Teleporting legally was completely different from what Emilia had done. There were over an hour of pre-teleport procedures, a half dozen forms to sign, an identification check, and even a brief lecture about international travel and import restrictions. When that lecture started, Elise had been worried they weren’t going to let her go, since foreign animals might fall into one of the many restricted categories, but thankfully, Forest Rabbits were a fairly universal species, so she didn’t need special treatment. However, she did have to actually transform back to a forest rabbit so as not to throw off the teleportation, which was uncomfortable.
The other side of the portal wasn’t much better, with another long security check to make sure that the first one hadn’t been faulty, but three hours of bureaucracy later, they were finally on the streets of Vina.
The first thing Elise noticed about the city was how colorful it was. Not a single building around was any shade of black, brown, gray, or white. The teleportation hub they exited was painted a soft orange, the building next to it, which seemed to be a bank, was blue, the one on the opposite side of the street was yellow, and as she looked around, she saw reds, purples, greens, and even one building with red and yellow stripes. She wasn’t sure if she liked how it looked, but she appreciated the dedication to the theme.
The second thing she noticed was how bloody hot it was. It had been warm and unpleasant, but bearable back in their previous location, but it was at least twenty degrees hotter in Vina, and to make things worse, it was humid too. All the people on the streets around were wearing thin clothing, often with open backs and exposed midriffs, and even so, very few of them weren’t sweating.
“Fuck, I forgot how miserable it was here,” said Maia.
Elise looked up at the black-haired girl, still wearing her long black dress, and already sweating after not even a minute outside.
“I can’t say it’s pleasant,” agreed Penelope. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere I can change,” said Maia. “And after that, I dunno. Should we go get Hans first, or do whatever you need to do?”
“I think we should speak with Hans first,” said Penelope. “We still don’t know where we’re going yet, so I’d like to find out as soon as possible.”
“Alright. Works for me. You think your rich friends will let us stay the night?”
“I don’t know,” said Penelope. “I don’t know them well. I’ve only met them once.”
“Then we’ll just get a room at the Third Tier for tonight while we coordinate with Hans, and then we can figure out what our plan for tomorrow is after that.”
“Sounds good,” said Penelope.
“Now, where’s a place I can change?”
Fortunately for Maia, not 100 feet away was a clothing store specializing in local fashion, probably catering specifically for people like Maia who had come to the city without thinking enough about the weather. Pets, however, were not allowed inside, so Elise and Penelope were forced to wait outside while Maia went in alone. While they waited, Elise noticed that despite the heat, Penelope didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Her clothes were summer clothes, but still ones that covered her entire body, and on top of that, she was carrying both Elise, and a large bag with all her armor and other supplies, and yet she didn’t have a drop of sweat on her.
I wish I had whatever skill she has, thought Elise.
Elise herself was beginning to pant from the heat. Her blindingly white fur was helping with the sunlight, but the ambient temperature was still far more than she was comfortable with. She felt an instinctual urge to dig a hole and hide until night time, and at that point, she realized that she was still in her base rabbit form, and transformed back up to her base fey form. When she did this the heat suddenly became much more bearable. It still was unpleasant, but getting somewhere cooler felt much less urgent.
About a quarter of an hour after Maia entered the store, the door opened again, and a blonde woman in a short yellow dress walked out. Elise didn’t pay her much attention at first, but when the blonde approached them, she did a double take, realizing it was Maia. Elise almost spoke out loud in surprise, barely stopping herself.
“Maia?” asked Penelope.
“What?” said the other girl, grumpily. “It’s more comfortable.”
“Is that your natural hair color?”
“Yeah. And?”
“Nothing. It looks good.”
“Whatever. Let’s go.”
Maia turned and started walking down the street, and Penelope jogged a couple steps forward to catch back up.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s not far,” said Maia. “Just a few more blocks. It’s still early, so he might not be working yet, but that’s fine. We’ll need to get a room anyway. We can check in, and head down whenever he arrives.”
“Alright.”
Also, said Maia’s voice in Elise’s head. He knows we’re coming, but we can’t speak to him directly yet. He’s under surveillance. I’ll talk to him using this skill while we eat or something, and then we’ll set up an actual meeting time.
