Hi there, ShadowFlex here!
Finally! After many hardships and struggles with my sudden lack of imagination, I present to you the second chapter of this fic!
Now then... I write this fic with merely a rough draft for the ending in mind, thus most of this story is just something I create as I go. That's why, any suggestions and corrections for the story moving onwards are a welcomed sight. Reviews are just as welcomed, so don't be shy.
With nothing else in mind...
ENJOY!
Chapter 2: Sky City
To take a better look at the world below, Igno eventually came to lower his altitude and speed of flight. Of course, he had to make sure no potential people or cities escaped his notice.
It had not taken long for him to get his priorities straight. That is, gathering information. And to best do that, he ought to find civilization.
As he continued to move in this manner without growing even remotely tired, the night had passed. Now, an orange sky served to light up his path. It was early morning, after all.
"Nothing... Where are the houses? Where are the people?"
He could not help but wonder this. He's been flying for several hours now, yet no sign of civilization has reached his eyes. While his new body was far from tired, mentally he was spent.
As time continued to pass this way, all manner of thoughts and ideas crossed his mind. Eventually, one very important topic surfaced, and easily eclipsed the rest of his restless mind.
"Although, I have to wonder... have any other players come to this world besides me?"
It was very possible. Thinking of himself as some chosen one would be extremely foolish.
As an YGGDRASIL player, Igno was painfully aware of how dangerous other players could be. Granted, it was possible that other players that came to this world were friendly, but the opposite was just as true.
Igno was not one to take risks.
"I'll watch out for them. If there are any other players here, I ought to gather information on them first, before doing anything– hah?"
As he was flying past some mountain that was covered in trees allover, Igno suddenly felt like he had passed through a thin wall of water, like the surface of a lake. In the next moment, dozens of islands of various shapes and sizes were made apparent out of nowhere. The islands in question were evenly floating around the mountain, completely encircling it, some six kilometers above ground. Also, those islands were not empty, but filled with buildings – easily making up a large city.
A floating city surrounding a mountain so tall that its peak seemed to pierce the sky itself. Igno had seen similar places in YGGDRASIL, but none of them could compete with the sight before him now.
It was a truly wonderous sight. Unfortunately, Igno had no time to admire it.
"Was that a barrier...?"
In YGGDRASIL, a city like this – a place hidden from the rest of the world by some magical barrier surrounding it – was not an unusual sight. However, this did serve as proof of magic – or similar powers – existing in this world.
"Shit!"
Igno knew next to nothing about the inhabitants of this city, except that they could create magical barriers similar to the ones from the game. In other words, they posed an unknown level of danger.
He ought to hide, then.
Descending like a speeding jet upon the nearest island, Igno hid behind some large building. The said building seemed at least three stories tall, and was made from wood and stone. Like the rest of the city, it seemed mediaeval.
However, that meant nothing to the now-panicked Igno.
He reached out to his inventory, and retrieved a scroll of [Perfect Unknowable] from it. The duration of the previous scroll ran out several hours ago, so he ought to use one again. Thankfully, as a solo player, Igno had quite the stock of these things, so running out of them was not something he would need to worry about for a long time.
"Perfect Unknowable."
The scroll rolled itself open and disintegrated in a flash of blue flames, thus once more masking Igno from the rest of the world.
"Please, don't make me regret this."
If the people here could see through his unknowability, then they would surely see him as suspicious, and possibly attack. However, he couldn't have just flown into the city without knowing what sort of people would greet him. This was another world, after all.
All he could do now was hide even while unknowable, and spy on the inhabitants of this floating city.
"If worse comes to worst, I can always escape using teleportation magic."
Though a warrior, Igno was capable of casting a couple of spells up to the 7th tier, and had already tested his teleportation magic earlier this night. If not in strength, at the very least he was confident in his ability to escape.
"Hoo..."
Exhaling nervously, Igno moved to explore the city.
.
.
.
A connection – a mental link was requested to be formed. The High Priest accepted it without second thought, knowing full well who said requestor was.
"Udrek, are they here?"
"Yes. The target has been spotted entering the city from its northern side, from the sky. We suspect it has cast an invisibility spell of sorts, for we could not perceive it without resorting to the use of the [Dragon's Eye]."
Dragon's Eye – an orb-shaped magic item created by the Mountain God himself, using Wild Magic. It has the power to observe any place found on the Hyurtob's Peak and its surrounding area, reaching up to several kilometers away. It is also capable of peering through any illusion created using Tier Magic.
It is located at the very top of Hyurtob's Peak, within a stone tower built there over a century ago. That place is guarded by merely one person – the Elder Priest, Ha'tai Evs Nocra.
