They got through the small slits of the wrought metal gate and got on top of the wall. But even after looking around, they couldn’t find anyone. “This is really strange. Where is everyone?” Elena furrowed her brows.

“Let’s get a closer look,” Dred muttered as he jumped off of the wall. Using their Sense, they soon found out that everyone was holed up inside their houses. “Hmm, what’s going on?” Elena muttered as she stopped in front of a simple house and knocked on its door. Seeing that nobody replied, she looked at Dred and shrugged her shoulders.

“Try it again. They should answer…”

“Mhm.”

After her second try, she heard footsteps nearing the door. A Catwoman opened the door to a slit and peeked out through the hole. Seeing that it was a demon and a human, she poked out her head, “What do you want?”

“We are new to the city. What’s going on here?”

“Ah, why is my luck so bad? Please leave me alone and if you want to stay alive, leave the city as soon as possible. Especially you, human. Your kind is despised here.” The Catwoman shut the door and locked it.

“What the actual fuck?”

“You should switch forms…” Dred said as he looked at Elena. Nodding her head, two horns grew on her forehead and a tail grew out of the end of her spine. Black scales covered her body on the outer parts of her arms, legs, neck, and her sides. Her nails turned into short claws and her eyes turned into slits. “I haven’t used my original form in a long time. Should I add the cat-ears too?”

“I don’t know. You’d look like a mixed blood that way and I’m not sure if that’s something to be proud of. Let’s just keep this form,” Dred replied. “I don’t think that we should try again here. Let’s bother another person…”

“Haha, okay.” They checked another few houses until finally finding an old snake-granny who called them in. She had a simple wooden house on the outer parts of the city with a small kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room. Everything seemed to be old but tidy. She stuck out her forky tongue and licked the air.

Her slit eyes focused on Dred and Elena as she pointed at two chairs.

“Ssso, what are your namesss?”

“I’m Elena and he is Dred. Could you tell us what’s going on here? Everybody is telling us to leave and run away…”

“They are right. You ssshould run away. Thisss city is dangerous becaussse itsss ruled by a darkling. It ssset a simple rule. Anyone leaving their resssidence at night shall become hisss food. He can senssse you, so you better run away now,” she replied.

“Oh? That’s an interesting rule. And what about when it’s daytime?”

“Everything isss fine. The darkling sleepsss. But you have left your houssse once already. It will remember you and find you.”

“Even though we are outsiders?”

“Yesss. Now that I told thisss to you, you should leave quickly.”

“It’s fine, but why did you let us in if it the situation was this bad?”

“I’d die in a few monthsss anyway. I’m really old. But you are still young and can live a long life. Now go, quickly.”

“In that case, thanks for everything. But I’ll tell you something, it won’t come for you,” Elena winked at her before leaving the granny’s house with Shadow Step. “There is no way it sensed us. A mere darkling, heh.”

“Don’t be so aloof,” Dred struck Elena’s head gently.

“Ouch~ But that’s the truth. I’m curious why it is the ‘ruler’ of this city and why it hasn’t been killed yet.

“There is only one way. The real ruler of the city isn’t this darkling they speak of since it is nothing but a simple monster. Although it is clever, it can’t talk or think like an intelligent being. This makes me think that it’s a contracted or enslaved pet and the city lord feeds it in this way,” Dred said as he walked towards the gate, Elena in tow.

“I think that we will need to take out the trash here as well. By the way, to not make things hard for the residents, let’s come back tomorrow. One more night in the forest doesn’t really matter,” Elena said.

They soon returned to their friends and built a small treehouse as usual. They took out their beds from their storage ring and told what they learned in the meantime. Dred and Elena used Mark of the Wild on everyone, balancing their stat points to the same level. Although Cor gained a lot of strength in this last month, he was still ten levels behind his friends and he fell unconscious from the sudden evolution of his body.

