Nate took in the three Lesser Divinities. All the individuals he had seen so far on the world of Fifth Scale had been elves. Short-eared when compared with Evindal, but still, elves. The trio before him were not. Standing at over two-metres tall, the one in front looked like a gray-skinned Orc, with tusks curling upwards from his lower jaw and ending just below his large nose. Nate was certain it was a ‘he’ because the man was shirtless, with a black plaited ponytail hanging over his shoulder.

Behind the monolithic orc were two humanoid women. The shorter of the pair was dressed in tight, dark red leathers, and Nate sensed at least three spatial storage artifacts on her person. Her eyes were a sharp green and she watched everyone in the room warily, as though taking in all the potential threats and angles. Her short, brown hair reflected the light off the walls as she zeroed in on Nate and Kiri.

The taller of the two wore a voluminous white robe and had wands slotted on each hip. Platinum blonde hair was tightly bound in a bun behind her head as she watched everything with serene and calm golden eyes.

The orc glanced at the short woman, who only came up to his waist, something unspoken passing between them before he marched across the room towards Nate and Kiri.

“You two look pretty strong. You headed to the World Reaping as well?” he asked gruffly.

“Sure are,” answered Kiri, the challenge clear in her voice.

“I like this one,” guffawed the Orc. “The bureaucrat said the next portal isn’t for a few days. Sounds like we’ll be arriving together. You want to get dinner after you’re done sorting out the bullshit?”

“With you?” asked Kiri with a raised eyebrow.

“Nah, lass. Nothing like that. No offense, but you lack the kind of ‘heft’ I am looking for. With my team of course. We can compare notes. Never hurts to know a few people and I’d rather make friends than enemies before the tournament is even underway.”

Kiri glanced at Nate who gave her a nod.

“Yeah that sounds fine.”

“That’s what I am talking about!” proclaimed the Orc. “I’m Hrung’Jak, my friends just call me Jak though. My companions are Fillow the Quick, though everyone just calls her Fili and the glue that keeps us together is Gwenevyn. Gwen for short.”

Nate nodded to Fillow, who was the short and leathered woman, and Gwenevyn, who was the white robed of the pair.

“I’m Kiri, that’s Nate,” replied Kiri, introducing everyone. “The other two are Jemima and Wulfgar. And then there is Nate’s familiar, Frick.”

At the mention of the Familiar, light appeared behind Gwen’s back in the form of two faerie wings. Each wing had an entirely different pattern and after shining for a moment, they condensed down into two small beings of light that looked like butterflies, alighting on the woman’s shoulders.

“Zip and Zap,” said Gwen in a stately voice. “My own familiars. They have longer names but those are the ones they prefer.”

Nate glanced at his Familiar who had started drooling as he stared at the two small beings of light, before he smacked the goblin lightly across the back of his head.

“No eating them.”

Gwen shot a quick glare at Frick before giving Nate an appreciative nod.

“Apologies for interrupting,” interjected Savalia. “But the Officer for Divine Foreign Visitor Management is ready to see you.”

“We’ll just wait out here,” added Jak.

Nate and crew were ushered into the room beyond to find an older male elf sitting behind an ornate desk.

“Greetings, I’m Charlid and let me welcome you to the Dynasty of the Heavenly Serpent. As agreed we accept all potential participants in the upcoming World Reaping and while it’s unfortunate that your identification tokens weren’t taken care of ahead of time we always have a few who fail to prepare accordingly. Please take a seat so we can get started.”

There were enough seats for everyone and Nate was surprised at the level of comfort provided. Cloud enchantments were embedded in the chairs along with something meant to relax him, the latter bouncing off his Soul Barrier.

“Now, the cost for this process is four-hundred pristine marks per individual. Up front. Apologies but I must insist as we have had issues in the past.”

Though he said ‘apologies’, Nate thought Charlid looked anything but apologetic. But Nate wasn’t going to lower himself to bartering, if that was even a possibility. The main problem was, he didn’t know how much value a pristine mark represented. Fortunately, he was not unprepared, after all, he’d conquered the Severed Empire and Kiri the Dominion of the Heavenly Throne. While they’d left plenty within the vaults to fund the changes they desired and pay the Guild, they had also helped themselves to quite a bit of the accumulated wealth. Now, Galle was still a backwater, which meant many of the lower-tier materials and Orbs were useless. But there had been enough to give them some starting wealth to work with.

