Dan was glad he didn't need to see with his eyes because the tunnel sucked. The lack of light would screw anyone over, and there was a good chance all the villagers and rock people on the planet had some version of dark vision. Alternatively, they could have tremor sense or some other talent to help them navigate the dark.

  He had his spatial sense, which was as good if not better than anything else out there.

  The tunnel that Dan traveled through began as an even and well-planned piece of work, but the further he got from the village, the rougher it became. Eventually, the tunnel turned into tunnels that also became ragged and lacked shape. The only exception was the clear and worn-out path that the villagers used to travel from and to the city.

  The main tunnel was the only consistent one, though obviously the smallest of the bunch. Even that was saying something since it was wide enough for a carriage to pass through, while the other tunnels that split from it could sometimes easily accommodate two semis from Earth.

  As he traveled the ever-winding tunnel, Dan wondered if anything would ever attack him. There was no way the planet was filled with peaceful creatures. It wasn’t long after that thought that Dan got an answer, and he became alerted to noise coming from far ahead, even though his hearing wasn’t the best.

  Thanking his lucky stars that he now floated everywhere and didn’t make noise while moving, Dan put on his illusion while landing softly on the ground.

  Only a minute later did the cause of the noise come into Dan’s spatial view.

  Marching towards him was a contingent of soldiers. They were all rock people, twelve of them in total, though nothing different than the types he had seen so far.

  At the very front marched six stocky stone dwarfs who had a rough-looking layer of rock-like metal covering them, almost like a second skin. Something that none of the villagers had used.

  These metal-rock dwarfs wielded metal shields and spears. Four dwarfs marched in a line, taking the space of the entire tunnel, while the other two stood behind the first four. Finally, behind all of the dwarfs were a mixture of humans and elves who also wore the same stone-metal layer over their bodies, though it was less thick, and unlike the dwarf's darker, more rigid layer, theirs was more crystal-like with slight hints of blue and brown. These folks at the back also had swords at their sides, but aside from that, they did not hold anything else that Dan could see.

  The group got closer, and Dan saw that one of the elves distinguished itself from the rest by having a slightly glowing spot on its chest where the crystal-like layer was shaped like a hammer and colored a lighter hue than the rest.

  Eventually, the soldiers came to a stop a few dozen feet from Dan, and one of the dwarfs spoke up, their voice rough and direct.

  “Who are you!? And what are you doing down here!?”

  Dan, thankful the soldiers were only D rankers, began to spin his mental magic while still answering, trying to sound like a meek and worried civilian who didn’t know he had just broken the law.

  “Uh… Apologies… I am Dan. I just came from the village found in that direction,” Dan answered, pointing the way he had come. “You see, I came here from another world. And after speaking with the villagers, they told me I could find a city in this direction.” He finished, pointing in the direction he was heading.

  At his response, the soldiers seemed to relax just a bit, as Dan’s fleshy self was an odd sight to them. However, there was no reply, and Dan figured they were waiting for their leader to speak up. Something the elf with the blue hammer mark did a few seconds later.

  “Did they not warn you of the dangers found in these tunnels?” The elf asked, his voice still rough and gravely but less so when compared to the dwarf.

  By that point, Dan’s magic was fully at work as he subtly guided the stone folk away from asking about the otherworldly topic. Not only that, but he wanted them just to let him go on his way instead of trying to escort him back to the city. Dan still had to be careful as he worked since the humans and elves were definitely casters and might notice his influence on them.

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  The chances of such a thing were low, based on his rank and specialty with mind magic, but things were never guaranteed. Dan doubted things would go wrong, but he still answered in a manner that would help him reach his goal sooner.

  “They did say the tunnels could be dangerous. However, they mentioned that guards like yourselves worked hard to keep the tunnels safe. And considering I have yet to meet any monsters, I have to agree with them.”

  At his words, Dan could see a wave of pride rush through the soldiers, and he chose to amplify it just a bit—something he came to regret.

  “The villagers are correct, of course! We pride ourselves on keeping these tunnels safe and making sure our people travel through them unbothered. To that extent, who would we be if we didn’t take further pride in our work and make sure you made it safely to our great city!”

