Chapter 90: A Road Less Travel
Ash: “Watch it Ramol, your driving’s giving me ass-blisters.”
Ramol: “Sorry, but these roads no worse for wear.”
Nathan: "What do you expect from a decommisioned road?"
Ramol whipped the reins as he made his way down the separate road, littered with all manner of debris. After consulting the map, they were able to find an unused road that lead through the woods. The road had been abandoned because of the frequent monster attacks and such were in a terrible condition and the fact that it was twice as long as the one before, it was just not worth the money to maintain.
However, realizing the road was closed off do to Turbulence, Ramol and Ash thought it was for the best, as did a few other merchants. Several other carts, merchants and adventurers alike decided to follow Nathan after they discovered the secondary road, deciding it was for the best. One particular cart, had sped by them having beng pulled by a team of Avian, the speed was so great, they weren't able to make out who it was. However, the cart did clear away some of the debri, making it easier to travel, but not by much.
Ramol: “So ‘turbulence’, that would explain the tremors.”
Nathan: “So what exactly is turbulence? I know what it is in my world, but yours seem a little difference?”
Ash: “It’s when the mana veins of the world are in flux, causing the air around to become un-traversable.”
Nathan: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Kyr: The world, Leseres, has its own mana-flow, which travels to vein-like channels deep beneath the ground. Most things in nature have mana because of that.”
Nathan: “Kyr?”
Kyr: “Ah, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Nathan: “No, no its fine, please continue.”
Kyr: “Well, you see, deep underground are veins in which the world’s mana travels and for the most part that where it remains. However, sometimes the veins deep underground, for some reason, close off and that is what we call a Flux. Because of that, the mana in that area will have nowhere to go and slowly build up until it bursts out and each reaches the surface. Tremors and the like, that’s one of the first signs of Flux, other signs are creatures leaving the area to avoid being caught up in the mana flow. Once it reaches the surface, the area is flooded with the world’s mana, at that point it becomes ‘Turbulence’.
Nathan: “So when it’s underground and building up its flux and when it reaches the surface it becomes turbulence.”
Kyr: “Right?”
Nathan: “Okay, so what’s the big deal, why don’t we just travel through it?”
Kyr: “You can’t, you will be affected by the worlds Mana. We all have our own natural mana flow, specific to us constantly flowing through our bodies. However, if we were to enter ‘Turbulence’, the world’s mana flow will flow through us as well. There will be two different mana flows and our bodies can’t handle the pressure. As your mana flow fights for dominance, it will feel like your body’s being ripped apart. You would go mad as the mana of the world slowly corrupts your body. That is how Regrest come to be.”
Nathan: “Regrest?”
Kyr: “For the poor souls unable to escape in time, their mana and the world’s mana fight to travel the limited space in our own mana channels. Just like the world itself, we also have mana channels, albeit not as big as the world channels or as strong. When that happens, the victims lose all traces of themselves losing themselves to the extreme pain of having to different mana flows forcing there way through your body. They go insane and can no longer be reason with, they will attack anything that comes into sight. So even after the Turburlence dissapate, the road would still be close, so the knights and or Adventurer can search the area and finish anyone or anything that beacame a Regrest."
Nathan: “Regrest huh…but Iris can do stuff like restore mana, why doesn’t it hurt?”
Kyr: “She’s not really giving you her mana, but instead refilling yours. It’s easier to say she accelerates the rate in which it is restored.”
Nathan: “Wow, Kyr, I never knew you were this smart.”
Ramol: “Of course…why do you think I leave most of the document work to him?”
Anais: “I can think of a few good reasons.”
Nathan: “Anyway, Kyr, that was well put-together, I’m impressed.”
Kyr, acting bashful, being praised by everyone returned to sit next to his brother.
Nathan: “Well I guess from the other carts that have past us and the one behind, it’s gonna be awhile before the road opens back up.”
Ash: “It could, I heard of times when Turbulence lasted for two whole weeks and that one just started today.”
Nathan: “How long was the shortest?”
Ash: “Um well without a doubt it lasts for at least one whole day.”
Anais: “Then we would have been there all night, that could have been trouble.”
Ramol: “It’s a good thing Nathan returned with the map, how you get the guard to give it to you?”
Ash: “Yeah…he wouldn’t even give me the time of day.”
Nathan: “I… appealed to his gentlemen-like nature and oh so kindly asked him to set his duties aside to help the fragile-like me to continue their journey.”
