"After going through the Ghoulies Ravine, we will enter the Panama Region," Zerath said, brandishing his Valor Tongue as he took a Judgment Stance. "From then on, there will be a road that will lead to the Town of Ariah. Halfway reaching it, our path will diverge."
"20 days had passed just like that, huh, time sure is hasty," Yroa chuckled, taking a much more unorthodox offensive stance of the Solemn Royal Guard, pointing it diagonally forward as if he was a fencer.
The Valor Tongue dagger that he held was no longer a wooden training prop. Instead, it was made by morphing his modified handgun while also keeping the venomous bile and electric element intact in its veins-like formation throughout the blades.
And then a moment after, they clashed.
"Huwaa, this has been the third time they spar after dinner," Azel muttered with curled eyebrows. "I guess it's healthier for Master that way, more than showcasing his sadistic side and gathering his EXPs like an unhinged maniac."
There was one time where their journey was halted by a Dryad, a mythical woodland creature or spirit that is closely associated with trees and forests.
Dryads, depending on the regions, are mostly believed to be guardians or embodiments of specific trees, with their lives and well-being intricately tied to the health of their chosen tree both physically and spiritually.
At one time, there was this one cheeky Dryad that trapped the party because one of her neighbors was chopped down by Yroa to be crafted into eating utensils.
That very same Dryad became Yroa's entertainment and source of EXPs for a while before the journey continued. The scene was quite disturbing, to the point that Zerath worried about Azel's mental being for having him as her contractor.
'What's worse is that, Master is so gorgeous and adorable while doing it!' Azel slammed her fist to the ground. 'How could such an adorable creature like him possess fouler behavior than that of a demon!?'
She also hasn't forgotten about the first ten days where she was forced to carry all of the containers of 'Soul Essence' that was allegedly extracted by her.
'Still, I can't really Master to do everything, otherwise it wouldn't only be a breach of contract, but also what little pride that I have as a demon.'
While Yroa was training his Martial Art with Zerath as his teacher, Azel had been tempering her physical vessel nonstop to raise her stats numbers while also experimenting with some Ohrmancy as a side activity.
Since Yroa was a one man army with high agility and destructive firepower, Azel thought that she could take the role of a support.
Most importantly, she also wanted to improve her biological spellcasting of 'dream invading', enough for it to be useful in future fights.
As of now, her dream-related spell only extent to non-combat capabilities such as enhancing a person's sleep quality or even multiple dream invasion where she could invade more than one target at a time,
She aimed to make this spell quick in its soothing effect, neutralizing threats before they could do anything.
"I noticed that you're always leaving your left side more open than the other, Teach," Yroa casually said as he hurled a relentless flurry of attacks.
"And you're too aggressive in your advances." Zerath smirked. "Can't counter my attack if you can't see where they are coming."
At first glance, both of them look equal in terms of skills in their respective interpretation of the Solemn Royal Guard, but it was clear that Zerath had only gone with the flow, since he didn't put everything into his performance.
After exchanges upon exchanges, both of them closed their distance to an arm length of one another, while continuously forcing their dominance of attacks and defenses. Until at one point, both of them simultaneously stopped their daggers just as they were an inch away from each other's vitals.
"That's fun."
"Indeed."
Both of them then proceeded to laugh as if they had reached for the same conclusion.
"... I can't understand men," Azel muttered, forgetting that she was once a man too not a month ago.
Yroa cooked another mushroom-related snack for their insomniac party before sitting down together with them, exchanging words and local delicacies.
"Tho, why diverge halfway through the Town of Ariah?" Yroa asked.
"Because we will meet a certain someone there," Zerath replied. "And there is a huge chance that our destination might not be the same."
"So your destination isn't clear yet as of now, then?" Azel pointed out.
"Indeed," Zerath took a heavy bite on his skewered mushroom. "Right now, my sole purpose in life is to meet with this certain someone, and nothing more."
"You must be glad that we hopped on your journey if that's the case," Yroa cheekily commented.
"Well, a companion is still a companion, no matter how little time we trailblaze with them." Zerath lightly chuckled.
"Though, I doubt that meeting with this certain someone is the highest order of your life purpose, am I right?" Yroa gestured to his skewered mushrooms.
Zerath fixated his lazy gaze at Yroa for five seconds, before heaving a sigh accompanied by a bitter smile. "Sharp intuition, I must admit."