  Dan didn’t like that answer at all. He was still new to the whole mind thing and even if his new existence brought him much innate knowledge, he still lacked the subtlety and wisdom to foresee the consequences. However, he wasn’t going to give up and shifted his approach.

  “I am thankful for your offer; however, I do not wish to take you away from your duties. Though I may look weak, you must trust me when I say I have the ability to protect myself; otherwise, I wouldn’t have risked the tunnels.” As he spoke, Dan infused some magic into the words while also pushing the soldiers to believe them.

  He knew he could blast the soldiers away or straight up force his way through by taking hold of their minds. However, this was good practice as they were the first rankers he was using his powers on. Additionally, Dan didn’t know if the guards had trackers on them, letting their headquarters in the city know their locations and whether they were alive. And if he just killed them, it might send an investigation his way, making things much more complicated for him. Of course, he could always abandon this area and try to find another civilized location, but he would rather just go through with this. Thankfully, his words worked as he saw doubt begin to appear in the minds of the soldiers.

  The will he had infused in his words was explicitly done to let the soldiers feel a tiny bit of pressure from him so they knew he had some power. Meanwhile, the mental manipulations were done to advance the narrative that they did have a job to accomplish, and it was not escorting some nobody.

  His plan worked, and Dan heard the murmurs of the fact that the tunnels around here were safe to travel through. A set of thoughts Dan pushed forward even more while also introducing the idea that the tunnels were safe due to their patrols. Finally, he added that Dan was technically not part of their kingdom or whatever ruled these lands, so they didn’t have an obligation to escort him. Eventually, his manipulations worked, and the leader allowed Dan through.

  Soon enough, Dan was making his way through the tunnel again, and he reflected on just how good the idea of pretending to be an outworlder was. The whole persona would bring more problems going forward, problems he didn’t want to deal with. So, after much consideration, Dan decided that he would have to enter the city in a different disguise. Probably just pretending to be one of the natives. It’s not like he needed to stick to one persona and could change his identity as he needed. However, before he could get too deep into the whole thing, Dan knew he had to find the city and learn exactly where he stood in the power scale of the world.

  Dan wasn’t sure how long he traveled for since it was hard to tell time underground. However, eventually, the tunnel gave way to a massive cavern. The problem was that Dan didn’t know how huge it was since the lights coming from the many buildings far ahead were insufficient to illuminate the ceiling. In fact, the entire place was dark as shit. There were no torches or fires anywhere, and the only light came from plants, rocks, or enchantments on the multitude of items throughout the city. The sheer number of enchantments and runes gave the place an eerie feeling since the outline of buildings could be seen, but not much else could be made out. And thanks to the varied colors of enchantments that people wore or runes that were used on the infrastructure, the place was like a magical fairyland of darkness.

  Dan could tell people were moving on the walls thanks to their enchanted items moving around with them, but otherwise, he couldn’t tell any other details about the folks that patrolled the walls.

  The sight made Dan question how the people lived their lives, but it all made sense once he stopped to consider that they didn’t need light to see. However, it didn’t explain the lack of fire unless the stone folk didn’t need to eat like he once did.

  Back on Earth, people cooked their foods, but considering these were stone people, who was to say they couldn’t eat everything raw and have their stone stomachs protect them from any harm? Heck, he hadn’t seen anyone in the village eat anything, so maybe they didn’t even need to eat.

  Either way, Dan needed to get inside the city, but more importantly, he had to get used to the idea that even if his eyes couldn’t see jack shit, the guards on the walls probably already spotted him.

  Knowing he stood out a lot less, Dan was glad he had switched to a stone human identity and approached the gate that was faintly outlined by its many runic enchantments. As he walked, Dan extended his spatial sense as far out as he could, about a 100-foot radial sphere, though it didn’t go through walls.

  At that moment, while approaching the gates, Dan’s mind went to a very important detail, and he quietly cursed under his stone breath.

  “Fuck. I hope they don’t have items to detect aberrations.”