Severin jumped up and hurried to join Miriam at the bow of the ship. Samuel and Timothy quickly joined them as well.

“Quite the sight, huh? Never ceases to amaze me.”

Slack-jawed, Severin nodded in response, but could not get a word out.

What he expected to see was a larger version of the cities they had passed. Nothing had prepared him for this. The dimensions of the city-the metropolis- in front of them, were simply too exaggerated. Impossible almost.

Was it comparable to the megacities in his home world that housed tens of millions of people? Surely not. But those weren’t encompassed by walls that made the Walls of Constantinople look like a miniature installation either.

Accordingly massive city gates, a colosseum-like arena and uncountable other buildings of similarly impressive size. Not to mention the palace that sat proudly, right in the middle of the city, surrounded by extensive green spaces.

Severin didn’t know where to look.

His mind went blank. Fantasy world or not, in his mind, this shouldn’t be possible.

And the impression only grew with every passing second; with every meter they approached further.

Not just because everything grew even bigger and bigger as they approached, but because of all the details that began to reveal themselves.

‘No metal,’ was the first of those things that jumped out at Severin once his senses began to return. Even the large towers, which easily deserved to be called skyscrapers, appeared to be constructed only out of stone and wood.

“…magic?”

“Hmm. Many nobles will remind you that it was their magic abilities, hard work, and sacrifices that shaped this city into what it is today. In fact, those deeds are what earned many of them their titles in the first place.

What they oftentimes forget to mention, however, are the ones whose classes simply were not rare enough to warrant similarly special treatment. Or the majority of just as hard-working and indispensable ordinary people who simply weren’t lucky enough to be blessed with any class at all. For Hanvia to continue to thrive…”

Severin acknowledged Samuel’s words with a grunt, but stopped listening. At any other time, he would appreciate this kind of impromptu history lesson, but right now, he wasn’t in the mood. Or rather, he couldn’t concentrate on it even if he wanted to. He still hadn’t completely calmed down; all he could do was stare down at the huge structure in front of them while trying to understand the implications of what he saw.

Shaped by his preconceived notion of what a fantasy world would have to look like which was then further exacerbated by everything he had seen so far, be it the cold weapons, the clothing, or simply the overall aesthetics of the flying ships and Magda’s outpost, what he expected to find was something more medieval.

Now it began to dawn on him just how ridiculous it was to assume that the only difference between a world that contained magic and his own would be a technological difference of maybe a few centuries.

‘Fuck. Thinking about it, those things are basically flying cars. How primitive can such a world, such a society, really be?‘ With this thought still in his mind, Severin shifted his attention back upwards to eye-level, where, even at this early hour, was already an armada of said vehicles hovering in the air.

He was too overwhelmed to even be surprised by the sight of an oversized, obviously tamed, bat-like beast hovering in relatively close proximity.

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Only then did he finally notice that in the meantime, the ship had stopped moving even though they were still a good distance away from the city itself; so far so that the pedestrians and carriages on the ground lined in front of the city were still only dots to him.

But he also noticed that they weren’t the only ones. In fact, only a handful of flying artifacts were currently in the airspace directly above the city itself. The other ships, balloons, torpedoes, carpets, and occasional beasts were all floating in place, just like them.

“What exactly are we waiting for?” Severin finally couldn’t take it any longer and had to ask the question he, under normal circumstances, would’ve easily been able to answer himself just by observing his surroundings and using common sense.

“See this sphere?” Coming from a first-time visitor, Samuel apparently didn’t think the question was all that strange and answered while pointing at an object that was hidden from Severin’s sight by the man’s massive frame. Only after taking a step back did Severin see that there was a one meter tall buoy floating next to the ship emitting a red light.

“Once it changes its color…”

“A traffic light,” he interrupted without thinking.

“Oh? What a fitting name, haha. So you do have something similar back where you are from?” The [Berserker] didn’t wait for an answer. “There look,” Samuel now pointed towards another flying artifact and the construct next to it. Its light had just changed from red to blue.

The carpet immediately began to speed up and towards the city. Or, more precisely, towards one of the many towers located right behind the city walls.

Interestingly enough, multiple lights installed on the towers’ docking platform were now also blinking in a familiar blue light.

Now knowing what to look out for, Severin soon found a few dozen more of these towers spread along the enormous wall, not all of which currently in operation.

Seeing that about ten to thirty minutes after docking, the manmade ships disappeared into thin air, Severin grew curious as to how the procedure would be for flying beats. Yet before he could figure out the details, their own sphere turned green and guided them towards the nearest docking bay.

With that, everything else became unimportant.

“Remember to behave,” Samuel warned a last time as parts of the railway retracted and a gangplank extended to bridge the small gap between ship and docking platform.

“Coming aboard,” a sleepy voice announced, and two uniformed men boarded the ship without waiting for a response.

“Purpose for your visit, name, and class. If applicable.”

“Jim.”

“Name’s Samuel. Coming for the Games. And business, actually. [Berserker].”

“Jim.”

“…serker].” The man called Jim repeated the words to himself as he jotted them down on a single piece of shimmering paper without looking up.

“Jim!”

“What?!” the man finally snapped at the colleague that kept calling his name and was about to turn around, when for the first time, his eyes met Samuels’.

“Wha… what did you say your name was, sir?”

“Samuel.”

gulp

“And your class? Sir.”

“[Berserker].”

“…”