Luke and the others had taken over a table inside a bustling tavern. Camlann was nothing like the ruined Safe Zone or the capital of the tutorial. It was alive, a real medieval city, fully functioning, sprawling, and loud. A massive circular kingdom encased by high walls, so large that it needed its own naval transport system just to help people move around the districts.

  Evangeline took a long gulp from her tankard of beer. “Whereever Princess Rhiannon is right now, this one’s for her.”

  Everyone raised their drinks in agreement, everyone except Luke.

  He didn’t feel like drinking. Didn’t feel like eating either. His focus was locked on the map of Camlann he held in both hands. The city had been intentionally built in a perfect circle, its districts shaped like eight even slices of a giant pizza.

  The military back at the village had given them money, but Luke still didn’t quite understand the economy. Everything was coin based: bronze, silver, gold. Different sizes meant different values, and the whole thing felt unnecessarily complicated.

  “You’re really going to stare at that map instead of talking to us?” Evangeline asked, lifting a brow. “It’s our last day here.”

  “We’ll see each other again in the modern world, but you’re right. It’s rude to ignore everyone at the table.” Luke folded the map and slipped it into his pocket dimension.

  Mason returned to the table after speaking with the attendant. “Order whatever you want. Today it’s on me.”

  “In that case, I want the most expensive thing on the menu,” Evangeline said, laughing.

  Eleanor ordered a plate of meat so huge that Luke did a double take.

  “Now that I have a super body, eating actually feels fun,” she said with a grin.

  Jack was busy examining trinkets he’d bought from the outdoor market, among them a tiny statue of the Goddess of Kindness. The fair outside had been enormous.

  “Didn’t you say you wanted to retire and open your own business?” Evangeline teased. “I guarantee this place has room for a new shop.”

  Mason nodded. “My family runs a forge and a weapon store here in Camlann. Even though this is the ‘center of the world,’ the population isn’t actually that big. People are always moving out.”

  “Moving out? Why?” Luke asked.

  Mason took a sip of beer. “Because Camlann is the starting city. A stopover. From here people head to other kingdoms where the cost of living is cheaper. There are ‘embassies’ from every realm scattered through the districts, usually more than one. They offer everything: housing, jobs, relocation. This place doesn’t have a ruling nobility, and it’s not rich in minerals or dungeons. The other kingdoms… they’re basically gold mines begging for labor.”

  “I think I get it. Sort of,” Luke said.

  Jack placed a pamphlet on the table. It was for the Adventurer’s Guild. “Look, this is pretty cool, right?”

  “Adventurers earn their living killing monsters, like we did in the tutorial,” Mason explained. “Collecting monster parts, doing quests, dealing with temporary dungeons, all that stuff.”

  None of it was new to Luke. Not because he was an expert on the New World, but because these were the kinds of things he’d read about in webnovels and old fantasy stories.

  “And if I want to keep leveling up in the system… what do I even do here?” Luke asked. “There’s no Midnight King or Midnight Lord for me to hunt down. This is an entire new world. How am I supposed to level?”

  Everyone at the table turned to stare at him.

  “Did I say something weird?” he asked.

  Evangeline let out a laugh and drank again. “Cinderella, we just crawled out of one nightmare and you’re already asking for another. Why can’t you just relax?”

  “If you’re thinking about that insane idea of kidnapping Allison…” Eleanor began.

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  “He wouldn’t actually do that, right?” Jack asked.

  All eyes landed on Luke.

  “Kidnapping? No. That plan sucks. It depends on pure luck, and even if I managed it, what then? They’d just come after her again,” he said. “I dropped that plan.”

  “Good,” Eleanor muttered.

  I’m going to kill the Dragon Queen instead. That fixes everything.

  “Whatever you guys decide to do with your lives,” Mason said, “you’ve got enough money to do pretty much anything. Whether here in the New World or back home.”

  “I don’t see myself going to college. And I don’t want to sit around doing nothing just because I’m rich,” Eleanor said. “So I’ll try to get a job in the government.”

  “Why not sit around doing nothing?” Evangeline countered. “That’s literally my dream. Spend my millions, hire shirtless butlers, and enjoy a very long retirement. And the best part? I’m not dying at seventy. I’m probably living to one-seventy. That’s a lot of time to relax.”

