Rowan left Mount Fahren behind him, flying straight toward the city of Equinox. He would have gone sightseeing for spectacles, like the tournament being held in that arena he saw earlier to determine who was worthy enough to face Magmoor, but he was far more eager to learn the Fundamentals. Surprisingly, there weren't many other lifeforms in the sky despite the clear presence of numerous natural born fliers. Perhaps there were rules and restrictions to flying in this world, or some sort of proper etiquette he had yet to become acquainted with.

As if on cue, the weather and atmosphere changed as he made it out of the volcano's peak. Dark-red, smog covered skies became replaced with clear blue ones in an instant. Then, as he flew into the outskirts of the city, it became partly cloudy.

"This world has such strange phenomena," he could not help thinking.

Spreading out his divine sense, he quickly located his usual eccentric guide. Descending to the ground, Rowan noticed there was what appeared to be a small festival taking place at the moment.

Striped tents dotted an open field of slightly dew covered grass, with colorful triangular flags strewn about. Families and lovers were perusing the various points of interest available such as trained animal shows, games, and concession stands. Rowan felt a rustic town vibe from this place, but what set it apart from the earlier desert town was a semblance of deliberate organization; trees and houses were neatly aligned in rows, while those that weren't were assembled in a manner such that they would add to the scenery. As he walked past a couple of bewildered children who saw him drop down out of nowhere, the scent of various foods began enticing him.

He held off on the temptation and approached Jin standing beneath the roof of a tent, at which point the sage turned around to face him. His 'masked' mouth was stuffed with a pink, wool-like substance, evidently bitten off from the great mass of fluff sitting on top of the extremely skinny paper cone he was holding.

"Hm? Wanfum bubby (Want some buddy)?" said Jin, grabbing another one of the foreign food items off the counter and handing it to him.

Once again, he found it rather difficult to continue disliking the sage due to acknowledging that his whimsical behavior is kept in check by acts of kindness every now and then. "I appreciate your courtesy, Jin."

"...wait, do I know you?" And with that, his view of Jin crossed back into the negative.

"How did you forg-"

"Don't mind Jin, he's just messing with you." A feminine voice spoke from behind the sage. Rowan was having difficulty locating the owner of the voice; she sounded close, but he even tried glancing over Jin's shoulder and found only an old amphibian churning out more of the fluff.

Then he looked down.

"Do I know you?" Jin echoed toward his companion. The fuzzy yellow palm-sized spider responded by clicking her mandibles in wry discontent.

Rowan watched on as the two friends began mock quarreling with one another, sampling his newly acquired snack in the meanwhile. He bit into the stringy pink material and ripped a chunk of it off. Surprisingly, instead of having to chew it like actual cloth, it rapidly condensed in his mouth! The crystalline form it assumed when it came in contact with his tongue was, quite simply, sweet. There were deserts back in his realm served in high class restaurants meant for Exarchs and above that had profound tastes, bewildering the tongue and boggling the mind at how luxurious they were. However, such a straightforward treat like this... admittedly had a charm of its own.

Before he knew it, Rowan had finished with the confection, coinciding with his two acquaintances reaching the end of their "argument".

"Now, never forget the name of Lord Magistrate Voltaire of the Sir Kingdom!"

"Of course, King Queen of the Aces!"

"Ufu... uhihihi!" The little yellow spider finally let loose the laughter she was holding back at this last exchange of nonsensical titles. "Oh! Sorry for making you wait, Rowie!" 'Rowie' winced inwardly at this nickname.

"It is fine, no need to worry."

"Yeah, you must be starving!" said Jin as he teleported a myriad number of snacks into his free arm.

"Er..."

"Jin, you're a bad influence," teased the spider.

"Fine, fine. Here! Take these two." Jin shoved a striped box filled to the brim with small white delicacies and a grooved bread stick onto Rowan, who accepted them not-so-reluctantly. On the one hand, he did feel the urge to sample more of the local cuisine, but on the other, he was ready to begin learning the next Fundamental.

"I do not wish to be so rude, but-"

"You wanna head over to the city, right? Just eat on the way."

"Leaving already, Jin? I thought you really wanted to have fun at the carnival!" said the spider.

"Eh, comes twice a year. Hey let's take the train!" Once again, Rowan was transported by Jin to a different location, this time just a couple tens of kilometers away.

"Rude! Can't a lady 'port around by herself?"

