Prinsk. A B-Rank city. Home of a B-Ranked dungeon. Capital of this elven kingdom. I’m sure it was wonderful and amazing. That it would put all things I’d seen before to shame. That it’s amazing sight.

“Derek?! Are you okay?” A voice called out to me.

I wasn’t sure who it was. I was preoccupied. I’d felt it as we slowly got closer and closer. It had ticked up and up and up, but I’d made the mistake of falling asleep and taking a nap to try to rid myself of the annoying feeling. Then I’d woken up, taken three steps, and collapsed.

My Analyze had been going crazy. Even just one B-Rank had felt like a solar blast from the sun. A whole city with hundreds, possibly thousands? I was stronger but it still felt like a planet had smashed me into the ground. The pressure! It was insane! I could practically see the waves forming and collapsing like a neutron star, punching me. It almost felt like they were causing me physical damage.

So…. many… monsters. Absolutely monsters! There were even at least a dozen presences were almost as strong as Vanessa. Which made me break out into cold sweat. We…. really should have died back then. I wasn’t even kind of able to gauge that level of strength. Which set off a new level of anxiety. Already, this was like gravity had multiplied by a thousand times. It was a mental pressure, like watching a skyscraper be thrown at you. You know you will die. You know you can not run away. Fear overtakes, your breath goes erratic, your heart beats faster and faster and faster and faster, threatening to burst out of your chest. It is assured, absolute, death.

And yet, I could feel things that my Analyze didn’t understand. Hidden depths, things I hadn’t run into before. I’d need to get closer to understand them fully, but that meant that these people were even stronger than they felt. Not to mention that my Ability clearly could miss the forest for the trees. I might feel that their ‘strong’ only to have an epiphany and realize I’d severely underestimated them because I didn’t know enough to separate the ‘strength’ into the right categories. A mage with poison powers might feel incredibly dangerous but if I don’t know that they can use poison… I might not realize the danger exactly till it’s too late. If a mage covers me in water and I know it’s dangerous but not why, it might be too late by the time they shoot lightning at me to fry me. Analyze isn’t instant and the details and depth elements are fresh and new.

Thankfully, I’m not the same as I was. I put a hand underneath me, then the other, my grip etching lines in the soil. With great effort, I got my legs underneath me, gritting my teeth, my eyes feeling bloodshot. This city… was strong. These people were strong. But that’s why we came here. To beat them, to train, to win. So that in the future, if we run into another Vanessa, another Happy, another asshole trying to burn me to death, we won’t die. This… is exactly what I need.

“Derek?” Konohora called out, worried. “You do not seem alright.”

“My Power. It’s… this city is very dangerous. But god damn it looks amazing.”

It really, really did. I had partially expected trees again. And finally, finally I was proven right. But right in a weird way. It wasn’t just tree houses or anything like that… it was a weird mix of a forest and a… meadow? The ‘gate’ was big, stumpy trees without leaves, reminding me of a plant I couldn’t remember the name of. They were huge, reaching over two dozen feet in height. Sadly, my concept of large had recently been destroyed. Compared to the giantesses and the absolutely ridiculously massive trees there, these were tiny.

Beyond the tree gates, I could see into the city and my jaw dropped in awe. It was a massive open field, with giant trees about half as big as the ones from the jungle we’d been dropped in. That essentially meant skyscrapers sized trees but much thicker. I could see even from here that there were homes and ‘houses’ on the branches. Houses was… the wrong word for sure. They were parts of the branch itself, built into them, using some kind of magic to raise the branches up and open them.

And on the floor, beneath those grouping of massive trees… were more trees, but of a much smaller nature. Relatively. Some were the same as the Gates, thick and broad, others were more skinny, others were much more literal tree houses as I could see stairs going up to above its branches, sometimes with nothing but five cloth drapes to act as walls and roof. But it wasn’t just trees, there were plants of all kinds, amplified for housing. I swear to god, I think I even see a cactus house. The road was paved with stone but there was ample… space. Just massive amounts of open space with nothing but short grass and flowers. And that was all just what I could see from looking forward through the gates over people’s heads, as the City apparently go plenty of traffic.

“Wow.” Tyler said, staring in awe.

Ha! Finally! Be impressed by architecture now Tyler! Or was that Riary that didn’t appreciate it? Whatever. This time I was putting my foot down. I was going to explore the hell out of this place and figure out how on earth they made all of it. I would not be denied my curiosity of the fantasy mundane.

The line moved forward, traffic being constant but brisk. I looked around and noticed other travelers arriving even though we hadn’t passed any on our way here. I could even see some in the distance that would take a few more hours for them to arrive here. Another thing I quickly noticed was… well, this was just the outside. It might be different inside.

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We entered, us four walking together, with Pablo paying the entrance fee for us. It wasn’t exactly a large amount for anyone unless you were carrying an army through. And with that, we were inside.

“We’ll go and report our arrival with the guild now. Would you like to come along to verify?” Pablo asked.

