Arden stood outside Miasma’s compound with Vera at his side. They both wore the same clothes that they had worn during the meeting an hour ago. He looked up at the high-rise building with mixed feelings.

  On one hand, there was free healthcare, places to rest, a genuinely good ideology, and who knows how many Starborn ready to put themselves between Celestials and mundanes.

  On the other hand, Yaan.

  Arden shook his head and looked down the street. Somewhere beyond the rebuilt city, and beyond the order of civilization was his destination.

  “Its a long way away,” Vera said. “Should we get going?”

  Arden smiled.

  “Let's go.”

  The two novice Starborn turned away from the decadent building that had quickly become their refuge. Miasma had given a lot to them. It had also taken a lot, though the taking mainly affected Arden.

  It was time for Arden to make good on his deal with the guild’s master. He had spared Yaan from death at the restaurant, and in doing so, he secured himself a spot on the squad going into the restricted zone to rescue Yaan’s captives. Sya included.

  ‘Wait for us, Sya. We're on our way.’

  The fledgling Starborn duo strode confidently forward in unison. Both had stoic looks on their faces as they walked further from Miasma. The mission didn't start until nightfall, but that wouldn't stop them from going now. Basking under the shadow of the Miasma main building, Arden and Vera began their approach to the restricted zone, and towards their destination.

  And they stopped when they found the bus stop just down the street. As Vera said, it was a long way to the edge of the rebuilt slums. It’d be best to save time and ride most of the way there.

  In times past, Arden wouldn’t even be allowed on a bus. For the longest time, buses didn’t exist in the slums. But these weren’t the slums anymore. Arden walked in front of Vera when climbing into the bus, and they both flashed their fake ID’s (courtesy of Miasma) to the driver, who let them on.

  The seats were full, but not that full. It was an hour past noon, so the lunch rush was on. Salaried employees, kids playing hooky, and people with the day off made up the majority of the people on the bus. Regardless, Arden and Vera were able to find seating for themselves near the back of the bus.

  As the bus started slowly accelerating, Vera turned to Arden.

  “Hey, Arden?”

  “What’s up?”

  “I have a question.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  “Where is this bus going?”

  “...That’s a very good question.”

  Arden glanced out the window and saw the Miasma compound in the distance, slowly getting smaller away. That would normally have been a good thing, however, the bus was going north.

  “Damn.”

  ***

  “That was a massive waste of time,” Arden said, back on foot with Vera at his side.

  “Tell me about it. We rode it for an hour hoping that we’d get closer, only for our starting point to be the closest.”

  “How much of a walk do we have before we get to the restricted zone?”

  Vera thought about it.

  “Hour and a half, maybe two. Then another hour to get to the rendezvous point”

  “Great,” Arden said without any enthusiasm.

  Nothing excited him more than knowing his journey would have been almost over if he just did what he was used to, but instead he had to try something new and waste a full hour.

  He sighed.

  “Oh well,” he said. “We’ve still got plenty of time to make it. At least this way we can check out the new slums. See what it can offer us.”

  Arden stayed true to his word. As they walked through the somewhat busy streets of the newly expanded Ring 4, the couple took note of some of the many new facilities the former slums had introduced.

  Restaurants of different classes and prices dotted the cobbled streets. Shops that were meant for mundanes, Starborn, or both were nestled between different buildings. There were tailors, smiths, alchemists, florists, carpenters, and the strangest to Arden, a mechanic. Hotels, motels and apartments also stuck out to Arden. He didn't expect to stay with Miasma for the long haul, so he needed to find separate lodging.

  He already made the executive decision that he would come back here when he wasn't so pressed for time. Him, Vera, and Sya would go on a shopping spree like no other. They had plenty of funds right now, as Chorzo had honored the second part of the deal, and wired the bounty reward to him, to the tune of 1000 red-tier coins.

  There were three types of currency that replaced paper money since the StarFall. In order of value from least valuable to most valuable, they were credits, Star Coins, and Star Cores.

