As Miri entered the city and began wandering around, she could see the cityfolk of Hemera wandering about on the bustling streets, going on with their daily lives.
The aesthetics of this place could best be described as a typical medieval style but with a neon filter overlaying on top to give a bit of distinctive flair. Pretty much everything around here was powered by runes; they were basically the analog of technology of this world. These runes were usually in the form of small, flat, dark-grey stones that fit in the palm of your hand and were inscribed with glowing archaic symbols of various colors.
Different runes create different magical effects and serve different functions, sort of like how electrical appliances in our world serve different functions as well. Combat runes were a subset of runes specifically used to activate spells used for combat. The two current ones that Miri had—Starlight Bolt and Crescent Arc—were examples of such combat runes.
And while anyone could use any rune, those with the specific elemental affinities (or stats in gaming terms) to match that rune’s requirement were able to use it the most effectively. That was why most people prefer to use runes that fit their individual affinities.
Miri wandered around the city for a while longer to see if she could find a tavern. While wandering around, she noticed how the city before her was much bigger in real life than it was when she played the game. Of course, it would kinda make sense why the city would be smaller in game. Games were limited by their power to render the environment, thus they purposely scaled down the size of a city in order to reduce the computing power needed to render it. If this game were to replicate a whole city to scale with real life, the enormous computing power would cause any PC or console to explode.
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However, there was a small problem that came with this difference between the game version and the isekai version of this world; since the city was much larger, every city location that Miri had memorized in her head in the game was now way different here, making it just a bit more difficult for her to navigate. Not only that, she’d have to walk much longer distances in order to reach those locations.
What a bummer! She was already so goddamn hungry. She didn’t want to walk any longer. Any moment now, she might collapse from starvation.
After walking for about half an hour through the city, she’d finally arrive at the location of one of the taverns that she remembered in the game: the Calico Cat Tavern. It was one of her favorite taverns to go to in-game because the tavern sign was shaped like a cat, which she considered to be quite cute.
Plus, if she remembered correctly, the owners of this tavern had a pet calico cat named Maneki, which was how the tavern got its name. The owners of the tavern would often allow the patrons of the tavern to pet the cat as a way to provide them with a sense of added comfort. A tavern with food and drinks was good, but a tavern with food, drinks, and a cat to pet as much as you like…even better!
After trudging like a zombie due to her exhaustion, Miri finally entered into the tavern itself.
