Surviving as a Broken Hero

I wasn’t a spellcaster, nor had I really studied magic, so I wasn’t sure of what exactly that was supposed to imply. If the Second System was revealing it, though, and it was a trait that had originally been hidden from the System, I could only guess that it was something not entirely innocent by design.

Just how many people had entered the city and received a similar tattoo?

The guardsmen waved me through after confirming that the tattoo had been set properly, not really interested in me any further.

Past the gates of the city, the immediate entrance was a large, clear circle. While I had expected to see a bustling city with vendors lined up across the streets and around the entrance, I was instead greeted with a firm quietness.

That wasn’t to say that it was silent, however. There were normal conversations, groups moving about the streets and resting underneath the warm flame emerging as one of the pillars of light I had seen from back on top of the mountain.

The pillar of flame emitted a constant heat that warmed my face immediately and melted any snow long before it could touch the ground. Naturally, melted snow was really just rain, but the builders had accounted for that with whatever enchantments were around the city, and no such raindrops fell from the sky.

There were no vendors or haphazard shops set up on the street. Instead, what business people had to conduct was conducted from the storefronts set into many of the buildings I could see in that initial section of the city. Whoever ran the city, despite the disordered way the city had originally been constructed, seemed to have a penchant for keeping the streets as orderly and clean as possible.

If those were truly the same mountains Rhil had been transported to, then my best bet in finding her was probably going to be in that city. Before anything else, though, I had a burning curiosity that I needed to satisfy.

I took one of the wider main streets leading away from that central circle and followed it through to the sky at the end of the city.

I passed by adventurers of a caliber I was not used to seeing along the way. While I was used to adventurers who were over level 5 being rare and those who were level 10 or higher acting like beings that didn’t even interact with others unless they had to, I passed by adventurers casually speaking with each other in well-worn plate armor that was glittering with enchantments, adventurers with glowing swords that seemed they would cut me from just looking, adventurers with exotic pets and those with magic passively gathering around them from the sheer energy they could release… All had to have been over level 10, judging from their items alone.

It was intimidating, to say the least, but it also gave me a feeling of hope that sources of experience nearby would be abundant.

I also saw a few mages cleaning the streets, employing magic to wash, dry, and scrub down any surface they could reach. I wondered how much they were being paid to do so—it wasn’t how I imagined most adventurers wanting to spend their time, after all.

Finally, I reached the edge of the city itself. It looked much as it had from the mountain, a jagged tear where the earth suddenly ended and dropped off into the sky.

All manner of things could have been possible, and the seemingly infinite drop down into the clouds begat all manner of imagination. Was there another city down there? Could there be another world?

I imagined dropping down through the clouds and seeing an infinite expanse of untouched land, a rainforest jungle that I could explore for the rest of my life and never see even a fraction of. I pictured an endless desert far below, a lifeless land as far as the eye could see. There could be a roiling ocean, species we had never yet encountered, more humans, cities beyond imagining. The mystery was a perfect canvas for the mind.

I found myself standing on the very edge of the earth, feeling beckoned by the clouds to discover what they veiled. Just one step…

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

A voice startled me out of my imagination, and I realized just how close I was to the edge. I took a step back and looked for the voice I had heard somewhere to my side.

There, I saw a man sitting with his legs dangling over the edge, leaning back on his hands for support as he looked at me. I hadn’t noticed him before, somehow. Had he always been there?

“The clouds have enticed more than one to take the plunge, but none have ever returned, so I wouldn’t advise it unless you’re sure that there is nothing else here for you.”

He looked younger than me, maybe in his early twenties, with long, brown hair pulled back in a rough ponytail, smooth, unblemished skin, and tight-fitting clothes that reminded me of something I might have worn to the gym back on Earth.

“I take it that you gave others the same warning?”

Had he seen others drop down through the clouds without so much as a word?

“Hmm… No, not everyone.”

His tone of voice was light and unsure, unbothered by the fact that he had seen others commit what, for all he knew, was suicide.

“It should be obvious, no? Don’t you think you would have heard about it if someone had come back?”

I guess he was right, such a mystery wouldn’t stay a mystery for long if others had figured it out. It wasn’t like it was a hidden dungeon or anything. It was something in plain sight for anyone to see.

“Not even the dragons have ever returned from below those clouds…”

‘Dragons…?’

As if on cue, a winged beast launched itself from the palace that hung out over the edge, soaring into the sky. Its majestic, leathery wings flapped through the frigid air as it looped around the city and flew off somewhere into the mountains.

While it was an awe-inspiring sight, something about the dragon troubled me greatly. I tried to put my finger on it… Some feeling that the dragon gave off…

“Pretty cool, right? It’s not every day you get to see a dragon, after all. Wait until you hear one speak.”

The man mistook my silence for dumbstruck awe.

“Say, did you just get here?”

I nodded at his question, mind still trying to figure out what was making me feel so off.

“Yeah… I’m looking for a friend.”

The man adjusted himself and pulled his legs up as he turned to face me, rocking in a slow back-and-forth motion next to the edge.

“Hey, it just so happens that I’m looking for one, too! Are you also here for the quest?”

I wasn’t sure what quest he was talking about, but he had misunderstood me again.

The look on my face must have made it apparent.

“No? Wait, don’t tell me… You haven’t even heard of the quest yet?”

“What quest?”

The man was speaking as if it should have been painfully obvious, like there was only one quest worth pursuing in the city.

“Oh… This one, of course!”

Ding!

[[Quest Shared – Grand Quest

Drive out the steadily increasing cold of the Dragon Mountains and restore the City’s Edge.]]

Seeing as the quest had something to do with the city and the mountains, it probably wasn’t a bad bet for finding Rhil.

But first…

“That’s interesting and all, but have you seen a girl of around level 10 at least who can control lightning? She might be calling herself the Skybreaker or Rhil.”

Taken aback by how I had completely ignored his quest-sharing, the man shook his head.

“No, I can’t say it sounds familiar, though there are a ton of adventurers around here calling themselves stupid names…”

‘Stupid names?’

I decided to let that one slide for the moment.

“But you’re probably thinking that this quest wouldn’t hurt, right?”

The man leaned forward with an eager gleam in his eyes—clearly, he was trying to get at something.

“I guess not…”

My words trailed off and the man pushed himself up to his feet.

“Excellent! Did you come here with a party?” He looked around as if the answer wasn’t already obvious.

I was painfully out of my league there, and no doubt my shabby clothes and appearance weren’t much to look at compared to the other adventurers I had seen.

“Never mind that. What do you think of partying up for this quest?

“Why?” I asked the words I had been thinking.

Why was that strange guy speaking with a complete stranger like me, who wore little better than rags and had an unkempt appearance? He could have asked any other random adventurer with a glowing sword or rune armor in the streets.

“Because I think you’re interesting. You don’t go around showing off the gear your rich friends probably helped you buy in some store, you don’t seem like one of those idiots to buy brand-new armor and roll around in it for a bit for it to seem worn, and you don’t act too self-important for your own good. I might not look it, but I can afford to be pretty picky when it comes to my party, and I think you’re perfect.”

Well, at least that confirmed something that I had been wondering about the man since he had started speaking to me.

‘This guy is crazy.’