The Tales of Draconic Warlock

It took me two days to find the entrance of this place.

Hmm, shouldn't the portals of secret realms should open at a certain time?

This should be everyone's thought. There was a reason why I found the portal that could let me leave. There is a secret cheat code for the portal to open. This was something that I learned from the Nexus.

Yes, there is a library in there but for some reason, I could only take a few books from it. The other books are restricted. I am sure there's information on souls in there, which I want but there was nothing I could do.

There was no mention of why most of the library was restricted. So the only thing I could do for now was to wait.

Anyway, the secret cheat code to open a portal was to kill the boss of the secret realm. Once the boss is dead, a portal will open and they can leave the secret realm.

Of course, there is a restriction on that cheat code. The number of monsters you killed after entering the secret realm shouldn't cross five percent of the total monsters inside.

The issue is if ten people enter the secret realm at the same time, give or take one or two hours, depends on the realm, then they are considered as a single entity. At that point, it won't count individually but totally.

If that happens, then you have to wait till the time when the portal opens on its own.

Luckily, only I entered at this point. Though the merchants and their party entered this place, They did so long ago. So they don't count. If they did, I would be stuck in that place for a very long time.

---

Sivel Manor, Westport City

After escaping from that place, I didn't return to Endis, rather I went to Orlon town. The reason was that if I went back to Endis Town, there was a chance that the mayor would cause trouble for me. So instead I went to Orlon, which is on the way to Westport City, where the Count lives.

I am going directly to him, bypassing anyone who could cut into my profits or cause trouble for me. I mean I discovered a Secret Realm/Dungeon which would provide the region constant supply of resources and that means they would become pretty rich.

For the discovery, they have to pay me a certain price, irrespective of what the place could provide.

This was because it was not uncommon to not know what the secret realm or the dungeon provided for years. Yes, it takes years to fully understand their value and by that time, nothing would be the same. The finder could have died or moved far away and that means that one who was reaping the benefits could skip the pay and no one could say a word.

This was why, a standard price was introduced. Enjoy reading at m v-lem-pyr

The first way to get paid was to ask for the Standard Price for finding it. Though the price may end up being on the low end if the dungeon/secret realm was revealed to have high quality or huge quantities of resources, it was paid instantly. There would be no delay or cheating.

The second was to wait until the inspection was over. It would take years but you would be paid as per the value of the place. The chances of getting swindled are very high though. There is a chance that they would silence you if the true worth is more than they can afford.

The secret realm/dungeon I found might belong to the Count as it was found in his territory but they have to pay a tax to the kingdom, which most of the people are not interested in doing so. Everyone would like to improve their resources not reduce them.

There is only Income Tax here but even then most would escape from paying it. Though there are agents who are assigned for tax purposes, they can't do anything to the rich. The ones that have to pay taxes on time are the middle-class and low-class citizens.

The rich have many ways to escape from paying the tax. They can intimidate, bribe or use many other ways to keep their wealth intact.

If the Count was such a person, then he would definitely wouldn't pay me what I was owned, if the payment was for a future date. So I decided to take the standard price, though I have a feeling that I would be losing a lot through that option.

Moreover, I never found the source of that sound that led me to that cave.

There are many secrets buried behind that cave. If the count has competent men, then all those secrets would belong to him. There is nothing I could do about that.

If the cave was far away from the ruling territories, inside the wilds, then I could have kept it quiet but it was not. With how close it was to the Count's territory and the searching that had been done for the past month or so, there was a high chance that the cave would be discovered sooner than later.

It was too far from where I live or study, making it difficult to make use of the resources effectively. So I decided to sell the information and make something out of that. Moreover, the clue to their missing cousins has to do with that place.

With two pieces of information, I could get a favour from him in the future, if he was a good one. Let's test that theory.

Westport, the city where the Count lives. It took me five days to reach here from Orlon Town. Once I did, I freshened up in an Inn before I went to meet up with the Count.

Well, he is a Count, a rank higher than my father's. Moreover, it was etiquette to appear before other nobles clean, rather than appearing as if you had been living in the wild.

The Count's mansion was very big, bigger than the Mayor's and also grand.

"Halt, what's your purpose?" the guards asked me.

"Hello, I am here to meet Count Sivel".