Arriving at the gate that was the entrance to the city, Kelsey’s heart was thundering with pure excitement. If inside the city was anything like the outskirts, Neim was going to be a very interesting place indeed. All around her were people doing interesting things such as tanning leathers with magic, or using their full combat speeds to cut vegetables. The most striking thing however was the average level of the residents that were directly outside the city walls.
Outside the gates there was something similar to a small village, with shops, inns, and taverns. The people working at these places were the ones that most interested her. She had noticed that the average level had been increasing since leaving Whitebranch, but it was more evident here in this small gate village now that she had the Eye of the Magus. Nearly everyone she identified that was over the age of 40 was also over level 100, and many of them were over 200 and nearing Immortality. Where Whitebranch had a total of two Immortals living within the walls, she guessed that Neim had many more.
She was somewhat disappointed to find that people around her age were almost all at a higher level than her, but it made sense considering she had been in Anoura for such a short time. But, far and away the most fascinating person she Identified with her new Eye of the Magus skill was a child who must have been no older than 15 that was level 187 with a Warrior primary class.
The young girl was wearing a full suit of fitted plate armor and held a long spear in her hands that she was twirling around playfully while talking to one of the guards. What the hell has this kid gone through to be such a high level at such a young age. She’s going to be an Immortal before she’s 20 at the rate she’s leveling. Kelsey could see that the young girl had a small scar on her cheek, undoubtedly a wound from what must have been thousands of fights in her lifetime.
As she was watching the young girl and musing about her past, a stray thought crossed Kelsey’s mind that filled her with panic. What if the Whitebranch put a bounty out on me or something? I could be walking into an arrest right now. She hadn't considered the possibility that traveling to a different city could potentially be dangerous.
Now Kelsey’s heart was now pounding in her chest out of fear instead of excited anticipation. She was seriously considering teleporting away and simply traveling around the city. Unfortunately, before she could make that decision, it was her turn in line and the guard eyed her expectantly.
Well, it would be too awkward to teleport away now...
Kelsey walked up to the guards as nonchalantly as possible, trying her best to hide her nervousness.
“Identification please.” the guard said in a monotone voice that said she was extremely bored of her job.
Reaching into the pocket of her cloak, she pulled out her Guild Card and handed it to the guard. “Kelsey Kain.”
The guard took the Guild card from her hand and with her Eye of the Magus active, Kelsey could see that the guard sent some sort of light gray mana that she didn’t recognize into the card before handing it back to her. “Alright, you’re good to go Ms. Kain. Have a good visit in Neim.”
Kelsey felt a wave of relief through her body as the guard extended the guild card back towards Kelsey. Thank god. That's a bullet dodged for sure.
Taking the guild card and thanking the guard, Kelsey made her way through the gates and into the city.
Pushing through the short dark tunnel that was the entrance to Neim, Kelsey’s face broke into a huge smile. The city of Neim was bustling with people. There were stalls and street carts filled to the brim with wonderful smelling food and drinks. There were merchants, with tables covered in various objects, some specializing in rare trinkets or old books, to blacksmiths who were selling their latest creations. There were street performers doing magic tricks or singing songs in the hopes that people would drop a coin in their caps. And through it all was magic.
The people of Neim used magic with a freedom unlike anything she had ever seen. From one of the street vendors selling skewered meat that had an illusory cow dancing on the roof of their cart, to the blacksmith that was showing the quality of his weaponry by using them on himself before being healed by his assistant. Nearly every single person she saw was using magic in some way and Kelsey was completely enamored by it all.
Now this is a place I could see myself living. Kelsey was giddy with excitement as she wandered around the streets, every few steps bringing her in contact with another amazing sight, smell, or sound.
Kelsey continued walking down the streets, simply basking in the lively atmosphere of a real city. But she had a problem; she was positively broke.
She so badly wanted to try some of the delicious smelling food or buy some beautiful pieces of clothing or jewelry she saw, but she was completely out of money. She had spent every copper on books and dungeon supplies before leaving Whitebranch, not knowing that she was going to be visiting another settlement so soon.
Her mood wasn’t sour for long however, as she eventually stumbled onto a street magician that was doing a trick from Earth that she was actually familiar with. She watched in awe as the magician expertly performed the cups and balls sleight of hand trick with such precision and expertise that Kelsey, even with her domain, was unable to determine where all the balls came from.
Curious, she used her Eye of the Magus on the magician and was floored by what she saw. [Warrior - lvl 106]. She doesn’t even have a performer class. This is pure skill and attributes. She continued watching for over ten minutes as the magician finished her show. The moment the performance ended Kelsey clapped and screamed with the rest of the crowd as the magician bowed and thanked everybody in the crowd for watching.
