Karl and Prince Corbin went over everything that had happened to their groups since they last met, and found that the Spellblades had not had a much easier time than Karl’s group had.
Despite the fact that they had gotten stuck in a Cyclops spawn, the Spellblades had just had a terrible time getting out of the wilderness.
First, they had chosen to double back on their route, so they would be further from the major population centres. But that put them only a few kilometres from the Undead spawn, so they had ended up moving camp in the middle of the night.
Then they had come across a group of Nomadic Demons who were not happy with the trespassers on their pastures.
That had led to a small fight, but fortunately no casualties.
Then, they had to divert again because there were soldiers everywhere, working to contain the Cyclops spawn, and the Spellblades weren’t willing to try to pass themselves off as local as it would just lead to being conscripted for the cleanup effort.
So, while Karl had been fighting for multiple days, the Spellblades had been running constantly and spending mana to keep the barrier up and avoid detection.
Prince Corbin finished his story and leaned against his staff as he watched the healers work.
“What’s your plan from here on? Are you going to travel with us, or are you looking for something in particular to help your growth?” He asked.
“I need either a holy item, or a unique skill that will help Thor, the Lightning Cerro, grow.
He has hit the limits of his natural potential, and he needs a bit of a bump to get him past the bottleneck and on to higher heights. So, I was thinking that we might stop at the Whiton Temple on our way back.
If there is anywhere on the continent that will help a beast with Holy Affinity overcome their limits, that should be the place.”
Corbin seemed to understand the concept of needing resources to surpass your natural limits quite well. “This might seem like a wild goose chase, but I remember back when the Elite Program was first starting, my second year in school I believe, there was an incident near the three-way border between Newbon, the Divine Beasts, and the Mountain Giants that involved a Holy Relic.
A bunch of the teachers were gone for nearly three weeks investigating it.
The incident was near Dunster, Northeast of here. Well, almost North from here, but that’s a thousand kilometres of wilderness away.
If you go that way, you can follow the Mountain Giant border all the way to Chiptonrith Lake. It’s far from a safe route, and it will put you within a few kilometres of the front lines between Newbon and the Mountain Giants, but it was supposed to be incredibly powerful.”
Karl looked at the map and sighed. The area had four nations claiming territory within a hundred kilometres of it, and all four of the nations were hostile to each other.
“As good as that opportunity sounds, it is probably smarter not to go anywhere near that spot right now. With the Giants acting up, and the fact that they’re going to have better weapons soon, things are going to get dicey.”
Prince Corbin frowned at the reminder.
“That’s another thing. I’ve never heard of a monster spawn monster having enough lucidity to talk to anyone, much less form battle strategies and remember trade skills.
Even species that should have some level of civilization don’t attempt to build anything when they come from a spawn, they’re just crazed by the Anomaly.
But somehow that Cyclops was not. Not just that, the Mountain Giants knew that it was not crazed, and they came for it.
That sounds to me like the Cyclops Forge Masters have the blessings of a Titan God protecting them. It’s the only thing that makes sense to protect their minds from the Anomaly.”
Karl sighed. “And if the Titan Gods are protecting them, then they are also interfering to assist the Giants in their war. With that sort of advantage, the Giants might begin to rise again, and not remain in the nations they’ve established.
I wonder if they found something? The Orcs mentioned that they’re looking for fragments of the original Dragon Scale. It was supposed to have been buried on this continent along with the Demigod who had taken it, but nobody knows where that is.
That’s why the Orcs are nomadic, they are actually working a grid pattern to search the continent for signs of the ancient grave.”
Prince Corbin paled. “I think that I know what they’re looking for. It’s not a grave at all, but a stable anomaly. It’s in the southern end of the Beastkin Nation, deep within the jungle and hidden within one of their ancient step pyramid temples.
I came across it on a mission a few years ago and reported it, but nothing came of it.
According to the teams that came after me, there is nothing in the Temple, but I clearly saw the tomb of a Titan, and felt the power of a Demigod.
Unfortunately, I could not enter. The anomaly was there, I know it was, but when I tried to enter, I simply stepped through the portal like a mirage.
It’s not that far off our route, we could stop in again on our way back and try to look into the Anomaly to see what might be in there.”
Karl smiled. “You don’t seem enthusiastic about the idea.”
Corbin shook his head. “Would you be all that eager if you knew the sort of traps that a Demigod could set on their Mausoleum?”
Karl’s smile faded. “You make an excellent point. Even if we can find it, getting to any treasure that it might contain is an entirely different matter. However, if we could at least prove that the Anomaly was there and stable, we would be able to report back on its existence.
That should earn us some rewards, and perhaps even get a team of Blue Dragon Clerics sent there to research the facility. If anyone can find a way in, it would be the clerics of the God of Knowledge.”
“So, is that our route, then? We will head east, avoiding the roads and towns, to head into the Beastkin territories? If we pass south of Skiple, we should have a straight shot through the plains until we get near the border and into the jungle.
It will be slow-going until we get to the river, and from there it is easy enough to find the temple. They weren’t trying to hide it when it was built, it was just that they built it so long ago that everything around it changed.” Corbin explained.
“I will talk to the others, but I don’t see it being a problem. We can follow the river back up to the lake so that we don’t risk getting lost in the jungle. I don’t know how much faster it will be, but at least we will know where we’re going.” Karl agreed.
“Alright. As soon as my people are healed and fed, we will be ready to move. It’s still a long walk out of the Newbon Empire borders, and I get the feeling that the Emperor doesn’t want you to linger any more than you have to.”
That might be an understatement. Especially now that he suspected Karl had something to do with Leafa breaking her bindings.
[If we see her again, I’m totally Nullifying that spell.] Cara agreed.
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