Grey stood at the front gate of the city, it had been over a year since he left now. The city seemed almost exactly like he left it, but for some reason, he felt something was missing.
'I should get this over with'
He touched his nose with a sad smile on his face before heading into the city. Chris opted to stay behind with Brown, back in the forest since there was nothing in the city that interested him.
With a slight smile on his face, Grey entered the city. He didn't have any friends in the city since they all abandoned him during the first time he took the test. He couldn't say they were true friends though.
Grey looked at the building not too far from him, this was the place he spent over fifteen years of his life. The smile on his face only got sadder the more he looked at the place.
'So that's what is missing, huh'
He could see someone in the building, but it wasn't who he wanted. A new family was already living in the place, he watched the kids play for some time before leaving. It was a bittersweet moment for him. He remembered all the times he played here with his mother and father, the times he hid whenever he had messed up and his mother was searching for him to give him a good thrashing, oh training.
'Looks like she has left for a while now since the building is already occupied by someone else'
Grey asked the neighbors to know when she left. He got to find out that Martha disappeared just over a month after he left for the Academy. They woke up one morning and didn't see any signs of her. It was only after a month did they confirm she was gone. But the building was only occupied after a year had passed.
Grey walked around the city for some time, he visited the arena, the marketplace, and other places he frequented while he was still in the city. On his way to the arena, he surprisingly encountered Derek.
On seeing Grey, he was gripped with fear, thinking Grey would get revenge on him for what he did previously. Grey on the other hand just smiled at him before continuing his tour. Derek had already broken through to the Fusion Plane. It's below Grey to bully those lower than him in stages, talk less of an entire plane.
He wanted to see the city since he would most likely not come back here again, even if he would, it wouldn't be anytime soon given Martha wasn't there.
Grey spent exactly one hour in the city before leaving, although he was recognized by some people since their relationship wasn't good, there was no way they could talk to him.
**************
Boom!
A crater half a meter deep appeared on the ground. If one looks at the sky above the crater, a symbol could be seen flickering with silver lights. The symbol was made up of strange lines that formed a circle.
"Hmm, compared to yesterday, you've made some improvements"
Chris said as he inspected the site of the attack, this was the fifth time Grey was attacking with it today.
They left Red City two days back and were already more than halfway to the Capital. Grey was able to successfully attack with the symbol the previous day and was now working on increasing his success rate and speed.
With Chris's help, he was improving quite quickly. He could already be called an inscriber, okay well, half an inscriber. At least in five tries, he could now successfully attack with the symbol three times. His proficiency with controlling the essence has also improved with time.
A thought came to him which he quickly dismissed, he still wasn't confident enough to try it again, but he knew it wouldn't be long before he tried it.
"I feel the attack isn't as strong as it should be"
Grey said looking at the flickering symbol above him.
Chris looked at the symbol and laughed.
"Well, what do you expect from that?"
He pointed at the symbol before explaining.
"It's not good enough yet, so you don't expect it to have a higher attack power than what you already have. The flickering shows the symbol might die out at any moment, it can't gather the required essence for the attack due to this"
Grey felt what he said made sense since his symbol looked like it was just holding on and might die out any moment.
Chris gave him some tips on what to do. He continued his training while they were still on the journey.
***********
On the evening of the next day, they arrived at the Capital. A magnificent City appeared before Grey, the city had the most illustrious buildings he had ever seen, and even the gates were imposing. It exuded an aura that made those ordinary citizens shake in fear.
What surprised Grey was the fact that the guards at the gate were all in the Late stages of the Arcane Plane. One has to remember the mayor of Red City was only in the Arcane Plane, he hadn't even gotten to the Late stages yet.
This was the Capital City, the most dignified city in the entire empire. It had everything you could ask for.
—————
"What! How can it cost so much?"
Grey's heart was currently bleeding as he looked at the meal before him.
After entering the City, he told Chris he wanted to have a meal. Chris warned him on how expensive meals were in the City. But on remembering the money he took from the bandits which he rarely used, he was confident he could pay. Besides, meals in the most expensive restaurants back at Lunar City only cost around two to five silver coins.
"It's just fifty silver coins"
Chris said with a smirk, clearly enjoying the current plight of Grey.
"What do you mean just fifty silver coins? That's half a gold coin. What the hell are the meals made of?"
Grey looked at the meal before looking around again.
"This is even a run down place, yet they charge so much"
Chris shrugged.
"It's not my problem, I told you when we entered the City about how expensive things were"
Grey felt his head hurting, this was his hard-earned money, okay, the bandits' hard-earned money, you know what, just forget it, it doesn't matter. The main problem now is, a meal is about to cost him almost one-tenth of his entire wealth, who would eat something like that?!.
"Can I return the meal?"
The waiter looked at Grey with emotionless eyes before replying.
"NO"
He left after his reply.
Grey ate the meal with a heavy heart with Chris laughing by the side.
"Teacher"
Grey looked up at Chris when he was almost done.
"Yes"
"Why don't you pay for my meal since it's the first time you're bringing me to the Capital?"
Grey asked with the nicest smile he could come up with.
"No"
Chris answered with a sneer.
'Stingy old man'
Grey said in his head before paying for the meal. When he took out the coins, he almost couldn't let go of it, only after the waiter dragged with all his might did he finally let go.
The waiter looked at him with an expression of fear, he knew since Grey was this strong, he was definitely from a large force. But he still couldn't understand why Grey was so stingy.
"We should head over to meet the others"
Chris said after they left the restaurant.
This was not his first time coming to the City, so it didn't take long before he took Grey over to the others. The empire always provided a residence for each Academy.
Contrary to Grey's expectations, the Capital wasn't that big. Lunar City was larger than it was.
They headed towards the eastern part of the city, before arriving at a gate that had the word 'Lunar' boldly written on it. This was the residence assigned to the Lunar Academy.
