Chapter 295: 295. Down the Mountain

Moving on from the temple proved much faster, especially with most of the party seeming to jump off the cliff and use a combination of athletics and acrobatics to bounce off the cliff as they went down. It was outright scary that a mountain that had taken days to climb was descended in less than half an hour.

Several people offered to carry Dallion again, but he refused, choosing to have Lux help instead. Before he started the descent, though, he looked in the direction they had come from. Clouds and mist made it impossible to see any of the previous temples at the moment, even with the temple glow being substantially stronger than when the first guardian was defeated.

What are you thinking, dear boy? Nil asked.

Do you think it’s a straight line all the way?

It vastly depends on the person who created the realm. Normally, that’s the case. However, if someone is skilled enough, they could bend the rules a bit. Take the training realms I construct, for example. They don’t look like pyramids, cubes, and spheres, do they?

That much was true. They also were nowhere as elaborate as this, though.

Based on what you’ve been through so far, I’d say that the creator follows the item shape. However, following the sphere item principles, it’s also possible that each part of the world is larger than the last.

How will that work? The world is already huge. I can’t even see the bounds.

The clouds weren’t particularly helpful in this case, but while getting here, Dallion had tried to see the “fake” part of the realm. So far, every area realm he had entered was roughly composed of two parts: the walkable realm and an endless area of illusion wrapped around it. It looked real, smelled real, even felt real. The only catch was that it was endless. No matter how many steps one took beyond the invisible barrier, they would find out that they had only taken one. After a few times in the realms, one tended to see the difference, even more so with the new sight Dallion had gained. Here, though, there had been nothing of the sort so far.

I have no doubt. Academics and philosophers have spent their entire real time lives exploring world items, trying to come to some conclusion. So far, there’s pretty little that has been confirmed. The change in size is one of them.

The world is like a triangle, Dallion mused.

I didn’t know you had a taste for poetry, dear boy, Nil laughed. But yes, those are my thoughts on the topic. As far as the expedition is concerned, I doubt it makes a difference. Most of the inhabitants are likely to follow the main line.

But?

But there might be hidden sections.

I would have seen that on the sword, Dallion laughed mentally. As fun as it would be to find another prize or two in this world, that seemed extremely unlikely.

True, but world realms are different. They are much larger. Besides, there’s a lot of rust and decay covering it. Clear that and who knows, maybe something interesting will shine underneath.

There was no sign of March while Dallion went down the mountain. She and Vend seemed to be nowhere to be found again. That left Agnii in charge of the party—something she was used to, but found annoying nonetheless. While March would remain quiet for the most part, occasionally giving out a few orders, the crafter captain was a control maniac. Possibly it was a crafter thing, as Nil suggested, but she liked to know what everyone was doing all of the time, and grumbled when something wasn’t done according to her specifications.

The people didn’t seem to mind—they were used to going on expeditions with her in charge. Now and again, someone or other would drag a bit slower in a sign of micro-rebellion, but they were also sure not to push it too far.

That was the attitude of professional explorers. Expeditions were too tough for there to be infighting for stupid things. At the same time, letting off some steam every now and again was also good. In a way, Dallion felt a bit sad for them. Every member of the party had probably spent decades on item expeditions. After so much time, there was no doubt that they had become jaded. This wasn’t a new exciting new world they were walking, it was just another job and the quicker they got it done with, the better.

For Dallion, it was the opposite—despite the difficulties and the clear indication that was way out of his league, everything seemed new and interesting. If it were up to him, he’d remain here for months, maybe even years, until he explored everything there was. Again, that was the completionist in him talking.

Settlements started to appear at the base of the mountain. Most of them were mining and forging villages going into the rock itself. Agnii had allowed one of them be explored—mostly to scavenge ores and ingots. After a lot of pleading, Dallion had joined in the event, only to end up utterly disappointed.

As it turned out, there was nothing of particular worth or interest in the abandoned structures. Most of them had already been ransacked by minotaurs by the looks of it. A few centuries ago, this probably would have been a thriving industrial area. Now it was no different from a series of empty storehouses.

Once again, the backpacks were filled with materials, although now they were metals and not lumber. The party continued on. After about half an hour of walking, a blue rectangle appeared in front of Dallion.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBER

(Body +2)

You have braved the mountain separating the world. This a good first step on your journey, just be sure you don’t stumble.

“Hey,” Ezra said. “Kid got his achievement.”

Several more people added an encouragement comment or two, making Dallion feel utterly uncomfortable. However, it also told him that certain worlds came with their fixed achievements. Traversing this mountain had to be the equivalent of climbing Everest back on Earth. And while a two-level advancement on body didn’t seem as much as Dallion thought it was in the past, it remained the equivalent of two awakening levels.