---

The next day they entered the city again. Unlike last night, it was brimming with life and everyone was going around, doing their jobs, even though it was only six o’clock. I guess they wake early since they go to bed early, Elena thought.

“Let’s go and gather some info,” Elena whispered straight into her friends’ minds.

“Your whisperings spell is handy, but can’t we use Dred’s Mark of the Wild to somehow communicate? This one is restricted to the range of your Sense, which is only ten kilometers, while if we could communicate on a cellular level, it would be much more reliable,” Audrey asked.

“I don’t know if we can use it for those kinds of things. We need to experiment with it and find out its boundaries,” Dred replied. “Also, what about your Drip Element? Have you figured out how to combine the elements?”

“I can combine elements that aren’t counter-effective on the other. For example, Nature Magic is effective against Earth Magic since you can just use it to grow plants and it’s not gonna stop your attack. So it’s hard to merge Nature Element and Earth Element since the latter is being devoured every time. I can’t combine Water with Earth either since it melts the Earth elements and turns it into mud. That’s how it should happen, but I suppose I have to keep them separated on a basic level if I want to create that Drip Element.”

“And then there is the wind. Lightning just goes through it and it just feeds the fire element so I can’t do shit with it. It’s really annoying how everything has like two or three counter-elements. The best ones are the dark and the light elements! I can combine them with either of the elements but each other! And then-”

“Hey, hey. It’s enough, I’ve got it. You don’t have to go into a frenzy…” Dred interrupted her monologue.

“I’m sorry. It just came to me and I got lost in my thoughts,” Audrey thought while showing an apologetic face.

“It’s fine. Now then, let’s visit a library or archive or something similar. There should be one,” Dred thought.

Elena looked at them from the corner of her eye as she thought, They don’t even know that I can hear all of their thoughts, not just the ones they intend to share, unlike them. Should I tell them? I wonder… It’s nice that I can control the flow of thoughts as the master of my spell, but it feels a bit wrong to hear everything.

“Why did you break the connection?” Jake asked raising a brow, feeling Elena’s Mana leave his head.

“Haha, it’s nothing.”

“Suspicious.” Stepping closer to Dred, Jake whispered into his ear, “Tell me later when you pull it out of her.”

“I’m not deaf…” Elena shook her head. “We are here. I’ve sensed quite a lot of scroll-shaped objects in this building.”

“Well, the text says Library,” Audrey muttered as she went ahead and entered the circular building. After paying two silver coins, they were allowed to read the books and scrolls in it. But unlike in Bethor’s city, there weren’t more levels.

We are in Drydale city of the Alof kingdom. This is a level five kingdom, mainly filled with beastmen. They excel in martial arts, and their physical properties are said to be one of the best among the races. The general level should be around four to five hundred, but stronger people might appear. Hmm, that’s quite different compared to Thivalon.

Bethor was the strongest, even though his level went past four hundred only by a bit above twenty? If I remember correctly. We’ve got to be careful, though I haven’t seen anyone too strong in this city yet. Maybe this city is in the corner of the kingdom and these people are the weaker ones, Elena thought while reading a ‘Traveler’s Book’. Turning to the next page, her eyes brightened up. Oh, my. If it isn’t a map~

(AN:\ If you want to see the full-sized picture, check it here: https://imgur.com/nrqYYF5

And one about Dink planet too: https://imgur.com/9BC3ATf )

Since there were thousands of kingdoms and empires in each area, libraries like these weren’t uncommon. It was so travelers knew where they were going, and often times, there were scrolls or books explaining history. Old men and women like the librarian didn’t mind spending their times writing these kinds of books.

“Elena, come here,” Dred whispered. Raising a brow, Elena closed the book and put it back in its place. Stopping beside Dred, she started reading the book in his hands. A thousand years ago, a powerful human came from another world. He called himself Reinald and he said that he was the strongest in the area. His haughty words angered many, but even after thousands of challengers, he beat everyone and earned the title of the strongest.

