Lukas stepped fully outside and looked around.

The hall they had just exited sat at the top of a tower, and from this height, the city below laid itself out in every direction.

It had been built in rings. The innermost section was the oldest, consisting of low buildings pressed close together, with the streets between them narrow.

Then a circular wall rose around it, and beyond that wall, newer buildings had gone up, spreading outwards until they met another wall, higher than the first.

Then there was another ring beyond that, and another wall higher still.

The city had grown outwards in stages, each expansion adding another layer, until the outermost wall rose almost level with the tower they were standing in.

It was not a particularly large city. It was way smaller than sector four by a significant distance, but it was dense, built by people who needed somewhere functional rather than somewhere impressive.

And beyond the final wall, in every direction, the desert began.

It stretched to the horizon without interruption. There were no trees or any visible structures. In fact, there was no variation in the landscape beyond the slow roll of dunes.

The sand was a dull, deep red, catching the overhead sun and holding it, the color sitting somewhere between rust and dried clay.

"We call it the Red Desert," Karrakas said, stopping beside them and looking out at it. "Named for obvious reasons."

He turned. "Follow me." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He led them to a large lift built into the side of the tower, already carrying a group of Adepts. They stepped on it.

The lift descended, stopping at several floors along the way. Other Adepts got off at different levels, but Karrakas stayed where he was, so Lukas and his wives stayed with him.

At the ground floor, they stepped off into the base of the tower and walked out through a wide archway into a courtyard.

The space was full. Adepts moved in every direction, some in groups, some alone, some carrying equipment, and some empty-handed.

Vendors had set up stalls along the edges of the courtyard, and the noise of a functioning settlement filled the air.

Karrakas set off through the crowd at an easy pace.

"First thing you do when you arrive in a new Second Floor city," he said over his shoulder, "is find somewhere to stay. Somewhere you can come back to after a hunt or a dungeon run and actually rest."

He stepped around a group heading the other way. "I have a place in mind. You can decide if it works for you."

He kept walking and they followed, Melody and Akira exchanging excited grins as he turned onto one of the city’s inner streets.

It didn’t take long before the first car rolled past them. Then another one sped past, moving in the opposite direction.

Melody watched them go. "This is great! I was scared for a moment that cars wouldn’t work on the Second Floor."

"Really?" Akira asked.

"Yeah. I wasn’t sure if they’d work since Karrakas didn’t bring his car along with him." Melody turned to watch a third car turn a corner ahead.

Akira looked at Karrakas. "Why didn’t you bring your car? You could have stored it in your spatial ring and driven us around here instead."

Karrakas made a pained sound. "That car cost me twenty million gold coins."

He shook his head slowly. "I scrimped for that. I saved carefully, for a long time, and I do not take it anywhere near beasts."

He glanced at Akira. "Picture this. I’m driving through the desert, feeling good about myself. Then a beast leaps out of the sand and puts a dent in the door. Or worse, destroy the side of the car entirely."

He pressed a hand to his chest. "It would take me forever to recover from the emotional pain alone.

Akira laughed, while Melody nodded in complete understanding.

Lukas had been watching the street around them as they walked. The flow of traffic wasn’t that dense, and people moved around at an almost leisurely pace.

There were no visible guards on the corners and no obvious checkpoints. I’m short, no one was paying them any particular attention.

"There’s something I’ve been thinking about," he said. "Security here seems loose. In Salaria too. You barely notice it."

Karrakas smiled. "That’s because what you can see is not the security. It’s the surface."

He kept walking, his hands in his pockets. "From the moment you arrived in Salaria, you were being watched. There are passive sensors placed in strategic locations throughout the city, collecting data continuously."

"They check your movement patterns, behavioral readings, and even emotional state indicators." He paused. "They also have ways of checking the contents of your spatial rings."

Melody’s head snapped to him at his words. "Wait a minute. They can check inside spatial rings?!"

"Passively, yes. The scanners flag anything that it registers as dangerous and alert whoever is monitoring." He shrugged. "Most people never even know it happened."

Melody looked down at her ring with an unsettled expression. She didn’t know whether to be impressed or creeped out about it.

Lukas said nothing, but his mind went back to when they’d first arrived in the city. Had they noticed the Fate Key sitting in his spatial ring at that moment?

He sighed, discarding the thought. There was no use thinking about it. After all, he’d already used the key. Even if they wanted to take it from him, it no longer exists.

Karrakas stopped in front of a building and pushed the door open.

The entire ground floor was a tavern. Round tables filled most of the space, with benches and chairs pulled up around them. A long bar ran along the far wall.

The room was busy but not loud. There were groups of Adepts eating, drinking, or talking in low voices. The pleasant aroma of cooked food filled the air.

Karrakas walked straight to the bar. The man behind it looked up.

"One room," Karrakas said, placing his bank card on the counter.

Lukas stepped up beside him, glancing at the price of rooms nailed to the wall behind the counter. "I’ll have one room too. The largest size you have."

The bartender nodded, processed both, and set two keys on the counter.

They took them.

Karrakas led them to an empty table near the wall, away from the busier center of the room. They pulled out chairs and sat.

Karrakas folded his hands on the table and looked at each of them.

"So," he said. "What do you want to tackle first? A dungeon run, or do you want to head straight into the desert and hunt?"