Auro awoke to the sight of Ed resting opposite him, across a campfire with Helan and a water wisp keeping watch. His right arm and shoulder were bandaged and throbbing dully, the bone had likely been broken or at least severely fractured but thanks to Ed's summon it was usable despite the soreness and a few flesh wounds. He was very hungry his energy likely depleted due to the accelerated healing curtesy of Ed and so he bent over to summon the {Trekkers Backpack} which contained his rations and water, promptly digging into both of them before returning to sleep after some light stretches and checking the {Wayfarers Atlas} for their current location to plan out a route for when Ed wakes up.
"AURO, sleepyhead. Wake up"
"Shut up Ed" Auro moaned.
Ed's awakening had apparently come faster than he had expected, considering the fact that they had fought the spider crystalline about six hours before sunset he still should have gotten at least eight total hours of rest assuming it was only a few hours after sundown, plenty for an Act 2 ascended despite his rather severe injuries. The campfire had already been put out and Ed was finishing stuffing his pockets with his supplies As the half awake Auro attempted to exit his sleeping bag in order to get back to the trail they were following to the fourth peak.
"How long was I out after the fight?"
"Bout five maybe six hours, all that exploring you did probably caught up with you."
"Huh"
"Come on then Mr 'we'll get to the bottom of the first peak before noon' we've wasted a whole afternoon due to you fainting."
"Whatever"
The journey to the bottom of the fourth peak took another eight hours, Ed had dragged Auro several hours off route to find a suitable resting spot so it took a rather significant amount of time to return to the trail but after that, other than a few encounters with normal crystalline and a some skirting around the well known territorial giant crystalline they arrived at the foot of the fourth peak. The bottom of the fourth peak was the residence of a small settling, home to mainly guides and resting hermits. Most of the routes up the misty peaks were known to be dangerous, even ascended, whose legends tended to draw the attention of crystalline seeking to use the legends of unwilling ascended as sustenance to advance.
There were many landmarks on the fourth peak such as the 1000 stairs, a staircase covering the last quarter of a kilometre to the city of the clouds or the lone outpost, an observation deck like structure that allowed one to see the crystal plane, one of the many death zones in the Dawn continent. There were even roomers of there being a waystone, an ancient structure that emerges from titan crystalline when they are defeated allowing for movement between others so long as the user is an ascended and they have interacted with them.
"Don't hang around or buy anything Ed, if they see you've got anything more than a few shards, let alone gems or full blown jewels, they'll try to rob you.
Shards are the smallest unit of currency being between the size of sand grains, up to the size of pebbles, they cant have an affinity as they are too small to contain any elemental energy. Gems are stone sized crystals worth between 20 and 200 shards depending on affinity and purity. Jewels are anything bigger than a fist, worth 50 or more gems dependent on affinity, size and purity. All of these were obtained from crystalline with shards being obtained from mundane crystalline (those without an affinity and with strength less than that of an ascender) gems were obtained from normal crystalline and the weaker giant crystalline. Jewels could only be found from titans or in verry small numbers from strong giant crystalline, the spider they fought earlier yielded two jewels, one fire affinity that Ed absorbed to strengthen his whisps and the other, a poison affinity one, was being held by Auro.
"Ill meet you here in an hour."
Auro began towards the butchers to purchase some dried meat as they hadn't anticipated needing to rest before making it to the foot of the fourth peak hence not having enough rations. He then sold the three Relics he had gotten from the ogryn back at the desert settlement, obtaining a map of an apparently safe route up the mountain with all of the hazardous zones marked along with the territories of especially dangerous crystalline.
Wondering if he should buy some climbing gear, he was on his way back to the meeting spot when he suddenly felt Fractaline vibrate at his hip, seemingly drawing him towards a stall somewhere in the outer sections of the settlement. Noting Fractalines unusual behaviour, he followed the sensation, with it eventually leading to a roughly pitched large tent from which muffled voices could be heard.
Auro entered and was immediately assaulted by a strong perfume like scent along with alcohol. The tent was strangely larger on the inside, likely a Relic with a comfortably decorated interior full of cloth and pealing one back he saw a scene of three men of varying statures shouting at a remarkably calm foxkin woman.
"For the last time, I'm not joining your cult. I have no interest in the 'god of lost stars' you worship and I'm sure you can find a diviner far stronger than me up in the city." spoke the foxkin who was visibly irritated by the three men's presence despite trying to hide it.
"Firstly were not a cult we serve a very real and powerful deity who claims to be able to undo the shattering and return us to our normal lives if we gather enough diviners. Secondly we've already tried to recruit the diviners from the city and they threw us out for 'causing trouble' " exclaimed the first man.
"If you could come with us - "
"Excuse me esteemed fellows, I think she's made her decision" Auro interjected and revealing the sheathed Fractaline he stated "I think you should leave and take your business else ware, i wouldn't want to make a mess in this nice tent."
Realising Auro's seriousness, the trio left the tent.
"Thank you mister, they've been rather persistent recently. Anyway I'm assuming you came looking for this" the woman smiled and pulled out a jar with a splinter like piece of glass black inside it. The shard was flying around madly at the glass seemingly attempting to move towards Auro's hip where Fractaline was sheathed.
Auros eyes widened.