Restart Again: Volume 1 by Adam Scott (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📕

I laughed. “Of course I mean it! We’ll still have to be cautious of course, but I think you deserve a reward for all the hard work you’ve been putting in on the trip so far.”

She jumped back and placed her hands on her hips, puffing out her chest with pride. “That’s right! We can’t just work all the time, can we?”

I shook my head with a smile. “No, we can’t. Now, let’s get going so we can find a room before nightfall.” Lia nodded enthusiastically, spinning in place before she took off down the road in a near sprint. “Hey now, let’s not be too conspicuous here!” I shouted as I began to jog after her.

At our quickened pace, we reached the city a few hours before dark. Up close, the wall around the city was a much more impressive sight. It looked to be created from one massive piece of marble, stretching up over two stories without any lines indicating where individual slabs were laid together. The main road led to a large iron gate which currently stood open, allowing a large crowd of people to filter in and out of the city at will.

Drawing my hood further down over my eyes, I led Lia by the hand through the increasingly dense throng. As we passed under the heavy portcullis, we were able to get our first true look at the city of Atsal. Lia’s stories turned out to be true; every building was indeed made of the same perfect white marble as the walls, as were the roads and streetlamps. The method of construction also looked to be the same, with every structure appearing as if it were carved from a single enormous mountain of white rock. It gave me a sense of vertigo as we passed down the main thoroughfare, which appeared to lead straight to the heart of the city where the two massive towers stood their watch.

Lia tugged at my arm from somewhere behind me, pulling my head down to her level. “The building up ahead on our right is an inn. It’s the one with the purple awning, called Ivory Halls,” She spoke quietly into my ear. It was a hard building to miss; a sprawling canopy spread around the entire front entrance all the way to the roadside, covering a patio full of tables and massive planters filled with vibrant flowers flanking the doorway. The decor was much the same inside the building as well, with lavish vases of flowers and lush purple carpets covering most of the marble interior.

I pulled out a silver coin from my pouch and handed it to Lia. “One room, two nights.” She nodded back to me, well used to handling our lodging arrangements by this point. I did my best to lean inconspicuously against a wall by the entrance as she had a cheerful conversation with the man at the front desk, eventually returning with a set of room keys and a smile.

When we entered our room, I let out an impressed whistle. “This is quite the upgrade from our previous accommodations, wouldn’t you say?” All of the fancy trappings from the lobby were present in our room as well. The bed looked particularly posh, with a heavy purple quilt laid over frilled undersheets. Lia and I grinned at each other for a moment as we took in the luxury of the chamber.

With the daylight filtering in through our double paned window fading quickly, we set about preparing for our night’s work. I stripped off my armor for the first time in days while Lia changed into a sleeping gown. Once we were comfortable, we each grabbed our weapons and sat down on the bed facing each other, swords rested in our laps. “I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty beat tonight. We’ll make this a short session,” I said softly, closing my eyes.

While I gave Lia various tasks to practice during her meditation, I worked on training my mana detection ability. Once I had discovered the technique on the first night of our travels it had become my sole obsession to study it during our meditations. Reaching out in a pulsing circle my mana traced around our small room, illuminating our immediate surroundings in great detail in my head.

The technique had become particularly helpful in monitoring Lia’s progress in regard to magic. Being able to see how she was channeling her mana and the strength of her enhancements made it so much easier to give her instruction on how to improve. Sitting across from her now I watched the warm amber glow of her mana flowing throughout her body. At measured intervals her sword would flash brilliantly as she channeled a new enhancement, outlining her body with a sharp new color. The small world I could see within the darkness of my mind was full of vibrant lights as she practiced various techniques.

As time went on, I could see the intensity of Lia’s mana fading, dimming from a bright amber to a dull yellow. I could hear her breath coming with more difficulty as well, but to her credit she showed no signs of quitting. “Alright, let’s call it a night.” I opened my eyes, grinning when I saw the flush in her cheeks and a bead of sweat running down her forehead. “You’re making fantastic progress, Lia.”

She flopped backwards onto a pillow with a smile. “You really think so?”

“Of course! Can’t you feel it?” I carefully took the sword from her lap and crossed to the table where the scabbard sat, placing the blade inside. “Just think of how far you’ve come in the past two weeks. You’ve gone from passing out after just channeling mana to using multiple enhancements at the same time.” Returning to the bed I laid back against the headboard, looking down at Lia with a playful grin. “It won’t be too long before you’re better than me!”

“Oh, sure.” She rolled her eyes as she flopped over, snaking her