The sensation Rai felt when going through the portal was indescribable. He hadn’t felt the same thing that Aunt Elly described to him. For Rai, it was more like he was pulled through the air at extreme speeds, even though the act of teleportation was instant. It wasn’t a sensation he entirely disliked either.

What met him on the other side was a grand hall, lined with massive portals that led to the different regions. Leading out of the grand hall was a line of people mixed in age and race. Some were dressed like potential students, while others looked like adventurers or diplomats. There were a handful of smaller groups of people who seemed dressed for a different type of good time. He’d heard rumours of Aurum’s nightlife being some of the best one could find throughout Zenith.

One of the stark differences between Aurum and where he lived, near Acies, was that some people were openly using their Divine forms. Multiple people had angelic wings of different sizes, and some people had horns and furry skin. A tiny handful of women had differently coloured skin, ram-like horns, and long thin tails. Some people had completely different body structures, like some of the people who were almost completely incorporeal. It was more like they were a cohesive black mist, which was a very strange way of describing it, but Rai couldn't think of anything better. He couldn't fathom so many people having and using Divine forms when he hardly saw them in Acies.

Rai looked across at the other portals, seeing groups of people entering and leaving them all at the same time. He paid some silver to the portal toll officer and asked him about the layout of the capital region, since it was his first time here.

The toll officer was somewhat haughty in his explanation, but Rai got the gist of it. The portal hall was situated in the capital city, while Aurum had a number of different cities around the region. Funnily enough, there was no name for any of the cities, and they were distinguished based on where they were based. The capital city was in the centre of the region, so it was called the capital city. The Academy is in the capital city, so Rai didn’t have to go far. What surprised Rai was that there were vast fields in between each of the cities, and that each city had its own strengths compared to each other. His previous understanding was that Aurum was one big city, but that changed after talking to the toll officer. Rai wondered what else he thought he knew, but was in actuality was incorrect.

According to the toll officer, just outside the portal hall was the Guilds. People could go and take tests to see if they could successfully apply to the guild that they wanted to, as most of the guilds in Zenith had headquarters there. Beyond that, the Commerce clan hosted a slew of market roads, which made up the market district. Besides the market district, there was the residential district, as well as the red light district. Further up north in the city was Aether Academy, which was big enough to warrant its own separate district, and beside it was the democratic district where nobles involved in running the regions convened to discuss their business.

It was a lot of information for Rai to keep up with, but he now knew where he had to go. The place he would be staying the night was called ‘Devil’s Secret’ and could be found on the edge of the red light district. That’s where Ms. Talvier said she used to work. Fortunately for Rai, Ms. Talvier set him up with a place to sleep for the night.

Rai stood in the queue to leave the hall, noticing a number of people his age looking at him. Is there something on my face? Or in my hair? Why are they all looking at me... the attention was worrying at first, but as the queue moved forward and people continued to look in his direction, it became annoying. He elected to ignore the random attention.

Eventually, he passed through the queue, and went to take a look around the city before going to Devil’s Secret.

The first place he wanted to check was the market district. His aunt said there were merchants within who imported and sold magical tomes. Some could contain spell formulas or insights into understanding different magical concepts. He wanted to take a look for himself.

As he walked through the city, Rai noticed how clean it was. Compared to Acies, the capital city in Aurum was spotless. Though, the Commerce clan invested in golems that operated at night which went around and cleaned the city automatically. The idea of golem magic was extremely boring to Rai, it was one of the few areas in magical study that he grew so tired of that he begged his aunt to not teach him about.

A female voice came from Rai’s right. “A student? Well aren’t you in luck, come take a look at our academic books! We even have a handful of magical tomes in our collection if you’re interested!” He was in the market district. Rai looked at the woman, whose skin was scaly in some areas, that shimmered in the twin suns' light.

