The two of them waited for another two hours. During that time, it was mostly the Town Lord talking and Shang listening.
Shang wasn't the best contributor when it came to conversations.
Eventually, enough time passed that the two of them could leave without any suspicions.
The isolation barrier was deactivated, and the two of them left the room.
The two of them walked towards the entrance of the town, but they were also talking with the powerful people of the town.
Shang was officially the Town Lord now, and he had to introduce himself.
There were two other Archmages in the town, but they would both leave with the previous Town Lord.
This meant that Shang's town was only made up of High Mages and weaker.
In a way, it was just like a Kingdom in Area 23, but with one small difference.
The Zone Beasts weren't peaceful.
What would an Area 23 with aggressive Zone Beasts look like?
Bad.
Now, it was Shang's task to deal with any beast that couldn't be handled by his employees.
Even if an Ancestral Beast attacked.
Of course, Shang wasn't the first person in the world that owned a town while not being in the Ancestral Mage Realm. There had been predecessors, and they had found solutions.
"Sir," one of the Archmages that would leave soon contacted Shang. "Some of my friends are living here. I just want to know how you plan to defend the town from Ancestral Beasts?"
"He's been accepted by our Security Agency," the old Town Lord answered.
The Archmage was quite surprised. "Really? But you said they are very particular about their clients. So many people want to have a contract with them, but they only accept very few people."
"I know, right?" the old Town Lord answered with a smile. "I was also surprised when I contacted them. They just listened for a while, talked with him, and then accepted him."
The other Archmage sighed in relief. "That's good."
There were innumerable ways to make money in this world.
Wherever there was a need, there was money to be made.
Some Archmages wanted to rule a town without being able to defend themselves from Ancestral Beasts. That was a need.
That was where the Security Agencies came in.
Security Agencies were groups of Ancestral Mages that dealt with emergencies.
An Ancestral Beast attacking your town?
No worries! The Security Agency will arrive very swiftly and get rid of it!
The town would only need to survive for a couple of minutes, which wasn't necessarily hard.
Depending on the power of the surveillance Magic Circle, one could find an Ancestral Beast while it couldn't feel the town yet.
The expensive barriers could also hold up for several minutes under the onslaught of an Ancestral Beast.
That was enough time for the Security Agency to deal with the threat.
Of course, depending on the quality of the Security Agency, they might fail in dealing with an Ancestral Beast or arrive late. In both cases, the town would lose a ton of money or maybe even get destroyed.
But good Security Agencies were expensive.
Not only would they keep the entire corpse, but they would also demand a multiple of the beast's worth on top of that.
An expensive Security Agency could bankrupt a town.
But the Security Agency contracted to this town was extremely good while also being quite cheap.
They only demanded double the beast's worth on top of the corpse while also being extremely fast.
The resident Security Agency had never taken longer than 90 seconds to arrive, and most of the time, they arrived within 30.
That was insanely fast!
Of course, this Security Agency was just a hidden branch of the Temple of Blood, and they only defended their own towns and cities.
It was very much in their interests to see these towns flourish.
Also, it wasn't that demanding to protect these couple of towns.
This town, for example, got attacked by an Ancestral Beast about three times per year.
They only had to keep one Ancestral Mage on standby.
But that alone already showed how much Shang's worth had already changed in the Temple of Blood's eyes.
As a Named Agent, the Temple of Blood hadn't invested anything in Shang.
Now, Shang was responsible for an entire town, and an Ancestral Mage was held on standby just for him.
The old Town Lord introduced Shang to all the important people, which all consisted of Peak High Mages.
When the High Mages heard about Shang, they were quite nervous.
Yes, the Security Agency dealt with Ancestral Beasts, but what about Archbeasts?
Could this new Town Lord take care of them?
"You don't have to worry," the old Town Lord said with a smile. "I personally tested his power, and I'm certain that he's more than capable of dealing with them."
Sadly, not everyone believed the Town Lord.
"Just give him a chance," the old Town Lord said. "Even if he couldn't deal with the Archbeasts, he would just activate the Isolation Barriers, and the Security Agency would eventually repossess the town. There's no danger in giving him a chance."
It was difficult to convince the people, but the old Town Lord was very charismatic. Additionally, he had been the Town Lord of this town ever since it had been created.
Eventually, all the important people gathered in front of Shang and the old Town Lord.
The Town Lord officially handed his position over to Shang, who accepted it.
The people were still not convinced. After all, Shang wasn't a Mage.
How could a non-Mage defend a town?
After a lot of talking, the old Town Lord sighed. "Fine, I'll stay here for a couple of days just to be sure, alright?"
Everyone immediately thanked him.
Over the next couple of hours, Shang got acquainted with how the town was being run.
When Shang heard what the main source of income for the town was, he realized that he wouldn't run out of money unless he really tried to screw things up.
The town had a Pathfinder Magic Circle, and it rented its use to travelers.
That was a lot of money!
Just as the name suggested, a Pathfinder Magic Circle could find a path through the wilderness.
In a way, it worked a bit like a sonar. When it was activated, it would send a wave of Mana in a certain direction and receive different signals back. Like this, the Pathfinder Magic Circle could locate all the Ancestral Beasts and Archbeasts.
Pathfinder Magic Circles were incredibly expensive. The creators or designers of these Magic Circles needed to know several Elemental Concepts, but they were not the expensive part.
The three most expensive parts were…
The level two Pure Concept of Space, Distance.
The level three Pure Concept of Time, Flow.
The level two Pure Concept of Gravity, Pressure.
Only the absolute elites of the Ancestral Mage Realm could create something like that on their own, but usually, it wasn't just one person creating the Pathfinder Magic Circle.
As long as someone in the group knew a Concept, it was okay.
Creating a Pathfinder Magic Circle was insanely difficult and expensive. In fact, its price was calculated in tens of Grade Seven Mana Crystals.
This Magic Circle alone made up about 70% of the town's price.
However, if one actually managed to get their hands on one of these, money wouldn't stop flowing in.
Not only would groups of merchants use it, but the merchants were also more likely to take routes with this town on them. That increased trade a lot.
Additionally, it could be used to scout rare beasts, which would also be worth a lot of money.
Even more, such a Magic Circle also made it possible for High Mages to travel through the surroundings and collect treasures from the wilderness.
Pathfinder Magic Circles were amazing.
And Shang's town had one.
