The walk to Brightgate took little more than three days, leaving us in front of a huge arch made out of Crystals, towering over the city.

The Namesake of the city is twice as tall as any other building and appeared with the System ten years ago, leaving dozens of experts confused as to its purpose. Some believe it was left here by whatever created the System to help us along the journey but no one agrees on how it helps.

It's made out of an extremely resilient material that no one managed to break off or even crack. It emits Mana without an end, like an uncoloured gem would if they existed. No one managed to recreate the effect though.

The wildlife in the surrounding area is crazy competitive because of it, magical creatures flock to it to grow stronger.

"That's bright," Kara states.

I look over to her. She has her cowl pulled down, hiding most of her face. "What did you expect of a place called Brightgate?"

She sticks her tongue out at me and we continue to the Crystal arch, snacking on hardtack.

Two guards flank the entrance, spears held at the ready and revolvers on their hips. The guard on the left raises his hand for us to stop before speaking "Reason for visit, highest Class and Level, please."

"We took on a bounty to deal with the necromancer, Bounty Hunter Variant, ten," I list off.

"Same, Cook, eleven," Kara adds.

The Guard to the right nods to the other Guard before addressing Kara "Can you drop the shroud or provide proof of your class?"

"I have the Keystone skill [Pantry]," she says, conjuring up jerky before letting it vanish again, "Everything else just helps me cook better and I doubt you'd be able to tell the difference."

The guard turns to the other, exchanging subtle glances and small gestures before coming to a conclusion "Good enough for us, keep out of trouble and this'll probably be the last you see of us."

"Thanks," I say, moving through the arch before turning back around, "where can I find the sheriff?"

"Oh, we haven't had a sheriff in thirty years."

Kara scowls at the guard, confused, "Then who issued the bounty?"

The guards look at each other and shrug in unison before turning around and leaving us to wander the city.

The City is built around a crossroad of two trade routes. This leads to an abundance of luxury goods and raw materials while only a few Artisans can afford to open a shop here, it's the city I've slowly been travelling to for two years now.

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The major trade route with the Brightgate on it, carrying goods from the Swamp further north and the Thonz Empire beyond and the minor one that connects a majority of settlements within the Hunters plains provide everything I could need to upgrade my gear even further.

I know that both of them have names but they will forever be "One" and "Two" in my mind.

We walk down the main street, passing dozens of merchants with stalls selling exotic fruits in all its forms, jewellery and even two stands selling swords that are advertised as being nearly unbreakable.

Kara walks up to one of the stands selling fruit with little signs declaring what each fruit is and where it's from as well as ridiculously high prices.

The merchant looks at her once before shooing her away, rightfully assuming that the dirty girl in a big cloak doesn't have enough money to buy from him.

She flips him off and continues down the road, getting rejected at every second stall until she decides that she has enough and falls in step next to me.

"Gotten rejected enough?" I ask, handing her a strip of jerky.

"Shut up," she says, accepting the jerky, "Can't we go to a bathhouse or something?"

I rub through my dirty hair, looking around for any signs. "I don't mind, I've never been before."

"It's great," she says in between bites of jerky, "you can forget about all of your responsibilities for a few hours, just float in the water. I bet that they have a high-level [Bathhouse Owner], or whatever they are called, here."

She is practically hopping at the end, clearly excited about going to one.

"Alright, Alright. Let's see if they have one and we can wash up if it's not too expensive."

She grabs my hand and starts dragging me along, looking for a sign or building that might be it.

We end up in front of a huge building surrounded by tall walls, stopping just anyone from looking at the customers. Its entrance is a huge gate leading into a reception area with an abundance of greenery.

"Welcome to The Dragons Rest," the receptionist greets us with a cheery smile on her face, "is this your first time in our humble establishment?"

I can't help but smile at the name as I answer, "Hello, no we haven't."

"Alright," she says, getting a list of options from the folder in front of her, "the public bath is five coins per hour per person, private rooms cost twelve per hour but we do have Couples' rooms that only cost ten per hour."

"Oh, we aren't-" I start but quickly get interrupted by Kara clinging to my arm and pinching my side slightly.

"We are trying to be respectful of others so we'll take a couples room. Come on honey," she whines, "We've been travelling for so long and you promised!"

What did I do now?

I take out my pouch and hand over 10 coins while still trying to figure out what just happened. It's disturbing how quickly her demeanour switched from grumpy because of the wait to whatever that was.

I hand over the coins and we quickly get ushered into a private bath by another worker.

Did she really pretend to be my girlfriend just to get the discount?

The bath consists of a small booth, a stool next to a drain with soap and a pool covering the rest of the floor. "You can put your clothes in these baskets and we'll wash them, weapons, bags and Spell Foci into this basket please to keep them safe and out of the water."

"Thanks, we'll be fine."

She bows and goes stand by the door, waiting for us to put our clothes into the basket.