  Credits were used by the majority of people in the world. It was considered the mundane currency, and was the least valuable of the three, but it was by no means worthless. It was a standardized form of currency, capable of being earned by anyone and used by anyone.

  Star Coins were of significantly more value than credits, with one mundane-tier Coin Worth thousands of credits. They were created as a byproduct of looting abilities and were sometimes given as a reward for clearing a Stargate. They, along with star cores, were used in transactions between Starborn.

  The Star Cores that Celestials dropped were the most valuable. They were consumed to advance a Starborn's rank, and were also used to create Starborn equipment, from potions to Satellites.

  Because the bounty was for the capture of a red-tier Starborn, Arden was rewarded with a 1000 red-tier star Coins. Before he left Miasma, he gave half to Vera, and they had plans to exchange some of them for credits.

  Not yet though.

  All the banks were closed today.

  “So what did you think of the slums now?” Vera asked.

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  “I think we shouldn’t call this the slums anymore. It feels like a proper city now. This is what I remember Ring 4 being like when I was a kid.”

  “Good?”

  “Closer to ‘not bad’ rather than ‘good.’ Although, this is closer to great than good.”

  After another few minutes of travelling, Arden and Vera entered a suburban subdivision. It was the same one where they met each other again after finishing their respective trials. This was the part of the city closest to the restricted zone.

  At first, Arden didn’t know why it was the suburbs that had the unique misfortune of sharing a border with Celestial infested wilds, but he gradually learned why. This area had a lower population than the urban center, so if the worst were to happen, only a few thousand would lose their lives, not tens of thousands. It was a callous method, but it worked.

  Arden and Vera crossed a street and walked along the sidewalk, coming across a primary school sitting opposite of a park, both of which had children running through, and adults supervising them to prevent any injury.

  “It’s kind of funny,” Arden said as they walked through the edge of the park.

  “What is?”

  “We finally became Starborn. I finally have the power to get out of the slums, and the slums become almost utopian.”

  They shared a laugh and realized that people were starting to look over at them. Mostly at Vera, but a few looked in Arden’s direction.

  “This will get hard to get used to,” he said.

  “You did a pretty good job back at Miasma.”

  “Did I? I felt like I was on display. I’m pretty sure I froze up.”

  “For a first timer, I’ve seen worse. It was good that you didn’t act all high and mighty.”

  “Have I ever done that? Be honest.”

  “Honestly, no. Not really. You’ve been aloof, immature, and surprisingly driven. I haven’t really seen arrogance. I have seen a lot of theatrics, though.”

  “Which is more my style, anyway.”

  “Oh, I’m aware. For someone who doesn't care what other people think of him, you sure are worried about how mundanes see you now.”

  “Well yeah. You were a mundane for a long time as well. What did you think of Starborn before you became one?”

  They continued towards the restricted zone. They could see the border in the distance. A tall, thick wall made of celestinite jutted up 12 meters in the air. Unless enough celestials died to make a ramp up, nothing before yellow-tier would make it over the wall.

  Vera answered Arden’s question.

  “I thought they were cool. People who had superpowers and were able to go past the limitation of being human in this world.”

  “But you still thought of them as people, right?”

  “Yes. Did you not?”

  Arden shook his head.

  “Not really. You grew up surrounded by Starborn. Before all the craziness began and I met you, I’d only met a Starborn once, shortly before Sya and I came to the slums.”

  Vera read between the lines. Shortly before Arden came to the slums was the death of his family, excluding Sya. He must have met some Starborn from that incident. Arden continued.

  “I didn’t know his name. I don’t know if he’s even still alive. Mortality rate and all that,” he explained. “Aside from Cirai, he was the only Starborn I’d met.”

  “Was he a bad example of a Starborn?”

  “I don’t know. The only thing that stuck around in my memory of him was the fact that he was a Starborn. That’s all I know. Aside from people who were associated with Miasma, everyone in the slums had a similar view of Starborn.”

  “Which was?”

  “That they were better. Living on the lowest rung for years makes you think that pretty much everyone is better. You think that even lower-class people have it infinitely better than you do. Now take a Starborn. The chosen ones selected by the Status to wield extraordinary powers to defend humanity from monsters. Typically a lot more attractive and rich than everyone in the slums combined. How do you think that made us feel?”