  “And every time you level your race, you extend your life by another ten years,” Jack added.

  Mason grabbed his mug back when he noticed Evangeline trying to steal it with her invisible hand skill.

  “They say…” Mason began, thinking, “that once someone takes that first step and evolves into Rank E, they usually don’t want to stop leveling.”

  “What do you mean?” Luke asked.

  Mason searched for the right words. “Let’s put it this way: our whole perspective shifts. Once you realize you’re not aging normally anymore, or that you’re not going to die at sixty… your worldview changes. It’s the first step away from mortality. The idea that you can extend your life by ten years with just one more level? That’s tempting. Then you start doing the math. What if I gain ten levels? That’s a hundred extra years. What if I reach level one hundred? That’s a thousand years. See?”

  It was starting to make sense to Luke. Once you reached Rank E, immortality didn’t feel like a myth anymore. Just… distant, but reachable.

  “That’s why Rank E is the most important step. It sounds silly, but not everyone makes it. And once you’re here, the race to keep climbing can be… addictive,” Mason said.

  The conversation drifted into how they’d find each other again back in modern society. The plan stayed the same. Luke didn’t have social media, so the only contact he gave them was his email. Once they were back home, they’d reunite.

  ***

  They walked through the district without a guide, relying on Mason’s familiarity with the place. As they moved, Luke realized just how small they were in the grand scheme of things. Twelve hours ago they had been fighting an army of undead… and here, no one cared. No one even glanced twice. In Camlann, that was hardly unusual.

  He saw people hauling the severed heads of monstrous creatures, wagons loaded with eggs the size of ostriches, vendors shouting about enchanted trinkets, shops selling magical scrolls like they were everyday stationery.

  They drifted through a long street market simply for the pleasure of seeing it.

  “Hey, look at that!” Evangeline stopped, pointing at a street performance. “That guy is eating a flaming skewer.”

  “You literally turn into a shadow and that impresses you?” Eleanor asked, laughing.

  Luke kept an eye out for Jonathan as they wandered, but eventually relaxed. The man wasn’t coming. They had made themselves vulnerable in dozens of different ways, and Jonathan hadn’t made a move. Either he was gone, or he was waiting for something far bigger.

  Jack was asking a guard where to find a temple or altar dedicated to the Goddess of Kindness. Evangeline and Eleanor were admiring jewelry displayed in a glass case. Mason, meanwhile, had stopped to watch a smith hammering metal in a small open stall. The two were chatting, so Luke waited for the conversation to wind down before approaching.

  “Mason, can you explain something to me? What exactly are ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ regions?” Luke asked. Everything was still too new, too vague.

  He pulled out his map. It listed several kingdoms, including the Rhiannon Kingdom, but it didn’t show the entire continent.

  Mason tapped the parchment. “Look closely. It’s all green and unfinished because it’s not precise. Most large cities are built in circular layouts, with walls for protection.”

  Luke had noticed that pattern.

  “This is a general map,” Mason continued. “Once you’re inside a kingdom, you’ll find maps that show the region in more detail. ‘Known Regions’ are the mapped areas of the continent that people actually travel through. ‘Unknown Regions’… that’s everything else. About ninety five percent of the continent. Not even the World Kings have explored most of it. Their kingdoms only occupy five percent of the land.”

  “Dangerous monsters and threats live in the Unknown Regions?” Luke asked.

  Mason pointed at the endless green on the map. “Think of it this way: everything outside a kingdom is basically a Wild Zone. If you’re not inside a kingdom, you’re exposed. And the Unknown Regions? That’s the tutorial on steroids. Here, in the Known Regions, it’s already easy to die to a high level monster. Out there? Death is waiting for you. Alpha creatures rule territories, giants roam freely, monsters mimic the sound of crying humans… and then there are the intelligent ones, the ones with bases and tribes of their own.”

  He kept explaining, giving Luke bits and pieces of what he needed to understand. Eventually Luke stopped asking questions. Not because he didn’t want to know more, but because he already understood what had to be done.

  I need to go into the Unknown Regions and climb in Rank. If that dragon queen is close to godhood… then I’ll become something just as strong.

  He touched the pocket space necklace and looked at the wyvern core inside, where Franky rested.

  I also need to find a place to leave that guy.

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