“That’s Enudtstrif?”

“The one and only.”

“Oh.” I went quiet, staring from the top of the sand dune overlooking the city. “I just expected something…. Bigger?”

“Well, it’s just a minor city. What did you expect, a Dunehold or a Theronhold?”

“Well….” I let the words die out before I said them, realizing that if I mentioned my only experience with a city was Theronhold, I’d be giving myself away, holes appearing in my story that I had admittedly let them fill in themselves. “When you said you had a commission here waiting, I expected perhaps a bigger city.”

“Hmm. Well, we aren’t exactly a high-ranking adventurer party.” Veronika shook her head. “A commission waiting for us just means that someone we worked with in the past suggested us to a new client.”

“You guys get recommended?” I looked at the team leader with a smirk. I’d only been with them for the better part of a day, but I’d found them good company. Reliable, maybe not, but they were an interesting batch and better conversation than my now ex-master.

Wonder what he is up to now.

Probably being elusive and or drinking copious amounts at some small town’s tavern.

“Yes, we get recommended.” Veronika smacked the back of my head, reminding me uncomfortably of my mother. “You’d be surprised at how often low-ranking adventurer parties are relied on out here in the outer rim of the central desert.”

“Why, though?” I questioned as we slowly began to pick our way down from the dune overlooking the small city.

“Why what?” Veronika asked, grooves forming on her forehead as she questioned me.

“I mean, why are adventurer parties especially needed in the outer rim?”

“Oh. That’s simple enough.” Veronika shrugged. “Closer to Dunehold, you’ll find prominent parties, they take care of all the major stuff, and that reputation of those parties there attracts more adventurer parties looking to make a name for themselves. It leaves a party drain in the outer rim of this region. Monsters and magical beasts still go about their business, though, so without any major parties to deal with the problems at their roots, we are left to deal with the fallout, such as escorting people through areas where monsters have overpopulated or the like.”

“Oh.” I scratched at my neck, feeling where the sun had burnt me. “I didn’t think there was that much detail and things to consider for-” I waved in their general direction, my implication obvious.

“It’s not all storybooks. Even with parties like us who only take part in minor commissions, much less full-on quests, we still must consider things like the politics of individual villages and areas and trade routes.”

“Right.” I nodded before looking at Tez and Zet. “Either of you follow all that.”

“We just tend to listen to what we’re told to do.” The twins spoke in synch with one another, which only twins could have pulled off so seamlessly.

I nodded once more, the twins confirming my thoughts on the matter as Dayvin merely rolled his eyes.

“Regardless-” Dayvin coughed into his fist, drawing our attention. “What Veronika said is true. If you want to be an adventurer, I’d suggest you’d take what she says seriously.”

“Oh yeah, about that.” I snapped my fingers, remembering something I had been thinking about. “You said there is a commission waiting for you here. Does that mean that there would be an adventurers guild here?”

“A small branch, but yes.” Dayvin nodded.

“So then I can officially become one here, right?”

“Not quite.” Veronika interjected. “Only main branches will test you. You can get the essential resources at minor branches, but you’ll have to trek to Dunehold if you want to officially start as an adventurer.”

“Oh.” I looked down at my feet, trying to hide the disappointment on my face.

“But-” Veronika waved in front of me. “I think we can help out a bit.”

“Oh?” I repeated, curious rather than downtrodden.

“Well, how about an offer. Come along with us on this commission, and we can list you as a temporary novice. You still won’t be a ‘true’ adventurer, but it will give you a sort of intermediate license. Take that back with you to any of the main branches, and they can fast track your elevation to a recognized adventurer.”

“Why go that far for someone you just met?” I looked between Veronika and the city which we had all but reached.

“Truth be told, normally, I wouldn’t go through that much effort. After that encounter with the desert crawlers, I got a look at something interesting, though. I could be starting the first Ornnax adventurer in the last ten years on their journey.”

“Hey, what about us?” The twins looked at their god-aunt with hurt on their faces, but she merely shrugged.

“He’s a good five years younger than you two, and I bet he could probably beat you two by himself. Be satisfied that you two are at least on track to make it to bronze at a young age.”

Accompanied by the sounds of the grumbling twins, we finally shuffled our way towards the small city. It was surrounded by a ‘wall,’ but to call it a wall after seeing the wall surrounding Theronhold felt like an insult. It was only around three-quarters as tall as myself, piled up slabs of rough strewn laid one atop another, more so to prevent the low swept sands of the desert from washing excessively through the city than any actual protection.

