Ch #18

"A Mountain City"

Aria drew the string of her bow, and mana pulsed around her, gathering onto the tip of the broadhead. She fired it into the side of the wolf, downing it. "On our six!"

She and Marshmallow protected Lumi, the little girl sitting in front of her, holding onto her companion's fur. Marshmallow kept the creatures at bay, bashing the heads of several wolves that dared to come too close. Kai covered their six, casting fireballs at the stragglers attacking from behind.

"I'll hold it!"

Fireball, an inexplicable thing... The boy had said the records had dropped him beyond the barrier of the Ashen mountains. On top of that, he'd found Lumi in the outer forest and actually cared enough to protect her until here...

A hard thing to believe. Yet, the girl seemed to agree... No matter; she would find out soon. She called forth more mana, shooting a flurry of piercing arrows at the monsters in front.

She grabbed her quiver. Empty. She'd run out of arrows. Taking out her sword, she jumped off of Marshmallow, and rushed towards a wolf. Sliding below its swipe, she swung her blade, slicing into its throat. The blood sprayed onto her clothes, staining them red.

She glanced at her back, surprised to see the guy holding his own with ease. He'd throw a barrier to stop the wolves from reaching him and cast a fireball at the pack to spread them out. Experienced in fights with monsters...

He wasn't targeting to kill the monsters with one hit, keeping them back for now, waiting to clean them up steadily.

He was much calmer in battle, unlike many others she'd seen. Those bunch of fools would stay on the back and cast a torrent of spells only to find that most of the monsters had scattered already, completely unharmed.

Throwing the corpse off of her, she met with the charge of the others of its kind.

Drawing mana from her core, she condensed it onto her blade. A white glow appeared on its edge. She swung it in an arc, the blade launching through the air, slicing the beasts in front of her in two. It was time to clear this up.

As the last wolf died, she sheathed her blade, recovering her bow from where she'd left it. "That should be the last of them; we're near the southern gates."

She stepped towards the wolves, taking out a hidden knife and neatly digging into the flesh. She removed a little yellow bead, stashing it away. Turning towards others, she saw Kai following in her steps, removing the cores of the beasts. He'd learned fast.

"That fireball was quite powerful." She'd thought he used an artifact to attack the first time. But now, it looked more like he was the one casting it.

The boy shifted a little; she could see his body language change, more drawn in. "Yeah, learned it from the trial."

Lessons in the trial? She'd heard of it a few times. Rare and difficult, those ones, with hidden requirements to boot. "I see; it must have been quite the trial then."

Kai seemed to count the beads in his hands, stashing them in his pocket. "So, you're a Kindled? Seeing that you have such control over mana and how you use it for fighting, a miester I suppose?"

Aria raised an eye at the sudden question. "Not there yet. As I've said, I'm tower-bound. But I suppose you don't know what that means..." She walked towards her companion. Dilly-dallying in idle chat was simply not safe in the middle of the jungle.

The guy seemed irritated at that. "Then maybe you could tell me?" He jogged to catch up, taking a stable pace beside her.

Of course, she could, but these were pieces of information he would get from the Guild first thing he enters. Still, she explained, "You and Lumi haven't completed your trial yet."

Kai seemed confused listening to her, "What? The records clearly told me the trial was complete." A quizzical expression formed on his face. "What do you mean by the trial's incomplete?"

She thought back to how she'd been told about the trial and its intricacies. "If I were to make an analogy, you took the test and haven't turned in your results."

She elaborated, recalling the information she'd gotten. "Well, the Records are omniscient, connected to all that is alive and dead. The tower is not."

Kai's forehead furrowed in thought. "So you're saying the tower doesn't know I've passed the trial? How come I'm in the tower then?"

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She gave a nonchalant shrug. "I don't know. No one knows. These are all just theories."

Kai took her words in, contemplating them. "And what's with the barrier you mentioned?"

She was taken aback that he remembered her words from the brief fight they had. "It's confidential. Only the members of the guild higher-ups know about it."

"And you're part of this guild? What does it do?"

She pondered about the things she could tell him directly. There were many things the guild did, and its influence spanned far and wide. "I'm a member of the guild, yes, and as for what it does... It provides safety."

"And how does one become one of its members?" Kai inquired, seemingly interested in the prospects of the organization.

She looked at Kai; the guy was quite good at fighting monsters... But he'd need to sharpen up before he did really good in this world. "You have to give a test as always. They judge your capabilities and put you in a position they deem fit."

Joining it was, in fact, easy, but becoming an official member required at the very least specialty in some aspect or ability. If he was showing everything he had, and her judgment was correct, he wasn't there just yet...

