We drove for two hours to the capital. This is where Stella's parents lived and they drove in another car with us. The Capital of Mila was named Spirit. The president lived here along with the strongest Milan, Flamé. Rex also lived here.
During the car ride I spun my magic in a circle. I was mainly trying to lessen my headaches. If I can't feel I'm even controlling the magic then I shouldn't have too much of a headache added to magic sickness, I thought.
In the distance—as we approached Spirit—were sky scrapers. Fifty-three skyscrapers all connected to one another with enclosed bridges. Each bridge was three stories, with the top and bottom being small to fit trains. The car got closer and running along the bottom of all the sky-scapers surrounded by roads and cars was another train.
That train was the same type I rode on in Fayha. These trains were developed two years before I was born as Heo, in forty-one-o-six. They travel via land way faster than planes used to be. On the inside of the trains, unless you look out the window, it feels like you are sitting in place. The train that slowed down to the city stopped for a few minutes. It then shot off like a rocket, light green magic shot out the back and left clouds around for a few seconds.
They'll fast, but Rex could appear on another planet in the same second it takes to think about it. Rex isn't the only human with teleportation magic, actually teleportation méjett, but he is the Hero of teleportation, giving him an absolute control over it. He's better than most and at presence level you're almost not limited at all.
My arm slipped from under my head and I hit my head on the window. The air conditioner blowing into the window made it colder than the mid-summer heat. Though I could only tell it was cold and not by how much. I wish I can get a presence. The time commitment is just so much, unless I could find a cheating way to gain one.
We pulled into the bustling city. Build up of enough magic is smellable, with a smell close to electricity. People walked in between buildings, being illuminated by lights in the side of buildings. Our car drove to an intersection. People walked across, you could tell who was working, to who was in school, to who was just on their day off, by their clothes easily. There were no light poles for the intersection, instead lights from the roofs above shined red, telling us to stop.
The magic engine of the car revved and skirted forward at the change to green. Our car pulled into a building a few blocks down, past three skyscrapers. We pulled into the fourth skyscraper and down to the bottom level. We found parking and headed back up the skyscraper.
Elevator floors flashed by quickly with teleportation magic imbued into the small rooms. Elli, Noah, and Liam stepped out and waved their hands for me to hop out. I'd been in the capital a few times and a handful of other cities in Mila. They were all nice, but Spirit was where all magic technology was incorporated into the entire city.
The adventurers were leading me to the guild after we escorted Stella home. It looked to me that we were wandering many different halls in random directions until we arrived at a door.
"Heo, now that you're an adventurer, especially in Mila and our cities…" Noah opened a door on a more lab styled floor to an office building. "Well, great example right here."
It was that odd spit between tangible and magically again, but in a building?
"Dungeons like to form anywhere, and strong ones…" Liam shut the door behind me and locked it. "Like to form in doors."
"They'll like easy gateways for them to form." Elli pointed at the door.
"Now you're obligated by law to clear them if you encounter them." Noah finished.
"Shouldn't the police deal with these things?"
"The guild works with all governments and therefore you and us all have to do our duty." Elli went up to the backs of the guys.
"Don't worry, you get money and they're always on the way." Liam laughed and opened a bag for their team.
"Whats that?"
"Like your backpack, ours is shared though. Méjett enchantments cost hefty." Elli's face sweated.
"They do?"
I looked at my blood stained backpack. It reeked. I thought to myself maybe I should clean it. I pulled the segmented sea out. Their faces scrunched and they moved back as my sword filled the room.
"Heo…" Noah went to speak but gave up.
"That doesn't fit here, Heo." Elli said.
"I-I see."
When I fought Baydí she made it grow larger with the ocean's water. I whispered the chant. The tail of water shot out. Now can I just redirect the source of the spell to the blade itself.
"HHMM!"
The adventurers turned away and continued gearing up. I shut my eyes. I'd have to learn this type of magic to use. I sat down and lowered the sword to my lap. Blue water, blue water, not purple or orange, not gravity or fire but water.
"HHMM!"
I couldn't control it just by thinking of it as a different color. I twisted the cold metal hilt in my hands. I pulled the water tail towards me and tried to absorb it. The second it touched my sweatshirt, it was ripped from the hem a quarter of the way up.
I sighed and threw the sword back in. Stella can use water magic now… Looks like we're both going to be learning it. I'm surprised with how much gravity magic was pressed into me that if I just absorbed it instead of being crushed by it I might have become a full dragon. I summoned Paukena's sword, this time not in pieces.
