A map of the world opened in Mira’s mind and she teleported to the location Jade had marked on the map. She appeared on the streets of a large city with many high rises and floating structures. She looked at her map and noticed that she was a few kilometers of the mark for some reason. There were various people walking or flying throughout the city.

There were also many stalls that sold food, weapons, clothing and a vast variety of merchandise. Mira looked closely and noticed that there was some sort of golden coin used as currency in the city. The coin had the picture of a dragon carved on one face and the amount that it represented carved on the other face.

There were other coin denominations with a phoenix, a turtle, the face of a man and a girl carved on each them with different amounts carved on the other faces. The street lights and light from various buildings lit up the evening.

A Chinese woman approached Mira from the other side of the street and said “Are you new?” with a psychic message. The woman wore black tee-shirt on top of a pair of blue jeans and she wore dark shades even though the streets were dark. Her pointy ears and delicate face verified what Mira’s IP identified her as; a [Rank 14 Elf].

Mira said “Yes, I’m here for the competition”. The woman said “As expected, many people who are new, come for the competition. Mythical or Celestial?” Mira said “Mythical”. The woman said “Not bad” But Mira could sense her disappointment.

The woman said “I’m Bo Jun, you?” Mira said “Mira”. Bo Jun said “I can show you a way of bypassing the competition and just getting the prizes”. Mira faced her palm toward Bo Jun and said “I don’t want that”. Bo Jun said “It’s not a scam, I swear”.

Mira could sense that she had no ill intent but she said “I want to fight in the competition. It’s part of the reasons why I came. Not just to get the prizes”. Bo Jun said “In that case, good luck” and walked away.

Mira was about to float away when the distance before Mira split and moved to the side, allowing a woman walk through. She was 10 feet tall with pitch black hair and shiny golden eyes with vertical pupils. She had three white horns that curved back arranged in a line starting from the center of her forehead to the back of her head. She had long fangs for canines like a vampire and moderately long black nails.

She wore full body armor made of some black material that released some sort of smoky black aura perpetually. On her waist was a sheathed long sword and Mira could only see the golden handle. Her helmet was under her armpit on the side that didn’t have her sword.

What broke the dark and gloomy aura the woman exuded was the cute and young Asian face she had that made her look very adorable. On closer inspection, the woman was just a giant girl. Mira’s IP identified her as a [Rank 25 Odiuminovium (Rift Demon)]. Mira said “Hello there little girl, are you looking for your mommy?”

The girl said in a high pitched and frilly voice, “I’m 17 years old FYI” Mira smiled and nodded as she said “Yes you are! Who’s a big girl? You are!” The Chinese girl squeezed her cute face in displeasure and said “I am bigger than you!”

Mira pointed to her breasts and said “No you’re not”. The girl looked at the flat board that was her chest and her anger intensified, making her pout. She said “Height, I meant height. I’m still growing those!” Mira used Morphing to increase back to her full height of 15 feet. She smiled and said “Yes! And one day you will get to be big like me, in more things than just height”.

The girl looked up at Mira, seeing that she couldn’t win the argument she harrumphed and said “That’s not even what I wanted to talk about. You just appeared in Wangin without going through the entrance even though I made contingencies against such. How did you do it?”

Mira said “What’s your name?” The girl answered “Meixiu”. Mira said “Meixiu, I’m Mira. I used a device called a space ring to get here” and pointed at the blue ring on her finger that had also increased in size with her.

Mira continued “You seem to be somewhat in charge since everyone that is passing is stealing a glance at you and since your face is on a coin. I’m looking for a man, or whatever race he is now, called Daisuke”.

Meixiu said “I can help with that but there’s a lot of processes you skipped by just teleporting to the middle of the city. Follow me” and began to fly toward a certain direction. Mira said “Yes cutie” and flew along. Meixiu angrily replied “DON’T CALL ME CUTE!”

The duo reached the entrance of the city and Meixiu asked her IP for Mira’s race grade. Her IP told her it was a Mythical grade. At the entrance of the city there was a large open gate even though there were no walls to the side of the gate. And why would there be, most people wouldn’t consider walls an obstruction at this point.

They landed and Meixiu escorted Mira to the back of the line that had mostly high humans and a few Ancient grades lined up. There was the occasional Mythical grade on the line.

Meixiu said “There is also a competition for those that are not Mythical or Celestial. The Mythical and Celestial grades are competing together though I hope you don’t mind. You are here for the competition right?”

Mira said “I am. What processes am I going through?” Meixiu said “The usual, you get registered and after the registration you get the option to spar with Shan or to just go in. If you just go in you get coins based on your race grade, the higher the grade the more the coins. If you spar with Shan you get an additional amount of coins that depends on how well you do against Shan. But even if you just get wiped out in a single move of Shan’s you get an additional amount of coins that is equal to the amount you get for your race grade. In total you get double.

You can trade by batter in the city but it will be hard to find a city member that will trade by batter. Most of such trades are handled by the city’s official financial department. So for the most part your trades will be in coins, that’s why they are so important even though they are just pieces of metal”

Mira asked “I don’t know this Shan but can I spar with you?” Meixiu looked at Mira for a second before saying “No wonder, you have killed a Celestial grade before”. Mira nodded.

Meixiu said “You won’t spar with Shan, since you have such special technology we plan on buying it. And you can’t spar with me… you’ll die”. Mira looked down at Meixiu as she sensed the profoundness in her words. The girl didn’t have any doubt that she would kill Mira even after she knew that she had killed a Celestial grade.

Mira knew Meixiu was also a Celestial grade when she asked her IP. Meixiu said “My fighting style doesn’t suit spars, you will spar with Feng, the leader. Those who are coming for the competition get to spar with him once to get advice from him. This is supposed to be the opening event of the competition but you get early access because… you’re quite special, you’ll pick his interest. You’re not the only one who has gotten this so don’t get conceited”