The party of five appeared before the large gates into the quite large town. Shae was kind of wowed by the actual size of the place. The town had to be at least 10 km across. For a medieval setting that seemed very large to her. It was no wonder each town had at least 6 villages that radiated around it. A town this size would require at least that much grain and vegetables. Not to mention at least one source of fruit. The fields were magically rejuvenated twice a year to keep the ground in peak fertility. Since this world did not have snow or freezing temperatures except at the tops of mountains, the growing season was year-round. Even desert areas were able to grow a few hardy grains due to magic influence.

The lack of snow was a big surprise to Shae. She did not believe a world could exist without temperature changes. There were fluctuations due to weather patterns, like when it rained. It was no wonder it had been warm since she got here with little variation in temperature. She was warned about planning her trips well though, as there could be severe weather in parts of the continent. Tornados and highly electric thunderstorms were more common here. Magic wards were used around civilized areas to weaken such weather patterns to a more moderate type of weather. She couldn’t imagine the scope of such undertakings. She did know one thing, Magic rocked!

There was even a dedicated arm of the mage guild that dealt with research into weather magic. She was surprised to learn they couldn’t make it rain yet. Best they could do was use a large-scale water type spell to simulate rain in a fifty-foot area. Which was pretty useless for farming needs. Still, they were working on it, and hoped one day to be able to tame the weather large scale. She was told by Nick it would possibly lead to a weaponization of weather. Which may be why it was impossible. It seemed the Gods did step in now and again to curb such abilities. Which Shae was glad to hear, man should not be playing God. It never ended well.

Mel was currently explaining to the guards the circumstances that had led to her brother and the twins losing their guild badges. Shae didn’t understand what the issue was. All four were know to the guards as adventurers. She was told it was a political thing. There was to be no favoritism. Unless of course you were government. Shae would still be required to pay the entry tax of 15 marks.

Marks were the currency on this continent. While the three governments at least agreed upon that, prices did vary slightly. Marks were recorded on your work Badges. Which were commonly referred to as markers. Each person that had a trade received a personalized badge or marker that was imprinted with you career and your current wealth. How many marks you had. Basically, it was like a visa card to Shae. You loaded it with your earnings and tapped it to spend. If it was ever lost you had to inform the magistrate, who would then charge you a fee to materialize your lost badge. The only good thing about the system was theft was nigh impossible as the badge was coded to your personal aura signature. Like fingerprints no two were the same. It would take a specialist mage to replicate an aura signature, which would be easy to trace, as there were very few who would be able to pull it off, and mages of that power base couldn’t be bothered with peanuts. It was only ever used to freeze a person’s assets.

Mel tapped her badge on a simple flat grey plate mounted onto a wooden stand for Shae’s entry fee.

First thing the group would do would be to acquire their rooms at their inn. Then in the morning they would take Shae to the magistrate’s offices to register for citizenship. Where she would receive her own badge. Then they would visit the college to enroll her in classes. Nick was sure her enrolment would be covered by the college itself. In fact, he bet that she would receive a sponsorship from the academy of mages once she was assessed. Potential like hers was highly sought after by the various sections of the mage’s guild. Then she would live and study at the college until she was a capable mage. At such time she would be transferred to the academy. Or she could look for employment outside of the academy.

Mel was hoping Shae would consider joining their little troupe. They could use another big hitter, so they could take on better paying jobs, which also came with more danger. Each adventuring group was rated based on ability. The rating system was based of metals. Tin being the lowest, mage-steel being the highest. Their group was currently copper, or third tier.

The tiers listed were as follows: 1 st tin, 2 nd Iron, 3 rd copper, 4 th steel, 5 th silver, 6 th gold, 7 th platinum, 8 th mithril, 9 th adamant, 10 th mage-steel. Then there was the vaunted Dragon class. Which meant you or your group were the equal of a real-world dragon. There had only ever been one such group. Which was retired now and missing two members.

With the addition of Shae, they could be bumped as high as steel or even silver to start.

Of course, no one was expecting her to join them. It was after all her life path she was choosing. They had made the offer and hoped she would continue to journey with them. At least Mel was looking forward to her company.

Even if Shae decided to take a job with the academy, Mel hoped she would stay in touch. She had grown to enjoy Shae’s company over the last few days. There was even a kinship between their outdoor skills, as Shae could track as well as Mel could, “or maybe even better”, Mel had praised.

Now that they were inside the walls of the town Shae was bestowed the first sight of well-built and orderly laid out two story inns, stores, and warehouses. The most common goods would be stored in these warehouses until the goods owners would come and claim them. The inns were obvious since it was close to the gates, like motels would dot the exterior of cities back home. The stores hoped to gain the business of people staying at the inns.

There were inns and stores further inside the town of course, even a few choice places inside the upper-class area. There were also a few food stalls set up and Shae noticed her first eatery or restaurant. She couldn’t wait to sample the locale foods.

The inn she would be staying at with Mel and her group had its own food to offer with a common room very much the same setup as the village she had come from. In fact, most inns tried to compete with the food places to. Most just took advantage of not needing to leave the inn if they didn’t have to. Shae couldn’t understand that. How wouldn’t want to wander around as see the sights and sample new things. She was very much looking forward to the tea and sweet shop tomorrow.

Mel had even offered to show her around to some of the more unique locations. Shae had told Mel she had an interest in seeing locale culture, and any parks or touristy areas.

As this was more of a frontier town, there very only a few. Still Shae had almost begged to be shown about. Mel had just laughed at her enthusiasm and agreed. Even promising to eventually take her to the larger cities where Shae would have a lot more to experience. Which Shae had almost bounced up and down at that promise.

One thing that struck her as a bit odd was how easy it was to gain entry into the town. Mel just laughed. It was all about money. If you caused problems the town would just receive more compensation due to fines or worse. It took special skills or connections to get away with ill intentions. Who came to a frontier town to become a crime lord? There just wasn’t enough money changing hands.

If she had tried to enter a larger city then without citizenship, she would have needed a sponsor, or a writ of passage to gain entry. Writs were almost exclusive to merchants that bought and sold goods between the three main powers on the continent. The north was a whole other issue, but Shae would know more about that than Mel, Mel had said.

Shae was just happy she wasn’t asked much about her “home” in the north. There wasn’t much she could tell them. Or even anything. Making up lies would just lead to bigger problems down the road. Apparently, the northerner’s penchant for keeping to themselves kept the group from inquiring. In fact, Mel had stated near the start of their travels together that they did not expect Shae to reveal anything that was considered taboo, which was appreciated very much by Shae.

They were not able to get Shae her own room at the inn, so they had an extra bed placed in Mel’s room. Which Mel seemed happy to accommodate. It seemed Mel was lonelier than Shae had first assumed. Shae was happy to continue building a friendship with Mel as well, so it was mutually agreeable.

Tomorrow would be a busy day.