The Legendary Fool

140:

Tom, Aleph and Zirel split away from each other, their weapons drawn as they readied themselves for battle, fully expecting to be thrust into the midst of something outlandish, like an army of nether beasts or something even worse.

Minutes passed as they scanned their surroundings, their senses searching for any movement, no matter how inconsequential, as long as it was headed in their direction. Tom found nothing that alerted him in the otherwise scenic landscape, dotted with lush trees and patches of vibrant flowers.

His gaze eventually trailed upwards towards the skies, where he found a gentle expanse of azure blue that was dotted with puffs of white clouds. His gaze shifted deeper into the distance, but Tom could find no sun serving as the source of illumination.

A surprise, but only a mild one. Tom refused to believe that the Tower of Endless Horizons would go as far as to procure an actual sun for a single floor, which meant that the illumination was just an elaborate mirage, like the rest of the floor was.

Finally, he angled his gaze towards Aleph, in hopes that she had found something he hadn’t, only to realize that her attention was completely focused in a particular direction, her mouth held ajar and her features seemingly frozen in what Tom suspected to be awe.

Incredibly curious, Tom traced her gaze.

He gasped.

Before Tom, was a city. Or atleast, what he suspected to be a city. Its outer perimeter shielded view of the inside, as tall interlocking chitinous plates that curved inwards ran around its length. The grayish-white plates were around thirty feet in height, a manageable prospect for Tom to scale but a less ideal one for a larger group of invaders.

That thought, however, had to be put on hold as a streak of glimmering blue light erupted outwards from the center of the city. There had to have been a hole in the chitinous armor protecting the city, one which Tom had been unable to see from ground level. He watched as the streak of blue carved away wind resistance in a straight line, piercing through the clouds and blinking out of his line of sight.

There went his brilliant idea of trying to enter the city through the top. The light hadn’t seemed like it was intended to be an attack, but it wasn’t like he had any methods to actually verify that hunch.

[You have arrived at the first floor of the Aerianiculumn: The Nexus Nodes]

[Your Analyze Lv.8 has been upgraded to Auto- Analyze Lv. 8. The Divine System will henceforth aid you in smartly analyzing objects of interest and threats on it’s own with much greater detail than before. You may override this specification if you wish.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Auto-Analyse shall improve the more often it is used and the more variety in targets it is offered. A successful auto-anaylse depends on your own soul card level, soul card rarity, artifact bonuses and your existing Auto-Analyze Level.]

[Auto-analyzing…

You have discovered Nexus City: Bulwark.

Current Owner: Neem Guild

Nexus Node Points: 10.

Description: A Nexus City is ruled by a governing guild in conjunction with the system. The governing guild may choose to tax the nexus city in accordance with their wishes, but access to certain key services including the nexus node cannot be interfered with by the ruling guild.

A Nexus City is a safe space, where the order has to be enforced by the ruling guild. If more than three people are to die within a day’s span of time, or if over ten people are reported injured, then the ruling guild and all the individuals within the guild will be banned forever from claiming another Nexus City.

System sanctioned duels are exempt from this rule. ]

“A Nexus City,” Tom muttered, as he finished reading the description the system had offered him.

“Seems like we didn’t land here by coincidence,” Zirel guessed

“Why do you say that?” Aleph asked, even though her tone was mostly in agreement.

“The first floor is called Nexus Nodes and my analyze tells me that there’s one within that city. I’m assuming that’s the case for yours as well?” Zirel asked.

Tom and Aleph nodded.

“Well, the place is supposed to be a safe zone. Best we get moving towards it, if we want to do this the easy way,” Zirel judged.

“What do you mean?” Tom asked.

“This is mostly conjecture on my part, but if the system wants the ruling guild of this nexus city to be in charge of its law and order, that means that the first floor is no stranger to violence. More specifically, I’m not sure if there’s anything stopping the first group we run into from attacking us.”

“Oh,” Tom muttered, not having thought that far. “Well, unless Aleph has a better idea, a safe zone seems ideal until we figure out more about this place.”

“Nope,” Aleph replied, her gaze even more wary now as she scanned her surroundings. “A safe zone would be a nice change of pace, assuming that this Neem Guild actually holds true to its word.”

“We’ll have to avoid pissing them off for that,” Tom replied.

Both Aleph and Zirel started giving him pointed looks.

“What?” Tom protested. “It’s not my fault trouble keeps finding a way to knock on our doors.”

“Are you really saying that after you arranged for a civil war to break out in Artezia?” Aleph asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“Hey, the civil war was going to happen one way or the other. I just cleared up a misunderstanding.”

“That is technically true,” Zirel pointed out. “Now, shall we get going? As poorly as this might end, I still really want to find out what they’re hiding behind those walls.”

Once again, a flash of light erupted outwards from the centre of the city, as if the Nexus City itself wanted to prove Zirel’s point.

“Let’s go,” Tom said, before taking the lead.