Taking the Mafia to the Magic World

1082  Aristocratic Prosperity Vicente and his group arrived at Humfail Reef. As expected after the conversations with Lyra, the island was a stronger place than Amae and Light Cay, but also much more organized and peaceful.

The local sovereign ruled the region with an iron fist, forcing its entire population to live under its rules. The result was little violent competition and the social flourishing of this civilization.

As soon as they entered the first town on their way, the group saw how organized and developed the local population was, noticing a very well-developed and organized trade and service industry.

Vicente, in particular, felt as if he had come back to earth when he entered this place, seeing a civilization that was more orderly and less brutal than anything he had seen since his birth in Polaris Realm. Obviously there was a magical component to this place that made it different from Earth. But rules had more value there than just power. As long as one wasn't among the 0.001% of the strongest people on the island, the rules applied to everyone with blind justice, something that, as far as Vicente could see, was even fairer than what happened on Earth.

Not that Earth was the home of honesty and equality. Vicente knew that his first world was problematic. But unlike the world of cultivation, where people could concentrate great power in their hands, on Earth people needed systems of government to live by, which could function, even with their flaws, most of the time.

Money could influence the Earth, but not like magic influenced the Polaris Realm.

An ordinary Earth human could wreak havoc if they wanted to. But there were far more preventative mechanisms to stop someone with ill intent on Earth than in the magical worlds Vicente had the chance to experience.

Because of his background in every place he's been, seeing a place like Humfail Reef functional even made a big impression on Vicente!

Because of this local social order, they soon understood more about the island's map and how things worked there for natives and travelers like them. The island itself was not difficult for travelers from other islands to experience and take advantage of the local possibilities. Trade up to the Eighth Class was free for anyone with the resources to access it, while only a small range of resources and artifacts were restricted. To access them, one would need to register and go through a more bureaucratic process, but one that supposedly wasn't that difficult to get approved. As for hunting pentagrams on the island, there were some places where anyone could hunt without prior authorization. However, there were places—the best on the island—that were exclusive to royalty or that required registration and prior permission to access them.

Larissa and Rex found it pedantic to have so many limiting mechanisms in their way. But Vicente coped better, having tempered himself for almost two decades on Earth before his reincarnation. Being used to rules and procedures like these, he took the whole situation well, trying to look on the bright side. If on the one hand, they didn't have as much freedom locally as they had had on Amae and Light Cay, on the other, on Humfail Reef they had a social stability that allowed them much more than on those other two islands of Anicane. In just one day on the island, they had a good understanding of how the area worked, the rules and possible punishments for infractions. They even got high-value resources for Rex, Larissa and Lyra, with only Vicente getting nothing special.

Vicente already had a mid-8th stage power and, given his recent speed of growth, he didn't want to strengthen himself for the time being by using resources available in local stores. His focus on the island was to rest from his journey there, get information and resources for his friends, and finally try to hunt down his pentagram. It wasn't one of his priorities to reach the 5-Star Grand Magus stage right now. @@novelbin@@

That didn't mean, however, that Vicente wasn't cultivating on a daily basis. This was a habit he had kept religiously in his routine ever since he started cultivating mana in Polaris Realm. Even as powerful as he was now, he had his meditation time every day.

So, after three days in the coastal town where they arrived on the island, they set off for a town further inland, from where they could supposedly get permission to hunt pentagrams in one of the island's restricted areas.

Vicente wanted a violet pentagram for the place of his 16th essence. But something like that was only available from creatures of the highest level, which could only be found on Humfail Reef in one of the forests controlled by the sovereign family. They continued their journey, taking five days to reach the city indicated by a royal guard from the coastal city where they had left their ship. They reached this other city in the interior of the island without difficulty, having used a high-speed train to cross a good chunk of this territory without having to deal with thieves or common forest creatures.

In Humfail Reef, things were simpler and soon they were walking down the main street of the island's capital, entering the government building where a guide had shown them.

...

Inside a grand palace, opulent and full of uniformed people, very clean and beautiful, Vicente and his group had their number called in one of the rooms of a large corridor where they were told to wait.

The four of them went forward to the room that called them, each wondering if being authoritarian was really a problem.

This was the richest and most prosperous, most beautiful and well-organized place they had ever seen in their lives. Unlike the many places they had been to, however, this place had a group of no more than five men who decided everything important about the island.

'Maybe I'll create my own aristocratic domain in the future. Vicente smiled, having never thought about it until recently. 'This island could certainly have big problems in the future, because of its model. But as long as there is an all-powerful figure in power, they can endure in style.

"Vicente Fuller," a voice broke Vicente's train of thought. "Are you here to get a hunting permit? Where exactly do you want to go?"