We approach the silver towers as the morning sun reflects golden light onto our approaching camels.

This city looks a lot more developed than any of the other smaller towns we've been through in the Dark Continent so far.

If I had to guess, it looks like tens of thousands of people could easily be housed here.

With high rises of apartments in residential areas, shops indoors and outdoors selling hunter's gear as well as basic necessities that un-leveled villagers can use.

Even this early in the morning people are beginning to line the streets.

Arie speaks up.

"This is it. Welcome to Solara."

It's huge... but honestly, with all the hype, this is about what I expected.

"Where is the Tower of Dreams? That's where we need to meet up with those two Elites right?"

Arie points to a slim curved silver tower between a ridged rectangular one and a very light-colored one on its other side, each roughly the same height.

"Right this way. We have two or three hours until the raid begins. How's everyone feeling?"

Maria replies, still staring up at the beautiful shimmering city.

"I feel great!"

Abby stares up while rubbing her eyes, not saying a word as we enter the city streets and off of the sandy desert sand.

They're made of tightly placed cobblestone, but in such a straight line and meticulously crafted it seems some heavy machinery or maybe magic kill was used to fit these streets together.

The buildings for as far as the eye can see are made of very modern and most definitely imported steel and bricks. Possibly from outside the walls. I don't see where all of this metal and building material could have come from otherwise.

Unless there are factories and power plants out here that I haven't seen, there must be more cooperation with the Association than it seems on the surface.

This reminds me...

"Hey, everyone, hoods up. We may have bounties in this city too..."

Immediately, everyone follows my advice and we cover our faces with the red hoods of our cloaks. It doesn't hurt to be cautious.

Arie leads us into the city.

The morning sun shines a yellow light on the street vendors setting up their shops while we walk further into town.

Merchants begin shouting at us as we walk by.

"E and D class gear, straight from the dungeons, get 'em while you still can!"

A woman's voice comes from behind us next.

"Potions! Potions and mana crystals, 50% off until noon!"

I look around curiously, then speak to Arie.

"Is there a dungeon system out here? I don't sense any active portals at all..."

He slowly nods.

"Yeah, they box each dungeon up like back in DryRock to make sure if one breaks it won't destroy the city. A lot of them are closer to the center of town."

I nod as the footsteps of camels echo against the street.

"Interesting..."

The 6 towers get closer and closer, and the shops that line the streets become more and more high-tech. It almost feels wrong to be walking through a city like this on two animals...

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"Training rooms! Graded up to B-Class shielding! 60 minutes for a room, only 1 silver per hunter."

My head turns as I hear the sound of a young energetic man's voice speak up. I bring my ride to a halt and whisper under my breath.

"This could be perfect...."

Maria speaks up from behind me.

"What's all this about? Why are we stopping for a training room?"

I nod.

"I think it'd be a good idea. I farmed a lot more of the shards last night, we need a place to absorb them before our mission, right?"

"Hmm, I agree."

Abby speaks up next.

"I think this is a good idea too. We might as well use all the time we have left to get stronger."

All of us jump off and I take 8 silver coins out while speaking up to the tall blond-haired worker.

"We'd like a room. 2 full hours for all 4 of us."

The man accepts my silver as Arie ties up the camels to a post outside.

The store in front of us is about 3 stories high. Its first-floor walls to the entrance are made of glass to show the white walls of the elegant-looking shop inside.

It's a long rectangular storefront, possibly 7 meters wide and no more than 15 meters long. We all walk toward the stairs in the back that lead us up to a large metal door on the 2nd floor.

The man speaks up.

"Here you all are."

He's surprisingly easygoing. No ID needed, no name, nothing at all. I guess this is just how they do things out here.

With a swift motion, he taps on a small square black plate attached to the door.

It begins counting down from 121 minutes.

"I gave you an extra minute to get situated. The door will open if you push the handle or once the counter hits 0, so please don't continue your training after this time. The shielding won't be activated unless I enter the code."

The door clicks open to reveal a bright white room, similar to the flooring downstairs. It has stations of shielding fitted together that all seem to be carrying shades of white.

It hums and creates a perfect barrier all the same.

I step inside while replying.

"Sounds good. I appreciate it."

On the inside of the door, there's an identical timer, ticking down the minutes and seconds.

[120:49]

The moment we all walk inside and the door closes behind us with a loud click, I open up my item storage and begin dumping out the glowing blue shards.

"Let's get started."

The shards begin falling down onto the bussing white floor.

"There's over 500 of them. Every last one is from a mutant, so we'll have to be a lot more careful about absorbing them at first. I think we can all handle it just fine though."

I let out a laugh, but my 3 teammates stare down at the gems and then back up to me with wide eyes.

Maria is the first to speak up.

"Five.... Hundred... mutants?"

There's a glimmer in Abby's eye as she prematurely glows green.

Arie smirks and crosses his arms.

"Well, let's get to work."

I pick up one of the blue stones in each hand and reply.

"Let's."

Over the next hour, we all take turns burning through the white and blue shards.

As predicted, everyone manages to absorb them just fine. At first, Abby and Maria were in pretty bad condition after each run-through, but by the end of our session, everyone can handle them with ease.

In just under an hour, we manage to finish them all.

I can sense the differences in mana output from my teammates already. Their power has grown drastically.

Abby and Maria by almost 100% and Arie has grown nearly 40% stronger in just a short period of time.

I've grown too... but not nearly enough.

Looking at the clock on the door, I see 59:32 remaining.

"Just under an hour left."

Abby speaks up with sweat rolling down her forehead next to a pile of empty mana potions.

"Not bad right? We made it through all of them with time to spare."

I reach into my item storage and pull out the Ogre King's Core.

"Not all of them... There's one more. I'm going to need some extra help for this one."

I also pull out every last MP potion I have on me.

"I have a feeling you may need these. I'm going to need to be restored while simultaneously absorbing the MP from this final core to finish in time."

Abby walks over while Maria and Arie watch from afar.

She stares down at the vibrating gem for a moment, then looks back up at me.

"Let's do it."

Arie knows exactly what's about to happen, so he speaks up before we actually begin.

"It may be a good idea for us to leave. This... may get intense, won't it? Plus, it'd be best to let the Association know we're in town."

I think for a moment, then nod.

"Maybe it would be best if we meet you at the tower."

He looks over to Maria and she shrugs, replying.

"That works for me. I'd like to have some time to talk with my Elite trainer before the raid too. Maybe she has some helpful tips about my new mana control abilities."

I raise an eyebrow at this but know it's not the time to ask. Her statement confirms my suspicions about the white-haired Elite being Maria's Guide.

"I'd like to meet her too."

I turn to Abby, then back to Maria.

"We'll finish as fast as we can and meet you there."

The archer and Ice mage both open the heavy metal door and disappear with a click. They're leaving us with a camel and meeting in the lobby of the Tower of Dreams once we've finished.

It's best to think about that later and focus on the important things now.

I activate my plunderer skill while simultaneously turning on all of my stat-boosting buffs and perception abilities at once.

I won't be consuming this core like the other shards, I'll need to burn through the MP using active skills...

"This is going to be quite the challenge."

Glowing bright gold, red, black, and now a hint of blue from the Ogre King's mana residue, I push my mind and body to the limits.

As soon as I begin, the warm sensation of Abby's hands on my back tells me that her restore skill has been activated.

With just 1 hour remaining, I'll attempt to absorb this entire core.