“How many people live here?” I leaned in towards Dayvin, curious about the full scope of the city.

“Last I heard, it was around seven thousand, give or take.”

Seven thousand. Meaning it was only a fraction of Theronhold, yet still many times larger than Junaper.

Just how quickly Junaper went from being my whole world to less than a dot on a map.

The five of us walked through a split in the wall surrounding the city, a roughly laid path blending into an equally rough road.

“So, where to first, the branch here?”

“Relax.” Veronika shook her head. “We’ve been traveling for nearly a week now, even before meeting you. We could take some time to relax and eat at least before we’re looking to head straight on out again.”

So they set out not long after I left Theronhold.

How would they react had they known that in the span of only a few days, the same amount of time it had taken them to travel between nearby cities, I had come all the way from Theronhold to here?

Of course, I did have the help of a transcended magical beast and some dead Sages.

“If you want, you can join us, but we will probably be a bit. In the meantime, I’d suggest perhaps taking a stroll through the threads store.”

“Why?” I looked down at my clothes. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

“You look… out of place.” Veronika said with a shrug.

“What?” I arched my eyebrows.

“She means you look like you just came from tromping through a forest, not a desert. The fact that you passed out from sunstroke is because of what you’re wearing.” Dayvin answered me with a grunt.

“Passed out from- oh yeah, yeah, I did.” I had nearly forgotten my cover story for why they had found me the way they had, only recovering at the last moment. “I guess you have a point.”

Nothing else to say, the Red Foxes and myself parted ways after a brief explanation of where I could find them in two hours after I’d done a bit of sightseeing and clothing shopping for myself.

“Sinbad’s… Sinbad’s…. Where is it?” I had been cluelessly walking around for fifteen minutes now based on the slow movement of the sun through the sky.

Fifteen minutes, and I still hadn’t been able to find the damned threads shop.

“They said there is a well-known one around here…. So where is it?”

Part of me was beginning to suspect that perhaps the Red Foxes had pulled a fast one on me in an effort to get rid of me. I rounded a corner and finally came face to face with the shop in question that I had been looking for.

“Oh.”

I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, but it had been something grander than… well, whatever I was looking at. It was a simple one-story building constructed of the familiar rough sandstone that made up most of the buildings around the city. A simple sign hung outside the entrance, ‘Sinbad’s’ plainly written upon it.

“Guess this is it.”

I approached the entrance; an open door fashioned of tightly woven reeds was open, ‘welcoming’ all in, even if the exterior was anything but welcoming.

“Hello?” I called out as I stepped through the threshold, peering around. At the very least, the interior was largely what was to be expected from a clothes store, mannequins, and shelves with clothes or woven up bundles of thread.

“Oh. What do we have here?”

I spun around, surprised as a man stood with his arms crossed over his chest, casually leaning against the wall to my back.

“Uh, hi. I’m here for some new clothes.”

“I’d hope so, given you’re in a clothing and thread store.”

“I’ll just, be, uh-” I pointed off to the side, intending to escape the conversation and browse, but the man shook his head, stepping in the way of where I intended to escape.

“You’re dressed like a northerner.”

“I, uh…. Long story.” I finally surrendered with a sigh.

“Hmmm.” The man stepped closer to me, slowly pacing around me as he eyed me up. “Yes, yes, I can see.”

“You can?”

“Yes. Interesting.”

“What’s interesting?”

The man suddenly clapped, startling me as I jumped back.

“The fact that it’s obvious you haven’t been traveling the deserts and dunes for very long. Now, anyone’s question is how you managed to get here like this.”

“I, uh, I rode a horse.” I nodded as if trying to convince myself.

“Very likely story.” The man snorted. “Maybe it might work on most, but I can read the lies in your clothes.”

“In my… in my clothes?”

“I work with threads and clothes all day, every day. Your clothes don’t show the usual wear of the sun you would get from making the usual journey, even on horseback. Interesting.”

The man clapped once more, startling me far less this time.

“For the interesting customer, I will prepare an interesting set of clothes.”

“What?”

Before I could protest or question it any further, the man grabbed me by the shoulders, steering me toward the exit, shooing me out.

“You come back tomorrow, and I’ll have you what you need. Until then, begone with you.”

And just like that, I was kicked out, the door slammed shut behind me, and the shopkeeper even managed to set out a ‘closed’ sign on the door as he did.

Alright. So… Now what?

