His jaw dropped when he first saw the town. Cobblestone shops were scattered and many small vendors were set up in the streets. The town had a vague resemblance to medieval Europe but was somehow... magical. Poles topped with blue crystals lined the streets and emitted faint light. John was pretty sure they were a magic light source during the night. Passing villagers walked through the paved streets in clothing that might have been modern in the 1700s. Every now and then John would see sheathed swords, staffs stopped with orbs, and even people walking around in full suits of shimmering armor. It was like he was walking through some sort of fantasy world. In fact, he was!

John had to avoid bumping into passersby because, as explained by Tina, the cloaking would cancel if he made physical contact with anyone excluding herself who had to keep her hand on his arm to maintain the spell. As if his first look at Redhorne city hadn’t been mind boggling enough, John certainly found it jarring when a cat with 3 tails and solid purple eyes ran down the street. He just might be more of a dog person in this world he thought to himself when the offputting feline passed by.

Many villagers walking by seemed to avoid the group so it wasn’t hard for John to avoid touching them and canceling the spell. A few even went as far as to timidly bow in Arther’s direction before abruptly scattering. John noticed how Arther's almost perpetual smile was absent and was replaced by a solemn expression. The party's leader looked like a stern politician but he carried an almost unreadable sadness in his gaze.

Tina whispered “Our leader doesn’t like the treatment that comes he gets due to his family name. Those who recognize him, even in this meager city, treat him with almost reverence. It makes him feel ostracized from others, Tina thinks.”

John ignored that Tina seemed to refer to herself in the third person and wondered if it was a cultural thing for beast-girls to do.

“So are the Golden-Sword family some type of nobility here?” John asked.

Tina’s ears lowered a bit as she furrowed her brow “something like that... Tina thinks you must have gotten a pretty serious head injury in that fight, huh” she concluded.

As the party group turned around a corner, an enormous tower came into view. It was a circular building with four layers, each a different color. From the bottom was yellow, then red, black, and a miniscule sliver of a silver layer at the top.

Vanessa pointed up at the tower and raised her chin in pride as she said “I'm stationed at the upper end of the Red layer, almost at the Black layer. The higher you are up in the tower, the more authority and respect you have in academia.”

Joanna grumbled something about how she's been bragging about it for the past month since she got her promotion. Arther failed to hold in a laugh at the quip which prompted Vanessa to elbow him in the ribs.

“No need to resort to violence” Arther complained “and they were his words.”

“Hmph” Vanessa huffed.

A short time later, the party came to the outside of a large building and Tina dropped her Veil. The dimmed colors of the world became vibrant by comparison to John and he blinked his eyes trying to readjust. The place was two stories tall and the windows were blacked out. For some reason the street had very few passerbys and the sparse few who would cross it, all but ran to the building they stood in front of. John was about to ask about the curious behavior, but then his nose was affronted by a foul stench!

“Does it normally smell like a paper mill?” asked John.

Arther smiled mischievously “If Vincent doesn’t cause some kind of explosion every few days, his neighbors might start to think something happened to him. And what the hell is a paper mill? I swear, you say some strange things.”

John frowned. This doesn’t sound like a very reliable place to get a medical exam. Even if John knew his head was fine, and was just going with the flow, he didn’t want to leave here worse than he came in. Noticing his expression, Arther reassured him “don't worry, Vincent has the sharpest mind in the city. He's a genius... he just has a lot of mishaps. Rather, explosive mishaps” he winked.

John swallowed hard. Arther wasn’t very comforting.

“Well i'm not going in there” Joana said grimacing as if he looked to be recalling a memory best forgotten.

Joanna continued “I like Vince and all but Tina, Vanessa, and I will go to secure lodging in town. Arther, he’s your buddy. You go in there and get John a bill of health from Vincent. After, let’s all meet up at the local pub!”

The group separated and Arther deflated like he got stuck watching the class pet.

“Alright” he sighed “let's get this over with.”

Walking into the building, the both of them were accosted with the smell of mixed chemicals and unidentifiable fumes. The place was a mess. From wall to wall there were gadgets or books strewn about and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades.

John stepped over what appeared to be a small humanoid robot which had a seal portraying a Golden sword with white wings adorned by a halo placed on it’s chest.

“I know Vincent as he is occasionally contracted by my family to enhance the manors security with his machinations. He was always a genius and worked for them when he was only 15. As we were the same age we hit it off and I always jumped at the chance to challenge his defensive systems. It became a game for me to try and beat them, almost a fun way to train.” Arther sighed. “I can’t blame him for doing business with them as it pays well and he was young and poor”.

“It sounds like you have a... strained relationship with your family?” John said hesitantly.

“Hahah” he nervously laughed, “we definitely don’t agree on a lot of things but family is family I suppose. Anyways, Vincent should be somewhere around one of these piles tinkering with something.”

After shuffling through books, trash, and forgotten inventions hazardously laid about, the pair made their way to the center of the room where a man was tinkering with a sphere that appeared to be bejeweled? Though it looked strange, even stranger was the fact that when the man let go and turned to his shop’s intruders, the sphere stayed upright in the air without dropping.

“Suuure, a bejeweled ball that’s non-adherent to gravity in a mad scientist’s workshop filled with robots.” John remarked as his voice dripped with sarcasm. Accepting his circumstances was one thing, but to not be snarky about it was another much more challenging thing to do.

Vincent was dressed in a white lab coat. He had long messy brown hair and an uneven beard that looked like it had been partially singed off in places. He was lanky and stood several inches over John. The man, who looked to be in his late twenties, raised an eyebrows at John.

“Did you just call me mad? Why does everyone call me mad! And what is this... Bejewwweled” Vincent snorted and drew out the last word.

“Ummm, no I didn’t.” John lied, “and it's a thing from- umm. A place very far away”.

“Coming into MY workshop, insulting me, then speaking rubbish” Vincent muttered under his breath.

Breaking the tension, Arther spread out his arms in greeting and exclaimed “Vincent, it's been too long old friend.”

“No it hasn’t. We were close as teenagers but now all you ever do is come in here asking for favors” he retorted.

“Now, now. Just take a look at my friend here” he said, pushing John forward. “I think he took a hit to the head fighting a spirit beast in the outskirts of Aerlohrn dungeon.”

Vincent simply rolled his eyes. “Fine, this may be a good opportunity to test out my new gadget anyways.”

John asked, “You mean the kind of gadget that I hear tends to explode all the time?”

Vincent looked at Arther, who was clearly disparaging his name to strangers. He then turned to John and with a deadpan expression replied.

“Exactly the sort.”