Flying north from Cogar City, they passed many small villages and towns along the way, but none of them were large cities. By evening, the airship chose to dock at a place that was essentially just a small town.
It was the kind of settlement where, from the air, you could only make out a few dozen households clustered together.
Located near the main road, it was typically a stopover for travelers and convoys, serving as a rest area between two cities.
Such rest areas also had docking towers for airships...
"Old man, why are you so late today?" As the airship just came to a stop, a burly man with a thick iron chain in hand walked over.
"Came out a bit later than usual..."
It was clear he was familiar with the airship's foreman, greeting him as soon as he stepped off.
But the moment he spotted Freya, he suddenly fell silent...
A state of [Surprise!] and [Admiration!] appeared above his head. Following the man's gaze, Sean saw it was fixed roughly around Freya's waist.
As a combat-type witch, her attire wasn't like Igunia's, who always wore little skirts or occasionally trousers. Freya was always dressed in high leather boots, with one side of her thigh exposed, paired with leather shorts and her full, robust figure.
Tsk tsk~
He didn't expect this tall, voluptuous type to be so popular among middle-aged men.
Seeing the big guy slip into a [Fantasy!] state, Sean had a pretty good idea of what he was thinking.
"Hello, traveler from afar."
"Hm."
Freya replied simply, seemingly not noticing anything unusual.
*Anyway, you can't stop people from daydreaming. What's the harm in looking?* She turned to Sean and said.
"Come on, what are you standing there for? Aren't you hungry?"
Sean looked around. From the airship's docking tower, there was a short trading street below.
"What is this place?"
"Probably some small town on the way to Cliff Peak City." Freya likely couldn't name the place either, so she only mentioned what she recognized.
"What's the name of the place we're going to?"
Sean suddenly wanted to strike up a conversation. He remembered she had mentioned it before—it seemed to be a four-character name, so he hadn't really remembered it.
"Rietis."
Freya turned around with a [Curious!] look, staring at Sean.
"There's one thing I'm really curious about. How much do you know about the cities and regions outside Cogar City?"
That hit the nail on the head. Sean felt he knew nothing beyond Cogar City. Of course, he had a general idea of what country he belonged to and what larger region that country was in, etc.
No help for it.
Geography wasn't widely taught in this world, or rather, in a place like Tylermian Town, he simply couldn't access such broad information. Most of what he knew came from Luke, without any concrete concept.
Maybe because transportation in this world was inconvenient or conditions were limited at the time, Sean hadn't even found a detailed map of this country. Otherwise, things would be much easier.
"Uh..."
"Forget it. When we get to Rietis, I'll have my people teach you. You can't just know nothing."
"Actually, just give me a few maps, and I'll study them myself." Sean said with a smile.
*It wasn't that I wasn't eager to learn before; it was just that my circumstances were limited.*
Just as they were walking down the street, a sound suddenly came from an alley.
"Stop! Catch her!"
In his field of vision, a prompt appeared: [Someone approaching...] But by the time Sean turned around, he saw a dark figure rushing straight at him. Despite the warning, he couldn't precisely react in time given the speed.
Should he dodge as soon as the prompt appeared, or turn to see what it was first...
"Ah!"
It was a girl's voice.
She crashed right into him. But before Sean could get a good look at her face, she scrambled up and dashed into another alley.
She was incredibly fast and agile, even leaping over several stalls in a single bound...
He took a closer look.
**[4000/4000, Neutral]** Her status was [Excited!].
A Rank 4 Order Keeper. Judging by her moves, she was probably a repeat offender.
"Catch her... catch..."
The man chasing after the girl had just stepped out when Freya grabbed him with one hand, effortlessly lifting the overweight man off the ground.
"Can't you watch where you're going?!"
"I..."
The man hadn't expected to be lifted by a woman. Looking into the alley, the girl was already gone.
"Be more careful next time!" Not wanting to cause trouble, Freya set him down and turned to Sean, asking if he was hurt.
It was just a bump, no real harm done. So the two ignored the chasing man and continued toward the inn.
Sean felt around in his coat pocket...
Inside was a small silver coin.
Or rather, a coin-sized badge, engraved with the shape of two mountains.
It must have been dropped by the girl when she bumped into him. Since it was so small, Sean didn't think much of it...
The inns near the road were all doing great business. Sean and Freya picked one with a decent atmosphere and settled in, taking rooms not far from each other.
After spending the whole day on the airship, his head was spinning. After eating, Sean stayed in his room, waiting for nightfall.
With no one around, and Freya in her nearby room without coming out, he took a few things from his waist pouch... Lucille's grimoire and the Tylermian map Luke had sent him.
Of course, the magical tool Igunia gave him was also there.
This thing could detect his current Order Keeper rank. According to Igunia, being able to separate two magical droplets to opposite sides meant reaching Rank 2.
And now, he was Rank 2!
**[Magic Proficiency: 120]**
He remembered feeling a change in his body during the riot in Cogar City. Later, his attributes had gained the current prompts about his surroundings—this must be the change from leveling up.
Lucille used to say that as your Order Keeper rank increased, you'd gradually discover changes in your magic. Now he was experiencing it firsthand.
The condition for leveling up probably wasn't 120 proficiency...
Because that monster back then was all garbled code, and he couldn't really pay attention to it. Sean felt the condition was 100 proficiency.
That meant the next 100 proficiency would let him test if he could advance to Rank 3!
Then, he spread out the Tylermian map.
Back when he was there, he could see the surroundings. Now that he was far away, he wanted to confirm if this ability still worked... As the map unfurled, the entire layout of Tylermian Town appeared before him.
Since it was a detailed schematic showing the position of every house, each building on the map displayed a small, projection-like house shape.
But if the map was a large-scale, rough representation, Tylermian would only show up as a single dot.
It felt like 'zooming in and out on a game map'...
No shadows.
Because he had already explored Tylermian, it was like the map had been revealed.
Since it was night, the entire town appeared dark, but every house emitted a faint glow—he could even see that clearly!
He looked toward his own home.
It was practically the brightest spot in the whole town. Inside the house, various little green dots were moving around.
Those were the servants or guards at his home!