A Play

'No, but I know about other types of magic too!' Dream exclaimed in his mind.

It was unimaginable to him that anyone could call the adventurer school bad! Although it does lose out to other schools in certain areas, it covers a multitude of studies, mental conditioning, physical conditioning, and unique training.

"Alright then tell me what is chakra and qi?"

'...Eastern mental magic and air body conditioning magic!'

"Dream please know this, that is like saying lizards are a type of dragons or that only lighting can start a fire. Let me ask you another question, what is magic?"

'Magic? What is that question? Magic is the unexplained powers of the world!'

"Okay, then why do you breath?"

'...Um… Magic?'

"How are you able to think?"

'Magic?' Dream lets out a hesitant smile.

Now that he thought about it, that sounded off. It's like saying humans only need to eat to survive or only need to drink, or their sole purpose in life is to use up their lifespan. It sounded all sort of non-sensible now that Lux is asking him.

'What could it be if not magic? Qi and chakra? Aren't those also magic?'

"No Dream, there are much more unexplained powers in the world then magic. Just like there are many ways to light a fire and numerous ways to tell a-."

"AH!" An abrupt scream came from Richard as Shadow moved to silence him.

Shadow casually wiped off the bloodied dagger onto Richard's shirt before speaking up.

"So… I think we should hurry and leave now."

"Alright, you and I will clean up the carts. Everyone else please go to the village and pack. We're setting off for Dalheim Ricciacum now."

Nodding Aoife gestured at Dream and Johnny to follow her, before hurrying off towards the village.

'Lux let's talk later.' With that thought, Dream hurried after Aoife.

...

After bringing all of their belongings into the three caravans, Johnny went to pick up the dropped pouches and food when Dream pulled him back.

"Leave it here. We can't know for sure if it's poisoned or not."

Johnny nodded with surprise in his eyes.

Dream watched as he dashed off to one of the caravans.

'I wonder what I should do with that kid. He's too young to act unfazed.' He thought before going after Johnny.

Aoife, Chad, and Dream respectively took up the reign of a horse and settled off towards the left of the village with Shadow trailing behind them with the other carriage he had found.

After two hours of being on the move, they took a brief lunch break before continuing until nightfall. They spend the next two days like that with little breaks, running all the horses slightly ragged. Dream caught up with learning how to drive and temporarily forgot about magic, qi, and chakra. Fully immersed in handling the horses, Lux seeing his effort started giving him tips and advice.

By the third day, they've reached the edge of the forest and crossed over into open half-barren land. In the far distance, the slight silhouette of a town could be seen.

As they slowly came closer, looming brick towers could be seen along with a small brick fence surrounding the town.

'Are we in the right town?' Wondered Dream as he looked up at the guards on the towers.

'It seems a slight too well guarded for a random town. This is almost as heavily manned as Nirvana's borders. Could it be a capital city?'

"We're here," Shadow said over his shoulder.

Under the watch of the guards on the wall. They've made their way towards the gate. Dream noticed that the walls were outstretched in a defensive w formation.

'Set up with the intent to dispute the formations of oncoming armies. It is a textbook example of what you would see at a frontier town!' The four adventurers thought simultaneously.

"Stop! State your names, affiliation, and purpose for coming!"

Chad looked up to see a pair of guards holding onto bows.

"My name is Chad, we have no affiliation, and we came for directions and supply."

"My name is Aoife!" Aoife quickly piggybacked.

"Dream!"

"Shadow!"

"Johnny."

"Alright," Said one of the guards standing over the gate. "We'll send someone down for an inspection check. Sheath your weapons if you haven't already and step away from the caravans."

Five men came down barring spears and short swords.

Chad and everyone else stood by the side as they inspected the caravans.

"Say why are there five spears?"

"A spear for each of us."

"BAM!"

The guard stepped out and watched as a stream of daggers and knives trickled out.

Shadow:"....."

"What about the unspeakable amount of knives up here?"

"Oh... That would be mine."

After five minutes of inspection and questioning Dream and his fellow adventurers were let through the gate.

"Now that was way easier now I thought." Said Dream in astonishment.

Shadow replied, wiping sweat off his face. "I was prepared to run to the isles when they found my stash of knives. I covered them up so well that I thought no one would find it!"

Aoife laughed. "They didn't even hesitate when they punched out the hidden compartment you've built on top. They're even more daring than the actual adventurers out of school."

Shadow waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. F*ck them all. Let's sell some crap and buy some food."

Past the gate was a lower plain with a river and many small drawbridges leading to another small wall. Seeing this, they all thought.

'ThAt CaN'T Be A TOWn! ThAT'S a BiG DeATH FLAG!'

Lux:"..."

'Noobs.' She thought to herself. "Always so dramatic."

Anyway, before they knew it they had rolled past a drawbridge and into an unfamiliar land with patches of greens and buildings with odd dusty yellow crumbing bricked walls here and there.

"This seems worse off than my village!" Exclaimed Johnny earning him a few raised eyebrows.

"Let's look around first," Said Chad. "I don't know about you, but I'll feel better if we had some coins to our names."

As the caravans weaved through the buildings and greens, More and more buildings seemed to pop out of the horizon until it gradually formed a rough town-like atmosphere.

"There look!" Pointed Chad excitedly.

Looking at where he was pointing. Dream could see a wide half-circular opening with neat stone seats spread around evenly, there sat people watching a man yelling at another on an elevated platform.

"What is that?" Asked Dream.

"It's an open public theatre!"

Shadow watched on curiously. "What's a theatre?"

Chad did a double-take and stopped his horse.

"What's wrong Chad?" Aoife shouted out from the back.

"It's nothing. I've just remembered something."