Unlike the empty street the night before, the pair were greeted by a bustling street with families playing together under the bright sun. Children ran around screaming happily, nobody would have guessed that this was the same area where Lucian was almost killed the night before or the same area where a pod from space landed.
"There's so many people! Everyone on my planet holed themselves away in fear of the monsters. How are your people able to run around so freely without any fear?"
"I guess they just trust in the hunters to do their job. I hope you can try and feel free as well here, but you probably shouldn't mention the whole you being from another planet thing, I wouldn't want you being taken away from me would I?"
"Of course not, I want to stay together forever!" Luna grabbed Lucian's arm, wrapping around it as they began to walk.
"Good morning Lucian, finally got a girlfriend I see." An old woman who lived nearby called out to the couple.
"Wife, actually, Margaret, she's my wife."
"You make a lovely couple, good luck with your marriage." The old lady looked off into the distance, "Oh how I miss you, Bart..."
Throughout the walk down the street, many people called out to the two of them, excited to see the boy they had all watched grow up finally looking happy.
Although none of them had actively helped Lucian out, none of them held any bad will for him and were happy to see him doing something other than training.
They walked down the road slowly, taking in the peace around them for different reasons. Luna was happy to be on a planet that wasn't yet completely doomed, and Lucian was happy to finally have something good in his life.
They reached their destination after a few minutes, and the two of them sat down at the bus stop.
Luckily they had left at the right time, as after a few minutes the bus arrived. It was a double-decker bus, red in colour and advertising a film on the side of it. Lucian paid for both Luna and himself, and they sat down at the back of the first deck.
"Did you have buses on your planet?" Lucian asked, making sure to not raise his voice as he didn't want anyone else to hear.
"Not really, we had something similar, but they floated above the ground instead of using the circles on this bus."
"They're called wheels, I really should get around to teaching you some basic stuff about this planet at some point shouldn't I?"
"Probably, yes." Luna giggled.
There wasn't much traffic on the roads, so the journey on the bus to the town centre wasn't too bad.
It just so happened that the city that Lucian lived in had a large town centre full of every kind of shop, spanning from general goods to clothes, and even weapons and items for hunters. In the middle of the town centre was the Hunter's Association building where they would be going to register later.
The bus pulled up to the stop which Lucian knew was nearest to the shopping section of the town centre, and he grabbed Luna's hand and stood up, "Come on babe, we're here."
"Oh, okay. I'm excited to see what kinds of clothes they sell around here." A smile beamed on her face, and Lucian felt warm inside while looking at her.
Luna stood up and followed Lucian off of the bus and, despite the empty roads, they were greeted by the sight of a bustling environment.
"Where do you want to go first then Luna?"
"I don't know... Surprise me, I've got no idea what sort of clothes I can get."
"Alright, I'll take you where I think they sell what would suit you best. Follow me."
Luna followed behind Lucian as they weaved through the crowds of people, eventually making their way to an alleyway with significantly fewer people going down it.
Lucian led her to a small shop which was somewhat hidden and seemed quieter than the large shops on the main strip that had been full of people.
"I've heard that this shop sells clothes quite similar to what you're in now, those big shops are a bit more basic so I thought I should let you have a look around here."
"Thank you, I didn't really like the look of what was in those shops anyway, to be honest, I hope I like it in here."
Lucian pushed the door open and the two of them walked through before Luna started to look around.
"Wow, I love this!"
"This is so cute."
"I can't decide what I want to get!"
Lucian enjoyed watching Luna jump from one item to another, glad to see that she was a fan of the shop he had brought her to.
"Don't worry about the price, just get whatever you want, I can't have my wife walking around in the same outfit every day, can I? Besides, we'll make loads of money from selling Mana Crystals once we become hunters anyway."
"Mmmm, good point, I still feel a little bad though."
"Don't, get whatever you like. I didn't realise you guys used mana crystals too, what did you use them for?"
"Mostly to power stuff, but we had some new inventions closer to the end that were only possible with mana stones, I can't remember exactly what they were though, I was always locked up inside for my safety. "
"Hey, at least you aren't locked up anymore, go get whatever you'd like."
"Okay Lu, thanks!" The look of sadness on her face faded away as she went back to looking around, now picking out everything that she liked.
'Inventions that couldn't exist without mana stones, I wonder what they could have been. If something like that is created on Earth in time then we might stand a better chance against the monsters.' Lucian stood in silence, momentarily taking his attention away from his wife, and when he looked back he saw her standing in front of a pile of clothes stacked up at a till.
The woman working the till was shocked, it was obvious that they didn't have sales this big frequently, but Luna would need a good amount of clothes to be able to live a normal life as soon as possible.
She began to scan each of the items one at a time, and the total was racking up. Despite the shop being small and not all that popular, the brands being sold were well-known within the community that wore those sorts of clothes. This meant that when the total was calculated it was a relatively high number.
"£334.99 in total, would you like to pay by cash or card?"
"Card, thanks." Lucian got his card out of his pocket and tapped it on the screen.
"That's gone through, I'll get everything bagged up for you."
"Thank you." Lucian replied before turning to Luna who looked ecstatic, "You happy then, babe?"
Luna hugged Lucian tight, "I am, thank you! I hope it wasn't too much money."
"Don't worry about it, I've got quite a bit saved up, the least I can do for my saviour and wife is buy her some clothes." Lucian rubbed the top of Luna's hair while she embraced him.
Despite spending the majority of his time training and going to school, Lucian had been working part-time as an instructor at the gym he went to. This meant he could train and make money all at the same time, and apart from food he hadn't found much use for money, so alongside the money he received from his parents' life insurance and the support he got from Jackson he had a good amount saved up.
"All done, thank you for shopping with us!" The woman said, clearly overjoyed with the large sale.
"We have a bit more shopping to do, would it be possible to come by and grab it in a little while? There's quite a lot, and later it will be easier for me to take it back home with me."
The woman replied, "Of course, we'll keep it stored upstairs for you, I'll be here all day so whenever you're ready you can come and pick it up."
"Thank you, that's a huge help. Okay, come on Luna, we've got something else to go and buy."
Lucian walked over to the shop door, opening it once again to leave this time.
As they were walking through the door, Luna asked him a question, "So what else is it that we need to buy, Lu?"
"Even though I've trained in most weapons, I don't have any of my own. I was just using the practice weapons at my gym, but if we're going to be going into dungeons then we probably need to get weapons of our own."
"That makes sense, do you know where you're going to get them from."
"As a matter of fact, I do, someone I used to know told me about a blacksmith that's based around here. He isn't exactly the most popular, but he makes some very high-quality weapons for beginner hunters. They aren't infused with mana stones, but the quality is far beyond anything else on the market for us."
"Who told you about him, can I meet them?"
"If you'd have landed only a few days ago then I would've said yes, but he passed away in a dungeon raid. He was the only person who helped me out after my parents died, and I'll never forget what he did for me."
"He sounds nice, I wish I could've met him, and I wish I could've met your parents."
"I feel the same way, I know they would've loved you."
"I'm glad to hear it. Want to show me the way then?"
"For sure, it isn't too far from here actually."
Lucian led the way, it was down a winding alleyway that seemed to lead to nowhere. He could tell that Luna was a bit sceptical about where they were going, so he made sure to hold her hand nice and tightly so as to comfort her.
"We're here."