Walls made up of Mana steel with the pointy ends facing sky. It was no doubt the wall bordering City Xean from wilderness. The black and tall wall gave one the feeling of being an ant in front of an elephant. The wall was magnificent and was three ft. thick.
The wall covered the city in all direction. North of the city lay mountain range after crossing which other cities where humans settled could be seen. West was covered with forest and east side lay 'Great Plain of Xean'.
The plain was very large that in front of it, the Nagar forest was like an ant. It had forests in its heart but in the rest of the part it was more like a desert. Its magnificence far exceeded mountain range and Nagar forest.
Great Plain was also called as 'Path to Hell'. No one who treaded the land came back, not even silver rank adventurers. Many also believed that, it was a path to a paradise that no one had stumbled upon but because of lack of knowledge, no one knew.
Although it was called 'Path to Hell', it wasn't completely off limits. Some of its lands could be ventured unless one crossed the mark set by magic council which was like a government of Magic Land.
There was a huge door in the wall of which two faces, one had the head of furry bear and another had the head of deer with antlers. It was so that the pressure it gave would scare of the magic beasts trying to invade the city.
Although dead, the magic beast which was very strong could give off the pressure that could scare other low level magic beasts out of their wits. Although the pressure would slowly diminish and vanish, it was enough. No matter how many times he came here, Oslo just couldn't cancel out the pressure.
In front of the large door, there were two guards placed to collect the fee from the people who wished to enter the city. As expected the two guards intercepted them when they reached the city's front gate.
Anna took out a card out of nowhere and showed it to one of the guards.
Unlike visitors, if one was an adventurer then they would have to pay less amount of fee and if the adventurer of even higher rank was to pass through then they wouldn't even have to pay it.
They could easily enter the city and some high ranked adventurer could even fly through the wall and no one would even object to that.
Just as Anna showed her adventurer Id, a large shadow flew above them entering the city. Seeing such magnificent creature fly above them, Oslo gasped in admiration.
Too cool!
If I were to become a copper rank adventurer, I could enter the city just like that.
Anna glanced at him and could easily tell what he was thinking. She then said,
"Even if you become a high ranked adventurer, it is very unlikely that you'd be able to tame such powerful magic beast as that. The one that flew above us was flying on a wyvern and he was wearing a silver badge so, he is a silver rank adventurer. For you to do the same thing would be very difficult."
Her words came, shattered his dream and went. His face became gloomy.
"Unless you form a blood pact with magic beasts, it is very difficult to tame it even if you are a high ranker. Even my Marq isn't that high in level and it was very difficult to form a blood pact with it." She added.
One could form a blood pact with magic beasts making the beasts their companion throughout their journey. No of companion wasn't limited but forming a blood pact with a magic beast was very difficult job and even genius like her didn't have a companion of much higher level.
A magic beast that mostly formed a blood pact with humans were summons and not some wild magic beasts. It was but a wild dream to tame the magic beasts of the dungeon, not to mention blood pact.
After confirming her identity, the guard gave back her card and waved his hand hinting the other to open the door.
Creak~
With a loud noise, the door opened a little so as to a person could pass through. Anna then glanced back at Oslo and said,
"Jackson, aren't you coming?"
Jackson? Listening to her, one of the guard that had opened the door was dazed. Isn't he Oslo?
The guard that had opened the door was Uncle John who was Oslo's neighbour on Earth. It only needed a glance for him to recognize him. Uncle John walked past Anna and stood before Oslo. He especially made his voice out loud,
"Good to meet you Jackson! How have you been? Haven't seen you in a long time."
Oslo's face was robbed of his color. He had given Anna an alias but who knew it would be Uncle John meeting him. He then looked Uncle John in the eyes and pleaded not to reveal his name using eye gestures.
"Haha," Uncle John let out a huge laugh as his arm wrapped around Oslo's shoulder, he said,
"Then next time you're gonna treat me, isn't that right?"
"O-of course, me will treat you to a dinner next time me sees you!" Oslo furiously nodded.
"Ha, that's a nice boy. I'll remember it then," Uncle John said patting his shoulder, "You can go for now!"
Oslo only smiled and entered the city with Anna. Another guard quickly stood before Uncle John and asked,
"Why didn't you ask for his Id and fee? Is he that great of an adventurer?"
"Nah" Uncle John shook his head and said, "He is a D-rank and I already know who he is so there is no need for checking his id. Besides even if I had asked money of him, he wouldn't have been able to enter the city."
Sighing with emotion, Uncle John said,
"I'll pay for him!"
Uncle John was very familiar with two boys as he was living as their neighbour for years. He also knew that Oslo didn't have a single penny on him and for him both brothers were like a part of his family as he had also taken care of them most of the time. He just gave out the fee to another guard.
'That boy doesn't trust anyone, does he?' Just thinking about it made him let out another sigh, 'How many times does this make? Even changing how he speaks!'
Even when Uncle John had first met the two boys first time, Oslo too had given him an alias. If not for his brother calling him with his original name, even Uncle John would have been calling Oslo using an alias.
...
The city was filled with houses except for the place which didn't have any house build inside it and covered the ground in circle. It was the central plaza that didn't have any houses in it.
The city was like a normal city in many ways. People were moving around, some in hurry ,some were just casually strolling around. Stall vendors were trying their hardest to sell their goods as couples were walking around hand to hand. It wouldn't have been different if there weren't some people taking pet magic beasts for a walk, if the sorcerers weren't flying above the houses using magic. The city Xean was as lively as always.
In the central plaza, a mirror stood grand. Comparing it with a one storey house was a joke as it was ten meters high and five meters wide. The images it reflected seemed alive but the images it reflected wasn't that of a city but all black. The darkness seemed alive and ready to devour anyone any moment.
Oslo looked at the mirror and felt excited,
"Finally..."
The mirror looked very ordinary but it was anything but that. On the contrary, it was guarded by people, not because of its size, nor because of its dark reflection but because of the power it contained within.
The guards were there so as to solve any problem that arose there and to maintain order.
The mirror who looked large but ordinary was infact what helped them transverse through the worlds. It was infact a portal which helped them move between Earth and Magic Land freely. In Earth, the portal was in the form of black hole but in Magic Land, it was infact the grand and enormous mirror from which even light reflected back as if it couldn't escape the clutches of darkness.
Many people were entering and exiting the portal in constant pace. Some of them were adventurers, some of them were visitors and some of them were merchant.
Oslo turned his head all around and throughly scanned the surrounding and said,
"It seems like the person you mentioned isn't her yet. So, me thinks me'll visit my home for some time.
Anna didn't say anything and only nodded. She had already scanned the surrounding even before Oslo so she approved of it.
But just as he tried walking toward portal, a hand grabbed him by his shoulder making him to stop in his feet. Oslo glanced back at the owner of the hand and when Oslo saw the person's face clearly, he blurted out in surprise,
"It's you!"