Aria walked along with him while talking; he was much more at ease than at the beginning of the conversation. Thinking back to what they were discussing, she decided to let him in on a bit of information he'd find useful. "While information about the guild is widely available, it is only for things that don't matter. But what I will tell you is that the guild is the protector and the holder of the largest number of sanctuaries."

The trees stopped, opening up to a clearing. A wide road and a massive gate in front of them attached to the slope. They'd reached the city.

**break**

At first, he'd thought it would be some city on the slope like normal hilly cities, but this...

The gate had swung open, revealing a vast cavern illuminated by a radiant gem embedded in the ceiling. Houses were intricately built at the heart of the cavern, spiraling around its center. Perched on the cavern walls were additional homes, creating a captivating medieval atmosphere infused with mystique.

According to Aria, this was only the first level; there were two more expansive levels deep below.

Lumi had a look of wonder on her face, the brilliant gem on the ceiling lighting her face. "It's so pretty! Big sister what is that?!"

"It's pretty, isn't it? That's a sun-stone, a gem that absorbs mana and turns it into light. Maybe big sister will get a smaller one for you?" Aria looked pleased at being called big sister, and it irritated him to no end. Maybe he should leave the babysitting to her from now on?

Not wanting to be left out, he faux coughed, drawing the maniacal girl's attention. "Thank you for bringing us here. Would you have any suggestions as to what we should do next?"

She replied after a bit of thinking. "I'll take you to the center of the city first. There's something you have to do first."

Kai regarded her with a puzzled expression. "You're coming with us? Weren't you going to show us the way to the city and leave?"

Aria appeared to smile at his words, seemingly unaffected by his intention to distance themselves from her. "You don't know the first thing about this place; I'll show you around for a while and then leave. I do have jobs to do."

Kai was stuck with indecision. On one side, the girl had attacked them, and from what he understood, she was at the center of some elaborate drama, he would not like to get pulled into. On the other, he really didn't know anything about this place, and the information old man Reinhardt had given him now appeared insufficient.

Not able to think of anything, he just decided to ask her. "Aren't you being targeted for assassination? Won't going together put our lives in danger as well?"

"Not at all; you will be protected by the tower and the guild." She stopped there, not elaborating any further. "Now let's go. Lumi, big sister will treat you to some good food today!"

"Really!" Lumi looked interested in the food. But she didn't go, instead turning to Kai and looking at him inquisitively.

Sighing, he decided to stick with her and let her show them around for now. "Let's go, Lumi."

Walking along the streets, Kai noticed the plethora of shops and houses there. There were food stalls, smithies, bars.

Even a candy shop... Aria was buying a candy-cane-looking thing for Lumi. Standing in front of the odd stall, he wondered how they made candy here. He noticed her take out a few black shining coins, handing them to the shopkeeper.

"How much is that coin worth?" Kai asked, intrigued by the thought of a new type of currency. On Earth, they mostly used units. The system was completely digitized, and such hard currency was rarely seen or used.

"This? It's not worth much at all." She said, holding up a black coin from her pouch. "You couldn't even buy a day's meal with this much."

He'd need to get some for him and Lumi, and knowing the value of things would certainly help him. "How many would be required to feed one person? No, scratch that, what would be enough to feed two people for a month?"

Putting the black coin back into her pouch, she took out two other coins, "These coins are called galleons. The black one is worth one galleon, this silver one is worth 100 galleons, and this one..." Holding up a shiny orange coin. "This one is worth 100 silver galleons."

She handed him the silver coin and the other one back into her pouch. How rich... there must be a few dozen such coins in there. "And?"

"Well, this silver coin you're holding is worth about a week's rent and food at a passable inn. And if you're wondering where to get these, just sell those monster cores on you. You'll get roughly 50 galleon for one Rank-0 beast, One Silver galleon for a Rank -1 beast."

Not that much different currency from Earth, he thought. "I see, and I sell my cores to the shops or the guild?"

"Yes, shops do buy them, but you get the best rates at the guild." Aria walked onward, leading Lumi and him towards the heart of the cavern.

Hundreds of people walked by them, most wearing everyday clothes. Only a few opted for some form of fighting gear. Were they all from Earth? That wasn't so likely. Then were they from another world or were they born in the tower? "There are so many people here..."

Aria answered almost immediately, as if she'd guessed what he was thinking. "The many people here are those who were born here or can't go back from here."

Walking onward, she stopped at what appeared to be a circular plaza at the heart of the city. An obsidian pillar, almost 10 feet tall, stood at the center of the plaza.

"Touch it and the tower will start reading your records."