The achievement also posed the question whether there would be a similar achievement upon crossing the sea, and if there was, what attribute would it affect?

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After a slight pause, the party went on.

Thick clouds covered the sky, making even noon feel like evening. And just as Dallion feared, an hour later, rain poured on them with such force that several people had to summon a shield to cover their heads while walking. Dallion was among those people, much to the displeasure of the armadil shield. It wasn’t so much the raindrops beating onto him, but rather his annoyance at the fact that he couldn’t feel them first hand. Funny enough, the complaining got the dryad an invitation from Harp who had offered to create the equivalent in her part of Dallion’s realm. The thought was mildly disturbing.

“Dal,” Agnii walked up to him. Of the entire party, she was the only one that didn’t give a damn, leaving the rain to fall on her unprotected. “You feeling okay?”

“Err, yes?” Dallion was taken aback by the question, mostly because his music skill failed to show any concern in the woman.

“Look, I’ll be making a boat at port. The plan was to make a solid ship to cross the sea, but given what your firebird did, we’ll be going with something else.”

“Ah.” Dallion smiled. “I was thinking the same thing. A raft propelled by Lux should be able to get to the other side in a few minutes.”

“Will be more than a few minutes. Also, can’t be a raft. At that speed, everyone will fall off. And even then, all it would take is to hit something to send everyone flying.”

The image popped into Dallion’s mind, making it seem far funnier than it was.

“What I want to know is if your firebird can handle it. He got hurt during the fight, and I don’t want everyone to end up stuck in the middle of the ocean.”

“He can. He did fine with the whale.” Then again, while pushing the vine-whale, Lux didn’t pay attention to the creature’s wellbeing. “Might be a bit rough, but nothing we can’t handle afterwards.”

“Okay.”

“Why doesn’t he just carry the entire boat?” Dallion asked. ”It doesn’t have to be on water. All we need is—"

“March’s orders. We must float across, and for that, the boat has to be floatable and somewhat sturdy. We won’t need oars or sails, but everything else is a must.”

“Your call.” Dallion shrugged. “On that note, where is March. I haven’t seen her and Vend since the fight. Everything going, okay?”

“She’s gone to check out the minotaur settlements. They came from this side of the mountain. That’s why I was against dealing with all of the cracklings.”

That explained the minotaur’s sudden expansion tipwards. They must have lived in small settlements on the edge of the world on either side of the main path. With the cracklings gone, they had spread to fill the vacuum, even crossing the mountain. And since they were local to this world, the summit temple guardian didn’t see them as a threat.

“You think they’re up to something?” Dallion whispered, moving closer.

“It’s nothing that we can’t handle. The point is to find out if they know anything from across the sea.”

“You can’t be sure they came from there. The minotaurs didn’t strike me as crafters… or swimmers.”

“Still a rookie.” The woman smiled. “You still think in terms of normal time. They don’t have to have crossed recently. They could have done so thousands of years ago. If they did, it’s likely they have some legend of myth, or something passed down, possibly some heirloom or artifact. As long as it’s in one piece I could find out things.”

Can she? Dallion asked.

That’s for a crafter to say, but I wouldn’t see why not, Nil replied. Crafting follows principles, so a piece could be a reflection of the whole.

“And while she and Vend have fun, we walk through the rain and build a ship,” Dalllion said.

“Fast learner. I see why my kids like you. But you’re wrong on this one. We don’t build a ship, we just modify one.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”

As it turned out, the answer was far simpler than Dallion imagined, simpler and more fascinating. After several hours, the rain stopped. Sun shone through the cracks in the clouds, making the surroundings much more visible. For what was important, a river became visible a few dozen miles away. It trickled down the mountain, continuing on into the distance.

Dallion was never particularly good in geography, but there were some things he had picked up from school. For instance, he knew that rivers tended to start from mountains and in nearly all cases went on until they reached the sea. He also knew that throughout human history, civilizations more likely than not tended to build cities next to a river or coast. Half a day later, the party came across exactly that—the world’s first port city.

Even before reaching it, Dallion could tell that it was far greater than anything else he had seen in this world. In fact, it seemed larger than Nerosal. The Town of Tears appeared like a hamlet in comparison. Structures of white stone rose several stories up, packed within a band of grey walls. The river entered from one side, passing through the stone marvel, continuing to the sea itself, all part of the city. There was no way to tell how much time had passed since the city had been built, but it had been kind on it. The only thing missing were the people.

“Welcome to Lastport,” Ezra said next to Dallion. “Last place we’ll be able to get some rest before moving on into the unknown.”

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