CH57

“Ben I know you’re excited but can we take a bit of a break?” Thera couldn’t help but ask. They had decided to look around the city for a couple hours before getting to the guild, but Ben had been rushing around like he wouldn’t get the chance to see the city again once they were done. He had to go into any shop that caught his interest and got more food than he would ever possibly need from any cart that smelled tempting enough to him. It was getting ridiculous. “We can go out again tomorrow so let’s take things a little slower for a bit.”

“My bad, sorry. It’s just all so exciting, you know?”

And why wouldn’t it be? Anailia was basically a fully modern city, skyscrapers and all, situated within a giant forest. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen before. The people dressed in brightly coloured togas, going about their daily lives, and there was street art to pass, and monuments to see. He couldn’t help but go full tourist from it all. Still, he eased up for Thera.

“Thank you. Come on, let’s take a seat for a bit and eat some of your pile of food while it’s fresh. I know a good place to sit ahead.”

She led him for about five minutes before they arrived at a small stone fence, at just the right height to act as a seat at the edge of the city. He was sure the view beyond was beautiful, but it was the fence that took his breath away.

“Holy crap. Thera what the hell is this?” He had run ahead and was peering down at it, running his hand along the stone. To an ordinary person it probably looked like plain rock, well put together but nothing special. To Ben though it looked divine. His mana sense had improved with his level, and while that would normally mean being able to feel the way mana was woven through something he was touching still, whatever enchantment was on the wall made it positively glow to him. He could see the enchantments contained within what he thought was ordinary stone, but with a complexity and density that he was sure it should have shattered long before it reached its current state. Delicate weaves of mana he didn’t know if he would ever be able to pull off himself were strung together as if in a tapestry, and he knew there was significantly more he couldn’t make out, his sight was still too weak. He couldn’t help but curse himself for not having a higher level of enchanting to properly examine what was before him and swore that he would come back here again. There were things he could learn in this wall.

“I’m honestly a little jealous your sense is so good at your enchanting level, I’d love to know what the magic of a god looked like with my own two eyes,” She said, dropping a bombshell on him.

“I’m sorry, a god?”

She nodded. “Mhm, This is the entrance to the trial of Anailia and Tolona. When the succubi homeworld was conquered, survivors were taken into the trial for safety as Anailia used all of her strength to escape. This fence is the boundary to keep people out that aren’t facing the challenge.”

“Wow,” Ben let out, wonder overtaking him for a moment before he needed to ask a question. “But isn’t this a little short to be keeping people out?”

In response she grabbed his hand and tried to pass it over the far edge of the fence, only to have something stop it.

“I don’t know all of the magics within it, but one of them acts as a boundary. It doesn’t hurt so it’s fine to sit and lean against, but you won’t be getting through.”

“Awe, but I wanted to see what the enchantments looked like on the other side.”

“The only way to do that would be to take the trail, and I personally wouldn’t recommend it. A lot of people die facing trials unprepared,” She warned, removing the thought of trying to sneak in from his mind.

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“Noted. That’s alright, I could probably spend weeks looking at a small portion of it. How big is the place anyway?” When he looked down the length of the fence he could tell that it was large, it looked like it had a slight curve in it but it went on for a while.