The Silverhenge Druid reported Murciel and Logan's disappearance to Professor Switch swiftly and as callously as a wildcat would smack a bird out of the sky.
They were punished. Murciel wished it was with his avian professors name sake.
Instead, they had to run around the line of marching students for three miles at the start of the last two days travel. Every meal suddenly felt less filling, and by the time they could see Mirage's End on the jungle horizon, Murciel prayed for the emmergence of a massive Petrasaur or panther to feed on in secret.
But also, like everyone else, the young vampire couldn't help but marvel at the cities beauty.
Mirage's End wasn't like the cities he was accustomed too. The forests weren't shaped and designed to be harmonious with the existence of man.
It sat at the end of a long stretch of hot desert and was made of shaped sandstone and fine jewels to create tall buildings and stacked homes. All around the cities perimeter, waterways ran like a liquid barrier, birthing thin linings of grass and flowers reaching for the sweltering sun.
"Remember, foul-seeds. Stick close to me and your peers. The bounty-grove is in the heart of the city." Professor Switch said.
Murciel gained a new spring in his step as they approached the entrance gates.
Guards stood in armor he'd never seen. They didn't wear any common leathers or bark shielding. They wore the hides of tough skinned creatures and—
"Is that tyrannosaur scale armor?" Murciel asked Logan as they walked at the back of the line.
"Most likely. They're fairly common further towards High-Earth. My uncle had an egg for the longest."
"No way…." Murciel mumbled in shocks. "Is the armor heavy?"
Logan nodded, "Not at all— and it's highly fire resistant. God-slayer regiments get the hides grafted to their skin. They look like lizardmen by the end of it."
"God-slayer?" Olivander said from behind them.
"Yea don't just skip past that." Roan added from ahead.
"I guess they wouldn't tell you all…. It ruins the mythology of my people."
"No kidding."
"God-slayers are just Firespeaker bounty-hunters. They keep us in line….. generally. A lot of them are also bribed to look the other way. A rich God-slayer is a corrupt one. I read that in an alley on my journey through here."
"There's Godslayer's here?" Murciel questioned in a frenzy.
"Quiet down before we end up running again!" Logan snapped.
Sandman nipped at Logan's ear in defense of the Vampire.
"Do you think one would spar me while we're here?" Murciel asked.
"They're more likely to kill you for sport. Stay away— and I know you won't listen to that so I'll keep following you just in case."
"Are you sure Sandmaw is the guard dog and not you?" Roan asked.
"I'm positive."
"That was a jok—"
"I didn't laugh."
"Oh brother…." Roan kept walking ahead as Professor Switch spoke with the guards and was eventually let into the city.
As Murciel crossed over the grass and water barriers in the desert sands, he felt the pulse of magic wash over him.
"Special-Crop." Roan mumbled.
Murciel jumped in the air, front flipping up beside her, "What is that?"
"Do you read?"
"Do you?"
"Fair." Roan relented, "Special-Crop are plants magically empowered and adjusted by Druids usually at the Elementalist Cultivation Stage— more specifically Low-Chlorokinetics. They can change the properties and stuff."
"Sounds confusing." Murciel said.
"Well yea, we're not even in Silverhenge."
"Yet."
The city spread beyond them in stride. People seemingly from a different planet traveled in robes and clothes carrying baskets of wild colored fruits and meats that smelled sour.
"Why do they look this way?" Murciel asked Logan. His impromptu tour guide.
"The species they hunt and plants they consume here are different. Plus the sun spews it's magic more intensely here. It makes the people darker— the diet is what makes them taller and thinner. Less fatty nuts and berries, more tough meat from lizards and stone-horns."
"They almost look like people from High-Earth." Murciel said.
"Proximity breeds similarity." Logan said.
Eventually, Murciel looked away from the men and women— even as some rode leather skinned hairless fanged horses and giant boats, and instead watched the grounds.
Lines of grass and flowers moved through the city like veins.
There was one tree per block bearing fruit and two bushes birthing vegetables. Each one was patrolled by heavily armored guards.
Professor Switch explained that Mirage's End— due to its location, was a city that would attract scarcity crime if they let the green bloom as it could. Thieves and raiders would've torn the city down centuries ago. So, a rationed balance is maintained and set as law. Anyone who steals is killed. And anyone who isn't strong enough to survive on the strict diet shouldn't be in the city beside the gods.
Especially since it doubled as a breeding pen to them. The first center-earth city beyond High-Earth. They couldn't risk gods procreating with weak humans.
A lot went on at the same time in Mirage's End.
And that was before reaching the Bounty-Grove.
The Junior-initiates gasped as the grove loomed.
Unlike the rest of the city it was a giant stone and grass floor with the most beautiful flowers forming its borders and accents.
A giant desert tree with beige bark stood five hundred feet tall with a thousand branches growing in all directions. From each spindly sharp limb, an Edenic Apple hung. They looked like rounded diamonds. Icy blue and shimmering under the sun.
"It is with these apples that you'll start your Sacred-Diets. And not the apple itself, but the seeds. Where the power is concentrated." Professor Switch explained. "And the higher up the tree you climb, the greater quality the seed within. You'll be able to process the Ambient-Mana within and create Inner-Mana far more potent. It'll circulate through your organs and if you maintain a diet of similar structure, your body will grow in power and Mana transformation efficiency. This is what'll allow you to become Silverhenge Druids. But, Wyrms are drawn to trees that produce these sacred fruits so be weary in your foraging." Professor Switch explained.
Murciel knew his mother took down a few Wyrms with Titus in her time. He'd have to ask Mrs Augustus about it when he returned home. Once he was stronger.
"Now, you may begin your c—"
Murciel took off for the tree ahead of everyone else and began climbing.
A race for power in the city of mirages realized had begun.