Elemental Cats

Although they wouldn't reach the Treblor Forest for probably another couple of months, the group was too excited to sleep for an entire night, and as soon as the portal in the middle of the city began operating for the day, they left the inn.

Since there were no other travelers at the moment, Toz only needed to go up to the operator and pay a small fee for the destination to be changed to somewhere in Roaring Skies, the fifth level lightning attribute plane the Treblor Forest was connected to. And with the help of the operator, they found a prosperous city that was quite a distance away from the City of Dormant Thunder, the last city before the Treblor Forest.

They were going to a city called Sleepless Brights, known for how the lightning hung in the air, filling the sky and giving off a constant bright light.

Between Sleepless Brights and Dormant Thunder, there were several cities and already established roads and civilization, so even with the group's relative weakness, they wouldn't be in any extreme danger. Hopefully.

After the destination was set and the portal was connected, the group of Toz and the cats went through the shimmering blue vortex. It wasn't their first time experiencing the short feeling of vertigo, and when they got their bearings, they were already in the portal area of Sleepless Brights.

Like most teleportation, it was a drastic change in atmosphere and sensory stimulation. From the weather-worn cobblestone of Rising Winds and the partially cloudy skies and sunshine to matte walls and ground of different darker colors. Dark grey walkways and roads, houses in various shades of red, blue, purple, and green. All of them on the darker side of things.

There were a few lighter decorations by the windows or enchantments on walls that shone with yellowish light, but not much.

However, despite all the darkness in the city, it was still as bright as the sunniest days in another city.

The sun hadn't even begun to show itself in Rising Winds when Toz and the cats left through the portal, so it was practically pitch black outside. And then, when they arrived in Sleepless Brights, it was like someone was directing several suns right in their faces. They had to close their eyes for several moments and let them slowly adjust to the brightness before they could open them up and look around properly.

Although few planes operated on the exact same day-night schedule, even being the middle of the day wouldn't explain how bright Sleepless Brights was.

When they glanced toward the sky, they saw that there wasn't even a sun in the sky.

It was all lightning, slowly streaking across the heavens, clinging to the sky and stretching out like spreading cracks, like a shattered window.

It was a weird sight when compared to how lightning usually struck once and lasted merely an instant before disappearing. Toz didn't know if the lightning was slow, on repeat, or continuous. It was impossible to tell from the ground, at least with his lacking knowledge of lightning. He could probably find a local who knew, though.

But at least he understood why the city was called the City of Sleepless Brights. It would indeed be hard to sleep with how bright it was. It was to the point where Toz wasn't the only one who wondered why someone would even build a city right beneath the ocean of lightning.

Lucy was a little annoyed at almost everything being covered in light, despite the dark colors. But the shadows where the light didn't reach were proportionally stronger as well, which would have made Lucy happy, if there were more shadows. With the way the lightning encompassed the heavens, the light didn't come from only a single direction and let the shadows grow in the opposite of whatever object was struck. Instead, the shadows grew where no light would reach, like beneath the feet of people walking, or within houses and buildings. And where the shadows actually were, they were a lot stronger than ordinary shadows. That at least partially placated Lucy.

Aside from how bright it was, the other two weren't as bothered as Lucy. Nil didn't really know how to react since he was shining like a sun of his own when his glistening fur reflected all the light.

Mindle wasn't affected by the light as much as the mana. Compared to the first level plane she was born on, and then the second level plane they had just left, the amount and density of mana on Roaring Skies was like a different thing entirely. And it wasn't completely wrong since there was a difference between how the mana worked in low level and medium level planes.

On low level planes, no matter how dense the mana gathered together, it would eventually disperse and return to the atmosphere.

If enough mana gathers in one place on a medium level plane, the mana becomes dense enough to be seen with the naked eye and turns into a mist covering the ground. Although depending on the plane and what level it is, the mist can disappear quickly since mana rarely stays stagnant or because it's getting absorbed by beasts or humans. Then depending on the elements and structure of the fog, it can look differently. A fire element mist can look orange or red in various shades. A water element mist can be different colors of blue. And so on.

High level planes are the same as medium level ones. If the mist condenses and gathers even further, and if there is some kind of depression in the ground, the mana will turn into a liquid and form a puddle or pond of pure mana. And if it's mana of a certain attribute, the pond will take on a matching color.

The quality and capability of mana are what marks the difference between the different levels of planes, and while slightly different from the different levels of power for humans and beasts, it's mostly similar. As soon as beasts have mana within their pools, it's already the mist-like state. Medium level mages have a more fluid mana, and high level ones have an almost solid mana.