Elise glanced up to see Penelope nodding slightly, showing that she had heard Maia’s unspoken words as well.
As they continued walking, Elise felt a sense of almost deja vu. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it at first, but as they traveled a bit further, she realized what it was. When Penelope had been carrying her back to her inn in Greenwood, their route had taken them further and further into the slums. This time, it was the opposite, where with every step they took, the buildings seemed to get bigger and fancier.
Their destination had an entire city block to itself, with high stone walls blocking their view of the interior, save for the main building poking out of the center. It didn’t poke out very far though, since, true to its name, The Third Tier Inn only had three floors. As they walked up to the tall iron gate that was the main entrance, Elise couldn’t help but feel like their group was underdressed. Even the guards seemed to be dressed up more expensively than them.
“Here for a meal, or staying the night?” asked one of the guards.
“We were hoping to do both,” said Maia with a smile. “Need our identifications?”
“Please,” said the guard, nodding.
Maia lifted her arms and took off a necklace, a simple chain with a silver plaque hanging from it, and handed it to the guard, and Penelope grabbed her own iron plaque from her hip pouch and handed it to the other guard. A moment later, both were handed back.
“Enjoy your stay,” said the guard, reaching behind to open the gate.
As soon as they stepped within the wall, the temperature seemed to halve. Elise gave a small gasp, both because of the temperature, and because of the sudden increase in ambient mana. The ground below was cobbled stone, but below it, she could feel an intricate array of flowing mana, which she assumed was what provided the climate control.
The main building itself reminded Elise a bit of Dokkalfheimr. The main door was flanked by two massive stone pillars that seemed to grow straight out of the ground, and while the walls seemed to be more intricate, as she looked closer, she saw that they also seemed to be carved from a single piece of stone sprouting from the ground. There were two more guards, one in front of each pillar, but aside from a polite nod, neither acknowledged their entry.
While Elise assumed that there were more guards than just the four they had seen, she suspected that there was some truth to Maia’s guess that Hans wasn’t working yet. At the very least, none of the four guards they had seen so far were black-winged Ainar.
When they entered the building, Elise’s first thought was that they were in a hotel, not an inn. She hadn’t been to many hotels, but the room they were in was very similar to the lobbies of the hotels she had been to. It was big, open, and brightly lit, with a few chairs and tables scattered around, and a large desk in the back manned by four smiling young women.
“Welcome to the Third Tier,” called the one on the left, a brunette. “Here for a stay, or just a meal?”
“Both,” said Maia. “But we’d like to check into a room first.”
“Of course!” Elise saw the receptionist’s hands move and heard the rustling of papers. “One bed, or separate?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Separate,” said Maia.
“How many nights?”
“Just one for now. Maybe more though in the future.”
“Privacy enchantments?”
“Advanced.”
“We have two rooms available that meet your needs, both on the second floor,” said the receptionist, writing as she spoke. “One is on the south side, overlooking our garden, and costs one gold and eight silver per night. The other is on the interior, overlooking the courtyard, and costs one gold and two silver per night. We also have a few luxury suites available starting at five gold per night.”
Elise felt Penelope wince when the prices were mentioned, but Maia showed no reaction, maintaining her smile.
“The room by the courtyard, please,” she said.
“If you’d like, we can reserve the room for you for tomorrow night as well for one gold extra. If you make a final decision by midnight tonight, your gold will either be refunded, or will go toward paying for the second night, depending on your choice. If you do not notify us by midnight, your gold is forfeit, and should you choose to stay for a second night, you will need to pay full price again.”
“Sure,” said Maia. “I think we’ll be able to decide by then.”
“Wonderful!” said the receptionist. “Then your total is two gold and two silver.”
As Maia fetched the payment from the coin pouch given by Otto, Elise saw Penelope’s eyes following the coins the whole way. Elise didn’t feel too bothered by it herself, but she still only had a faint grasp on the currency in this world. She imagined it would be much different for someone who grew up in poverty here.
