YooJin looked around, his body and mind still buzzing from the curious sensation of walking through the portal Nao had created in Liam’s clubroom. The alpha had drawn a large rectangle upon the wall and four symbols at each of its corners with a curious little chalk. It had glowed a soft white before the rectangle opened up to a scene of pure, untouched nature.

YooJin had stood there dumbly for a few minutes, uncertain of whether or not what he was seeing was real, before TaeHyun pushed him aside and walked through the portal as if simply walking into another room.

He had watched the alpha with a raised brow before meeting Nao’s gaze, who simply grinned.

Not one to think too much about it, YooJin took a step forward and walked through the portal, quickly following in the alpha’s footsteps.

Once over the threshold, he stumbled and found himself falling onto his hands and knees upon the grass.

A shadow fell over him and he looked up.

TaeHyun stared back at him with a cold expression.

They stood there for a moment longer, simply meeting each other’s gazes before a soft whooshing sound occurred behind him and a form fell atop of him.

“Oof,” he grunted.

“My bad,” said Nao with a laugh as he jumped up and reached over to pull YooJin to his feet. “Didn’t expect you to be on the ground like that.”

“Where are we?” YooJin asked, looking around and seeing only grass, trees, and a small cobblestone path.

“Hmm? Swallow Mountain,” said Nao.

YooJin blinked. “Swallow Mountain… but that’s –”

Nao grinned. “Impossible? Yeah, the mist that made it off-limits to the public was actually planted by the Academy.”

“What’s the Academy?”

“That’s where we’re going,” Nao said brightly. He looked at YooJin’s face for a long moment before breaking into a grin. “That’s where we alpha wizards train to become hunters.”

Then before YooJin could get in another question, Nao turned and hurried after TaeHyun, who was already on the path, walking away from them.

He sighed, staring at their backs. Couldn’t these alphas provide just a little more information? He didn’t know what TaeHyun’s problem was but he knew, by now, that Nao enjoyed controlling the amount of information he provided and was getting a kick out of YooJin’s reactions.

YooJin briefly turned back to look back but found that the portal had already disappeared. He then turned and followed Nao down the cobblestone path.

After about ten minutes or so of walking they came across a gigantic ginkgo tree, of a size YooJin had never seen before. Its trunk was nearly two hundred feet long and its golden leaves were so numerous, it nearly filled his vision.

YooJin could do little more than simply stare at its massive form when Nao propped his arm upon his shoulder.

“Gorgeous, right?” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “They say it’s more than a thousand years old and it comes from a dungeon.”

“What?” YooJin turned to look at him in surprise. Gingko trees were common across the country. He had always thought they looked a bit otherworldly but he would have never guessed.

Nao nodded. “Yup, apparently it came from a particular dungeon centuries ago. The story goes that a nut had fallen into the robe of a hunter who had returned from a mission. The nut then fell into a creek and it was so thankful of Earth’s rich nutrients it grew into this, its roots apparently span several hundreds of feet down and across. And even today, it continues to grow. Most of the gingko offspring came from this tree.”

He turned then grinned at YooJin. “Well that’s what they say anyways. I’ll bet other trees were from dungeons too like those baobab, weird looking things, or weeping willows. Actually, willows we know for a fact are from a dungeon, the same dungeon where the legend of the ‘Weeping Women’ comes from, it’s one of the reasons they are called ‘Weeping Willows’ in the first place.”

“What are they, those things you guys call dungeons?”

“Hmm?” Nao gave him a questioning look then turned away and gazed back at the tree in thought. “Huh… I never really thought about it. I think they’re alternative worlds or something… I don’t know, Chief Tak or Yoon are probably better people to ask than me. And don’t even bother thinking of asking TaeHyun, that guy’s explanations, or lack thereof, will make you want to bang your head against the wall.”

YooJin didn’t doubt that for even a minute.

“Anyways, let’s go,” said Nao as he grabbed YooJin by the arm and dragged him to the base of the tree. “You can’t get to the village without mana but since you’re a wizard that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What– What do you mean?”

Nao grinned as he waved his hand over a particularly knobby part of the tree and YooJin watched in growing fascination as the outline of a door appeared.

“The gingko serves as a kind of protector. I’m not really sure to what, though.” He grabbed the knob and pulled. The door swung open and YooJin began to walk upward on the tree’s many roots when he felt them shifting from beneath his feet, lifting him up an inch or so from the ground.

“What the–” Nao said with wide eyes. “Did the tree just move for you?”

YooJin looked back at him. “I don’t…”

“Hey, hey, touch that branch above your head.”

YooJin looked up and reached over, placing his hand against a golden, fanned leaf. The branch shook.

“Well damn,” said Nao ecstatically. “There were rumors that the gingko would react to a mana source it liked but I’ve never seen it.” He turned back and yelled into the tree. “Hey! Hey! TaeHyun! Damn, I can’t see him. He’s already too far ahead.”

