Emily sits up groggily in bed and pulls The Clock out from under her pillow.

  12:15 am… oh yeah, I was asleep at this time.

  She tucks The Cloder her pillow again and lies back down while opening the system. The top of the window has once again split, now taining three ses instead of two. First, Emily opens her new skill.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  [Overdrive (active)]

  [Cost:] Variable Maa

  A basic ability of meics to utilise maa to improve the performanaes at the cost of the mae’s lifespan. Depends on the meic’s stage, the amount of maa used, and the size and grade of the mae.

  -Grants variable % increase to mae’s output.

  -Damages the mae proportionally to the improvement of performance.

  _____

  Emily clicks her tongue and grumbles:

  “Tsk, what a vague description, it basically gave me no new information.”

  To distract from her disappoi, she opens the new blueprints tab hoping for better news.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  [Blueprints]

  Tier 1:

  -Calypso’s Heart

  _____

  Tiers? This is new.

  She pulls up the information of the erm and blueprint at the same time.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  [Teology Tiers]

  As meics improve their skills, they must also improve their teology to fit. Different types of teology are separated into tiers acc to their level of adva and range of use. Most teologies only be manufactured by meics of the appropriate stage.

  Tier 1:

  -Steam power

  Tier 2:

  -Electrical power

  Tier 3:

  -Eleagism

  Tier 4:

  ???

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  [Calypso’s Heart]

  [Type:] Steam Engine

  [Tier:] 1

  [Rank:] E

  [Description:] A rge steam engine for the airship Calypso. Optimised to produce the maximum steam possible while maintaining a low weight and coal ption.

  [Effect:] When activated, gees a rge quantity of steam and verts a portion of the steam into kiiergy.

  _____

  It seems tiers oo three don’t require being the appropriate stage to produce them, since I made aromagic device before I even awakeier and rank don’t seem directly linked either, sihe tier oeam engine isn’t F-rank. I should be able to get the blueprint of The Clock if I s it, sidering I made it, right?

  Emily reaches her hand under her pillow and grabs The Clock. She shuts her eyes as her maa flow into it but feels a repulsive force blog her. Opening her eyes with a frown she checks the new system message that appears.

  _____

  Attempting maa s.

  [Error, item tier too high! S failed!]

  _____

  “Tsk!” She clicks her tongue as go of The Clock.

  I guess the universe’s interference was strong enough to raise its tier to a point that I ’t fully uand it anymore. I probably shouldn’t ever use Overdrive on it in case I damage it and ’t repair it.

  Emily yawns ales down to go to sleep.

  I think that’s all I get from this. Shame - I don’t think I’ll be able to make a copy of the eo plete my stage progression requirement si’s so big, but at least I know I should be able to find and create something of E-rank with my current skills.

  She falls asleep with a tented smile on her face.

  ***

  The day passes the same the sed time around. However, Emily goes to sleep early in preparation for her arrival at i City the day. Ohird m on the ship, Emily wakes at 6 am and climbs out of bed. She throws on a fresh shirt and trousers, leaving her robes on top of the open case on her bed, before heading out of the crew quarters to the nearby bathroom with her toothbrush and a b.

  On her way through the corridor, she runs into Ange ing ba the opposite dire.

  “Oh, hey kid, you’re up early!”

  “Yeah, I have a few things I o go over before we arrive.”

  “Fair py, if you want to see the city from the sky before we nd you should join us in the bridge at around 7:45.”

  “Got it, I’ll see you then.”

  “See ya!”

  Emily smiles as she tiowards the bathroom. Iime on the ship, she has talked to Ange and Anton the most, being friendly with the two due to their easy-going natures and poorly veiled distaste for nobility. Entering the bathroom, she locks the door behind her and then brushes her teeth and hair, gd that whoever packed her bag must have known there would be no showers on board, and included dry shampoo amongst her things.

  When she asked, Anton had expio her that Calypso is mostly used as a cargo ship, and usually takes trips that require stopping once every two or three days, so a shower was sidered a waste of water, unlike on nobles’ personal ships and long-flight public passenger ships.

  Finishing up ihroom, Emily returns to her room. She puts on her robe, and sits down on her bed, staring at her suitcase. She pulls out the three important items and is them. The crest is a simple metal brooch with dark green leaves and two iwined silver roots, identical to the crest Diego wore on his robes. After looking at it closely, Emily finds nothing iing about it and secures it to the inside of her robes just in case it’s needed when she arrives.

  , she looks at the unication crystal. It’s a small, five-timetre tall, hazy purple hexagonal gem with several runes engraved around it. Rotating it in her hands she sees twelve runes in total, eight of them unique, whilst a few are repeated. The inside follows a simir pattern to the lightning crystals, being almost pletely opaque in the tre and increasing in transparency towards the outside. Emily decides against iing any mana into it for fear of activating it. She pces it into a ve pocket inside her robes.

  The st item is a small piece of paper with a short list written i handwriting:

  Required courses:

  Basic Etiquette

  Basic Geopolitics

  Basic-Advanced Magic Theory

  Basic-Advanced Magibat

  Basitermediate Maths

  Basiglish

  Any other courses may be chosen at your discretion.

  Try to attais as high as possible on all tests for the honour of the family and always introduce yourself as Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago.

  Hmm, it’s a lot shorter than I expected it to be. Either they expect each of these to take a lot of time or they expect me to take a lot of extra courses. Either way, if it gives me useful skills, I’m happy to follow their education pn for now.

  Emily folds up the list and tucks it into the same pocket as the unication crystal, then checks the time. Seeing it’s 6:35, she decides to meditate, and theo the bridge before nding.