Ash: “……………What?”
Anais: “He tricked him into given him the map.”
Ash: “Ah, gotcha.”
Nathan: “Still feeling bitter about it, huh? And right after you said all that.”
Anais: “Keep it up, and I’ll teach Iris some ways she could better ‘serve’ her Master.”
Nathan: “Please don’t.”
Iris: “There are ways I can better serve Master!? Please enlighten me…”
Nathan: “Like hell I’m gonna let you learn them.”
Nathan and Anais bickered back and forth, with Iris confused on the topics as per usual.
*Kweeeeeeeeeeeh*
Anais: “What was that?”
Ash: “It’s that cart with the Avian that ran up by us earlier, looks like their carriage got stuck, they’re in trouble.”
Up ahead the sound of battle could be heard. The carriage that had passed them earlier was under attack by a group of giant lizard-monsters. They were blocking the way; it seems that their nest was alongside the road. There were some adventurers defending the cart, but they were clearly outnumbered.
Anais: “Should we help?”
Nathan: “Well, we are all traveling the same road, I think it’s only fair.”
Ash: “You gonna be okay…? You haven’t fully recovered yet, right?”
Nathan: “It’s cool. I got this. Iris and Ena, you come as well. Anais, you and Ash protect the cart, just in case there are still some hiding in the woods.”
Ena: “Okay.”
Iris: “Understood.”
Nathan threw down some seeds to which some Uzy and Snyare plants popped up from below. With that, he jumped out of the cart and sped up the road. He reached the cart in no time. The adventurer party was cutting down the lizards one by one, protecting their employer, per their contract. However, they were completely surrounded by the lizards.
??????: “Careful you fool’s, don’t let them near my carriage.”
Zane: “Don’t worry Mr. Fynel, we’ll be sure to deliver you, and your wares, to our destination safely.”
Nathan: “Wait, Zane?”
Zane, and his entourage/party, were clearing away the lizards; dutifully keeping their benefactor safe. Upon hearing his name, Zane turned in Nathan’s direction, a smile appearing the minute they made eye contact.
Zane: “Why, if it isn’t my stray flower, we meet again.”
Nathan: “Don’t call me that. We just saw you stopped and wanted to see if you needed help.”
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Zane: “Perish the thought, these beasts are but a minor inconvenience, we shall be rid of them momentarily.”
Zane continued slaying the lizards while talking with Nathan, from the looks of things; they didn’t need help at all. Even the girls around him, were making quick work of the lizards. Realizing they were being slaughtered the remaining lizards began to flee from the fight.
Zane: “Alright ladies, start collecting whatever valuable material from the lizards. When we’re done, burn the bodies.”
The girls all went off, breaking into groups, cutting and shredding the corpses.
Zane: “Mr. Fynel, we will be done momentarily, please wait a bit longer.”
Fynel: “Whatever, just hurry it up.”
Fynel re-entered his carriage, shutting the door behind him. Once he was safely back inside, Zane made a beeline for Nathan’s group, who were busy chatting amongst themselves.
Nathan: “He’s pleasant.”
Zane: “He’s just weary, it’s been one thing after another with the roads lately.”
Zane sighed loudly, stress from the multiple road closings he’d had to deal with.
Ena: “We didn’t even get to fight anything, I came for nothing.”
Ena was sulking over the lack of battle, with Nathan trying to console her.
Nathan: “Don’t worry, when we get to the dungeon you can fight to your heart’s desire.”
Zane: “Your parties also heading for ‘Viridi Wilds’?”
Zane had come close enough to hear their conversation and overheard their plans, not that it mattered.
Nathan: “Yeah, just for a few days. You’re headed that way too?”
Zane: “Yes, we were contracted to escort Mr. Fynel around the dungeon so he can collect materials for his shops.”
Nathan: “Mr. Fynel?”
Zane pointed towards the carriage.
Zane: “The man who just entered, he’s a well-known merchant in both Loegrey and Midheim alike. We were hired to escort him through the dungeon.”
Nathan: “I see, well since you cleared out the lizards, will you be heading onward?”
Zane: “I’m afraid not, for the lizards weren’t the reason we stopped, they are much too slow to keep up with a striding Avian.”