The Elder Priest is also the only person capable enough to utilize the [Dragon's Eye] – for it is a complicated device, – and so is someone of whose existence only few within the Sky City have been made aware of.
"I see. That is... troubling, but no matter. The Player is likely a cautious-type, and is on guard of our powers. Since it has only recently come to our world, it's very likely that the Player has no idea of how its strength compares to the rest of the world, and so it gathers information. At least, that is the most logical conclusion I can draw from my limited knowledge of YGGDRASIL Players."
One thing the High Priest knew about those otherworldly beings, was that they appear in this world once every century, since four hundred years ago. As such, it was obvious that the Player had only recently come to this world, since a century has passed since the last time such a thing happened, an event of which the Sky People were painfully aware of.
Their people had requested that last Player's help, after all. Sadly, that help never came.
"It can't be helped, then. Let us assume that the Player is indeed gathering information, but keep our minds open for any changes in its behavior. For now, it wonders the Sector C-2's streets. Although... as it is now, continued observation will be problematic even with the use of the [Dragon's Eye]. It does have its limitations, after all. In that case, what do you propose should be done?"
"This, ha..."
The High Priest fell silent for a moment, deep in contemplation.
"—First, have sir Ha'tai continue his observations, but be sure our awareness of its presence is not revealed. It is wiser that the Player thinks itself hidden from our eyes. As for everything else, let's go with the original plan. I... I will send out Ta'mei."
There was worry in that voice, which also held a hint of regret. As expected of an old friend, it did not go unnoticed by Udrek at all.
"Urka..."
"—No, don't. Please... I... I have faith in him. Just... watch over him, will you?"
"Of course. I understand, Arka."
"You have my thanks, Udrek."
The connection was broken.
"Haa... Today's the day, huh? I can't believe it. But still..."
He turned his gaze outside the sole window of his office, and spoke in a worried voice.
"That boy... Have I prepared him enough for this, I wonder?"
.
.
.
Though some time had passed since he began his exploration of the city, Igno still had a hard time believing his eyes. Even so, there was no denying reality.
"What an amazing place."
A city of demi-humans and heteromorphs, living together in harmony. Such a thing would be impossible in YGGDRASIL.
A lively city stood before him. Unfortunately, he could see no humans, or other humanoid beings – such as Elves and Dwarves, and the like, – anywhere near it.
He felt a bit excluded by this, but did well to ignore that feeling.
"Now is not the time to be carried away."
He ought to collect his thoughts.
"Now then... –Power. Most inhabitants of this city are probably level 10 at best. Very weak by YGGDRASIL standards. Their adults even required help carrying some wine barrels..."
There were no soldiers to be spotted either, and no law enforcers. It was peaceful here, as expected of a city that was more like a magical metropolis than anything else. That description given, because this city seemed to be highly advanced in utilizing magic items, and its inhabitants seemed to make use of them in their everyday lives. Also, the floating islands upon which the city was built, and the strange barrier that surrounded it, could not have been created using non-magical means. Igno felt certain of this.
"Also, I can understand what they're saying..."
There was also that.
It would seem that either the inhabitants of this world spoke the same language as him - Japanese, - or this world had some weird automatic translation effect. Igno had arrived at the latter possibility, merely because he had not been able to read the various texts written on the many establishments' signs that he had encountered in this city.
Also, the idea of another world sharing any of his world's languages seemed way too convenient to be true. However, if it were to be true, then it would be very suspicious. Just in case, he ought to keep an eye open for any other similarities of this world and his old one.
As he considered his findings while aimlessly wondering through the streets of this particular island, at some point a large humanoid tiger – a Tigerfolk – walked past him, completely unaware of Igno's presence.
"They can't see me at all, can they?"
—Is what Igno said in response to this, his slightly worried voice oozing with sarcasm. After all, something similar had happened some eight times now, but Igno still had a hard time believing it. This was because magical cities like this rarely had NPCs that could not peer through invisibility back in YGGDRASIL, even one of [Perfect Unknowable]'s level. And even if there were, such places would usually be surrounded in sustained AOE spells that made invisibility useless.
However, there were exceptions sometimes. This place ought to be like that too. If he were to think of it this way, then his cautious Player's soul could rest easy and move on.
Besides all that, the main species that inhabited this city were Birdmen – Kenku and Aarakocra, – while all the others were merely couple dozens of Tigerfolk, Lionfolk, Bearfolk, Fairies, Insectoids, and the like.
"Their strength aside, it looks like Tier Magic is used in this world too."
He recalled the shock he had received upon seeing a Birdman Priest cast healing magic on a Bearfolk – a humanoid bear – whose leg had been injured, and sighed.
"It was a weird sight... Still, it was only 1st tier magic. Thus far I've only seen them cast magic up to tier 2. Can they cast higher-tiered magic as well?"