I’d had a single objective, and now that it had failed, or succeeded, or whatever that was, I was out of ideas.

I guess I’ll go find something else to do.

I set out in a random direction, shielding my eyes as the sun began to rise directly overhead.

What to do….

The last time I’d been sent out to my own devices within a city, I’d accidentally bumped into the daughter of a prominent family and been taken for a tour of the city as short as it had been.

I could have searched for something to eat, but not long from now, I’d be meeting back up with the Red Foxes for dinner, where we would discuss our plans going forward.

I thought briefly of Scyla, but as…. Interesting as our brief interactions had been, they had been just that, brief. Regardless of the impact that she might have had on me in that time, my mind turned from her to the subject of something else, something that had come up towards the end of our interactions and had been a running theme since the Sage Hunter had first appeared.

Magic.

Mystical abilities powered by the magical energies all around us, mana.

I could feel and touch, even lightly manipulate mana after my time spent with my master and the things I had learned from his aggressive flying tome, but the usage of external magic was still beyond me.

Which reminds me.

I looked around, and seeing no one was watching, I parked myself in an alley overcast by shadows. Hidden, or at least relatively hidden, from view, I closed my eyes, inhaling a slow, deliberate breath.

Sense it for what it is.

While I hadn’t gotten far into the flying tome before I’d been forcibly separated from the wealth of knowledge within, what I had taken away had reshaped my understanding of the world around me. Mana was everywhere, within everything. The shimmering of the air caused by the heat of the desert was more than just an optical shimmer; there was latent mana seeped within it, a concentration of thermal energy. The rushing water of a river was infused with dynamic and fluid power. Everything, everything was marked by some form or variety of mana. It was just a matter of being able to spot the mana for what it was.

Which was precisely what I was doing. I felt the heat rebuffing my skin, but rather than let my sense of it end there, I pushed it further, my sense of the warmth becoming greater, more accurate as if it had taken on a physical image in my mind.

Mana.

I opened my eyes, and the world had changed ever so slightly, a sort of perception of depth within the very air that stood out to me. The first time I’d tried spotting the mana for what it was, rather than what it appeared, I felt a sense of nauseous roll over me as if my vision had flipped on me.

I could still feel it to some degree, but it was light enough after days of practice at it that I could ignore it.

Thermal, obviously…. A hint of fluid mana, which makes sense. Not a whole lot of water out here…. And that’s interesting. It’s earthen mana, but it’s broken down, like a mix of earthen and kinetic.

I opened my eyes, content. One of the early lessons I had learned from reading the Living Tome was that it was essential to take stock of the mana around you, and this had been my first good chance to do so. With the mana of my surroundings taken stock of, I reached out both metaphorically and physically.

Draw the mana into you.

When I had first attempted drawing mana into myself, I had done it all through my lungs, but I had come to learn that it was part of the reason for the severity of the backlash I’d suffered the first time I’d attempted my ruptured body. Each portion of the body was better equipped for handling different forms of mana than others. If I didn’t want to repeat that sort of backlash, it was necessary to channel the mana through the parts of the body better suited for it.

When thought of in standard magical terms, Earthen mana was the catalyst behind the wild magic Rentar, the arms and legs best suited for acting as its conduit.

I smiled briefly as I recalled what felt like ages ago, staring at the diagram of the body labeled with the different forms of wild magic. It had been an abstract for understanding the various elements of mana and where they corresponded within the human body.

Pushing the memory of the confusion next to my tree stump within the forest away, I instead focused once more on my task at hand.

Rentar. I whispered within my mind. As I wasn’t actually casting magic, I didn’t need to verbally command it, the word instead acting as a conduit. I drew forth the earthen mana from the air around me, not into my lungs but through my outstretched arm.

Still feels strange.

I could feel as my arm began to feel not heavy exactly, but more solid, physical like soft mud hardening under the harsh sun.

Now for the tricky part.

Without a functional mana core, I had no place to draw the mana for storing and purifying, purified mana being the core component towards advancing one’s mana core.

Pun intended, by the way.

Instead, I imagined the mana coalescing into what I imagined as the barebones framework of a band around my right arm.

The first stage of achieving the first ring of a Sage was through the crystallization of the basic elements of wild magic.

Eyes tightly shut, I painstakingly drew as much of the mana as I could together, forming imperceptibly tiny beads of mana, from which I then began to pull together into even larger beads.

One by one, I formed bead upon bead, imagining them in equal distance rows alongside each other.

