"Why did the prices increase?! One bag of grain was worth Mana Scraps last week! Why is it suddenly one and a half?!" a dirty and thin woman shouted to a tall and burly thug standing in front of her.
"That's the price. Pay or leave," the thug said with a sneer.
The woman gritted her fist in hatred and fear.
These bastards!
She could see how they extorted everyone and how they increased the prices for young and beautiful women so that they had no other choice but to pay with their bodies!
Just the thought of sleeping with this arrogant piece of shit disgusted her.
But what could she do?
She had a daughter at home!
She needed the grain!
BANG!
Suddenly, the woman was thrown to the side, hitting the ground.
"Move it!" a man from behind her shouted as he handed over a Mana Scrap to the ruffian.
The ruffian took out a bag of grain and handed it over.
How was she supposed to explain to her daughter that they couldn't eat today?
"Mage Guards!"
Everyone stopped moving and looked at the person that had just shouted.
Someone had just come running towards them in a panic.
"Mage Guards are coming!" the person shouted in horror.
Almost everyone became white in the face.
Mage Guards were terrifying!
Whenever a Mage Guard noticed someone stealing trash in the actual town, they would punish them by breaking one of their hands.
Mage Guards were terrifying existences to these people.
From time to time, the people here would dare to venture outside their little village and enter the Mage Town.
There, they would scrounge for little bits of solid Mana. Apparently, the gangs were interested in these bits of solid Mana.
In truth, these bits of solid Mana were just some random scrapings from some small Mana Crystals. They were so small and worthless that no True Mage would even look at them.
But these little Mana Scraps were the very things that decided if a person survived or died in this part of the town.
Yet, the Mage Guards were the very people that made such an excursion dangerous.
The Mage Guards were the most feared enemy of the people here.
And now, these Mage Guards were entering their homes?!
This had never happened before!
Everyone looked over, and sure enough, they saw six well-dressed people walking through the streets as everyone gave a wide berth to them.
The Mage Guards walked past them with grimaces.
These mortals smelled horrible!
The people looked with fear at the Mage Guards as they kept walking.
After a while, the people either followed them or hid in their homes.
Yet, even though there were many people following the Mage Guards, not even a single person begged.
They didn't dare to.
Eventually, the Mage Guards reached the huge wall.
A huge hill of dung greeted them.
The wall was the public toilet for the people here.
The leader of the Mage Guards looked with disgust at the wall and waved his arm.
SHING!
All the dung in the surrounding 50 meters vanished into thin air, and the people watched with shock.
They had seen some of these illustrious people making small things vanish, but they had never seen anyone making something that big vanish!
Then, the leader of the guards nodded to one of his people, who then summoned a beam of fire.
The guard burned and dried everything on that spot, and he also burned some of the stinking chemicals in the air.
After that, another guard stepped forward, and she summoned a powerful wind that shoved all the dust and dirt over the wall.
The leader of the guards looked at the wall and nodded.
It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before.
The people watched with fascination and nervousness.
What were they doing?
The guards just remained there and didn't move.
After some time, one person dared to step a bit closer.
BANG!
One of the guards flicked a finger, and the person was thrown back.
Luckily, the person wasn't injured.
That person had been the one and only one that dared to step forward.
Some minutes later, the people parted ways again as some new people arrived.
The guards parted ways and saluted respectfully to the new people.
The leader of these new people looked at the burned wall and stroked his beard.
"Alright, let's get to work," he said to the two people beside him.
These were the town planner's people, and they were High Mages.
CRRRRR!
The people watched in shock and horror as the earth near the wall started to levitate and vanish.
It was almost like it was turning into nothing!
Soon, a huge hole was created, but since it was supposed to be a tunnel, the hole essentially became wider and wider.
The guards kept shoving people away as the hole became wider and wider.
The deeper the hole became, the more the progress slowed down.
The High Mages had to be careful that they didn't touch the Magic Circles. Additionally, they had to be careful that parts of the wall didn't move since that might also interfere with the Magic Circles.
A couple of hours later, they stopped digging.
The town planner's people left, but the guards remained.
While all of this was going on, the gang leaders tried to find out what was going on.
Why were the guards suddenly here?!
As the hours passed, nothing changed.
Eventually, the people's normal desires took priority, and they returned to buying food and hunting for Mana Scraps.
Apparently, the Mage Guards were not here to hurt them. They just dug a big hole.
Then, nothing happened for three days.
But then, something big happened.
Two new people arrived, and the shocking thing was that they could fly!
The mortals had seen some flying humans from time to time, but none of them had seen one up close.
Why were these flying celestials here?
"I want this to be just like the main gates of the town," a person clothed in white with a white bandana around his eyes said.
The other person, a woman with violet hair, crossed her arms as she made some calculations in her head.
"I can do that," she said after a while. "I need around six hours, and it will cost you three Grade Six Mana Crystals and 250 Grade Five Mana Crystals."
The person in white nodded. "No problem."
The Ancestral Mage from the Magic Circle service nodded and began working right away. "The Magic Circles won't work for the next six hours. I hope that won't be a problem for you."
"No," the person in white answered neutrally.
The Ancestral Mage nodded, and she began working.
The person in white flew away again, and the people started watching the woman with violet hair do stuff in the hole.
After a while, the Ancestral Mage grew annoyed.
She snorted, and a purple barrier suddenly blocked the view of the hole.
Six hours later, a couple of lights shot across the barrier of the city.
This was the Ancestral Mage testing if everything worked.
Some seconds later, the purple barrier vanished, and the Ancestral Mage flew away again.
After around half an hour, the people from three days ago returned, and they continued digging in the hole.
Some hours later, they stepped out of the hole and left.
Eventually, more guards arrived, and the previous ones left.
Two of the guards walked into the hole, and two of them stopped beside the hole, one on each side.
The remainder gathered in the middle of the place.
In the middle of all the guards stood three people.
One was a young woman.
One was a young man.
One was an old man.
They were the three High Mages responsible for keeping the public order.
The older High Mage stepped forward, and everyone in the mortal district felt their attention drawn to him. They didn't know why, but for some reason, they just had to look at him.
The older man only smiled warmly.
"From today onwards, things will change," he announced with a friendly voice. "Maybe you won't like it in the short term, but you will thank us in the long run."
The people only watched with anxiety at the older man.
The older man only smiled.
Over the next couple of days, this smile would haunt the gangs.
