As much as Asher enjoyed the company of Brant and his team of mogrants, there had to be something said about the ability to fly from one city to another in only a few hours. Although Samantha wasn’t quite as fast as a pegasus while carrying him on her back, and Long Flight was still low-level enough that she needed to break every so often to recover her energy, they still made fantastic time. The sun hadn’t even touched down across the horizon by the time Vildelph came into view, and Asher stared in awe at the sight of a brand-new city from up above.

  Like Draken had mentioned, it was obvious at a quick glance that Vildelph was similar in size to Whikoga, if a little bit bigger. From their current position, they could make out the visible rings within the city where large walls divided the different sections, not at all unlike that of Whikoga. The largest difference, however, was that it looked as though the city’s inner walls were just as large as its outer ones, creating a much harsher divide between the rings than what he was used to. There were also only three instead of four, and he grunted as he came to a sudden realization.

  “You know, we don’t have Brant around to tell us about the inner workings of this city,” Asher pointed out as they slowly began to descend a good half-mile from the outer wall. While it was tempting to simply touch down right in the heart of the city, that was just about the fastest way to get shot down by a few dozen arrows and ranged skills if they didn’t know where to land or the proper procedures. “I didn’t do any actual research on this one either like I did with Dormaul, so I don’t have the faintest idea of what to expect.”

  “It looks pretty similar to Whikoga,” Samantha said, touching down after he slipped off her through the astral to land on his own two feet. “Maybe we just ask one of the guards at the main entrance?”

  “Probably not a bad idea,” he agreed with a laugh. “Shame we can’t ask them everything we need to know, however. ‘Hey, could you let us know where we could find the entrance to the underground fighting rings? We need to cheer on tonight’s challenger, and then give her a job offer.’ I’m sure that would go over well!”

  “You really think asking Moxy to help us is a good idea?” Samantha asked, still looking a tad pensive even now. “I trust your judgement, both yours and your skill, but still… After hearing about the woman from Crush and Draken, you can’t blame me for being hesitant.”

  “Don’t worry, I get it,” Asher said, taking her hand and giving her a warm smile. “Moxy’s definitely a lot. But there’s something about fighting against someone that really lets you get to know them, and I spent more than three straight days battling against Moxy. She literally taught me most of what I know when it comes to fighting, and I’m pretty confident we can trust her. When I finally bested her during the coalition’s attack, rather than come at me with a vengeance once she’d recovered, she congratulated me and awarded me with the Water element you have inside you right now. Hell, she quite literally invited me to come find her again one day so we could fight some more, so it wasn’t like she was angry with me.”

  “Those are points in her favor,” Samantha admitted, laying a hand against her chest as if she could touch her Water element. “Alright, I’ll keep any other concerns to myself for now. At least until I can actually meet her.”

  “Thanks for keeping an open mind,” Asher said, giving her a quick kiss before leading the way toward Vildelph’s main gate. This late in the day, there weren’t too many people lining up to enter the city other than a few weary travelers happy to arrive before nightfall, and they quickly reached the front of the line. A sharp-eyed woman in heavy armor nodded toward them, motioning for them to hold as they stepped up.

  [Guard] - 2/3 elements

  “What is your business with entering Vildelph?” she asked, not looking the least bit tired despite most likely being near the end of a rather long shift based on the fatigued looks on the rest of the guards.

  “Searching for an old friend,” Asher said, noting how the guard’s ring turned blue to indicate he was telling the truth. But rather than let them through, the guard merely nodded, and went straight into her next question.

  “For what purpose?”

  Asher paused, already in the middle of stepping forward. The other city entrances had been far more relaxed than Vildelph, each guard barely even giving him a second glance and simply waving him through after jotting down his answers. This was the first time he’d ever been asked a follow up question.

  “We’re putting together a hunting party,” Samantha answered in his stead, before he could even activate Comprehend to buy himself time to think. “Last we heard she journeyed from Whikoga to Vildelph a few weeks back, so we came searching for her.”

  “You traveled between cities just to beef up your hunting party?” the guard asked, raising an eyebrow despite her ring turning blue. “What exactly are you hunting?”

  “Demons,” Samantha practically spat, her expression turning hard in response. “My village was burned to the ground by them not long ago. I won’t just sit back and let them get away with what they did.”

  “Ah, you’re one of the refugees,” the guard said, her eyes going a little softer as her ring remained a cool blue, indicating every word out of Samantha’s mouth was the truth. “I can’t tell you how to live your life, but if you want to have a life to live at all, you’d be wise not to throw it away chasing after those demons. The slayers from the capital took care of most of them anyway. If there are any left, they won’t last much longer, I’d wager.”

  Or, a millennium old lich already summoned quite a bit more of them, and their numbers are greater than you could possibly imagine, Asher thought, wisely deciding to keep that to himself.

  “Can we come into the city and find the woman we’re looking for or not?” Samantha demanded.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Of course,” the guard sighed, stepping aside and waving them through. “You’re welcome to go through the entirety of the first ring. I wish you luck with your search.”

  Nodding their thanks, Asher followed Samantha through the gate, glancing over his shoulder at the guard as they entered the city. Lowering his voice, he leaned closer to Samantha.

  “I noticed how she said we were welcome to go through the first ring. Sounds like this city might be more like Dormaul than Whikoga if there are separate permissions needed to access each of the three sections.”

