When they woke up a while later, everyone found Raccelline swimming around in her undergarments, soaking them completely. Drying them off wasn’t exactly a pain though, and soon she put on her dress, socks and shoes. Everyone knew she had to wear the plain white dress still as they’d all get completely soaked crossing the Stormwall, and they ate a meal using the rations they always kept on hand before Icy packed away the raft.
It was now time to go.
First, they ran towards the Stormwall, stopping just as the waves began to rock. On the raft once more, they completely recovered their mana and Icy prepared to cast Assisted Flight. He used one gold tier’s soul in each cast, reducing the mana cost to a tiny 3% MP, and as he cast it seven times, every single cast began draining his mana at a constant rate.
He and Mala tried to find a way to transfer this constant mana draining onto the target, but after days of consideration, it became clear that the spell only worked because it required the caster’s mana.
Why was that?
Because the spell simply wasn’t designed for multiple ‘sources’ of mana to enter, and any successful attempts at this instead turned it into an Adept true spell and required around 30% of his MP, and then an equal amount of mana from the person who’d supply the constant source of mana. This quirk was instead derived from some strange ways how mental connections with spells worked, and repurposing that stuff is often dangerous.
At least, Mala and Icy used the versions on one another because their stronger minds endured the knockback effects, but in the end, every single test was a failure.
Enough of the magical theory though.
Only when Icy crossed the 50% threshold, and he began to rapidly draw in mana did they pack up the raft and begin moving towards the wall. However, no longer did they worry about the growing waves which their feet failed to stand on, and the group remained at a stable elevation in mid-air and easily leapt forward as though an invisible platform rested below them at all times.
They had quite a distance to fly through, but fortunately, they gathered quite a few plants with high mana concentrations for Icy to swallow along the way. As the seven spells drew on slightly more mana than he absorbed, every few minutes, he required Mala to place a fruit in his mouth for them to continue.
Meanwhile, she also cast weather-clearing spells to weaken the wind and rain about them. And each of them, except Icy, had a simple Lightning Absorbing Barrier applied to them. While ordinary white bolts aren’t anything frightening, they ate away at mana stores very quickly if dozens or hundreds struck you.
All seven leaping across the air could easily cross the stormy region in little under 25 minutes. The waves below them smashed into one another, thundering just as much as the storm clouds up above, with the rain switching between a light drizzle and deadly downpour every few minutes. Lightning bolts often struck all seven. Icy shrugged each of them off, while Mala’s barrier stopped the others from stuttering due to the shocks. Eventually, the thick cloudy wall stood up ahead, their final barrier on this trip.
All six humans worked to cut through the fog with attacks. Raccelline’s had the lowest effect on account of not having skills to use. Dicing, slashing, stabbing, casting both skills and spells, all things which dispersed a tunnel through the fog for all of them to travel through. At the back, everyone saw that their hole closed up, the wall engulfing their escape.
This was the final stretch, and here it became a do or die moment. No one lightened up, Icy topped up his mana anytime it approached even a slightly low quantity.
But after another thirty minutes of constant toiling… they made it through and saw the boundless ocean once more.
Stretches of a deep, dark blue with waves that tipped and formed peaks in the water. Not some artificial calmness that appeared idyllic yet frightening…
They finally escaped!
Almost a whole year spent trapped in between the walls, but now that they freed themselves, only one goal filled all their minds.
The flight hardly ended here, as they all continued forward with the agreed upon plan. Only once the waters calmed did they land and grant Icy some time to rest. Mana constantly entering and exiting the body at such rates wasn’t the most comfortable sensation, even if the Pure Mana bloodline augmented him for such things long ago. After a short half hour of rest, Icy and the spirit were more or less ready to go, and as the others felt better, he cast Assisted Flight five times, Mala took the final two casts.
Now that she finished preserving mana to hold back the storm, as well as push through the fog wall, they could share the load in a far more manageable quantity.
Icy’s rapid mana absorption through the help of those whirlpools could sustain five for at least an hour, given enough mana existed. Meanwhile, Mala could only sustain the two for about 45 minutes. In the end, she couldn’t absorb mana like dragons or Icy did while on the move. Like all normal beasts and humans, she relied on special techniques to efficiently absorb mana in the air.
Well, it was called ‘mana breathing’, but realistically, none of the stronger methods relied on breathing. Some of them even created things similar to the whirlpools Icy’s body automatically generated at low MP.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
But with this new configuration, the group easily walked through the air for some hundreds of miles before touching down for a short rest and continuing on. Once at a distance from the wall, it was possible to run across the water, and where possible, they continued forward like this.
The journey back to land wasn’t quick, even if they ran astoundingly fast.