Eventually, though, as it did every other time I had tried, I lost concentration, the effort required growing with each bead of crystalized earthen mana. Unable to hold it together, the mana rushed out from me as I let out a pained exhale, my eyes opening.

“Damnit.”

Another day, another failure. Unable to store mana within a core, I was forced into an all-or-nothing situation. I would have to complete an entire stage of creating my first band simultaneously, with no room for partial progress. Otherwise, the gathered mana would be rejected from my body, and the greater the quantity of crystalized mana that escaped, the more it hurt on the way out.

Which is to say, my head hurt like I’d been smacked over the top of my head with a brick.

Ow.

“So much for that idea.”

I’d been hoping that surrounded with as much earthen mana as I was, I could readily pull in the mana required to build the preliminary structure of my first ring, but even with a desert’s worth of mana, it hadn’t helped with the raw mental capacity it took to bind the mana in place, like trying to rub your stomach, pat your head, and tap dance all at the same time.

Defeated, I looked up towards the sky, feeling a wave of surprise pass through me as I did.

It had felt like I’d only been at it for several minutes, but the movement of the sun said otherwise.

Whoops.

I was late or going to be at this rate to meet with the Red Foxes.

My ticket to becoming a proper adventurer.

Without thinking about it, I took off, dashing down the road.

At the very least, I mentally grumbled as a kid stared at me from out a window of a nearby building. The sun isn’t so oppressive now.

“Weren’t you supposed to be getting some new clothes?”

“I was until the shopkeeper randomly kicked me out and told me to come back tomorrow.” I grunted as I took my seat at the table. “He was a bit of a strange one, to say the least.”

“That’s Sinbad for you.” Veronika nodded as she cast a dirty look at the two twins currently bickering over something.

“You know him?”

“Know him? Hell, I’m partially responsible for him making it here. Years ago, it was one of Dayvin’s and I’s first commissions we undertook. A wandering thread master was looking for a place to set up shop. The thing about Sinbad is he can be particular for who he makes one-of-a-kind clothes. If he kicked you out to prepare some, you must have somehow caught his interest.”

Yeah, because my clothes hadn’t been cooked enough by the sun.

I kept the thought squarely within my own mind. There was no need to make the Red Foxes any more curious than they already were. As much as they seemed like a good batch of people, I had already made the mistake of letting slip too much information when I was caught off guard by the larger-than-life Scyla. I wasn’t planning to let unnecessary information slip out so easily again.

“Anyways-” I began to change to the subject, hoping I wasn’t making it too obvious. “What’s the deal with this place?”

“Oh, this here?” Veronika’s eyes twinkled as she looked about. “It’s primarily meant for traveling adventurers to stop in and rest. Cheap lodging and food.”

I looked about the inn. It was a strange amalgamation of differing businesses. On the one hand, I could see influences, or at least an attempt at copying the look of higher-end establishments, exotic and fancy decorations dotting the place, or at least it would have seemed fancy had I not been inside the Rentus Aulus, the restaurant meant for the upper echelon of Theronhold. Instead, it looked more like a cheap imitation, the gold leaf obviously fake, weathered maps that may or may not have been authentic sat in frames, and even signatures of what I assumed were famous past adventurers and their parties. Past the attempt at looking grander than it was, I could see the immutable qualities of a bog-standard pub. The keg of ale sat behind a bar, coincidently obscured by a draping cloth. Or the fact that there was clearly an ‘out-of-order’ sign hanging by the bathroom. Finally, the stairs that led upstairs to the bunking area for those with valid adventuring licenses to make use of at a low cost.

“If it’s cheap for adventurers, how do they stay in business?” I looked about, the room largely empty. “Not exactly like business is booming, is it?”

“Remember what I said about there being more to adventurers than the storybook stuff? Well, adventurer rests such as this are subsidized.”

“Sub-sid-ized?”

“It’s when a business or field is propped up and paid for by the overarching central government.”

“I don’t think I understand a single thing you just said.” I shook my head as the twins gave me a look of ‘you-have-my-sympathy.’

“In short, with the large population of cities and small villages that are sat outside the immediate reach of well-populated roads, it pays to have funded rest places for adventurers who are often the ones who will take care of problems for smaller cities. By having an overarching system of these rest sites throughout Haerasong, they enable a-”

“Stop torturing the kid.” Dayvin cut in, to my relief. “Look, you can see how glazed over his eyes are.”

