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Mid Evening - Early Spring : Northern Siratha

After experimenting a bit more with the potions, time quickly passed and Bj?rn finally finished fighting off the poison.

"You about ready?" I glanced back at Bj?rn who was clamping the spare potions to his waistband.

"Yes Sir! Are you really sure you don't want these potions though? You could sell them for quite a bit." He was actually quite nervous about actually taking them.

"I'm alright, I don't have any need for small sums of money." Although I did have plans to actually earn money in case I needed to buy something expensive, as long as things cost a few gold or less, I didn't feel bad about just making the coins with magic.

"Haha, alright, well.." Likely thinking I was joking he chuckled a bit and finished packing his things. "Shall we get to the road?" He looked oddly excited.

"Lead the way!" I was in a great mood after the cluster of fascinating discoveries. -I have so much I can experiment with now..-

I was smiling cheek to cheek as we finally got back on the road.

-Thank goodness I didn't let him die..- The path was complicated and genuinely awful, it would have taken a crazy amount of time and luck to find the city on my own.

But after several hours of running non stop, morning rolled around and Bj?rn started looking extremely fatigued.

"Let's stop here for a bit, you need some rest." I waved away his worry as he propped his hands on his knees and let out heavy breaths.

"Haah.. Im.. hah.. sorry for being so tired.. hah... It seems.. the poison isn't totally.. gone.." His face was pale and with beads of sweat rolling down it.

-I'm impressed you lasted this long, whether you're poisoned or not..- "Take your time and rest up, I'll stand guard so sleep all you like."

"I... How could I let my.. hah.. benefactor do that..” He looked a bit guilty.

"Just sleep man, I don't need to rest like you do." -I’m a tad tired but if I nap, I'll be KO’d for several days so..-

After staring at me with a face of guilt and confusion for a while, he finally calmed down and dozed off.

-These rest areas are pretty convenient..- As I walked back outside, I hung my legs over the edge of the branch and listened to the melody of tweeting birds. -Maybe I should take a break from practicing magic for a bit..-

Laying back on the branch, I thought back to everything that had happened over the past few months.

"Haah.. right.." -I nearly forgot about that weird contract… I probably shouldn't be lazing about in that case..-

After a bit more contemplation, I fell into a deep focus and lost track of time.

Before I knew it, night returned and Bj?rn woke back up.

"You all rested up?"

"Yes! Thank you, Sir Whyte!" He gave a deep and exaggerated bow as he walked out of the rest area.

Although I wanted to reply with some enthusiasm, my mind was taking a moment to shift out of my deep concentration. "Please calm down, let's just get back to the road." I gave him a slightly forced smile.

Getting back on the road, we finally finished out the final stretch of the journey after several more hours.

-We made some really good time.. much better than the 3 day estimate..- Once we got within a couple kilometers of the city, we ran into a few signs saying we were close.

"This.. should be the edge.. of the city." He looked forward where we could see some distant buildings and rope bridges.

-Its just like the town?- "How big is this city?"

"Ah, about 600,000 natives I believe." He said it so nonchalantly but it was a number that broke my mind.

-WHAT?!- It was a number that was big for cities on earth, let alone a world barely into the middle ages. -Even with magic.. how is it possible to sustain that many people..-

Getting lost in thought, we quickly made it to the edge of the city.

It didn't look much different from the town, but was much more lively and instead of just stretching across a few trees, it extended as far as I could see.

"Is the whole city like this?" As I looked around, I struggled to believe that a colossal city could exist with just small buildings that could be built on or around trees.

"Ah, no. The real city is a few kilometers further inward, this is just the outskirts. Would you like me to escort you there?"

-Oh, so this is like the suburbs..- "Yeah, if you could, that’d be great."

Thankfully, with a bit of idle chatter as we walked, it didn't take long to get there.

"Hm?" -There's a clearing?- Although just barely, I could see some daylight through the trees in front of us.

At the time, I figured it was just a mid-sized hole in the canopy, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

-What the..- "Holy sh*t.." I was in complete awe as I finally looked into the several dozen kilometer wide circular clearing.

Towards the ground, there was a tall and circular mesa that took up nearly all of the clearing, but on top of it there was a colossal city with immense amounts of farming on the outskirts.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Bj?rn wore a warm smile as he overlooked the city. "It's said to be a city built on the stump of the old world tree."

-A.. stump..- Looking down at the mesa, I could see the resemblance but it was clearly just rock and stone, at least that's what I tried to convince myself. -But.. could it just be petrified wood under some dirt?-

My mind kept bouncing back and forth to try and keep my understanding of the world from shattering.

It wasn't until the feeling of Ilios licking my leg snapped me out of my mental trap that I finally calmed down.

-Right... It's a fantasy world.. anything is possible..- Although I still didn't believe it, I tried to convince myself that I did.

"So, how do we get down there?" All around the clearing there were wide and heavily strengthened rope bridges, but the boards were all idly hanging. -Are they all broken or something?-

"Oh, this must be your first time in a city.

" Casually reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a shiny gold medallion.

"This is called a city-pass. There are several different types that determine things like weight limit, the size of the platform and the number of people.

It sounds crazy, but the artifact engineers here are geniuses when it comes to runes. " He spoke with an odd amount of pride.

-What? It uses runes to be that specific?- Assuming it was just coincidental conditions, Bj?rn walked over and held his medallion on the railing.

Almost immediately, two runes appeared and the boards in front of him snapped into place and formed a bridge.

*Sm-sm-sm-sm-smack*

-So it is just that.. It's quite smart though..- Simply put, what determined the weight limit and size of the platform was the strength of the connection between the runes. The stronger the connection, the higher the weight limit and size of the platform.

It was a simple but genius way to do it. -I should probably increase the weight of the boards I walk on though..- I was still concerned my sword would turn out to be too heavy for the bridge to support.

"You coming?" Bj?rn waved me on with a bright smile.

"Ah, y..yeah." Quickly thinking of a way to increase the weight limit of a single board and not activate the entire bridge, I started following him.

-Gosh.. this bridge is incredible..- I was instantly filled with ideas of artifacts I could make as I walked, even if most of them weren’t practical or useful.

While I was lost in thought though, Bj?rn glanced back and got my attention. "Watch your step up here, there is a board that's damaged."

-Hm?- Looking forward again, I saw a board hanging with a broken rune. "It's fine, I can fix it."

"You can wha-"

*Smack*

The board launched into place the instant I repaired the rune on it.

"How did you.." He turned to me with a look of awe.

"What's with that look? All I did was fix the rune on it." I spoke completely nonchalantly.

Stopping walking for a moment, he turned around and looked at me like I was insane. "F..fix the rune on it?!"

"Yeah, it's not like it was that complicated." -Let alone copying it from a different board, I could make a better version from scratch..-

Bj?rn's look didn't disappear though. "Are you sure we are the same race?"

Holding back a light chuckle, a playful smile crept onto my face. "When did I say we were the same race?"