In the library, Arima gaped at a certain book in his hands.
"I never really searched it before… but I believed that I more or less knew what was awaiting me. But, hell, it's freaking huge," he exclaimed and Night also agreed as he looked at the book.
"This Main Land has a surface of more than a hundred and fifty million square kilometers. No wonder they call it ‘Main’. At this rate, my falcons will finish scanning this continent in two days or so," Arima put the book back in its shelf and then started looking for other records that could interest him.
"Are you looking for something in particular?" A staff member asked when she saw Arima surfing through the titles of every book he walked by.
"Oh," Arima turned around. "Well, if you can tell me about the interesting things in this continent, that would be good."
"Interesting?" The staff member muttered then assessed Arima. "…Are you a mercenary?"
"Indeed. I arrived recently."
"I understand. It's fairly rare to see mercenaries travel that far. Then, for someone like you, apart from the HQ of the guild, what attracts mercs the most are dungeons."
"Dungeons, huh?" Arima mumbled.
"What is that?” Night raised his voice but the staff woman wasn’t surprised as if she knew he was a soul beast.
She smiled. "If you want to learn more about dungeons, you can try this shelf over there," she pointed at a row of books that weren’t that far from them.
"Thanks," Arima thanked her and went there right away. The woman smiled, she slightly bowed and left.
Arima picked the most relevant book and started reading it. Apparently, a dungeon was an artificial structure created by humans. The dungeon itself could be compared to an artificial creature or something like a homunculus. Dungeons are capable of enticing monsters by liberating a nature of mana they like and also by baiting them with different odors and sounds.
Once they are inside, they can't leave unless they're strong enough to break the magic array set around it. So, in the end, they become some kind of nest. But it's also true that dungeons need to be 'cleaned' often. If there are too many monsters in it at once, there is a risk of overflow that would put nearby human settlements in grave danger.
Killing monsters in those dungeons was the main job of this continent's mercenaries. Arima deliberated a bit then took another book which gave the emplacement of every dungeon in the Main Land. Apparently, only one could be built every decade and they started doing it around five hundred years ago. So, there were approximately fifty of them on the whole continent.
There were some that were more dangerous than others and always kept in check. A few were so unsafe and they were only visited by the strongest mercenaries or the army. You could also find dungeons that were specifically used as training grounds for young soldiers and students.
Arima closed the book and put it back. "Well, let's go to Center City next. Although the name is bland, it’s the largest city on this planet. The HQ of the guild is also there, I'll pass by before trying out a dungeon."
"What are you going to do before that though? You said that your falcons will need two days."
"Well, by tomorrow I'm sure they will have finished scanning until Center City at least. As for what I'm going to do while waiting…" Arima chuckled. "I will, of course, see for myself what kind of candies this town has to offer," he said and left the library in high spirits while Night sighed deeply.
***
Five hours later, it was late in the afternoon, Arima was quietly eating in a restaurant with Night lying on the table. He then sensed something happening in his dimension and was a bit surprised.
"Oh, Lanya broke through the ninth level already."
Night rolled on the table and stood up. He chewed a piece of meat and glanced at Arima. "By the way, you never explained the words you said when we met Lanya."
"What words?"
"You said that you looked alike… No matter how much I think about it, you two are not similar at all," Night replied and sat down.
“Ah… that,” Arima exclaimed. "It’s literally what it means though. When I saw her, I felt like she looked like me when I was younger, much younger."
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Night tilted his head. "I'm not sure I understand."
Arima laughed. "What I recognized in her was not only her hatred but a really peculiar sentiment. This instability she gave off… and the very memorable expression you have when you killed a parent," he said with a dark tone and Night's expression sunk.
Arima patted him. "Don't mind. I got over it since. And to be fair, it wasn’t for revenge or something like that nor was it me who directly did it," he added and continued to pet Night.
"…Stop petting me,” Night groaned and Arima snickered.
***
Eighteen hours later, Lanya and Lilis finally exited the dimension. Lanya had reached the upper class of the ninth level. Arima could have kept the dimension active longer since he had more mana than before, but he still told them to stop the training for now.
They spent the night in the town they were in and directly left the next day when Arima's falcons had finished scanning Center City. Arima first transferred above the city to observe it with his own eyes.
"This is really huge after all."
"As expected of the biggest city on the planet," Lilis commented.
If you looked at it from afar, the size and the 'colors' of this city could be compared to a modern city. Even if you were to look closer, the buildings and the houses looked really clean and if it wasn't for the slightly old streets, everything would be very similar to modern habitations. Even those 'motorized vehicles' were present.
Arima could also see four important buildings from where he was. One was a church, another was a massive castle in the middle of the city, the third one was a neat granite building that also possessed a large domain, and the last one seemed to be the HQ of the guild; a grandiose three-story wooden structure filled with traces of space magic.
"Let's go," Arima spoke and teleported his group to one of the city's gates. As before, he gave his silver-gold card to a soldier and the latter bowed before letting him pass. He knew that the news of him entering the city would most likely spread to the big shots in no time but he didn’t mind at all.
Inside, he observed his surroundings and when he started overhearing the conversations of the people on the streets, he suddenly recalled something.
"Lilis, the fact that I'm able to understand this world's language, is it thanks to that old man?"
