The Fetid Essence Ancor summoned to perform ancient Shamanry in the form of a Charm that was very much forbidden in the Wild, disallowed Ginger from seeing the exact steps the shoddy-looking Shaman took.

The arcs he traced with his hands...

The way he coerced the Fetid with a subdued voice...

Ginger had always enjoyed watching Ancor perform even the simplest of tricks. Somehow, the clumsy-looking Shaman was actually phenomenal when it came to his craft – unlike literally everything else.

The rippling silver of Fetid, like ethereal mercury, blinded Ginger, and then, with a sharp jerk, he felt himself get yanked from the ground.

He let out a yelp and tightened his grip on the sling bag, his scarf and his nether cheeks.

It was as though a fishing hook had dug deep into him, piercing something buried in his youthful flesh and pulling hard to draw him from the waters that were the Wild, where he was born.

Even while screaming aloud and whipping away to an unknown, Ginger had hoped he'd see the look on Ancor's face.

Would he spot relief or worry?

Sadly, Ginger did not have the luxury to mull over what was and what wasn't.

All he could think about was...

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGHHHHHHH!"

He spun and spun, and whirled and whirled.

He couldn't see anything despite straining his sight, half hoping that his large eyes would turn into lanterns that illuminated what was around him. Of course, that could not be done.

This space was neither warm nor cold. Ginger found that he could breathe, and aside from the endless spinning, he was pretty much fine.

He had the brief suspicion that this wasn't always the case for all those who tried passing through here, though.

Three minutes passed.

Nothing changed.

Ginger kept his grip on his parting gifts and made every possible attempt to calm down.

Fifteen minutes passed.

Nothing changed.

Ginger was panting lightly. A weaker dragonling would have started to cry aloud, slowly beginning to fall prey to the vast darkness.

But not Ginger.

Heavens knew what kind of tribulations he had faced at the most tender of ages. All he felt was fresh fright. After a while, he had recalled that Ancor had put him through more treacherous shades of danger.

And as it turned out, the boy's deepening calm was soon rewarded.

As if he had not been hurtling through a corridor of darkness for the past quarter of an hour, Ginger suddenly found himself lying on flat ground in a dimly lit space.

"Uh..." he murmured as he raised his head. "Was I...?"

How strange.

Now, the sensation of flying through that odd darkness felt like a dream. Ginger almost believed that he had been out of it all this time.

Had all that depression and spinning been an illusion?

Of course not.

When Ginger took a sharp draw of air, he began to cough vehemently. He hung his head and pressed his hands on the ground.

It was all real. This was the first evidence of it.

The air... it was full of something rich, potent, and sweet-smelling. It was so pleasant that it caught Ginger's insides off-guard.

The contrast brought Ginger to his senses. The Shamans of the Wild – the world of humans – used Fetid Essence to perform their Charms. It was called so because when one first became able to perceive it, it smelled terribly foul.

This new alluring energy, on the other hand...

"Is this the Mana Essence Ancor mentioned?" Ginger said to himself in wonder.

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It was.

Mana Essence swelled in his body and made him feel strong, vibrantly energizing all his cells.

Not long after, Ginger was used to it, and couldn't take in enough of it. He stood and began to move around.

Despite all the sweet about, he still exercised caution. He gripped his sling bag and scarf tight.

Anxiety was in his pocket.

It seemed he was in an alley shadowed overhead by overlapping roofing from two buildings. Tens of paces away, the light from a street peeked in, and Ginger slowly followed it.

After taking a few steps, however, something on the wall to his left caught his eye.

It surprisingly brought a smile to his face.

Someone had written in a terribly sloppy fashion the words:

'Ancor was here.'

'That idiot...' Ginger thought. He swelled with a bit of confidence and moved to the light, soon, narrowing his eyes as he left the alley.

What he saw stunned him.

The world was highlighted by a small, peach-gold sun that was arching down from its perch in the violet-blue sky.

Below it, Ginger saw the sworn opposite of a settlement in the Wild.

Small, neat shops and large, grand establishments lined both sides of the street before him, with glass and high-quality material making them up.

The crooked taverns, inns, and quirky stores back in the Wild, custom-made to house heroes among drunks and shifty thieves could never compare to this.

Ginger gawked in marvel.

The many figures walking about, minding their own business, however, pulled him out of the experience. Ginger discovered to his dismay, that a lot of them, were not human.