After twelve hours of running across water or through the air, they found a small desert island to camp on for the night. For the most part, they all talked about things they looked forward to doing when in a city, a hot bath was absolutely on the table, as were high-quality meals and comfy beds. Raccelline still wanted a cake due to her missed birthday from months ago, and Icy, well…
His sweet tooth had always been a problem. After tasting pastries and cake back in Avril, he knew he’d be gorging on treats for the better part of this whole stay in the Trifer.
They proceeded the next morning.
It wasn’t hard for the group to cross a hundred miles every hour when Slipstream Dynamism was applied to the slower members, and after another full day of travel, they began seeing various vessels more often. Primarily trade ships which travelled the ports of the elven continent, no one moved near such ships in case it aggravated those on board.
At most, Mala flew over and asked those on board what port lay nearby. Her identity as a Sapling wizard made the elves on board highly communicative, although her speaking one of their native tongues helped just as much.
It took another night sleeping on a random island, but the very next day… They stepped down on a port and announced their entry to the harbour master here.
They might have been 11 months late, but finally, they stepped onto the wood boardwalk of a port…
Not exactly the one they were meant to reach, as this was a small trading port which mainly moved things down a long river to inland cities, but it was a start!
Six humans, one of which was a child, along with a companion beast, have the tiny problem of standing out in almost any place except an adventurer convention. And those are pretty rare on any of the eight worlds. So it wasn’t a surprise when the harbour master approached them with a few Steel rank guards to question them. Well, even if the other side were elves now, the way certain things were handled never changes much.
Diplomacy and social customs fall apart when strangers in armour bound towards you. But given that one of them was fluent in two major elven tongues, and the rest bothered to learn a major dialect of the continent as a whole, things were very easily settled.
“So you decided to simply cross the wall on your own? Well, given your magical repertoire, I can understand how you did so, but what business have you here?” The harbour master, an upright and rather tall elf in circular spectacles, opened a smaller ledger which recorded individuals who travelled without the need of Stormbreakers. He knew protocol well enough, although such people almost never came to their port.
Korridan replied, “Besides wanting to visit. The situation over there isn’t exactly great, we’d rather not end up dead due to some invasion.” A response slightly more truthful than any of the guards expected, but helmets with their face guards lowered hid such feelings.
Besides some slight recording and paperwork, very little had to be done in regards to the appearance of a group like theirs.
Very few countries wouldn’t welcome such warriors. Although, like all humans, they could never acquire official positions or noble titles here, as no one could guarantee if they were spies or not. This had no impact on the group.
Port Saramid actually did more than just move things downriver, as it sat right beside a sizable naval base, and many of the crew from those ships stayed by the town built beside the port.
In fairness, many fishers also lived here, and most of what was caught ended up packaged for transport into cities further down. Whilst not the most lucrative life, it was extremely stable as demand for fish inland always outstripped the supply they could offer.
The arrival of five Gold ranks, and their gold tier beast, were noted down, and a small levy applied for their appearance on Trifer. Not to mention a small bonus for the harbour master to keep the elf happy.
The physical differences between most bipedal races are actually rather small, elves have thicker hair, and their skin colours are generally more colourful, the latter depended on the element density of where they’re born. By far, most of the race had olive green or a light brown skin tone, due to nature and earth elements utterly dwarfing the commonality of any others. Their average height for either gender was about an inch higher than humans, but censuses showed that it flipped every few decades.
Magical talent is also simply better amongst elves, although not enough to ever give an edge over other bipedal races.
But none of that is why elves acquired their dominance. For evidence of that, they left the small port immediately and made a hasty day’s trip to the nearest major city. No one noticed how strange Raccelline’s mana was, perhaps a sign they lacked wizards this far out, but it made leaving so much easier overall.
Unlike the human continent, things were not only relatively peaceful throughout the continent, but in general, there are few border conflicts. Mostly because over half the continent had been consolidated into a single uniform empire, while control at the very top remained unshaken. The roots generally involved a fair bit of trouble to acquire their own stake in the superpower. They, unfortunately, were not yet in that massive empire.
But the Watery City of Aphtail at least made their starting location a rather lucky find. The question remained though…
What made the elves special?
Well, Watery City wasn’t just the name for some sort of half-submerged city built around a river and canals. Its name is to be taken literally, as are the terms Fortress city, Oaken city, and even Sky city. Following the river upstream, the group saw more than a fair share of magic-powered ships pushing against the currents, and after a while, they found their target. A noticeable hole in the base of the river with a lip such that flowing water couldn’t move down it.
Besides the mast-less trade vessels, passenger vessels routinely exited the dip in the river, a barrier coating them to maintain air for the crew. Once in open air, the ships began another array to move against the river flow and continued back upstream to a relatively normal city.
But where’s the fun in that?
With Waterbreathing applied to the whole group, they leapt into the water and dove into the hole. An unnatural method of entry, but who asked the architects to literally build cities into underground lakes?