"Oh, right. I forgot. Azes actually didn't make you learn the language or anything, he actually imparted with you the Gods' Language.”
"The Gods' Language?"
"Yes, our tongue is something universal. You'll understand every other language and everyone will understand you. That's also why you can understand the meaning of others' chants. When you write something, the Gods' Language makes you write the right words unconsciously. The reason why you understand everything as English is because it was specifically that language that was overwritten.”
“And finally, the reason why people can't understand your incantations is that when you chant, you start thinking and talking in a different language than actual English, which was replaced by the Gods' Language," Lilis explained whilst walking.
"So, that's how it was… It makes sense now.”
Lilis smiled. "Well, in this world there are actually only two different languages that are commonly spoken. Then you have all of the runic tongues that are used for incantations. So, you can't really use our tongue to its full potential."
As they were discussing, they coincidentally passed by the church they had spotted earlier. Arima glanced at it. The façade was extremely beautiful, with carvings, statues, and stained glass. But he felt something really uncomfortable emanating from it and he couldn’t identify the cause.
When he happened to pass just in front of the church, its steeple vibrated and the bell started ringing. The sound echoed strongly in the streets. Even Arima unconsciously covered his ear. After that, a huge amount of light magic congregated around the steeple. A golden aura was invoked and quickly turned into a threatening pillar that directly fell on Arima who instantly grabbed Night and threw him away before he was struck.
He had an extremely unsettled expression as the golden light hit him. The strange impression he felt before was growing in intensity and his head was starting to hurt. The area was illuminated by the pillar and everyone on the streets moved away from him.
Arima coughed blood and lowered his body with widened eyes. The ground cracked as he did his best to continue standing. He gritted his teeth as his feet were buried. But strangely, he wasn’t fighting back. It seemed that the sound of the bell which was still resounding was putting him in a sort of dazed state.
"Arima!" Night shouted to wake him up and Lilis and Lanya were already preparing to pull him out of there.
At Night's shout, Arima’s pupils narrowed. He glared at the tower of the church and his sigil made a turn. A single thunder cloud appeared in the sky and shot a lightning bolt that destroyed the steeple.
It was only afterward that the pillar vanished and Lanya and Lilis relaxed. After the light entirely died down, Arima shook his head and rubbed his temples.
"Shit…" He cursed and called Karma. He was infuriated enough to destroy the whole church at the moment. Additionally, even after destroying the bell along with the tower, there was still more magic that was being collected by the entire infrastructure of the church.
"Wait! Please!" When he was about to unsheathe Karma and destroy the building in front of him, a panicked voice coming from the structure in question made him stop.
An old man wearing a white robe appeared with flash at the entrance of the church with a difficult expression. He waved his hand and a certain object appeared in his hand. It was a sort of key that made the church stop gathering energy.
The old patriarch sighed and turned toward Arima. "I don't know why the sacred bell attacked you. But if you surmounted it, that can only mean that your power is impressive. Please, to prove your sincerity and that the bell made a mistake, don't release your anger here," he pleaded with a polite and respectful tone.
Arima was so taken aback by the attitude that man showed that he lost all of his frustration in an instant. He clicked his tongue and put Karma away. "…It’s fine. I won't do it. I believe it's my fault after all. There’s no point in getting angry," Arima replied shortly and walked away.
The patriarch of the church sighed in relief. He was perfectly aware that if he hadn't stopped Arima, his church would have been razed. He looked around and noticed a lot of people looking from afar. He bowed to them to keep his image.
"{Sorry for the inconvenience. Please have a good day,}" he telepathically apologized to everyone and disappeared with a flash.
After that incident, Arima directly headed to the guild HQ. When he stepped inside, he recognized the habitual configuration of the guild; a lot of administrative receptions in the ground floor, the restaurant and mission notices were just above, and the master's floor at the top with, in this city, the SS and SSS rank missions.
When Arima displayed his card at the first floor, someone hastily brought him to the master's floor and led his group to a certain room.
"Welcome. You are the Kind Demon, Arimane Blade, correct?" Inside the luxurious room, a burly middle-aged man greeted Arima and the latter scowled at the mention of his title before nodding.
"It’s a pleasure to meet you. Please sit," the guild master pointed at a big couch in the room for Arima's group to sit.
The master sat down in front of them and smiled. "What brings a newly appointed Z rank like you here?" He asked while serving some drinks and appetizers. Night jumped on the table to snack and the two girls didn't restrain themselves as well. Arima just pulled out a lollipop and didn't touch anything on the table.
"Well, I'm here to kill time while waiting for a certain thing. I was looking for something fun to do and then I thought the guild could maybe offer me something interesting to do, such as dungeons. So, I came here," Arima casually answered.
The guild master wryly smiled. "Sorry, but there's no dungeon that requires the involvement of someone as powerful as you right now."
"Then, do you have something noteworthy to do? Like stopping a war in another continent or killing a strong monster?" Arima asked blankly after thinking about what he had done since he arrived in this world.
The guild master mused for a bit then got an idea. "I have something that could prove to be interesting. They specified that only S ranks or higher could take it. But for now, no one has accepted it and I'm in a bad position to refuse the request," he muttered and opened a drawer. He took a folder that was inside and handed it to Arima.
Arima grabbed it and looked at the first page. The first lines he read were: 'Providence Academy'.
"…huh?"