"We’re close. I can feel it in my old bones." Cink said to the ones behind. He was leading the expedition to the giant river.

It was a small group of ten soldiers plus him and two members of Dawn. Emily and Silas. They asked him to see the river and try to find a way to cross it. Cink decided to take them there personally since it was a ten-day trip.

Most of the journey went without any trouble, thanks to Emily's powers. The Old Lands, as the Bors called them, were vast, but there was no major civilization. The Pix-Dawn alliance was the largest group.

The forest was the domain of beasts and dangerous plants. But it was truly abandoned land, and that made it a better starting point.

We only have to deal with animals. Now that we are all working together, we can gain control of most of the land.

"There, I can feel it." Emily raised her finger. She could sense the water. Another thing they discovered as they traveled was that the frequency of rain increased as they got closer to the river.

Cink split some branches using his new sword, courtesy of Denku. As agreed previously, they divided the loot evenly. Cink got the sword that could cause hemorrhage, and Silas got the necklace of invisibility.

I’m not even that good with swords. With this, I can at least do a surprise attack or use my powers while they haven’t noticed me.

He felt a bit bad that Franco’s combat lessons hadn’t shown results yet, but the sight of the river made him forget. "This is..."

"I haven’t been here in almost a thousand years, but my instincts still lead me here. This is where all that rain ends up. The Valein Empire referred to it as "The River in Jungle World," but the Bors referred to it as "Azasie's Tears." I like the second one more."

The rapid currents were like those of a river, but the size made it seem like an ocean. Crashing waves on the rocks and trees around There was no beach or sand, only jagged rocks, and the earth was suffering from the constant movement of the waves. He couldn’t see anything beyond the water.

"How long is the trip to the other side?"

"About a day is not really that big, but you can’t cross it by swimming. The current is too harsh, and there are a few fish that could swallow you whole."

"How did you arrive here in the first place? You said you used some kind of portal?"

"Yes, the Valein empire uses gates that allow travel between the worlds. I came here as part of an expedition to gain more territory. The gate was in the jungle, but we managed to escape here thanks to the power of one of my companions. He crafted a ship sturdy enough to take the currents; the rest of us scared the fish away."

"Was the ship destroyed?"

"Yeah, part of the betrayal of the others. I know you want to explore, but let me tell you, the jungle on the other side is full of monsters, wild plants, and the Bors hate our guts."

"Still, I wanted to see if we could recover some part of the gate to study it."

"You want to travel to other worlds?"

"Of course, we need to get stronger and find more materials to secure our base. Every MMO forces you to explore."

"We can ask Nadine to start practicing building ships as part of her job." Emily interrupted. "There is a lot of land here that we need to explore and administer as part of the alliance. Don’t go thinking you can skip work."

Silas’s aspirations to go exploring would have to wait a little longer. He was going to have to work with everyone else to secure their land. There was also the prospect of encountering more guilds or other races. He wasn’t planning to make enemies, but he wasn't going to accept orders if another group came here and threatened him.

We haven’t seen humans in a long time. I wonder how many are still alive. Maybe they are in the other worlds of the System.

They returned to the main tribe and began to work. Days passed, followed by weeks. All the members of Dawn were busy with work.

Jacob worked as the representative of the guild and helped administrate the terrain and placed each leader in charge of some work or territory. He was walking to Nadine's workshop to check on her after a long day of work.

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"Oh boy, I’m not cut out to work like this." He said as he walked to the woman working on her thirteen-ship model.

"At least you can learn by asking for advice; no one here knows about building ships or navigation; I have to do this on my own and learn by mistakes." She spent the last few months working on weapons, armor, all kinds of tools, and ships.

"Nadine, we brought the redwood you asked for. "Should we use it in the mast or the hulk?" enquired a pix with long hair. There were several others carrying the logs in the back.

"The hulk, I need to have more resistance in the hulk."

"Look at you. You already act like a great boss. That’s pretty good."

"Shut up, it's not like I want to, I just can waste time by doing everything myself. It is more efficient to delegate tasks. You have been doing the same. I read your new policy about planting trees in order to maximize the use of the rain and gain more food."

"That was just Emily’s idea. I just put it into practice and explained it to the council. I haven’t seen her in while."

"She’s working on securing the route to the river. I saw her when I took my last ship for a test."