“Ah well, come on!” Nao said brightly and he grabbed YooJin’s arm and pulled him into the tree. For a moment the leaves above them shook vigorously before growing silent once more.

YooJin blinked as a variety of sounds assaulted him from all directions.

His eyes adjusted to a soft light that illuminated around him and then he saw the source of the sounds.

Vendors, dozens of vendors lined into stalls carved directly into the walls of the tree. Women and men hollered sales of strange items he had never heard of before. The soft light that illuminated the space came from hundreds of large fireflies that clung to the ceiling of the tree’s interior.

“Get your butterfly whistles here! Your butterfly whistles! No moths!”

“Tami slugs to get rid of those stubborn pimple scars!”

“Dried Mermaid jerky! Guaranteed to improve your pheromone production and time spent in the sack!”

“Real ground yosei to produce that glowing, lustrous hair and skin!”

“Temporary summoner charm! Feel what it is like to be one of the rarest of classes! Guaranteed a creature appearance though no guarantee it’ll not be a monster.”

“Dagger fans! Dagger fans! Throw them like a shuriken, your enemies will be none the wiser!”

“Mana enhancer crystals! Don’t have an omega? No worries, mana enhancers work just as well if not better! Just attach it using the crystal belt on your navel before going to bed. Don’t have a crystal belt? We sell those too!”

“Ignore them,” Nao said, suddenly grasping his arm and leading him away but YooJin’s eyes could not help but be drawn to the crowds of men and women before them. They were all dressed in traditional clothes that were hardly seen outside of weddings and major events and even then, the clothing these people wore were nothing like the ones worn in the modern day, they were drab, limited in color, peasant wear.

“Sell me your ‘ghosts’. Twenty pieces each.”

It was so unlike all the other vendor calls that YooJin paused upon hearing it. It was almost mechanical, almost lifeless. 

He then turned to see a young woman who, unlike the majority of the vendors, was sitting on a mat directly on the tree floor. There were no goods in front of her but a few beige vases sat behind her.

“Well now that is odd,” said Nao, stepping up beside him. “I’ve never seen her before.”

He walked forward and crouched in front of the woman. The woman looked up and YooJin sensed something strange about her but couldn’t quite put his finger to it.

“Why are you buying ‘ghosts’?” Nao asked, his voice soft so that no passersby could hear him.

The woman met his eyes, her deadpan expression not changing in the least as she simply repeated her words. “Sell your ‘ghost’. Twenty pieces each.”

Nao maintained her gaze for a moment longer before his face broke out into a grin. “Well,” he said slowly, “I do have a few ghosts here we caught today.”

He flicked his hand and that strange green swirl that YooJin had witnessed him producing in the dungeon opened up beside him. Nao reached in and produced about half a dozen beige vases.

“I have 8 here. That’s 20 a piece, so 160 pieces, right?”

The woman nodded slowly, the rest of her body barely moved. She then turned around and pulled out several very small pearls from the bag at her waist.

“Mermaid pearls,” Nao said in surprise as she placed four small spherical items in his palm. “How did you–?”

But the woman did not answer him and instead, stood and, gathering the small vases in her bag, walked away.

They both watched the woman’s retreating form for a while before Nao stood and placed the pearls in YooJin’s hands.

“Why–?” YooJin said as he peered down at them. At a first glance, they looked like normal pearls except, upon closer inspection, he noticed that its pearlescent shine was glimmering more like a crystal than any pearl he knew..

“They are extremely rare,” said Nao who had turned back once again to look in the direction of the woman. “Found only in mermaid dungeons but those dungeons are banned.”

“Why?”

“Hmm?” He turned back to him in surprise. “Oh, well mermaid dungeons open up into water and there have been too many hunters who had drowned accidentally or were drowned. These pearls can only be gathered straight from the flesh of the mermaid’s tail, making them incredibly rare gems. They serve as currency here, as do all of the dungeon gems. One of this size is about 40 pieces, equivalent to say a month’s rent in the human world.”

YooJin looked at him in surprise. “‘Ghosts’ are worth this much?”

Nao shook his head. “That’s the thing…” he said quietly. “They aren’t. If anything they are considered quite the nuisance because they are impossible to get rid of. Most people simply send them to the Academy where they are stored in the archive room.”

“Then why–?”

“I wonder too…”

Nao then shrugged. “Ah well, we won’t find out today. Let’s get going before Prince Moon starts getting irritated.”

YooJin turned back briefly to gaze in the direction of the woman before pocketing the pearls and followed Nao.

After a few more minutes of walking, they came to the other side of the tree where instead of a door, a simple archway led them outside.

It was night now and all YooJin could see was a vast field before them beneath the clear moonlight.

“It’s pretty late already,” said Nao, “and I’m going to need to stop by Chief Tak’s quarters so I’ll send you directly to TaeHyun’s room. You can sleep there since there are no rooms ready. We’ll finish the tour of the place another day.”

To the alpha’s room?

“Wait–” said YooJin but it was too late, Nao had already created a portal on the ground beside them and, with a grin, pushed him in.