"My apologies, mistress pineapple." Rowan followed the two into the collection of rounded metal containers he assumed was the 'train' as they started up their antics once more. He was greeted by the 'wind door' and cool interior that seemed to be characteristic of the city, as well as a corridor of seats and scattered numbers of passengers adorning both sides. After taking his place next to the two, he heard a disembodied voice overhead announce "Next stop - Solar District", with the same message scrolling across from above, before he suddenly lurched over to his right! He quickly pinpointed the origin of this to the movement of the train. It reminded him of his slight regarding the first time he tried getting on a moving road. No one else had these issues, causing him to wonder if such mishaps would be covered by the Fundamental of Science.

He was enjoying the view of the land moving past outside the abundant glass windows as well as munching on the addictive salty white snacks when the spider spoke to him. "Rowie, hey! So, how do you like Regis so far?"

"Hm? Well..." As he had learned from Ming, Regis was the name of the organization of powerful individuals like Jin and Magmoor who have the power to traverse realms, as well as the name of this particular realm they use as a 'hub world'. Rowan worried about getting them mixed up in the future, but Ming had written off his concerns, telling him that cases of confusion would be few and far between. He still worried, but then again, he could see how clarity could easily be maintained except for when one sought to deliberately accomplish otherwise for laughs. Which reminded him of a certain individual who would definitely do such a thing.

"Fine, except for Jin," said Rowan with an accusatory stare.

"Uhihihi! I almost feel bad that Jin was the first person you got to meet."

"Yeah, that Jin guy is a real piece of work!" the man in question replied, completely unfazed. Rowan was almost disappointed at this reaction, but he supposed it would not do to get all worked up.

"Well hey, tell me all about it!" the spider asked eagerly. For the next few minutes, Rowan recapped his experiences in Regis, from when he first encountered Jin, to his battle with Magmoor. He had a moment of embarrassment when he got up to leave after the train came to a halt and opened its doors for occupants to exit. How was he to know that there were multiple areas in the city to be dropped off in? To avoid confusion again, he was told that the next stop, 'Primary District', was their intended destination. In the meanwhile, he decided to have some of his questions answered, starting with the one most prevalent during his time spent here.

"Could either of you enlighten me on Regis' weather patterns?"

"Oh, sure thing! You know, I've gotten so used to it by now that..." The spider rambled on for a bit before getting to the point. "Well, for starters, only the middle parts of Regis have dynamic weather. The rest are static."

"Static?"

"Y'know that little shock you get when you-" started Jin.

"No, no, don't listen to him. Static weather means it doesn't change. Then again, even the areas that do get different weather aren't anything wild, we made sure of it. It's always light rain or snow or something like that."

"Ah, I see," said Rowan. It would make sense that the trial areas maintained harsh conditions all year round, as they were meant for training Advanced Mortals. Civilians would only receive mild weather and nothing particularly drastic. "Then... what of your world's resources? Where do they come from?" Everything felt so convenient and tailored to give anyone brought up in Regis a good life, free from disaster. Yet, while enchantments to create favorable environments were not unheard of back in Rowan's realm, resources like food and material were always finite. Here, the world was so small that there should not have been enough to build sprawling cities. With his divine sense, he also found only a combined area of approximately one square kilometer dedicated to farming, and from the looks of it, it produced only as much as a regular farm would.

"Virtua!" the spider replied.

"Virtue, wha?"

"Exactly! Basically, it's a pocket dimension, but pocket sounds pretty weird to call something that's bigger than the dimension it's attached to, right? Not only that, but it's not even a dimension at all! It's just a big program with something like, a googol layers of code, a bunch of networking gateways and... I just, how does that make any sense?! But hey, they call it cyberspace, so why not! Though, we like to call it cyber reality, not to be confused with virtual reality. Furthermore, the materialization nodes are-"

"What she means to say is," Jin cut off the spider's half-explanation, half-rant mid-sentence with an upraised arm. Rowan was thankful for that, because he had no idea what she was talking about. "...Science." Apparently, Jin was not planning on helping him understand any better either, if the hand signals he was making were any indication.

Though, it did fortunately result in the spider realizing Rowan's difficulty in interpreting her spiel. "Oh! Uh, heh, sorry about that! Well, to put it in your terms, I would describe it as a separate world directly linked to this one, albeit far larger in size. We import a whole lot of goods out from there, and even support our diverse population by housing most of them inside of it! However, most of our energy comes from stars."

"Is that so?" Many in Rowan's realm have theorized that divine energy and mana must have originated from the stars. As the stars resided high in the heavens, it was in this manner that the people of Gaea coined the term divine energy for the mystical energy which granted them enormous physical strength. It was unclear where mana had earned its name from, however.

