Mana spun wildly as the teleportation gate initialized. Gale’s space mage was still at a lower level, so the gate took a bit longer than those in the bigger cities. When it finally stabilized, a man and a woman walked out with serious expressions on their faces.

  This man had several visible magic weapons on his athletic-looking frame. The woman was covered by a forest green cloak that had gold filigree stitched in. Her hood was pulled back showing off her long, auburn-colored hair. Both of them sported a gold insignia on their chest depicting a hand holding a small flower to the sun. The mark of the Creation’s Coalition.

  As they walked through the streets of Gale, neither of them said a word. This was their countless city, on their countless world and they never found anything. Leadership simply wouldn’t give up on the idea that their enemies had somehow gotten away and continued to send out patrols like this.

  A nice guard told them of an inn next to the ocean that was fairly priced and that was their first stop to establish a starting point for their search. Before they even made it in the door of the inn, something caught the woman’s eye.

  “Wilton, look.”

  His eyes followed hers and his jaw practically dropped to the ground. This was the first time in a decade that they even found something remotely resembling some type of proof. Now they actually had to follow coalition protocol.

  “Well, if it is one. They obviously are not trying to hide their abilities. Let’s go check it out, Plessa.”

  With a little more purpose in their steps, the two visitors went towards the dock where they had seen a completely crystal ship. When they got there, they noticed that several other ships had adornments that looked like flowing lava or the night sky. One didn’t even register with their eyes at how dark the hull was.

  “Greetings Dockmaster, we are on official Coalition business, and we need some answers regarding some of these ships. There are quite a few unique ones here. How did all these captains come across these exotic-looking materials?”

  “’ello. Y’ur lookin at Gales’ famous bamboo, sir.” He said while practically beaming with pride.

  “This is all bamboo? Even the crystal one?”

  “Yessir. If ya wantin some, yo’ll want to check out that there Grove in the market.”

  “Thank you for your time.”

  Wilton and Plessa shared a look of amazement that they may have finally gotten some real evidence. Both of them ran towards the market district and immediately found The Grove. A line of dozens was winding out the door. They ignored all the yelling and complaining and went straight inside.

  Plessa spoke up first this time. “We need to speak to the person who runs this shop.”

  “That would be us.” A woman behind the counter said while pointing at a tired looking man coming in from the back.

  “This is official Coalition business. I’m going to flash this crystal over you to determine your class.”

  A flash from the crystal lit up the shop and then another took place several seconds after the first.

  “Wilton, they are both Bamboo Farmers.”

  Wilton thought for a second before turning back towards the older looking farmers.

  “Where did you get all these variants of bamboo?”

  “Oh, that’s what this is about. My son made a deal with a young gentleman a couple of months ago. Business has been like this ever since.”

  “This young gentleman. Do you know his name?”

  The woman behind the counter thought for a moment. “You know, I know he told me, but I don’t remember. Sorry!” She turned to the man bringing in various bamboo plants. “Henri, do you remember the name of Ecclo’s friend?”

  “No, I don’t believe he ever told me what it was.” The answer came instantaneously.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Ecclo, is the name of your son? Can we speak to him?”

  “Is he in trouble or something?”

  “No, ma’am. We just need to find the person responsible for this bamboo.”

  “Well, I’m sure he would be glad to tell you, but you missed him by a couple of weeks. A merchant from some port city across the ocean was amazed by the bamboo and asked if we’d want to set up at their shop to expand. We were unsure at first, but it was hard to refuse since we never wanted to lock our children to this city. So, Ecclo and his girlfriend set out with our oldest daughter to set up our expansion in Port Palm. Then I believe they were going to head further East to set up in another city as well.”

  “Thank you for your time ma’am.” Both Wilton and Plessa nodded before leaving.

  Back in the shop Treesa turned to her husband. “What is the Coalition?”

  Henri stopped for a moment and shrugged. “I have no idea. Bamboo fanatics I suppose.”

