Derick had been oddly vague about the Manarith. "Wait and see for yourself," he'd said. Hunter was glad Derick left it a mystery.

  As they approached, Hunter saw the outside of this relatively new city. The city had massive walls spanning upwards of one hundred feet, and on top of the walls were spires that twisted even higher. Each spire let off a glow of color, transitioning the whole rainbow.

  The entrance to the city was more of a tunnel. The wall was at least fifty feet thick. Glowing white lights bright as LEDs lined the walls.

  "Why is the wall so thick?" Hunter asked himself, and then he spotted a door that led inside the wall. They slowed to a stop just before a large metal grate.

  The door swung open, and three guards walked out. Each guard wore black cloth with small white triangles seamed to the chest, shoulder pads, legs, and arms. In the middle of each triangle lay a single light blue gem, the color of the sky.

  The guards approached—one behind the wagon, one on the left, and one on the right. The one on the left addressed him: "Welcome to Manarith. This entrance is for merchants. I trust you have your card with you."

  Derick poked his shiny head from inside. The white lights gleamed off the head. He smiled and handed the man his card.

  The guard examined it briefly and said, "It's all good. You may enter. The next blitz is six hours from now."

  The metal grate raised into the wall, and they started moving again. Hunter turned to Derick. "A blitz?"

  Derick nodded. "Told you about it before. The city gets attacked like clockwork. Crazy, they built it here."

  Hunter suddenly felt small as he took in the sprawling city. A white road led down a large street with tall buildings spanning three to five stories tall. A median with trees that looked like pines was in the middle, spitting up the two sides of traffic.

  The roads were filled with topless wagons. These wagons weren't being pulled by anything but seemed directed by an occupant. The oddest thing for Hunter is that these pieces of transportation didn't have wheels.

  Hunter blinked, confused. The vehicles didn't have anything below them; they seemed to be floating. "Hover cars?” he asked himself.”That can't be right." Hunter blinked rapidly and looked again, but the vehicles still hovered around.

  "City of wonders, or city of the future," Derick said. "Those are other names this city is known by. Aren't those wagons amazing? I would buy one if it could run longer than just a few days away from the city."

  Hunter tore his eyes from the city and asked. "Does everything here run on Mana?"

  Derick smiled. "You got it, from the wall to the wagons and even the lights and waste system."

  They followed the road until they reached the center of the city. There was parking around a large square with five steps leading up to a large slate of white rock. The platform was massive, five hundred feet from corner to corner.

  Large round buildings, like yurts, littered the platform. Each building had a flag on it. Hunter recognized the researchers' flag, the adventurer's flag, and the merchant's flag, but there were dozens of others.

  The buildings were only twenty feet wide and tall. "More folded realities." Hunter examined.

  The wagon stopped, and Derick jumped out, saying, "Go ahead and explore. You said you might want to become an adventurer one day. How about you go check that out? I'll find you once I'm done."

  Hunter felt a rush of excitement and jumped down from the carriage, just like Derick.

  "It was only about five feet." He groaned in pain as he hobbled to a bench on the platform. When he jumped, he twisted his ankle, which Derick and Louie the Lorid found funny. "By the sound it was making, I thought that thing was throwing up, but it was just laughing."

  He sat down, taking off his boot. Hunter felt his sore muscles and grimaced. "A new world, and I still feel old."

  "Have you not hit your first stage?" came a question from his right. To his surprise, someone was sitting on the other side of the bench.

  "I thought there wasn't anyone here." He thought, shaking his head to try to clear the cobwebs. He looked at the person who had asked the question.

  The woman looked to be in her early twenties. She had short red hair and pale skin covered in tattoos. She wore beige pants and a blood-red shirt.

  Hunter felt an urge to express excitement. "Will I finally be able to learn how to grow stronger?" he wondered. Trying to calm himself, he responded, "No, not really. I've been trying to figure it out. Can you explain it to me?"

  She tilted her head. "Really?" then asked. "Well, you know what skill points are, right?"

