"Hey! Let's stop somewhere, to get our bearings!" David yelled out to Cherie, over the explosion of noise all around them.
The streets were lined with stores and stalls, with individuals yelling and shouting back and forth as they bargained with each other.
"Here!" Cherie pulled David into a polished wooden doorway, out of the stream of bodies.
"Alright. What's our next move? How are we going to find this friend of your dad's?" David asked, but his face fell as he saw Cherie's anxious face.
"I thought we'd look for the strongest person around. I assumed that'd be easy. But I wasn't imagining this." Cherie gestured to her CoreScanner, which was so packed with signals that there was barely a hint of darkness on the screen.
"I never thought I'd ever see a yellow core." Cherie's voice was trembling.
Even the system's version of the CoreScanner was struggling. The pair of them paused for a moment, as they took in the countless red dots around them.
Orange signals were scattered all around, and on the edge of Cherie's CoreScanner, was a yellow signal.
David kept his mouth shut, at the very edge of the system's scanner, was a faint green signal.
"Well, Brogan did say they were only useful in the wilderness, and that we should learn to rely on our senses." Cherie tore herself away from the scanner.
"Any other way we could find this person? Perhaps a meeting place?"
"Umm. Well, mum said they'd find me. Plus, I assumed it'd be obvious, I didn't think Lightharbor would be this big." The shop door slowed opened behind Cherie.
A thin figure, with slicked back white hair, stood there in a deep black suit, which had been embroidered to resemble the night sky.
"Friends." The man spoke, and even though he had a warm expression on his face, the tone of his voice was murderous.
"Either come on in." He gestured towards the tailor shop behind him, the walls stacked high with every kind of cloth imaginable.
"Or."
"Get."
"Out."
With each word his polite smile grew wider, revealing a mouth overflowing with gleaming fangs.
"We're very sorry."
Cherie and David said in unison, as they shot each other a worried look. They had both noticed something about the man in front of them.
They couldn't feel the slightest hint of mana from him at all, and he didn't show on the CoreScanner.
"Oh. Country bumpkins." The man sighed.
"Kids, if you keep making it so obvious that you've never been in Lightharbor before, you won't hold onto your lives for long." The venom in the man's voice had disappeared, replaced with a flat, frustrated tone.
"The only reason you're still walking is that you're a few rags away from looking like beggars."
"Do whatever you must here, and get out. Lightharbor isn't a place for children or weaklings." The man dropped his tinted glasses slightly, a pair of empty eyes staring at them.
"Or both." He sighed, shutting the door in their faces.
Cherie and David hurriedly stepped away from the door, melting back into the stream of people.
"What do we do!"
"I don't know!"
"I think this coming here was a mistake!"
"You're telling me!"
They began to bicker back and forth, walking aimlessly through the city. Around them, the rougher stone buildings turned to rickety wooden buildings.
The smell of smoke, spices and perfumes that had been hanging in the air near the gates turned into a stink.
"Can you smell that?" David turned to Cherie, this was one downside of his enhanced senses. He could smell every component of the stink.
There was rotting food, burning rubbish, a dead body and vomit.
"Of course I can." Cherie's face was scrunched up in disgust.
A wind started to blow, and David winced, expecting the smell to get worse. But instead, there was sharp, clean, salty smell of the ocean.
"Wow. So that's what the ocean smells like. I guess the stories were true." David sighed in amazement.
Cherie took in a deep breath, enjoying the breeze.
"Ew!" She suddenly yelled, as the wind died down, and the disgusting smell was back.
The roads grew narrower and narrower, and the crowd around them gradually changed.
Those they had seen around the gates had been wearing bright, tidy clean clothing, and had all walked with a purposeful gaze.
Now, everyone looked around with shifty, darting eyes. Most wore heavy dark hooded cloaks, and if they didn't have a hand clearly on a weapon, it was hidden inside a pocket or bag.
"I don't like this." Cherie muttered to David.
"I think we should head back." David replied, grabbing her hand, and turning around.
"Heeyyyyyyyyyy. You were going in just the right direction." Behind them stood a short man, his mouth glittering with gold and silver teeth.
His head was shaven, and a thin braided moustache dropped down to his chest.
The man wore an open red shirt, revealing a tattoo covered chest. And on his legs. were a pair of gaudy gold trousers.
"Excuse me, we've got someone waiting for us." David stepped to the man's right, then stopped in his tracks.
A long shining cutlass was blocking his path. Unlike everything else the man was touching, the cutlass was perfectly clean, and the edge shone, clearly razor sharp.
"Why don't you go ahead, and leave this pretty thing with me?" The man winked an amber colored eye at David, a disgusting smile of his face.
"I don't think so." David grabbed his sword, ready to fight. Then, out of habit, he took a look at his scanner.
"No. David." At the same time, Cherie pulled David's hand away from his sword.
Both of them took in the yellow circle, with three clear stars around it.
[User. According to my calculation, you have a 0.000-]
'I know. No need to tell me.' David cut the system off, he knew that this man carried more than a hundred times the mana he did.
But still, David went to pull out his sword.
A sharp pain shot through his arm, but David fought through it, struggling to draw the sword.
"Hahahaha. I respect yah kid. Going to protect your girlie even though you're scared shitless." The man laughed, looking at David's shaking arm, thinking he was afraid rather than in pain.
[User. Please stop now. I do not wish to increase the level of deterrence.] The system spoke, but David grit his teeth and continued.
'Never again.' Blood dripped from David's mouth as he pushed on.
David's eyes lost focus, the pain only growing more and more intense. But he didn't care, he could still see the blurry red and gold figure of the stranger.
"You'll have to kill me before I go anywhere with you." Cherie hissed, pulling her swords out, pointing them at the man.
"Sweetpea." The man's grin grew only wider.
"You really think you're something huh?"
"I'll only lose a couple coins if I sell ya dead." The man's laughed, the sound was like a rusty door creaking again and again.
Cherie's heart sunk when she figured out what the man meant to do.
Now, David's sword was pointed at the man, who ignored it. Blood dripped from the handle, David's nails digging into his palms.
"Alright then, I guess, we'll need to do this the hard way." The man sighed, pretending to be disappointed, but the grin on his face only grew wider.
"I've changed my mind. I'll take you too boy, you've got some spunk." Turning to David, the man flicked his cutlass at David's sword.
David's sword went clattering to the ground. The pain from the system disappeared, it seemed it had given up.
At that moment, the man's head disappeared.