New location: Mondstadt!

Windwail Highland, Mondstadt.

This location used to be a road where merchants from Liyue would pass by to enter the city of Mondstadt.

The reason is that Barbatos modified the lands around the city to protect it from external threats, as such, the only routes to enter the city are the stone gates which are mountains giving way for a small road, earning its name. And the Dornman Port which is above the city Mondstadt.

Since Barbatos destroyed the mountains and reformed the lands, these two are the only ways to reach the city of Mondstadt. But of course, travel by sea is also possible. These roads are what give the city of Mondstadt the ability to trade with the other nations.

However, everything changed when Dvalin attacked.

Having been defeated 500 years ago during the cataclysm, the dragon of the east, Dvalin, slept for 500 years until it awoke. However, instead of getting praises for defending the city of Mondstadt, the people feared him.

Because of the poison left by Dvalin's opponent 500 years ago, it became extremely aggressive. As such, it started to terrorize the people of Mondstadt, earning the title "Stormterror".

But of course, like some kind of fairy tale, a hero would show up to slay the evil beast. Or in this case, a traveler, a bard that is definitely not Barbatos, an acting grandmaster, and a winery owner, defeated the dragon and brought it back to the good side.

After Dvalin came back to the good side and stopped terrorizing the people of Mondstadt, the road connecting Mondstadt and Liyue once more opened. Giving way for the merchants that were too fearful of Dvalin to enter once more.

* * *

On the outskirts of Windwail Highland, a sudden flash of blue light suddenly appeared that startled the nearby animals. But fortunately, no humans were around to witness such a scene.

The blue light started getting weaker until finally, two figures came to view. Of course, it is none other than Igarashi and Sasori.

After narrowly escaping their deaths at the Primo Geovishap's cave, they found themselves at Qingyun peak and his system upgraded to the next level, giving him many more rewards and functions to discover.

Igarashi looked around and examined the area around them. As for Sasori, since he was fixed by the system, he is functioning properly now.

A small breeze went by Igarashi's nose and he smelled it. The breeze contained... Sweetness?

"This is Mondstadt, alright..." Igarashi muttered. He remembers that Venti, also known as Barbatos, the current Anemo Archon, would sometimes control the air and make it smell sweet like an apple.

"Mmgg..." Sasori mildly groaned as he stretched his body.

Seeing that they were still in the wilderness, Igarashi decided to act up. He then looked at the road leading to Dawn Winery. "Alright, let's follow this road. If I'm correct, this should lead us to the city of Mondstadt where our new shop is waiting."

"Okay." Sasori replied with his familiar flat tone.

And so, they started walking. Along the way, they encountered the Dawn Winery, famous for its wines and known as the best wine seller in Mondstadt.

Igarashi just looked at Dawn Winery for a brief moment before continuing on the road. To tell the truth, he does not want to see Diluc, the 5-star that kept appearing in front of him whenever he loses his 50/50. But weirdly enough, Igarashi only has C4 Qiqi, the 5-Star that plagued many players.

They kept walking without resting as Igarashi wanted to reach the city of Mondstadt quickly so he can open up the shop. He had already planned out what he was gonna publish there too.

Unsurprisingly, even though Stormterror is gone, Igarashi has still not seen any traveling merchants. He can't blame them for being cautious, though.

But even though there weren't any merchants, Igarashi did see some patrolling knights from the Knights of Favonius. They were just patrolling and did not try to question Igarashi. After all, it is in their handbook to treat travelers well.

After an hour and a half of walking, Igarashi finally saw cider lake. And in the center of the lake, the city of Mondstadt came to view. 'Finally here...'

"Come on, Sasori!" Without sparing any more time, Igarashi notified Sasori and ran. As for the latter, he too ran with the former.

They both kept running until they finally reached the bridge connecting to the city gates. They both slowed down when they reached the bridge, though.

As the two of them approached the city gates, two knights suddenly stopped them.

"Halt!" Said one of the knights. "This is the city of Mondstadt, may I inquire as to why you are here?"

As one of the knights, he is taught to treat travelers with respect and ask what their business to the city is.

Igarashi straightened his posture and cleared his throat. "We are merchants from Liyue. Before the Stormterror incident, I had bought a land here in Mondstadt to expand my business. But unfortunately, Stormterror happened while I was in Liyue, and as such, I was not able to come here until now."

This was an explanation he just made on the spot. Since the system already gave him a shop inside the city, he just made something up like the aforementioned explanation to get inside the city. 'I hope it works, though...'

The two guards conversed with each other for a moment before nodding. "Very well. We welcome you to Mondstadt, the city of Freedom and Wind. If you encountered any problems, you can always ask the Knights Of Favonius or the Adventurers Guild."

"I will if the opportunity arises. Thank you." Igarashi nodded and thanked them before continuing his walk with Sasori. 'A new shop in a new city...'

'System, can you tell me the location of the new shop?' Obviously, Igarashi does not know where it is. And so, he just asked the system.

He expected no response but this expectation was not met. He thought that he would just have to find it himself as he did in Liyue, but it seems like this one was different.

[Understood.]

Soon, a system panel where a map was shown. It was depicting the whole city of Mondstadt, which, by the way, was at least 5 times larger than the one in the game. Even the cathedral was two times larger than that in the game!

'Whoa... It's much more larger here...' Now that Igarashi thought about it, there were also a lot of people walking on the bridge and many civilians are walking right near the city gate. Quite different from the barren game where only a few walking NPCs are around.

Anyways, back to the topic, on the map, his location was shown. The map itself was colored black with some white outlines for the buildings while his location was a beeping yellow circular light. And from his location, a white path was shown where his new shop was located.

'How convenient!' Igarashi thought.

Grabbing Sasori's hand and dragging him with him, Igarashi followed the path leading to his new shop. He also noticed something while following it. 'Isn't that... Angel's Share?'

No, Angel's Share is not his new shop, but an establishment that was close to him. 'So my new shop is close to the Dawn Winery's Angel's Share tavern, huh?'

That's right. Just across a road, Igarashi's new shop was really close to Angel's Share Tavern.

After a few minutes of walking and traversing the new and big Mondstadt, Igarashi finally arrived at his new shop.

Sasori, who was dragged the whole way, finally got out of Igarashi's grip and looked at where the latter was looking with a smile. "Is this it?" Sasori asked.

"You got that right." Igarashi replied before patting Sasori's head.

The new shop was of different architecture from his shop back in Liyue. This one had a German-type of architecture or something like that. It had stairs leading to the door and just like his previous shop, this one had two floors. One window below, stair windows, and two windows on the second floor.

Igarashi approached it and suddenly, a blue key appeared in his hand. He guessed that it must have been given by the system to open the door.

He inserted the key in the keyhole and the door opened. Seeing the new shop, a smile appeared on Igarashi's face.

"Let's do our best here, Sasori!"

"Umu!" Sasori replied. And yes, he too was a bit excited about the new shop.

And so, Mondstadt shall now know mangas!