“Oi, lad.” A gruff voice called out from behind me. Turning around, I saw a dwarven man glaring in my direction. “If yer gonna jump, find somewhere else to do it. We don’t need ta be cleanin’ up no mess.”
“Huh?” I blinked in confusion, suddenly wondering if that was a thing people did. Sure, if they had an energy body, they’d be able to survive the impact, or mitigate it in some way. “No, nothing like that, I’m just enjoying the view. It’s my first time here.”
“That so, eh?” The dwarf scrutinized me for a moment. “Don’t typically get that kinda look up here. Normally just a couple floors down at the entrances. Anyhow, is fine ta look. If ye need anythin’ specific, we got a guide booth down near where ye came in.”
After saying that, the dwarf turned around, walking back into the weapons shop. Clearly, he had pushed past the crowd of people thinking that I was one of those adrenaline junkies. Glancing back over the ledge, I shook my head. I knew I’d be able to survive the jump, even if I didn’t cancel my momentum, but why would I want to do it? I’m not particularly someone that enjoys the feeling of his face slapping stone at terminal velocity.
Pushing off from the ledge, I made my way over towards one of the elevators. He had said that the entrances were a couple floors down, so I wanted to see what they had there. At the very least, the ‘guide booth’ would help me find the best sites and such in the city.
I navigated through the crowd of people walking along the catwalks, making my way towards a large tunnel that I saw carved out in the mountain wall. While there was not regular traffic coming and going from that tunnel, this particular floor seemed quite busy.
Positioned almost directly in front of the tunnel was a carved, stone platform upon which an inter-city teleport gate had been established. This served as the primary method of entering the city, and the center of the nearby traffic.
As I was not currently aiming to leave, I ignored the portal, my head swiveling to look for the guide booth that I had been told about. Not far away, I saw a large stall manned by a single dwarven woman. She looked like she was barely containing her boredom as she watched the crowds passing by.
Figuring that this was what I was looking for, I made my way over towards the booth, waving my hand. “Hello, there.” I smiled at the woman working the counter, who gave a glance down at me.
“Where are ye wanting ta go?” She asked with a long sigh, and I could tell that she was just looking forward to the end of her shift. This didn’t seem to be a very promising job, but she was putting up with it, even if barely.
Tapping my chin, I gave that some thought. Where did I want to go? I had promised Tsubaki that I would return to the Citadel and eat dinner together with everyone, so food was out of the question. “Where is the main shopping district?” I asked curiously, to which the woman blinked, seeming to not understand my words.
“Main shopping… kid, I get that yer new here, but ye’ve got ta have heard about us from yer folks, aye? This whole bloody place is a shopping district.” The dwarven woman said in an incredulous tone.
I could only widen my eyes at that, before changing my question. “What about for magical accessories? Do you know where I can get anything like that?”
“Aye…” She let out a long sigh. “Eleven floors down, that’s where ye’ll find the enchantment buildings.”
Offering her a nod of thanks, I quickly made my way to the nearest elevator. Each floor of the city seemed to be a hundred meters tall, so this was a descent of over a kilometer beneath the surface. Along the way, I noticed people of varying species walking the paths, including even some Dovah.
Once I got to my destination, I disembarked from the elevator and began to look around. As the guide had said, this was the ‘enchantment’ area. I could see buildings with images of scrolls, mystic eyes, rings, and staves all along the wall. It wasn’t long before my gaze was drawn towards one of the buildings in particular.
This building had the image of the eye with six lines protruding from it. Given what I knew… I wanted to check this building first. After all, I knew of a certain group that ‘advertised’ their location with the image of an eye like that.
As I entered the building, there was a soft chime of a bell. I only noticed this because the entire building itself seemed to be enchanted to block out the sounds of the city. A moment later, a pleasant-sounding voice called out to me. “Welcome to the Mystic’s Gaze! Is there anything I can help you find today?”
Looking towards the counter, I saw a kitsune woman with black hair smiling at me. I gave a small, unconscious nod as I confirmed that this was a business operated by the ninja clan. This woman’s level was quite high, clearly over a thousand in total, and she still had another helper concealed in her shadow.
I gave a small smile towards the woman. “I’m not sure. What exactly do you sell here? Sorry, I just got into town, so I’m trying to figure everything out.”
The woman didn’t seem to mind this, nodding her head. “We have a number of magical accessories for you to choose from.” She said as she walked out from behind the counter, making her way to guide me to a line of shelves. “On the one hand, we sell detection-type items to help you identify monsters using our extensive database. They can also help you spot monsters that are hiding using a variety of stealth tactics.”
“On the other, we also sell items with an obfuscation function to help you hide from monsters. Both are extremely useful in a pinch!” She nodded her head heavily, but seemed to catch something from my expression. “However, if you’re not interested in that… perhaps you’re more of a magically inclined individual?”
