25) To Zilco City!

After debating on what to do now, Ava, who didn't really speak much, said they should head to her kingdom, the Kingdom of Tomorrow. The reasoning was simple. It was almost impossible for a shadow raid to happen there. The Kingdom of Light was more of a medieval society. They didn't have a lot of technology as most of the people that had that affinity resided in the Kingdom of Tomorrow. The Kingdom of Tomorrow had the strongest defenses.

Feywood was near the border between the two kingdoms. It was a three-day trip to Zalco City, which was the closest city to their location. And so they unanimously decided to head there. The three princesses had been wary because they believed it was too much of a coincidence that the town they were in was the one getting raid. They knew how to fight as they had been trained by professionals all of their life but they also knew they could not die. The future of three kingdoms rested on their shoulders.

There were two paths. One, through the mountains that functioned as a natural border between the kingdoms, and two, through one of the gates that were positioned on a valley nearby. Shila, as the expert warrior among the three, argued that if the attack had indeed been planned, if they appeared in public before arriving at the city, the shadows might follow them and attack before they were safe. So, they decided to go through the mountains.

There was no passage through the mountains. But, they were an amazing and powerful team, right? Wrong! Holden didn't really help anyone but himself Valerie kept complaining that her feet hurt, she was a holy priestess, someone focused on healing spells using holy light. Ava was so distracted because as she walked, she was trying to come up with new spells or artifacts that she fell every three meters. If it were not for Valerie's healing spells, she would be covered in bruises and scratches all over. Shila was always stressed because she said they were so slow that even a baby crawling would pass them. And then there was Ryker, who was a mess. He would sometimes break down and cry, others he would find the people around him so annoying he would give them the ice treatment, he would be cheerful one moment and lifeless the next.

By the second day, they were all fed up with each other.

"Are we there yet??" -asked Valerie in a high-pitched voice.

"Oh yes, we arrived yesterday" -remarked Ryker.

"How about now?" -she asked again.

"Shhhh" -this time it was Shila who shushed her.

"Almost there?" -she asked… again.

*Thump*

"Ouch" -Ava tripped on a branch.

"[Heal]" -Valerie healed her as usual- "Nooooow??"

And the trip continued that way. They had fled Feywood through the Swallowtail Woods at the north. At first, the snow-topped mountains looked so far away but now, they were at the bottom of them, at last. They set up camp for the night. Ava had so many useful gadgets but her favorite one was a flat star the size of her palm that when thrown into the air would create a force field around them that protected them not only from attacks but also from the environment.

Ryker had realized that every single affinity had different ways to cast spells. He had also been very curious when the shadow called Shila a summoner, Ava a technomancer, Valerie a high priestess, and Holden a demon lord. From what Mr. Hoot Hoot said, there were no such things as classes in this world. So of course, he asked them about it.

Turns out that it all depended on the first spell they got. Shila talked about how her father, the King of Beasts, had first gotten the spell [Tame] which allowed him to form a pact with a beast. She, on the other hand, had gotten [Spirit animal]. This spell was one that changed depending on the caster because everyone had different spirit animals. Hers was a white cat that at Tier 0, was the size of a house cat. When she evolved the spell to Tier 1, her spirit animal also grew. Right now, it was the white tiger she had shown at the carnival and it was merely a Tier 3 spell.

She also said that she can indeed learn [Tame] but then she would have to change the way she fought and all about her. Tamed beasts did not disappear at will like summoned ones. As there were hundreds of thousands of different spells in each affinity, people had decided to focus solely on certain ones. That is what made the things they called "profession". In Holden's case, he was known as a demon lord because he had contracted demons, his opposite was a demonic summoner which would temporarily bring demons from the demon realm but they were not permanent.

Valerie was a high priestess because she focused on healing and buff spells. There were: holy knights, enlighten swordsmen, paladins, and many other professions. Of course, that did not mean she did not have one or two damage-dealing spells. It was worth mentioning that the more spells one learned, the more versatility they possessed, but it was not easy learning so many spells. It would cost a lot of money and as the saying goes "a jack of all trades is a master of none, but sometimes better than a master of one".

It was true that some people spent their entire lives trying to learn as many spells as possible, but not every spell they had was a powerful one. Either you trained and raised one spell to Tier 10, which would be the equivalent to a natural disaster, or you spent your time learning Tier 2, Tier 3, and so on because remember, when you learn a high tier spell from a spell crystal, it comes with restrictions but when you evolve it on your own, it does not. It was no wonder people focused on one particular aspect instead of all of them.