He saw humanoid creatures with different colored furs and long snouts dressed decently as they passed, others with reptilian features walking with their torsos bare, and several large, tall ugly mugly beings with bald heads minding their steps as they moved.

The streets were crowded with these unusual beings chattering away, countless varieties of them about.

'That is... scary,' Ginger thought.

He had never seen an arrangement like this in his life, though Ancor had mentioned it in passing.

This was the norm in this world... In Ravi.

A very wide, clean road passed between the two sides of the street, and in a surprise that made Ginger bite his upper lip with dread, a menagerie of large, four-legged creatures he had never seen before drew on luxurious vehicles, quickly and smoothly leading them past.

Beasts were not tolerated in the Wild. Most were killed on sight, and with good reason – that reason being they would mangle humans on sight.

As such, Ginger couldn't have been prepared for this scene.

While lost in the strange sight, Ginger suddenly staggered. Someone had knocked into him.

The boy felt a chill run down his spine, and he looked up at the figure he had collided with.

It was a tall man who stopped and glared down at him.

Ginger was first elated to see a human face, but he froze when he spotted the man's slit-like pupils. His gaze quickly shot lower, avoiding eye contact subconsciously, but that allowed him to see...

'A scarf...!' he thought.

The man, like him, wore a red and purple scarf around his neck.

He too seemed to notice Ginger's own, and his gaze softened a bit.

"Would appreciate it if you didn't stand in the middle of the street," the man said before walking along.

Ginger's eyes followed the man, strangely finding that he got clear passage among the crowds which moved out of his way.

Great intrigue gripped the plump boy.

Before he knew it, he was scanning around excitedly, paying more attention to the figures moving about in the street.

Among the many odd creatures, Ginger noticed a few dressed much like the tall man; with scarves or raised collars from their coats covering their necks.

"Woow..." Ginger beamed.

More dragons!

The language he had just heard the tall man address him in confirmed it too.

Ancor had taught him – to a semi-perfect standard – the language the dragons used as the years passed. In fact, the dragon language was the common tongue in Ravi. Every living creature was supposed to learn it.

Even with all his excitement, however, Ginger remembered to pay attention to things around him. He did not want to bump into another dragon or worse yet, one of those hideous giants.

Ginger followed the crowd and kept on feeding his curious eyes. It seemed he was on the unpopular side of Good Yield Street – a name he found written in bold on the road – but there were tonnes of interesting things that caught his eye.

What were the crests burned into the wall of every shop in sight?

What were the glowing orbs floating above each door he could see?

Ginger did not know what any of it meant, but he took it all in greedily as his earlier fears dissolved.

He almost felt his second heart start to beat like the one pounding on the left side of his chest.

'Beasts would have destroyed a place like this back home...' Ginger thought excitedly.

Along the way, amidst the impressive stores, shops, and what he heard to be called a 'bank', Ginger saw a small establishment that looked out of place.

Frankly, it looked like it had been plucked straight out of the Wild, and dropped here.

A scrawny and funny-looking man was attempting to hand out pamphlets to passers-by while calling out:

"Looking for Hunters! Hunters! Strong Hunters! Come on in and sign up for perilous tasks and little reward!"

Ginger looked at the man awkwardly from a short distance.

Perilous tasks and... little reward?

No wonder people didn't even bother to take his pamphlets. The look of the man's shack of a shop didn't do him any favors either. Even humans from the Wild wouldn't approach it.

The funny-looking man suddenly turned to Ginger, as though he heard his mocking thoughts and extended a pamphlet to him with a smile.

"Care to sign up, young dragon?" he asked with a grin.

"Uhh..." Ginger froze and took a step back.

"No? Then at least take a pamphlet. In case you change your mind," the man said while stuffing the pamphlet in Ginger's hand.

A cold shiver rushed through the boy. He smiled horribly, took the pamphlet, and ran past the man.

Before he knew it, he was at the end of the street, panting heavily. He looked back at the man and found that he was back to calling out to pedestrians.

'Creepy. Even Ancor wouldn't have that,' Ginger thought. He was about to look at the pamphlet in his hand when his attention was stolen by something magnificent.

An opposing street formed a junction with Good Yield, leading right to form a bridge that hung over a vast water body.

What was impressive wasn't the bridge, however.

It was a massive construct, rather, a set of constructs at its end.

The sight of hundreds of human-like figures flocking over the bridge as they headed towards the constructs, most of them with scarves around their necks, did little to reveal to Ginger what that grand place was.

He could already tell on his own.

This was going to be his new school.