Before leaving the outpost, I’d let Ben know to tell my “students” to meet me at the staircase the next morning. I’d neglected that particular responsibility for a bit too long, and it was time I caught up with that a bit.

After that, I’d headed straight to Hassan's camp to grab some food. I would have used empower to speed to trip up, but I was still pretty low on mana after my fight with the King, and it would be better to just let my mana recover for now. It would take a long time to refill my aura anyways, so it would be best to get a head start on that.

After arriving at my destination, I was greeted by a much more busy town than I had seen before. Most people seemed to be busy doing something. I made my way through the city, eventually getting to the central building.

I knock on the door, and a few moments later somebody answers. It is a short man with a clipboard in his arms. He looks up at me. “Did you need something?” He asks, sounding impatient.

“Is Hassan here?” I ask, glancing over his shoulder into the building itself.

“Not at this moment.” The man says. “He left for a trip to the great city a day ago. He should be back tomorrow.”

“Oh. Well, thanks.” I say, and the man goes to close the door. “Wait.” I say, putting a hand on the door. “Can I ask you something?”

The man sighs, looking somehow even more impatient. “What is it?”

“I’m a little out of the loop. How come the place is so busy?”

“People are trying to get as many levels as they can before the tutorial ends for the d ranks. A rumor has been spreading that you are rewarded for reaching a high level once the tutorial ends. There is only a bit less than two weeks until it is over.”

“Ah, thanks.” I say, nodding. I take my hand off the door, and the man closes it the rest of the way.

Well, there goes my plan for the moment. I could still eat some delicious food here, but what the man had said planted a seed of thought in my head. I wince, knocking on the door again.

“What!” The man says, opening the door again, his voice louder than last time.

I look at him a bit sheepishly as I ask my last question. “Which direction is the great city?”

----------------------------------------

After a solid hour of running at top speed, I finally caught sight of the massive city in the distance. It didn’t take very long to realize why it was called the great city. It was over a mile long and just as wide, sprawling out to accommodate the massive amount of people that lived within. From what I remember Hassan had told me there were about 500,000 people in the city, and that number has probably grown at least a little bit since then.

The entire city was surrounded by a large wall. It was about eight feet tall, and didn’t seem to be doing very much in terms of actually protecting the city. There were no monsters on the first floor anyways. I could just jump over the wall, quite easily too, but I felt it would be better to just go in through a proper entrance. I didn’t want to make a bad impression on what may very well be the largest collection of people since the system came around.

After finding an entrance to the city, I walked in and immediately noticed the distinct feeling of somebody using an identification spell on me. I turn my head to glance in the direction of the one who had done it, and notice a man with a notebook and pencil looking back at me. I give him an identification of my own.

Human (level 18)

Nothing to write home about. Probably just somebody stationed here to keep track of who comes in and out of the city. That was fine by me. Nothing wrong with making sure the city is safe. As I begin walking through the city, I realize very quickly that it had taken a lot of work to build it up into what it is. With the sheer number of people around here plus the new stats they all had, the kind of workforce they could bring to bear was incomparable to whatever we had before the system. They had erected an entire city in just a couple weeks.

The city itself didn’t get built very high. The tallest building I saw was a single four story building off in the distance, the city center I assume. There were a couple of three story buildings scattered around, but most didn’t have more than two floors, if even that.

I had come here looking for good food, so instead of letting my eyes guide me, my nose did instead. With my high perception, I could get a general sense of which direction a smell was coming from, and soon I found myself wandering around looking for whichever building smelled like it served the best food. Every time I seemed to get to a good one, I caught a whiff of another restaurant in the distance that smelled even better.

Before I knew it, I had come across the best of the best. Directly next to the city center was a two story building with a sign saying “Food and Drinks”. That was all it said, but that was all that needed to be said. Upon walking in, the smells intensified and I could hear the sizzling of food being cooked from the kitchen. The place was pretty packed, and I struggled to find a seat.

When I did finally manage to find an empty looking table in the very back of the building, I quickly sat down to claim it as my own. It hadn’t taken very long for me to realize that this wasn’t like a restaurant I was used to. Instead of hosts and waiters, people were simply brought food after sitting down. They always looked happy at what they got, and it wasn’t until four buttons popped out of the table that I realized how the ordering here worked. Each button had a picture of food, so I pressed the one that looked like a soup.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Not even five minutes later, somebody quickly placed some soup on the table in front of me as they were walking by to deliver food to several other tables. I scooped some of it up with the spoon that sat in the bowl, and my mouth was flooded with flavor as the hot liquid washed down my throat.

I tried my best to savor the meal, but it was just too good. All too soon the meal in front of me was gone, and I had an empty bowl. Before I could even react, the bowl in front of me was taken away, and a bill was placed before me.

Uh oh.

None of the other places I have been thus far have needed you to pay for the food you bought. Why didn’t I check if this place did first? Damn, I was in trouble. I guess I could always dine and dash, but that was pretty rude, and I would rather not.

As I sat there in my internal panic, staring down at the bill, the chair across the table from me creaked and I looked up to see a very muscular man with a large belly sat in the chair across from me. He had a thick beard and long hair like a Viking.

“Nice to meet you, I’m the owner of this place.” He says, sticking a hand out.