Zane began to walk, and Nathan followed, Iris breaking away from the group to go play with the Avian. Moving to the front of the cart, Nathan saw what was prohibiting progress. Several trees had fallen over into the road and were preventing travel. Not even Ramol’s significantly smaller cart could fit through.
Zane: “This is rather troubling, on one end ‘Turbulence’ and on the other, a natural blockade. It seems either way it’s gonna be a while before we pass.”
Nathan: “Nope, this shouldn’t be a problem, I could clear this right up now.”
Zane: “Really?”
Nathan: “Yeah, hold on...”
Nathan walked up to the pile of trees; it wasn’t going to be a problem to remove. Opening and closing his hand, producing several seeds, which he tossed onto the ground. The seeds passed into the ground before several large vines sprouted from below.
Zane: “What!?”
Zane, along with his party, stared in shock of the vines, but Nathan just ignored them. Manipulating his vines, he instructed them to grab hold of the trees and one by one lifting them and tossing them onto either side of the road.
Nathan: “This shouldn’t take very long; I’ll be done in a little bit. Although this looks like it happened fairly recent.”
Zane: “Remarkable, I never seen magic like this before, an affinity for plants is quite rare.”
Nathan: “Forget that, did you hear what I said? This blockade looks like it only recently happened.”
Zane: “Now that you mention it, where they’ve fallen from, it looks as though the ground crumbled and sent them falling.”
Nathan: “Whoever built this road, should have removed those trees, beforehand.”
Zane: “True, but this road was all but forgotten, rather the trees were there before construction or after, has yet to be determined.”
Nathan and Zane continued contemplating the issue, Zane’s admiration for Nathan was growing ever fonder, to the point where the girls of Zane’s party were now throwing Nathan death stares. Nathan ignored them and continued his work, clearing the road.
*Rumble*
Nathan: “Huh?”
Zane: “What’s wrong?”
Nathan swore he heard a rumble coming from beneath the trees, and has he thought that, a crack sprung from beneath the trees and as it did, his ‘Threat Detection’ became active.
Nathan: “GET BACK, EVERYONE GET BACK!”
Zane: “What’s wrong!?”
Nathan: “NO TIME, MOVE YOUR CART BACK NOW!”
*Ruuuuuuuuuummmmmmmble*
Zane did as he was told and order his party to move the carts back. NO sooner did it start rolling away, the ground began to collapse beneath them, dragging with it the trees and debris. Nathan and Zane leapt back just in time to not fall in, with everything else, but they lost some of the materials they had gathered from the lizards.
Zane: “Is everyone okay?”
Zane did a head count and found everyone to be safe. By this time a few other carriages who’d followed had shown up and had seen what happened.
Anais: “Nathan!”
Anais ran over to Nathan, who was already being hounded by Iris. Nathan assured her he was okay and to remember to keep quiet, less someone would hear her.
Nathan: “Everything’s fine Anais. Don’t worry.”
Anais: “What happened!?”
Nathan: “Looks like the tremors knocked down the trees on to what looked like a bridge.”
Fynel: “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, YOU’VE RUINED SOME OF MY MERCHANDISE YOU CLUMSY GIRL!!”
???????: “YOUR LUCKY I WAS ABLE TO SAVE IT AT ALL OR WOULD YOU RATHER EVERYTHING HAD GONE OVER THE EDGE!?”
Fynel: “INSOLENT WENCH!”
Nathan turned to see one of Zane’s girls arguing it out with Fynel. When Zane gave the word, she hurriedly moved the carriage, but the sudden U-turn caused some of Fynel’s merchandise to be destroyed.
Fynel: “IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR THIS YOU FOOLISH WOMAN?”
Fynel raised his hand to strike the girl, which at that moment Zane stepped in front of Fynel.
Fynel: “What do you want?”
Zane bowed apologetically to Fynel.
Zane: “Mr. Fynel I humbly apologize for the loss of your merchandise, please feel free to deduct the necessary funds from the reward.”
Fynel: “Of course, I was already going to do as such.”
Zane: “Good, now then.”
Zane stood back up and scowled down at Fynel, causing him to jump in fright.
Zane: “I ask that you refrain from raising your hand to a member of my party. Any and all complaints are to be directed to me, and me alone.”
Fynel: “H-How dare you, is this how you speak to your employer?”
Zane: “Well, then shall we end our employ here?”
Fynel looked to the girl and then sucked air through his teeth as he climbed back into his coach.
