The journey down the Wolfram was very boring. There were plenty of interesting rock walls to look at, but not much else. Occasionally the barge came to a lock, like a real lock that she had seen in some canals. It used magic pumps to raise and lower the water to allow barges to travel up and down the sloping river. There were even some spaces that had been obviously earth shaped to look wider.

It was an interesting feat of engineering, or magic engineering, was that a thing? Either way it was cool, and it once again signaled to Seras that just because this world went down a different path than her own she shouldn’t consider them primitive or dumb. The cities within the Five Deserts were very underdeveloped by the standards of this world, and they still had fire-less lamps, cooling/heating formations, mirage chambers, and even something like a very early net with the magically updating catalogs like the essence list and farmers almanac.

Seriously, that last one was super handy. There was so much information that went into farming on this world that farmers everywhere needed to know.

They used magic to achieve a parody of what her world had achieved. She still felt her world was still more advanced, especially in terms of physical reality and fundamental forces, but that didn’t invalidate what they did have. While Seras had been unimpressed with the first few magic theory books she had read she had quickly grown an appreciation for them. Dundee’s first four volumes were almost entirely useless, but starting on volume five Dundee got his shit together and packed that tome with hundreds of theory’s and formulas.

It was dense and made her head spin. She’d have to spend more time on this one volume than the four previous all put together.

They even had their own form of data storage in the form of recording crystals. Video, audio, and it could even magically translate. This world was one technological leap away from creating a magic version of the net.

There was even an analogue for cars, trucks, and planes. Water/sand/land skimmers used a combination of levitation and air propulsion to clip across large distances. The only reason Dustin and everyone else relied on Heidels for traveling the Five Deserts was because the density was way too low to work them without the right essence power. And as for planes they had sky ships that could haul a crap ton of stuff thousands of meters above the ground.

All that was cool, but the trip itself was really boring.

There had been a water elemental attack, and even a bright red crocodilian monster. But the private security the barge had on staff handled those without issue.

Most of the time Seras spent sparring with Dustin or Dallas. Dustin had walked her through the basics of wielding a scimitar, and Dallas had proven an exceptional opponent despite the strength difference. Seriously that kid was good.

Seras’ prior experience came in handy at times, like with speed, spatial awareness, and accuracy. But at other times the years of ingrained training and instincts got in the way. Her footwork was a constant shit show, she would try to move how Dustin had showed her, but half way through a bout when her mind fell into the old grove of combat she would revert back to her old methods.

Her previous style relied entirely on bracing for the kickback of firing pistols and rifles to keep her aim on target. Ducking under an opponent’s weapon to get off a killing shot then flowing into the next.

After the third time Seras had done it Dustin had her show him how she used to fight, using barrels to simulate a room of opponents and having her say “BANG” whenever she went ‘pulled the trigger’

“Its certainly interesting, and I can see how it might be very effective with weapons like your old ones. But I don’t think it’ll ever translate properly to blades. We need to force your body to forget the old so we can work on the new.” he had said. Which resulted in hours of endless footwork trying to overwrite her old muscle memory.

