One [Teleport Stone] later, they arrived at the center of Entertainment. The Stone spit them out in a general square; from here, they could enter any of the available rooms down a cross-sectioned hallway. Far at the end were the doors to Aerial, but those seemed to be closed until the ship was at cruising altitude.

They wandered around, poking their heads into each room. The library was warm and packed to the brim with various books. Comfortable chairs and sofas were scattered throughout. A stern, graying woman served as librarian and guardian, sitting behind a desk near the entrance. She made Tristan finish his second glass of argavo juice before coming inside, while Eila went on ahead, smirking at him over her shoulder.

Once inside, Tristan pulled a book out of a shelf named “The Complete Encyclopedia of Adept Cards: Vol. 2, Dark” and skimmed through it while Eila buried her nose in some books related to forging.

Soon, there came another announcement.

“Attention all passengers and crew. The Serenity is now deporting. I repeat, the Serenity is now deporting. Please brace.”

There was a slight shudder through the bones of the ship, followed by a jolt. Alarmed, Tristan grabbed onto the bookshelf but calmed down when he saw other people barely reacting.

He put his book back and gingerly stepped over to a wide window. Outside, he saw them slowly leave the ground behind.

“Boo!” Eila whispered into his ear, making him jump with a yelp. She burst out laughing, and, face reddening, he prepared to retort when the unmistakable throat-clear of the displeased librarian shot through the room.

They looked at each other and giggled before leaving the library, the librarian glaring at them on the way out. Tristan checked in on the pool beside the entrance to the balcony, while Eila made reservations for them at the spa.

The pool was quite luxurious. It was massive and decorated with decals of various aquatic animals. There was a wide window that ran parallel to the pool, granting a view of the outside while one swam. He made a mental note to go take a dip when Eila came back, waving two reservation slips.

“It’s in an hour,” she said. “Wanna go check out the Cardzone?”

“You know it.”

They maneuvered back to the [Teleport Stone], waited in line, and then zoomed up to the sixth floor. They arrived and immediately made their way to the emporium. Tristan looked up at the sign above the doors of the large, columnaded shop as they arrived. It read: Magic Myr’s Wonderful Card Emporium.

“Magic Myr is a big deal in the card business,” Eila said helpfully to him as they entered. “A real mogul. You’ll see his shops everywhere on the Continent.”

“You think I don't know who Magic Myr is?” Tristan scoffed, lying through his teeth.

She gave him a wry look, which he pointedly ignored. Inside the shop was a pristine, clean space with glass-covered display cases and shelves everywhere. The room was the shape of an octagon, each section of the octagon color-coded to one of the eight elements.

The shopkeeper, a portly man with glasses, sat in the middle of the room, boxed in behind a circular counter. Various employees wearing what looked like wizard robes flitted throughout the room, assisting the many customers inside.

There was also security in here. Heavy security. Eight guards, one for each section of the octagon; interestingly, they didn’t wear the same white-and-blue uniform as the rest of the airship, but instead wore all black, militaristic gear. They had serious expressions, and each guard had their decks swirling around them. All of them were Adept, Tristan saw.

“Security’s pretty tight around here,” he whispered under his breath to Eila, who nodded back.

“They’re private, too,” Eila whispered back. “Separate from the airship security. Magic Myr doesn’t mess around with his cards.”

He pointed at a series of portraits framed ornately on the walls between each elemental section. Each portrait displayed a different person: some men, some women, all with a rather distinctive nose. “Is that the Myr family?”

“Yup. It’s a whole empire. Apparently once they inherit the business, they legally have to change their name to Magic Myr.”

They looked at each other and rolled their eyes in tandem. They split up for a bit. Tristan checked out the Water cards, saw a few he liked, checked the prices, then sighed. He looked at some of the cardsleeves—one had a snarling wolf on them, which he knew Eila would hate—and checked that price.

He sighed again and wandered back to Eila, who was chatting with an employee about some Dark Expert Blueprint.

The employee left, Eila giving him a thanks.

“These prices are crazy,” she muttered to Tristan.

“I was about to say the same. Wanna get out of here?”

She nodded. The guards closest to the doors eyed them as they passed, and Tristan felt oddly nervous, though he hadn’t done anything.

