Their method of traveling to the city arrived the next day in the form of a monstrous furry centipede. Just the head was taller than a person, and given the length, it weighed thousands of times more. Though the sections were somewhat insectoid, it had a furry face that managed to be insufferably cute. Theo had seen them before, but couldn't remember what they were called.

Famaj stood beside it, rubbing the fur while it licked his shirt and face. When Theo approached, he turned to greet him. "Jake! I hope you are prepared for the journey."

"I don't really have anything to prepare," Theo said, keeping his distance. "What's the name of these creatures?"

"Packbeasts."

"Of course it is." Theo avoided rolling his eyes, but it was a close thing. "Do we leave soon?"

"Just as soon as everyone who is coming with us to Myufuru is ready!"

Given the usual Tatian sense of timing, that wouldn't be very soon. Theo sighed, sat down in a secluded grove, and entered his soulhome. He carefully began using the chisel to carve one of the heavy branches into thinner boards that he could use to make his door. The exact craft mattered as well as the strength of the materials, but fortunately his soulcrafting ability exceeded his skill in the real world.

Before he could finish, someone interrupted him to say that it was time to go. Theo headed back to the packbeast and found that a relatively small group was going to the city - it couldn't be accidental that it included mostly soulcrafters and few local Farmguards.

Navim was most obvious, being fitted with a special harness so he wouldn't fall from the packbeast. Near the front he also saw Fiyu and Famaj, and intended to join them soon, but not yet. He eventually spotted Magnafor at the back and received a glower for his trouble. Otherwise, there were some Fithans and Tatians he didn't know, plus a Deuxan soulcrafter who had apparently decided not to return home.

They all took their places on the packbeast's back and began a swift but uncomfortable journey. It trundled along the dirt roads with surprising speed, all its legs levering it forward. Local villagers waved to them cheerfully, but no differently than they would wave to wagons, strangers, or particularly friendly animals. Though Theo tried to hold a conversation with a few others, it was difficult with all the dust and the odd squealing noises from their mount.

Instead he retreated inward, no longer troubled by the lurching movements once he sat within his soulhome. There, he continued working on fashioning the hearthtree planks into a door: not just an adequate arch, but a construct he could keep for a long time. Eventually he set it up, an entrance to nowhere, and let the scarce wisps of cantae flow through it.

It worked on the first try, though that was no accomplishment with such an easy bit of soulcrafting: when he looked through the door from within, he saw the packbeast instead of his soulhome. Even when he wasn't looking, he felt a solid connection to his body. Now if anyone attacked him, he could simply fade out of his soulhome without any delay.

Of course, his awareness was still limited. If he had better tools, he could carve elaborate patterns on the wood that would improve it further. But though any effort would help, the best results required specific techniques, and he hadn't studied those very far. Just having a door so he couldn't be ambushed was good enough for now.

As for the rest, it was difficult to know how to proceed. The flamefruit tree hadn't begun to grow without support, which was unsurprising, yet the seeds themselves seemed to have died. That might be natural, or he might need to put more work into getting the foundation right. Fortunately, all the other flamefruit sat in a pile, pristine as the moment he'd eaten them. Trying again would be simple, but better done in a school environment.

So instead he merely worked on the remaining pieces of wood, shaving off splinters and knots. The resulting pile of boards wouldn't grant him any power or accomplish anything whatsoever, but when he tried to construct something more elaborate, it would be good to have that work already complete.

At the pace of the packbeast and without stopping for many feasts, they actually reached Myufuru before he finished even half of the task. When he glanced through the door and saw they were near the end of their journey, Theo faded back to reality and looked forward.

He had never visited Myufuru before, but he might as well have. Like all Tatian cities, it had the rustic look of their villages expanded to giant size. It spread out in all directions, but the heart of the city was clearly a region of several vast hills. Where the elevation might have led to social stratification in other worlds, Myufuru was swarming with staircases with no walls in sight. Tiny huts stood beside vast houses formed from tree trunks both above and below. Ropes dangling wooden gondolas constantly flowed between the different levels, ferrying the youngest and oldest.

Of course, the entire city was filled with Tatians, living packed even closer together than in the villages. With that many people, Theo knew that the character of a place changed. There would actually be thieves and swindlers there, though along with them came industry, foreign goods, and services that simply didn't exist in the dull villagescape outside.