  Hunter nodded.

  "Once you have reached a point where your body can't grow anymore, you can rank up to stage two."

  Hunter thought of Derick saying he had hit his limit and asked. "Can everyone hit stage two?"

  The girl shook her head. "Not everyone can reach a new stage, but most people's limits are stage two or higher."

  "How do you know you can rank up?" Hunter asked.

  "Pain." That was the only response, and they sat in silence for a few moments. Then she said, "I'm Indy." One of the tattoos on her arm started glowing green.

  "I wonder what kind of Mana device that is?" He thought before trying to shake her hand, but he caught himself at the last moment and just said, "I'm Hunter. It's nice to meet you."

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  Her arm stopped glowing, and she got up. "Nice to meet you as well, Hunter."

  Indy then walked off, and Hunter felt confused. "That conversation felt weird," he thought before looking down at his ankle, about to massage it. The muscle, however, no longer felt sore. He put some weight on it and didn't feel any pain. "Is this because I'm getting stronger?" he wondered.

  He then looked around at the people around him. "They all look strong, " he thought. What am I even doing?"

  Still processing what he'd just learned, Hunter turned his attention back to his goal, which was the Adventurer's Guild.

  Strengthening his resolve to grow stronger, Hunter walked into the yurt-like building for the guild; he felt slightly dizzy going inside the folded reality, but it quickly subsided. He looked around. The building was the same shape as the outside, only again ten times the size on the inside.

  Mounted beast heads lined the round walls, some large, some small, scaly, feathered, or furry. All looked menacing to Hunter. Instead of desks for attendants, each sat on chairs across from sofas. All the attendants but one wore a light brown shirt and pants with golden stitching.

  Almost all attendants were taken, each with a geared adventurer who talked emphatically about a mission they had gone on or wanted to go on.

  Hunter approached the only available attendant, an older gentleman in a clean suit. His black hair and monocle made him look like a British butler. "Am I able to register here?" he asked.

  The man looked at him as if for the first time, then looked him over and pulled out a watch, saying, "Why, sure, young man. I have time."

  Hunter sat down on the comfy sofa and relaxed.

  The man readjusted his suit and said, "My name is Henry. If you weren't aware, I must interview you to become an adventurer. For our first question, why would you like to become an adventurer?"

  Hunter knew he still had no answer to that and realized he should have asked Derick what to say here, but he answered how he thought they would want to hear: "So I can grow stronger."

  The man brought out a clipboard instead of a tablet and started taking notes. "Don't mind me; I like the feeling of paper. Now, what are your current stats?"

  Hunter sent over the information.

  Henry looked them over, nodding, and asked. "Why are you so weak?"

  Hunter felt his mind race at what to say and answered. "I lived pretty far from monsters, so I hadn't had the chance to fight them."

  Henry nodded and noted down again. "Your family must have kept you sheltered. What is your goal in getting stronger?"

  He was taken aback momentarily and wondered, "Why do I want to grow stronger? Only to not die? I could stay in this city, which would accomplish that goal." Hunter responded again with what Henry wanted to hear: "To protect others."

  Henry adjusted his monocle and asked. "What is your name?"

  Hunter felt uneasy, unsure if playing around with the truth like this was who he wanted to be. In his contemplation, he realized that he had forgotten to introduce himself. He mumbled, "My name is Hunter."

  Henry smiled and pulled out his watch before adjusting his monocle again. "Very good. Now I have only one more question," he said, his voice taking on a dangerous tone. Tell me why you are trying to deceive me."

  Hunter's chest tightened. A heavy force pressed down on him, pinning him to the chair and making It hard to breathe. The room darkened as if a shadow had swallowed the light. One wrong word and he was sure it would crush him. He stuttered. “I-I-I’m not… no… I don't want to." He stopped, taking a moment to think.

  Hunter took a few shaky breaths, trying to organize his thoughts. "This world has so many dangers; if I were to have a goal, it would be to become stronger to make up for all the pain I caused in my last world." Hunter steadied himself and answered more clearly. "I want to grow stronger so that I have the power to forge my own path."