Leading me to another shelf, she showed me a different set of items, ranging from rings to earrings, and even glasses. “Although they are different models, these items all have the same general function. That is, they disassemble a magical formula that you are looking at, analyze its components, and display the spell effect for you in your vision. This is a must-have for anyone seeking to tackle a dungeon, or studying enchantments.”
I had to admit, I was actually impressed with these. Dana had created a similar software a long time ago to help her create fourth-tier spells, while this one seemed to work in reverse. “Are there any dungeons in this area?”
“Hmm…” The woman brought a hand up to cup her chin. “Not any unowned ones. The nearest dungeon’s only a couple dozen kilometers away from the city on the surface, but it’s been taken and converted into a crafting dungeon. Still, there are many that you could get to by going through the transport gates!”
I gave a small nod at that. With the gates in place, the entire world was connected in some way. While I wasn’t familiar with their schedules or exact range, I knew that it was rather easy to get from city to city. It felt similar to taking the public bus in my past life. “So, you specialize in vision-based items, then. Do you have any offensive products?”
The woman quickly shook her head. “Of course not, sir. We’re not licensed to sell weapons here. Even if you’re a god, we can’t make an exception.”
I glanced over in surprise at that. “You can tell that I’ve ascended?”
The woman covered her mouth as if she had made a mistake, though her surface thoughts said otherwise. Clearly, she was only interested in marketing another of their products. “My apologies, esteemed customer. In order to understand the needs of our clients, I wear one of our other accessories, which allows someone to perceive different types of energy. I was able to notice that your body is composed of divinity.”
“Ah…” I nodded my head, not wanting to press further. I could see that she was starting to get vaguely suspicious about my behavior due to my comment about offensive magic items. However, she had nothing tangible to act on. Letting out a small sigh, I looked at the items on the various shelves.
Focusing my gaze, I could use my power as a Keeper to bring up detailed information about an item’s abilities. As such, I knew that there was a hidden layer of enchantment on these accessories. This hidden layer could serve as a tracker, while the primary effect was to capture visual information and transmit it to another source. That primary effect was rather normal, as they needed to transmit information to and from the magical database. However, when coupled with the hidden power, it made each product capable of keeping tabs on their clients.
With a shake of my head, I smiled towards the kitsune woman. “I’m sorry for bothering you. It looks like you’re not selling anything I need. I’ll be sure to visit if that changes, though!” I said in my best attempt to sound like an energetic halfling, before turning and leaving.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the woman’s shadow shake just slightly. However, she brought a hand behind her back to stop it. Most likely, she didn’t want to risk sending her helper to try to investigate an unknown deity, given that I might have a domain capable of detecting them.
I let out a deep sigh when we finally arrived at the location Dana had scouted for us. We were all equipped with basic wooden weapons, or unarmed in the case of Tsubaki. Along the way, we had only the rare encounter with local monsters, just enough for each of us to get in an attack or two before they were gone.
“Can’t we get a higher difficulty level?” Lifre complained, huffing as she looked at her shield. As the self-proclaimed ‘tank’ of our party, she was feeling rather useless when we were faced with such weak monsters.
Dana, however, simply chuckled and shook her head. “This is still the starter zone, intended for people with levels in the double digits. Stronger monsters will be in an entirely different region, and we normally wouldn’t be able to get there before we unlock some mode of transportation. It’s just too slow to go there on foot.”
“Well, shall we get started here, then?” Tsubaki asked, her eyes scanning over the area. We had arrived at a small hill, but I couldn’t make out any readily available mining nodes. “It would appear as if we need to dig out the ore ourselves.”
“That’s right!” Dana nodded in agreement. “I’ll prioritize getting our first automated miner, but we’ll need the resources to make it. For now… Lifre, you’re the best we have for excavating. Make a tunnel about three meters wide… here.” She pointed at the base of the hill. “It needs to be sloped at about a twenty degree angle, and any stone you gather needs to be converted into evenly shaped bricks.”
Lifre blinked at that, surprised by the sudden request. “You want to use a mimic slime to dig a hole. I mean, you’re not wrong, but still.”
Dana grinned at that. “That’s right. And while you do that, the rest of us will be clearing out the area up here. We need a flat plot of land to make our first base, so that means that all these trees have to go. And since none of us are specialized as a druid…”
“Yup, I’m on digging duty!” Lifre nodded quickly, unwilling to trade roles once she found out what the rest of us would be doing. She dove at the spot that Dana had indicated, her body becoming a large blob on the ground. I could hear the shifting of dirt and rock as the blob began to sink through the surface.
Dana turned around, facing the numerous trees dotting the nearby area. “Let’s get started, then. We can use ki to cut them down, and then our nanites can process them into usable building materials.”
Seeing how excited Dana was to get started, I couldn’t help but let a small smile appear on my face. Clearly, she was in a good mood after our earlier talk in the real world.
