Chapter 80 – The Spire

*1 week later*

"...I have risen."

Dream opened his eyes with an announcement. When he did, he began adjusting to his senses.

"...This isn't too different."

As he sat up, he noticed that other than feeling a bit quicker to process his surroundings, it didn't feel like that big of a change.

[It won't feel different, but I can assure you that your processing speed has drastically improved. You're processing your senses in real-time without delay, and you can control your motor functions instantaneously also without delay. You'll notice this the next time you get into a fight. But you can also look at your status.]

"Oh? Status."

|Profile|

Name: Dream

Species: Human Male

Class: [Master Artificer]

Titles: [Origin Seeker]

Level: 155

Stats: Strength- B      Agility- B

Stamina- B-       Magic- B+

Passive Skills: [Sophia] Lvl. 61, [Magic] Lvl. 30

Active Skills: [Summons From Another World], [Material Magic] Lvl. 30

"...My agility went up. From B-. And magic and strength is higher than before?"

[Correct. Though Agility is a bit more dynamic than just processing speed, it's a decent representation of your improvement. And your magic and strength went up after all those level-ups.]

"I see... Well, I'm now 100% complete. And... Where's the Old Man?"

Dream spread out his senses over the house, but couldn't see Riddick. Was he outside?

[He actually left a day or so ago. He's probably at the Spire right now.]

"Why'd he go early?"

[He actually came and talked to me while you were asleep and said that he didn't want to force you to go anywhere. If you wanted to go to another Empire, you could. He just wanted you to do whatever you wanted without pressure. He even left you with some money.]

Sophia pointed him over to a bag and box on a table next to him. They were similar to what Graff gave him except there were two boxes instead of one.

"...Oh. Thanks for the money, but I was still planning on going to the Spire. Now I'm gonna have to navigate that damn place alone."

[Honestly, maybe he was just messing with you too. But either way, you really can do whatever you want. There's over 20,000 gold on your table, enough to buy pretty much anything. So if there's anything we want to do, we can.]

"I didn't have any other plans. Everything was kind of thrown out the window recently. We didn't even need to finish working on the core if we didn't want to. We should just head to the Spire. I'm eager to see if there's anything there to learn."

Dream got out of bed and put the money in his inventory. Then he walked outside the house.

"...Might as well take all this with me."

Dream raised his hand and the house plus workshop was put into his inventory. After that, the water all around him began rushing into the empty area.

*Splash!*

Dream flew up through the water and above the lake. He stopped and took a look at the dome.

"It would be cool if I could take this whole Dome with me. I could have my very own paradise."

[You can have your very own paradise in your mind space.]

"True. But reality has its own charm, even though it makes me wanna die sometimes. How far to the Spire?"

[The capital is a few thousand miles away. It won't take more than a couple of hours to get there.]

"Then we better get going."

Dream began flying up towards the roof. He went through it and into the sky where he equipped his armor and brought out his mana balls. The mana balls surrounded him in a large sphere and began concentrating the mana around him. 

"Time for some ludicrous speed."

Leaving behind one last comment, Dream blasted off towards the Spire. 

................

...........

.....

[We'll be seeing it over the horizon soon.]

"..."

Dream lifted his head. He had been flying for 2 hours, and he was looking forward to seeing this city. 

As Sophia said, he was soon able to see a wall over the horizon. Not long after, he could see the Spire. 

"...This really is a fantasy world."

As Dream got closer and closer, he could see the absolutely towering structures that were the Spires. 

Starting from the center was the main tower. The true Spire. It was the one that stood above all at 1,100 meters. And as you expanded from there the buildings got shorter and shorter. 

Dream wasn't a stranger to tall buildings, but he had never been near any this size, especially from this point of view. Not only was the main tower tall, but it was big. It looked like it was made of smooth rock, and it had metallic veins traveling up its body that pulsed with mana. Their design was that of a classic mage tower too. Just... really big.

That was another thing. Dream could sense the atrocious amount of mana being circulated through the city, even from miles away. The amount of mana was easily many times larger than what he handled at the Dome. And not only were there huge amounts of mana, but the city seemed to be connected to some kind of enchantment.

"Sophia, is there a mana barrier around the entire city?"

As Dream looked at the city, he could see an invisible barrier that covered everything in a dome out to the walls. Its source seemed to be the main Spire.

[There is. I can sense the flow of mana coming from the Spire out towards the barrier. But I can't trace the source of the mana beyond that.]

"If we could figure everything out about this barrier just by looking, this place would lose its right to be what it is. I have no doubt about the experts here. There are likely even a few class 4's. And they definitely have a way to hide whatever secrets there might be. So if they don't want us to find something, we probably won't. At least not easily. Anyway, let's head to the walls. I won't be able to just fly through the barrier."

Dream began heading down ahead of the gates. He found the road entering a gate and stealthily landed among the hundreds of people going in and out. He removed his armor and mana balls and dressed like a normal dude. At least in his world.

'Oh crap. What about my title plate?'

Dream remembered that he didn't get it updated at the Mountain. Though he was pretty sure they just looked at the name, that might not be the case here.

[No need to worry about that. We can edit it ourselves.]

'Oh. Okay.'

Dream took out the copper title plate and looked at it. It still had his fake ranger stats.

'The only problem is that we don't really know any other classes. We can't just put mage and expect things to go smoothly.'

[We only need to get through the gate, so I was thinking we can just put Blacksmith or something.]

'I guess that works. Just make sure it looks genuine.'

[Please. I could get past them by reprogramming their tools, not to mention faking a title plate. It'll be fine.]

As Dream looked at his title plate, he could see the data being changed. His class changed to Blacksmith and his level changed to level 64. 