  “From the sky, the first ring certainly looked more run down and basic than the inner two,” Samantha pointed out as they walked aimlessly forward, merging into the light crowd of people. “Wherever this special fight club is located, I’d be shocked if it were anywhere other than here. How were you planning on finding it anyway?”

  “Oh, that’s the easy part,” Asher said, unable to keep himself from grinning as he made a hard turn and began walking away from the crowd. “Just follow me.”

  Despite the fact that Vildelph’s first ring was much larger than Whikoga’s, it didn’t take long for them to leave the bustling, bright section of the city behind them and enter what Asher could only think of as ‘the slums.’ Broken street posts and rundown houses looked pretty much identical regardless of the city they were in, and he whistled a jaunty tune as they walked from one dark alleyway to another.

  “I think I know what you’re planning,” Samantha muttered beside him as they briefly entered an actual street and got a few interested glances from some less-than-friendly looking people. “Is this really the best way to find a guide?”

  “Hey now, you’d be shocked at the types of people you can meet wandering down random dark alleyways!” he said, grinning as he walked with his hands in his pockets. “It’s how I met Kree! And some random women who tried to stab me, before eventually leading me to Draken!”

  “Unlike you, I won’t come back to life if someone shoots me from the shadows with a crossbow,” Samantha said, flinching at the sounds of movement, before they spotted a cat darting across the ground before them. “And I can’t summon my wings to rely on Winged Savior, or that would draw even more attention.”

  “Huh, I didn’t think of that,” Asher admitted, mentally smacking himself for such an oversight. He quickly swapped his class over to the new guardian one he'd received recently, but he didn't want Samantha to feel uneasy. “Want to hide in my Personal Rift for now? I doubt this will take too much longer.”

  Samantha hesitated, clearly torn between not having to risk life and limb wandering through the slums of the city in the dark with spending any more time than she had to isolated from the rest of the world in his private pocket dimension. Asher wished there was some way he could make his Personal Rift more homey, but it wasn’t any sort of aesthetic thing. Seeing as both Samantha and Brian hated the sensation of being in his Personal Rift, he’d come to the conclusion that it was probably something about the skill itself.

  While she thought, however, the decision was finally made for her as five people Asher could only describe as ‘goons’ stepped out of the alley in front of them, blocking their path. A quick glance over the shoulder confirmed that three more had stepped into the entrance behind them, cutting off their retreat. Unlike when he’d been accosted by Ember’s men, none of these people had any sort of markings or tells signaling that they belonged to a specific gang leader like how Ember forced her underlings to dye their hair red. Even now, weeks after he’d left the gang, most of Kree’s hair was still a faint red as he waited for more to grow rather than shave it all off at once.

  A quick scan with Identify showed that all eight of these people had only their origin element, and while they had rather shrouded aura’s that spoke of the hardship and violence known to any who grew up on the street, only two of them had actually made a habit of killing.

  “Those are some fancy-looking outfits you got there,” one of the men in front of them said, pointing at Asher’s chest with a gleaming dagger as he eyed up the serpent leathers they’d commissioned over in Poltar. He was one of the two with plenty of death under his belt, and Asher made a mental note not to let that one walk away, regardless of what happened next. “I don’t suppose you’d have any spares you could lend us, hmm?”

  “Sadly, I doubt they’d fit you all that well, these were made to order,” Asher admitted, causing many of the goons to blink at his relaxed attitude. “Quick question! Would any of you happen to know where the underground fighting ring is? We came to the city to cheer on our friend Moxy, but we’re a tad lost.”

  “Wait, you’re friends with Moxy?” One of the two men behind them asked, looking excited. “Can you get me her autograph?”

  “Chim!” the first man snapped, growling at the one who’d spoken out of turn as he shifted his dagger toward him instead. “Do you want to be the one bleeding out across the cobbles instead of them?”

  “Franco, no way these guys are marks,” another one of the goons spoke up, a woman with a jagged scar across her scalp where hair didn’t grow anymore. Immediately, Asher realized that only Franco, the supposed leader of these eight, still had his weapon brandished. The moment he’d revealed how unbothered he was about all this, all the others had immediately sheathed theirs and taken a half step back.

  Even if half of these people looked like they’d never had a real day of schooling in their lives, there was a certain level of street smarts one picked up on in order to survive into adulthood when life dealt one such a hand.

  “He’s bluffing! Just trying to look good for his lady friend there,” Franco argued, thrusting his dagger toward Samantha. A quick glance to Asher’s side showed that while she was trying her best, Samantha didn’t look nearly as confident as he did. Especially seeing as he’d asked her to keep her bow strung over her shoulder to make them more enticing targets. “It’s eight on two, these guys are marks! And juicy ones at that!”

  “You want to die, go ahead,” the woman said, shaking her head before turning and walking off. After a brief moment of hesitation, all of the others turned and tried to follow suit as well.

  Wow, it’s not often you see so much common sense shared by one group of muggers, Asher thought, already impressed with the shadier side of Vildelph. That said, we didn’t go through all the trouble of attracting their attention just to scare them off.

  Before their would-be muggers took more than a few steps, a near-invisible bubble snapped into place around the entire group, and the woman who had first spoken up walked headfirst into it, bouncing off with a startled swear. The others stopped as well, staring at the shimmering wall in confusion as they realized they were trapped.

  “I have to admit, I’m impressed with your guys’ decision making,” Asher said, slowly clapping as they all turned back toward him. “That said, not a single one of you actually answered my question, and we don’t exactly have all night. Who wants to show us where we can find this super-secret fight club?”

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