A New World, an immersive game experience

"Will you look at that?" An elf mumbled while standing high in the air, looking down towards a small carriage moving along leisurely on the road. Beside it two people were having an intense spar, keeping enough distance from the carriage so as to not let the furious winds and uncontrolled skills damage it, all while maintaining speed to keep up with it.

"Seems he has slowed down for a bit. At least he is no longer rushing into danger." A dwarf replied, at this moment he had fully retracted his flames. Appearing almost like a normal dwarf.

"The breakthrough he had was quite special, even I can't entirely see what he had gained from it." The elf commented.

"At least it seemed to have come to an end without too much trouble."

"Indeed..."

After a moment of silent observation, the dwarf asked, "Are you still planning to guide him?"

"For the moment I think my guidance wouldn't be beneficial. He seems quite adept at forging his own way forward, I can see why you were so adamant about not interfering. He just needs a good environment and the duke should be able to provide that."

"What of the Divine, her appearance must be because of the lad."

"I'm not sure. We'll stay nearby to interfere should things go south. But I doubt that would be necessary, the Divine is still stuck at Tier 4."

"I can't fathom how they can't surpass that simple barrier."

***

While marveling a the insane scale of the city, Eldrian confirmed his plan and started thinking of contingencies. Luckily, entering the outer city -the farming region- was not difficult. They had simply needed to prove themselves not spies of the orcs.

Eldrian and Erik as a Chosen were immediately proven, the others had to take a test wherein they had to declare to the gods their intentions in visiting the city. After that little ordeal, the group started heading to the inner city. And as the hours past Eldrian couldn't help but be astonished more and more at the scale of the city.

Past the most-outer wall, there were many villages and even towns spread throughout the land. Some specialized in farming, others reared animals, and others were even part of a forests where they gathered special local plants and hunted game.

It took the group most of the day to reach the second wall. This wall was far larger than the first. The most-outer wall had only been ten meters high (33ft), this one stood well over thirty meters (98 ft) and like the former, it stretched past the horizons.

"This is called the great wall, it stretched through river, city, forest, and around mountains. Connected to all three duke cities, it encapsulates the capital and protects the inner lands of the kingdom from any foreign threats." Erik explained, that he too had been taken aback when first seeing this massive wall.

"Wait, what? Then we have been traveling through?"

"The outer farming region, officially it is not truly part of the city. Only after passing the great wall would you enter the true city of Taurtania. But..."

"But?"

"The next part is still a farming region," Erik said, his words made it hard for Eldrian to comprehend. It appeared that the city was truly massive.

The group approached the one and only gatehouse within the city confines, sadly getting permission to pass the great wall was far more difficult than expected. Erik had tried first to explain their situation and ask for entrance, explaining that he had been quite well known in the city as an alchemist.

Sadly, the captain had never heard of him and since the orcs were now sieging Vlisia,  the guards were all far more alert. Aware that any slipup could mean disaster.

After gaining no ground and being told to stay in the inn in the town near the great wall, Eldrian decided to try it. Taking out the emblem he had gotten from Myropsis he asked if this could serve as proof of their identity.

The emblem appeared quite common, of a bronze color it had a simple sprouting tree stamped upon it. At first, the captain thought Eldrian must be joking. However, as soon as Eldrian put a little mana into it, it started to shine in a deep green. And within this light, a growing tree could be seen.

"Where did you get this? How can you activate it?" The captain was completely shocked and quickly became nervous. He had been treating them quite harshly but this emblem could only come from those of the house of Tania. The lords of the city.

"I got it from a friend, she invited me to come to visit once I was able," Eldrian replied.

Even hearing this, the captain couldn't simply agree to let them pass. While the emblem was proof, currently no mishaps could be allowed. "My apologies, but would you mind terribly waiting until I can confirm things?"

"I guess there is no other way, fine..." Eldrian sighed, the group returning to the town at the base of the great wall. They decided to settle in the inn to allow everyone some privacy and also a chance to bathe and enjoy some professionally cooked meals.

The next morning they returned to the gate and found the captain acting totally differently. He immediately allowed them to pass through.

On the other side, they were welcomed by a much larger town, the group spent some time exploring before leaving. And as Erik had said the next part was again miles upon miles of farmland. At this point, Eldrian called up his map to figure out how long their travels were still going to take.

'So, this stretch is about the same length but it spreads much more to the sides along the great wall... We'll only enter the city proper upon passing the Valtania river which should take at least half a day...'

As always, Eldrian continued to train. As did Vivian, though they did not spar here. Both instead practiced mana control and tried to improve their technique in using it.

A little past midday they finally arrived at another set of walls, this wall was only fifteen meters high (50ft), still an impressive height but not as insane as before. A couple of buildings could even be seen rising behind this massive wall.

Here Eldrian had immediately taken out the emblem and the captain had called for someone. The group was forced to wait until that person arrived. During the wait, Erik explained the layout of the city, at least the parts that he had visited.

Unlike normal cities, there was no poor district within Taurtania. There was certainly class distinction in the districts, but no one struggled to make ends meet. The biggest difference was that commoners weren't able to afford mansions, but everyone had a home.

And quite a comfortable home at that, with relatively large gardens allowing even centaur children to play and have fun without worry. Due to this the density of buildings was naturally much lower in comparison to normal cities, and as a result, the distance between things was much larger and it covered far more land.

Not a big problem for centaurs, but for the humans and demi-humans in the city it did make life a little harder. Luckily, the roads were in excellent condition and transport was readily available.

There was a total of seven commoner districts, each separated by walls similar to those they were waiting to enter. Erik had also only managed to visit the lower noble district, of which there were three. After that, there were two districts for the middle classed nobles and one for the higher nobility. And finally, the house of Tarnia had a separate district within the higher nobility district.

These were all surrounded by increasingly larger walls. It was almost stupid to try and look towards normal cities in comparison. Just a single commoner district had six magic towers and three castles. Even the lowest nobility district had twice those numbers.

To siege one of the duke cities would be insanity and thus the kingdom did not fear that they would lose the capital and these three duke cities. However, holding onto only them was as good as losing everything. It might be insanity to siege them, but once they were surrounded the enemy could take years, generations even to wear them down.

After almost an hour someone finally arrived and following him the group could finally enter the actual city of Taurtania, and the first sights certainly took Eldrian and Vivian's breath away.

Between the wall and the city was almost half a kilometer of grassland (0.31mi), from which houses slowly started appearing. While the houses were not that large, each had a courtyard at least as large as Eldrian's mansion's.

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continues to support the story by simply reading on Web, voting for the story, or sharing comments. It is all greatly appreciated.