The cave in question was wild and warm, where some insects had taken up residence.
We got our equipment and I went to find ingredients to make a healing potion.
«Ratvert want you to accompany me, I'll get some ingredients»
"No, I stay here to look after our affairs, be careful where you walk. Also creates a fog in case of a problem, I will come to meet you"
I then ventured a little further. The cave was hidden by the rich forest, I wonder how Ratvert saw it.
Circumferences were under the trees as well as frangiline. I needed a little bit of both with beratruc roots. The beratruc is in the water and I could locate it in the lake. However I did not want to go in this dark water, the bottom was not discernible.
I was the last one to want to be attacked by a marine creature. Then an idea came to me, I sat down by the lake and used my etheric projection skill. I floated over the lake and sank there.
I met a joker who was watching for prey, I watched him. It must have been 2m long and looked like piranha in a barracuda body. I could defeat him with a well-targeted dagger in his only vital point. The beratruc plants were right behind him, maybe that was his food board.
I left my projection and although wounded, I planned to dive into these waters.
Ratvert, I plan to get some plants from the lake, if I don't come back in two minutes, come and get me and I'll repay you.".
«No worries I will be next»
The water was relatively cold on my cauterized wounds but I planned to make myself this healing potion. I had trouble discerning the marine environment, so I was producing a fireball. The second the rays of light pierced the dark waters, the blakok attacked me. I dodged by chance and grabbed my dagger. He made a second attack and I managed to shove my dagger into its flan which opened up releasing green blood into the dark water. I ran out of air, hurriedly cut the beratruc plants and came out to the surface.
Ratvert leaned over to see better and was relieved to see me emerge.
«Fortunately you succeeded, I'm not a fan of water fights»
I smiled and dried myself by circulating mana of fire through my arcane veins. We returned to the cave and I took out my pocket utensils to create the potion. Ratvert rested on a stone slab while I practiced alchemy.
Little time passed and I drank the potion I had created. My cauterized skin was regenerating and my vigor was restored.
I then ate some mushrooms that I had harvested. Cooked of course, we did not have the ability to cure magical diseases.
We drove the next day at dawn. I took care to keep a fog of 10m in diameter to prevent Ratvert from traveling in a box. We managed to reach a very wide crevasse which divided a mountain into three faces. It was the entrance to the breach. The ground was paved because of the market caravans that passed through it. Statues of stones had been erected on the rock.
The portal was now before us, forming a stone arch. Then a voice resounded in our heads.
"Present your offering to cross the portal"
An offering? Ravert looked at me in disbelief.
"Maybe it's the kingdom that added this to tax merchants," he says.
Without a doubt, it's not like we have a choice
I reflected on my equipment and presented one of my enchanted daggers. It must have had some value. Ratvert paid with a drop of blood.
"Why your blood?"
«The portal demands an offering and my blood is rich for potions, it counts as a gift»
I was surprised to see that it worked.
"You can enter, good luck in your quest"
We arrived in a frozen plain where the sun lit the passage. We could discern gigantic snowy mountains, probably higher than the Vitroveil ridge of our world.
My goal was simple, recover the rare ingredients from the areas closest to the portal and then train to produce the sunscreen potion for Ratvert.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"It seems to me that frozen salamanders can be found in the mountains. This is the first ingredient."
I was configuring my earlier purchased Find-Way compass to find a plateau in the mountains and walked us in the direction indicated.
The cold froze my extremities, so I invoked my spirit of fire to walk beside us. Its heat was sufficient to withstand the bites of cold. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain where stairs had been carved into the rock. The thin steps contrasted with the deadly fall in case of inattention error.
As we climbed, the air was lacking and we breathed with difficulty. We climbed the mountain for 2km and were breathless when the plateau of the first level appeared.
There were many salamanders hidden there. I grabbed my dagger and Ratvert put himself in combat position