Voices from all around him sounded like they were trying to entice customers into looking at their wares. This particular area was full of people who looked his age, and were only what he could assume to be students or people who were going to take the exam on the following day. He knew there were other parts of the district that sold other types of goods and services, but this one was far more geared towards students.

Rai decided to take a look at the books the woman had on sale.

He sifted through them, looking for something that would be interesting. There were some books that had fancy looking engravings, and many of the books had the author’s name embedded into the front cover with what looked like gold inlays. However, as Rai flicked through the contents of most of the books, he found that most of the information in them was superficial, and lacking in any actual depth of understanding. As fancy as the books looked, he decided that there wasn’t anything worth buying there.

Rai continued walking slowly down the road, looking at all of the stalls he could find as he walked. There were many looks from the students around him, which he ignored. Though, one particular group of girls looked over at him then giggled amongst themselves, which he was slightly peeved at. Can they not focus on something else? This is getting tiring.

Eventually, he went through all of the merchant stalls without finding a single thing that enticed him. He sighed; Maybe I’ll find something in the Academy libr-

Heavy, phlegmy, coughs from behind him interrupted his thought process. He turned around to find a small homeless looking old man staring at him.

The man opened his mouth, revealing yellowed teeth that were chipped all over. “You. Look for books?”

Rai nodded.

“Good. Come.” The homeless looking man started walking further into the market district.

For some reason, Rai felt a strange desire to follow him. He felt like this was an opportunity. Well, the books he has can’t be any worse than the ones I’ve already seen, so it’s worth a try. Rai followed the man. Whenever he felt like he lost the old man, there would be heavy coughs that helped redirect him.

The roads they walked were winding and curvy, in a much more complex manner than Rai thought would be common in the market district. They became thinner than roads befitting a city like the capital. The buildings bent and twisted in ways that buildings don't quite tend to do, but Rai didn't pay much attention to that, since he was so focused on keeping up with the surprisingly nimble old man. He's so fast! He was tempted to use Stormflow to keep up, but by the moment he decided to do so, he'd arrived.

Rai found himself at a shoddily crafted stall, which looked like it would fall apart at a gust of wind.

“Look. See. Understand.” The old hobo sounded like Jin if Jin didn’t know how to make coherent sentences.

Rai looked at the books on the stall. The first thing he noticed was the different between these books and the books in the previous stalls. The ones here were smaller, simpler, and far less extravagant. He perused the titles, looking for something that could be useful to him.

While he couldn’t find anything particularly useful, there was something about a couple of the books he’d looked over. They seemed to be drawing him in, like he had to read them. They were relatively thin, as if there wasn’t much writing within them. He picked them up, reading the titles aloud, “Living, Breathing Mana and A Discussion on the Flow of Mana and its Place in Spell Formations.”

The old hobo nodded profusely; his chipped yellow teeth fully revealed in a grin that shouldn’t be possible for a human. “Yes. Good. Fitting. Take.”

Rai shook his head, “I have to pay you for these, I can’t just take them. That’s not fair to you.”

The old hobo popped a vein. The world around Rai began morphing as the hobo began seething, “Take! You will take! You will read... You will Transcend.”

Rai was back at the market district, with both books in hand. The old man was nowhere to be seen.

What the fuck.

Rai quickly put the books into his spatial storage, which formed a bright light for an instant that everyone around him only noticed after it was gone. He ran, following the path that the old man took him down. What just happened! He wanted answers.

After running for a while, all he found was the other market streets. There was no sign of the curving, winding roads. What on Zenith is happening. Rai was clearly confused; he couldn’t understand the interaction that just took place.

After about ten minutes of sitting at an outdoor restaurant without ordering any food, Rai decided it wouldn’t be worth his time trying to rack his brain over what just happened. He’d already spent most of his day scouring the market district for books, and it was nearing night time now. I should just get some sleep and get ready for the exam tomorrow.

Rai looked around for signs that would lead him to the red light district. Fortunately, the signs he found said that the red light district wasn’t too far from the market district.