After two weeks, Pascal had created quite a schedule for himself in Cliff Town. After waking up and having his breakfast, he walks around the town to see the residents and how their lives were going, he supervises the crop distribution, and then goes with Morgana to fight the Wraiths for the rest of the day. He doesn't collect taxes because he didn't need it. The town was very small compared to the other towns he had seen, with a population of just 50 people, everything they needed they planted or made themselves; Pascal had actually learned how to make a basket and even planted some crops, it was fun. They also created a barter system, where two people switch items for the one they want.
Today, he and Morgana rode down the mountain to continue Pascal's quest. When they got near the city walls Pascal abruptly accelerated the horse – they stopped using the whole carriage.
"Yo, Pascal, what's wrong?" Morgana asked as she tried to stable herself by grabbing onto his waist.
But Pascal's mind wasn't on that, his eyes narrowed as he glared at figures up ahead, "There are some people there!"
{Two hours earlier…}
"We finally made it!" George yelled and raised his fists to the sky.
"Technically we haven't reached there yet, this still some ways to go, plus this water in front of us…" David pointed at the river in front of them.
"Try as you might, David, you can't stump my excitement today." George smiled cheekily.
"Sarah, can you make a boat?" Henry asked.
"Yeah sure, no problem."
Sarah began crafting a new boat while George buzzed around in excitement. The rest had nothing to do so they just wandered about, Veronica was making a field of ice flowers around her – she hadn't stopped practicing her magic since she became a follower, Henry and David were chatting. Mary was standing in one spot, looking around with vigilance.
That made her spot the red-haired boy coming towards them earlier. There were not many people around them – in fact Mary could only count three people who definitely came just to stare at the Forsaken Lands, and even though they were looking and pointing they didn't try to come closer or talk to them, in fact they created more distance between them when they saw Sarah making the boat.
But this boy was walking straight towards them.
"Hey." Mary signaled the group who stopped whatever they were doing – except Sarah, who believed if there was a problem her family would be able take care of it. The boy waved tentatively while he was walking towards them, when he came closer [Inspection] triggered in all of them.
"You're a follower?!" They all said.
"Er… yes, my name is Ronan, as you can see." He chuckled nervously, "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting to see another follower yet."
George laughed, "No worries, no worries! So Tamer, we haven't seen any of those."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"So, being a tamer means you tame magical beasts, right? Can we see the magical beast you tamed?" David asked.
Ronan was relieved by their friendliness "Yeah, sure. I tamed a Black Forest Snake, I thought it would become as big as a third-ranked beast when I reached level three, but now I'm level 5 and it's still small." Ronan said sheepishly, then he raised his arm up and a pentagram was drawn on the floor. The pentagram glowed red for a few seconds, when the light vanished a black python, 10 meters long appeared. George made an undistinguishable sound when the python slithered around Ronan and rested its head on his shoulder.
"Y-you call that small?" Henry said with a slightly pale face, Veronica was subtly shuffling backwards and there was a translucent shield around David. Only Mary didn't look like she cared.
"Oh, don't worry, its harmless." Ronan said. The others just nodded, but their faces showed that they didn't believe those words.
Ronan squinted as he looked behind them, "Excuse me, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is she making?" He pointed at Sarah.
"She's making a boat." Henry said.
"Um, that's not a boat. That's more like a raft, a badly crafted one at that…"
"Really?" George asked then turned to yell at Sarah, "Hey, Sarah! Ronan said your boat is crappy!"
"What?! No, I didn't…!"
"Huh?!" Sarah stopped what she was doing and turned back to the group, what she was constructing faded away though since she wasn't concentrating on it anymore. There was a new person with their group, there was also a big snake around him.
"What the heck is that?!" she asked as she ran to them. When she was just a few steps closer, [Inspection] triggered in both of them.
"High Priestess!" Ronan cried out in shock.
"Oh, a Tamer. We haven't seen one of those so I was shocked…" Sarah breathed out in relief.
Suddenly, Ronan shocked everyone as he tried to bow to Sarah, which wasn't easy to do with a 10-meter-long snake wrapping its body around him.
"Oh, don't bother with that," Sarah quickly waved her hands, "I'm not like the other High Priestesses. I don't even know how they act so I can't imitate them."
"…I see."
"He said your boat was crappy." George said.
"No! I didn't" Ronan exasperatedly glared at George "It just…doesn't quite look like a boat."
"Of course, it doesn't, I'm building a raft." Sarah said.
"You were?!"
Sarah giggled, "Yes." She stooped to look at Ronan for a few seconds, "Where are you from, and when did you get the God of Origins blessing?"
Ronan chuckled as though about the past, "Yes, blessing is the appropriate word for what the God of Origins did for me. I lived on the outskirts of a place called Rainfall Village, very close to the Rainfall Forest – I know, such an unoriginal name, it's like the person who named it wasn't even trying to be imaginative. Anyway, I found this little guy in the Rainfall Jungle a few weeks ago, his mother had died and I was somewhat drawn to him. I took him home, and when he hatched, I was blessed with the Tamer system."
"You still insist on calling that thing little…" George muttered.
"Were you living close to the Black Stallion Duchy?" Sarah asked.
"No, I lived in the White Tiger Duchy, the duchy closest to Black Stallion would be the Pink Pheonix." Ronan said.
"How many duchies are there? And why animal names?" George asked.
"It was King Roman the First who made it so."
"Who's that?"
Ronan was taken aback by the question, "You don't know the first human king of the Northern Region? But he's a legend! Where are you guys from?"