Veronika made a hmph sound, crossing her arms as she did. “I just think it’s important for young would-be adventurers to understand that the world is more than just chasing down commissions or going on quests to slay some mighty dragon. There is a reality to every number, a compounding effect that can’t be ignored-”

“Ignore her.” Dayvin rolled his eyes as he looked at me, Veronika still going on, apparently unaware she was speaking to thin air. “She used to be a teacher of statesmanship in Songhold.”

“Really?” I had to force myself to not look over at the woman lest I make it appear I wanted to hear more. “She lived in Songhold?”

“Quite a few years ago when she was still barely in her twenties. She wasn’t a ‘true’ teacher, in the sense that she was only apprenticing at the time, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was, at least to people like us, a genius of her field.”

“So what happened?”

“Nothing happened.” Veronika had finally decided to stop with her ongoing lecture, sighing as she rested her chin on the one hand. “I just realized it wasn’t meant for me. I was teaching a bunch of noble brats the importance of interacting with other nobles or foreign dignitaries, of trade, and many other things that personally I find very interesting, but they never cared. Eventually, I left.”

“Then what?” I questioned.

“I enlisted as a soldier.”

“That’s right, you mentioned you and Dayvin used to be soldiers.” I snapped my fingers together in recollection. “But why be a solider?”

“Benefits. I had a mountain of debt crushing me, so I enlisted. In Varana, they celebrate higher education, but here in Haerasong, there is a reason it’s often left only to the nobles or those with patrons for their talents. I cleared my debt after spending some time enlisted, and while enlisted, I met Dayvin.”

“So what, you two just decide to go and become adventurers?”

The two of them shared a look before shrugging in unison. “Basically.”

“Right.” I turned to look at the twins. “What about you two? Did you two always want to be adventurers?”

“Tez did. I wanted to follow after our parents.” Zet poked a finger into the table. “Except, they never told us where exactly they went after they up and left us behind. So, when one thing led to another, we both ended up under Veronika’s care…. Yeah.”

I nodded once more, or at least until Tez pointed a fork at me.

“What about you? You haven’t exactly talked much about yourself.”

“I….” I let the word float for a bit as I desperately tried to scrape together a story that would make sense. “I’m from a village towards the northeast. I spent my entire life there. One day a wandering adventurer moved there, and he ended up taking me on as an apprentice after I chased off a robber.”

Obviously, a lie, but the details were close enough to the reality that I didn’t feel guilty over it.

“And this master-?” Zet prodded me on.

“I’m not sure what happened to him.” I answered with a shrug.

That much was true, at least.

“He taught me what I know. I don’t even know where he learned it.”

Also true.

“Well, that explains the way you used your sword. I’ve heard northern style focuses on being fast, and if you’re from the northeast, it’s not exactly surprising to see some of that bleed into the central portion of the continent.”

“Yeah.” I answered.

Technically it still wasn’t a lie. My First style was inspired by classical northern style, and the flash and slash I had shown off had been a move I had practiced since a young age. The motion of unsheathing a blade combined with a forward slash, an all-in-one move meant to end a fight before it had even really started. It just happened to look far more impressive when my ruptured body was added to the mix.

The thought of my ruptured body caused a slight stirring of discomfort; I was still dealing with the lasting ache from using it yesterday, after all.

“So you decided to run off from home to finally become an adventurer on his behalf.” Veronika added after a moment.

“Something like that.” I nodded.

“Well, it’s an interesting story, if not the most far-fetched I’ve heard, at least.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh, and finished just in time.” Veronika pointed towards a platter of food being brought towards us, a delicious scent of roasted meat spiced with exotic garnishes. “Food time. We can save the chatter for after we are done.”

For once, there were no words of argument from within the group as we all waited with anticipation, until at last the platter of food they had ordered before I’d arrived was sat down in front of us.

“Dig in.” The waitress looked at us, a half-smile on her face as she noticed the excitement on our faces.

Oh, and let me just say, dig in, we did.

When a person approached us, I was leaning back in my chair, feeling content and sluggish, and instantly I felt the mood change, Veronika sitting up straight as the man approached.

“Yes?” She asked, tilting her head slightly towards him.

“Are you the Red Foxes?”

Veronika looked between us before looking back at the man.

“Who exactly is asking.”

The man dropped a small sack of coins onto the table, several gily spilling from it without another word.

“Please. I’m begging you.” He stared at us after letting the coins roll around for several seconds.

“Save my daughter.”