They ought to be capable of that. How else can the massive barrier surrounding the city, and the floating islands be explained?
To make islands like this float, at least magic equal to Super Tier would be needed. In YGGDRASIL, that magic could only be cast by dedicated magic casters of level 70 to 100, and it transcended the very definition of tiers in both effects and power.
The barrier surrounding the city ought to be like that too.
"What to do..."
From one side, this city was peaceful, and none of its inhabiting races seemed to suffer discrimination. From another, there were no humans here. How would the people of this place react to a human's sudden appearance? If this was still YGGDRASIL, he would be attacked on sight. It was also possible that humans did not exist in this world in the first place, in which case he would be at a loss as for what to do.
"Dammit... I'll figure this out later. As it is now, I can't stay here any longer."
His armor gave off a bluish light, and he ascended from the ground. Now once more freed from the shackles of gravity, he moved away from the city, in the direction of where he had originally come from.
This was because the effects of [Perfect Unknowable] were about to run out.
He ought to leave before something like that happens while he's here. It would be very troublesome – dangerous, even – if someone were to catch sight of him now of all times. And though he could simply use another scroll to stay invisible, Igno wanted to take a break from this place anyway, and collect his thoughts.
Suddenly, as he was about to reach the barrier that surrounded the floating city—
"K-cng!"
—the sound of what Igno guessed to be a small rock bouncing off the back of his armor entered his ears, and he turned to look around in shock.
"—I said... wait! Mister!"
There, on the very edge of the island which he was just about to leave, stood a small, brown-feathered Birdman. They wore some normal-looking clothing, and some strange red-colored glasses were placed unevenly on their eyes.
If he had to guess, they were probably a teenage boy. The former guessed by their height, and the latter by their clothing and voice.
"—Hah?"
"He can see me?"
He was in danger, was Igno's first thought. However, seeing as the young Birdman had not attacked him from behind, Igno did not react on it. Instead, he simply stared.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Um... I–"
As the young Birdman, whom Igno guessed to be an Aarakocra, tried to speak after some minute of silence between the two passed, the duration of [Perfect Unknowable] ran out, and Igno became visible to the world once more.
Igno, of course, noticed this, and finally chose to speak. If he had spoken before, it was very likely that the Birdman in front of him would not have been able to hear him. After all, as far as Igno knew, it was very likely that the Birdman could merely peer through invisibility, not the rest of the effects of [Perfect Unknowable]. However, he had no proof of this, so he accepted this thought as a mere theory for now.
"Was it those glasses...?"
—Igno shook his head as he thought this, and moved to question the mysterious person that could very well have been observing him from a distance this entire time.
"—Who are you? What are you planning, revealing yourself to me now?"
In response to those words that were spoken in a rather accusing tone, the young Birdman merely tilted his avian head slightly to the side, as if confused.
"Huh? Ah, nothing, really. I was just curious, I, um, don't mean any harm."
"Huh...?"
"Curious? What do you mean? Haven't you been observing me for some time now?"
"W-well, not really. I only noticed you some minutes ago, after I decided to try out these glasses of mine after a while, sir. I didn't know I would find someone invisible here, so I became curious when I did. But as I was about to address you, you flew away, mister!"
"A magic item, then. A high-tier one at that."
What this kid said was believable. However, only a fool would accept a stranger's explanation at face value, even if it came from a child. However, he could not deny that the Birdman before him could be telling the truth. Especially so after he had revealed himself so easily.
He should give him a chance then, and see what information he can gain from this. However, he ought to keep his guard up for anything suspicious.
"...Alright, then. How about some introductions, then? I'm... Igno. Igno Vilhedia. And you are?"
Though earlier this night he had decided upon using his in-game name as his new and only name in this new world, he still found himself hesitating a little.
He could not help but laugh at this in his heart.
"I guess starting a new life and letting go of the previous one is more difficult than I initially thought."
"Huh? Ah! Yes! I–I'm Ta'mei. Ta'mei Nil Archlit. It's nice meeting you, mist–, ah, um... sir... Vilhedia?"
"Hm? Ah, no... -Igno will do. And... Ta'mei, was it? May I address you by that name?"
Ta'mei seemed a bit troubled by these words, but soon agreed anyway. Igno, of course, took note of this, but stayed silent. Perhaps he had offended the young Birdman somehow, were Igno's silent worries.
"Ah. Y-yes, sir Igno."
"—Sir, really? Ah whatever... Now that that's settled—"
Now, he ought to ask many questions.
"—Now that we've introduced ourselves, tell me, Ta'mei. Could you answer some questions of mine? You see, I happen to be somewhat lost..."