"Mnmh~" Grant moaned lowly and he slowly stirred awake. The gentle rays of the sun had woken him up by shining harshly on his blank face.
And there was also the strange feeling of something clinging on him. He threw aside the blanket and surely what he saw underneath made him speechless.
"Mnnm..." A redheaded girl was cozily snuggling into his chest with a satisfied appearance. She felt Grant move and the girl tightened her hug while rubbing her cheek against Grant.
The man who had just woken up to see the event facepalmed. He wiped his face down with his palm and gritted his teeth in mild annoyance.
'Maybe I shouldn't have taunted the little girl...' Grant thought while gently poking Beatry's cheek to wake her up. Her skin was soft that the sensation of warm cotton enveloped his index finger.
"Mnhamp~" Seemingly disturbed by Grant's poking, Beatry didn't wake up. She snorted before softly biting Grant's finger.
The sunset haired youth shivered in fright. He immediately retracted his finger and proceeded to flick the red head's forehead.
Tic!
"Oww..." Beatry woke up and winced in pain.
"Get off..." Grant commanded with slight discomfort from what Beatry had done.
"You're too mean..." She pouted and Grant grabbed her.
"Eh?" Confused, Beatry tilted her head at Grant. Her expression then became flustered and her thoughts consisted of explicit things.
He lifted her up and placed her to the side like a doll before standing up, leaving the bed and stretching.
Pap pop pop! His bones let out popping sounds and Grant felt great and his body was full of energy.
He walked out of the room and by the time Beatry came back to her senses, Grant had already left. Causing Beatry to snort.
She licked her lips and remembered what Grant tasted like.
"Maple syrup???" The little girl was dumbfounded.
-----
"Did you sleep well?" Stella's voice alerted Grant and he saw the blonde woman reading some sort of newspaper, sitting down on a chair. A mug of hot coffee lay silently on the table before her.
"I did. Now I believe we have a lot of things to talk about." Grant nodded. He cut straight to the point and sat before his master.
"Of course... We can talk here as we still have a whole hour before Hado officially opens up shop. And Hado along with the little girl is trustworthy." Stella halted to take a good sip of her coffee before continuing.
"They aren't the kind of people to rat anyone out." She folded her newspaper before setting it down on the table and snapping her fingers.
A map popped out into existence before her and she grasped it. Spreading it gently and laying the map down on the table. Stella gestured to Grant to sit beside her.
He complied and stationed himself right by his master whole broke into a slight smile.
Grant scanned the map and it looked vast. Multiple continents and a hundreds of kingdoms scattered across the globe.
It was an atlas. A world map for Terrunn. Grant's eyes shined and he wanted to take the whole map and memorize it.
"A total of five continents. The Elven Territory, Wyn Continent, Wild Continent, Beast Continent and the Frozen Continent."
Stella started pointing out locations and massive landmasses on the map. Grant started understanding more the more Stella explained.
The Wyn Continent was a continent that laid almost at the world's center. It was home to humanity's greatest settlement, The Wyn Empire. Their rule stretches all over the continent which in the past had another name.
With the Wyn continent on the middle of the world, to the south west direction of it was the whole grand Elven Territory.
Ruled by elves who treated visitors unkindly. Any trespassers would immediately be shot down or mauled by the elves and their beasts. The elves were quite the territorial Bunch...
Lying north of the Elven Territory was the Wild Continent. The two continents were linked together but strict borders split the two apart.
The wild continent was so big that it also existed north of the Wyn continent. It spanned from east to west and if it weren't for a sea dividing the eastern and western end of the Wild continent, then it would have made a full circle around the globe.
Telling by the Continent's name, Civilizations were quite few in the Wild continent. Most of the region was filled with natural structures and untamed geography.
The Frozen Continent was a land of Cold death. It was situated to the south east of the Wyn Continent. Not much monsters nor humans lived here but rumors of the undead wandering these frozen hells was a common gossip.
And lastly, the small continent. The Beast Continent. Sandwiched between the eastern and western parts of the Wild Continent. It was the home of beast kins. Demi humans to be precise.
"Demi humans?" Grant asked outloud. Stella nodded at him before continuing.
"Demi humans are humans but with extra beast like features such as tails or an extra set of ears."
"Ahh so they are basically catgirls and etc..." Grant concluded and he thought of visiting that continent just to see the demi humans. They were interesting in his eyes.
"I guess you could put it that way..." Stella smiled wryly at Grant's referral to the beast kin. After orienting Grant about the continents and known areas in the atlas, She finished her coffee before turning serious.
"Now that you know a bit of the world, Here is our plan." She tapped Grant's shoulder twice to make him pay attention and she pointed at a land inside the wild continent.
"We are currently in the wild continent. At the western end of it. Our goal is to reach The Dungeon of Arus which is on the Eastern end."
Stella pointed at their location, the town of Zirakib which was marked on the map and he could see that to the south west of the town was the forest of shadows.
Parallel to the forest on its left was the dungeon of arus. The only catch was that the two locations were separated by a whole sea namely the sea of dreams and a large island country named Blawold.
If they were to head to The Dungeon of Arus then they had to cross over The Sea of Dreams, make a stop at Blawold before crossing the sea again and finally arriving at the dungeon. Surrounding the dungeon was a city named after it.
The City of Arus The Indomitable.
There also existed another path to take and that was to travel east from Zirakib and they wouldn't have to cross any bodies of water.
The only problem with that was a mountain range that spanned for tens of thousands of miles blocking the path to the dungeon. The Lundum Spires.