"You don't believe me? You sounded pretty skeptical there."

"I have yet to see any st-... Never mind. I shall take your word for it." While it was true that Rowan had not seen any sign of them, he was certain that he would be proven wrong some way or another about the lack of stars in the sky.

"...Alrighty then!"

Soon after, the voice from overhead announced "Arrived at - Primary District". He got up to leave when Jin decided to bolt out of the open doors ahead of him alongside the spider, much to the other departing passengers' distress. Rowan himself filed out in an orderly fashion, listening to the hustle and bustle of the city, including the two eccentrics' debate over who managed to leave the train first. There were notably more civilians boarding the train headed in the other direction, presumably for the festival they were in earlier. He was glad he did not have to deal with that, seeing the huge swathes of individuals attempting to move inside.

Compared to the 'Lunar District', which he assumed was the name for the area of Equinox he had been in before, the Primary District was absolutely bursting with colorful architecture.

Oranges, yellows, greens, blues...

Blocks, banners, baubles, benches...

Whether he looked up or down, left or right, there was something to please the eyes. Unlike the pervasive blue lighting of the Lunar District, and the harsh sunlight of the Solar District, there was a soft, warm glow from both celestial bodies illuminating the Primary District aside from the buildings themselves. The wide-open streets were much more crowded compared to the Lunar District. Not to the point where there was no elbow room, but enough that giant lifeforms would have to tread carefully. Shops offering a wide assortment of goods were still a common sight here, as were the moving roads, though this time, there was only one speed option for the larger population.

Rowan reached inside his striped box for another of the delightfully light snacks, but found it empty aside from the bread stick. He tossed the carton onto the sidewalk, and immediately, one of the levitating steel creatures hovering in the air swooped down and carried it off to parts unknown. They reminded him of Sen, except... mindless, in a way. From what he could observe, these particular creatures existed only to serve the populace, maintain city infrastructure, etc. That would explain how the streets remained so immaculate, free of wear and tear despite enduring the passage of thousands of passersby every day.

Some of the nearby civilians gave him dirty looks or slightly surprised reactions. None of them spoke out, but Rowan could tell that it likely had to do with the way he disposed of his trash.

"Hey Rowie, next time you want to throw away something, just hold it up towards one of those Helpers," said the spider while tilting her head at one of the steel creatures. Somewhere along the way, she had ended up on top of Jin's head, giving him what looked like a tuft of yellow hair from far away.

Another incident of improper etiquette committed out of ignorance. In Rowan's realm, there were those who had an extremely low tolerance for any sort of impudence, and if they were warriors or magi of a higher level? Well, the offenders would only have their poor luck to blame for anything that happened afterwards. If there was one thing he had to appreciate in the realm of Regis, it was their patience and restraint dealing with others; when he had acted out in such an audacious manner in the Fish Market, he had expected his life to end right then and there, or be committed to a fate worse than death. Certainly, a punishment of that magnitude was not to be unexpected from even the more virtuous figures in Rowan's realm. And yet, the members of Regis took him under their wing, and even offered to teach him their ways! If they had not earned his undying respect and gratitude after such a display of benevolence and mercy, he would be unsure what to think of himself.

This interaction just now led him to reaffirm his need to show his appreciation for what the members of Regis have provided to him. "Of course. My sincerest apologies."

In response, the spider merely cocked her head to one side. "Why so humble? You didn't know about that until now. Don't worry about it, just finish up your churro before we reach the Citadel!"

"Or before we get to Dining Square. I could hook you up with some more good eats then."

"Jin!"

Which was when he remembered why he was able to act in such a callous manner this whole time without realizing it. These two members of Regis behaved with such freedom and lenience that he was swept up into a similar attitude without realizing it; despite his reverence for these beings, he found himself dropping all pretense of mannerisms befitting that of a junior in front of his seniors, and behaving more akin to trusted companions. Such a realization came as a shock to him, but since they seemed to prefer a more relaxed demeanor from him, he decided restricting himself to disciplined behavior would only achieve the opposite outcome of what he wanted, and kept that in mind in case he met anyone else similar to these two.

Rounding a couple more bends brought him to Dining Square, where an especially wide plaza containing casually placed tables and chairs had more of the steel creatures delivering meals ordered by city-folk by way of Pad, so it would seem. As much as the smells and sights were attracting him, he felt them to be overshadowed by what lay beyond the Square.

