“Shit!” Welnar yells, acting swiftly. He commands the scarlet spear, plunging it into the hull of the ship and grabbing the handle, mere centimetres from the dark sea below. He pulls himself up, managing to balance on the spear handle long enough to leap up, and with a secondary blast of mana easily land back on board. The mercenaries had already begun walking back below deck, but turn in surprise as they watch Welnar emerge. “W-what the…” The ginger man says. “What’s your problem? Trying to kill me, just because I didn’t want to go on some stupid job?!” Welnar yells.

  “It’s your fault for being an egotistical asshole!” One of the other mercenaries beside the ginger man shoots back, a short haired woman. Welnar sighs with annoyance. “Damn stupid people…” He mutters.

  “What’d you call me?!” The ginger man roars, charging at Welnar. He really didn’t expect any of them to attack head-on since he’s a Sorcerer and they’re Normals, but… Oh well. The man swings, and Welnar ducks and counters with an uppercut, only lightly hardened with his mana. Teeth are smashed together and his head reels upwards, the man stumbling back a few steps before collapsing, knocked out… And coming back a few seconds later. He probably ended up biting his tongue in the process of getting punched, judging from the blood dribbling down his lip.

  The two other mercenaries watch in momentary shock, before moving to the side of the ginger man, helping him back up. He looks ready to go at Welnar again, but now the other two are holding him back. A voice from below deck calls… “What’s going on up there?!”

  “N-nothing! Just uh… Our friend here is a little too hammered!” The short haired woman says with a half-hearted chuckle, much to Welnar’s surprise. They’re covering for him suddenly? {“They’re afraid of your ire now. Probably expected you to outright kill them if they didn’t lie.”} Monarch explains. {“Like it or not, you are a Sorcerer… Prejudice and all. There’s probably a lot of Normals passing by who think like that ginger fellow, but just hide it better.”}

  {“I… Guess you’re right, huh.”} Welnar responds. Somehow, he’s never really realized it until now, but at a glance he does just look like any other Sorcerer… He is, by all means, the thing he’s sworn to destroy in the eyes of the world. A strong one, no less… The up and coming S class bounty hunter. But that’ll all change once he has the Zero Blade… Then he can become a hero.

  He begins to walk past the mercenaries, pausing beside them which causes them to flinch. “Sorry for the trouble.” He says, heading back down below deck and to his room… The mercenaries would remain for a bit, surprised by the apology. They couldn’t even believe it, a Sorcerer apologizing for something…

  …

  The following three days would be largely uneventful, save for the ginger man coming up to Welnar and muttering an apology at one point, which Welnar appreciated… Although he doesn’t exactly forgive him still. He did try to kill him and all. On the fourth day, roughly around noon the boat would land at the docks of the Northern Continent, Welnar stepping off the boat alongside everyone else into new lands… Amongst the crowd, Welnar does spy the mysterious man following him but pays him no mind for now. Because very swiftly, he becomes enraptured by the town… No, the city before him. Buildings tower high above, primarily built with steel and another metal Welnar doesn’t recognize immediately… It looks a bit like gold, but darker coloured… Bronze?

  {“Wow… I’ve never even seen anything like this.”} Monarch says, also rather amazed. Welnar slowly walks forward, taking in the surroundings… He ends up bumping into someone amidst his distraction, muttering an apology. Then he notices just who he bumped into… It’s a white robed figure, wearing some sort of wooden mask that resembles a fox. “No worries.” The man says with a gentle bow, before continuing past Welnar. What an odd outfit…

  {“I think it’s a priest. There’s probably a chapel for the Goddess of Life here, fox masks are common there.”} Monarch says. {“Interesting…”} Welnar responds before returning his attention to the city before him. A little wandering couldn’t hurt, right?

  {“Just call it reconnaissance!”} Monarch says with a giggle, ever the enabler. {“Yep, this is just very important reconnaissance. What if I have to chase down the Heart again through these streets like last time, y’know?”} Welnar agrees, before spending the next hour exploring. He’d find all sorts of shops and restaurants, at least those are the main things he’d be paying attention to… But his most interesting discovery was this little back alley shop, near the end of his hour of exploring. Stepping inside cautiously, the place would look rather run down and shady with a tiny waiting room… The purpose of this place wasn’t obvious from the outside though, and Welnar is curious.

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  He walks over to the lone person he sees, a small young looking man behind a desk with his feet kicked up and a hat over his face, not even noticing him until he knocks on the desk, causing him to startle awake. “Eh? Who are you?” He says, squinting as he looks Welnar up and down, noticing the Scarlet Armory. “Sorcerer?” He then asks. “Yep, sure am…” Welnar responds.

