Ch. 11

  In the last hour or so, the road was getting noticeably steeper. I couldn’t be more ready to find a bed and to eat warm food. I knew it was going to be a little different on the road, but not quite like this.

  When we finally crested the top of the section of the hill, everyone stopped. About a mile or two away from us was a giant tiered city that had to be the capital city, Acacia. It was as if a mountain had been carved into several different levels.

  There were five distinct layers to it, with the bottom one so expansive, it had to be more than two miles across with walls more than forty feet tall. It was the biggest thing I had ever seen. The second layer was built above that and maybe about two thirds smaller than the first. The third layer was the same, about two thirds smaller than the second and so on until the fifth level of the city which had a large castle upon it that shimmered with the sun. The spires were of various heights, but did not clash with the architecture of the buildings around it. It was a white kind of color, but slightly reflective. Everything about it looked beautiful and iridescent, shining with the subtle rainbow colors of the Grand Seal above us almost as if it was made of glass like a mirror.

  I could hardly take my eyes away from it until John said,

  “Jude, do you see that? A real life castle, that’s crazy! I wonder if we will get to go inside it sometime. I always wondered what a castle would be like.”

  Someone next to us scoffed and said, “There is no way you’ll ever go into that castle, let alone go anywhere beyond the second tier of Acacia. Only the wealthy and powerful get to go to the third level of the city and beyond. The fourth level is reserved for nobles and the fifth level is only for the royal family.”

  Before I could respond or ask a question to the kid who butted in to John and I’s conversation. There was a loud whistle again and Angela spoke up to the whole group.

  “We are very close to our destination, I want to reiterate what I said earlier. Remember, you are not in your hometowns anymore. The way Acacia works and its politics are far different than the villages and towns you are from. We will be entering the city shortly and we will be able to get inside without a problem. We will then head to the second tier where the Acacia Academy is located. I will probably not be the only one to tell you this, but I strongly recommend staying on academy grounds unless instructed otherwise. The city is well guarded, but accidents happen and unsupervised children have been known to go missing.” Angela let a pause hang in her words before finishing with, “The Academy will have an admissions process to properly register you as attending the academy as students. The clerks and administrative staff that receive you will have more information on this. Stay close to us as we move through the city. We will be watching, but please don’t make our job harder than it needs to be.”

  “Do you think kids actually disappear in the city?” I asked John, trying to not let that scare me.

  John looked thoughtful before saying, “I mean, probably? Dad said there were some messed up people that lived in big cities like this. I don’t plan on leaving the academy area, so it shouldn’t be an issue.”

  I figured John was probably right and tried to put it out of my mind. While I was now Integrated, I still was only a Level 1 Mage and didn’t really know how to fully use my ability yet. I was more like a baby bird than anything useful. I needed to learn and as long as I stayed at the academy, things would probably be fine.

  Our group was now in line to enter the gates, which loomed above us imposingly with their walls forming a large divide between us and the city. They looked big from far away and now they seemed gigantic and were seamless. I couldn’t tell if it was stone or metal, but it wasn’t just tall, but thick too. The wall had to be 15 feet thick.

  Two large doors were opened to allow people in and out of the city. I asked if this was the only entrance, but apparently there were four, with the North and South gates being the largest and the East and West gates being smaller. Angela and a few of our chaperones spoke with the heavily armored guards stationed at the gate and they gestured for us to follow, allowing us to enter without a fuss or payment.

  Acacia was a bit like Hawthorn during the festival, but without the same kind of cheer and joy the festival brought. Buildings upon buildings were stacked on top of each other, with a hodgepodge of stone, wood, and metal. I don’t think any of the buildings on this first tier of the city of Acacia were uniform at all and had distinct layers of materials as they must have continued to build higher as the city matured. There were tons of people walking along the wide cobblestone road. That cut its path straight through the city. The road was organized to have carts and wagons moving on the inside portion, while those walking stuck to the outside. Something flew past my head and I looked up to see someone zoom past me riding some sort of metal disc and then another on a carpet. I tried to identify them, but they were already out of range before I got the chance.

  The city had small pop up wooden stands with food: meat on skewers, fruits I had never seen, and lots of other food I did not recognize. There were small shops selling all sorts of things from armor, to clothes, potions, and even monster parts. I think the thing that was throwing me off though was the sound. It felt much more overwhelming at first than Hawthorn did. Visually, it was a lot to take in too. Everywhere my eyes landed, there was something new.

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  There was a weird mix of really nice looking shops or stands, but then there were lots of parts of this first tier of the city that also looked really dirty. In the corners and edges of the main walking area, the buildings and people looked run down. If a kid behind me didn’t lightly push me forward, I think I could have stood there forever if they didn’t wake me from the stupor of taking it all in.

  I noticed that there were various alleys that connected to some of the housing and small little access ways throughout that were filled with even more junk and grime. I saw a few people covered in rags and some were coughing quite loudly. I had never seen anything quite that dirty. Obviously, I had seen dirt, I was a farmer, but this was filth and garbage with people probably living in it. At the very least, they were spending a significant amount of their time there.