It would take years for them to cross the mountain range without flying. And doing so would mean suicide.
There existed a universal rule in Terrun, the farther away from civilization a land or particular place is, the stronger and more terrifying the monsters would be.
And with the dwarves which once dominated the whole Lundum Spires gone. Monsters thrived without any competition.
Dragons were uncomon there and wyverns were as common as birds in the skies. Strange constructs left from the dwarven craft wandered the land.
Golems, living machines. All sorts of creatures and creations born through magic technology which was referred to as magitek and horrible abominations were only a few of those dwarven remnants.
The dwarves weren't that strong but their creations were. Such as Living metal creatures that only needed sunlight to live forever and wreak havoc using its mighty power.
Grant cursed inside. With the dwarves seemingly dead from the first demon invasion, there was no way he would ever be able to enlist their help in crafting masterpieces for him.
"You could already tell that crossing the Lundum Spires is a huge joke. And to cross the Sea of Dreams and stop at Blawold would take us too long. The Sea of Dreams causes anyone who enters to be lost. Not to mention Blawold is currently suffering from internal strife." Stella knitted her brows and bit her finger. She sighed, locking eyes with Grant.
A faint glimmer of hope could be seen in her eyes.
"So that is why we would cross the forest of shadows. Travel south west and arrive at Staford. A prestigious city located in the Beast Continent." Stella smiled. Grant looked at the map and saw what she was talking about.
Firstly, they had to cross the Forest of Shadows which was a little dangerous but manageable. Southwest of that was the Beast Continent and the nearest Civilization would be Staford.
After stopping at Staford, they would head west until they reach Ramnister, A coastal kingdom that lies at the west end of the continent.
Take a boat and continue west once more before docking at Lefalls. Another coastal Kingdom. Cross through a place named The Desolation of Gusanga, travel northwest and exit through the Penca forest before finally arriving at the dungeon.
Grant found their plan to be ridiculous. The whole travel would take a year at minimum and might even reach up to three!
It was like journey to the west quite literally but with less demons, deities and possibly longer!
Terrunn was inexplicably vast compared to earth. It was roughly more than five times bigger than earth.
"Indeed. That route you spoke of is safe and our best bet but. It would take a really long time no?" Grant wasn't sure of travelling through that route. There should exist an alternative way right?
But as if reading his mind, Stella sighed and shot down his thoughts.
"This is the only safe way Grant. Now the only thing we need to do is become silver ranked adventurers." Stella rolled up the map and gave it to Grant who caregully received it.
He was confused.
" I get that we need to be stronger yet it confuses me. Why reach silver rank?" Confused, Grant asked Stella who giggled.
"My cute little servant. Surely you know that since the Beast Continent and Wild Continent are different regions, we need a travel liscence right? We would be stopped at the borders if we didn't have the right to travel to other continents. Everyone is really territorial these days and Immigration is harder than you could think. Dear me..." Stella pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked to be extremely stressed due to explaining and orienting Grant.
Silver rank adventurers were allowed to wander anywhere across the globe as long as they are able to pay a minimum fee. Being a high rank adventurer came with many benefits.
Their travel would cost an arm and a half, roughly at least a few thousand gold coins if they were super stingy about spending. Her money inside the storage ring covered only a half of it.
Earning money was quite hard. A hundred copper coins were equivalent to a silver coin. And a hundred silvers were equivalent to a gold coin.
A man needed twelve silvers to be able to eat healthily for a day. While the cheapest and worst food amounted to a few dozen copper coins.
Three hundred gold coins was enough for one person to live without any worries for one whole year.
She collapsed to the table while tiredly sighing.
'If only I had my kingdom back then we wouldn't be struggling financially...' Stella thought back to that place which was now being ruled by a traitorous puppet.
She was disgusted with how the state of lives worsened after that person took rule. Only the nobles lived comfortably while the commoners suffered a lot.
What made things worse was that no one was allowed to leave that kingdom unless they were merchants. Anyone could go in but leaving was a different matter.
She felt guilty. Stella wanted nothing more than to jump into that dungeon and get strong really fast before coming back and usurping the throne. Her people needs her and the more she was away the more they struggled.
In the middle of her thoughts. A warm yet gentle to the touch hand carressed and pet her golden head.
"Hey Grant what are yo-" A bit surprised, Stella chuckled softly and wanted to ask her little servant what he was doing. Only to be cut off.
"Worry not Stella. Everything would work out fine." Grant had sensed that his master was troubled and he couldn't help but comfort her a bit.
She looked at his zombie like face that lacked any emotion. Stella snickered before taking off Grant's hand from her head.
"Yeah everything would be fine and dandy. I have a strong servant anyways. Aren't I right mr otherworlder?" She teased Grant and he closed his eyes and snorted. Stella remembered something and straightened her back.
"That reminds me. I want to raid the dungeon as soon as possible to get stronger and you want to find your father. But besides finding your father and fulfilling our contract. What do you really desire?" Stella asked curiously.
Grant opened his eyes and he was taken aback. He froze.
'What do you want?'
'What do you want?'
'What do you want?'
'What do you want?'
Grant's head hurt and he clutched his head. His expression morphed into one of pain as that question echoed within the annals of his mind.
"Grant are you alright?" Stella grew worried seeing Grant react strangely.
Grant gritted his teeth, his pupils dilated and shrank. He started questioning himself.
'What do I really want?' Grant's head hurt. But despite that pain, the sense of emptiness drowned everything and made him lose himself in thoughts.