Two layers of plateaus stood in a comparatively desolate location off in the distance; desolate was just about all that could be described about the featureless steel floor that made up the entirety of the ground level of this place. The lower plateau contained a number of buildings and strange constructs, many of which were being tested on open areas within the ground level. The upper plateau on the other hand, held a gigantic walled fortress that Rowan could only assume was the aforementioned Citadel. Oddly enough, it was not barred from the general populace. Throngs of individuals traveled from the 1 km long upper plateau, 10 km lower plateau, and 100 km ground level to the city and back.

And by traveling, he meant teleporting; the vast roads stretching from the city to the Citadel all appeared to be a mere formality, Rowan noticed as he went with his companions to be transported from one strangely marked platform to another located closer to the Citadel. There were floating contraptions meant for carrying civilians quickly across the 200 meters of space between the walls and the entrance. Instead of using those however, Rowan and Jin flew inside on their own as he finished eating the 'churro'; there was nothing to sightsee out here to warrant taking the slower option. In fact, it was almost disturbing to Rowan how this place was even more featureless than the buildings in the Lunar District.

Inside the cylindrical building, it was not much better. Harsh whites dominated the walls and ceiling, while the floor was tiled grey. One enormous tube of glass surrounded a marking on the ground 400 m in diameter.

Before he could see more, he was teleported to another area within the Citadel. Rowan was now standing on one end of a room that housed a multitude of contraptions that gleamed with either visions of various locations within Equinox or arrangements of letters, numbers, and symbols. Sen was actually present here as well, busily interacting with a number of these contraptions. In the middle of the 50 m tall room itself was another thick glass cylinder of equal height housing something quite peculiar. It gave him the impression that it was a massive caricature of an eyeball, replete with 'veins' that suspended it in midair.

The spider finally hopped off of Jin's head to greet the imposing figure and skitter her way over to Sen. "Hey Mekky, long time no see!"

"VOLTAIRE. ELAPSED TIME SINCE LAST PHYSICAL INTERACTION: THREE-HUNDRED FOURTEEN HOURS. CLAIM JUSTIFIED." At this point, Rowan could assume that this was another founder of Regis, and a brother of Magmoor's. Apparently, the spider's name was Voltaire, as well. This 10 m tall spherical golem was made of non-reflective black metal with a crystalline eye that mostly shone with yellow light; he was certain that it flickered reddish hues around the edges. It spoke with a naturally loud voice as well, but this one's was a bit grating compared to Magmoor's.

"Hey, how 'bout me? Haven't seen each other in ages!"

"JIN. ELAPSED TIME SINCE LAST PHYSICAL INTERACTION: TWENTY-EIGHT HOURS. CLAIM UNFOUNDED."

"Yeah, he missed me," Jin whispered loudly to Rowan.

"CLAIM UNFOUNDED. ROWAN," the golem suddenly called out his name without skipping a beat, catching Rowan off-guard. "WELCOME TO REGIS. YOU MAY CALL ME MEKKOR." At least there was a noticeable shift in the way 'Mekkor' structured his sentences to something Rowan was more comfortable dealing with.

"I thank you for having me."

"LET US BEGIN IMMEDIATELY. I WILL FIRST ASSESS YOUR MENTAL FACULTIES TO DETERMINE HOW CAPABLE YOU ARE." A panel of light appeared in front of Rowan, filled with words. In the next instant, it vanished. "REPEAT TO ME THE CONTENTS OF THE PAGE."

It was all rather sudden, but as an Arbiter, an instant was long enough for him to perceive and examine changes in his environment. "'Study for Volatility of Martial Energy, by...'" However, it would seem that he had run into the issue of attempting to speak words from a foreign dialect.

"PRONUNCIATION DOES NOT MATTER."

"'By... fell-aip Santos?'"

"Psst, it's Felipe Santos," corrected Jin.

"'Felipe Santos... Equinox University. 312 R.E. Abstract. The potential for the integration of martial energy into more scientific endeavors is one that has undergone significant testing for centuries. While its volatility has been one of the most thoroughly examined for the sake of establishing proper safety procedures during experimentation, I believe that one can never be too certain...'" Rowan took several minutes reciting to Mekkor the entirety of the information that had flashed before his eyes, while Jin made his way over to Sen and Voltaire to mingle. When he finished, the golem gave him his impression.

