The next day, Hannah and Edali went to the surface. Esme still refused to get out of her bed, so they were on their own. They were currently walking towards Upper Winsor, because they were close to securing that part of the walls. Winsor was a large city, so it would take weeks to take it over. If they took it over. Guerilla warfare, harassment tactics... everything went in the rebellion.

She could see burning buildings in the distance, but this part of the city was unusually calm. The city guard had abandoned it, as they were been hell-bent on defending the Main District from any kind of takeover, but this district was relatively undefended. Being a [Guard] wasn't really a popular job and there weren't enough guards to defend the whole city at once. Skull had predicted that the army would come to reinforce the city if this wasn't solved in a few days. The [Emperor]'s son–[Prince] Jonas, was in charge of Draele's affairs in Irasal, and his rule was ruthless. That was expected from someone raised by the Emperor himself. You didn't rule a continent and a half by solving protests peacefully. You crushed them. You killed them until no one was left.

But Hannah wasn't thinking about that right now. She wanted to learn more magic– well, more spells. She had been useless in the fight yesterday. She wanted to learn a big powerful one, like [Ultimate Fireball]! Was there an [Ultimate Fireball] spell? She chuckled to herself and turned to Edali.

"Hey. Edali."

"Hm?"

"I want a spellbook."

"What?"

"I want a spellbook."

Edali answered with a slight smirk.

"We don't have any of those. What for? Aren't you enjoying your [Light] spell?"

"No... wait, stop joking around! I felt useless yesterday."

"Right. I know something big happened but you won't tell me, or anyone, in fact."

"It's... personal."

"I get the gist of it. Your first battle?"

Hannah nodded sadly. She still hadn't told anyone about their fight with the adventurer because... well Esme had killed him. Only Gregory knew what happened, but no one else. Hannah tried to cheer herself up.

"Well, regardless of what happened, I need new spells, and quickly, because otherwise, I'm just a useless [Thief]."

"Eh, [Thieves] are underestimated in war. Sending one to steal an artifact that would decisively win a battle a few days before that said battle? You have a panicking [General] which makes his [Soldiers] panic in turn. I've heard stories, you know."

That cheered her up a little. Hannah liked Edali. She was a teacher of some sort. A guide? Maybe a mentor was more accurate. She kept going.

"Still, we have no spellbooks. They're a rare thing. Not anyone can become a [Mage] by just learning [Light] as you did. It has to choose you."

"'It'? Who's it?"

"The system."

"Oh. Of course."

Hannah felt dumb. She still didn't know how the system worked, or who ran it. She wasn't religious before coming here, but the existence of levels and another world that defied the laws of physics daily with magic and skills? Someone must have been up there to make it. Or maybe they still existed.

"Hey. Who made the system?"

"The Gods? Who else?"

"Of course. I was... just making sure."

Edali exhaled suspiciously, and looked at the young [Mage] directly.

"Oh? You can't fool me, I know something's up with you."

Hannah's inside dropped. Did she know?

"What do you mean?"

"Well, first, you don't know anything about levels and the system, second, you're not willing to tell anyone where you're from– not even which continent. Third, my brother found weird artifacts in your bag."

"What!? He went to take our stuff? Is it still there? He better not have stolen–"

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Relax, relax. He put it back after I told him to. He showed it to me briefly. Lights up when you press a button on the side? Is it a light artifact? What else can you do with it? Why couldn't I detect any magic from it? Hey! Why are you speeding up?!"

Hannah needed some space. That was the thing she had learned about Edali. Once she got interested in something, she'd barrage you with questions. The [Mage] couldn't believe that Kayden stole stuff from her bag! She was the [Thief]! She stole things, not the opposite! He'd hear all about it when she got back!

"Slow down."

She looked back at Edali, who looked annoyed and sorry at the same time.

"I'm sorry. If you don't want to tell me about it, I'll respect that."

"Thank y–"

"But you have to tell me one day though! How about when we win the city? As a celebration?"

"N– well, I'll talk to Esme about it. Anyways! We were talking about the system. And spells and stuff."

"Right."

"Hypothetically, and I really mean hypothetically. If someone knew nothing about levels or the system, what would you tell them? I mean, how would you explain it?"

"Wow. You don't know anything do you?"

"I said hypothetically!"

