Chapter 269 - Temporary asylum(2)

"Is there a problem?" the man asked seeing nicks frown. "yes, you see the inscriptions on here mostly make sense however there is one that is quite suspicious." nick said seriously. the man looked concerned at this but nick couldn't tell exactly why. "are you an inscription master?" the man said seriously. nick looked at the man cautiously since he had the suspicion that not all was as he had thought. "i am, is that a problem?" nick asked while preparing to flee if he must. "no no don't misunderstand me, there is a second set of procedures for inscription masters is all." the man says reassuringly. "alright then please explain." nick says while handing the inscribed badge back. "for inscription masters we are supposed to offer a different badge for the reason that should be obvious at this point." the man says honestly. "is there any particular reason why the other badge has a cultivation suppression inscription on it?" nick asked seriously. yes the other badge had a fairly well hidden but still easily noticeable inscription that unperceptively prevents the person holding the badge from advancing their cultivation without a huge amount of effort.

"Don't tell anyone i told you this but the kingdom uses the badges to boost the economy by having foreign cultivators collect large amounts of resources to sell for cultivation supplies." the man said seriously. nick wasn't all that surprised to learn of this since it made sense that the kingdom would get some sort of benefit from visitors, he just didn't expect the kingdom to use such an underhanded method to do so. "if this is true why don't you use the same badge for inscription masters as well?" nick asked curiously. the man sighed "we tried once but quickly realized that it was pointless since any master capable enough to find the inscription is also completely capable of easily removing it." the man said with a shrug. "whats worse is that if we state that no damage is allowed against the badges by law we just end up striking ourselves since the masters usually just go somewhere else depriving the kingdom of their much needed services." the man explained with a defe3ated expression. "sounds like an awkward situation." nick says calmly. "it is, enough about that though we need to go over the slightly different laws for inscription masters." the man says getting serious again.

The laws for inscription masters were basically the same with the exception that they were prohibited from using their skills to undermine the kingdom. while that sounds like it needed clarification at this point both parties knew what the hidden implication of that law was.. after receiving his new badge nick and the man parted ways and nick entered the city officially as a foreign visitor.