“Incredible, truly incredible. What’s your name?” Kelsey asked as she walked up to the magician after the crowd had thinned enough for her to pass through.
“My name is Melody the Magnificent. I perform every day around this time right at this very spot.” she said dramatically, with a flourish of her hat.
“Fantastic, I hope to come see you again when I have a little more coin. I'm sadly a bit tapped out right now.” Kelsey said with a guilty smile on her face. “You're the best magician I've ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of magic in my lifetime.”
Melody the Magnificent returned Kelsey warm smile, “Thank you friend! I hope to see you there! Melody the Magnificent always appreciates a little coin!”
With that, Kelsey smiled and said goodbye before continuing her journey down the busy streets of Neim. As Kelsey moved further and further into the city, the crowds thinned and the streets were no longer filled with vendors and performers but were instead clear and open, leaving plenty of room for advertisements and signage. The buildings were no longer places used exclusively as living quarters, they were real storefronts and shops with professional craftspeople working in them. The people on the streets were still lively and excitable, using magic at every opportunity, but the density had gone down drastically.
As much as she wanted to, Kelsey didn’t bother stopping in any of the stores due to her disappointing financial situation. I swear the next time I come here I’m going to make sure I have plenty of gold...
Eventually, Kelsey’s journey brought her to the center of the city and as it did, the difference in wealth became staggering. Now, instead of stores and beautiful, single-family homes, she was seeing what could only be described as hundreds, or thousands of estates and mansions, made from the most precious resources the owners could imagine. The road itself changed from well-kept cobblestone to large slabs of white sandstone that had clearly been created using magic. Kelsey knew that no natural stone could be quite so perfect.
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The sandstone contrasted beautifully with the dark wood walkways that served as a barrier between the road and the fancy estates. Kelsey saw people working on the estates using their magic to do various tasks from one man who was using water magic to hydrate a beautiful rose garden, to a woman who was using wind magic to trim back hedges and trees. The estates were beautiful and filled with extravagant displays of wealth. She even saw a gate that appeared to be made from solid gold.
Kelsey didn’t like it nearly as much in the wealthy part of Neim. It was beautiful, sure, but there were less people and the people that were walking the streets seemed much more reserved. So, making her way out of the center of the city, she began her mission to find the Neim Adventurers Guild. She had been traveling for a while and wanted to take an evening to drink and relax with some strangers.
She had no idea where the Guild might be located, so she asked around, and eventually was pointed in the right direction.
The Neim Adventurers guild was shockingly different from the one in Whitebranch. In Whitebranch the Guild building was a six-story building made of wood and stone with a pitched reddish brown tiled roof. The Adventurers Guild in Neim was a three-story building made from absolutely perfectly cut marble blocks and had dark mahogany wooden accents lining the windowsills. The roof was made from some sort of black tile that Kelsey didn’t have a name for, and the walls had dozens of large glass windows set at regular intervals for natural lighting. To say that the Neim guild oozed wealth would be an understatement. It looked like it had been created directly by some sort of deity. It was, simply put, gorgeous.
She felt almost nervous to enter a guild that by all outward appearances seemed to have more money than sense, but her worries were assuaged as she opened the large, ornate double doors, and saw the people inside. They were all cheering merrily, dancing, singing, and laughing in drunken bliss. There was an overwhelmingly joyful atmosphere that instantly put a smile on Kelsey’s face. It was exactly the same kind of atmosphere she had loved back in the Whitebranch adventurer's guild. I guess it takes a certain kind of person to join an adventurers guild. Kelsey thought cheerfully.
The hall itself had a stone floor with wooden tables and chairs filling it. There was a large open area for dancing in front of a stage that currently had a musician playing a song on some sort of stringed instrument she didn’t have a name for. There were floating instruments surrounding them that her Eye told her were made from pure unaspected mana. The sounds coming from those magical instruments were amplified evenly across the room, not too loud, but easily distinguishable even as people talked and shouted around her.
She could see on to the second floor, where she saw small groups of people leaning over the railing watching the musician's show and speaking softly. There were much fewer people on the second floor, and the atmosphere seemed significantly calmer. But Kelsey was in the mood for some fun, so she decided to find some friendly looking people and crash their party.
It took her a few minutes of wandering around the room, but eventually she found her targets. Sitting in a corner she found a group of three people that were all around her level and had just come back from a mission at a nearby mine shaft that had been turned into a dungeon unexpectedly after a flood. They were younger than her, but Kelsey didn't mind.
They were partying because they killed the boss of the dungeon, and its core had been worth over 600 gold. That meant they had earned 200 gold each, which was more money than they usually made in a month.
The party consisted of one man and two women. The man, Alex, was their backline member, he specialized in healing magic, and he explained to Kelsey during that night that he was adventuring in order to pay for Healing College. Guess they have expensive medical schools in Anoura too... Ahh, it feels just like home.