Later, he created eight artifacts, called the Rings of Calamity, each with a different number and a different effect. With his rings, he was able to control the flow of Mana of the world, its density, the days and nights, the atmosphere, the cataclysmic events, the landscape, and one of the most dangerous ones, the monster population. He also created two planets with his ring and the eighth ring, the Ring of Darkness was used to control the Void and connect those planets, called Dink, Dunk, and Sealu.

Sealu was his private planet and only he was able to access it. It’s said that his treasures are hidden on Sealu. But fate got the better of him. A young and powerful Dragon God appeared and slew him in a face to face battle. His name is Padinyss, our one and only true ruler. The True King of the Three Worlds.

The Ring of Water, the Ring of Nature, the Ring of Earth, and the Ring of Light are in his possession, and he can control the flow of Mana, the monster population, the landscape, and the passing of day and night respectively. The Dragon King is still in search of the rest of Reinald’s rings, as they are said to be keys to something bigger than Reinald’s treasures.

It’s still a mystery what the combination of rings can be used for, but it’s a fact that every ring-holder is an important person since if either of them were to die, it would mean the end of Reinald’s legacy, and his secrets would stay hidden forever.

The notes of an old wanderer, Zhin -

…

“Yeah, killed in a face to face battle. As if that would be true,” Elena furrowed her brows.

“We should show this to Cor. We finally know the truth about this world. I suppose this wanderer didn’t dare to write the exact truth or didn’t know any better, but it should be true,” Dred murmured so as to not catch the librarian’s attention.

“Mhm. This book is visibly in favor of Padinyss. Let’s show it to Cor and then we should leave. A detailed map would be good, but I don’t think that it’s something we could get easily. It’s strategically wrong if you share it with common people. I suppose only Generals and Kings have access to it,” Elena whispered.

They shoved the book into Cor’s hands and a few seconds later, he looked at them with wonder. “This… Is it me?” he pointed at himself.

Both Elena and Dred nodded.

“I have this kind of past, huh? It seems like I was quite stupid.”

“Why do you think that? You left behind a legend!” Elena patted his shoulders.

“And now here I am an undead, kinda dead… Sorry for the bad joke. Anyway, if I was more careful, maybe I wouldn’t have been backstabbed by this Padinyss guy. It’s my fault too that I’m here. But maybe that’s how it has to be. Can we leave now?” he raised a brow.

“Where are you hurrying?” Elena tilted her head to the side.

“To the air. I feel a bit bad, I think.” Looking at Dred, Elena shrugged her shoulders and left the library. As they reached the streets, Cor ran into an alleyway and fell to his knees, his forehead on the wall of a house. Elena appeared beside him and inspected him with no results.

“What’s wrong, Cor? Are you in pain?” she asked as she knelt down beside him, seeing him sweating profusely and panting heavily.

Cor grabbed his chest and closed his eyes. He started breathing regularly, and it took only a few seconds before his state returned to normal. “Haah- shit. I don’t know what happened, but it felt as if there was a huge ball in my body, which wanted to explode. I thought I’d die this time, literally.” He wiped the sides of his mouth and stood up.

“Are you alright now?” Dred asked.

“Mhm. Can you dry me?”

Nodding his head, Dred used Wind and Fire Magic to quickly dry his body and clothes.

“Have this ever happened to you before? Don’t lie, I command you,” Elena asked with furrowed brows.

“Heh, I wouldn’t lie anyway, but no. This is the first time something like this happened.”

“Strange… I wonder if it has something to do with your memories or if it’s something… deeper,” she muttered to herself with a thoughtful face.

“I don’t know, but I hope that this won’t happen ever again,” Cor shook his head as he walked towards the streets.

“Indeed. Let’s check a few more places. We should gather some info about the city lord and the local places and clean up the trash. We might find somebody who has an idea about your state as well,” Elena said and followed Cor.

----------------------------