Chapter 159: Crossing the Rift

The Frostfish hobgoblins shrank back from Thragg, staring at him in a mixture of unbridled fear and awe, as if they were staring at a natural disaster, and Thragg almost pitied them. They knew so little of the world. If they reacted like this to Thragg, then how would they react to the Sovnar himself?

Regardless, it was Thragg's job to ensure that the Frostfish goblins were loyal. His Voice was not as powerful as the Sovnar's, and it required the goblins to submit to Thragg's voice consciously. However, this was not a difficult thing to do.

"If you do not join us, we will kill you. The choice is up to you," said Thragg, flaring out some of his yellow golden magical energy in threatening aura. He likely actually would not have killed them for when the Sovnar returned, they would submit regardless, but to make them submit now, the fear of death was best.

Because when faced with the choice to either serve or die, the answer was often quite obvious, even for the unevolved goblins.

No, perhaps because they were unevolved and valued their simple lives above all else, they were guaranteed to submit.

"Yes! Yes!" The hobgoblins clamored their agreement, some dropping to knees, many nodding their heads up and down wildly, for they knew they could never oppose Thrag and his champions.

"Good. Then lead me to the lake where the rest of the Frostfish tribe stands," said Thragg, his voice reverberating and now reaching fully into the goblins now that they had willingly submit to his might.

Thragg did not like handling things with violence and the threat of death and fear, but the Sovnar had been sure to emphasize that time was of essence, and Thragg was not one to oppose him. This was the fastest way Thragg could think of to have the goblins bind themselves to his, and by extension the Sovnar's, service.

==

The Collector soared right behind the cover of clouds, gazing at the enormity of the Rift mountain range below. The mountains were tremendous in scale to a degree that physical and natural laws should have made nigh impossible.

Each mountain was large enough to have been easily visible from orbit, and they created a chained link that spanned over ten thousand kilometers. There were approximately twenty-five mountains total, and the mountains closest to Fjall were the smallest.

The height and size of the mountains increased prodigiously the further they reached into the Rift, with the tallest mountains forming nigh impenetrable barriers whose peaks easily surpassed cloud level, likely reaching into the mid atmosphere.

Every single one of these mountains was packed with snow and ice formations, and the larger mountains that ascended past cloud cover were less mountain and more glacier, formed almost solely of ice that resisted the bright rays of the sun with almost zero loss of mass to evaporation.

Likely, this was due in part to the fact that the icy peaks of these larger mountains emitted their own meteorological phenomena, creating an intense layer of chilling fog charged with even more primal energy than the fall of Grain.

From space, it would have seemed that this area was a mass of blurry white, completely obscured in vast quantities of fog expulsion. The fog would provide adequate cover against prying tinkering eyes, but what piqued the Collector's interest further was that each of these mountains were dungeons.

It was obvious enough to tell by reading the flow of environmental mana. The mana clustered around the mountains, funneling into their hearts. However, one anomalous element: the concentrations of magical energy were not focused, and they were far lower than what the Collector had expected.

Some analysis and calculations allowed the Collector to come up with the likely conclusion that the dungeons had been cleared of their bosses. That did not mean that the mountains themselves were cleared of specimen.

Frequently, as the Collector scouted and flew, it encountered multiple specimens of many kinds. The flying, white feathered specimens from before.

Animated structures of ice and snow molded into the shape of roughly hewn humanoids.

Slithering, white-scaled serpents that fired concentrated beams of freezing energy when they spotted the Collector.

Upright canid specimen quite similar to the Amorak Alpha, though these seemed to be far more feral, larger, and solitary, living in caves.

All of these, the Collector took samples of.

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-Snow Surge Roc

-Glaciated Serpent

-Primal Amorak

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The animated ice humanoids, however, provided no biomass, and were not threatening to the Collector, lying dormant and not recognizing it as a threat.

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The Rocs too did not consider the Collector a threat, likely due to the shard above its head.

Notably, however, when the Collector made an offensive move against the specimens, it was then that they retaliated and struck at the Collector or fled.

The glaciated serpents, however, seemed consistently hostile, possessing a surprisingly high enough primal density that they could ignore the Collector's aura. The serpents, however, were not entirely impressive specimens.

They were on average around the four-star adventurer's level and were eyeless, slithering creatures that lived in the depths of the mountains and came out occasionally to bask in sunlight. The Collector further determined that larger and stronger variants of their species lay within the mountains themselves.

The animated snow and ice beings were quite powerful and faced the Collector in battle for approximately thirty seconds before falling.

These animated ice humanoids were easily ten meters tall and more than capable of damaging the Collector, though they were too slow to tag it.

The Primal Amorak were around the same level as the ice golems, but where they possessed great speed, their strength was not adequate to significantly damage the Collector. It was an easy process to disable and eliminate them with monomolecular claw swipes.

The Rocs were the weakest of the specimen, and they did not inhabit the further ranges of the Rift mountain range, spending time equally on the lower mountains and Fjall.

The Collector in general determined that not many creatures meandered on the surface of these mountains, for the conditions could grow dramatically inhospitable quite quickly. Weather pattern movements were unpredictable at these heights, and the powerfully flowing environmental mana meant that storm surges and snap freezes were a common sight.

The Collector analyzed all of this information and returned down the Rift to its swarm below. There were several factors to consider.

The immediate issue was that the Collector had calculated it would take an inordinate amount of time to pass the mountain range on foot. Passing up and down through varying elevations would extend the distance of the Rift over twenty-fold, and it was already a sizable distance to travel in the first place.

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This was not an issue for the Collector, but it certainly was for its ground force swarm.

There was great potential to further evolve the goblins throughout the Rift for the air there was far more nourishing, far denser with magical energy, and the malleable and adaptable nature of goblin blood meant if they survived long enough, they would adapt to the power level of the new area and eventually scale up to it.

In addition, not all the dungeons in the mountain range were cleared. There were two that still radiated with magical energy, indicating that if they were cleared, the Collector could spread the energy to its swarm to evolve them to even further heights.

The only predicament was moving the ground force at a reasonable pace.

The solution was obvious and yet fraught with complications to implement.

Utilizing Sapia, the Collector could create a large platform of ice and transport the swarm this way. However, this would cost magical energy over time, and the Collector desired to at least be at 70% of its magical energy capacity at all times so as to be combat ready.

For until the swarm acclimated to the Rift environment, they were too weak to adequately survive. The main brunt of combat would have to be dealt with by the Collector until then.

Thus, the Collector calculated it would have to take frequent breaks to meditate its magical energy back while it traveled.

Estimated time of arrival to cross the Rift: three days.

Yet, far more preferable to a ground force that would take over a month otherwise to cross it.

The Collector spotted the swarm on the ground and landed in front of them, blasting out snow and ice on its landing zone and causing the swarm to stop.

"What did you see, Sovnar?" said Goromir.

"The mountains are too expansive for your current movement capabilities to adequately cross in reasonable time," said the Collector. "All of you will now engage in aerial transportation through application of my magical energy."

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"We will get to fly! I have always wanted to fly!" said Thokk with a beaming smile. He calmed himself after he realized the rest of the swarm did not share his exuberance. "Of course, Sovnar. I am ready to fly by your side."

"I will transport all of you upon one platform of ice," said the Collector. "In the case that you are attacked or fall off, hold your light blades, for it is through those I may lift you back up if I am capable. The nature of threats in the mountain ranges are not severe, but they are strong enough that they will pose significant challenge to you."

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