Yuta and Issei wake up the next morning with a single dominant thought on their mind: get past that gate. Issei suggests climbing over it but the gate is much too tall for something like that.
"Let's try going down the mountain, we might be able to just open it." Yuta says.
Their descent down the mountain doesn't take long. This must be the first marker of their adventure, they were simply ecstatic to see what could be next.
After the last few steps of the climb down the mountain they are exhausted, Yuta takes a second to breathe, while Issei looks in front of himself in amazement.
"Yuta! Look!" He exclaims. Yuta turns around, he gazes at what feels like hope. There are other people here!
"Issei, let's go look around!" Yuta shouts, grabbing Issei's arm. They see a young boy while running toward the blacksmith shop.
The boy's jaw drops in amazement, "Hold on! Come here!" The boy says.
Yuta has a skeptical look on his face, it could be a trap. "Come on, let's just see what he wants," Issei says
Yuta reluctantly listens to Issei, he's learnt to trust Issei's advice. They approach the boy, the boy shakes both their hands. His skin is smooth and his armor shines in the bright daylight.
"What do you want?" Issei says intimidatingly. The boy is startled, "I just wanted to meet you guys! Your aura is strong. May I ask, are you royalty of some sort?"
"No, why would you think that?" Yuta asks. "What? Being that powerful at your age without royal blood? That's absolutely astounding!"
"Really?" Issei smirks and puts his arm up to his bicep.
Yuta gives him a dirty look. "You seem strong, too," he says, "I can see royal blue tsu leaking from your armor."
"I am quite strong, thank you. Nice to meet you guys! I am Nadir Faleor." The boy introduces himself.
"I heard that name before, Faleor. Right! My mom told me about the king of water, Nex Faleor! Are you his son?"
"Yes, I am indeed. Now may I give you two instructions to gate through the first gate?" Nadir says.
Issei says, "So you are strong, the son of Nex, and also 8 years old?"
"I am not 8! I am 46!" Nadir says, "Nex's blood reduces physical aging. He is the king of water! Now do you want to know how to get through the gate or not!"
"Okay! Fine! Tell us!" Issei exclaims.
"Do you two know about the land of water?" Nadir asks, "No, We just know about regions." Yuta says. "This world started as a single region, the region of dark. The world was painful and brutal. The leader of the dark, Loif Mald overtook the world as the first being alive, he was a god. 4 beings of the Underground Rebellion stood up to Loif. Nav, the king of water, Roi, the king of fire, Mia, the queen of ice, and Jov, the king of hope. After a long fight, they defeated Loif and rose to god status. I am part of the Faleor family, which is Nav Faleor's legacy. If you wonder which part of the world we are in at this moment. It would be the land of hope. Past this gate is the land of water"
"We don't have time for questions so, only ask one each," Nadir says.
Issei thinks 'Why so organized?' in response to Nadir's statement of only one question each. He wonders why they don't have much time, too.
"Issei, do you have a question?" Issei is cut off by Yuta. He says, "Yes, why are we in the land of hope? The region of roses was not a very nice journey."
"Well, Issei, didn't you notice your mind that whole time was that you hoped to depart alive?" Now that he noticed, he was hopeful the whole time they were there, was it the same for everyone?
"Yuta, what is your question?" Nadir asks, "I want to know about tsu." "That's a complicated answer, but I can tell you the important parts of the system. Tsu is divided into 5 categories, each chosen by the user: enhancing, conjuring, awareness, pyromancy, and traditional magic like the one you see in stories. Each of these has benefits and you can use more than one at the same time, you two have probably been using enhancing which is the easiest to use and master. Conjuring can conjure things like weapons, but you can only use it until you are exhausted and you can only conjure something you have seen before. you can also conjure something like water or smoke if you need to." Nadir is cut off by Issei, "What about awareness? I think Yuta has used that before,"
"What? Awareness is the hardest to use! No way you learned it without teaching!" Yuta is flattered but wants Nadir to keep explaining tsu.
"Tsu can be stacked onto each other. For example, conjuring water can be enhanced and become more dense. Or you could use pyromancy and awareness to send a fireball that you can see out of or hear. Stacking tsu is very hard though, even I can't stack magic and pyromancy, my two main tsu types! Once you have more mastery with tsu, you can create your own unique technique! It could be one tsu type or all five. Doesn't matter as long as you have enough mastery."
"Now, you two should go find a weapon or staff, bare-handed combat is awfully inconvenient."
The group walks over to the staff, spell and steel shop, excited to know what their main combat type will be for most likely their whole journey.
"What are you looking for?" The fat man at the front desk yells. The shop is dusty and cheap with paperlike walls and dirty floors.
"We're just browsing," Issei says. The three walk to the staff section to find out if either of them wants to use magic.
Issei picks up the staff and swings it, "Not my type of combat," He says. Nadir and Yuta start laughing, "He doesn't know it's for magic!" Issei groans and says, "Whatever, I don't like this."