"Hehehe~"
"Master's intuition is scary in its own right…."
"So, are you comfortable enough to share that goal with us, old man?" Yroa cast an empathetic smile.
"Well, I doubt that this information will be used against me in any way," Zerath then paused for one second, before sending an obvious stare towards Yroa. "Except for you."
"True, Master will probably use that to psychologically torture you." Azel playfully shrugged.
"Aww, come on, am I that scary?"
""Yes,"" both Zerath and Azel answered casually.
"I'm hurt by this revelation," Yroa utterd with his usual smile.
"I doubt," Zerath immediately answered.
"Nothing in you resembles a heart, Master," Azel casually pointed out.
"I can guarantee that you'll find it if you cut my chest apart." Raising an eyebrow, Yroa pointed his index finger to his chest.
"See?? That's not what someone with a real heart would say!"
"Hahaha." Zerath cleared his skewered mushrooms before washing them down with a mug of cold drink. After the satisfied exhale, he seemed to be willing to talk now. "I was once a goody-two-shoes husband with a fine wife and three kids, two sons and one daughter…
"The place where I toiled my life away is brimming with dignity and nobility." He scratched the back of his neck. It might be itchy for him to dig back to this memory and lay it in front of him. "It's a nice life, a nice memory, with many embers backing it up."
"Why do I feel like there is a big 'news' that is coming from the corner?" Azel nervously commented.
"Well, nothing really happened," Zerath smirked.
"Phew," Azel exhaled in relief.
"Then that very hometown was attacked when I was away on an expedition," Zerath said with a bitter smile. "Not a single person there survived. Every corpse had their eyes gouged and their ears separated from their head. Until now, the perpetrator hasn't been found."
"Aaaa! I talked too fast!"
"When did this happen?" Yroa asked.
"Seventy years ago, if my memory serves it right," Zerath bitterly chuckled. The pain could be seen vividly creeping on his face.
"Any chance that the perpetrator is still living and kicking?" Azel asked.
"Maybe, who knows." Zerath sighed. "There was a phase where I'm intoxicated by vengeance and all of that, wrath and anger, now I'm nothing but an empty husk who just goes by where the wind is trailing."
"Still, thank you a lot for being vulnerable in front of us, old man." Yroa then slammed a platter full of a whole roasted boar-like beast, completely stuffed with local mushrooms and reasoning that Yroa could get his hands on. "It would be nice if we can get some real liquor to accompany it, but the normal cold drink would do for now."
"Yay! A roasted Mushroom Boar!" Azel celebrated.
"Your future spouse will be the happiest person in Yassimhre, Yroa." Zerath laughed, shedding the weight of the past as he indulged himself with the company of these silly goofs.
The three insomniacs feasted their night away until the dawn arrived.
After preparing, they embarked immediately into the Ghoulies Ravine that was connected to the mushroom-filled biome.
Carved by the relentless force of ancient waters, its jagged cliffs rise menacingly, casting eerie silhouettes against the dim light filtering through the dense canopy overhead.
The air was heavy with a sense of undead lingering, whispers of long-forgotten tales echoing through the hollows.
At first Yroa was skeptical on why the ohr-translated word for this place was Ghoulies Ravine, but it seemed fitting enough since the first thing that greeted them here was a relentless horde of the dead.
"Azel, look! That one looks like three men stitched together by the hips, it's hilarious!" Yroa excitedly pointed out, showcasing a genuine expression of childish wonders.
"I think you're the only person in Yassimhre who thinks that is hilarious, Master."
Although there were a lot of encounters with hostile undeads in their journey, with their growing synergies and adept fighting prowess, those threats were defeated with ease as they mowed them whilst advancing.
One of the threats appears to be the apex being in this ravine. Grabbing each side of the ravine's walls with its gargantuan arms, was a skeletonized flesh-melted titan showcasing a similar supernatural influence like that of the Drying Wraith.
[Name: Ja'al Kaph'ar]
[Lvl: 800 Malkuth]
[Domain: Physical]
[STR: 48.5]
[DEX: 7.5]
[CON: 214.8]
[INT: 6.4]
[WIS: 10.1]
[CHA: 0.9]
"Azel, come here." Yroa called out with his hand.
"Mm?"
Zerath was pretty much used to these two goofball shenanigans throughout their journey, and that shenanigan always started with Yroa calling Azel to his side.