"We lived in the Gangu Forest before this," Sarah answered, "And Veronica is from…"
"Since me and my parents were constantly on the run I'm not exactly from anywhere," Veronica said, "But my father once told me that he was born in the Green Turtle Duchy, and you all know where my mother is from."
"Wait, you guys are from the Gangu Forest?" Ronan pointed to Sarah, "But most of the books said that you lot were savages, no offence."
"Um, some taken." Henry frowned, "Why are people calling us savages?"
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you, it's just that I have read the history of the creation of the Northern Region, and in that book the people who lived in the Gangu Forest were called savages, Gangu Savages to be exact." Ronan said, "I haven't read any recent books about you, the past is just fascinating to me. Like that," he pointed at the Forsaken Lands, "The Forsaken Lands, how did it get that name I wonder?"
They all looked at the Forsaken Lands, although they couldn't see much because the first thing you needed to pass to get into the Lands after the river was the hills. They could also see a road from where they stood, but it stretched past where their eyesight could reach.
"The Forsaken Lands is a very mysterious place." Veronica said.
"But people live there, so it can't be that mysterious, right?" Henry said.
"The place where they live is what people call the Safe Zones. King Roman the third wanted to branch out his authority and power by taking over new territories, but most of them had occupants and doing that would start a war. So, he turned to the Forsaken Lands, he made a bunch of slaves into freemen and asked them to build homes in the Forsaken Lands. The Safe Zones were created after people kept getting missing past one point in the lands." Ronan explained.
"Hmm, I wonder if our home would be past the Safe Points." Henry rubbed his chin.
"Let's go find out." Sarah said then they all walked to the river. Sarah waved her hand and a basic raft big enough to carry all of them was constructed on the water.
"If you could do it that fast, why did you waste time before?" George asked.
Sarah shrugged, "I wanted to decorate it a little." She stepped on the golden raft, and they all followed suit.
"What about your snake, aren't you going to de-summon it?" David asked Ronan.
"No, I'm going to let Mamba swim alongside us." As he spoke the snake slithered into the dark waters and disappeared. George shuddered and tried not to think of the python swimming under them. Henry was the only one standing, he waved his arms and used the water to pull the raft. Then they slowly moved towards the Forsaken Lands.
"Can you tell us about the duchies and why they are named so weirdly?" Veronica asked Ronan.
"Of course!" He said, "Like I said before, King Roman the First, the first king of the Dragonstone Kingdom – you know what that is right?" Everyone except Veronica shook their heads. Ronan sighed, "The Dragonstone Kingdom is the monarch that rules over the Northern Region. Anyway, there isn't really a special reason why the duchies are named the way they are. The king read somewhere about divine beasts, first he named his kingdom Dragonstone after the Dragon divine beast, then he built four duchies around the kingdom; The Green Turtle Duchy built near a beach, the Black Stallion Duchy that has the most underground forces, the Pink Phoenix Duchy located in a beautiful mountain range, and the White Tiger Duchy located near a humid jungle."
"Wow, I wonder how big the entire kingdom is." George said.
Ronan chuckled, "Our kingdom is just a small part of the continent, there are other kingdoms out there but I didn't find any of their names in the books I read at the small library in my town. Oh, there's also the Elven Forest and the Ogre Kingdom where the trolls and grey goblins live."
"For some reason I am filled with anticipation to travel the world." David smiled.
"Right? If not because I didn't have enough strength and money I would have tried already. Maybe in the future..."
Ronan stopped talking because they had reached the Forsaken Lands.
When their feet touched the ground, the raft dissolved and Ronan kept Mamba back in the Tamed Beasts Space. The lands were quiet, there wasn't a bird in sight or little critters running about.
"Are we meant to take this road?" Veronica asked.
"No," Sarah said while looking at the map, "The map says we should walk through there." She pointed at a rocky path leading away from the smooth road.
They didn't waste time sightseeing; they immediately followed the map. While they were walking, they noticed that the road was slowly moving higher and higher, until they were walking past a mountain.
"What the hell?!" George screamed, "Does that path actually go all the way to the top of a mountain?"
Ronan chuckled, "Welcome to the Forsaken Lands, all manner of weird things happens here. Do you know that there are at least five documented towns here but the people rarely see each other? Its like the other towns disappeared or something. Also, if you don't have a map, it is nearly impossible for you to find people here."
"So, it's quite easy to get lost here?" Henry asked.
"No, actually when you acknowledge somewhere here to be your home, you'll be able to find it no matter what."
"Wow Ronan, did you work at the library? You seem to know a lot about everything." George praised.
"No. I was a hunter."
"…"
The path on the map led them around the mountain, from there they could see humongous walls. On a part of the walls there was a huge opening where they assumed the gates were supposed to be. Through the opening, they could see an extensive city.
And the map was pointing right at it.
"Are you kidding me?!" George screamed and they all ran towards the city with excitement. When they reached the empty gates, they could finally see the city in closer proximity. Their eyes widened as they traced a 500-meter-tall building that seemed to want to touch the sky.
"This is our home?" David breathed. They were all too enthralled to answer.
Suddenly, they heard a sound behind them and turned to see a boy and a girl racing towards them on a horse. They stopped the horse not too far from them and jumped off, their faces filled with caution. But they weren't as cautious as Mary who directly summoned her bow and aimed an arrow at them.
The boy and girl paused their steps and stared at the arrow, then a flash of light appeared, startling Mary and causing her to release her arrow. There was a sound of metal hitting metal, and when the golden glow disappeared the boy was donning golden armor while the girl held a fireball in each of her hands.
The boy pulled his sword out and pointed it at them, "Who are you people?!"