But sometimes when she was alone Seras flowed through her old forms just to feel in control. To remind herself that she had once mastered a different form of combat that was entirely unique to this world.

~~~*~~~

The city of Briaxis was nestled within the final valley of the Wolfram river before it flowed out to sea. It was a broad fertile valley right on the edge of the Black Sands desert, gentle sloping black hills rimmed the wide valley of farm plots and canals with Briaxis in the center.

The walls of the city were tall and imposing, black stone held up by great white pillars of monster bone. The southern sea was officially called the Black sea for the black sand beaches on its shores, but the locals had a different name for it. The Sea of Bones.

Innately magical sea creatures called leviathans were a rare, if terrifying occurrence out on the sea. They were known to grow to gold of even diamond rank and ranged every corner of the ocean, from the artic oceans to inland seas. They lived by hunting many ocean-based monsters and helped to inadvertently keep the oceans somewhat safe. Little was known about their mating habits, or whether they laid eggs or birthed their young like mammals. But what was known were the locations of their graveyards. The Black sea was one of those graveyards, and occasionally their bones would wash ashore polished by the oceans bottom feeders.

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Those bones were highly praised within the city of Briaxis, and the noble clans went out of their way to collect and use them in their architecture. Instead of wooden or steel bracers for framing the nobility of Briaxis used Leviathan bone. And those too poor to afford it often painted their own support elements to resemble the bones.

The black colored bricks and white trim of the city architecture gave everything a strong monochronic feeling.

The city was also strongly dominated by Draconians, a less common race, who traced their origins back to the noble dragons that ruled the skies. As such draconic themes featured heavily in Draconian architecture. Roof beams carved into a snarling reptilian maw, gables with ornamental spines, and pillars carved into a coiled snake-like flood dragons.

All put together it created a very interesting first impression for Seras as they exited the barge and got their wagons moving down the stone streets.

For the more seasoned members like Harris, Frank, Chase, and Rohan, this wasn’t their first time visiting the Draconian city. But for Seras, Petra, and Dallas, the place was unlike anything they had seen before.

Along with being a Draconian majority city with its own unique architecture, it was also the highest ranked magical area they had ever been. Sitting at mid silver with a moderate density the city was thrumming with magic.

Towering Draconians zoomed up and down the streets on floating silver disks. A magical tram system ran over the main streets, suspending of invisible telekinetic fields of magic. And hundred different smaller things really drove home that this was a world were magic was woven into everything they did.

Seras saw a stall selling fruit juice chopping and blending drinks in the air using more telekinetic fields of magic.

Their caravan trundled along the throughfare to one of the giant silver disks and they fell in line to wait their turn. When they were allowed on Seras got an aerial view of the city.

“Stunning isn’t it” Dustin said with a smile as their disk slowly floated over to the next hub area.

“Yeah” Seras said eventually.

Dustin quirked an eyebrow at her “A coin for your thoughts?”

“What kind of coin.”

Dustin frowned “Its usually just a lesser coin.”

“Makle it Iron and you have yourself a deal”

He laughed. “Alright one iron for your thoughts.”

The amused smirk on Seras’ face fell, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I spent my whole life in one city. A city so vast and complex it would make this place look like a back water. One lit up in neon lights and million ads covering everything. It was loud, smelly, and dangerous. But I loved it. I thought it was the greatest city in the world, one that made all other city’s inconsequential.”

“But now your realizing how small it actually was?” Dustin guessed

Seras snorted “Fuck no, it still out matches anything I’ve seen here.” She fell silent organizing her thoughts, “But I kind of wish I spent more time exploring my own world. I used to think Mantel was the only place that mattered. But now I’m reconsidering that.”

“Ah, I see. You feel a sense of loss at not attempting to know your own world better.”

“And now I’ll never get the chance.” Seras finished.

Dustin gave her an inquisitive glance. “You don’t want to go back?”

“Is that even an option?”

He shrugged “I don’t know, but it is something I often hear from other Outworlders. All the ones I’ve met are either searching for a way home, or striving to achieve Diamond rank so that they might travers the Astral themselves.”

Seras blinked “I never even thought about it. I thought I was here for good. What branch of magic would I even need to study to make that possible?”

“Astral obviously.” Dustin said. “Though the experts in that field are few and far between.”

“Thoughts for later.” Seras said. “What’s on the docket for our stay here?”

“I have a few essences I’m going to be auctioning off. There will be an auction in two days. After that’s settled we’ll set out for Florin.”

“What are you selling?”

He smirked. “Several collections of wing, magic, and might essences.”

Seras looked up the essence combo “Dragon confluence?”

“Yup. The Draconians claim to be descended from dragons and take great pride in that. They go berserk for an essence combination like this, they’re obsessed with it. Might and Magic are common essences that are always in high demand, and Wing is useful enough. But Draconian nobility go to great lengths to get their hands on these three. So much so that it’s difficult to find any this close to the Draconian empire. But out in the glass sands prices are a little more reasonable, so I pick them up when I can, and find routes that take me down to Briaxis.”

“You said collections, are you selling them as a set.”

He nodded “Yep, on their own I can get four- or five-times market value, but as a set I can get ten times market value. Maybe more.”

“Wow, that’s a lot. So what about the weapons we’re selling?”

He frowned “They’ll sell fine, they’ll cover the costs we incurred on the trip, and even generate a little profit. But they’re just an excuse to go to Florin, there we’re going to pick up some dimensional storage chests, fill them up with quintessence and luxury items and take them north across the black sands and Blood sands to sell them in Basal, the adventuring capital of the deserts.”

“And these storage chests are only available in Florin?”

“That’s where the magical material to make them is cheapest. They have a local monster that produces certain type of resin that can be used to treat a local wood.”

“So you buy that up and take it north to sell where prices are higher.” Seras surmised.

Dustin shook his head, “No, where prices are going to be higher. Theres an astral space near Basal that produces a similar sort of monster, but recently the apertures have been closing up, and the Labyrinth caves connecting it have been closing off. This happens from time to time with deep astral spaces. The price of dimensional storage items is going to soar by the time we get there. And along the way I can sell quintessence for a good mark up.”

“Danm. That’s pretty savvy. How are you only in charge of a small company?” Seras asked as the floating disk arrived at the next hub and began to descend.

“I tried setting up larger expeditions before. But the larger the caravan the more tempting it becomes for higher ranked bandits, and without any silver rankers to defend it I only made enough to cover costs. Until I hit Silver myself this is the best I can manage.”

“And how far are you from Silver?”

“Not far.” He said with a smile. “It’s taken me decades of training and refining my techniques, but now I’m only three abilities away from Silver rank.”

“Danm, that’s a long time to be working at it. Does it normally take this long?”

He frowned. “If I had joined a good adventuring team I might have been able to make silver in only a decade. Not the best, but that’s about the average for non-elites like I was back then. But not a lot of teams are looking for a skirmisher like me, and half my powers are more utility based. Storage, transport, endurance, they were all better for being a merchant than an adventurer. Especially given my lack of training. I could have made it work, but I wouldn’t be making anywhere near the same amount of money I am now, and I wouldn’t have been able to send as much home.”

Seras nodded “Yeah, I get that. I knew plenty of Mercs who realized they weren’t suited for the dirty work our jobs required. They made better middlemen, making deals and setting up gigs. No shame in doing what your best at.”

He smiled “Thank you. Most don’t understand why I chose a life in the saddle over adventuring.”

She gave him a cheeky grin “Well if you were shit merchant we’d be having a whole different conversation.”

He laughed. “Well thanks, I feel so flattered.”

The disk landed and their small party began to make their way to a Caravansary Dustin had used before.