Jin stood outside the dusty map shop. The hot sun beat down on the dirt street. The noise of Cloud City was still deafening, but he ignored it. He held the rolled-up leather map tight in his hand.
He had a route. He had a plan. Now he just needed to optimize it.
On Earth, Jin never took the slow path. If he needed to move a shipment across the country, he used air freight. Time was money. Time was survival. He unrolled the map slightly and looked at the legend printed in the bottom corner.
He scanned the strange symbols. He saw markings for guild outposts, monster territories, and water sources. Then, he saw exactly what he was looking for.
It was a small blue circle. The legend labeled it as a Teleportation Circle.
Jin felt a sudden rush of hope. A teleportation circle. It was a fast-travel system. It was the biological equivalent of an airplane.
"Nyx," Jin whispered. He pointed a dirty finger at the blue circle on the map legend. "Look at this. Teleportation circles. We do not have to walk for thousands of miles. We can just jump from city to city."
Nyx looked down at the map. Her cracked obsidian visor gave away nothing.
"Yes," her telepathic voice echoed in his mind. "They are called Aether-gates. They use massive, high-tier beast cores to bend physical space. They connect major guild hubs. It is the fastest way to travel across the continent."
Jin smiled. His cracked lips hurt, but he did not care. The logistical nightmare of walking for months was solved.
"Perfect," Jin said. "Where is the teleportation circle in Cloud City? We can pay the toll. You still have materials from the giant python. We can leave this place right now."
Nyx did not move. She just stared at the map.
"Look closer at the map, My Prince," Nyx instructed calmly. "Look at the location marker for Cloud City."
Jin frowned. He unrolled the map completely. He found the crude drawing of the walled fortress at the bottom edge of the continent. He scanned the area around the city marker. He looked for the small blue circle.
He searched the entire southern sector of the map. He found nothing. There was no blue circle anywhere near their current location.
His smile vanished. The hope faded into cold reality.
"There is no circle here," Jin said flatly.
"Correct," Nyx replied. "Cloud City is a backwater outpost. It is a slum for low-level scavengers and cheap mercenaries. Teleportation circles require massive amounts of pure Aether to maintain. They require highly skilled array masters to calibrate the spatial coordinates. This city does not have the money or the power to support a gate."
Jin let out a heavy sigh. The corporate shortcut was denied. He was stuck in the slow lane.
He dragged his finger up the dotted trade route on the map. He stopped at the first major waypoint.
Iron-Spire.
Right next to the name Iron-Spire was a bright, clearly drawn blue circle.
"Iron-Spire has a teleportation circle," Jin noted.
"It does," Nyx confirmed. "Iron-Spire is not a backwater camp. It is a massive mining and forging hub. It is a real city. The guilds there are incredibly wealthy. They mine heavy metals and refine high-tier weapons. They can afford to maintain an Aether-gate. If we reach Iron-Spire, we can use their circle to jump to the next hub."
Jin calculated the distance. He looked at the scale on the map.
"How long will it take to reach Iron-Spire by foot?" Jin asked.
"Two days," Nyx answered instantly. Her internal biological clock and spatial awareness were flawless. "If we maintain a steady pace and do not encounter major delays, we will see the walls of Iron-Spire by sunset on the second day."
Two days of walking. It was not a month, but it was still a long time to be exposed in the wild.
"Then we go by foot," Jin said. He rolled the leather map back up and tied it tight. "But I am not walking for two days looking like this."
He pointed to his own clothes. The royal silk shirt was entirely ruined. It was stained with mud, sweat, and dried blood. It smelled terrible. More importantly, it still looked like expensive fabric. It drew the wrong kind of attention.
"We need supplies," Jin stated. "We need regular clothes. We need water. We need travel rations. We cannot hunt for every meal on the main road."
"Agreed," Nyx said.
They left the side street. They walked back into the chaotic main market of Cloud City.
The afternoon sun was peaking. The heat inside the stone walls was brutal. The air smelled strongly of hot iron and unwashed bodies.
Nyx led the way. She found a cheap merchant stall selling scavenged gear. The merchant was a missing-toothed man sitting on a wooden crate. He looked at Jin with extreme suspicion.
Nyx did not negotiate. She placed another large black python scale on the wooden table.
The merchant's eyes widened. He quickly gathered the supplies Jin pointed at.