A quick walk led them to the arena, but a sign on the door said it was closed until after dinner tonight.

“I’m kind of hungry,” Eila said. “Let’s check out the grub before we go back for the spa.”

“Sounds good. I want some more of that argavo juice.”

Over near the [Teleport Stone], there was a signboard Tristan had missed earlier. He pointed it out to Eila, and they went over.

“Looks like a list of the different lessons and workshops,” Tristan said, scanning the pinned papers.

“Look at this one.” Eila nodded at a paper displaying an older man with the bushiest eyebrows Tristan had ever seen. He was wearing what looked to be a blacksmith’s apron and was pointing directly at the reader, a stern expression on his face. Eila read the words on the paper outloud. “‘Hailing from the city of Eruption is the one and only Forgemaster Gerund, here to unveil the mysteries and wonders of Master-rank forging! Daily workshops held at Room C between 12:00 and 1:00pm. Private lessons available upon request. Item materials and Blueprints not provided.’”

She raised a brow at him. “You feel like unveiling the mysteries and wonders of Master-rank forging?”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Tristan pointed out another. “I’d rather go to this.” A pair of twin women stood back-to-back, one arm crossed across their chest, the other holding up a generic card between two fingers. The sign read: Learn the art of flair-casting from the Twin Deadlies, the most famous Adept cardbearer twin duo on the whole Continent! Daily lessons held at Room A between 3:00 and 4:00pm. Liability waivers must be signed. Rental decks available for an additional fee.”

He looked at Eila. “How many twin Adept-rank cardbearers are there anyway?”

“I guess more than one. Or is it two ‘cause they’re twins? What’s flair-casting, anyhow?”

“No clue. It wasn’t in the—” He cut himself off, realizing he’d been about to say “in the game.” She turned to him with a quizzical look, and he finished lamely, “In any Duels that I saw.”

“It’s probably stupid.” She thumbed over her shoulder at the Stone. “Let’s go eat.”

Tristan nodded. Gotta be more careful, he thought. He was getting too comfortable around Eila; she was an easy person to speak to, and it was bringing his guard down.

They waited to use the [Teleport Stone]. Once the employee waiting there said they were good to go, they teleported up to the seventh floor.

“Hey,” Tristan said, stepping out of the zone. “What happens if someone’s on the other side when you teleport? Does your body get merged into some hideous, two-headed human monster?”

“What? No. You’ll just bump into the next person.” She waved a hand at the employees. “They won’t be around the whole time, just during the day. It’s just a basic safety thing. Some law that got passed or whatever.”

“Oh.” Tristan was disappointed at how mundane that was.

They entered the dining room. This whole floor was one full room, not separated like the others. Taking up the majority of the space was the dining area, which appeared to be a buffet-style setting. Long, metallic food containers were set up against the shorter left-most wall, and round tables were interspersed throughout. Chandeliers glittered from the ceiling, and the entirety of the back wall was inset with a long window that looked out onto the sky. They were now really high up, Tristan saw, which gave him a little excited jitter in his stomach.

To his right, the dining room transitioned into a lounge area. There was a stocked bar at the back, some more intimate seating in the middle, and a small raised stage at the front, set directly in front of the window.

There were quite a few people sitting down and eating already; Tristan took a peep at their plates as Eila led them to the food. She was practically skipping there, humming excitedly. He saw some familiar sights like mashed potatoes, steamed greens, and chicken; he also saw some unfamiliar stuff, like some weird curled-up creature that looked like one of the monsters from the [Withering Roots] and a reddish vegetable—meat?--that looked like a tomato crossed with a turnip.

He resolved himself to only trying new food while he was here, consequences be damned. There was no way he was going to end up in a new world and eat mashed potatoes.

They fixed themselves up a plate and sat down, Tristan making sure to grab another glass of argavo juice, plus another purple drink called summe. He took a tentative sip and hummed with pleasure; it was sort of grape-like but not at the same time. He took another sip.

They ate quickly, people-watching and talking about what they planned to do for the remainder of the trip.

“I want to learn more about the Elemental Cup,” Tristan said, polishing off his plate. The curled-up bug thing was called mirga, and it was actually quite tasty. Kind of like a fleshier mushroom. “I talked to some people back on Sol, and apparently entering is not as easy as I’d thought.”