“Nice to meet you as well.” I say, trying to keep as straight a face as possible. had he realized I couldn’t pay for this meal? Was he here to make me work for it or something?

“I couldn’t help but notice you are making my patrons a bit uncomfortable with that robe of yours.” He says, nodding to the robe I wore.

It took a few moments to click, but finally I realized what he meant. There were probably tons of people here more than ten levels lower than myself, and I had completely forgotten about its ability to slowly sap mana from those people around me.

“Oh I am so sorry.” I say, quickly shrugging the robe off and storing it away in my aura. “I forget that the robe does that so often.”

“Uh huh.” The man says, nodding. “Well, just don’t do it again.”

“Understood.” I say, before having a thought. “How’d you know it was my robe that was causing that?”

“I have an eye for enchanted items.” He says, tapping the table. “You can thank me for making the ordering and serving system this whole place runs on.”

“Pretty impressive.” I say, finally identifying the man.

Human (Level 24)

“Thanks. I must say, you are quite a high level. Did you happen to come to the city to cause trouble?”

“No, nothing like that. I just wanted to check it out. I am from a small outpost about an hour away.” I pause, stopping. “Well, an hour run for me. I don’t actually know how long others would take to get here.”

“That’s nice to hear. Well, I hope you enjoy your time here.”

The man gets up to leave, but I stop him. “Wait! I... can’t pay for this meal. I hadn’t realized that you needed to pay for food here.”

The man just stares at me for a moment before shaking his head and grabbing the bill. “Let’s just say it's on the house this time. Call it a gesture of good will.”

He walks away before I can thank him, and I let out a sigh of relief. I’d definitely make it up to him if I ever bumped into him again. Before I can stand up from my seat, another person sits across from me.

“Wait.” The cloaked figure says. “I need to talk with you.”

“What is it?” I ask, just wanting to get out of this restaurant.

“Would you be willing to go somewhere more private to discuss this?”

I raise an eyebrow, but agree. “Sure.”

The person leads me out of the building, and straight into the city center. The deeper we get into the building, the more I begin to think I may have messed up by agreeing to follow this person.

We make it all the way up to the third floor before going into a side room. There were no windows, and it was dimly lit by a few candles. The figure gestures to one of the chairs sat at the table in one of the rooms, and sits in the opposite one. I sit down, the regret getting more and more pronounced.

“May I ask why you came to this city?” The person asks.

“To just check it out.” I say. “Why does everybody seem to think I have bad intentions?"

“This is just for everyone's safety. Do you have anybody within the city you planned on meeting while here?”

“Nobody in particular, no.”

“Do you know anybody who resides within the city.”

“A few.”

“Who?”

“I don’t think I need to keep answering these questions.” I say, standing up. “I am going to be leaving now.”

“If you want to remain in this city for more than the next five minutes, you will answer my questions.”

I sigh and sit back down. “Why do you need to know all of this?”

“Like I said, for everyone's safety. We have had some bad actors as of late and it is best that all high leveled individuals are monitored.”

“That is fair enough, I guess.” I say.

“So, who within the city do you know?”

“Do you know anybody by the name of Flynn or Ryker? I am familiar with their team.”

“I do know them.” The figure says, seeming to become just a little more tense when I mention them. “Would you happen to be River? The one that aided them on the chain floor?”

“Yes, something wrong with that?”

There is a pause before the cloaked figure once more speaks. “No, nothing wrong with it. We had been hoping to come into contact with you at some point, and now is as good a time as any.”

“Why did you want to speak with me specifically?”

“We have our reasons. You may go now.”

I stand up to leave, and the figure remains sitting. I slowly walk towards the door, stepping out of the room a moment later. I almost run right into Flynn as I do, and he seems shocked to see me.

“What were you doing in that room?” He asks, looking over my shoulder and into the dark room. I glance behind me and see that the person who had just interrogated me like we were in a bad detective movie had disappeared. I frown as I realized that I had forgotten to identify them.

I turn back to Flynn. “Well, I just got interrogated by somebody.”

“That was probably Ram. He is basically the ‘head of police’ around here.”

“You guys have a police department?”

“Kind of. It’s mostly a group of people who go around and make sure nobody goes on a killing spree for levels. Anyways, what brings you to the great city?”

“Why does everyone keep ask-” I stop, calming my annoyance at that question. “I just wanted to see what the place is like. So far, my impressions aren’t good.”

“You’ll get used to it. I know you are from a more community based town, but around here most people see rules and those that enforce them as the only thing keeping everything from falling apart. For the most part it works, but there are definitely a few... less appealing parts of this way of doing things.”

“You can say that again.” I say, tapping the door I just came through with my heel. “I think I’ll be leaving soon enough anyways. I am already sick of dealing with people like Ram.”

“Then you probably aren’t going to like who is walking up behind you right now.” Flynn says, swiftly turning around and walking the other way. “I’ll talk to you once you are done with her.” He whispers as he passes by.

I look over my shoulder and see a short woman walking towards me with a less than pleasant look on her face. She was wearing full leather armor and had a short sword hanging in a sheath at her side. Learning from my past mistake, I immediately used inspect on her.

Human (Level 35)

Well, that was very interesting.

“River.” She says, stopping in front of me. “We need to talk.”