"Fine. Well, I'd tell them that when the Gods created this world, they also created the system to guide beings. To shape them throughout their lives. They used to walk among us you know? Tens– no hundreds of thousands of years ago. Each God created a race in their image. Our God created us, the Humans. But one day they just– they vanished. And they've never been seen or heard since. According to the church anyways. I'm not that religious."

Hannah listened to each sentence and analyzed it. She found two things wrong with this explanation. One, this implied that this planet was only hundreds of thousands of years old, when Earth was... was it four billion years old? Second, where were the churches? Ever since she had come to this world she had seen zero mentions about religion. Nothing. Not once.

"So, do you guys have churches for the Gods then?"

"Of course not! That's banned in the Empire, we have our own religion. Of course, I don't believe in it but– hey, by the way, what I told you just now is technically illegal, so don't go around repeating it if you ever go back to a normal life."

"Ok. But what's this new religion then?"

"Draele's religion is Unicism. They worship the system itself. You know that voice you hear when you level up and gain new skills? They think that's God. They say that there's only one God and those who worship multiple are uncivilized."

Hannah nodded. That made sense. In her world countries banned religions all the time in the middle ages, although this world was quite more advanced than the middle ages.

"So why are there no churches here then?"

"There aren't many churches. There were many before we invaded this continent. I guess they were destroyed. Churches that follow our religion have to be approved by the [Emperor] to be built. It's a really big deal. And they're huge. Not as big as our magical academies though!"

That was a small jab at Hannah. She wanted to go to a magic school like Draemary so badly, but instead, she was stuck here! But they were almost at their destination, which meant things were going to get busy quite soon.

"Listen, we're almost here, so I'll tell you more later. Don't forget, first you use [Charm] and then–"

"I got it the first ten times. Go ahead."

"Alright."

Hannah strode forward and turned around a corner. There, she saw one of the rare patrols to keep the Mob out of Winsor's walls. They were three and these men weren't wearing the traditional [Guard] uniform and armor, however. They were wearing light leather armor and they all had bows. Hannah ducked behind a box.

"... that this job is shit. We should just get out already. We're wasting precious time when we could be leveling up and getting rich off a dungeon."

"You know the drill, William. We have to help the city in times of crisis. It's the law."

"Yeah. Sure. As if this is a real danger to the city. Bring me to the captain of the city guard and I'll tell him to piss off."

"Shut up. If we break the law here, we can't do any more jobs in any city. Unless you want to go work for the Lizards Will?"

"Bah! Stupid laws! Back in my grandfather's day, they were more lax! Adventurers could do whatever they wanted! And our relationship with the Drakes– not Lizards, was ten times better! He says we cooperated and traded!"

"Well, they gave up that right after starting the war. I lost my wife because of them, they– well you know the story..."

Hannah looked up once more. They were walking away from her, so she could move towards the walls. They had to take it today, according to Skull. She was just glad she avoided most of the war. They had suffered hundreds of deaths in a few days already. Fighting on Main Street was tough. She snuck around the alleys before she was one street away from the walls, and then she finally saw her target.

Dozens of adventurers and [Guards] were guarding the entrance of the city. Hannah had heard that leaving or coming in was effectively banned unless you were important. Her job was simply to [Charm] them into leaving. There was a problem though.

She wasn't sure if it could work on all these people.

They had tested it this morning, and Hannah succeeded in charming twenty people at once, but these were [Guards]. Maybe one of them had a [Charm] resistance skill or something. And the number of people here clearly surpassed all expectations. Edali told her it would only be fifteen to thirty people! There were at least one hundred people here.

She turned to her mentor. Edali was supposed to take out their charmed enemies. She didn't have any spell with enough power to take out one hundred people at once. Hannah wasn't so sure about this plan anymore. It wasn't safe. They had to go back and try again later.

Edali shook her head, like she knew what Hannah was thinking. Skull had told them to do it today, so it would be today. The Mob couldn't spare any more manpower for this. They had to do it on their own. Edali whispered to her.

"Well I'm no [Gambler], but I'd say we need to at least try this."

"It's suicide."

"Maybe. Use it."

Hannah sighed. She got up and faced the [Guards].

"You! H–"

"Stop. Leave the walls. Go this way and stand."

The [Guards] and the adventurers frowned. She prepared for the worst and winced.

And they all left.

Hannah collapsed on the ground. She heard each of them get 'taken out' by Edali. Each one of them dropping on the ground after getting their skull pierced with a high-pressure water stream. Each and every one of them.

She passed out.