The receptionist grabbed a key from a drawer in front of her, then led them to their room. Elise had gotten a decent view of the building on the way in, but it still left her unprepared for how big the place was. The second floor hallway was so long she could barely see the end of it, and it felt like it took forever to reach the opposite side where their room was. The room itself was a bit lackluster compared to everything else about the hotel, containing just the two beds and a small bathroom, but it was still one of the nicest rooms Elise had ever been in.
“This is your room,” said the receptionist once they were all inside. “Two beds, a bathroom, and our best privacy wards. No one below seventh tier will be able to hear or see what happens in this room. There is also a room service bell.” she gestured toward a thin rope hanging from the ceiling between the two beds. “If you pull that cord, one of our attendants will be summoned to assist you. Please note that while simple requests, such as new sheets, answering questions about our establishment, or notifying us of a change in plans are free of charge, your attendant will charge extra for more complex tasks.
“If you exit your room and turn left, you’ll come to a staircase. If you go down the staircase and turn right and continue straight, you will reach our world famous tavern, where we are proud to say we have two eighth tier chefs employed. You can also get food delivered to your room via room service, but please note that you will have to pay for both the food and the delivery. Do you have any questions?”
“Nope. That all sounds great, thanks,” said Maia.
“Then I hope you enjoy your stay.”
The receptionist handed Maia the key, bowed, and walked away, letting the door close almost silently behind her. When the door closed, Elise had a brief moment of anxiousness as most of the sounds she had been hearing were cutoff. It was eerie, being somewhere so silent after being around the noises of the city for so long.
“Two gold,” muttered Penelope.
“It’s Otto’s money, not ours,” said Maia, shrugging. “Plus, this place is nice. The food is to die for. Speaking of, are you guys hungry yet?”
“I could eat,” said Penelope. “Though I’m not sure what we’ll do about Elise.”
“Good point,” said Maia. “Elise is your transformation off cooldown yet?”
“Not quite,” replied Elise. “But even so, won’t it be suspicious if I suddenly appear here without having checked in.”
“Oh, yeah, good point,” said Maia. “I guess we can have food delivered.”
“Food made by an eighth tier chef…” said Penelope. “How much will it cost?”
“I dunno, but it’s not our money,” said Maia. “Might as well live a little.”
She walked over toward the beds and pulled on the cord.
“What are you doing?” asked Penelope.
“Asking for a menu,” said Maia.
About ten minutes later, Maia was poring over a small scroll that a young man had delivered to them while Penelope was reading over her shoulder and grimacing at all the prices. Another ten minutes later, after confirming that Elise’s transformation would be off-cooldown within the next half hour, they called back the attendant to order food. Once again, when Maia handed the attendant the payment–another full gold and a silver–Penelope winced. She didn’t argue against it too much though. Elise could hear her stomach growling.
Elise stayed in her rabbit form until the food arrived, carted in on a shiny silver trolley, and as soon as the attendant was gone, she transformed into her human form. The food smelled heavenly. It made even the feast at Dokkalfheimr seem mediocre, just from the smell alone, and the taste didn’t disappoint. She was glad she could finally eat meat again, because that was most of what Maia ordered, though even if she only got to have a bowl of the potato soup, she would have been happy.
When they finished, they relaxed on the beds for a few minutes before Maia suddenly sat up.
“I’m gonna head down to the courtyard,” she said. “Hans is here. You guys should stay here. It’ll be easier to stay inconspicuous on my own.”
“Okay,” said Penelope, still lying down with a hand on her bloated stomach.
“Sounds good,” said Elise.
“I might be gone for a little while,” said Maia. “So don’t worry if I’m not back in a few hours.”
“Okay,” said Elise.
Penelope responded with a simple thumbs up.
A few minutes after Maia left, Penelope was asleep, leaving Elise with nothing to do and no one to talk to. At first, she tried to nap as well, but she couldn’t fall asleep, so she instead decided to do some mana meditation. She had been slacking off on it over the past few days, and needed to get back into the rhythm, so she turned back into her changeling form and got comfortable on the bed.
With her new evolution and {Mana Sense} continuously climbing in level, she was starting to understand more why her three cores had so little mana. At first, it simply seemed as though they were dead spots within her body, and she needed to soften them up a bit, but as she focused more, she noticed that the mana in her central core was much more pure than the mana in the rest of her body, which was more pure than the mana in the air.
