-Radiant-

  After the strange encounter with the mysterious cloaked person, I walked towards the center square somewhat cautiously, to meet back up with everyone before we departed. Given the strange encounter, I took extra care to make sure I wasn’t being followed or tracked, and thankfully everything seemed to be in the clear as I made my way into the square.

  In truth it was more like a hexagon than a square, but tradition being what it was it was called a square. I tried to scan the place to look for my companions, but being of average height made it difficult; since it was nearing the time for the train to depart to Tri-Heart City, it made the center square quite lively with people who were separating from those that would stay in this place.

  So I did what any normal person would do in this situation, and stepped up onto a nearby bench to get an advantage in height. So it was quite strange to be receiving so many stares like I was some sort of exotic animal, but I ignored their questioning gazes as I scanned the crowd. And not long after gaining the high ground, I spotted the group of 5 already gathered together near one side of the square(hexagon).

  Jumping down from the bench, I made my way through the dense crowd. I was expecting to have to push my way through some seemingly tight areas, but as soon as people saw me they moved aside and allowed me to pass with room to spare. I had noticed people giving me space as I had roamed the waystation, but I had just brushed it off then. However, now that I was faced with such blatant avoidance in a crowded place, I was forced to realize that there was something quite odd about people’s reactions towards seeing me.

  I would have to bring it up with everyone when I talked to them.

  As I met up with everyone, I was warmly welcomed back by Minex, “Welcome back mr. No-... uh, hm.”

  He shared a gaze with his companions and said, “Actually, during our discussion we were wondering what to call you. Seeing as how you’re going to be getting a new identity and all, we thought it would be good to start calling you by what you’re planning to be named.”

  I nodded, knowing that they would be asking this question, and said, “I plan to be named Experience Silver.”

  “Wow, no hesitation huh? But, Experience?” They seemed to think it was a strange name, but they didn’t want to say anything, almost like they were still wary of offending me.

  Seeing my chance to bring it up, I said,“What’s up with everyone around here anyways? You guys I can kind of understand, since you know I’m a noble, but what about everyone else? It’s like I’m some kind of walking disaster that nobody wants to mess with.”

  Minex grimaced a little, “Ah, well… I guess if you’re going to be living in Tri-Heart City then you’ll need to know.” They looked at their companions and said, “For other people, It’s probably because you’re a Wizard.”

  “Because I’m a Wizard? Do people in this city have a thing against Wizards or something?”

  “I guess, yeah, kinda. It’s not systemic or personal or anything, it’s just that there’s a prominent Wizard’s Tower located here, and the people in Tri-Heart City know better than to mess with Wizards because of the possible consequences of messing with the wrong person.”

  I nodded, “Hmm, I see. Is this going to be a problem with my new identity?”

  “Yes and no. It’s actually one of the bigger problems we need to talk to you about.”

  “Oh? Please continue.” If it was a big problem then I wondered why the future message hadn’t said anything about it.

  “Well, it’s about your mana signature. How long has it been since you last got it registered?”

  I snapped my fingers as I had a realization why the future message hadn’t mentioned anything, “Ah, if you’re wondering if my mana signature will flag me in the system because it matches my previously registered mana signature, then there’s no need to worry. There are… extenuating circumstances. So that won’t be a problem.”

  They looked between each other, probably having some kind of misunderstanding, but it didn’t really matter to me, so I just let them think whatever. The most important thing for me was the fact that the mana signature ‘problem’ was actually a good thing for me.

  Since I wasn’t a Wizard before I left the prison, then leaving a constant mana signature will actually be a big help distinguishing my current identity from my Radiant Shadow identity. I mean, who would guess that someone with eleven times more mana in their mana cells than their mana nebula would be able to stop themselves from becoming a Wizard for over fifteen years, even while they’re asleep? Yeah, only a crazy person would believe that. …Wait, did I just insult myself?

