Remea, unlike the other continents in the human domain, was an archipelagic continent. Not only that, it was also the closest continent to Oceania, the Merfolk underwater empire.
Remea also had some of the nicest places in the human domain, and was by far the most beautiful continent. It’s cities were islands of their own, with beaches, coastlines, lakes and the likes.
And in one such island called the Rivermark city, in a secluded place, a matrix inscribed on the ground briefly shone, before two individuals materialized out of thin air.
"Damn, you feel that cool breeze, Damon?" Dion stretched.
"Of course I can feel it." I said with a smile, trying not to let the earlier encounter with Emmett ruin the rest of my day. Even though, my mind still went back to how he knew I went to that black market.
The only feasible thing I could think of, was the face of Mark Mywords. He must have been in the know when I first donned that face and moniker.
My eyes narrowed. It simply meant that I would have to keep using different appearances. But the problem with that was the identity itself. I could keep morphing my face to anything I desire with my featureless mask. But there would be no record of that identity.
If it was before I got my new pocket ship, I would worry about that due to the hassle of providing an ID before boarding an airship, or entering a new city. But now, I could safely say those parameters don’t matter much to me, at least to a certain extent.
"They say this city is one of the best Remea has." I said. "It’s bound to feel refreshing."
"I’ll be the judge of that." Dion snickered. "Let’s go explore!" he hooked an arm around my shoulder.
The place this teleportation matrix was engraved, was surprisingly not shaggy. In fact it was quite nice. It was in one of those caves close to water, so the sea wind was circulating well enough inside it.
The cave’s entrance was sufficiently covered by overgrown trees, so it was somewhat invisible to the masses. But I guessed, someone usually chanced upon the cave once in a while.
The first thing we saw upon emerging from between the trees was this wide stretching beach. We were at its side, so we could overlook the entire coastline from where we were.
Dion stared slack jawed.
"This has got to be the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to."
"You can say that again." I nodded in agreement.
Even to me, this was by far the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen, no beach on earth even compare. The air smelt of salt, and... well, sea. The sand grains were bleached gold, and had a fine texture to them, and several palm trees arched overhead with emerald leaves swaying in the winds.
Seashells lined the coast with an almost luminescent sheen, and the sea water crashed at the shore in rolling waves.
There were people too, quite a lot of them, most in bikinis actually.
We followed the coast line, with the waves crashing against our boots from time to time. Some of the people were laying under the sun, and some were embracing the waves.
Perhaps if I also had time, I could come here to play a little, but for now, I had my priorities.
"Whoa!... dude, look look look!" Dion literally shook me.
I turned to the direction he was looking.
"What..." I began, but the rest got stuck in my throat courtesy to what I witnessed.
"Are those.... Merfolk?" I muttered after a moment of disbelief.
Merfolk were similar to humans in physiology, and unlike other fantasy tales dictated, they didn’t have tails for legs, or scales for skin. The only things differentiating them from humans were the small fins behind their ears, the markings/lines under their eyes, and slitted gills behind those those fins, that enables them to breath underwater.
And the three people currently in my vision had two of those differences. They both had colorful fins behind their ears, and markings/ lines below their eyes.
Of course they could be cosplayers, but something about them told me they weren’t. One was a man, and the other two were women.
Even though their appearance here might have been a regular occurrence, people still gawked. Even I had to admit, they were fine as hell. The man was pretty handsome, and the women were pretty... pretty.
–"I can’t believe it, it’s a fuckin Merfolk!" One man exclaimed.
–This is the first time I’ve seen another race!" Another said.
–"Aha, see, coming here for our vacation was the right decision all along."
One of the Merfolk woman flashed a dazzling smile at the attention.
"Bro, did you see that?" Dion turned to me.
"See what?" I asked puzzled.
"That chick totally was smiling at me." He grinned.
"Hate to burst your bubble dude." I sighed at the sheer stupidity of this guy. "But she was smiling at everyone here."
"That’s not true." he shook his head. "She was totally smiling at me. I’m gonna go hit on her."
"No, don’t even think about it." I shook my head firmly.
"I’m gonna do it." he grinned as he began taking some steps away from me.
"Fine." I sighed. "Just remember, no matter what happens, I tried to dissuade you from doing so."
"Oh how I’ll love to see your face when I bag her."
"That’s impossible."
"Hah, I’ll be the judge of that." he began waking towards the group of three.
~Many, many, many moments later~
As Dion and I walked through the city, I had to hold the urge not to burst out in laughter.
"Hate to say this to you, but... I told you so." I chuckled.
"Dhat’sh sho nod koo." (That’s so not cool). He turned to me, his hands on his nose.
Back at the beach, he approached the Merfolk girl with a grin. I hadn’t heard what he said to her, but I guess she didn’t like what she heard, either that, or she just didn’t like guys with a creepy grin. Because the next moment, she gave him a fist to the nose.
That was how Dion ended up with a broken and swollen nose, and ended up being the laughing stock of the entire beach. Though, his predicament also dissuade other idiots like him from approaching the Merfolk.
"Here take this." I handed him a vial of healing potion. He accepted the potion and chugged it down.
After a minute, the swell had almost gone down completely.
"So, what did you say to her?" I inquired.
"All I said was I’d like to take her out to dinner." he huffed.
"Well maybe you should have toned down that creepy grin you had on your face." I said, still trying not to laugh.
"My grin is not creepy." he flashed a smile.
"If you say so." I nodded.
"So, I think we should go complete each of our missions separately. What do you think?" I changed the topic.
"The last to finish is paying for lunch!" Dion exclaimed. It seemed he was already back to his usual self.
"Oh we’re on." I smirked. I wasn’t going to say no to free food. "We meet back right there." I pointed to a nearby fountain. "The last to arrive there will be the one paying."
With that, Dion took off, absolutely determined to not be the one to pay. In my case, I only calmly walked ten steps beyond the fountain.
There was an establishment termed Samcas foundation. I walked in, and one of the staffs at the lobby greeted me.
"Hello, welcome to Samcas foundation. What can I do for you?" she asked with a clearly practiced smile.
"I’m here to accept a package under the name Ross Hugh." I replied calmly.
"Are you with the necessary code?" she asked politely.
"Of course." I nodded.
"Come with me." She motioned.
I followed to her to some sort of office where she looked up the code I gave, before I was handed a sealed box.
"Do keep in mind that only the owner can open it, anyone else, and the consequences would be disastrous." She subtly warned.
She didn’t need to say it twice. Not that I planned to open someone else’s package to begin with. My mission was simply obtaining the package, and getting it back to the mission hall, where the owner would come receive it.
Not long later, I walked out of the establishment with the package in my spatial storage.
"Five minutes." I smiled upon reaching the fountain. It only took me five minutes to complete the mission, and I didn’t even have to cheat. Well not entirely, I had sighted the establishment before I proposed we all go complete our missions. But considering I had thought of leaving a reflection by the fountain before entering, the former could be overlooked couldn’t it?
Since I wasn’t sure how long it would take Dion to come back, I left a reflection and decided to explore the city, while also trying to find the place I came here for.
After all I didn’t just wake up and decide I wanted to go to the Remea continent today for nothing.
The artificer who’s going to help me fix the bands of Legom was in this city. Now my only task was finding him.
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