“Certainly. However, we don’t have any pristine marks on us. I don’t suppose you could send for someone who could trade with us for them?” he asked.

“It’s a little unusual but we do have an assessor in the building. If you’ll just wait a few minutes.”

Charlid leaned over the enchanted clipboard before him, tapping on it and Nate sensed the Information Concept trigger with Connection and send something into the building below them. So that’s how it works, he thought.

Despite Charlird’s comment, within a minute there was another individual entering the room. This elf was clearly mortal and carried a large enchanted metal tablet.

“This is our assessor. While you might get a better price taking your time to sell your earnings to specialised vendors below, I do promise that we will give you a fair price for anything. Now, we need to make up sixteen-hundred pristine marks. Place anything you’re willing to sell to the Centre of Foreign Visitor Management on the table.”

Nate produced a Legendary Skill Enhancement Orb. The one he’d received from the Dungeon in the Wild Realm was back with the Artist’s Emporium, but surprisingly, there had been one in Severen’s Vault. Then he started pulling out some Legendary-tier daggers that Kiri had returned to him, along with a couple of Legendary Skill Orbs but the assessor was already waving his arms at Charlid.

“Ah, that will be unnecessary. The Legendary Skill Enhancement Orb is priced at five thousand, three-hundred and fifty pristine marks. Though, perhaps you wish to keep it and sell something else instead?”

Nate shook his head. While he could get more for it, according to Charlid, he didn’t want to bother and if they gave him the difference then he’d have marks for a place to stay and food. Not to mention he didn’t even know the price for the portal to Serpent’s Wing yet.

“It’s fine. That will do,” he replied as he scooped up everything else and returned it to his spatial zone, dumping it in a pile in one of the storage rooms.

“Yes, I see. Well, perfect... our assessor will go and get the additional pristine marks you are owed and we can continue with the Identification process.”

What followed was a series of boring and simple questions for each of them. Wulfgar and Jemima followed suit without being prompted, stating they were members of the Risen Sun Sect and attendants of Kiri and Nate. Charlid took it in stride that there was no record of the Sect in question, adding it to the apparent list the Dynasty had of known Sects and taking the hint to drop it when he asked where the Sect was located. Names were given, mana signatures provided and then they were all handed small, metal tokens made of Mythic material which they each stored. With Identification handled, and Nate assumed their likeness, mana signature, name, and Sect recorded in the Dynasty’s records, they were ushered out of the office and asked politely to stick to the city centre which was set aside for Divinities.

Jak stood, the hulking Orc smiling around his tusks as the five of them exited the office.

“All sorted? Good! Let’s see what passes for food in this place and swap battle stories!”

Descending the elevator felt cramped between what was now two teams of guards, all Lesser Divines, and then Jak’s crew. The discomfort was more than just all the people though. While Nate recognised that socialising a little to get the lay of the land was important, he’d rather have just gone and hidden in his gallery to create some new paintings.

Walking out into the streets, they were escorted a few blocks towards the city centre. The streets were quite busy, reminding Nate of the cities of Earth. Parks added some greenery but the buildings were monoliths of metal and glass and within them scurried mortals, grease in the machinery of the world. One difference was how much cleaner the city was. He wouldn’t have called it pristine, but hundreds of enchantments seemed to be at work to keep any dust from settling or grime accumulating.

The people, all elves, avoided the procession of Lesser Divines, like minnows scattering and reforming around a shark within their midst. Or a shiver of sharks in this case. It was the markings on the guards’ uniforms that seemed to give it away and the mortals apparently wanted nothing to do with Lesser Divines.

Reaching the city centre was like walking into a new world. Behind them, the skyscrapers, while towering edifices of engineering and magic, were very much utilitarian in appearance and design. The heart of Jungpo was clearly meant to cater to the tastes of those who had reached higher than mortality. Tiered parks hung like cradled plants, tethered in place. They were scattered in layers and on each one sat a shop or place of entertainment.