  I spaced out for a second as I thought to myself, and when I focused back on everyone, they had a weird look in their eyes, so I said, “What? Did I say something wrong?”

  “Ah, uh, no.” Yesemio had a look of pity on her face, “In any case, your mana signature was probably the biggest problem we could think of. If that’s not a problem, then there are just a few minor details that we should go over.”

  “Yeah.” Mage said, “Ironically, being a Wizard will make getting past identity checks on our way into the city easier. If you weren’t a Wizard then you would have to show your ID, which you don’t have, which would make the process that much harder.”

  “Additionally…”

  They continued to talk, and I spaced out, since I already knew from the future message that everything would go smoothly getting into the city.

  In the past I would have never thought that there would be a day when constantly giving off my mana signature would be a benefit rather than a curse.

  But since my mana signature wasn’t given away before I came back from the future, (Thank you child protection laws), and I refused to give it to anyone while I was in prison, then my current mana signature is a unique identifier rather than shackles that follow me around.

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  And, speaking of following around, my mind went back to my encounter with that mysterious cloaked stranger, and I fired off one of my replenished divination spell crystals to check if I was being deliberately watched or observed at the moment.

  Fortunately my divination only gave back responses to the 5 members of my group. So my gaze which had been flickering around the square looking at the movements of the crowd since earlier, finally relaxed.

  I wasn’t sure exactly why my mind kept wandering back to my meeting with the stranger, but thinking about unknowns wasn’t going to get me anywhere. So I put the mysterious stranger to the back of my mind, and began to browse through the future message instead as I waited for our group to finish chatting while we moved towards the train station.

  -Break-

  After a while of my absentminded hums and responses to the group’s talking while we walked, we finally arrived at the train station at the edge of the city.

  The train station was a massive metallic and crystal structure that was probably the most secure place around, since it was like the main artery that transported goods between this place and the main city. Though it was probably such a robust structure because it was where everyone would probably head to if there was a massive monster attack or other such disaster, since they would be able to get to Tri-Heart City safely through the trains there.

  I thought that getting into the place might be troublesome with how much security these places usually had, but my concerns didn’t come to pass. Apparently the group I was with had previously paid for a VIP private room on the train, so our group was let through all the security checkpoints and onto the sleek looking train without any fuss.

  As we made our way onto a fairly large clean smelling car near the front of the train, I couldn’t help but comment, “This train is really fancy for something that just carries people to and from a Dungeon.”

  Kratimane asked, “In what way?”

  “Well, you would think that trains like these that have to carry messy adventurers back after coming from a Dungeon crawl wouldn’t have fancy cars like these with their own rooms, and would only have rows of seats or something.”

  Kratimane pulled her long brown hair over one shoulder, “Hmm, well I haven’t been outside of Tri-Heart City before, so I wouldn’t know what it’s like. But there are a bunch of colleges and other high level organizations in the city that use the Dungeons a lot, so the transportation to the Dungeon is probably higher class because of it.

  “Not only that, but Tri-Heart City has access to a diversity of abundant materials due to the center Dungeon’s unique territory. So it’s probably much cheaper to have such high class transportation than in other cities.”

  I was intrigued, Kratimane wasn’t the one I expected to talk so much due to my simple comment. She was usually a lot more restrained, but I guess she must be proud of her hometown.

  I said, “Interesting. Does the center Dungeon spit out a lot of materials or something?”

  “No, not the inside of the dungeon, the outside. It’s difficult to describe unless you’ve been to the city yourself. The best way I can describe it is that the Dungeon’s territory has a lot of small regenerating mines.”

  “Regenerating mines? Are you sure you’re not talking about the inside of the Dungeon?”

  She shook her head, “Nope, it’s the surrounding territory. Though there are also various mines inside the Dungeon as well, but those are obviously more troublesome and costly to get access to for obvious reasons.”

