Aranea Is Pretty Nice

Loki continued to stare at the corpse on the ground, still not quite comprehending what was going on, the only thing really registering in his brain was the dead body at his feet.

"Loki? Loki?" Loki blinked, looking up to see Daphne's concerned face. "The men have already been given all their belongings and been sent packing. Technically, we're residents of Aranea now."

"I didn't-" Loki started. "I didn't kill him, but it feels like I did. Maybe if I didn't knock the sword out of his hands, maybe he wouldn't be dead-"

"Loki," Daphne gripped his shoulders firmly. "It is not your fault. Someone would have had to die. At least this way, you didn't actually deal the killing blow." She gave him a little nudge. "Come on. The rest are already settling in."

"Settling in?" Loki repeated as Daphne pulled him along. "Settling in where?"

"The men got to keep all their belongings and stuff, but their money and properties are ours, so we're going to stay there. At least until we find a way to get some mana crystals to open a portal back to Earth."

Loki followed Daphne, who lead him to a nice little villa not too far away from the court. "This was their old property," Daphne explained. "The six of them lived together, so this villa is ours, at least until we decide to leave, or some other traveler comes and beats us."

Inside, Saltavore was inspecting the living room. "Not bad," he hummed. "This place is well made, and the view is quite stunning." He shuddered slightly. "Though how we got it doesn't suit me."

"Shut up, it's not like Loki had a choice," Seraphine appeared. "Beside, he didn't kill Patrick."

"Woah," Loki marveled. "Is that a staircase? How many floors does this place have?"

"3 floors, excluding the rooftop garden and the underground gym," Nishan said, walking out of the elevator. "1st floor is the living room, dining room and kitchen, 2nd floor is where the library and televisions are ("Televisions? Plural?" Loki asked), and 3rd floor, which is the bedrooms and the bathrooms. There are toilets on every floor, though. The rooftop garden is really nice and calming, and the underground gym as the normal physical workout, and VR combat systems where we can practice fighting."

"Pretty sweet, huh?" Terrence ginned as he walked down the stairs. "We should settle in. We'll be here for awhile, since we've already checked that no one in Aranea sells mana crystals."

"What about other cities?" Loki asked as they six of them took the elevator up. "Arachne has more than one city, so why can't we see if other cities sell mana crystals?"

"We've checked, no one in Arachne sells mana crystals," Nishan sighed. "And if there are one or two who does sell them, we don't know who they are or where they are."

"But why don't Arachne has any mana crystals?" Loki said desperately. "Surely they need some! Even if people love living here, what if one day other worlds invade them? Or the monsters from outside the cities attack?"

Seraphine sighed. "All the 'rulers', the ones that are in control, are either daemons or have powerful daemon blood in them. With so many daemons, they can keep the monsters out of the cities. With their magic, they can also make sure that gates never spawn in the cities. Most of the time, gates spawn in the wild, where the monsters are. We're actually really lucky to not have appeared in the middle of the woods, or somewhere that has plenty of beasts."

"Surely their security can't be that good," Loki argued, stepping out of the elevators. "They didn't notice us!"

"They didn't notice us because we don't have ill will against them," Saltavore said. "They have a magic spell that will alert them immediately if someone who is threatening is approaching."

Loki groaned. "Why does no one go against it? Why do the people of Arachne act like nothing is going on? Like the system is fine?"

"Because to them the system is fine," Terrence said. "As long as they live happy, safe lives, they don't care what happens to others. To be honest, I get it. I'm pretty disgusted by their methods, and even then, I almost feel like never leaving this place."

"Huh?" Loki opened his bedroom door. Inside, there was a soft, plush bed covered by a canopy, a table with a swivel chair, cozy bean bags, shelves where there were packets of tea and coffee, with a kettle to boil water, and a small door leading to a bathroom.

"All the rooms have their own bathrooms," Daphne told him as he pushed the door open.

There was a big sink, with new, basic tools such as toothbrush and toothpaste. There was a large marble bathtub, and the bathroom itself was larger than the apartment that the government used to provide him on Earth.

"That's why no one wants to leave Aranea," Seraphine said. "It has amazing accommodations, good food, good clothes, good jobs. What's there not to like? As long as they beat whoever who they're pitted up against, they have a life of luxury ahead of them."

They spent the night chatting about their new villa and everything else.

"We should definitely enjoy this while we can," Nishan said. "If we manage to find mana crystals, we might not be able to get back to Earth, just get transported into another planet. We should buy some weapons and other things while we're here."

"Agreed," Daphne said. "Let's sleep early today. We should get up bright and early tomorrow. We're going to explore what Aranea is like.