon, the passage was finished, and Xia Duo felt as if he had passed through a layer of Jieti; several shrill shouts immediately reached his ears.

Although he could not understand the Dwarven Language, he could guess from the high-pitched tone that they were likely cheering for the battle in the Jiaodouchang.

At the same time, a Dwarf wearing heavy armor and wrapping himself into a round wine barrel came to Xia Duo.

Just as Xia Duo was breaking into a cold sweat for the other party, fearing that the other party would fall and roll around if they were not careful, the other party had already stretched out a hand and said to Xia Duo, "Guest, your invitation letter?"