Yuta walks up to the staff with Nadir, "This one is pyromancy based, this one is magic based, and this one is well rounded. Which would you want?" Yuta points toward the well-rounded one, one side of it is filled with beautiful crystals, and the other side is seemingly fire stuck inside of the glass. It is appealing to the eyes, and besides. Yuta always wanted to be a wizard. "Okay! Yuta has made a decision, now Issei, which kind of weapon would you wa-" Nadir is cut off by Issei's excited screech, "I want the really big sword!" "Okay, I guess I can give you this one." It was much too big to be called a sword, massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was like a heap of raw iron. Issei tries to pick it up and lifts it with ease, not even with the use of tsu. "This is pretty heavy!" "That's 512 pounds, Issei," Nadir says in disbelief. "I know! It's heavy!" Issei says while flipping it up in the air like a toy. "Yuta, come try this, it's fun!" Yuta runs over and attempts to pick it up. "What! How the hell did you pick this up? I'm using tsu and it won't come off the ground." "Have you tried lifting your arms while holding it?" Yuta seems annoyed but still happy he won't have to deal with such a giant weapon. "You two have weapons now, so I can give you this Yuta. It's a spellbook, my old one. This is what I used when learning magic, it will be a big help to you. Now, we shall open the gates and get going to the land of water!" "Woohoo!" Yuta and Issei shout out with glee.
The three walk out of the shop and towards the gate. The group walking toward the monstrous gate makes them stop and look at what will happen! Nadir pulls his book out and turns to the seventy-fourth page, only the beginning of it. He starts to chant a deep, loud chant. Everyone stands up and looks toward Nadir, will this be their ticket out of the land of hope? The start of their very own journey? Nadir grabs his staff and slams it into the ground, making cracks go across to the gate. The huge door creaks open. As the sun sets, the other sun rises. A whole new world, filled with new things the adventurers hadn't seen before. The land of water.
As Issei and Yuta run toward the gate they wave goodbye to Nadir, hoping to see him again. All the people running around and cheering make Issei and Yuta lose each other in the crowd. Although they were worried they wanted to keep going, ignoring anything bad. The two would walk into different sections of the entry dungeon, the true barrier between the land. Issei's path started with a test of strength and agility, while Yuta's started with spell manipulation. Yuta had never used spells before, his anxiety started to devour him in the crowd knowing he'd fail. He couldn't give up now, though. For Issei. In the test, he was told to give the best pyromancy spell he could. He would pull out his book and slide his finger across the very best pyromancy he could find, he would then tap two fingers onto the fiery side of his staff and gracefully form the spell with perfect form and efficiency. He would open his eyes to see a powerful dragon behind him covered in flames. He could feel the warmth of the dragon and control it however he needed to, he could also somehow feel where the dragon was at the time. Yuta swung his arm toward the dummy and the dragon attacked. Wrapping around the dummy, engulfing it in flames. "Pass," The testing man said. Yuta walked along the path to the next test.
Back at Issei's section, his test was to use or create his tsu technique, He wasn't too worried, and Nadir explained how to make one. As he stepped up to the block he would come up with an idea. He could be able to make himself into a spirit for a split second using an idea of his that could pass him, de-enhancement. The human body is not just a spirit, it is a living thing, so if he could do whatever he does to enhance, he can also do the opposite and revert to a spirit. His idea was a bit risky, but it could work. He dashes toward the test dummy and de-enhances his body, letting it go through the dummy at a great speed, it seems as though he just disappeared with his sword, but he enhances back to his body and then transfers tsu into his sword behind the dummys back and slams his sword into its shoulder, cutting it into two. "Pass," The testing man said. Issei walked along this surprisingly clean path with only one other person coming out with him. A loud, scratchy voice yells out, "The next test is a fighting test to see who moves on to the final test! Now, fight!" Issei doesn't panic, he expected there to be something like this. The person he's fighting looks a bit older than him, he's using a katana with deep blue steel. He looks bloodthirsty, are these the only people who qualify after the first test? Monsters? 'Whatever I'll just beat him and meet up with Yuta.' Issei thinks. The opponent jumps high into the air and summons crystal needles from his sword, Issei does not panic and follows up by blocking his attack, he doesn't realize the enemy is now behind him, charging up a strike from his sword. Issei de-enhances his body and jumps behind the enemy, he then strikes and pounds him into the ground, it looks as though he'd won already, but not yet. The opponent jumps off the ground and cracks his neck back into place, "I won't die that easily!" He screeches and dashes back at Issei, but he barely counters and smacks the man with his sword, the enemy goes on a rampage and swings his sword so fast Issei needs to use a large amount of tsu to block the attacks, he de-enhances and jumps into the air to re-enhance. He strikes the man in the head as the finishing blow, takes the sword out of his head, and strikes his heart, 'He can't stay alive after that, I hit his heart and brain.' Issei was right, he died. He felt guilty for killing him but some people deserved to die, especially that guy.
Yuta walks to the next test but to his surprise, no one else is there, a loud man yells, "You are the only one that passed, you may go." So Yuta walks along to the next area. This is where the two sections connect, Yuta sees Issei waiting on the floor with his sword stuck into the wall, "Issei!" Yuta shouts, "You're back!" Issei yells, "Wasn't this a bit too easy?" Issei is cut off by the sound of shaking. A large guardian comes out of a door, his sword is almost 3 times the size of Issei's and his armor is dense. The two are left astounded but excited at the sight of this.