Fynel: “WHATEVER, JUST HURRY THE HELL UP AND GET MOVING. DON’T LET HER STEER MY CARRIAGE AGAIN!”
*SLAM*
Zane sighed out loud and then turned to the girl standing next.
???????: “Zane, I-I’m sorry, I was-”
Zane placed a hand on her shoulder.
Zane: “Jasmine, you did well.”
Jasmine: “But his merchandise-”
Zane: “Can all be replaced, unlike his life, which you saved with your quick reaction, just. So, don’t get yourself down.
Feeling better, she headed over towards the rest of her party members to finish gathering materials. Zane turned to Nathan, who alongside his party were looking at the path ahead.
Ash: “So you think you can do it?”
Nathan: “Well I can try, I’ve done something similar before, but to support the weight of the carts, I have to reinforced them somehow.”
Zane: “Everything alright?”
Nathan and company turned to Zane as he approached them.
Nathan: “I could ask you the same thing.”
Zane: “Oh, no. That is of no pressing matter, he’ll be fine as soon as we get moving again. Still, to raise my voice to my employer is unacceptable.”
Nathan: “But you did anyway?”
Zane: “Though I’m not proud of it.”
Nathan: “Hmm, sticking up for your party, and though it might hurt you in the end, I might have to change my impression of you.”
Zane: “If my Stray Flower’ opinion of me changes for the best, then it was well worth the risk.”
Nathan: “And you lost me, stop calling me Stray Flower.”
Zane looked over the edge to find that there was river down below. The river was deep and raging, it could not have just been made from the debris. As from where he stood, there was no way to cross on foot, but the path lead right across it.
Zane: “There must have been a bridge here, the falling trees must have smashed it and been sent down the river.”
Nathan: “That is what we’re thinking too, we’ll need to make a bridge that will let us pass over for ourselves.”
Zane: “That could take a while and the Turbulence won’t be ending for another thirty-eight hours.”
Nathan: “Not necessarily, I can build a bridge out of vines. My Snyare plants are really strong and could easily support the weight of carriages.”
Zane: “But?”
Nathan: “I have no idea how to build a bridge. I mean I can just make some vines to stretch to the other side, but I don’t know any of the intricacies to make it an ‘effective bridge’.”
Zane: “That’s an uncertainty we have to remedy if we wish to cross.”
Ash: “Hey, why don’t we ask any of the other cart occupants if they know of a way of building a bridge, a bunch of them just showed up, there could be some ones who know about construction.”
Zane: “Most of the people who followed are merchants, and their hired Adventurers, which are heading for the dungeons, I’m not sure if they will be of any help.”
Ash: “Worth a shot.”
Nathan: “Alright, while you do that, I’ll get things ready.”
From there, they all split up and started to ask around the various carts. They were more cooperative than they thought they would be, mostly was because they didn’t want to have to go back and wait for the turbulence to end. After about thirty minutes, they had successfully found several people who had experience building bridges and returned to Nathan to find him no longer there.
Nathan: “HEY, OVER HERE!”
To their surprise Nathan was now on the other side of the riverbank waving to them.
Nathan: “DID YOU FIND ANYONE?”
Ash: “A FEW, THEY’RE WILLING TO SHOW YOU WHAT TO DO, JUST WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?”
Nathan: “JUST GETTING THINGS READY.”
Zane: “MORE IMPORTANTLY, HOW DID YOU GET OVER THERE?”
Nathan: “I WAS THROWN!”
Nathan could see the confusion on his face and decided to demonstrate.
Nathan: “JUST STAND BACK A BIT, I’LL SHOW YOU.”
Everyone did as ask but they were confused as to why. Surely Nathan wasn’t able to leap across this gap.
Nathan walked up to his Snyare plant which grabbed him. Everyone thought they heard a loud squeak, but that was quickly forgotten, as watched in shock as the vine began to rapidly spin. Then they watched in horror as the vine unravel from around Nathan and sent him soaring into the air.
(Group): “WHAAAAAAAT!?”
Nathan soared into the air, easily clearing the river before reaching cleanly on the other side with a light tapping sound when he landed. Anais who had changed into her rodent form, tumbled from Nathan’s hood and collapsed onto the ground, eyes spinning from the journey. Nathan graciously picked her up and silently apologized, before turning to the group who were still in shock from the spectacle, Zane and Ash included.
Nathan: “What are you all doing gawking like that, are we building this thing or not?"