Chapter 12
Manuel opened his eyes and was met with the blinding light of the two stars shining above the missing roof of the room he slept in.
'100% health. Awesome.'
His high Constitution stat made this fast recovery possible. He also poured all his stat points that he acquired from the Awakened mini-boss into Constitution.
He took off his bandages and saw only healed scars. No signs of blood or even dry blood.
Looking for the other two, he went outside.
"Wake up sleepy heads."
"Shit. Did I fall asleep here?" Max said.
"Ohh...we're retarded."
"A monster could have grabbed you. You're lucky they didn't. Probably avoiding this place thinking the mini-boss is here, alive and well."
It was almost noon now.
The three of them drank some juice and ate food from their Inventories, geared up and jumped off the mountain.
"WOOOOO!" Thomas screamed.
"3...2...1...flight!" Max said.
About halfway down the mountain the players started flying.
They were on the other side of the mountain. Heading for the nearest village on the way to Rinea.
"This is amazing!" Thomas yelled.
The trio flew high above the forest surrounding the mountain at high speeds and once their aura reached around 80%, they descended, about ten kilometers from the mountain.
The weak monsters in the area ran away from the three players. They do look like powerful flying predators to be fair. Their wings may be smaller than what they were on the bird, but they were still big on a human.
Max with blue, Thomas with green and Manuel with his red wings landed.
"That was great."
They were currently near the end of the Ashen Forest.
On the way out, nothing could stop them. Plus, after killing the temple predator, Thomas and Manuel leveled up ten times each. Putting them to roughly level eighty.
A vast, green plain similar to the one near the city they stayed in was visible beyond the last bushes of the forest surrounding the mountain.
***
"Excuse me sir, would you like to buy a pet?"
They ignored all the street vendors and went towards a blacksmith shop the trio found out about.
It was located in the busiest part of the city.
It was the first city along their journey to Rinea.
Two days have passed since their departure from the mountain, they slept at a couple villages along the way.
It was a city located in a river valley. It was very long which was annoying. The walk to the shop was mostly straight.
About six minutes later they found it.
Ladran's Forge.
"Good afternoon warriors." A young blacksmith greeted us.
"Good afternoon." I said.
They looked around the shop for a bit. Armors were put on display and weapons were hanged on the wall.
"Give me your best heavy armor and shield."
"Hm, it would be this one right here."
He pointed to a dark, bronze-like armor engraved with the sigil of Ladran's Forge.
Manuel grabbed it and inspected its stats.
"Good enough. Slightly inferior to my previous one."
He also checked out the shield which was of a similar appearance and bought it as well.
He was armorless and shieldless currently because his previous ones were destroyed.
Max took out his pouch of coins accepted in this kingdom that he carried in the small waist bag.
Coins and currency were the only thing that couldn't be stored in the Inventory.
Max bought the things for the knight and they left the shop.
"Thank you Max."
"By the way Manuel, what else did you get in the temple?"
"This bracelet which increases the speed of my aura. Probably increases weapon charging speed."
"Yeah."
'I wonder who built the temple and locked the stuff there.'
Obviously the game creators intended it for the hidden main boss slayer but they had to create some sort of lore behind it. Altough they are wicked, they are certainly passionate about their monstrous creation of a game.
***
Max was in a comfy bed that was easy to fall asleep in. They paid to stay for one night in this hotel.
He was holding a book in his hands.
It was Us and the Stars.
Max had been reading it for a while now and some of the paragraphs that really made him interested were as follows:
"It all started with a falling star landing near the Great City. It created a loud explosion and destroyed the surrounding forest that used to exist there. The Emperor personally went there with me and his Royal Knights to see it. There, they only found a person peacefully lying in a deep crater. Dead. Clad in purple metallic armor with unreadable, white carvings, which had a hole in the part under which the human heart resides, that no could ever wear, not even the Emperor.
His body, despite landing with such divine force that he dented the world we stand on, was perfectly intact. He was killed by something far more monstrous than the force of his impact. I saw his face and even as a man, I was stunned by his beauty. His long hair didn't manage to hide it. They took the armor and stored it in the Imperial Vault. He had no weapons.
It is from this moment that we started to look outwards, at the abyss that looms above us that sent us this divine body which the Great Emperor couldn't scratch with his mighty sword even after taking off the armor.
The abyss that hosts more humans, ones that are beyond this world."
'Perhaps the floors are more connected than I thought.'
Max knew what the Great City was. The crater also confirmed it. The Great City was Kasia of the Virtonis Empire. The crater from the book was still there. It wasn't too close to Kasia, though. He only discovered it after he permanently departed from Kasia.
He closed the book and went to sleep after reading for two hours.
What he also found out was that the person who wrote this book was the Emperor's right hand who left him. He created an observatory at the top of a mountain, far away from the Emperor's eyes. It was the temple the trio visited. It wouldn't ever be seen as an observatory now, though.
Suddenly, Max was thankful for his inclination towards reading books that made him grab the books in the vault. Manuel and Thomas never would've read these books, even if they took them.
He guessed that they were important enough since they were in that vault.
He decided that he would finish this book first before reading anything else. It would take him a while, he was only at the halfway point.
Fatigue soon overcame Max and he fell asleep.