  “You don’t say. I can see why there would be a lot of high level organizations located in Tri-Heart City.” I stroked my chin in thought, “With the main Dungeon being aligned with such valuable concepts, it would be stranger if there weren’t such organizations trying to get a piece. I can’t wait to get a look at it while we’re riding on the train.”

  Just as I said that, we walked into our VIP room, and I noticed something that ruined my hopes of seeing the city while riding the train. This room didn’t have any windows. “Wait a minute, there’s no windows in this room.”

  Mage said, “Not only this room, but there are no windows on the entire train.”

  When I heard that I couldn’t help but take a look back at my memories to see the outside of the train, and something I hadn’t taken notice of before was immediately apparent. The whole sleek looking train indeed didn’t have any windows.

  I said, “That’s weird, why wouldn’t there be any windows? Is it for security reasons or something?”

  Minex spoke as he started to put his baggage away, “No, windows wouldn’t really be a security issue as long as a high enough grade of crystal was used.” He closed the compartment he had put his baggage in and sat down with a sigh, “The reason there are no windows on the train is because it travels through an underground tunnel. All you would see through a window would be the tunnel walls passing by.”

  I swallowed and said somewhat nervously, “Wait, wait, wait. Underground? What about the Deadly Dungeon?”

  Minex waved his hand as if brushing off my concern, “It’s not that far underground. Besides, the whole tunnel is reinforced and stuff, so it’s completely safe.”

  I took a calming breath and said, “Whew. Yeah, I guess the Deadly Dungeon wouldn’t be much of an issue as long as the tunnel is near the surface. I’ve had too many bad experiences in the Deadly Dungeon, so I guess I overreacted.”

  Everyone looked at me with that weird look of pity they had been prone to giving me since a while ago. But I just couldn’t figure out what I had said this time for them to give me such looks. Did they think I was too weak for being scared of the Deadly Dungeon? Well I guess in their eyes I might seem kind of weak right now, but the bad experiences I was talking about were from when I was much stronger than I was right now. However there was no way I could tell them that, so I begrudgingly let them give me their pity as I sat down on one of the seats and got comfortable.

  Seeing as how there wouldn’t be any sightseeing while on the train, I would just have to use my time to do other things.

  -Yesemio-

  Sitting in the train cabin, I couldn’t help but let out a relaxed sigh as I sat in the comfortable VIP seats as I couldn’t wait to get back to the city and take a nice warm shower and sleep in a comfy bed. This Dungeon expedition had been a wild ride, having almost died for one, but also because of the mysterious savior we had run into.

  Looking over at the guy, Experience Silver, as he had said he wanted to be called, was sitting down in his own chair on the opposite side of the cabin. After observing him ever since we met, I had come to a few conclusions about the mysterious man.

  Experience seemed to have a very difficult past, despite the fact that he was a noble. Everything about him was just odd, not in a way that made him stand out in a crowd, but in a way that made your eyebrows furrow the more you got to know him.

  Like, for instance, what had just taken place not too long ago. When it was mentioned that the train would travel underground, Experience had a very negative reaction towards it. Or, more to the point, he had a very negative reaction to the Deadly Dungeon, saying that he had too many bad experiences there. Looking at him he couldn’t be older than twenty-five, and from what Mage had said, he didn’t seem to have been systematically taught any magic despite him being a very unbalanced Wizard. And yet despite that he had had many bad experiences in the Deadly Dungeon? To me it seemed like the theory of him being some noble’s experimental subject was sounding more and more plausible.

  Seeing someone with such a tough life made me feel like I should do what I could to help him. The others in the group all had some reservations about helping the guy, but I had been the most vocal advocate towards helping him. I had wondered then, whether I was being too kind to someone I hadn’t known for that long, but every time I learned more about Experience’s sad past it made me want to help the poor guy that much more.

  Of course, being Minex’s wife was probably a major influence as to why the leader of the group made the decision to stick with it and help Experience to the end. But there was nothing wrong with that in my opinion, after all I was his wife, he should listen to me.