With poker expression, Zerath waited out whatever idea they were cooking whilst keeping the titanic skeleton at bay, countering all sorts of undead projectiles and shielding the two gremlins from danger.
"And it's done!" Yroa exclaimed as both him and Azel gestured their hands to reveal the object that they were working on. "I present to you, the Experimental Ghouly Railgun made with the minerals and stones extracted from the Ghoulies Ravine!"
"This thing is just like a cannon-sized firelock weapon but with thunder," Azel followed with an equally confused smug, as if she knew that she had just created something amazing but didn't necessarily understand how she was able to make it. "And it has more Systematic Spell than a High Tier Golem!"
"Well, to be precise, it's an electromagnetic launcher that accelerates a projectile along a pair of parallel conductive rails using the principles of electromagnetic induction!" Yroa continued immediately after.
The railgun consisted of two parallel rails made of artificially conductive stone made possible through the wonder of physic-defying Ohrmancy's Spellcasting. Connected to it, was an ohr reservoir that would be converted into electricity when activated.
And between the rails at the back end was the projectile that was lazily made by molding nearby medium-sized rock which was then laced by a conductive-applying spell. However, it was also infused by some nasty and destructive Systematic Spell when it hit its target.
"And I assume that it won't explode and turn the surroundings into a radioactive wasteland like last time," Zerath said, expecting that this one would be equally as crazy if not crazier.
"Uhm, well, unlike last time," Azel nervously tried to explain. "There won't be any residual radiation created! After all, this cannon is powered solely by lightning elemental spells, and none of the spells that will result in fission products, unreacted nuclear material, and neutron-activated debris!"
"Alright, quit yapping and let's activate this thing!" Yroa said as he was already in position to fire the railgun.
Zerath instinctively moved away as soon as the Experimental Ghouly Railgun started to possess an extreme amount of ohr activity.
"Fire~!"
When the ohr supply was activated, it sent a huge converted electric current through one rail, across the projectile, and then back through the other rail. This current generated a strong magnetic field around the rails and the projectile.
According to the principles of electromagnetic induction, when a current-carrying conductor—in this case, the projectile—is placed in a magnetic field, it experiences a force perpendicular to both the current and the magnetic field direction.
And due to this to the Lorentz force, the magnetic field exerts a strong force on the projectile, propelling it forward along the rails at extremely high speeds.
In a mere blink of a second, the railgun hurled its projectile forward, there was a sudden burst of sound barriers being broken consecutively, leaving behind a rippling trail of expanding sideway canopy.
At the same time, the shockwave it created was like a wave spreading outward, distorting the air in its path. There, Zerath could be seen with a widened glance, slowly fixating his gaze at the flying projectile that was itching to unleash some destruction.
And just as it promised, it broke the titanic skeleton in the skull, and then the neck, unyielding as it continued to travel through the whole spine of this gargantuan undead, turning those calcium incarnate into tiny, hazardous splinters, and splitting the disgusting undead stench of a mist while it was at it.
Few seconds later, the sounds of crumbling rocks could be heard as the spellshift railgun was pushed past its initial durability.
Yroa stood there with a puffed chest and a prideful smug. "Worth it."
With little to no difficulty, they successfully passed the Ghoulies Ravine to enter the edge of the Panama Region.
"It really does look as if you had just entered another world," Yroa snickered.
Forestry of pinkish wonderland, a land filled with sakura-like trees alongside many faunas that adapted its color for their ways of survival.
The entrance grooves twisted and mingled with one another, a perfect kaleidoscope of nature that unfolded in front of the party's sight.
"Seriously, you always say that when we enter a new kind of biome, Master," Azel chuckled as she shrugged.
To make the journey smoother, Azel cast an invisibility spell for the three of them. This spell was specifically tuned so that those that were under its effect could perceive others under the same spell.
Not all iterations of invisibility spells had this effect. Azel also did this spell from time to time throughout their journey, and only removed it when a certain someone in their party was feeling a little bit adventurous.
After three hours, they stumbled upon a road trail that was molded into the terrain from high usage of carriages and caravans traveling about. Though, there were none of those fantasy merchants sighted at this hour.
"So, when and where will we be meeting with this aforementioned 'certain someone', Teach?" Yroa said as he faced up to Zerath like a curious child.
"We'll stumble upon them, soon enough," Zerath lightly chuckled. "It will be obvious when it happens."
And then one hour later, they stumbled upon a shady stall that resided right beside the trail.
""That's so obvious!""