I skipped alongside the full geared adventures. That would have been nice, I'd at least get something out of that. I looked at my scared hands again. The burns had practically vanished, but my right hand that hit Baydí was littered with strange connecting scars.
"Heo, these dungeons are strong, indicated by the new reality we're in." Noah said.
"But it just looks like an office building."
"Thats the point. Dungeon keepers adapted to lure people who live in these spaces unsuspectingly." Liam pointed around the room that was full of magic, almost unrecognizable with the reliance on magic here.
"How big do you think it is?"
"Around two floors. They don't go unchecked for long so I'd be surprised if it grew large enough." Noah looked around the room. "But I can barely tell what monster is filling this floor."
"Expect the worst." Elli whispered in my ear. "And blast the room with fire." She giggled softly.
Using the Paukena's blade like a staff, I channeled fire into a wide ark. I even took a second to let the spell form properly into what I wanted instead of what I did to Baydí.
Highpitched wines ripped through our ears. The smoke covered our sight of the room. Everyone was prepared to fight. The room cleared to a charred mess of chairs, tables, computers and office supplies. Among the ashes were table width spider-like creatures. At the center of eight long skinner red extremities was a silver shell that had ragged horns shooting out the top. The bottom of the shell held the legs in and shot out wings.
"Mimics." Elli whistled.
"They always go for those." Noah sheathed both of his short swords.
"They're that weak?"
"Yeah. They rely on surprise, which they definitely lack in a dungeon. We expect them." Noah continued to walk side by side with Liam.
I turned to the mimic and ran over to one. I ripped the shell off one and shoved it into my backpack. Just in case I need it.
A couple of them attacked us as we looked for stairs. They were weak. Not even worth our time really, but the pay was good for dungeons in cities. The dungeon keeper was hiding in a file cabinet. The only abilities they had were the ones of materials they copied. Unfortunately, the dungeon keeper was weak and I could have killed it with a single blast of fire.
Its body curled back into a file cabinet and Liam yanked it open hungrily. He pulled out a dinky sword and sighed. He turned to me and tossed it.
"Here." I caught the sword. "We don't need some weak sword. It'll be good for you to have one spare."
'Thanks."
The dungeon started to collapse differently to the one me and Stella cleared. We waited for the magic to dissipate instead of running out. We were teleported just through the door where we came in. The small dungeon with Stella would have just thrown us out in the middle of the ground.
"Now." Liam organized their stuff into the bag. "Let's go."
…
If you were to try short cuts like the adventures were doing in this city you'd easily get lost or end up in one of these dungeons. Though they did truly know their way around the city and got me to the guild.
The guild was in a larger room that was filled with more shops, most related to adventuring work. Of course every shop in the capital right next to the guild was way too expensive for me.
The walkway was large, seeming like an entire city just inside one massive building. Spacial magic was used to optimize the room inside each skyscraper.
We went inside, provided evidence of the popup dungeon then the adventures and I split. They were going to take a rest from all that driving and I was going to grab another quest.
The quest was another pop up dungeon that had spawned in front of a woman going to her house. She described seeing a monster that looked like a chliv. According to Kilie, the chlivs are in the big dungeon. Chliv's are one of the strongest monsters, nowhere near weather eater strength of course but nothing is.
They can cast spells, mainly wind and lighting. They are fast on top of that. Not faster than stronger derstboil but still fast. They look like eyeless birds with a beak on both sides and are smoothed into the head like a helmet. They have clouds as horns and clothes around their long serpent-like body. The tail end starts to become more scaly and ends with a sharp scale. Four floating limbs that are as smooth as its face fall out of the clouds like waterfalls. The ends of their limbs look like two wide claws going in separate directions. Lastly they have a half circle floating on each side of their head.
The difficulty could be too much for me but it was a popup dungeon and couldn't have been that hard. I ripped the quest off the wall and got it confirmed to take it.
…
Online maps helped route me through the maze of the capital up to housing districts. The homes had more stone mixed into the Milian architecture. The homes were made out of ulnarah wood, which is a dark red-ish black with spiralling patterns in the bark. It's actually a monster tree. The wood is incredibly strong and matches the color scheme of the blackhole church.
The front of Milian houses had a porch with a roof overhead. The houses were usually longer than they were thick, making the houses inside narrower. Family houses had second floors that overlooked the first floor. The back, depending on the placement of the house, had another porch looking out. In the city the houses did not have a back porch, and didn't have a big front porch like you'd see in most of Mila.
The houses all looked alike but with slightly different hues of red, or some more grey and black. It wasn't odd to have houses painted other dull colors. I arrived at one such colored house. The paint was blue and had a family standing outside waiting for someone to clear it.