Below them lay an ethereal yet grounding sight: a beautiful, glimmering clear river streamed across the orange earth.
Forming a protective circle around a city that seemed to be a clustered mesh of buildings encased with vivid free roots and vines...
Neon flickers illuminated it from the distance, giving it an alien air. It didn’t match the familiar structures in their memories.
But still, faint excitement and anticipation built in their chests. In that city, a myriad of foreign races lived.
The first time they would be entering a non-human city, they stomached a mix of nervousness and curiosity at once.
"How do we get down?" Uriel turned to Seth.
Seth smiled, almost saying they would jump, but he held his tongue, not wanting to give them a scare like the Rangols did him.
After all, this was the origin realm. The gravity, airflow pressure, and even the density of the earth itself were absurdly higher than on Earth.
Meaning contrary to the feats they could pull on Earth, doing the same here was like attempting suicide.
For example, flying — not only was the height capped, but if they should fall... let’s just say they wouldn’t be damaging the earth, it would be the other way around.
Fortunately, he didn’t need to say anything, as a shadow suddenly passed over them, a high-pitched broad cry peeling through the skies.
Drawing their attention, their necks craned to cast their gaze into the sky.
The large, graceful, beautiful bird glided down their way, a silhouette clearly seen straddled to its feathery back.
A gust of wind brushed their figures as the bird touched the earth, settling.
As his friends gawked in awe, Seth announced with a smile:
"This will be our ride. This friend of ours is a member of the Dai race!"
Among all his friends, only Uriel’s eyes lit up with recognition, as he had taken his time to read about the races.
The book containing details of the diverse races that existed in Greenfield Shelter, their specialties, and hierarchy clearly listed the Dai race as a beast-tamer affinity-filled race that dominated the transportation business here in Savage Oasis, making them quite high in standing due to their outstanding microeconomic influence.
His eyes simmered as he scanned the Dai race member up and down, his curiosity peaking boundlessly.
The slender Dai flicked three fingers of its pale white palm. "Three crystals each!"
Though the Dai held curiosity about this new unrecognized race, he still remained professional.
The four didn’t bother to argue. From Seth’s previous experience, it was clear that doing so was useless and had zero effect.
They submitted the price before the Dai, satisfied, patted the feathery mane of the majestic broad creature.
It responded, its voice calling out as it lowered a feather, forming a platform for Seth and the others to scale.
Seth led them as they climbed the beast, strapped themselves in tightly, and bent into their clutch on the base of its feathers.
In an instant, they saw its wings move, and reality blurred. The pressure of wind pressed them forward, nose-deep into feathers, forcing them to hold steady and grip tighter.
With obscene speed, the creature plateaued the skies, then in a smooth arc tilted downwards toward the city at crazy speed.
The wind whipped against their armor and exposed flesh, their eyes squinting from the air pressure.
The Dai flexed its core, its biceps straining, muscles bulging like steel cables as it guided its mount.
The bird’s wings flared, resisting the wind. Its speed plummeted as the mount glided until reaching the surface of the landing zone in the city.
Only one thought rang in the minds of the three newcomers: ’So... so fast!’
They sat lost in a daze for a second. You know how fast you had to be to leave figures like them stunned?
Regardless, they hopped off the bird, and the Dai whipped its reins. With a heavy gust, their figure vanished, blurring into the distance.
Seth led the way as the others observed the surroundings, their eyes gleaming with interest.
Roaming and going about their business were alien figures, their eyes taking time to study each one.
Some had neon-lit lilac skins that shimmered and bore three eyes. Some had heads resembling beasts.
Some had numerous limbs, some none at all... it was an intriguing and boundless sight.
It truly made one understand how insignificant the world their perception had been limited to really was.
Seth led them before a figure with pale leathery skin and a tentacle-bearded face, though still quite small.
This foreign race member was in charge of the transportation patch, like the gatekeeper and regulator of sorts.
These types of jobs were held by those called aboriginals.
These were intelligent humanoid lifeforms native to the origin realm, lacking perks like being sent back to their realm upon death.
Even though it came with a cost, they couldn’t avoid it — they would die for real, as this was their native realm.
Which also meant they had unlimited camp abilities, the capability to stay in the origin realm permanently.
While their drop rate was the same as others.
"We’d like to head to the Trade Hall," Seth informed, counting out four essence crystals for payment.
The aboriginal collected the payment, feeling it for essence before stashing it away. It allowed them entry.
Seth and the others stepped onto the platform, and the aboriginal inputted the destination. Glowing light of transportation swallowed their silhouettes.
It bloomed across space and time, landing them on another pad in a different region of the settlement.
Before them stood a massive gate. On it were carved foreign texts, which they understood through the Will it bled: "Trade Hall."
The gates were wide open, with various figures going in and out. Screens flickered as the system cursor flashed at the gates.
It was from the second newbie quest — to find the Trade Hall to choose a class.
They followed the crowd, walking into the grand temple hall. It was like a medieval market square, with tables full of items and figures standing behind their stalls, calling out to passersby.
Only these were trade masters, calling to newbies to come check out the classes they could offer.
Their stalls were grouped by classification: Mages, Swordsman, Monk, Rogue, Berserker, Tank, and Variant!
The trade masters from the myriad classifications worked like this: for example...
The Mages section primarily offered the basic mage class, but depending on how well you performed on the class quest, you might dig deeper and unlock a special class. And possibly, though with an even slimmer chance, earn a Unique class.
Everyone quickly went on their way, heading toward the class classification they were interested in.
Meanwhile, Seth remained standing, fishing a crystal out of his inventory. The once dull transparent object flared on detecting the surroundings.
This was the Legendary Class Path Template Crystal...
This template crystal was special because it didn’t have a pre-registered class. It simply registered the nearest legendary-grade class based on the user’s ability.
The system registered the input, and a cursor appeared in his line of sight, pointing toward the group of stalls labeled Variants...