"How far are we from Gaster Kingdom? It has been almost 3 weeks since we left Lan Zhe."
Asked Eric, well more like he complained.
He isn't used to walking on foot to this extent, Blackwind is usually the one who carries him and his father too. Sure they walked to Crutal Kingdom before, but that Domain is 20-30 Kilometers away from either the Farmhouse they had or from Lan Zhe.
"It shouldn't be too far away, we did pass Pameres Kingdom yesterday. We've been spending most of the time traveling through the dense forest to avoid being seen, most would report 10 foot Men and Women marching down a road." Added Commander Alia in hopes to shut her King's Complains. Eric is lucky that he doesn't need to hide his Crown from the illustratios now.
The only people they can meet in this dense forest is either hunters or those in the hunt for good lumber.
But to come out even more complaining as a child, Stefan decided to back up Eric. "Exactly. We have been traveling through this dense forest, without Horses. My feet are killing me."
"Stop your complaining, I can't tell you apart from an illustratio. Fall down and start crying while you're at it." Added Mogranius in both aims to tease the two and to look tough in front of Commander Alia although his comment did come out as racist.
You might be wondering how Mogranius is truly handling this possibly 500 Kilometer Journey? Well he was always in a lust for knowledge, and knowledge of better value is to be found where typical humans can't reach.
Which most often led to this thick Forest covering most of the Continent, in the hunt for Snow Ignite Ruins. Obviously, that wouldn't require a lesser man to accomplish, so he is used to this kind of travel and much more that is harder to tackle for the average human.
But he did discover many sorts of moves for his Magical Fire Powers. The Fire Shield for example, it was a spell that even Akareas didn't know and it still isn't certain how many people know this spell but it sure has come in quite handy throughout his journeys.
To put Ruins throughout Ignis in more detail, they mostly are left behind by Snow Ignites. Because while the Continent faced an ice age, Snow Ignites made that specific structure of an underground domain where Mogranius found out about the spell.
These Snow Ignites have also made many other Domains out of stone preferably, but unfortunately when the Ice Age started reaching its end the Snow Ignites had to flee and settle for Colder Climates.
This neccesarily made most of them climb their way up the high cold mountains specifically located on [Country] Orientis Ignis and [Country] Septemtrionis Ignis too. Survival on warmer climates isn't an option for them, hence the name "Snow Ignites".
But whatever they were doing on those Domains before the first era was even recorded, they were way ahead of time when it came to Magical Powers or anything else basically.
Mogranius was able to learn the spell from a simple parchment they left behind. The rest were just books who were unreadable due to age or due to very old accents and Snow Ignite phrases. The Ignite and Snow Ignite languages were very similar to each other, but the Ice Age was over 6,000 years ago.
So that's 6,000 years of language development Mogranius had to go against in order to learn. Who knew how much more he would learn if he could understand every book that wasn't destroyed by time.
Now getting back to our lovely characters, "Well can at least someone estimate how long it will take to reach. Or at least can we take a break?" Yawned Stefan Dragging his feet under the moonlight."
"We are already way behind schedule. When I made my way to Gaster Kingdom for the first time, I was traveling on the Clear Lands.
I did not expect for the travel to take this long. We passed the halfway mark 2 weeks ago though." Explained Commander Alia with as much detail as she could, considering that she is tired as well.
To stop all the whining at least for a little she had to add. "2 more hours of travel and we can rest for today."
…
As they finally woke up from the 12 hour a day travel that knocked them out once they opened their sleeping bags, they made their way again towards Gaster Kingdom. It was rather hard to travel on foot, they left their horses back at Lan Zhe except for Black Wind.
It's because horses would be useless at a dense forest like this and there weren't enough of them for all of the 15 people and only Shire Horses can possibly carry a Calidum Lutum.
As for Lan Zhe, Commander Alia left one of the very capable Guards in charge. If an attack is in order, they can do well without Commander Alia or the rest who are travelling with her.
The first defense of Guards are now fully armored there now, even explosive bolts wouldn't pose a big threat. And to raise the defenses, the entrance which connects Lan Zhe to the outside world is covered with thick volcanic rock.
Yup, it's sealed up pretty well. They only open this entrance up in the morning and at night for the horses, they even assign a Guard each day to protect them.
Woldemir is with the group right now but he made sure that the temporary Guard Commander is to make the rest of the Guards do exercises he assigned them too.
"Alright let's get this over wit... aaaaaaaaaaaaa..." Stefan tried to finish his sentence as he was woken up but fell down a hole not to far away from the camp.
"Did he fall down a hunter's trap?" Asked Eric, hoping that's not the case since the bottom of the hole is usually covered with Iron spikes!
"No I don't think so, I can still hear him scream." Told Woldemir, concerned although his words sounded like a joke.
Fire ignited from Eric's feet and he flew headfirst into the hole after Stefan, it is obvious that this is no Hunter's trap and Eric doesn't want to know what will happen if Stefan finally meets the other end.
Whatever made this hole, it sure made it exaggerately deep. Eric is flying down at full speed but he doesn't seem to find an end or Stefan either. Luckily, the hole seems to be about 15 feet wide so a ragdolling man falling down it wouldn't break bones if he was to hit the edges of the hole.
"How did we not notice a damn 15 foot wide hole." Asked Mogranius in confusion, as he glanced upon the monstrosity of a Hole in front of them.
"Well maybe because all of you complained about being tired all the time, we are lucky that we didn't all fall down there at night." Expressed Commander Alia in a bit of a complaining tone, wanting to smack the old man.
"Are you familiar with this hole Mogranius? Could it be a ruin?" Quiried Woldemir who seemed to be the only one not complaining or pointing fingers, but is filled with curiosity instead.
"No not at all, I never even read about holes like this. It could've just been a Drunk hunter digging holes." Mogranius pointed out, he obviously joked here but his tone was so serious that no one understood the Joke.
Speaking of not understanding the Joke, Commander Alia asked. "Wouldn't he just bury himself like that?"
"Well..I.." Mogranius tried to explain that he was joking interrupted by Eric who flew out of the hole with Stefan clinging on him.
"There is a whole world down there." Eric explained, his enthusiasm strong and growing but he ended up saying something stupid but yet brave. "Maybe Snow Ignites being connected with Demons isn't impossible after all."