I was going to say no, it wasn’t necessary, before Tyler surprisingly spoke up.

“I’ll go. Might as well verify right?” Tyler started to head away and my danger senses immediately started going crazy.

I took a step forward, opening my mouth, when Konohora surprisingly grabbed my arm. Tyler waved, saying he’d be right back, while we stood nearby.

I immediately turned to Konohora with a raised eyebrow.

“What was the point of that?”

“Tyler has been trying to be more of a leader. I believe letting him take initiative will help him in his development.”

Riary stayed silent, looking grumpy and impatient. After all, we were just standing here, waiting for our ‘party leader’ to come back. Part of me wanted to roll my eyes a bit, it’s not like I was a soldier with a strict chain of command who’d listen to Tyler over my own thoughts. The other part of me was nodding, more than relieved to have Tyler or Konohora do all the paperwork, drudgery, and generally everything I really didn’t want to do that came with being an adventurer.

Although…

“We could have at least picked out an inn first. Now we’re just standing around.”

“Tyler picks out the best inn’s.” Riary said. Konohora surprisingly nodded, giving credit to just how much she really believed that. I hadn’t seen anything on the contrary, Tyler having led us to both pretty good inn’s before. One had a dark elf futa and the other had amazing cooking. Pretty solid all around really.

“Derek are you alright?” Konohora asked. “You’ve seemed… different today.”

Konohora saw right through me. Riary also looked at me, squinting. I suppose that was the closest way she expressed worry, at least to me. I lowered my voice before answering.

“It’s… still hard. There’s… so many powerful people here. My Power is going crazy. I’m already exhausted, to be honest.”

Female elf to my far right, powerful enough to kill me three times. Looking at her a bit longer, I could feel that her main weapon is a spear.

Male guard elf, could kill all of us four times in less than a minute, something about nature magic and animals.

The older lady resting on her back out in the… park? Incredibly dangerous, one the twelve most dangerous people in the city. Has been staring at me since I walked in, could kill me thirty times within a minute. Has powers of electricity and… life. That made me shudder, considering reason events.

Elf who looks like a child…. Twice in a minute…

Dark skinned human…. Three times… earth powers

I was now surrounded by monsters, seeing them pass all around me. Worse, I could feel their ‘age’. Or at least ‘experience’. I’d pulled that from Hiyark in an effort to figure out her strengths and weaknesses. And all of these people…

They had far, far more than me. Not everyone, I could still see normal men, women, and children. But the B-Ranked people felt like they were ten to fifty times older than me. And gauging experience and skill were laughable. I was completely and utterly outclassed. I felt like I’d walked into the most dangerous area imaginable. A shark tank, a pit full of snakes, a lake full of alligators and crocodiles, none of it could compare.

To make matters worse… many, many people were staring right at me. I’d noticed it at the gate but now I was sure… most of the people were elves. Not nearly half and half like the border town and not with such… limited experience. Now? Now I could see at least three humans I was absolutely positive had murdered demons in the war. As for elves, their eyes contained interest but interest from every single B-Rank was not pleasant. Just standing still, more than a few elves were gawking at me. It hadn’t been so pronounced in the border town and I have no idea why it was such an amplified response now. It wasn’t just like the elves had never seen a demon, it’s like they didn’t believe they existed at all-

Ah. There it is. Humans. Not many humans came this way. Humans probably talked about demons a great deal. No humans, no talk of demons. It’s the difference between hearing about a race all the time and ‘knowing’ of a race, is that it?

“Honestly… if Tyler doesn’t get back soon, I’m going to pass out.” I said.

Riary and Konohora both blinked at me.

“Really?” Riary said with a frown.

I nodded. “It’s too much and I can’t turn it off. It’s not just the danger and pressure and tension… the information is massive. There’s things I don’t understand that my ability is trying to understand and it’s happening repeatedly. It’s like… my brain is constantly trying to solve thousands of math questions at the same time. Most are easy, some are hard, some are beyond me. I’ve never… felt so much complex power. It’s overloading me.”

Even now, I was gritting my teeth, trying to act casual. But in truth, I felt like I’d stayed up for a whole week without sleep already. This hadn’t happened before. It was new and unwelcome. I’d adjust, like a diver going to deeper waters, but I’d prefer to do that in a bed in an inn.

Just as I was casually standing there, doing my best not to show just how unwell I was, a child walked up to me.

“Can I touch your horns?” I looked down and-

Oh shit. I nearly stumbled as the ‘pressure’ intensified rapidly. I could feel a lot more eyes on me and powers being ‘readied’. Or at least I was pretty sure what the incredibly dangerous feeling crawling up my back and my Power Gauge suddenly screaming at me means.

The child was just a child, but the mother was looking at me, briefly frozen in fear. She hadn’t noticed me, not until her daughter had literally come up to me and asked that. Now every B-Rank and elf within a mile was watching me in fear and worry, ready to attack if I suddenly hurt her.

Fuck. Tyler, hurry up and get back already!