Chapter 112: Old South to Old East
"Where to first?"
Esa asked Mitsuna as she flew around her in circles.
"No clue."
"Eh."
"I will stop by that academy in a while. It holds a ton of information after all, but for now, I'll head off to work on my swordsmanship."
"I-I'm not really a sword type of girl."
"Oh, I know. You can go and continue regaining your power. Although I can transcend a few levels, I would like to max everything I have out and then try to get into a higher Tier. I just go like that normally and with you around I doubt that I'll get that 'life is in danger' feel when training, you know?"
"I don't really get it but sure. If you want to work on your swordplay, I recommend going Eas-"
"East. Yeah, I know. I was told about the Eastern Continent by my teacher."
"Are you heading to the Old East or New East?"
"Dunno. Which one has better swordsmen?"
"Ughh. How could you survive without me?"
"By getting a job."
"... *Sigh* All the new continents are filled with weirdos, they are all stupidly strong though and a lot of them have Unique Skills. The old continents are more old school. Since the old continents don't have many Unique Skill users they focus on the basics. I'd say the Old East fits you better right now. They should be holding their monthly Sword Saint competition soon too."
"W-Wait..."
Mitsuna paused as she heard something unbelievable.
"Monthly? Huhh!?"
"Yeah. When I said they hone the basics, I wasn't kidding. Though normally a lot of monstrous people show up at the festival. A lot of the participants have strange or just broken Unique Skills. I wouldn't recommend taking part yet. Even if you are monstrous yourself you'll need more than that in a sword competition."
"Thanks for the advice."
"No problem. It comes with the age I guess."
'I didn't really give any advice... does she even know which way to go?'
"I'll be seeing you."
"Bye, Mistress."
Raising an eyebrow, Mitsuna just teleported away without saying anything more.
'Since this is the Old Southern Continent, I should start heading North-East.'
Taking a glance at the sun, Mitsuna picked her direction and started her journey.
...
After about 3 days, Mitsuna finally made it to the Old East. She thought so at least.
'The journey was filled with blood sweat tears and companions that I'll never forget. Like that one roasted rabbit I had for dinner yesterday, or the roasted boar I had this morning. Or the water. Oh, the water~'
Looking around, Mitsuna stopped with her joking attitude.
The surrounding landscape was... strange. Her location right now was surrounded by cherry blossom trees and pure green grass.
With a river flowing nearby and a thick forest in the distance, it looked like a paradise.
Why is that strange? you might ask.
Well... far into the distance, the scenery changed. It was a reddish desert that seemed to hold no life in it except for the aforementioned cherry blossom trees.
Finding the sudden change from desert to beautiful plains strange, Mitsuna teleported over and observed the desert landscape.
The desert was just like, well, a desert. Besides the cherry blossom trees that stood a few tens of meters away from each other, it just looked like a really red desert.
Crouching down, Mitsuna touched the sand.
'Course and uncomfortable. Jep, just sand.'
Picking up a speck, Mitsuna observed it closely.
Rolling it around her fingers, the colour of the sand turned back to normal sand while her fingers turned ever so slightly more red.
Sniffing her fingers, Mitsuna came to a conclusion she did not want to believe.
'Is this place red because of dried blood?'
Her fingers had the scent of iron covering them.
Now that she came to this conclusion, she did recognize a heavy iron smell all around this place. Even far back near the beautiful plains, the memory of a faint smell of iron was in her mind.
'I guess I didn't realize it because it was rather faint. Everywhere I go has like 7 different smells all together so just a slight increase in iron is pretty easy to miss.'
Thinking that she should search the area she arrives at with all her senses in the future, Mitsuna tracked onwards to a cherry blossom tree in the middle of the desert.
What could she say? The tree was just like any other. She could not feel, see, hear or smell any difference. She was not about to taste it either.
'Just a tree. In a desert. Huh.'
Teleporting up towards the sky, Mitsuna looked around the area.
Seeing a town that was surrounded by a rather thick metal wall, she teleported to the entrance.
"Heyo."
She said to the guard who she appeared next to.
"Ahh! Holy sh*t on a bicycle!..."
"Heyo."
"I heard you the first time, damn. What do you want?"
The guard took a closer look at Mitsuna.
'Don't see those types of clothes often. Cloth mask too. Probably a noble or something.'
"What continent is this? Just making sure."
'Huh?'
"Uhh. The Eastern one."
"Yeah, yeah... Old or New?"
"Old."
'Whew. For a moment I thought this was the wrong continent.'
"Great. Do you know any swordsmanship places? I gotta get a workout."
"There's a dojo run by a saint in this town. They don't take apprentices though."
"That's fine. Can I get in?"
"ID?"
"None."
"5 Copper?"
"Nope."
"Then you can't, sorry miss. Just my job."
"Huh."
Thinking about it for a moment, Mitsuna removed her cloth mask.
"Sorry miss but I don't take any payment like that."
"No no. Ew. I was going to offer you the mask. It's made out of some rather nice materials and could be sold for about 3 silver if you take it to a merchant that deals with clothes."
"Oh. Well fine. I don't like leaving people out on the roads anyway. I'll take it."
The guard took the mask and placed it in his pocket.
"Welcome to the city of Oldlade."
Entering the town while creating another mask, Mitsuna took a look around.
'Merchant guild. Adventurer guild. Knights' training guild. Shop. Another guild. Ehh.'
Shocked by the sheer number of guild buildings around the area, Mitsuna walked in the direction of the town square.
Sitting down near a water fountain, Mitsuna enjoyed her peaceful time.
Yawning aloud, Mitsuna soon fell asleep.
'Tired. Workout... later.'
...
It was 2 am when Mitsuna awoke.
Stretching and standing up, she noticed that a few of the guild buildings were still lively.
Looking towards the sky, her hood fell down.
'It's like actually nighttime. How are the guilds even running? Slave drivers? I wonder if the workers can get some shut eye.'
Placing her hood back on, she adjusted her jean jacket and made her way down the road towards a certain guild building she had seen on her way.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fountain, a man with semi-long pink hair sat on a bench, observing Mitsuna's behaviour.
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