"FROM LESS THAN A CENTISECOND OF EXPOSURE, AND WITHOUT PRIOR WARNING, YOU WERE ABLE TO COMMIT TO MEMORY THE DETAILS OF A TYPICAL SCIENTIFIC STUDY PAPER. IMPRESSIVE EIDETIC MEMORY, AS EXPECTED OF AN ASCENDANT MARTIAL ARTIST. NOW WE MAY BEGIN EXPANDING YOUR VOCABULARY." Another panel appeared, except this one's contents were rapidly scrolling upwards! The rate at which they moved was such that one would only have a centisecond to read a new word that appeared before it left the panel's boundaries. Fortunately for Rowan, he was at a level where he would easily be able to do just that, and with relative ease. However, Mekkor was not yet satisfied.

"YOU HAVE NOW OBTAINED OUR COMPLETE DICTIONARY. RELAY TO ME THE MEANING OF THIS PASSAGE."

Rowan admitted he was eager to learn the Fundamental of Science as soon as possible, but he was beginning to feel that this was a bit much. He felt almost as if he were being taught quickly in order to be sent away in record time; there were no mannerisms like having a seat or a drink offered to him. It was the little things that really made one seem more cordial, after all.

Regardless, he continued. After taking a couple of minutes to ponder over yet another panel providing information to him, he finally determined that the meaning was related to something called the 'internet' and its effect on the advancement of civilization.

"YOUR APTITUDE FOR PARSING INFORMATION IS LACKING, AS EXPECTED. FULLY INCORPORATE THIS KNOWLEDGE INTO YOUR VERNACULAR BEFORE RETURNING."

Upon hearing this, Rowan could not help but feel insulted. "If you would pardon my insolence, I must say that your methods of transmitting information are inferior compared to my world's." For a moment then, he felt a pang of regret. This was clearly not someone as laid-back as Jin, after all.

"ENLIGHTEN ME." However, it would seem as if Mekkor was unfazed.

"Ah, well. In my realm, we would enchant scrolls to contain vast amounts of information that may be transferred directly into one's mind. Of course, one would require a level of power proportional to the complexity and amount of information being given in order to avoid being overwhelmed."

"I ASSUME ONE WOULD REQUIRE ACCESS TO DIVINE ENERGY OR MANA AS WELL."

"That is true." Regretfully, there did not appear to be similar mediums here. If there were, Rowan estimated he would be able to be finished with the Fundamental of Science in a few weeks at best; from what he had seen so far, he guessed that this Fundamental dealt mostly with memorizing information and knowledge.

"ARE THEY MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE?"

"...What?"

"IF ONE ENCHANTED A SCROLL WITH MANA, WOULD A WARRIOR BE ABLE TO UTILIZE IT?"

"Ah! Yes, of course." Immediately afterwards, a blocky contraption appeared before Rowan. Unlike the others he had seen before, this one clearly emanated the familiar feeling of magic.

"THIS RUNIC SERIES INFO KIOSK HAS NOT BEEN SCREENED FOR REDUNDANCY. TREAT IT AS IF IT WERE ONE OF YOUR SCROLLS."

Following Mekkor's instructions, Rowan reached out towards the kiosk with his divine energy. It lit up in response to his actions, and began displaying glyphs and sigils all over itself. After they finished aligning themselves, a torrent of information poured into his mind!

The entirety of the Regis dictionary was being forcibly comprehended by Rowan! For instance, while he had the definition of 'abuzz' memorized, that was only the mental image; he had yet to read it over, ponder, and integrate it into his vocabulary. With this method, it would all be done for him, saving an incredible length of time! However...

"Nghkkkk!" Rowan slumped to the ground, fainted from the strain exerted on his mind. The info kiosk, with its connection abruptly severed, halted the transfer and disappeared.

"Whoah! No mercy, mister baller?" said Jin in a half-surprised tone.

Sen decided to respond to his sarcastic remark. "The estimated projections for syncope were indeed in range of the upper ninetieth percentile. My hypothesis, and indeed it has been confirmed by him, that Mekkor intends to strengthen Rowan's insular cortex by subjecting him to tribulations of inferiority. Such an outcome was, therefore, not exceeding the bounds of what would have been safe to assume was a logical conclusion to this ordeal."

"So you wanna make him more humble by making him pass out a lot. Sounds great! By the way, what word did he make it to?"

"ACCLIMATE. 99% REMAIN. ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME, 127 DAYS."

"Poor guy, he has to deal with that for so long?" Voltaire offered her condolences.

"Ahahahaha! I'll bring him some cake or something when he finishes!" Jin offered his food.

"Allow us to vacate him from the premises." With that, the four of them vanished, leaving only the spherical metal golem, alone with his humming machinery, behind.