As he waited in line and got closer to the gates, he could see the verification process to get in. It actually wasn't guards checking everybody. There was a table where people would place their title plates and it would be verified automatically. Though there were still people manning the gate, they weren't directly doing any work.

Soon, it was Dream's turn to get his plate scanned. He walked up and placed it on the table. Within moments, a light lit up green and he was let through. He entered the city.

'Huh, just like that.'

As Dream walked through, he was greeted with a truly bustling city. It was similar to the Mountain, just brighter since they weren't being covered by a dome of rock. It was a pleasantly sunny day and everybody was out and about.

Nice buildings of wood and rock were everywhere and were home to shops, hotels, restaurants, and whatever else you needed. There seemed to be everything here. Dream just picked a street and walked down it.

[Dream, look up.]

Sophia tugged and pointed him to the sky. When he looked up, he could actually see people flying. 

"So flying is okay here. That's good to know."

[Well if you plan to hide the fact that you're an overpowered class 2, then you should exercise restraint. No armor, no mana balls, and I've set your mana levels to C.]

"I wonder what it takes to fly though. Like if there's a certain magic or whatnot. If the Old Man were here, he would tell me. I also have no idea where to go."

[Well we can automatically assume that an academy for magic will be near the Spires, not on the outskirts of the city. So start heading deeper.]

'Should I fly?'

[Either that or you can run on top of buildings.]

'That sounds fun. Let's do that.'

Dream smiled and looked to the roof of a building. He slightly bent his knees and hopped right on top of the building.

'Just make sure I don't break anything.'

[Sure.]

Saying so, Dream looked towards the center of the city. He could see all the towers and how they gradually rose up into one point. It was a surreal sight. Something you would never see on Earth. 

He didn't stay entranced for long and kicked off, darting across a few buildings and landing over a hundred meters away. He bounded again and went another hundred meters. 

As the city was at least 15 miles wide, it took a bit for him to approach the center, but eventually he started coming up on the taller buildings. He continued climbing them assassins creed style and got good looks at the city below. 

"Hey, kid!"

Suddenly, Dream heard a shout. He looked back and saw a man flying towards him. He stopped on top of a building and wondered why he was being chased.

"You move pretty fast for being so young. What's your name?"

A guy looking to be in his 40s came up and landed near Dream. He wore a cape behind him and had a short staff on his waist with a gem on the end.

"My name is Dream. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes. I'm a monitor here and I saw you running across the buildings. You must be new otherwise you'd know you can't do that."

"Oh, I didn't know. And yes, I'm new."

"Figures. It can damage the buildings so we just ask if you keep to the street. Where are you in a hurry to? You were moving really fast."

"Oh, I'm actually trying to find the academy. I recently got to the city and was planning to join."

"Oh? Gonna go apply huh?"

"Yes, I was planning to. You know where it is?"

"I do. The academy is actually a complex. You'll see that most of these Spires are independent, but the academy is actually an enclosed area between 4 Spires. You'll find it in that direction. It looks like a castle, so it's easy to find."

The man pointed towards a bunch of buildings. Sure enough, Dream could see a tall castle-like structure a couple of miles away.

"So I just go there to register?"

"No. If you want to register for the academy you'll need to go to the guild building. They take batches of applicants for an interview process every week where you'll be tested."

"Oh. And where's the guild building?"

"It's that Spire right there."

He pointed towards a Spire about 200 meters tall. It was actually really close to them, not more than a few streets away. It also had a big sign with the word 'Mage Association' on it for all to see. 

"Oh, sweet. Thanks,"

"Sure."

With that, they went their separate ways. Dream jumped down to the street and watched the man fly away.

'Since it's right there, I'll just fly.'

Dream went into stealth when the monitor was out of sight and took to the sky. Not even a minute later, he descended in front of the Guild building.

'This seems to be much more popular than the one at the Mountain.'

Dream stood among crowds of people going in and out of the building. There were hundreds of people in the immediate area alone. He could only imagine how many people were in the building. Though he could spread his senses to look, he was sure there were plenty of people who could sense him. He didn't want to attract attention.

'Since I have to meet someone, I guess I should look presentable. Do I look alright?'

Dream looked himself over. He was meeting new people and didn't need to go around looking poor. An image he wasn't really giving off as he was currently wearing sweats and a hoodie.

[I think we should change.]

'At least I'm still in stealth. What are all these people wearing?'

Dream took a closer look at all the people walking by. Most of the guys were wearing simple fitted clothing that looked really nice like pants and a shirt with maybe a vest. The girls also wore nice dresses or even something similar to the men like pants and such. Though the clothing industry in this place seemed to be very developed, they still looked very different from his modern clothes. He wasn't even sure if they had elastic.

'...So I won't really be able to match their fashion.'

[Here. Try this.]

Sophia spoke up and swapped out Dream's clothes. He took a look at himself.

She dressed him in neat comfortable shoes, nice dark slacks, and a black button-down. The shirt had no tie and wasn't buttoned all the way, exposing a bit of his muscular chest. Not that his muscles weren't already showing through the shirt. One could see the shirt wrap around his toned arms and abs. His silky brown hair was also done up in a messy short comb-over. And last but not least, a sliver watch for accent.

The clothes were semi-formal, but with his aura and demeanor, it made it casual yet classy. He liked classy things and had no problem with the outfit.

Dream rolled his sleeves above his elbows and looked like he was about to hang out with some rich 20-something-year-olds. Though this world likely had a different style for rich people, so he would look kind of out of place. But he wasn't about to put on some medieval costume, so he dealt with it. He was confident about himself and looked good. That's all that mattered.

After checking himself out and getting a boost in confidence, he undid his stealth and walked into the building. Hopefully the registration process wouldn't be tiresome.