The purified mana also seemed more potent than the rest of the mana, which is why it was difficult to contain. At this point, she could passively store the purified mana in her core at about one quarter the density of the mana in the rest of her body. When she meditated, she could get that up to around three quarters, but it always slowly leaked back out when she stopped. She wished there was a way to keep the pure mana stored indefinitely instead, and she suspected that magic-focused classes and species got such a skill, but as her evolutionary track was taking her more toward manipulation, which didn’t use mana for some reason, she had not gotten it.
That got her thinking about how her {Suggest}, {Charm}, {Lesser Transformation} and other skills did work. None of them used even a bit of mana, and at least for {Suggest} and {Charm}, there didn’t seem to be a limit to how many times she could use them. But that didn’t make any sense. Most of those skills had obvious effects, especially {Lesser Transformation}, so they had to get that energy from somewhere. Was there a second kind of magical energy? There had to be, right?
System, how does {Suggest} work?
“{Suggest} is a skill in which the user can plant a subtle thought in the head of their target. The target must be nearby and the user must know their location to use the skill. It can be used to-”
No, no, I know what it does. I mean how does it work? How can it have any effects without using mana?
“I’m sorry, but you do not have permission to access that information.”
Of course, she sighed.
At the very least, the System’s refusal to answer proved that there was an answer. She would be able to find it eventually.
She returned to her mana meditation, focusing on letting as much mana into her central core as possible. She got to three quarter density fairly quickly, and then went on trying to fill it up more. She had two main methods that she regularly attempted in order to accomplish this goal.
The first was closing up the acupoints one at a time, keeping the pure mana from leaking back out. However, this method was inefficient, because even after nearly 3 months of practice, she could only fully close 9 of them, and there were 24 total.
The second method was trying to focus on the core as a whole, and close all of the acupoints just slightly. This is the method she used to reach the 75% density, though she was hitting a wall there too. It didn’t feel like she’d be able to get much further, because even just keeping them half closed like that took all her willpower, and the diminishing returns of trying harder were extreme. Perhaps if she leveled up further and increased her Willpower stat, she would be able to get further, but she didn’t want to rely solely on her stats to do it. There had to be another way.
The first method was slower, but the progress was relatively consistent. Once an acupoint was fully closed, it was relatively simple to keep it closed, so she could continue increasing the number until she reached the 24 point goal.
Is that really a good idea though?
Her goal was to keep the purified mana inside her core, but when she closed the acupoints, it couldn’t pass through in either direction. If she managed to fully close off the entire core, the purified mana wouldn’t be able to leak out anymore, but it wouldn’t be usable either, and it wouldn’t be able to leak in either. How did the cores work anyway? Why were they so good at expelling mana, and so bad at taking it in?
System, what are mana cores?
“Mana cores are extraphysical locations within the bodies of living creatures that are used for purification and circulation of mana.”
Purification and circulation, she thought. Not storage.
Maybe she had been going about her meditation all wrong. Jens had explained to her a little bit about mana cores, but he didn’t spend much time on them, saying that they weren’t worth worrying about. Now that she knew a bit more about the world, she guessed that was because he didn’t actually know much about them, since they were probably automatically unlocked for him by his class. She had taken what little he did say and applied it to her own assumptions, but what if her assumptions were wrong?
She held her core tightly closed for a bit longer, then intentionally released it, feeling the purified mana flow back into her body and slowly become diluted again. As she watched, she noticed that when the mana flow suddenly increased out of the 24 acupoints, for a brief moment, there was a hint of a pattern in the way it moved. She held them tightly closed again, allowing the purified mana to build up again, and then released it, and saw the pattern again.
Circulation! she thought excitedly.
She spent the next hour repeatedly letting the mana build up, and then release. Each time, it got a bit easier, and though imperceptible at first, by the end of the hour, she noticed that the mana in her body was also much more pure and slightly more dense than it had been before. Her head was starting to hurt though from all the concentration though, so she exited her meditative state to take a quick break. When she did, she saw a System dialogue window waiting for her.
[ You have discovered a hidden Skill Quest: {Mana Circulation} ]