The two women were both frontline fighters similar to Owen and Lisa. One of them used a giant two-handed hammer. Her name was Cassie. She was bubbly and excitable. She was also responsible for shoving as many drinks as possible down Kelsey’s throat the entire evening. Kelsey didn’t mind at all; she was glad to finally cut loose for the first time since coming to Anoura. She especially didn’t mind because she learned that her Mageblood Regeneration could counteract the effects of alcohol at a moment's notice if she wanted it to.
The second woman’s name was Lara. She was a sword and shield mage-hybrid similar to Owen. Her and Kelsey talked a lot during the night, and she explained that most shield users were mage hybrids due to monsters being attracted to mana usage. She loved fighting nearly as much as Kelsey did, so they had a lot to talk about.
Kelsey spent the entire night partying with the group until things in the Guild began winding down. As the party was preparing to leave, and everyone was saying their goodbyes, Kelsey mentioned that she was going to have to find a place to stay. Lara immediately jumped in, barely letting Kelsey finish her sentence, and said that Kelsey could come stay in her room. Not one to turn down such a generous offer, Kelsey eagerly obliged and followed Lara up to her room.
Waking up the next morning, Kelsey was incredibly hung over, so she quickly activated her Mageblood Regeneration to wipe the pain and grogginess away. Once she did however, she noticed that Lara was nowhere to be seen. She also didn’t see any of Lara’s belongings left in the room. So, not knowing what else to do, Kelsey put on the clothes she had hastily discarded the night before and went downstairs to the Guild’s main hall, hoping to find her there. To her great disappointment, she didn't find them in the hall, nor did she see them anywhere inside her domain. They told her that they were planning on going out on another contract today, but she had expected them to at least say goodbye.
Feeling a bit down about her new friends leaving, Kelsey checked the contract board for a caravan or something that would be traveling south. She had seen a few of them on her journey from Whitebranch, and while they were slower, at least she would have people to talk to and keep her company. She was incredibly tired of traveling alone.
It took her a few minutes, but she found a merchant's caravan that would be leaving south a few hours later. Not knowing how long it would take to get to the southern gate, she accepted the contract at the desk and left immediately.
It was a good thing she left early, as the area around the south side of town was somehow even more packed than the north side of town had been the previous day, and it took her an hour longer to make it to the south gate than she expected. Once she arrived, she quickly spotted the caravan she would be traveling with, and much to her surprise, she saw the group she had spent time with last night.
This is the contract they’re going on? Awesome!
After approaching the caravan driver and telling him that she would be accompanying them, she went over to Alex, Cassie, and Lara whose faces lit up with excitement as they saw her.
Lara jumped down from the cart and screamed excitedly, “Kelsey! I tried to wake you up, but you were like a zombie. Those drinks really did a number on you huh?" She said as she bent down and gave Kelsey a small kiss on the cheek.
Kelsey laughed let out a soft, slightly embarrassed chuckle “Yeah, I haven’t had any drinks in a long while actually, they hit me harder than expected. Still a fun night though.” she said as she hopped on the cart with the other adventurers.
“Wait, there are zombies here?” she asked without thinking as she realized what Lara had said.
The three of them just looked at Kelsey with bewildered expressions. “Yeah. Wait, what do you mean here?” Cassie asked.
Realizing her mistake Kelsey’s eyes widened, and she held up her finger to indicate to them not to say anything.
She didn't mind people knowing she was an Otherworlder, but she wanted to avoid any unnecessary attention in the middle of a busy city street.
They looked at her quizzically for a moment before realizing what she meant, then nodded that they understood and stayed quiet. Thankfully, Alex was able to pick the conversation back up naturally without skipping a beat.
“So where are you headed? You said you were going south, but we never got around to why. Headed to see the capital?” Alex asked.
“I’m headed to The Trial actually. I’m planning on pushing as far down as possible.”
“Oh wow, that's awesome! Are you doing it alone or are you meeting your party there? Cassie asked, her voice bubbling with excitement.
“Alone actually. I kind of specialize in fighting by myself.” she said carefully. She didn’t want to give too much about her skills away, but she also didn’t feel like lying.
“That’s awesome Kelsey, I wish I had the guts to drop everything and go try my luck at The Trial. I’ve heard stories of people leveling over 50 times in a single month down there. I can’t imagine how much fighting that would take, or what level enemies you’d have to fight to do that.” Lara said as she patted Kelsey on the leg.
They continued their conversation, talking about The Trial and the stories they had heard for another half hour until the caravan began moving, their destination; Falknear.
Kelsey glanced back at the city, feeling a strange sense of loss at not being able to stay longer. But, she had more important things to focus on.
She needed to focus on Immortality.