Chapter 6: Chapter 6: No Beef

Chapter 6: No Beef

 

After Chelsea chose a litany of casual and formal clothing for Nara, they additionally picked up various supplies such as potions, salves, cookware, ritual magic tools, and adventuring tools. Nara suspected that these supplies where in preparation for the time she was to leave the crafting complex. The group had created the crafting compound far away to get away from traditional responsibilities of their rank, mostly political. If they had wanted to be involved with the education of strangers, they would’ve worked with the institutions available in the city. Nara felt she wasn’t close to overstaying her welcome yet, but she knew they didn’t want her to rely on whatever power they had, as they avoided discussing the specifics of their abilities, connections, or rank with her. Nara knew enough not to ask. However, they were generous in all their support: financial, informational, and emotional.

At each location, they chatted with the artisans and proprietors of the establishments.

“We want you to have an idea of what you can do with essences, other than adventuring. When you pick your essences, you can make an informed decision.” Amara said as they made their way out of the city towards an estate.

“I don’t even know that much about adventuring.”

“We’re taking you to a friend who does.”

The three traveled on a magic propelled vehicle that Chelsea manifested. It had an open-air metal chassis and propulsion rings on the underside. The vehicle was more akin to a flying boat than it was a hovering car. The ride was completely smooth, and magic kept the wind at bay.

Gradually, the heart of the city melted away into mansions and complexes. Some were sprawled across the cliffs of the stone mountains, others hugging the rivers and mountain bases. Well paved roads led from one residence to another and off into the distance, presumably to neighboring cities, towns, and villages.

“In the forests beyond monsters are common. The local adventuring families are bastions against monster tides for the cities.” Amara said as she gestured to the residences outside of the city.

Adventuring families created array-protected compounds for their relatives. They needed space for residences, training grounds, crafting areas, recreation, magical defenses, and material storage, not unlike the crafting compound Nara temporarily resided in. They varied in size from properties for single-member adventuring families, to large, multigenerational, adventuring lineages. Naturally, such compounds required space that was unavailable within the city, although families able to construct compounds could afford a separate property within the city limits. These compounds also served as emergency evacuation locations, should the families feel compelled (or be compelled) to offer their compounds. With magical teleportation and transportation available such as summonable mounts and familiars, their relative distance to the city was less of a concern to those living within.

Chelsea handed Nara the maps she and Amara had purchased for her. Guide’s messages appeared one after another as she inspected each article.

[Map: Erras World Map added to the Archive]

[Map: SanShi Metropolitan Area added to the Archive]

[Map: Shian Union added to the Archive]

[Map: Arlang State added to the Archive]

[Map: Nishei State added to the Archive]

[Map: Fenhu State added to the Archive]

What Nara quickly gleaned from my acquisition of the maps was that the world she was currently in was called Erras, although she hadn’t heard anyone refer to it as such. The Shian Union was the name of the supranational political and economic union that the three states formed. The city of Sanshi was built at the intersection of the three states and was considered neutral ground for the three states.

Nara additionally received a few other materials.

[Almanac: Erras added to the archives]

[Almanac: Shian Union added to the archives]

[Encyclopedia: Magic Society Essence and Prohibited List added to the Archives]

[Handbook: Magic Society Monster Guide added to the Archives]

[Encyclopedia: Magic Society Ability List added to the Archives]

[Archive will update applicable articles when within the same dimension they were acquired in. Archive will replicate the function of magical articles.]

Aileen had explained earlier that the magical maps benefited from their connection to the Church of Knowledge’s ‘databases’. The Magic Society similarly kept master copies of their own from which all other copies updated as changes were added to the masters. The almanacs she received were just normal books that would not update with changes, but all the other articles Nara had acquired would.

Nara could pull up any of my maps with my Guide with just a thought, with no need to navigate any menus. She confirmed that all magic map functionality had been retained. Whether or not she would need to recharge the maps to keep this functionality remained unclear. Since Nara stored the maps within my Astral Domain, she suspected that there was no need; the astral was saturated with magic.

They neared the stone walls of a compound, and she turned my attention to the gates before me. She hopped off of the vehicle following Chelsea and Amara. As they did, a woman appeared at the front gates, along with a young woman and a teenaged man. She introduced herself as Lisera Arlang.

“And you are?” She asked Nara.

“I call myself Nara Edea.”

“My name is Lisera Arlang, and this is my daughter Maya, and my son Sen.” As she introduced them, each one stepped forward and gave her a close-fisted greeting, a local custom.

They made our way into the compound, and the elders had Maya and Sen show Nara around while they went about their business. Amara intended for Nara to utilize them as an insight into the life of an adventure.

“I’ve never seen an Outworder before, it is a rare occasion to meet one.” Maya said, first cutting the silence.