  ***

  At exactly 7:40 Emily opens her eyes and stands up. Taking her suitcase with her, she excitedly walks towards the bridge.

  I wonder what i City will look like. It ’t be that different to Eimdht?

  Anton and Ange have refused to say anything more than ‘Wait and see’ no matter how many times Emily has asked.

  Well, I’ve waited. I guess now I’ll see!

  She quickly arrives at the bridge and steps through the doorway, looking towards the gss wall expetly. The sight before her eyes instantly takes her breath away. She walks over and stands against the gss in awe.

  After her first day on the bridge, Emily has spent the rest of her time between her room and the mess hall, not b to look outside. Now the familiar ndscape of sand she grew up with is o be seen. The nd stretg out below her is covered in a delicate mix of green and yellow grass, with shrubs and the occasional tree dotted throughout. The tre of this new sery is dominated by a thriviropolis, spanning several hundred kilometres with metal and steam.

  Surrounding the city is a giant behemoth of a wall, standing at over a hundred metres tall with dozens atehouses dispersed along its length. Ihe city spans several levels of elevation, at some points reag above the wall, with buildings and walkways iwined in a dizzying mix. Thousands of smokestacks stand tall across the sery, releasing billowing plumes of steam into the air and f ahereal, ever-shifting mist that bhe lower levels. Spreading through every nook and y of the city, Emily sees tiny, ant like people bustling through crowds, and several rge fast-moving maes carrying more of them from pce to pce.

  On the closest side of the wall, Emily sees a familiar-looking airship dock, with a plethora of openings across the wall holding gears and tracks. Several dozen airships sit oracks, leaving or entering the city and Emily sees more of them floating in the sky above.

  She notices a winding rail work ected to the docks, spanning one of the topmost yers of the city, with several elegant steam trains rag along at high speeds. Following a train with her eyes, trag its path towards the tre of the city, Emily sees the two most impressive buildings she’s ever seen g the core of the capital as their own.

  The first is a massive pace, carved from metal and stone, with several rge twisting spires stretg up into the clouds. The white walls, with silver detailing, draw a stark trast to the dark colours spread through the rest of the city. At numerous points around the pace hang rge fgs, only just visible from Calypso, dispying the crest of the Modo Kingdom’s royal family. Emily reises the crest from a description Herber gave her a few years ago - a bck oak with two thorny roses twisting up its trunk, one red and one white.

  The sed building is a rge bd silver dome standihe pace. The dome reaches from the bottom of the city to twice the height of the tallest normal building. Walkways ect to it at a few points, and there are two train stations attached. Strangely, even though there isn’t a single smokesta top of it, the hazy mist sits several times thicker around its base.

  Emily is pulled out of her wonder by Anton speaking behind her.

  “This is why we refused to tell you; words really don’t do it justice.”

  She turns around and sees everyone in the room watg her rea with a grin. She betedly notices that the night crew are still piloting, with Anton and Aanding against the back wall watg. Emily blushes and looks back towards the city as the ship slowly starts losing altitude.

  “Yes, it’s very impressive. You still could’ve told me a bit though…”

  Ange and Anton both chuckle at her grumbling but choose not to say anything else. Watg the dock’s openings slowly grow closer, Emily asks the crew a question.

  “How do you know which opening to go to and that there will be room for your ship?”

  “When we’re doing runs for our sponsor, like this ohey deal with the unication, a told where to go in advance. As for normal trips, you saw all those ships h just outside the city, right?” Anton responds to her.

  “Yeah.”

  “We have to do what they’re doing, sit outside and use small droo deliver messages and ask for permission to nd.”

  “Don’t you risk running out of fuel?”

  “It’s a general rule to aln to be held up for a day outside your destination and carry enough fuel for that. If not, you always nd nearby, but you run the risk of beast attacks, so most people are careful to avoid that happening.”

  Emily shivers at the thought, remembering hiding from sand stalkers, when she was seven, after they ehe slums, and other assaults from worse beasts she’d rather not remember. She’ll never fet the feeling of helplessness as she listeo, and watched, children and adults alike being ripped apart after failing to escape their clutches.

  As Emily dwells on the past, Calypso nds on one of the geared tracks and starts rotating around to face away from the city. The ship locks into pce after rotating one hundred ay degrees and stops. After waiting for a few moments and notig the trader the ship not moving, Emily turns around and raises an eyebrow at Anton.

  “We o let the steam out of the balloon before moving i’s go and wait by the hatch, your family will have sent someoo collect you and it’s best not to keep them waiting.”

  Emily nods and follows him out into the corridor, still slightly unfortable with the Mandrago family being referred to as her family.

  “It was nice meeting you, kid. Good lu the big city!” Ange calls after her with a grin.

  “Thanks, fly safe!” Emily waves goodbye to the crew.

  As they move through the ship, she feels it shake and hears a low grinding hum from the tracks below, signalling the ending of her time on board. They quickly reach the ship’s hatd wait for the movement to stop.

  “Well, it was ransp you. I have to say, you are probably the best pany I’ve ever met from a noble house. Good lu i and look for us if you ever o travel again,” Anton says with a smile as he offers his hand.

  “Thanks, I’ll be sure to look for you if I .” Emily shakes his hand and turns to leave the ship.

  Anton pulls a lever on the wall as the vibrations stop, and the hatch opens, dropping steps to the floor. Emily steps out of the ship and sees a girl waiting for her, wearing bck robes with white ats.

  She looks to be around the same age as Emily, maybe slightly older, with long curly brown hair, delicate hazel eyes and lightly tanned skin. Her robes bear a crest with a single silver-stemmed white lily and flow loosely around her petite frame. She smiles widely as they make eye tact, causing Emily to blush.

  Pretty.