Three weeks had passed. Altara had been training with Hugo on the tenth floor. Altara knew the very basics of fighting with his broadsword but he knew for a fact he was still not a very good fighter, yet he was encouraged by Hugo's positive spirit. The two were in a car, driving down a long straight road. On the right side of the road was a forest and on the left was a simple grass plain.

Hugo, who was driving, glanced at Altara in the passenger seat, speaking to him. "Sooo...you ever been to Sapianus City?" He asked him.

Altara leaned against the window, his cheek leaning on his fist. "I actually had an apartment there until a few months ago. After that, I was essentially homeless. Money can be a problem especially when you don't have any parents." He sighed and looked at the road as it swiftly passed.

"Parents? Where are they?" Hugo simply asked, frowning slightly as he drove.

"They..." Altara sighed before speaking once more. "They dropped me off at an orphanage at the age of 6..no, 7. Never really got told why. The orphanage eventually got shut down when I was 13 and I had to find my own way up in life."

...

"I still remember mother and father's eyes looking back at me as they walked out the front door." Altara closed his eyes and stopped leaning on the window, putting both hands in his lap. "Sorry. I got carried away."

"N-No, don't worry, Alt. I'm sorry about your childhood. You are strong as you made it this far in those conditions." Hugo looked at him with a weak smile.

"Alt?...Alt...that's a nice nickname. No one has ever called me that before." He mumbled. They eventually saw Sapianus City in the distance. It had huge thick steel walls which stretched up to around 40 meters. All cities in Adepta had walls like these. There were ships of various sizes flying out of the city, one of which flew overhead of the car. Altara looked at it go over, quickly leaning over and looking out the back window of the car. "That's a fast one!"

Hugo nodded and grinned. "Yes indeed. Must be in a rush somewhere, maybe it's a delivery ship."

Altara sat back in his seat. "Yeah. Maybe to one of the cities outside of Homstala."

"Oh yeah. That reminds me, whilst we're here we gotta get a map of Adepta. Our mission might lead us to other places outside of the city and it would be nice to see where we are goin'." Hugo looked at Altara. "So if you see one, grab it."

They eventually made it to the entrance of a city. A huge gate looming over them. A guard in gray uniform toting an assault rifle walked up to the driver's side, causing Hugo to wind down his window.

"Toll." The guard simply said. Their voice was sharp and instant.

Hugo handed him some Kredit Notes. "That should be enough."

Lore Snippet: Kredits

Kredits are the universal currency in AdeptaVerse. They are used as currency in most of the universe. They come in the form of notes and coins.

The guard counted the Kredits and nodded. "That suffices. Go on in." The gate attached to the huge wall opened. Hugo driving in and exhaling, Altara noticed the exhale and looked at him. "You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. Guards at the gates can get away with a lot. There are always cases of them gunning people down for even the slightest of sudden movements and the government of the city lets them get away with it." Hugo cleared his throat as they entered the streets of the huge city. Some skyscrapers being higher than the 40 meter walls protecting the city. Altara looked out his window lazily. "It's the same as a few months ago. Oh, the murders took place in a club, right? I know a few around here. Not that I ever went inside of them." Altara looked at Hugo.

"Oh good. Glad you know your way around." Hugo grinned, picking a parking lot in the back of a park. He stopped the engine. "Now then.." He looked at the rearview mirror, making sure his hair looked nice, before looking back at Altara. "I can summon my weapons. You however cannot. So you're gonna have to be careful with your broadsword, okay? Weapons are only legal here for the sake of self-protection but like I said earlier the law here is very flimsy. Sapianus is a rough place, I'm sure you know that from your time here."

Altara nodded. "Got it. I hope we don't have to fight anyone to get any information."

Hugo nodded, getting out the car. Altara did the same and both of them closed their doors, Hugo locking the car with a key. He pocketed the key. Altara looked down at the left side of his waist at his sheathed broadsword. He then looked up and started to follow Hugo.

After Altara's directions, they eventually walked into a club. The music there was blaring. Altara squinted at the loud music but Hugo seemed unaffected. The dancefloor was to their right and in front of them was the bar. There were also some tables around the dancefloor with chairs around them. The club was pretty busy with a few people who were obviously drunk.

Club Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy9r2qeouiQ

"Altara. Get a seat next to the dancefloor. I'll go to the bar, ask some questions and get a drink." Hugo instructed Altara, who simply nodded.

They both went their ways, Altara sat down at an empty table. At the table to his far-right he saw a couple making out, deciding to ignore them. He looked at the dancefloor which was full of people dancing to the loud music.

Meanwhile...

Hugo was sat at a bar. An Alter-Elf bartender walked up to him.

"What would you like?" The elf asked with a gravelly voice. Hugo then responded. "Two red wines, nothing too special. Oh, and I need some answers to some questions I have." Hugo grinned, giving him a couple of more kredits with his pay for the drinks.

The Alter-Elf took the money and squinted at Hugo, starting to make his drinks whilst listening. "Go on..."

"Hm. Two friends of mine were murdered a long while ago. Teachers at the Oligarchy of Magik to be precise. Any leads to where I can find the murderers? Were you working here at the time?" Hugo leaned on the bar.

"Oligarchy of Magik? What are you guys doing out here?" The elf simply asked with a surprised voice.

"Investigating the murders. Now, answer my questions." Hugo said as he stared at the Alter-Elf, who gave Hugo the red wine.

"Tsk. Well, I was actually a cleaner here at the time it happened. I got promoted to bartender recently. The teachers were both human and seemed to be on a date of some sort. It kinda just...happend. Three men came in with guns and fired on them. They soon took pictures of the bodies and ran out. My guess? They had a bounty on their heads and the criminals claimed it."

Hugo looked down at the bar in thought. "Hm. Any clue to what organization they were tied to?"

"One of them shouted something along the lines of For Eternal Chrome! No idea who they are though."

"Eternal Chrome? Don't know if I've heard of that before, but thanks for the answers, kind sir." Hugo gave the elf a quick grin and walked back to Altara, giving him his drink. He sat next to him and downed his wine. "Bleh. You do drink alcohol right?"

Altara looked at the wine and picked it up, sipping it. "I do, just rarely. I prefer something with more flavor. I've never been drunk, I think I'm a heavyweight, to be honest. Anyways did you get any answ-"

The doors to the club then swung open. four men with various melee weapons stood there. They were all in rough leather armor. They glanced around and walked in, going to the bar.

"Fookin' ell! Busy in ere' today!" One of them yelled as they looked around, then at the bartender. "You there. We are lookin' for someone. Old man with a ponytail."

The bartender started to sweat, quickly glancing at Hugo before looking back at the rough-looking bandit. "I have no idea." He mumbled as he put some glasses back on the shelf.

"I can't ere' you over the loud music! Speak louder...oh, wait. Your eyes say it all." He followed the bartender's brief glance. Looking at Hugo directly.

"Ponytail in the dark. See it, boys? Let's claim our bounty! One more magikal coward!"

Hugo saw and heard everything, noticing the four men walking up to them. People started to quickly walk out the bar, some not noticing or were too drunk to walk out at all.

"Altara. Stay out of this."

Hugo then stood up, extending his arm to his right, summoning his blue battleaxe.