“Are there many others like me?”

“Outworlders are rare, but not unusual.” Maya said, “you may garner a bit of extra attention but not much more than that.”

“Why is your aura so strange?” Sen suddenly cut in. Maya gave her younger brother a disapproving glance but didn’t rebuke him.

“Is it? How so?” Nara had a vague awareness that her aura was off, but she didn’t have any aura abilities yet.

“It’s rather like looking through a mist. Hard to grasp or read. You search for a core, but it is either not there, or unfindable. You’re common rank, while I am iron rank. I should be able to read your emotions from your aura, but I find nothing but haze.”

“I’m unreadable. How mysterious~” Nara said, waggling my eyebrows and striking a pose.

“Your aura is unreadable,” he said, “but your face is not.”

She chuckled, “So what does an adventurer, typically do at your ranks?”

“At iron rank, we are the fresh meat. Our monster contracts are usually simple. Iron rank monsters are predictable and do not have much intelligence. We also have contracts for various other activities such as investigations, body retrievals, transportation, bounties, and escorts.”

“Bounties? Taken dead or alive?”

“Either.” He said.

That response drew some quiet contemplation. As an ordinary eight-to-five full-time employee while on Earth, capturing or killing others was something Nara could not understand the gravity of. Outside of sparring during martial arts, with the safety of gear, she had never even punched anyone. Although she did not remember which martial arts she had practiced, Nara was pleased with the retrieval of this personal detail.

“Can you avoid it?” Nara asked after a pause.

“Sometimes, there is not much of a choice. Circumstances are not always so clean.”

In a world where magic was the norm the stage was just as chaotic, cults, corruption, and criminals had significantly more activity. While magic provided certain advantages, Erras had so far lacked most of the conveniences of modern communication and information technologies, other than the bracelets she had seen the others wear at the crafting compound. Without scrutiny, it was easier for criminal groups to operate.

“Have you killed people?” Nara wondered if my question was indelicate, but Sen didn’t seem particularly affected.

“I have.”

“I have as well.” His sister added. “Is that something that bothers you?”

“It’s not that.” Nara said, shaking her hands in denial. “In my world, I’ve never seen anyone die. People kill and are killed, for all sorts of silly reasons, where I live. I don’t think the act itself, is worthy of recrimination. The situation is.” Nara felt she wasn’t qualified to comment on the topic, due to her lack of experience. Whatever she said, felt shallow in comparison, and she felt a change in topic was warranted. “What’s good about being an adventurer?”  

“You have the freedom to determine your own life.” Maya said. “The Adventurer’s Society’s power is certification, posting contracts and paying rewards, and the organization of adventurers during monster surges. Outside of surges and penalties, the Society has no power to force you to take contracts or cooperate. You can leave for another region to find a different local culture or simply see new sights, with no particular notice needed.”

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“Some like the sense of responsibility,” Sen added. “Of doing good. You are often helping ordinary people with no power. Defending their lives and their livelihoods.”

“Speaking practically,” Maya added, “Adventuring is also very lucrative, especially if you have a looting ability. Not only do you get rewarded from completion of your contract, but also from looting monsters. Otherwise, a looting ritual must be performed, and it is time consuming. Not everyone has a ritualist on hand to perform one either.”

“Do you have a looting ability?” Sen asked and Maya sighed again at his indiscretion.

“Yup. Do you want to see?” Nara could see that he was brimming with restrained curiosity, and Maya looked interested as well. Using her Display function, Nara showed her ability to them.

-------

[Traveler’s Bounty]

• You and your allies can loot defeated enemies with aura range.
• You can convert looted material to that of a material of equivalent type and rank.

-------

“Oh my,” Maya said, breaking her composure for a moment, “adventuring would be very lucrative for you. When you become an essence user, I’d hire you just for that.”

“No fair, sister.” Sen said, crossing his arms, “you’re bronze rank, poach someone closer to your level.”

“What’s so great about it? Besides free loot of course.”

“Auxiliary adventurers are adventurers usually hired for their non-combat abilities. Looting, portals, transportation, scouting, information gathering, cooking, crafting, inventory, communication, and interface abilities are some of the many auxiliary skills. Your looting ability alone is already enough, but the ability to convert looted material makes material acquisition and sales considerably more convenient.”

“If the Magic Society found out about this ability, they may just lock you up and have you convert material.”

Maya gave her brother a look for that statement, “Sen, that would be criminal. And her ability says it would only work on looted material. Locking her up would be counterproductive.”

“You guys won’t tell anyone?” Nara gave them an exaggerated suspicious glance.