While beautiful in its riot of colours and magical design, the first thing Nate noticed was how quiet it was. There had been thousands of elves just a minute earlier and a couple of blocks back. Here he could only sense a few hundred, and not all elves.

Their guard escort bid them farewell, taking their leave, though one of the teams was apparently situated here in the city centre as Nate felt them all activate enchantments on their boots and fly towards one of the many floating platforms above.

“Not bad for a Feeder world,” commented Jak.

“It will do,” agreed Gwen, while Fillow remained silent.

“So, what’s first?” asked Jak. “I could go for some food but if you want to find accommodation we can do that first. Place like this probably only has two or three options so it shouldn’t take long.”

“Food,” stated Kiri with a grin.

“I knew I liked you. Let’s see what they’ve got!” applauded Jak.

Jak and Fillow activated enchantments while Gwen seemed to use a Skill that gave her wings, the trio preparing to fly. As Wulfgar bent his legs to jump, Nate created a Gravity Control rune and lifted his own team off the ground, following the Orc to one of the floating platforms with a series of red-leafed trees all set around an open restaurant. At the heart were two elves, a male and female, who greeted them as they landed.

“Welcome to the Falling Auburn Leaf. I am Farrowin and this is my wife Esperia. The Falling Auburn Leaf specialises in foreign and exotic meats and spices along with a custom selection of beverages imported directly from Serpent’s Tail. Would the esteemed guests like to dine with us today?”

Nate glanced up to see the sun above was sitting at around midday. He wasn’t sure how many hours that was on Fifth Scale but he was pretty happy with them having handled all the bureaucracy necessary in the space of a single morning.

“What kind of meats are we talking?” asked Jak, the rough looking Orc apparently something of a meat connoisseur.

Farrowin handed over a sheet of paper that was as hard as stone to the Orc.

“You will see everything we have in stock detailed here along with prices. Our current specials however are Filet’d Rainbow Serpent, seasoned with Depths-aligned sea salt and a spicy Heat-aligned rub. We also have some Hindquarter Butalan that has been soaked in Life-aligned Rosethorn for seventy days. The meat falls right off the bone.”

Nods were had all around and they found themselves seated in comfy chairs arrayed beneath the red leafed trees in a circle, with an enchanted hovering table between them that allowed them to pass right through it. Matching enchantments were found on the glasses and plates that let them rest on the selectively permeable table and Nate found himself studying the enchantment, with more Divine Energy rushing in as he did so.

The ‘epiphany’ earned him some glances from their guests which led to Kiri being unwilling to be outdone. Holding her hand out to Jemima she received a sickly yellow looking potion that she began to sip on. The sense of Divine Energy flowing around them happened again and the looks on Jak and his crew’s faces transformed from curiosity to surprise.

“Not to be too forward, but you wouldn’t happen to be scions of a major faction, would you?” asked Jak.

Fillow tensed slightly at the question.

“Not a major faction,” answered Kiri, still sipping on what Nate could only assume was some toxic concoction created by Jemima.

“Ah. But scions. Apologies then if I came across as rude. We thought you were an unaffiliated team like ourselves.”

“None taken,” answered Nate. “Unaffiliated though? Does that pose some challenges for participating in the World Reaping then?”

“Of course,” guffawed Jak. “We’re not rich enough to buy entry so we’ll be competing in the tournament to gain a spot. Expect there will be a few tough competitors in the mix but I am confident the three of us will earn our places and get to participate in the World Reaping.”

“I’m curious about how you manage to be unaffiliated?” asked Nate.

“You must’ve been raised in a Sect,” commented Jak. “Plenty of places sell access to Dungeons and The System itself throws quests and opportunities in the Path of those who make the effort. Mostly we stick to Feeder worlds where they often have a small populace willing to delve and all the geniuses have already been snapped up. That said we’re in the minority and most of those truly following their Path tend to join up with one faction or another.”

Kiri smiled across from him, whispering something to Gwen who had a blush on her white cheeks. Nate rolled his eyes, turning back to Jak.

“This will be my first World Reaping,” explained Nate. “I am curious how they handle the entry Tournament in the Dynasty of the Heavenly Serpent.”

Jak got the hint and grinned around his tusks, “Sure thing. I’ll tell you how they do it around here.”