Red Valley city

As Ryu and Cahya turned attention to the center of the room, he found Luise talking with Nura, saying for him to take care while he is on the mission. Then Ryu went to grab the egg on the table, but Luise interrupted him.

"Can't you leave the egg while you are off? I would like to study it if possible, and besides, I can provide a better environment for the egg than the system. I guarantee that it will help on the hatchment." Luise asked.

Luise's offer tempted Ryu since he doesn't feel comfortable leaving the egg inside the system as he wasn't sure where the egg went when it is in a separate space. Of course, that this was not an easy decision, considering that the egg was his most precious treasure, Ryu felt uncomfortable to part with it.

"I will leave the egg with you, but please take care with it." Ryu said.

After solving the matter with the egg and saying goodbye to the women, Ryu and Nura left the house and went out of the sect's city, where Ryu turned to Nura for instructions.

"Okay, where do we go now, and what is the mission we are about to face?" Ryu asked.

Reacting to Ryu's question, Nura took the parchment Enlil handed him and injected qi into the paper's seal. As soon the qi entered the seal, the parchment emitted a click releasing the lock, making the paper unfold on Nura's hand to which he examined for a few minutes.

"We go southwest, and it seems that it would be a long journey. Fortunately, you helped me retrieve my sword from those guys, so we can go flying." Nura said, extracting a sword from his ring and jumping on top of it.

In sequence, Ryu did the same as Nura, taking his sword from the spatial ring and climbing it. Since there was a huge gap in levels, Nura's speed was much faster than Ryu's, but his control with the sword while flying was as shallow as Ryu's control as he hadn't practiced yet, so Nura reduced his speed to accompany Ryu.

Thus, the two guys started their first adventure outside the sect, flying low and enjoying the passing nature and the wind blowing on their faces.

"So, there is more info about the mission?" Ryu asked.

"There is, but not so much as I would like. We have to go to a city called Red Valley. Apparently, there is some problem with gangs attacking the city or something like that. The report wasn't much precise." Nura said.

"Do you know something about this city? I've never heard of it." Ryu asked.

"It is a city close to a mine. Its name comes from the soil rich in metal that turns the land red. It should be a city with only low levels cultivators struggling to get resources." Nura said.

"It explains why no one dealt with the bandits, no one care about that kind of city." Ryu added.

"You should be right, but we have to be cautious when we reach there. Even if people there are low level, everybody, aside from kids, should be above level 10." Nura remarked.

"How long it takes to reach there?" Ryu asked.

"At our current speed, it should take two weeks." Nura said, after thinking for a while and making some calculations.

However, Nura miscalculated Ryu's endurance, and they had to make many stops along the journey, and then, three weeks passed. In the meantime, the landscape changed many times, and the snow was left behind, giving place to brow soil covered by low bushes and sparse retorted trees.

On these three weeks, Ryu and Nura spend their days flying and occasionally pausing for rest. At night, they slept on small inns in the cities they passed, and when there was no city at sight, they slept at the side of the road.

Despite being on their first mission, neither of the two guys were in a hurry to reach their destination as they were using the time to practice flying and enjoy the freedom they experienced for the first time in their lives.

On the evening of a sunny day, far o the horizon, the silhouette of a large city appeared before their eyes, revealing that their destination. Instead of heading straight to the Red Valley city, they decided to scan the surrounding terrain in a reconnaissance exercise to prepare for the future adversity that could happen in the near future.

So Ryu and Nura controlled their flying swords to gain height until the big city on the horizon became a small gray area far below. In this privileged position, they managed to locate a red hill at some distance from the city- where the mines worked-, they also saw a river crossing the landscape, and the shape of the city, locating the big and luxurious houses separated from the small and poor ones.

After inspecting the place and creating a mental map of the relevant places around, Ryu and Nura started to descend to reach the floor and finally enter the city by foot since enter flying was disrespectful and would attract the forces of the law.

"There are two people coming towards us." Ryu said, pointing to the city where two small dots started to fly from the city, "better we get prepared for a fight.".

"There should be no problem. These two must be law enforcement in the city. They must be heading our way because they were alarmed that we were flying over the city." Nura said, "but I have to say that this reception is unexpected. The whole situation should be worse than we estimated."

Ryu and Nura started to descend slowly, preparing to be approached by the two people. When they were just a few meters above the ground, the figures of a woman and a man wearing gray robes with a red armband on their left arm become clear.

"Go to the floor, now." a woman, in her mid 30s, with black hair reaching her shoulder, spoke harshly while a bald man, in his mid 40, passed by Ryu, positioning behind him.

This rude behavior made both Ryu and Nura feel uncomfortable, but they still followed the woman's instructions, going to the floor and retracting their swords inside their ring.

"Who are you, and what do you want prying our city?" The woman said, also going to the floor.

However, neither the woman nor the bald man retrieved their sword, and their weird behavior caused suspicion for Ryu and Nura, who prepared to enter combat at any time.

"I am Nura, and this is my friend Ryu. We are trainees from Horim Blacksmiths. They sent us here to buy metal." Nura lied.

Before entering the city, Ryu and Nura made a plan not to reveal that they were sent by the sect, as this could attract attention.

"Hmpf, trainees. Do you believe those guys, Lia? That's the worst lie I've ever heard. If you're going to make up a story, at least put some effort into it." the bald man said.

"We don't care about the reason you guys came here. Handle that pair of swords, and you can proceed." the woman, Lia, said.