Reappearing outside of the dungeon near the entrance, the somewhat better lighting conditions of the foggy forest covered in twilight greeted them.
While Sarah wanted to continue working on her new skill to get it to a point where she could teach it to her sister, she had to do something else before that. Not paying more attention to the path than necessary after recreating her water repellent spell, the mage started to examine her newest possession.
[Staff of Water
Quality: good
Effects: Allows temporary storage of up to three water affinity spells. Reduces mana required to cast spells slightly.
Description:
A simple and common weapon for mages, attuned to the water affinity. It is a decent item gained through a dungeon delve and, while by far not the best item one could create for its purpose, most water mages below level 50 wouldn’t mind using this staff.
]
That would explain how mages fought. Preparing complexer spells during combat was possible, but they were also easily interruptible. The enemies could destroy the ground they were scratching it into or change the location of the fight, if the mage had neither the mental capacity nor helpful souls at hand to handle the spell on their own. And in case the mage was powerful enough, interrupting the concentration or disrupting the spell circle with any mana empowered attack were alternative options.
Higher mental attributes could counter that, but an equivalent physical fighter would then also have higher defenses. In conclusion similar to how swords empower sword fighters by translating their strength into more damage, the staffs of mages seem to cover their weakness of needing time to prepare larger spells.
Further examinations of the item were then however interrupted by their guide. Sarah started to question whether Nia was just here to bother her, but unfortunately the disturbances were more or less justified until now.
“With us now going to the town sooner than expected you probably should try to speak as little as possible. Most people probably won’t notice your different language, but those who do will cause problems in one way or another…”
Sarah could understand the warning, though she herself probably wouldn’t have spoken, even if it wouldn’t have caused problems. Unfortunately it was a different question whether her sister would still remember the warning or care for it later… The mage could only hope for the best. In the worst case, they could still talk themselves out by pretending to be a descendant from a reincarnator, however they would start leaving an even more obvious trail than their looks. Not to mention that some of the more influential guilds were probably able to figure out their lie. At least according to what Nia told them.
The guide had probably similar thoughts as she continued to talk with Sera about the subject, though Sarah zoomed out and concentrated more on her new skill.
Passing through the winding path between islands the group soon reached the stairs leading up to the non foggy part of the forest. Before the scientist could delay their journey further due to her low stamina, her sister again decided to carry her. As they had taken a different path, the stairs the three had reached now were much better preserved. Some earth mage probably had done some maintenance on them. In addition the waterfalls were redirected to solve the flooding issue, making their ascent much easier and less risky than the path they took on their way down.
Back in the fogless part of the forest and with Sarah walking on her own again, they continued the journey. Contrary to most parts of the forest, a path was clearly visible. The amount of people challenging the dungeon were apparently enough to leave a lasting mark on the environment. Even as they were returning to civilization they met other parties twice, though aside from the groups carefully passing by each other nothing transpired. Maybe “hunting accidents” happened more often than the twins were initially expecting.
As Sarah was thinking about it, that assumption wasn’t necessarily wrong. Sera had killed a group of people who didn’t mind exploiting others and probably were ready to kill others if it didn’t have negative consequences, while Nia hunted the same group. Three of three parties so far wouldn’t mind killing others. If their guide hadn’t told the twins, that people also were against murder in this world, Sarah could have easily thought something different.
Soon they reached another clearing, this time it was however much larger than the one they had their initial fight in. Someone could have constructed one or two mansions in the area without problem, if there wasn’t a giant crack in the fabric of space.
Without minding the phenomenon which would have violated a bunch of principles of their old world Nia walked into it. The twins followed, but, even though the girl had told them about the bridges between realms, it was hard to suppress their curiosity. Somewhere in the back of Sarah’s mind was also a bit of fear. She knew just how wrong the crack was, but as this and different ones in other realms had existed for many thousand years, so it was most likely stable.
Entering the tear, blackness surrounded them again, similar to the last room of the dungeon yet different, as mana was missing.
It felt suffocating.
Only about a day in their old world had passed since they had entered the Realms, but it seemed like they had already adapted to a point where they would notice the absence of mana without thinking much.
Walking a few more steps in the darkness a window appeared in front of the twins.
[Your party leader has selected the First Meadow (Lv 0 – 110, town realm). Enter?]
With Nia having already chosen their destination, Sarah quickly confirmed the selection and the darkness in front of them crumbled.
As they passed through the portal and back into the mana-filled world another message appeared, though it was just a confirmation of where they were now.
[You have entered the First Meadow.]
Finally out of the forest with it’s eternal orange, large, slightly hilly fields waited for them. It was bright as if it was the middle of the day, yet no sun could be seen in the blue sky, decorated with a few small clouds.
In the not so far distance they could also spot a town, built on one of the hills. As a stonewall surrounded the settlement she couldn’t make out much of what happened behind it. The natural fields of grass and flowers were however replaced by farmland closer to the walls.
Meeting a few more groups of people and passing by some individuals working on fields, all now much less on guard than in the forest before, they reached the walls. Contrary to her expectation there were no guards and no toll. One could just enter and exit the town at will.
While the wall around the settlement gave it a medieval feeling, now inside it was anything but that. No wooden or framework houses as most were made out of stone. Whether they were created through manual labor, magic or the system was hard to tell, though the latter two were the most likely. Spacious streets divided the also rather large homes with terraces and gardens. Though looking closer, they weren’t true homes. Most buildings had signs hanging or standing outside advertising their services, be it potions, armor, weapons, food or hunting.
Color-wise were a natural shade of rocky gray or brown predominant and the same was true for the stones paving the road. Though some houses were also more colorful, maybe a way to flaunt one’s wealth.
Furthermore none of the buildings were taller than ten meters or three floors. Probably while magic enabled taller buildings technically, attacks could also easily cause more destruction to structures reaching far into the sky.
Walking further through the streets of the town, Sarah had to notice the rather young population. Most were around twenty to thirty years old, if the mage had to judge. Obviously some were younger and some were older, but she could neither spot children nor elderly. Thinking about the level limitations in this realm, it was easy to conclude that older people were over level 100 and young children wouldn’t be running around without supervision, so both were absent from the First Meadow. A lot of people were also in armor and armed, though by far not all. More colorful casual clothes were also present.
Passing by a glowing crystal pillar in the central plaza of the nameless town, apparently one would simply use the realm name to refer to towns, the three reached the inn. Sarah had some interest in examining the pillar, the core of the realm and anchor for the local quests, those not given by the system or directly by other individuals, but unfortunately time wasn’t on her side.
Entering the building, they were greeted by a maid waiting at the reception. While the outside looked and had a size very similar to the other houses of the settlement, the lobby was rather small. Aside from the reception there was just a table with a few seats, probably meant for groups waiting for someone.
“Welcome to the inn of the First Meadow, how may i help you?”
After exchanging a few words with the maid and paying for her stay, Sarah was pointed to a corridor besides her desk and she walked into it. Thanks to the kind sacrifice of her summoners she had more than enough money, even after sharing it with her sister. Weirdly enough talking with the clerk wasn’t as bad as she first expected. Not that the mage did say much aside from “i would like to rent a room”. Also the more she thought about the person taking care of the inn, the less she remembered. Not that she forgot anything, which wasn’t possible in the first place, but that there simply wasn’t anything to remember. Hair color? Look? There was nothing there. Was it even a maid?
Sarah had been informed about the faceless, which often took care of system managed structures, but, while most people could simply accept the pieces they didn’t remember, for the scientist the non-existing information was unnerving.
Thinking about the weirdness, the mage vanished into the depths of the inn.
