The Iteru international airport stood between a sandy desert and a Iteru City by a river. The majority of passengers were tourists, but every once in a while, rankers flew in the mix. As the rankers arrived, some took residence in a local hotel while others entered the Iteru-Halland transport building. It was the only location with a daily shuttle bus going directly into the Holyoke realm and one of few places that exchanged federation dollars for gold and silver coins, the main form of currency within Halland City. The passengers on the bus were all rankers, some already in disguise and some in unusual attire.
The shuttle bus passed through nothing but desert sand and cool starry night, putting the passengers into a deep slumber until they arrived at the checkpoint the following morning. As one of the largest otherworld realms, it was impossible to fence in the area. However, the surrounding desert naturally deterred people away.
The eastern checkpoint was the only safe passageway into Halland City. There were two small adobe buildings next to the otherworld realm, the main checkpoint building and a small inn. They had minimal amenities, with supplies regularly shipped in from the cargo truck. There were reminisce of adobe building blocks and pieces on the other side, which was likely damaged by an otherworldly storm. At the checkpoint, a masked man in white linen tees and plain slack looked around the rental stall for any interesting artifacts and relics. Enhanced tunics with cooling properties were popular items to lease, but at $10,000 for a day, it was a pricey luxury.
Closer to the boarding time, Ian, the masked man, showed the ticket attendant the boarding ticket. The attendant scanned the ticket, a sheet with a simple QR code, and told him to find a seat in the carriage that looked like a 36-seats train car on a sled. Attached to the train car was a rein chained to two large double hump elephant-like creatures, the camador. They were almost twenty-feet tall and their double toes spread out more than three feet in diameter. Although they were docile creatures, it was easy for them to accidentally kill people with a simple nudge.
Ian stared at the large creature waiting from beyond the staked fence marking the location of the otherworld realm. Unlike most realms, it was difficult to tell where the line between the otherworld and real world began. Ian stepped up into the carriage, surveying the dozen other passengers. He recognized some passengers from the shuttle bus, and took a seat next to a chubby man with sandy hair and dressed in a blue patterned linen tunic. There were empty seats, but Ian preferred to pick his seating partner. The chubby man was the talkative type, chatting the entire way during the bus ride to this seat partner. The seat partner was already sitting elsewhere, likely wanting to avoid the talkative man. Ian took a seat next to him.
The man greeted Ian as soon as he saw a stranger sitting next to him. “First time heading to an S-rank City?”
Ian nodded. “How can you tell?”
“I know a lot of different types that head into the city. The name is Jory.”
Jory was a merchant who specialized in buying and selling enhanced minerals. Ian was curious at how freelance merchants make a living when there were large conglomerates who had access to transportation in the real world.
“Small time merchants like us usually work together to exchange information within the merchant guild,” said Jory. “Although the larger company has the chunk of the market, there are some specialty items that require too much legwork to be profitable on the large scale. So the smaller merchant like me takes the leftover market share. We exchange items with each other and sell it to the client at a 15% commission rate.”
“How is that different from the ORA exchange store?” The ORA exchange store allowed the rankers to trade amongst themselves. It was a convenient way to search for specific items.
“The exchange store is a hit or miss, and sometimes the transaction could take weeks to complete,” said Jory. “The merchant guild has storage facilities throughout the world, and within the S-ranked city. This allows larger inventory and faster delivery time.”
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Jory was about to continue, but the camadon carriage rocked slightly when the crew loaded the cargo from the side. The carriage quickly filled up. Ten minutes before take-off, the door shut and the conductor made an announcement. Fasten the seat belts, do not leave the train car and do not make too much noise. The expected arrival time was 4 hours to reach Halland City. It was an impressive time given the sandy terrain and unknown danger lurking underneath.
The carriage shook one more time as the camadons pulled the rein, hulling the carriage out of the take-off pad. Then, the pair of camadors ran straight toward the distant hill to the west. Within minutes, a sandy storm appeared and covered the entire area. It was difficult to see through the flying grains of sand, but the blazing hot reflected from the glassy sand and made everything appear brighter. Every once in a while, a large snake-like shadow jumped across the sand like a shark jumping out of the ocean to snatch a prey. They didn’t come too close to the train car, most likely due to the robed magician next to the train conductor. The magician was in a lotus position and chanting the spell the entire time. They were covered up from head to bottom with a black robe, most likely an enhanced one that can cool the body. Everyone without an enhance clothing was suffering from the 100 degrees heat and sweating.
Ian was one of the unfortunate ones. He lifted his light cotton shirt back and forth to dry the sweat and fan his body, but the cool air wasn't enough to protect him from the heat. His body order was affecting his seatmate, Jory.
“I have a spare enhanced tunic, do you want to borrow one?” Jory whispered.
“How much?” Ian asked. The man was a merchant after all.
“Special deal, $1000,” said Jory.
Ian took out $1000 of gold coins he had exchanged with Jory.
After the exchange, Ian covered the long white tunic over his head. Almost immediately, he felt the cooling effect of the tunic. Ian marveled at the effect. He rarely leased armor, but none of the armor from his region had cooling effect.
“I wonder how the artisans are able to create this type of clothing without using any mana,” Ian mumbled.
“Yeah, the ATU keeps a pretty tight leash on their trade secret.” Jory said.
The Artisans' Trade Union was like any other union, their main priority was to protect the integrity of their profession and to protect their trade secrets. It was especially important for the ATU as most of their members were non-rankers and their skills was their only leverage. If the alchemy union was considered selective, then the tradesman guild was considered secretive and closed. As a policy, the only way to enter into the ATU was for the membership to be passed down from a master artisan to their students.
Jory took out a steel handcuff. “The ATU had a special on chain of Orr, if you're interested, it's only $100,000.”
“Maybe another time?” Ian replied. Chain of Orr nullified the monster's ability, but it was only useful when they had less than 10 mana remaining. Tamers often used Chain of Orr to domesticate animals, but the process took years, not days.
Most of the passengers remained silent throughout the ride. Even Jory, who had been talking to Ian, naturally stopped. He took out a medicine, presumably for motion sickness. The camadons didn’t travel at a constant pace and sometimes there were sudden stops and turns to avoid danger. The ride through the hilly sand wasn’t pleasant like a children's roller coaster.
Ian spent most of his time experimenting with the item creation space. It was a rare opportunity to explore his item creation within the S-rank realm. Unfortunately, it still functioned the same whether he was in the real world and lower ranking realms.
By late evening, the green oasis of Halland City could be seen. There were buildings on floating platforms and adobe buildings scattered around a small lake.
“Those are formation platforms for the Shiva protection array,” Jory explained. “It took them a long time to build it, but those six platforms are the reason why Halland City is able to protect itself from the monster raids.”
When they moved closer to the city, flying apparatus and creatures flew back and forth between the ground and the floating platforms.
“The elites live up there,” said Jory. Jory pointed to a platform with an ornate 3-tiered building. Even from a distance, the stone columns around the rectangular form gave the building a look of grandeur and prominence. “That’s the Halland Academy, isn't she a beauty? If Matupa Academy is where all the snobby academia train elemental magic, then that is where all the best battle mages are trained.”
The carriage stopped in front of the visitor building, an adobe building with five archways. There were signs in various language welcoming the visitors to Halland City.