The gate sat at the bottom of a shallow valley, a vertical tear of pale blue light humming in the open air with nothing around it but flattened grass and a wide ring where the mana had burned the ground bare.
You didn't just walk up to a gate, though. A rope line sagged across the mouth of the valley between two posts, a small guild checkpoint set up beside it. Two guards leaned against a folding table while a third sat on a crate, looking like the boredom had been killing him by inches for days.
The one on the crate got to his feet the second he saw them coming.
"Hold it right there." Then he caught the badge on Hajin's belt, saw the number stamped into it, and his tone changed completely. "You're the Ranker the guild sent. Hajin."
"That's me."
The guard grabbed a sheet of parchment off the table and skimmed it. "Says here it's an exclusive clear for your party, straight from the Guildmaster."