Some of the Tatians seemed utterly shocked, as this might have been their first time seeing a city. Famaj started giving them warnings about not greeting everyone on the street and not being able to trust people, but Theo ignored him. Instead he looked to Fiyu, who was wincing and covering her ears even though they had only just entered the outskirts. He really needed to teach her to soulcraft that defensive chamber.

They left their packbeast by an enormous gnarled tree with other packbeasts twined around it. Though some in their group wanted to explore and others looked shocked, Famaj led them all forward without any delay. Theo thought that was just as well, since he wanted to get his bearings and understand the terms of their school, but he soon found Fiyu shadowing him. She flinched away from the cheerful crowds but also didn't want to touch him.

After a moment of thought, Theo undid one of the straps on his pack and extended it to give her something to hold. It was little more than a safety blanket, but she clutched the strap and followed him closely, as if he could shield her from the exuberance of the crowds around them.

In a city the size of Myufuru, they weren't greeted aggressively, yet it was still an explosion of humanity far beyond any of the small villages. Theo was glad when they soon reached one of the wooden gondolas and headed directly upward. With the wind whistling around them, he felt slightly cool for the first time since entering Tatian.

Their path took them arching over the entire city to one of the highest hills. It broke the usual pattern of mixed equality, surrounded by a wall of living stone that looked like it could actually repel an assault, for all its gentle curves in the patterns of trees, plants, and flowers. There was an inscription over the entrance archway below, and fortunately he could read the looping characters: Myufuru Landguard Village.

Only one word of that mattered: Landguard. As little as Tatian focused on soulcrafting tiers, even they couldn't deny the huge gap between the third and fourth. Theo had met a few Landguards and none of them had been fools: if there was a serious attack, the Landguards acted as the military. In other worlds they would have been a ruling caste, but on Tatian they simply served all nations and villages equally.

There was one problem: he'd been told that the nearest Landguard was months away. At first he'd wondered if "Village" was a euphemism for a fortress, but as they slid over a mostly empty compound he reconsidered. Perhaps this was a headquarters and storage facility used by Landguards without any currently being in residence.

Before their gondola landed, he made sure to build a mental map of the area within the walls. The front gate had a normal village square surrounded by stacked huts that likely served as housing. Staircases led from it to clusters of kitchens, orchards, and stonesmiths, but also downward into what appeared to be a tunnel. Their gondola led them to an upper square with fewer staircases, some leading to a fortified building... and one to a vast tree.

Their gondola was attached to the middle boughs of the skyscraper-sized tree, which cast shade over the entire compound. They stopped before drawing too close, but he could see staircases had been carved into the side, leading up to a softly glowing peak. Lines of sealing staffs had been driven into the lower trunk, generating a Landguard-tier barrier. None of them would be walking in there... that barrier could probably endure a full assault by an army of Farmguards.

He had no more time to examine the landscape as the gondola rapidly descended to the upper courtyard. As the door opened, he was surprised to find the area empty, but a bright head of hair began bobbing from one of the stairs as an old man approached.

Immediately Theo hesitated, letting others go ahead of him, but he couldn't say exactly why at first. The old man coming to greet them appeared to be simply a first tier soulcrafter, yet something wasn't right. Glimpsing his soulhome was a little too easy, slightly too straightforward. He might be a simple Farmguard... or he might be a soulcrafter powerful enough to have built a shielding wall.

"Welcome, welcome!" The old man spread his arms wide as if to hug all of them, and followed up on the threat with a few of the Tatians. His arms made Theo think of tree trunks despite being in the shadow of building-sized trees. "Oh, we're so glad to have you here! This place has been empty for too long, but all of you are changing that!"

"I'm glad to see you well, uncle." Famaj matched the old man's hug, then pulled back, all smiles. "Friends, please meet my dear uncle, Nanjuma. He is the head of Myufuru Landguard Village."

"Which isn't as much of an honor as it once was!" Nanjuma laughed at himself and turned to all the others, his hands on his hips. "But when we heard about all these brave soulcrafters and hopefuls, everyone agreed that we would be best able to welcome you. With your help, we should all be able to defend our communities better, and you should find a way back to your own worlds soon enough!"

