146 Richwoman's Gulch

Walking through the desert where the wind was blowing sand around, Mitsuna dusted herself off for nearly the tenth time.

'I don't like sand...'

Large sandstorms could be seen far in the distance, some of the storms even had some strange lightning and a few tornadoes.

'Ominous.'

Yawning, Mitsuna immediately coughed as a small amount of sand was blown into her mouth.

"*Cough* *Cough* Ughh. Screw this, I have magic for a damn reason."

Creating a few magic circles under her feet, she started walking a few centimetres above the ground in the air while a constant stream of wind kept sand away from her.

'I hope I don't have to stay here for too long. I should go visit Magny after I'm done here, the food at her place is honestly pretty good.'

Another strong breeze passed her and a tumbleweed bounced passed in front of her.

'Huh.'

Looking past the bouncing tumbleweed, Mitsuna could see a small outline of 'something'.

'Maybe a ruin, maybe a city. Let's just hope they have some information on the war, it seems like an interesting topic.'

And so she continued walking, every once in a while a tumbleweed flew or bounced past her.

A while later...

'Do these things become more common the closer you get to a city or something?'

At this point, Mitsuna was close enough to see what the place she was nearing actually was.

Like she had guessed, it was a town. Well, she guessed wrong but there isn't much of a difference between town and city is there?

Getting close enough to see a sign with what appeared to be the town's name on it, Mitsuna read it and continued on.

After a few more steps, she felt something in front of her.

Stopping she waited for a moment before reaching out her hand and touching a gentle and seethrough dome that surrounded the town.

'A barrier of some kind.'

Pushing her hand against it with a small amount of force, her hand entered inside the barrier and she could feel nothing wrong.

'Maybe it only reacts to magic attacks or something?'

Not wanting to test it out since she isn't a dunce and didn't want to cause a scene, Mitsuna just walked through the barrier while facing little resistance.

As soon as she entered, she cancelled her wind magic and took a few steps to feel the place out just in case.

'...No wind. So maybe that's why the barrier is in place, I'd do the same. The wind is annoying.'

Walking through town, she saw a generic saloon with a big ruckus going on inside of it and some music playing.

'A little later.'

Looking at the surrounding buildings and finding that a few of them were made of stone and not wood, she looked at the signs on the buildings.

'So stone buildings are for guilds and high-quality shops I guess. Time to go find a Gun then.'

Looking at one of the buildings, Mitsuna recognized it as an Adventurers' Guild.

'Right. I'm Tier 4 now so maybe I could get to B Rank?'

Wondering over it, she refused the idea.

'Nah. They have lie detectors there so talking about my class would be problematic. Though it didn't work on me last time for some reason, you never know.

I'm fine with C Rank since I should be able to get into any town with just that ID.

Well, I say that but I normally just teleport inside towns since I don't want to talk with gate guards since they are annoying most of the time.'

Turning away from the Guild, she walked toward another stone building that seemed to sell weapons.

'If the decision of staying at C Rank ends up getting me into an annoying situation in the future I'm just gonna blame my awesome personality. Jup, that should work.'

Walking into the store she was greeted by someone who seemed to be the owner.

It was a regular-looking woman.

"Hello."

"Hey there. I haven't seen anyone like you around before, new in town?"

"Jup. Here to buy a gun."

"Yeah, the only reason people enter the shop these days."

"War, right?"

"That's it."

"Speaking about the war, do you know where one could register?"

"You looking to register for the war? Honey, you seem to still have more than 80 years in front of you, why go to war?"

"Just a question. Heard a girl talk about places where you can register and since I'm new around here I thought I could go to the place where people register and ask around for info regarding the whole war situation."

"Oh, my bad for making assumptions, hun. You should be able to register at any guild. Oh, and here's a bit of information that the guild doesn't tell you, dear, the further out you are from the capital and front line when you register the easier job you'll get.

If you were to register here you will just be made to guard this town here but if you go on and register in the capital you'll be sent to the front lines.

Nevertheless, war is still war and war is dangerous so don't go registering.

A young girl like you should be focusing on who you want to marry and what clothes you want to wear in the mornin'."

Mitsuna giggled a little out of courtesy before thanking the lady.

"Thanks for the info. Then, can I take a look at your guns? A young lady like me still needs a bit of protection wouldn't you agree."

The owner laughed a little before answering.

"Go ahead."

Mitsuna turned and looked around the shop while sorting through the information she had just gained.

'Hmm... guess I'll be going to the capital after I get a gun. The war seems interesting. If I do well and get some badge or medal then I could probably ask for a bit of assistance with searching for Natash.'

Walking to a rack of slightly old-looking muskets, one of the weapons caught Mitsuna's eye.

'This one seems a little different. As far as I know, muskets shoot small balls of iron. This one seems to be made for high-calibre rounds instead like a half-old school and half-modern sniper.'

Picking up the weapon, it was as ordinary as all the others.

'Huh. Guess I'll take this.'

Walking to the owner and receiving a little discount for whatever reason, Mitsuna also bought a few cases of ammo.

Barely scraping together the money needed for the gun and the bullets, Mitsuna was now left nearly penniless.

Bidding farewell to the owner, she walked to the saloon.

With her musket strapped to her back, she entered the establishment and sat down, intending to use her leftover coins on a drink.