The Hard Summer City is located on a mountain, meaning its surrounding area is hard to explore. However, with two guides and helpful spells such as "steady feet" and "physical power strengthening," it's not at all difficult for Mike and his team.
There are five sites near the city that are considered historical landmarks.
The first is called Red Summer Painting. This ancient work illustrates a big ball painted in red. Without knowing its significance, one wouldn't understand its importance just by looking at it. The Red Summer, which was painted on a rock inside a cave, is the reason the city was named 'Summer.'
It's said that the first humans who reached here longed for warmth, and an unknown artist among them drew it and named it Red Summer. The name stuck, and the whole place came to be known as Red Summer despite being frozen for a good portion of the year.
As more humans, including many mages, arrived, the city's name remained. It's unclear when "Red" changed to "Hard." The few records that remain indicate it happened between 200 and 250 years ago, but the reason is unknown.
...
Mike looked at the well-kept Red Summer Painting. Despite being who knows how many years old, its colors were still vibrant.
"What is the significance of this again?" asked Mike. He felt he was wasting his time and not gaining any useful experience.
One of the guides said, "This is the beginning of our history. Our mages visit this cave at least once a year to remember our origins. Ordinary people cannot come here easily, so we have painted the Red Sun in a few locations in the city, too, so that even ordinary people can appreciate it."
"Teacher, let's move on to the next one," said Mike, who was not interested in the origin story of a tiny city in the mountains.
"We just arrived! Let's stay here for an hour. This is my first time seeing the Red Sun, and I am interested in studying ancient paintings," she said, then took out a magical magnifier and moved forward.
The two guides looked worried; they were afraid Mage Demon Hand would touch or scratch it. Fortunately for them, she only looked at it through the magic magnifier.
"Despite being drawn centuries ago, the red color is still fresh. My guess is that the red color is from a mutated flower, probably a magical red rose," she said.
"Look at this! It looks like a signature. Maybe the artist signed their name on it?" She looked amazed.
The other guide came forward and said, "That signature is from our first mayor. He came here and signed his name to gain legitimacy."
"Ancient vandalism! Interesting!" Mage Demon Hand said while looking all around with the magnifier.
...
After over an hour, Mage Demon Hand finally became satisfied with her findings. In the end, she didn't discover anything new; this painting has been examined thousands of times, and everything that can be uncovered has already been uncovered.
The next famous landmark was Blue Lake. A few small lakes surround the city, most of which contain drinkable water.
However, one of these small lakes has blue water. Although the water is completely undrinkable, it works like a miracle for plant life; it helps them grow tens of times quicker.
The residents of the city do not know how to make blue water or where the Blue Lake's water comes from. It's only known that the lake produces a few thousand liters of blue water every year. There are very stringent limits on what it can be used on and how much each year. They usually only use it on hard-to-grow fruits and those with the most nutritional value. It's said that the blue lake was the reason the city's people managed to survive many hard winters; over the years, it came to be known as one of the city's pillars.
"Blue water, huh? Isn't it just magic fertilizer?" wondered Mage Demon Hand.
"I usually won't get bored, but even I am getting bored," said Mike. In his view, he could gain far more knowledge from a library. He came here to see demons and experience dangers, not this.
"This blue water contains an extremely diluted bloodline of fertility. It's far less than even 1%, but it's there. This is not magic fertilizer," Mage Demon Hand said after testing the water with a few devices she brought.
"No, this water is holy. It's not demonic!" said one of the guides, quite offended.
Mage Demon Hand didn't answer; she was not going to debate a fact; the water, without a doubt, has the remains of a demonic bloodline. It's likely that a pure-blooded demon died here long ago; its blood contaminated it. Through the years, most of it has returned to circulation, but some of it still remains.
...
After another hour, they moved to another landmark: Top of the World!
The city is on a mountain, but not at its top. The landmark is the top of the mountain on which the city is built.
It was basically as one may expect: cold, dry, and mostly barren, with a good view on clear days and no view on cloudy days. The mountain top was around 6,000 meters. For ordinary people, it would take a long time to get to, but for Mike and the team, it took half an hour.
"Great, what a great view!" Mage Demon Hand smiled. The weather was extremely clear; even from this high, she could see all the way down without using spells.
"This place is where our mayors take their oaths of office to protect our people and our belongings. It is a tradition that each mayor, at the beginning of her term, writes a letter for her successor and leaves it in a secret place. We have records of all past letters in our library. You can read them if you are interested," said the guide.
"Teacher, please, let's go," Mike said impatiently. He felt he was wasting his precious time. After all, no matter how powerful, people can only live 100 years in this world.
"What is that?" asked Mage Demon Hand while pointing with her finger down at a spot at the foot of the mountain.
"That is one of our outposts. To better protect the city, we have many preparations. The wall is the strongest one, but not the only one. There are many traps, towe…" the guide was saying but was interrupted.
"I know it's a tower; I am asking why it is on fire," said Master Demon Hand.
"What is your honor talking about?" the guide acted confused.
"Take this," Demon Hand gave the binoculars to the guide.
The guide looked at where she was pointing. His face paled visibly and immediately.
"Oh no! Our outpost has been destroyed! The city's in danger!" he said in a shrill voice. It had been decades since the last time they had been in such a dangerous situation.
"Let's go back!" Mage Demon Hand said, and everyone nodded.
...
The East Forest demonic city was big, with over 20,000 demon residents.
Because demons would inevitably fight each other if too packed, the demonic leaders built the cities over a large area. For this reason, even though there are no more than 20,000 demons, they occupy a very large area of land.
Demonic houses are made of mud; it's very generous to call them houses. Most demons are muddle-blooded and with very low intelligence. For them, even a hole in the ground would suffice as a 'house.'
To begin with, the demonic leaders treat 'houses' more as prisons. If demons leave their houses without authorization, they will be killed by demon inspectors. This is the only way to keep such chaotic creatures in check. Most of them at least have a little survival instinct to remember not to get out. Of course, there are demons too dumb to even remember that. Those extremely dumb demons are directly killed; they are simply more trouble than useful.
As one moved closer to the city center, the demonic houses improved in quality. At the city center, the houses all resembled palaces of aristocrats, kings, and queens.
The center is where pure-blooded demons live. The city center of the East Forest was usually basked in light, with all kinds of food lying around, but that is no longer the case.
...
"We should go into the city," said Mage Shining Light.
In just two days, the situation in the city got so bad that the center could no longer hold. A few intelligent demons took command of muddle-blooded demons, and each left in a different direction. This evaded the worst-case scenario of total chaos, but demon armies marching into the unknown is hardly a desirable situation.
Over the years, pure-blooded demons have found many ways of controlling muddle-blooded demons. It's like training a pet; you can order it by certain sounds, gestures, foods, etc., but like pets, one can, at best, give simple commands; muddle-blooded demons are incapable of performing complicated tasks.
"This is a good idea!" said Mage Twisted Tongue, the leader of one of the nearby stations.
The demonic city is entirely empty, which means many resources and information may be left unguarded. Of course, those intelligent demons may have taken everything, but they couldn't get everything in such a short time.
Mage Shining Light's main task was to sneak into the camp using her special abilities, but now, her task is moot, as all demons have already left. She had already warned all stations and the human civilization's command center about the incident.
At the moment, the best course of action is to explore the city to see if there is something helpful there.