By the time Ronan returned to his apartment building, night had already set in. He had brought his usual fried chicken rice with him.

As he was walking through the ground floor corridor, his eyes landed on the closed door of Illyia’s apartment. A part of his heart deeply desired to knock on that door once again.

But his mind knew better. He had three books he had borrowed from Elicia, and he had put them on the back burner for far too long. His scheduled time to travel to the world of Acrolius was fast approaching, and he wanted to have gone through all three of them.

He would not learn absolutely everything from those books, but he would learn enough to speak and make his decisions with a bit of confidence and certainty. Thus, he stifled the lingering desires of his heart and headed straight upstairs toward his own apartment.

What he missed was the fact that Illyia was standing just behind that very door, her back pinned against the wood and her heart pounding in anticipation. And just like him, she too was caught in a bitter internal conflict. A part of her heart desired, even anticipated. for Ronan to knock on her door and ravage her once again.

But her brain was telling her that what had happened between them was a mistake and could not be repeated. Still, as she heard his footsteps climbing up the stairs, she could not help but feel a sharp pang of disappointment. A small part of her wondered if Ronan would go to his apartment, freshen up, and then perhaps come back down to see her. She could only wonder.

Ronan, meanwhile, finished eating his food and picked up the book he was already halfway through reading.

And his reading session was to continue for almost the entirety of the night, during which he learned a lot about the world of Acrolius. From its geography and history to the current scenario of the world.

Before the Athar Rocks descended upon the world, Acrolium, the single humongous continent, was divided into numerous distinct countries. But all political systems, borders, and boundaries vanished entirely after the cataclysm.

These nations were replaced by isolated, fortified cities spread across the vast expanses of Acrolium. Hundreds of these cities sprang up scattered throughout the entire continent.

And The Sanctuary, the place Elicia was so thoroughly fascinated by rose as the largest and most powerful city of them all. It was, just as she had described it, the ultimate dream of every human being. Every living human being wanted to settle and live his life in The Sanctuary.

In the long run, two systems of cities emerged in the world. The first system was one where a city was part of a larger federation consisting of more than two hundred cities. This federation was called the World City Federation.

The Sanctuary was its capital, and the most powerful and elite people of the world operated from this city. The city of Kovliar was a part of this Federation.

It was not that The Sanctuary or the Federation as a whole controlled the day-to-day functioning of the cities. They were mostly autonomous and worked independently. But any law decreed by the Federation was applicable to all of its member cities. They also had to set aside a portion of their taxes to be paid to The Sanctuary. This ensured that The Sanctuary always remained the most powerful city on Acrolius.

In exchange for all this, The Sanctuary had the backs of the cities within the Federation. The federation helped the city to develop, to build its infrastructure and strengthen its technology. If there was any crisis striking a city, that city could request The Sanctuary for help. Be it a shortage of food or an abomination horde attack, The Sanctuary was there to respond to all threats. At least, this was how the things functioned in theory as per the books.

Then there was the other system of cities. These were cities that were not satisfied or happy with how the Federation worked.

They believed, and rightly so Ronan would say, that the Federation was nothing more than a system to ensure the domination of The Sanctuary. And hence, a lot of cities did not join the Federation. There were at least one thousand such known cities.

But there was hardly any city among them that could be compared to the size and strength of the cities within the Federation. Most of these thousand settlements were just basic encampments. Barring probably ten or twenty cities, no other city was really worth mentioning.

But what they lacked in quality, they made up for in quantity. Thousands of cities meant a very high population. And though the two systems were not in an open conflict, confrontations were always occurring.

Ronan read about a lot of things, but the second thing that seemed most significant to him and was of his particular interest was what the inhabitants of Acrolius ate and how they produced it.

As already stated, the Athar had corrupted most of the plants in the world of Acrolius.

There were forests of corrupted trees. One forest existed outside Kovliar too. These trees had a pure form of Athar coursing through their stems, trunks, leaves, and branches, and their consumption was fatal and deadly.

Humans had come up with a few methods to utilize these corrupted trees and plants, but even so, for all practical purposes, they were not safe to eat. Then what did the humans eat?

Well, to sustain themselves, the humans of Acrolius depended on three major sources.

First, the most common and the cheapest of all were Food Gels. These gels were produced in factories using a variety of things, mostly artificial elements and compounds. They were not the type of food you ate to enjoy or to fill your stomach. They were the type of food you ate merely to sustain yourself and stay alive.

Then came meat and animal products. Just like humans, a significant population of animals had survived the cataclysm, and humans bred them in controlled environments to fulfill their needs. It was the second most significant source of food.

It was not that animals had become completely extinct in the wild outside the breeding centers, but it was incredibly rare to find them. Most of them had been slaughtered by the abominations. Only if you were extremely lucky would you find an animal, one that was not an abomination itself, roaming the wilderness.

And finally, there was plant-based food. Just like with the animals, humans grew crops and trees in strictly controlled environments. Wheat and rice were among the most commonly grown crops. Kovliar even had its own crop growing center.

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