Maya chuckled, “I wouldn’t be so rude to a guest. Moreso a guest of my mother’s. Chelsea and Amara are well-known adventurers but are also known for their other pursuits. My mother’s respect for the two does not seem to be so simple. Their names would afford you protection in public circles.”

It seems that Amara’s last name may be a greater gift than Nara had even been aware of.

Sen’s answer was simpler, “I wouldn’t give the Magic Society such a great benefit for no reason.”

“Does he have beef with them?”

“Beef?”

“No beef, huh.” They looked at Nara in confusion. “Does he have an issue with the Magic Society?”

“He has a friend that was treated disappointingly by the magic society, to say the least. You do not seem particularly concerned.”

“Well, I have a few more things up my sleeve.” During our ride over, Amara additionally discussed that she would have Chelsea teleport Nara to most major cities. Not only would they continue to test the limits of Nara’s ability, but if she needed to disappear to another location, she would have a way out.

“Another racial ability?” Sen asked.

“Yup.” But this time Nara didn’t show him the properties of [Astral Domain] or [Astral Traveler]. Of her abilities, they were the most unusual. Defying death upon bodily destruction was an inherent diamond rank ability or at least a gold-ranked resurrection ability, and something she felt was considerably more dangerous to let others know. However, keeping her astral jump quiet was more of a safety measure than an important secret, as Nara couldn’t bring anyone with her.

The tour continued, and they passed by meditative rock gardens, pagodas surrounded by flowering streams, lily ponds, and buildings of simple embellishments but quality make. Nara could feel something in the air – magic – but she didn’t have the magical senses that Amara and the others seemed to have. Nara couldn’t tell anything beyond that magic existed. She wondered if the magic was the array protections Amara had mentioned.

Nara was led to a large octagonal building with a glass dome. Inside the building was a sort of arena, and she could see people fighting against monsters.

Before Nara could ask, Maya explained. “This is a mirage chamber. Using a special type of recording crystal, environments, monsters, and other special situations can be simulated. The participants are asleep in an adjacent room and are unharmed no matter what occurs in the chamber.”

“So, it’s a holodeck.”

“A holodeck?” Sen asked.

“A fictional simulation field in a science fiction tv show in which the crew of an exploration starship load situations in order to have fun, I guess.” Nara realized that at some point her awkwardness with magic-speak had faded.

“For fun and not for training?” Sen asked.

“You don’t ever use it for fun?”

“Why?”

Nara doubted that he understood my explanation entirely, even with her translation ability. But she guessed there was little use of for-fun simulations for adventurers when they all have magic powers. She had even seen a few people flying around the compound on my way to this building and hoped she would have a power like that as well.

“What do you guys do for fun then?” Nara asked in turn.

“There’s the musical performances.” Maya said. Nara wondered if Redell performed in any of those. “The competition venues are a large attraction. All sorts of competitions are held at all different ranks – cooking, fighting, running, magic, duels, music, crafting. Almost anything you can think of.”

“Some people also enjoy extreme sports. Rock climbing, for one.”

“If you can fly, how do you enjoy extreme sports?”

“Suppression collar.” Sen said. “They restrict your magical and racial abilities. But it doesn’t change the power of your inherent rank. Although there are effects that can do so as well.”

Part of Nara despaired over the realization that she may never play a video game until four am again. Or that she may never see another tv show. However, when weighing that thought against the potential ability to fly, she felt that she was willing to make the trade.

They continued throughout the building, and Maya demonstrated how to use the observation rooms to observe the fights.

“The Sanshi Public Academy also has several mirage chambers of their own. Main and branch family members as well as their teammates have access to our chamber. The Academy’s chambers are best used by those without our resources.”

“What is the Sanshi Public Academy like?”

“The Sanshi Public Academy is the pre-eminent training institution for hopeful essence users. Anyone in the public can attend their classes. In conjunction with the local government and the Adventurer’s society, students who win competitions, score well in difficult tests, complete odd jobs, and in other avenues are rewarded with essences and awakening stones. Adventuring teams, families, and guilds can also choose to sponsor and recruit students. Essences can otherwise be too expensive for the ordinary public to afford.”

“So, it’s a merit-based method of adventurer cultivation?”

“Yes. Although members of pre-eminent families are prohibited from winning essences from these competitions. Each student can also only win a limited number of essences. If they are looking for a specific combination, they will have to arrange a trade with either the academy or another student. However, winners of competitions get to pick an available essence within reason, so getting a desirable combination isn’t too challenging.”

Nara didn’t have any idea of how rare essences were, but she imagined that earning the prize that would allow you to upgrade yourself, extend your lifespan, and give you magic powers were in high demand.

If this was all a coma-induced fever dream anyway, Nara wanted to try.

“Maybe I should call myself Nara of Rivia.”

 

 

 

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