  “Buying or selling?” The man asks. Welnar tilts his head, confused. “Buying or selling what?”

  The man sighs. “What, did you just awaken yesterday or something?”

  “No! I just… Haven’t been to the North before. I’m from the Western Continent.” Welnar responds defensively.

  “Hm. That makes a bit more sense… We push and pull on Mana Crystallium here. Don’t have an isolation chamber for gathering specific mana yet, but we’re working on it.” The man says casually. Welnar feels like he just got clocked by a bunch of words he doesn’t understand… Mana Crystallium? Isolation chamber? The hell is going on here?

  {“Well, crystallium is probably another word for crystal… So Mana Crystallium is probably a crystal that does something with mana. No idea what an isolation chamber could be though.”} Monarch says, explaining her own theories.

  {“Kind of makes me think of that crystal that analyzed my mana, back when I was getting registered as a bounty hunter.”} Welnar responds. {“It does sound similar… But those are different. Those have been around for a while.”} Monarch clarifies.

  “Could you uh… Elaborate on… All of what you said?” Welnar asks the man. “Sheesh… You’re brand new huh. Alright fine… I’ll give you a rundown, take a seat.” The man responds. Welnar grabs one of the few chairs around the waiting room, pulling it over to the desk and sitting down.

  “So, Mana Crystallium are special crystals that are gathered from a mine in the Enchanted Forest. They are sort of like artifacts, but not really. Mana Crystallium naturally comes in two types; Unimbued, and imbued Mana Crystallium. Unimbued has like… The natural mana that exists everywhere, just floating around. Those are the most common, and are good for an emergency refill of your mana in a pinch.” Welnar nods along as the man continues to explain…

  …

  After a long explanation that leaves Welnar’s head spinning, he’s pretty sure he has the gist of it at least. This place sells and buys Mana Crystallium of all types, and is… On the grey side of legality, hence it being a hole in the wall type place. Apparently this kind of shop needs a whole lot of licensing and regulating… Sorcerers that sell their own magic through Mana Crystallium sometimes go through these shops if they want a bigger cut on sales.

  {“Selling your magic… What an interesting prospect. The Northern Continent feels like a whole new world…”} Monarch says, wonder in her voice.

  {“I wonder what my mana would even be capable of inside Mana Crystallium. Maybe a temporary enhancement, like my Mana Charge?”} Welnar questions. But there’s one more thing that he wonders…

  “How much does an unimbued Mana Crystallium cost?” He asks the man. “Fifty Gold a shard.” He responds, shattering Welnar’s heart like glass. Waaay too expensive for him at the moment… But maybe in the future he’ll come around. Just as Welnar is putting his chair back and saying goodbye, the door swings open and someone walks in… It takes Welnar a second to recognize him as the stalker that has been trailing him… He’s immediately on guard upon recognizing him, but the stalker doesn’t seem to pay him any mind as he walks up to the desk…

  “Well, look who it is. Good to see you’re alive and kicking.” The Crystallium seller says with a chuckle. Seems like they know eachother… Maybe he can lose this guy while he’s busy here, Welnar thinks, making a swift exit out the shop and back through the streets of Resverak, as he’s come to learn this city is called. He makes all sorts of twists and turns along the way to make sure he’s hard to tail, and after feeling like he’s made a good amount of distance… Welnar finds a bench to sit down on, and close his eyes… Listening.

  Thump thump. The two heartbeats ring in his ears, sounding closer than he expected… Are they both in this city? The Merciful Heart and the Holy Heart… Both of them being in one place would be great. Although it’s harder to make out with how close they sound, Welnar makes an educated guess on them both being roughly north-east of here… And while he’s tempted to start heading there right now, first he wants to make sure he isn’t being followed. He doesn’t know what that guy wants or why he’s following him, but… Welnar doesn’t trust it. Worst case scenario, he might ambush him when he’s weakest, just after finishing off the hearts or something. And there’s one surefire way to make sure he isn’t followed anymore…

  {“I don’t trust him either, but… If we leave now while he’s still busy, there’s no way he’ll be able to follow us.”} Monarch says.

  {“Nah… There’s a good chance he has a way to track us through magic. I don’t want to worry about that chance.”} Welnar responds, standing up and beginning to walk. On his path, he spotted a tavern… Seems like a good place to wait.

  {“That’s fair I guess. So the plan is to ambush the ambusher then?”} Monarch asks. {“Exactly. He doesn’t seem to know we know he’s following us yet… And we can use that.”} Welnar confirms, finding the tavern and stepping inside.

  {“More than that though… I gotta check out the food here.”} He adds, buying a hearty bowl of stew with meat and all sorts of vegetables… And he chows the fuck down.