Elemental Cats

City of Clear Skies was the group's second to last checkpoint before they reached Treblor Forest. The city was a notch bigger than Cerulean Flashes, despite being located so close to two other large cities, Cerulean Flashes and the City of Dormant Thunder.

Though considering how much traffic Treblor Forest attracted, there were a lot of cities on the way there that grew continuously, even if they popped up like weeds.

Just like the other cities they passed through on their way, they didn't stay for long.

They could practically smell the scent of the forest beyond the horizon and feel how close they were getting. Scrael might be the one least restless since she hadn't had enough time to build up anticipation regarding the forest, but the others wanted to keep moving even through the night, at least until they reached Dormant Thunder.

But with Scrael's insistence, the group stayed and rested for a few hours and then set off before dawn broke.

Although they were practically at the finish line, it would still take a couple of days to cross the distance between Clear Skies and Dormant Thunder. Thankfully they were more focused on reaching Dormant Thunder than having fun along the way. Since they didn't experience any delays or take any detours, the group arrived at Dormant Thunder in what felt like a flash.

As the last city between human civilization and Treblor Forest, Dormant Thunder naturally had a lot of inhabitants at every moment, even if many who came to the city left shortly after for the forest.

Still, Toz was incredibly surprised since the city was the most massive one they had encountered on their journey so far. At least in terms of the size of the city walls and the area it spanned.

From afar, the city looked like someone had cut apart a mountain, only leaving the base and then evening it out. Though it had to have been one oversized mountain since, even from a distance, it was clear how imposing the walls were as they stretched toward the sky.

The towering walls were made of a grey smooth stony material. And when Toz got close enough to take a proper look at them up close, he got the feeling that they were indestructible and hid a tremendous amount of power within.

Toz closed Lucy's mouth for him as he wouldn't stop gaping at the walls, even when they entered the tunnel that led to within the city after passing through the security check. Toz only had to make use of his Explorer's Badge and demonstrate it was his before they were let through to the tunnel, which was large enough to allow at least one Scorched Earth Rat King to pass through with a wide margin.

Still, the tunnel was not much more than the size of a nostril on a human compared to the rest of the wall.

The tunnel stretched, and it would take at least half an hour for the group to walk through it. Since the outside light didn't reach the depths of the tunnel, it was lit up by magical lamps. There were four rows of lamps glowing with soft yellow light, two on each side of the tunnel. One row followed the tunnel on the ceiling, and there was one row of lamposts in the center of the tunnel, dividing incoming and outgoing traffic.

On the opposite side of the walls, at the end of the tunnel, there was a large open area without any stationary buildings, only a lot of stalls. The vendors on each side of the street that led to the proper establishments of the city hollered and tried to sell their wares with energetical voices and movements.

But since Toz and the cats were more interested in finding a place to rest rather than anything they could find on the side of the street so congested, it looked like there was an audience to a popular street show crowding it.

After leaving the close-to-empty boundary between the city walls and the city itself, the group found themself wandering around large houses made of a similar material as the walls.

It was everyone's first time in Dormant Thunder, and in an attempt to find a place quieter than the bottleneck entrance of the city, they had gotten lost. And the area they were currently in didn't seem too densely populated, so they could only continue walking around until they found a place that looked like an inn or a place where they could ask for the location of an inn.

After walking for a bit, the group left the area of boring grey two-story houses and arrived at a place that looked like a residential area, where there were a lot more people around. Since it was a sign that the group was closer to where people lived, they didn't bother asking for directions and continued enjoying their aimless walk through the city.

As they walked around, Toz got a few weird looks, probably because he was surrounded by three colorful cats. Since Lucy was small and practically hidden within Toz's black hair, not many saw him, especially not since most of their attention was on the dark purple beast that walked right next to Toz.

Although Scrael was clearly a cat type beast, she was tall enough that her back reached Toz's knees. And her menacing eyes, as she looked around, had some people on guard.

Toz had said they didn't need to ask for directions, but with Scrael intimidating anyone who got too close, it would be difficult to ask someone without it looking like a mugging or bullying.

The group had only covered a fraction of the city as they walked the entire day before finally finding a place that looked like an inn with available rooms.

It was a tiny building with merely five rooms. With its location and how all but one room was available, it was unclear how it was still running and whether or not the inn was the owner's main business.

But since they would have the entire next day to find another inn, they didn't mind but made sure to sleep with one eye open.