"Why isn't this fortress in active use?" one of the Fithans asked. Nanjuma shook his head, then began to walk, demonstrating vigorously.

"You see these grounds? This village was established for the sake of some very valuable sublime materials, but those have fallen out of favor, just a bit. Everyone wants flamefruit these days, but our orchards are mostly duskfruit. Not in high demand, but too valuable to replant. But over that way, we have a mine growing perfectly serviceable stones, perfect for beginning Farmguards. I'm glad they won't go to waste."

Theo tucked away those details for future consideration, as he still had no way to sense sublime materials himself. Duskfruit were one of the few sublime materials on Tatian that weren't as warm and friendly, so while they didn't fit into his immediate plans, they were worth keeping in mind. A supply of stone would also be essential for building a solid first tier, so those were encouraging facts.

Nothing at all about Archcrafter materials, however, and though not many noticed the absence, he could practically see the thought in the way Magnafor shifted his weight. The other human managed to hold back at first, while Nanjuma continued to show them around the enclosed village grounds. It seemed that they were the fourth group to arrive, with several more expected, but most of the others were currently in the city itself.

"Though you are free to explore the orchards," Nanjuma said, "we ask that you take few sublime materials. We will give you plenty of them in time, but there aren't enough for any to be wasted. Please take a Farmguard with you if you enter the mine, simply so you don't accidentally damage any of our stones. Nowhere is off limits except the upper offices of the main building... we keep the Archcrafter materials there, and you'll be winning those soon enough!"

Normally Theo would have been incredulous that the old man would reveal the location so naively, but he suspected that Nanjuma was more than he seemed. Behind his barrier wall, Nanjuma was likely a Ruler, and not a newly ascended one. If he began releasing his cantae, he could likely flatten all of them instantly. The fact that he'd been put in charge of the facility by Landguards meant that he couldn't be naive about other worlds, either.

"What about the big tree?" Magnafor asked. His tone was utterly casual, but there was something hard in his eyes. Nanjuma met it with a smile.

"Those are the Landguard private quarters and vaults, and they sealed it after them when they moved. For your own safety, please stay away from the barrier. There isn't anything dangerous within, but sublime materials that are too potent can be dangerous on their own. If you don't already know that, well, heh, we'll have classes for that soon enough."

"Right, got it." Magnafor turned away, still too casually. A few of the Fithans stared toward the tree as well, but Nanjuma's twinkling eyes observed them all carefully. Theo turned away as if more interested in the mine.

He had to admit that he understood their interest in the bound area. The Archcrafter materials offered as prizes were still valuable, but they were nothing compared to the third or fourth tier sublime materials that might be within the Landguard area. Of course, none of them had a way to take down the barrier and it would instantly alienate their hosts even if they managed it.

In an ideal world, that might make sense to do in time. Fully soulcraft a foundational tier with the freely given materials and become an Archcrafter, then steal the rest. Higher tier materials could be converted down, but one lesson Theo had learned previously was that this was ultimately inefficient. Even Stronghold materials forced down to the very first tier weren't quite as good as the right materials native to that tier. But taking everything found within would pave the way through later tiers in a way that was normally impossible.

The presence of someone else returning from Earth, and potentially thieves from other worlds, made him reconsider that plan. Others might be making the attempt and Nanjuma would be alert for the potential attempts. Getting out with the sublime materials wouldn't be easy.

"We won't begin classes until all the groups arrive, so you have some time to adjust to Myufuru." Nanjuma led them into an office, but only long enough to pull a set of sacks from a desk. He began tossing them to each student as he continued speaking. "You'll be given food, lodging, and sublime materials, but we want you to be comfortable here. Consider this stipend thanks for your work with us so far. Please, use it to enjoy the city!"

Theo caught the sack and nodded thankfully, resisting the urge to count his money, since that would be seen as contrary to the spirit of generosity. Many of the others immediately checked and compared, and though Nanjuma continued to smile cheerily, those eyes seemed to absorb it all... he definitely wasn't a man to cross.

With the money distributed, their orientation seemed to be over. Famaj led them to some of the empty rooms and invited each student to choose one that suited their fancy. Since they all seemed identical - bed, desk, cabinet - Theo picked one that was defended from exterior attacks but also had a nearby exit. He left his pack to claim ownership and headed out.

Now that he was finally free, it was time to take what he could from the city.