Carts drawn by horses, and sometimes spirit beasts rolled by as Ning, Saph, and Taron made their way to a tavern.
"Man, this is some archaic society," Taron commented. "I expect better things the closer we get to modern civilization, but it still is worst than my worst expectations."
"This isn't that different from where I come from," Saph said.
Tyrana city had houses made up of stones and woods. The city was located on the southern slopes of the mountain that went down to a bay area where the dock was.
Most of the wealthy folks lived in the bay area where it was flat land.
Ning and the rest were in that area and found themselves a tavern to stay in. They ate some food and decided to look for various stuff to buy around the city.
They first went to a clothing store to buy some of the latest fashion clothes that didn't make them look like country bumpkins.
Saphandra got herself a bunch of violet clothes to match her hair, while Ning and Taron didn't really care much for colors and only cared for the design.
After changing into their new outfits, they went around the city and Ning made a particular choice to look for the people's hair color.
There was plenty of red, a few oranges, and very rarely were there yellow hair.
Ning continued looking throughout the crowd when they came across a wide building with a recognizable name on its board.
The Summoning Circle.
"Oh, it's the guild," Ning said. He had learned a bit about the Summoning Circle and knew that it was akin to guilds from Kumia or the Aether Tower from Vilmore.
"We should get registered here. I think there are a lot of benefits to becoming one," Ning said.
"Sure," the other two said and the three of them went inside.
The inside of the building was a lot of yellow and green. There were stone pillars in the center that supported the entire building.
Around the room, there were a bunch of tables and chairs scattered around where people stayed to eat.
Ning walked by a massive board and saw a bunch of stuff written on it.
-Kill the Rank 2 Hybrid Hyena that is terrorizing Yorkville : 10 Full Pearls-
-Capture a cub of Blurred Tiger in the eastern forest: 12 Full Pearls-
-Help Garold fend off his farm…-
-…-
-…-
It didn't take long for Ning to realize that this was a mission board.
The three of them made their way to the clerk and told them what they were here for.
"All 3 of you?" the girl asked with a weird expression.
"Yes," Ning said.
The girl turned towards Taron and asked, "Can you even summon?"
Ning realized what his mistake was. Of course, the Summoning Circle only took in those who could summon.
"Is there no way for someone who can't summon to join?" Ning asked.
"No, that is the most important requirement to join," the clerk said.
"Well, I guess I'm out then," Taron said. To begin with, he wasn't really interested in joining the circle anyway. All he wanted was to spend his time in leisure and wait for any spaceship to pass by so they could hitch a ride.
"Guess, I'm out as well then," Saphandra said from the side after hearing the conversation.
"What? Why are you out?" Ning asked.
"I can't summon," she said.
"You can't summon?" Ning asked with a confused look.
Saph shook her head. "Not anymore," she said.
"What? Why?" Ning asked.
"I don't have any spiritual energy anymore and I can't gather any. So I'm stuck without being able to summon now," she said.
"Are you injured or something?" Ning asked her.
"No, it's just something I did to myself. You don't have to worry about it," she said.
Ning wanted to say more, but the clerk spoke up. "Are you joining or not?" she asked.
"Yes, yes, I'm joining," Ning said and filled in a bunch of information on the sheet of paper.
"Alright, go through there and have your hair washed," the clerk said.
"My hair washed? Why?" Ning asked.
"To make sure you are not cheating your way in. We have to make sure you didn't just dye your hair," the clerk said.
"Oh, okay," Ning said. Since he had already summoned something, he didn't need to worry about anything. His hair had to have already changed to red after all.
"I will see you guys in a bit. Sit around," Ning said and took the path the clerk showed him.
He reached the back of the building in an open area where one person was waiting for people to come to visit him.
Ning went to the man and told him he was here to get his hair washed.
The man-made him sit down and poured some water as well as some ingredients on his hair.
As he expected, Ning went to someone that washed his hair and realized that it was in fact not dyed. Had it been dyed, his hair would've made the water red.
"You're good to go," the man said and sent him to another location off to the side where a man was teaching a bunch of teenagers about summoning.
"Hello, I'm here to get tested for the registration," Ning told the man with the gray hair.
The man looked aside from the kids and toward Ning who didn't look much older than a teenager.
His body was forever young after all.
"You can summon, can you?" the man asked.
"Yes," Ning said and nodded.
"Good, give a demonstration to these young people then," the man said.
Ning nodded and closed his eyes and tried to feel his spiritual energy. The moment he did, he used it, and suddenly, he found himself back in the sea of darkness all around him.
He looked around for the closest thing he could find and grabbed it.
"Come and be controlled by me. Instead, I shall give you half of my spiritual energy."
The bond was forged instantly.
