Gacha Harem System

It was early the next day when there was a knock at their door.

Lukas made his way across the living room and opened it, a smile already on his face.

Karrakas stood in the hallway, dressed and ready.

"It pains me to come this early, and ruin your beauty sleep two visits out of three," he said.

"Don’t worry, you didn’t ruin any sleep," Lukas said. "We were already waiting for you."

Karrakas leaned slightly to look past him into the apartment. Akira and Melody stood near the couch, already dressed and looking wide awake.

He smiled. "Well then. Let’s leave."

They filed out, and Lukas locked the door behind them. The four of them stepped into the lift, and Karrakas pressed the button for the underground garage.

"You already know the building where the spatial gate is," he said as the lift began to move. "The one for the Azure Crystal Caves. So there’s no need to drive in a convoy across the city. We’ll meet there, at parking lot C."

"Parking lot C," Lukas repeated.

"It’s the closest one to the gate hall. It’ll save us having to walk through half the building before entering the Second Floor."

The lift slowed and opened onto the garage. The sounds of their boots clicking against the concrete echoed across the space as they walked to their cars.

Karrakas split off towards his own, giving them a wave over his shoulder.

"See you there."

He got in, brought the engine to life, and drove off up the ramp.

They watched him go, chuckling before getting into their car.

"He’s going to speed the whole way there," Melody said, pulling her door shut. "You know he will."

"He will," Lukas agreed.

They’d ridden in his car once before, and that had been enough to learn how the man drove. So they all knew Karrakas treated open roads like personal challenges.

Lukas pushed his mana into the wheel and pulled out of the garage.

The drive was smooth, and before long, the building came into view.

It was designed exactly like the one holding the spatial gate to the Red Desert, that when Lukas first saw it, he frowned in confusion, wondering if he’d gone to the wrong place.

He checked the holographic map again and looked around the surrounding streets before realizing that he was indeed at the right place.

He smiled to himself at that. At least, the building had been easy to spot from a distance.

However, finding parking lot C was harder.

They circled the building once, then twice, before spotting the entry ramp tucked along the side.

Inside, cars filled almost every space. It was clear everyone knew how convenient this lot was.

"There." Akira pointed.

An empty spot sat in a corner, half hidden behind a support pillar. Lukas eased the car in and shut it off. They got out, and he locked it behind them.

They looked around the lot.

"Where is he?" Melody asked.

"Maybe he’s still driving," Akira said.

"Definitely not," Melody chuckled. "The only reason Karrakas isn’t driving faster is his fear of scratching the paint on his car. That guy’s a speed freak."

They were looking around when a voice reached their ears.

"Over here!"

They turned to see Karrakas jogging towards them between the parked cars, a smile on his face.

"I’ve been standing around bored," he said. "You three drive like grandparents."

"We drive like people who follow the rules," Lukas said.

"Same thing."

Akira crossed her arms. "Keep driving like that and you’ll be one of the first Adepts in history to die in a car accident."

Karrakas laughed. "What a way to go. They’d put it in the records."

He waved a hand. "Come on. Follow me."

He led them into the building and up a short flight of stairs. At the top, a checkpoint waited.

Each of them pressed their ID to the keypad. The light blinked green four times, and the guard waved them through.

They continued down a wide corridor, past doors and branching halls, until they arrived at an open space.

The hall was large, with people moving through it in small groups, some arriving, and some leaving. In the middle stood the spatial gate. It swirled slowly, glowing a deep red.

"Let’s go," Karrakas said, and walked forward.

They followed Karrakas, stepping into the spatial gate.

The pull lasted only a moment, then they arrived on the Second Floor, and the first thing they noticed was the lights.

Light bounced off every surface, searing their eyes. All three of them squinted, hands coming up on instinct.

They stood in some kind of large cave, and the lights fixed to the walls scattered in every direction at once.

Slowly, their eyes adjusted, and their jaws dropped.

The entire cave was made of crystal. The walls, the floor, the ceiling above them. All of it. And the crystals changed color as they watched, shifting in slow patterns from clear to pale blue, then deeper shades of blue, then back to clear again. The colors moved through the cave like waves.

The light fixtures on the walls were large, carved from crystal in the shapes of birds in flight. Each one seemed to glow from within, their wings spread wide, and frozen mid-motion.

People milled about across the cave, moving this way and that. Some walked with purpose, while others stopped to stare, the same way Lukas, Melody, and Akira were staring now.

At the mouth of the cave was a wide, bright opening.

Karrakas chuckled at the look on their faces.

"It’s my personal belief," he said, "that every Adept should visit Azure Town at least once in their lives."

"You could have warned us," Melody said, her eyes still on the ceiling.

"And ruin this?" Karrakas shook his head. "Never."

He started walking towards the opening. "Come on. This is just the entrance."

They followed him as he walked across the cave, weaving between the people.

The crystal under their boots was smooth but not slippery, and Lukas saw his own reflection moving beneath him in pieces, broken up by the shifting colors.

They reached the mouth of the cave, and what they saw made their eyes widen.

"Beautiful," Melody whispered.

They stood on elevated terrain, with Azure Town spread out below them.

The cavern ceiling stretched high above, so far up that the crystal formations along it looked small from where they stood. The town filled every inch of available space, pressing out to the cavern walls on all sides.

The buildings were low, their sloping roofs arranged in overlapping rows.

From this height, the rooftops looked like waves rolling across a sea, with one curve flowing into the next.

Yellow paper lanterns hung everywhere. They lined the streets, dangled from eaves, and swayed on strings stretched between buildings. Their warm glow spread through the town and mixed with the shifting blue of the crystal all around it.

People moved through the streets below at a leisurely pace.

Unlike what one would expect from the Second Floor, no one rushed. They strolled, stopped at storefronts, and gathered in small groups along the walkways.

Most of the buildings were kept at the same low height. Only one broke the pattern. It rose from the center of town, looking like a pillar standing out of the waves of rooftops around it.

A river ran from one end of the town to the other, cutting through the middle in a long ribbon.

The water glowed a vivid blue, brighter than the crystal walls, as if it had its own light. Small bridges arched over it at even intervals.

The lanterns, the rooftops, and the glowing river, all of it together looked like a picture that belonged in a fairytale.

Karrakas gave them time to take it all in, standing to the side without saying anything.

After a while, he spoke. "Follow me."

He led them along the elevated ground to a section of the wall where wide steps had been cut into the crystal. The steps led down to the town floor.

"Before we get down there," Karrakas said as they descended, "you should prepare yourselves. Azure Town is a tourist spot, and that means almost everything here costs more than it would anywhere else."

"How much more?" Melody asked.

"Enough to notice it. Whether you’re paying for food, rooms, or supplies, it’s all expensive." He glanced back at them. "It starts with the gate fee."

Lukas raised a brow. "There’s a gate fee? Just to walk in?"

"There is."

"What happens if someone skips the gate and flies over the walls instead?"

Karrakas chuckled. "Then the town’s protections will strike them out of the air. People have tried, and it doesn’t end well."

He gestured at the town below. "A place like this lives on its visitors. That means security comes first. The gate fee pays for that security, and it also works as identification. Everyone who enters is recorded. If something happens inside, the guards know exactly who came in and when."

"So the fee is a record," Akira said.

"A record and a promise," Karrakas said. "You pay it, you follow the rules, and the town protects you like everyone else."

The steps ended at the town floor, and a short walk brought them to the open gates. The crystal arch above the entrance shifted from blue to clear as they approached.

Two guards stood at the gates. One raised a hand.

"Welcome to Azure Town," the guard said. "Gate fee, please."

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