  ***

  Ecclo worked out a great deal with the big merchant organization to get The Grove’s bamboo spread across the world. He had enjoyed a few days in Port Palm while getting the seeds going and signing a contract with the merchant guild. Now they were on a caravan heading East to another major city. As a boy, he had read about Goldhill but decided that it was on the list of places he would never get to see. Then Synexus came into his life and somehow, he had become a traveler thinking bigger than his parents, so he wouldn’t have to work the rest of his life.

  His girlfriend, Xila, was sitting next to him in the wagon and he couldn’t help but smile at the fortune he had found the last couple of months. This trip would secure the future for them, for his parents, his sister, and for any kids they may have down the line.

  His progress had even skyrocketed to the point where he hit level ten, and he had gotten a legendary class option of Bamboo Tycoon. That’s what he was setting up here, an empire of bamboo. Now he had skills to double merchandise even if it was only one object at a time right now, to create contracts from thin air that were more binding than a regular contract, to mentally have a tally of all his merchandise across the world, and know how many guins he was gaining per minute. He felt unstoppable now and even though it wasn’t officially in the deal he made with Synexus, he planned to give him a cut of every variant they sold even on this side of the world.

  ***

  Xila loved working in the library, but she had got all the knowledge she could in there. When Ecclo had walked in to deliver the bamboo shelves that the head librarian had ordered, she instantly wanted to get to know him more. Something about him made her stomach flutter. It wasn’t until after their second date in Gale that they found out about their mutual friend. Neither of them could believe it.

  She had met his parents and realized how serious things were getting even in the short time they had started to see each other. Both had made an agreement to not let a relationship get in the way of their progress since they were still young, but they would spend every evening with each other.

  On their fifth date, they were strolling down the pier looking out to the ocean while talking about Ecclo’s new class he had gotten when an out of breath messenger interrupted to let him know that a travelling merchant wanted to speak with him.

  From there things moved even faster and Xila found herself wanting more. She wanted to see the world to gain more knowledge and advance her class to new heights. Neither of her parents still lived and she didn’t want to give up the one good thing that had found her, so she applied with the head librarian for a position to go out and look for more knowledge to bring the library. To her surprise, the head librarian laughed and said she was surprised it had taken her that long.

  The next day they had boarded a fine ship and set sail for Port Palm only a month or so behind Synexus. She could barely contain her excitement the whole time they were sailing. It was her first time leaving Gale and the promise of new knowledge, of new sights, new everything had made her restless. This was her life taking off and she got to do it with someone that she was beginning to love.

  Port Palm was much like Gale with them both being smaller port cities, but the diversity was exciting. New buildings to look at, new stories to learn, and new books to read all kept her busy for the few days they spent in the city. She loved the villa the merchant company set them up in even though it wasn’t a very long stay. Goldhill would be a much bigger city which meant more excitement and more new experiences.

  ***

  Wilton and Plessa sprinted back towards the teleportation gate and practically demanded that they open it immediately to Port Palm. The guard there slowed them down and told them that they couldn’t because their space mage had left for a two-week trip in the wilderness to gain levels right after they had arrived earlier in the day. Another hour of them telling the duo that it was a small city and they only had access to one space mage, did nothing to calm them down.

  They would either have to wait in the city for two weeks or take a ship across the ocean. Either way they were losing time and ground to those that they needed to question. It was Plessa who made the final decision to wait for the space mage since a voyage could end up taking longer than two weeks, and it would give them time to do more research. If this was a Progress Druid then surely, they would have left other forms of evidence.

  Wilton finally agreed and decided to check the guard’s records to see if they could get a few possible candidates for the timeframe given. He wasn’t sure what their protocol was when someone was entering the city, but in some bigger cities the guards took down everything including the class.

  Whatever they had to do to get answers, they would. In the past two decades that they served the Coalition, there hadn’t even been a whisper of evidence until now and they would not let this go until they were 100% certain this planet was clean.