  The weight subsided somewhat before the man spoke again in a more calm tone. "I will not ask into your background or why you felt the need to hide it, but… I want you to know becoming an adventurer is a responsibility to the guild and the people."

  The man waited for Hunter to nod before continuing, "I will allow you to become an adventurer. Just know that there will always be people to stop you if you ever want to hurt others."

  Hunter nodded furiously.

  Henry smiled honestly this time, and the weight lifted off Hunter immediately. He noticed a shadow resend, and the room felt lighter. Everyone was staring at them. Henry acted like he didn't notice and handed over the paper, saying, "Think of your stats appearing here."

  Hunter shook his head, refocusing on Henry. He then thought of his stats appearing on the paper. They did so slowly at first, almost like heating ink from an invisible pen, but then they appeared as if they were always there.

  Henry said, "This paper is now tied to you. It will update as you grow stronger. It also lets us know if you die on a mission. Here is your guild card." He handed over a card the size of a debit card back in Hunter World, which read stage 0.

  Hunter took it, put it away in his inventory, and asked. "How do I take missions?"

  Henry's eyebrows raised. "Take missions? Around here, you can't take missions as stage 0. The monsters would slaughter you... no… either go to a course here or travel in a caravan to a different city and start there. Even so, you should get a trainer. You have a lot of ground to make up if you want to become stronger."

  Hunter nodded again, standing up. "Thank you for your time," he said, walking out of the building while trying to ignore all the stares he was getting.

  "That could have gone better. At least guild doesn’t want to experiment on me." He thought, slightly relieved. Hunter walked back to the wagon; the first thing he noticed was the crates to be delivered were gone, but then he spotted Derick working on something on a new table.

  Hunter approached the man, looking over him to see what he was working on. Derick was working on what looked like a watch. It had a wristband and display, both mostly transparent. Derick had the display open and was touching different points with a pin.

  Each time Derick touched a part of the watch, it would glow a light green, then slowly dim again.

  Hunter sat down on one of the chairs, waiting for Derick to finish.

  It took Derick, what Hunter estimated, another thirty minutes before he was done. The bald man's head was covered in sweat, and he wiped it with a cloth before turning to regard Hunter. When he did, Derick said. "All done. I would say this is pretty good for my first try."

  "What is it?" Hunter asked.

  Derick walked over to Hunter, placed the bracelet on his other arm, and said, "Remember how I told you the other bracelet would protect you? This one will make you slightly stronger."

  He paused, sitting across from Hunter. "Your strength is currently at twenty-two, but this will boost it to forty."

  Hunter's eyebrows shot up. "That's amazing; why don't everyone wear these then?"

  "They do," Derick responded. These are handed out to children and will cease functioning once you reach forty strength."

  Hunter didn't feel any stronger but looked at his strength stat.

  ————————————————————————————————————————————————————

  Strength:

  40 (21+1)

  ————————————————————————————————————————————————————

  "It says my strength has gone up, but I don't feel any stronger. Why is that?" Hunter asked.

  Derick grinned. "Because having forty strength but only twenty durability would rip you apart. No, it will only activate for short times in battle. It's best to think of it as a skill with a short duration. Also, you will feel much more strain afterward."

  That made a lot more sense to Hunter, but what didn't is the need for a bracelet like this. "Why do I need this if you will be there to help me?"

  Derick chewed at his lip and looked away. "Well, I will have to stay here in Manarith for a while. All the merchants here try and get a license to repair or modify Mana tools, and I want to get one myself."

  Derick sighed and looked Hunter in the eyes. "I'm thinking you can attend one of the adventurer guild's courses on getting stronger. I will be spending a lot of my time with the researchers, so I won't have time to go out with you, but I wanted to make sure you could still grow stronger instead of waiting on me."

  Everything clicked into place for Hunter. " Okay, I have made up my mind to grow stronger. When does it start, and what should I expect?"