Many hours had passed and two streaks of light could be seen speeding through the mountainous plains. One of these was entirely black while the other was a mesmerizing shade of purple.
These were Damien and Zara, who were still racing to find a city. While Zara's black magic power was a normal thing even within the dungeon, Damien's purple color was new.
During his stay in Kurt's subspace, he had read about the qualities of magic power, which was the term used to qualify each person's unique mana.
While most people had blue magic power, which was normal and carried the traits of normal environmental mana that had simply been annexed, many geniuses had colored magic power.
This color was a result of the mixing of their unique traits and abilities into their magic power. This occurrence was natural and couldn't be forced in any way.
Just like that, when Damien first called out his mana after gaining freedom from the dungeon, it had randomly shifted to this purple color.
Damien mused that Zara's magic power being black was either a racial trait or something she developed during her fight for survival after her parents died.
Meanwhile, for his magic power to suddenly change color, it was probably due to his lack of contact with natural mana outside of the dungeon after he started gaining power.
Anyway, as Damien and Zara raced, they started to see small cities in the distance that they quickly passed by.
Damien knew it would be a classic fantasy world trope if he started small and then reached the capital of whatever empire he was currently in, but he felt that his power level was too strong for that.
He was already a 2nd class and had killed plenty of higher-level 2nd class beasts, and he knew nobody in this world, so there was no point in making a grand entrance after power leveling for a while.
Therefore, Damien decided to ignore all the smaller towns and cities and head straight for the first metropolis he saw.
Apeiron, while being a classic fantasy world, had also been in contact with mana for thousands of years. This contact naturally led to technological advancement.
Air conditioning and modern-style bathrooms were normal in this world, with different contraptions like spatial rings being invented that even eclipsed earth's technology. For some reason, however, the medieval aesthetic standards never changed much.
Thinking idle thoughts, Damien continued to run at full speed for many more hours until finally, he saw a huge city in the distance. Looking over at Zara, who was easily keeping up with him, Damien grinned before infusing a bit of mana into his legs.
Seeing this, Zara did the same and their speed drastically increased as they made it to the city.
It was another normal day in the city of Archdale, and Alan was once again enjoying his stable life as a city guard. Being the second-largest city in the Adelaide Empire besides the capital city of Aurora, even city guards had a healthy salary.
Alan woke up today feeling extra refreshed. He ate breakfast with his wife and sent his kid off to school before walking to work. Alan was the typical cheerful guy who didn't let his worries bog him down, so on his walk to the West gate that he guarded, he greeted a few neighbors and shop owners that lived on his street.
Reaching the west gate, he was surprised to see that there was relatively no queue to enter.
"Yo Freddy!" Alan greeted his boss as he walked to his post, "why's it feel so empty today?"
Freddy looked at Alan with a warm gaze. Although their job was pretty boring, he was glad to have such a cheerful subordinate who brought the mood up.
"Ah, nothing much. I heard that there's some big event going on at the Adventurer's guild today so most of the traffic is coming through the north gate. We just have to deal with the ones who are here for other business."
Alan nodded his head in understanding. Even if it was a varied profession that accepted everyone, the number one most desired job for many people was to become an adventurer. After all, if you managed to climb the ranks and increase your rank, you could get many perks without having your freedom restricted like those who worked for the empires.
As he continued doing his job like he did every other day, Alan suddenly witnessed what looked like a tornado approaching from the distance. When the crowd outside the gate noticed this anomaly, they quickly scattered in every direction, while Alan called his fellow guards forward.
Most of these guards were classless or low-level 1st class while the stronger ones were mid-level 1st class. They were only the first line of defense. If the disturbance was big enough to threaten the city, the empire army and some adventurers would come to take care of it.
As Alan and the others warily watched the approaching storm, one of them exclaimed, "Hey, what is that?"
Focusing their attention on what the man had pointed out, the guards saw the silhouette of a beast at the forefront of the storm. As they gripped their weapons steadily and prepared for an attack, they failed to notice the human figure running next to that beast.
As Damien and Zara continued to speed towards the gate, they kept increasing the amount of mana they were using, though they didn't use any of their special skills with respect for the rules they had set.
In consequence, a huge storm of dust and dirt they kicked up followed them on their journey. As they approached the gate, both of them upped their speed once again. Looking at Zara, who was matching his pace, Damien suddenly had a wicked thought.
Revolving his lightning through his body, Damien shot forward, leaving Zara in the dust before abruptly stopping around 10 meters away from the gate. Only a second later, Zara joined him.
"Hahaha, looks like I win!" Damien said as he laughed rambunctiously. "Be prepared to be my mount and pillow for the next week, Zara!"
Zara was visibly annoyed. When they set the rule that they weren't allowed to use their special skills, they had never mentioned affinities. If she had thought of that, she could've merged with the shadows and appeared in front of the gate in an instant.
When she heard that he wanted her to act as his mount, she felt even more indignant, but Damien wouldn't let her off easily. Zara pounced at Damien and began slapping him with her paws to further showcase her indignation and Damien continued to laugh, feeling nothing from her light pats.
Meanwhile, the guards stood at the gate dumbfounded by the scene in front of them. The giant wolf that they thought was a wild beast was accompanied by a human, and from the aura they felt from the brief moment these two had showcased their abilities, they were incredibly strong.
And when the wolf had pounced on the man, rather than being crushed or pushed to the floor, he just stood there acting as nothing happened. To further add to this, the man was incredibly handsome, making the guards forget all their fear due to their envy.
Seeing how the man was dressed in only a rag that covered part of his bottom half, one of the guards lost himself to envy and was about to shout at him that he couldn't enter before he was abruptly slapped on the head. Turning to look, he saw that it was the usually cheerful Alan that had done it.
Alan was a wise man, and seeing the speed and power that was barely even showcased by these two beings, he realized that they were both leagues stronger than anyone present at the moment.
For this reason, he decided to be civil. "Excuse me, sir, I'm afraid you won't be able to enter the city with that appearance. As there are plenty of children around, it might be a bit too indecent."
"Hm?" It was only at this moment that Damien realized there were other people around. Briefly glancing at the man who he deemed as a guard, he looked down at his body, which was basically naked at the moment. It seemed as though he had once again forgotten that he didn't have clothes.
"Ah, sorry," Damien said, reciprocating Alan's politeness. "I don't have any clothes or money on me at the moment." After thinking for a bit, Damien nodded his head and pulled the corpses of a few weaker beasts out of his inventory.
"If you don't mind, could you go sell these for me and buy me some clothes? You can keep whatever change is left when you're done."
Alan smiled, accepting Damien's proposal. Although these beasts were all 1st class, it was obvious from their corpses that they'd been slain effortlessly.
Not only would he not risk offending someone this powerful, but he'd also make a good amount of money from the exchange. Alan stored the corpses in his spatial ring and walked into the city under the envious gazes of the other guards.
About an hour or so later, Damien smoothly entered the city with Zara.
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