The party agreed to let serena keep the odd creature on the condition that she keep it from going rogue and attacking people. serena solved that problem with an unpopular spell that tames monsters. when asked about it she explained that it only worked on monsters that weren't aggressive meaning it was close to useless as most monsters were quite aggressive. after the creature who serena named moria since it worked for both genders was taken care of the rest of the party had breakfast. once fed the party packed up the camp and went back down the mountain face.
The party followed the road between the fields killing the monsters as they went until the sun started to droop and set. alastair wasn't surprised that even after all that killing he only got a quarter of the exp needed to level up since he had notice that the amount needed doubled every level. the party stayed at the warriors rest inn that was located at the halfway point of the zwardrust region that they made it to soon after the sun set. the inn was a single huge building with two floors and at least eight different rooms minus the kitchen.
The party turned in for the night with their standard two rooms with men and women in different rooms. the night passed uneventfully allowing the party to be well rested when they woke up the next morning. setting out once again the party reach the end of the zwardrust region were they paid their respects to what was left of the ruins of zwardrust before moving onto the mountain pass leading to dundrasil and octagonia. the path forward was overgrown and seemingly abandoned making it troublesome to deal with the monsters that hid there to the point alastair started burning his way forward.
The rest of the party tried to argue against this action but gave up after alastair showed that he was only clearing the way. needless to say the ambushing monsters took exception to this but only until alastair killed them so it was fine. after a few hours of this cleaning travel alastair swapped out of the lead from low mana. the party finally left the mountain pass into a small mountain valley that had a small town nestled comfortably next to a lake. the party decided that this would be where they spent the rest of the day.
The town was built mostly from stone since it was so abundant in the surroundings with the buildings themselves being dome shaped with square chimneys. after renting a couple of rooms the party split up to explore the town. alastair took a couple of quest from the villagers for a neat little boost of exp since they were simple things. the best part in alastairs opinion was the local delicacy which was a unique type of fish jerky smoked with saltwater soaked oak and covered with an herb paste found nowhere else , the dish was truly delicious.
After purchasing an almost excessive amount of the dish since it kept for a long time alastair spent the rest of the day sitting at the end of the pier with a fishing rod held in front of him. memories of spending time with chalky filled his mind as he fished bringing him a sort of peace that eased his troubled mind. the longer he reminisced the more his hatred and anger dulled until it was no longer at the forefront of his mind at all times. the others noticed his state of mind but decided it would do him some good.
After alastair finished fishing he caught up with the others in a far better state of mind then he was when they came into town. to the others he seemed far less serious as he had a sort of glow about him now. the party had dinner at the inn a pretty standard meal all around if you ignored erisa's ravenous consumption. the rest of the party explained what they had done all day with erik fishing for rumors and the rest shopping for anything interesting. erisa had actually spent the day playing with the over abundance of cats in the town.
The party turned in for the night and woke up early the next day in order to try to reach octagonia before the sun went down again. the road to octagonia was rough and swarming with monsters including three metal slimes that alastair fed to metalbane. oddly he got to recruit one of these slimes after it was fed to the sword which was a confusing event for everyone. alastair accepted the slimes allegiance in hopes that he might get seven more metal slime for the agloomated metal slime king which would be great.
Interestingly after eating the metal slimes metalbane actually stopped accepting just anything made of metal. from what alastair could tell the blade had reached some sort of limit to what it could be improved further. this didn't bother alastair since even as is alastair was pretty sure the sword was the most powerful weapon currently in existence. the party reached octagonia just an hour before the sun set again only to find the city packed with visitors. the city itself was built both above the ground for a few stories as well as under the ground for a few stories.
The cities buildings were carved out of the mountainous stone giving the entire city the appearance of being entirely built out of a single huge stone. the cities most prominent feature however was the area located at the top of the city built in a manner similar to the roman coliseum with the exception of a huge stone stage in the middle of it. what bothered alastair was the huge statue of hendrick hanging above the entry way to the arena. alastair felt the itch to rip it down but suppressed it since he knew it wouldn't work out if he did.