Eila shook her head, leaning back with a glass of water. “No. It’s quite prestigious. There’s ways for non-qualified Duelists to enter, but those are hard to come by.”

He nodded, thinking. “I heard about some of them, but I’ll have to ask around some more. A lot of the people here seem rich. They must know something.” He downed his argavo juice and added, “Plus I want to know more about this Divine Expedition.”

She leaned forward. “You’re serious about reaching Divine?”

“I am.”

She studied him for a moment, before nodding and leaning back. “I think you can do it,” she declared, taking a sip of her water.

He smiled at her. “You don’t think it’s impossible?”

“Oh, it’s definitely impossible. But so is me becoming the first Divine forger.” She shrugged. “I’m still going to do it, though.”

Tristan raised his glass. “To impossible dreams.”

“To idiots,” Eila said, clinking her glass against his.

—🃁—

After their spa, which consisted of a luxurious back massage followed by a mud bath, they returned to the room to take a quick nap before dinner.

At some point, Tristan heard Eila sneak off into the bathroom, followed by quiet, barely-muffled sobs. He simply closed his eyes again and let her be.

When he awoke, a quick glance at the clock on the desk revealed it was almost 8pm. Thankfully, this world ran off the same 24 hour time as back on Earth; likely because the number 8 and all its multiples were of religious and cultural significance.

The door to the bathroom opened, and out came Eila. She’d changed into her formalwear: a long, blue dress whose hem just barely missed the floor, her usually messy hair tied up neatly in a bun pierced through with a card-topped hairstick, and some light make-up. With her heels on, she towered over him, though fortunately Tristan had long gotten over being shy about his height.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” she said. She tossed a fresh towel at him, which he easily caught. “Get ready. We got some information to gather.”

Tristan nodded. “You look nice, by the way,” he said to her as he passed.

She snorted, but he didn’t miss the little pleased smile on her face as he shut the door.

Tristan quickly washed up and changed into the suit he bought earlier at Sol. It was a simple black jacket over a white dress-shirt tucked into a pair of black linen pants with brown loafers. It was the kind of outfit he’d wear once back on Earth to some formal event he was forced into going before promptly shedding it and throwing it back in the closet to rot.

But out here, in this new world, he kind of liked how the suit fit. Perhaps it was because of the physical enhancements upgrading ranks gave him each time. Perhaps it was simply due to being more confident, the knowledge that he can handle himself making his spine straighter and his head raised.

Regardless, he liked how he looked. He brushed his hair away from his forehead—he needed to get a haircut at some point during the voyage—and stepped outside. He splayed his arms out to the waiting Eila and did a little spin.

“Thoughts?” he asked.

She nodded and gave a thumbs-up. “I approve.”

They exited their room and made their way to the [Teleport Stone]. A quick teleport up to the seventh floor followed by an immediate beeline for the food; Tristan tried not to stack his plate too much, then saw Eila was greedily stuffing two plates, and all self-consciousness flew out the window.

They sat down at an empty table with their plates and tucked in. A server came around with a tray of beverage item cards. He saw that they had an alcoholic argavo juice option called a Sunbath, and one quick flash of the [System Page Card] later, he was sipping away.

Eila had her own drink, a clear liquid called a Zeppelin Zip. He tried a sip of it, grimaced, and returned happily to his Sunbath. They ate in comfortable silence, looking around at the other people and occasionally remarking on their outfits. They even saw Forgemaster Gerund in ornate, layered red robes and those two cardbearer twins in contrasting dresses.

A thought occurred to Tristan at one point. He activated {The Great Tree’s Blessing}, and the map appeared in his vision. Eila didn’t seem to see it, which was good to note.

Interestingly, the map had changed from showing him Sol to now an area called “The Western Expanse.” It covered a large swath of the airspace between Sol and the Continent.

On the map, he saw that there were numerous floating islands in the area. Not a few of them had Dungeons on them, which were colored green, and a few Dominions, which were colored blue—a quick analysis showed them all to be Master rank and higher.

He was going through them, trying to see if one had another of these unique Perks, when a voice cut through.

“Are these seats taken?”