Jin grabbed a pair of thick, dark canvas pants and a rough, woven brown tunic. They were common scavenger clothes. They were ugly, but they were durable. He also grabbed a heavy brown traveling cloak with a deep hood. It matched Nyx's cloak perfectly. Finally, he took two large leather canteens and a heavy sack of dried, salted meat.
Nyx took the supplies. She handed the merchant the black scale. The transaction was over in seconds.
They walked into a narrow, empty alleyway between two taverns.
"Turn around," Jin said.
Nyx faced the stone wall. Jin quickly stripped off the ruined silk palace clothes. He felt a strange sense of relief as he dropped the dirty silk into the mud. He was shedding the last physical piece of the weak, victimized seventh prince.
He pulled the rough canvas pants on. They were stiff and scratched his skin, but they fit well. He pulled the woven brown tunic over his head. He strapped a thick leather belt around his waist. He threw the heavy brown cloak over his shoulders.
He picked up one of the leather canteens. It was full of clean, cold water. He pulled the wooden stopper out and drank deeply. The water tasted slightly metallic, but it was the best thing he had ever tasted. It washed the dry dust out of his throat.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his canvas sleeve.
"I am ready," Jin said.
Nyx turned around. She looked at him. The dirty, bruised royal prince was gone. A common, anonymous traveler stood in his place. He blended into the gritty reality of the Zenith planet perfectly.
"You look unremarkable," Nyx stated. It was a high compliment from a shadow-guard.
"Good," Jin said. He tied the second canteen to his belt. He slung the sack of dried meat over his shoulder. "Let's get out of this garbage dump."
They walked out of the alley. They headed straight for the Northern Gate of Cloud City.
The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the packed dirt. The crowds were thick near the exit. Many mercenary squads were heading out for the evening hunt.
Jin and Nyx joined the flow of traffic. The guards at the gate did not stop them. They only cared about writing down the names of people entering the city. People leaving the city were no longer their problem. If they died in the wild, the city did not care.
They stepped through the massive iron doors. They left the stone fortress behind.
The landscape outside the Northern Gate was completely different from the southern edge. The thick, suffocating Rot-Jungle was gone.
Instead, a vast expanse of rocky plains stretched out before them. The ground was hard and covered in dry, yellow scrub brush. Massive, jagged rock formations jutted out of the earth like broken teeth. The sky above was wide and a piercing, bright blue.
A wide, well-worn dirt road cut straight through the rocky plains. It was the main trade route. It led directly north. It led to Iron-Spire.
"The terrain is open," Nyx said in his mind. She scanned the horizon. "Visibility is high. We can spot threats from much further away. But it also means threats can spot us."
"We stick to the road," Jin decided. "There is safety in traffic. If we look like regular travelers, the bandits might ignore us for richer targets."
They started walking.
Jin took his first few steps on the hard dirt road. He paid close attention to his own body.
He was Foundation Level 4 now. The difference was massive. Yesterday, in the jungle, his legs shook after an hour of walking. His lungs burned. His heart hammered wildly.
Today, his stride was long and steady. His dense muscles absorbed the impact of his heavy boots hitting the hard dirt effortlessly. His breathing was deep and rhythmic. The heavy canvas clothes and the thick cloak did not weigh him down. He felt a deep, coiled energy resting in his stomach.
He was no longer a fragile glass cup. He was starting to become a weapon.
The afternoon sun beat down on their hooded heads. The heat rising off the rocky plains made the air shimmer and distort. They walked in absolute silence.
They passed a few other groups on the road. They saw merchants driving armored wagons. They saw small bands of bruised mercenaries returning from the plains. Jin kept his head lowered. He kept his face hidden in the deep shadow of his brown hood. He did not make eye contact with anyone.
Nyx walked a half-step behind his left shoulder. She was a silent, lethal shadow. Her presence alone deterred a group of rough-looking bandits resting on a rock from approaching them.
The hours ticked by. The sun slowly began its descent toward the western horizon.
Jin did not ask to stop. He did not feel the need to sit down. He drank from his canteen while walking. He chewed on a piece of tough, salted meat. He maintained the steady, grueling pace.
They were venturing toward their destination. The slow path was long, but Jin was a man used to long projects. He would walk for two days. He would reach Iron-Spire. He would find the teleportation circle.
He was going to survive this planet, step by step.