Chapter 84: Chapter 82: Overgrown Canyon

In no time at all, the group had reached the edge of the canyon. “Alright, first things first, we need to find a path down.” Alice said.

“Why?” Ellie asked. “Everyone here is capable of somehow flying down there or otherwise climbing down easily, so why not just…go?”

“If this was a normal request, you’d be right.” Ker said. “It would be more efficient to just head down. However, this is not a normal request; we’re exploring the area, and paving the way for other freelancers to explore. Not everyone is going to be able to fly down, so we’ll receive a better evaluation if we find a relatively safe route down into the canyon instead of just exploring the bottom of the canyon.”

“Oh, right.” Ellie said. “Makes sense.”

“Tess, we’ll be somewhat relying on you for that.” Jin said. “You have the easiest time seeing the condition of the walls of the canyon without going down too far, so let us know if you see anything promising.”

“I can also fly out and scan the canyon from the air.” Maven volunteered.

“I would advise against that.” Jin said. “While it would help us find a path down the canyon faster, it’s also far too risky. There’s no telling what’s lurking inside of the canyon, and you’ll be a fair bit out of our reach. Were we in a safer area, that would be a good idea, but as things are now, it’s not something we can afford to try.”

“I…understood.” Maven said.

“Is there anything in particular I should keep an eye out for?” Tess asked. “Like, obviously a trail down, yeah, but how…well-defined of a trail does it need to be?”

“Well-defined?” Alice asked, frowning. “We’re not going to find anything more than a game trail, and that’s the best case scenario.”

“No, not like that.” Tess said quickly. “Uh…how do I say this…like…does it need to be a clear path down, without many breaks or drops or anything, or is it fine of there are drops of a couple feet or something?”

“Oh, I think I see what you’re getting at.” Alice said. “It doesn’t need to be an easy path down, though that’s obviously preferable. We’re just looking for something that could be traversed without equipment by the average freelancer.”

“If possible, try to look for a route that has spaces with a little bit of fighting room.” Ker added. “Just in case.”

Tess nodded. “Got it. I, um, probably won’t be able to see down the entirety of the canyon wall, depending on how deep it is, but I’ll give what direction I can.”

“Don’t sweat it too much.” Ker said. “The fact that we have you at all to check the walls is more than almost anyone else can get without expending some sort of resource, so you’re doing more than enough.”

“Thanks.” Tess said. “Um, no other questions, I’m ready to go, I think.”

And so, they began to carefully move along the edge of the canyon, looking for any relatively easy way down they could find. There were several false starts and paths that ultimately led to nowhere, but after a few hours of searching, they were eventually able to find a good enough way down.

The bottom of the canyon was…not quite what Tess had expected. Instead of dry scrub or barren rock, it was lush and moist. And it wasn’t a gradual thing, either; upon stepping past a certain point, the environment changed, like a switch had been flipped.

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“Woah.” Ellie said. “Weird.”

“What’s weird?” Ker asked.

“The humidity change.” Ellie said. “You can feel that, right?”

“Yeah.” Ker confirmed. “Stuff like this is fairly normal here in the Outlands. Environments with lots of Mana in them tend to do things like this. I’m guessing that’s not something that happens on Mael?”

Ellie shook her head. “Never. Not without a non-magical reason, anyway.”

“Huh. Well, it’s nothing to worry about, we’ll just need to make a note in our report.” Ker said.

“It stinks down here.” Maven said, wrinkling her nose. “Or…not stinks? I don’t know, something feels wrong here, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is or why I feel it.”

“I don’t smell anything.” Tess said. “Well, anything out of what I would expect, anyway.”

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