  Again, the group kept me pushing forward and we walked another half mile or so towards the center of the city where there was a smaller wall and gate system similar to the first. Looking up, there was what looked like another city on top of this one, over one hundred feet tall from where we stood right now. The tallest buildings on this first level were maybe sixty or seventy feet and there was still a noticeable gap between the first and second levels of Acacia.

  The guards at this smaller gate were not nearly as heavily armored, but I could hear them asking for “papers” and Angela produced rolled up papers from underneath her armor showing something official looking. If I had to guess, probably documentation showing that they were hired to bring us students to the Acacia Academy. It didn’t take long before we were allowed through the smaller gate to get to the second level of the city. We stepped past the gate, but there was just a wall in front of us all. There were also walls to our left and right. I couldn’t see how we would get up.

  “What are we supposed to do, fly up?” I asked nobody in particular and a couple kids next to me laughed. Before our eyes, what I thought was the floor began to slowly rise into the sky without cables or gears. We were flying up, albeit slowly, but we were flying! “How does this work?” someone asked behind me and one of the chaperones that hadn’t introduced themselves spoke up, “There are platform lifts like this throughout the city. It is a relatively complex runic inscription to make it work this way and costs a good amount of Mana to use. Lifts like these are generally powered by the Mana cores of monsters.”

  “Is that why monsters are valuable for people to buy and sell?” I asked, hoping that same person would hear.

  “Yes, that is only part of the reason, but in general, most monsters have a Mana core which empowers them. When they’re slain, their cores are harvested and can be used to power runic things like this, appliances, etc. They’re expensive, as you can imagine, so unless whatever they are powering is very large or you are very rich, it is usually just more efficient to charge whatever you’re using with your own Mana. The other parts from the monsters can be valuable too, but in general, the Mana core is the most important piece. The stronger the monster, usually the more powerful the core.”

  “I guess that makes sense” I mumbled to myself as I marveled at the fact all of us were moving upwards into the air without anything beneath us pushing us. It was moving up at a speed close to a slow walking pace, but within about three minutes, the lift stopped on a platform that was also enclosed with walls on either side and a ceiling above.

  “It is a good thing it stops where it does, I wouldn’t want to get squished” I said staring at the ceiling after elbowing John to look up to.

  “I never would have thought of that on my own, thanks Jude. Now I can think of that each time we have to take a lift in the future.” John said as we began to walk forward off of the lift from the platform we arrived on.

  This second level of Acacia was much less oppressive than the first tier of the capital city. The sound was quieter and it didn’t feel as bunched together. The road was a smooth stone and was a bit less wide than the first. There were trees and plants lining the road and out in front of the storefronts, restaurants, and other shops around. There were still plenty of people, but it just didn’t feel as chaotic. There were even some gates with fancier looking walkways that led to large houses, which never would have fit in the lower part of Acacia.

  We kept walking through this part of the city before another building came into view. “Actually, building is probably the wrong word, maybe compound would be the right way to describe it? Or estate?” I thought to myself. Our group came up to an archway that had gates on either side that were open and we walked through.

  “This is the Acacia Academy. Welcome and enjoy. Hopefully we will meet again, but our job of getting you here safely is done. Please head towards the entrance of that first building and there should be a receptionist at the front desk to direct you where you need to go. All of the groups of new students from the other areas should be arriving today, so they are expecting you.” Angela said before waving and walking away with the other Warriors and Mages that had been escorting us here.

  “That felt like a bit of a fast goodbye.” John said and someone to his right said, “They’re all just hired by the Kingdom of Acacia and are usually active Monster Hunter Association members who took on this job to escort us here. It is probably a pretty low risk way for them to make some gold. They finished their job and we are safe here.”

  “I guess that makes sense…” I said, but I didn’t like losing people I had begun to trust, even if I only knew them for a couple days.

  Trying to put that out of my mind, I looked around and there were two large grass rectangles on either side of the walkway leading up to the entrance of the academy. Mature trees were sprinkled about and nothing seemed run down or falling apart. There were even some kids wearing a forest green uniform that must be second or third year students. They were sitting on blankets with books in their hands or relaxing with friends.

  The group had kind of fractured into smaller groups at this point, with some walking around this front garden area and others heading into the building. John and I were just taking it all in. Our land back home was great, but in a different kind of a way. The natural trees, fields, and rivers were beautiful, but this garden or quad area, really the whole campus of this academy just seemed beautiful in a “pretty” way. It was all planned out and felt like a breath of fresh air in the midst of a busy city. It was a total contrast to the hustle and bustle below.

  Eventually, John and I headed towards the main entrance of the academy. We had walked around for about ten minutes and explored the campus a bit. There were about five stories to the building with other smaller buildings connected to it or butted it right next to it. I couldn’t quite tell, but it almost made a large “U” shape with the interior of that “U” having some sort of outdoor area, but we couldn’t get through to see without entering a small building in the back.

  Walking inside, the freshness of the air changed and smelled more like wood and leather. It didn’t feel dirty or dingy, but old. It was a little colder, but there were Mana lights in a very intricate chandelier above us. The ceiling was vaulted and there was a balcony that went around the interior of the entrance on the second floor. The walls were decorated with old swords, skeletons or other trophies from various monsters and tapestries with runic etchings I could not understand. The walls and ceilings here were all wood lined and the floor was stone. It was an impressive way to welcome anyone to the academy, especially people like John and I.