"We’re super busy these days, partner. We should have lunch or dinner all together."

"That’s going to be pretty hard. I think only us and Nora are in the capital right now." They kept talking while she was building the ship, and Jacob passed her logs one by one.

***

In the northeast of the Pix-Dawn alliance territory, two people were in combat practice. "Faster!" Franco punched from the left and right in quick succession and broke the wall that came from Nathan's shield.

They came here as bodyguards for the explorers. Cink and Emily have asked for a small group of pix to map the land. Going so far into the wilderness came with heavy risk, but with these two, they were safe.

"Uf, one more! Let’s keep going!" Nathan was exhausted, but he didn’t want to stop. The ability that he discovered that day had become a new weapon to protect his allies.

He could summon a wall to block attacks using his shield. It took energy, and he was still learning to use it, but he was growing stronger and better with each day.

"Sure, I’m going with everything too!" Franco was in the same position, but for other reasons. He still had the giant scar under his eye, not wanting to forget the defeat at Borka's hands. He was going to become stronger.

He passed between the shield and slammed his fist into Nathan’s gut. He threw a hook, but the transparent wall appeared and tried to block it. Unfortunately, the wall crumbled after taking a single strike, and he punched Nathan in the face, knocking him down.

"Is enough for now. Let’s go eat something." The pix had already prepared the food.

"We have some meat with potatoes." The leader gave them a bowl. His name was Ekhu. He was the oldest of the explorers and the best one. He could track any kind of animal or discover poisonous flowers with a single glance. "You two like to train too much. You need to enjoy the time and have a nap after lunch, hahahaha!"

"Oh, is delicious!" Nathan devoured the food like a bottomless well and asked for seconds.

"You said that in every dish." Franco criticized him.

"Because they are all good. I don't know how you guys cook so well."

"Hahahaha, years of experience in the wild. When you spend so much time exploring alone, you have to learn to make the simple dishes taste incredible, or you are going to die of bland taste."

After almost a month with them, Franco couldn’t argue about the expert cooking skills of Ekhu and his explorers. Emily was still better at detecting creatures by range and number, but Ekhu was right behind her without any power or ability. It was all his effort and experience.

That respect was exactly why everyone took him seriously when he spoke in a serious tone.

"Everyone stay still and don’t make noise!" A moment later, a cacophony of noises came from all around the forest. Screams and noises from all kinds of animals as they ran away in fear from roots who searched the forest for them.

"We need to go; he’s coming this way!" Ekhu ran, and everyone followed him. "We need to hide." He pointed to a hollow tree.

It was big enough for the eight pix and the two humans. They were packed tight together, and Nathan blocked the hole with a wall. He was ready in case anything attacked, but the image that came from the other side was nothing he expected.

Franco and the other pix were scared too. Only Ekhu had seen this creature and survived. That’s why he knew exactly what to do. The roots moved like tentacles the size of small buildings.

Every animal that was trapped by the tentacles was taken back to the main body. A massive Bors with a mouth and the teeth of a beast in the center. No, it had multiple mouths, all of them open, waiting for the animals to drop and devour them.

Like a glutton, the mouth ate everything it trapped. They could see the flesh inside the vegetation. It wasn’t a regular Bors, but an amalgamation of beasts and plants. It was like a walking mountain, devouring everything in its path.

The sounds started to die as the animals ran away or were eaten by the giant mouths. The creature moved his roots and dashed across the ground to the closest source of noise. They could see him passing right in front of the hole where they were hiding.

They held their breath for a minute that felt like hours. The world seemed to stop for a long time as they waited for silence to return, hoping that the monster had moved and missed them.

After ten minutes, Ekhu let out a deep sigh, letting everyone else relax. Franco was the first to ask.

"What the hell was that? It is not like any Bors we have seen before."

"Is a servant. A Bors made it with a purpose and let him roam here for hundreds of years."

"Bullshit, I saw a servant before. This thing was massive. He was taller than a mountain!"

"Maybe it was smaller in the past. Cink could probably tell you more. But this one is special. It is not just a plant. It devours animals and anything else it captures. We should be grateful it has no mind to think, or we would all be dead."

Ekhu jumped out and climbed a tree. He measured the direction of the wind and the monster's path. "This is bad; he’s going straight into our territory. He’s going to pass for the capital if he keeps that path!"