  Vera considered the question and gave her answer.

  “Inferior and inept?”

  Arden shook his head and chuckled.

  “No. It was Yaan who did that. I’ve always felt that inferiority comes from a feeling of being so close to your goal, but just missing it every time. That’s what Yaan did to everyone. To us, Starborn were so out of reach, so powerful and mysterious, that we didn’t even feel inferior to them, just because they were so far above us. They were almost mythical to us.”

  Arden stopped walking and turned to look back at the children playing around on the playground. Vera did the same.

  “I know how mundanes see the Starborn, Vera. Warriors, heroes, and myths. I don’t want to appear unapproachable to them like they were to us, but I also don’t want their perception to be misplaced. I don’t really care about being a hero, but if they see us as heroes, then there is no reason for us to ruin that. That’s why I’m trying now.”

  Arden turned away from the park, and was about to continue towards the restricted zone when Vera grabbed his arm. He looked at her and froze. She was staring at him with huge blue eyes. Her eyes looked as beautiful as ice crystals, but had an enormous warmth within them. They seemed to be twinkling like her hair streak when she used her powers.

  “Vera?” Arden asked with his face starting to redden.

  “You’re a lot better than you give yourself credit for.”

  Her arms moved from Arden’s arm to his shoulders and pulled him closer to her. Just as their lips were about to meet, Vera pulled back with a teasing grin on her face.

  “Not in front of the children,” she said, sticking out her tongue. She turned back towards the wall and started walking.

  Arden stood still, stunned by the expert maneuver of his girlfriend. He wanted to keep going, but just like in the infirmary, he was stopped.

  “You’re killing me, Vera,” he moaned, before begrudgingly catching up to her.

  ***

  A few minutes later, the pair stood in the shadow of the wall. Armed and armored Starborn of the Association stood guarding the tunnel that led to the restricted zone. There were two of them, one on the left, and one on the right. To Vera’s experienced eyes, she could tell that they were well-trained. Their eyes never lingered for too long on any one thing.

  Even though they weren't actively staring at Arden and Vera, she could still tell that they were under scrutiny, as was everyone who wandered too close to the wall. For the moment, that only included Arden and Vera. Not many tourists came to the edge of civilized society at 2:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday. Most of them were off living no doubt incredibly interesting lives. To decrease any suspicion, they attempted to act like tourists, which was something that Arden was able to pull off nicely, having spent most of his life as a hermit in the slums.

  “Woah,” Arden gasped, then gave a whistle. “That sure is a wall. It's huge!”

  “It has to be. How else would Celestials be kept out?”

  “We have to come back here with Sya at some point.”

  “Would she be interested in a wall?” Vera inquired. “It's a great wall, I'll give you that, but at the end of the day, it's just a wall.”

  “She'd probably find something about it interesting. This is celestinite, right? I can see her trying to take a sample of it back home.”

  One of the guards cleared his throat, drawing Arden’s and Vera’s attention.

  “We can hear you,” the guard said in a stern voice. “No touching the wall. It's the only thing keeping the hordes away from home.”

  Arden gave a sheepish smile And scratched the back of his head.

  “Sorry, sir.”

  Arden and Vera backed off from the wall. After going back a full block, the two stopped. Arden looked around to see if there was anyone nearby. Seeing no one, he summoned his Stoneflesh Shroud.

  “Ah, this feels good.”

  “You like that too much,” Vera said with a shake of the head.

  “What's wrong with liking a particular set of clothes? You like the outfit you're wearing right now.”

  “There's a difference between clothing and armor pried from the body of Celestial.”

  “I agree,” Arden said. He gestured to his outfit. “This is cooler.”

  “But this is sexier.”

  Arden looked his girlfriend up and down. He couldn't deny it.

  “That's cheating. You'd look sexy in anything. I bet you could rock a shower curtain.”

  “Is that what you want to see me in? A shower curtain?”

  “I wouldn't say no.”